A Return to a Life More Considered?

Friday, 15 May 2009 marks my graduation from Washington University with a double masters degree in architecture and urban design. Not coincidentally this should also mark my return to blogging. I feel not unlike a bear emerging from hibernation at this point. My composition is still stiff and slightly awkward, my locution sluggish and peppered by jargon. I had hoped to be able to write more during my education, but involvements in numerous initiatives in academia and in the community conspired with the jealous mistress of studio to monopolize every hour of free time. Perhaps this was for the best since the numbness of sleep deprivation does not make for satisfying composition. In any case, I look forward to reflecting over some of my more transformational experiences now that I have a modicum of distance from them and I also look forward to resuming several of my stalled writing projects and beginning several new projects in the coming months.

One major project which has reached fruition is a curated display of thesis projects from eight students in my graduating class. I selected these projects to emphasize efforts in radical adaptive re-use and re-imagining current development in the city of Saint Louis. The event will be held in the community as an effort to incite dialogue between a diverse group of designers, residents, developers and politicians.

Please come if you are able!

Reconsidering Saint Louis: Forming a New Future

1400 North Market Street (at the corner of North Market and N. 14th Street)
Thursday May 14, 2009
From 6PM-9PM

Its morning in america again

If I may be permitted to borrow a title from the annals of history it is because I feel it is absurdly appropriate to the situation we find ourselves in. Although the dust has yet to settle, what we have witnessed tonight will go down as a paradigm shift in history. Numerous commentators more wise than I have referred to Obama as the first post-60's candidate, or a postmodern candidate . While this is certainly significant in terms of historical lineage I believe it is tangential to what might be termed a landslide victory.

The battle that (hopefully) concluded four hours ago with John McCain's concession speech was the struggle for the political doctrine of this nascent century where the Axelrod message of unity, hope and constructive contribution eclipsed the ever darkening Rovian tactics of division and fear. After the news began to sink in I realized what I was feeling might have been akin to my parents reactions in 1960. This is not a coincidence. Although some might draw parallels between the oratory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Barack Hussein Obama, it is worth noting that the vein of bile and fear that Karl Rove so successfully tapped into was in most part originated by Richard Nixon. The moral of the story seems to be that while negativism is unfortunately successful in small doses there is an invisible fulcrum beyond which our nation realizes its error. While this balance may continuously shift over the centuries tonight affirms the core philosophy of the American psyche drawn from Rosie the Riveter through Obama's acceptance speech: We can do it!

The second point will hopefully serve as a warning to all aspiring politicians. NEVER totally compromise your beliefs to ascend to power. This would obviously be hypocritical and unethical, but the events of November 5th 2008 prove that it is ultimately unsuccessful. John McCain has made great sacrifices for our country through his years of military service and his political career. It seems his achilles heel was his failure to both select and exercise control over his advisors and associates. From the days of the Keating Five to the disastrous selection of Sarah Palin this flaw has been magnified to tragic proportions. In the last six months McCain lost control over his own policy to the extent that sources from The Economist to the Chicago Tribune were forced to take note.

While this election doesn't immediately provide solutions to the myriad of problems facing our nation, I can only hope that through considered bipartisan examination and deliberation the new administration may set an example for years to come of a successful political strategy that will correct our failings and engage the best of our national spirit and ability for the good of our country and our planet.

I ain't got no home in this world

"An empire remains powerful so long as its subjects rejoice in it"
-- Livy

"Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today."
-- Langston Hughes

I am getting depressed.

This is not being helped by my work assignment to go around Pagedale and document foreclosed and abandoned houses. Apparently there may (or may not) be enough money coming from the federal government to demolish or replace a third of the ninety some houses I have to visit in the upcoming days. Neighbors are rightfully curious and when I explain my purpose I realize that they want one of two things more than anything.

They want help in their current situation so they don't lose their homes.

This is the hardest.

No, I say this money is only for the government to do something about those that have already fallen. What can we do? Hope that the new president puts the country deeper in debt to China to extend a lifeline to these people? I recall Bob Hansman's charge to the freshman class I TA'd before we walked to Wellston: "There are no easy solutions to these problems. If there were they would be already fixed."

The second question is unspoken.

It is more of a plea to do something about the house next door which has been vacant/abandoned for weeks/months/years. Even if they are remaining afloat the presence of this house next door is slowly destroying the value of their greatest (and often only) asset. But there are certain criteria to decide which houses will receive attention. The pain is in the realization that the rest will continue to drag down the values of the neighborhood and afflict those who need help the most.

I awoke this morning to an impassioned plea on KWMU from my friend Michael Allen to not allow the built environment of the city to be desecrated as it was during the Regan economy and S&L crisis of the 80's. I hope that the city will be spared, but I also have grave concerns for the residents of neighborhoods such as The Ville, Hyde Park, College Hill, Carondelet and more in the current situation. As a result of my hometown I arrived here a militant urbanist for what little interesting urbanism Columbus had was precious and had to be defended at all costs. I have moderated as a result of numerous community meetings for different projects as I understand what many of these residents are up against. When the conflict comes down in the end to a truly honest divide between people and buildings I will side with the people. However, at this point, including the mass clearances for urban renewal in the postwar period, St. Louis has seen the erasure of something over 900 city blocks. Many more will probably fall in the upcoming years leaving precious little of the character of this adopted city I love intact.

So what to do? I mean I am helping in an absolutely trivial way.

Counting the bodies at the crime scene.

Maybe the monies and the efforts of Beyond Housing will help to stabilize Pagedale. Pagedale is only one community though. We need a president who makes the rebuilding of America a priority. Not just the retooling of industry or the realignment of production, but a complete overhaul of the way we spend money on our cities and towns, on our physical infrastructure, on our educational and social support infrastructure and on our standing in the world. We are a nation in economic, social and physical collapse. The American Dream as it has been practiced in the last half century itself is bankrupt.

We need a new deal.

Anything else would be fiddling while Rome burns...

At this point we must do everything we can to help each other and our country. We must lend our experience, our talent, our labor to our neighbors new and old and to our land.

or as Langston Hughes so beautifully wrote (and it still gives me goosebumps every time I read it):

"O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be"