21st Century Landscape: Cell Phone Towers

At the turn of the last century the urban landscape featured smokestacks. We've got cell phone towers.

To be exact, according to this site, there are 117,562 cell phone towers in Chicago as of September 2005. And, once you've noticed one, you see them all.

It's like riding up the elevator with someone who's humming Yankee Doodle Dandy. You can't get the damn song out of your head three hours later. Nor can you get the cell phone towers out of your sight. They're everywhere. And, they're as ugly as Yankee Doodle Dandy is annoying.

An August 2005 Associated Press story quotes monthly payments for cell phone tower space rentals at $800 - $2000 and the number of cellphones in use nationwide at 190 million. That's a pretty easy-to-understand explanation of why these things proliferate regardless of the vistas they destroy. The market couldn't care less what they look like.



More thoughts and photos here on cell phone towers in our landscape by blogger Dan Bricklin.

Over the Hedge and into the Sprawl

A few weeks ago, I took my son to see the new Wallace & Gromit movie (it was okay, but it's no Wrong Trousers), and they showed a trailer for a new movie called Over the Hedge. It looks like it might be the kid film version of Suburban Nation meets Fast Food Nation.

Apparently, it's being written and produced by artists Mike Fry and T Lewis,who also write a sprawl-aware strip cartoon by the same name.

The movie is due out in May 2006 and the rough story line (as best I can tell) is that some suburban wild animals are horrified to see their environment under threat by developers. Then, they get a map of the developer's plan for their area and see that it has a proposed park -- their new home. While some animals are dismayed, one makes the best of it by showing them all the leftover food available for them in big "shiny" cans.

See the movie trailer here.

Memo to the Chicago Defender Staff: It's Philip B. Maher

Here are two shots of the retro-y building that houses The Chicago Defender at 2400 South Michigan. The venerable Defender newspaper has covered the African-American community since 1905.

According to the AIA Guide to Chicago, it was designed by Philip B. Maher to house the Illinois Automobile Club. The Defender moved in sometime in the 1950s. I'm presuming it was after they vacated their landmarked building at 3435 S. Indiana.

Last week, before I pulled out my AIA guide (duh), I called and spoke with the Defender's receptionist.

She said she didn't know who the architect was and transferred me to a line that went dead. I called back and said I was disconnected. She said that was probably because no one knew who the architect was.

"I don't think anybody here knows," she said. "We just work here."

Welcome to Revitalization Magazine

Although I'm not pleased posts were down last week, I am pleased to tell you that it was because I was finishing up an assignment for the first issue of Revitalization Magazine, due to publish in January 2006. In a nutshell, it will focus on the business of "restoration." More to come in January, but, in the meantime, please read about this new publication at the link. I'm excited to be a part of it.

What's up with Chicago WhatKnot

As long time listeners of this blog know, I've been tracking the Lincoln Park Community Art Initiative's annual public sculptural exhibit for a while. To the right are two shots that I took of the heavy-duty piece that's camped out for the year (and possibly longer, read on) at the northwest corner of the intersection of Halsted, Fullerton, & Lincoln called Chicago WhatKnot.

The shimmery disks are a lovely surprise when the sun hits them right, and I like that it has an underwatery feel. I also like how the weight and size of the sculpture contrast so sharply with floral life, like urban flora, yet it fits right in.

I'm especially pleased and honored that the artist, Chicagoan Nicole Beck, was kind enough to share some thoughts about the piece via e-mail. Be sure to visit her website if for no other reason than to see her personal photo on the contact page. It's quite possibly the coolest shot ever of an artist.

Nicole Beck on her sculpture, Chicago WhatKnot:

Chicago What Knot is 8' diameter x 20' steel and custom-cast glass rondeles. I built the piece entirely by myself, except for the steel tube rolling which was done at Chicago Rolled Metal (the same company the rolled the stainless tube arcs that traverse the lawn of Gehry's band shell lawn structure in Millenium Park.)

But as you can see by investigating the piece up close, I had to make some pretty specific miter cuts to reposition the graceful line that the tubing makes, and especially to fit the site (the tubing could not be rolled any tighter because it was at the limits of the equipment.)

The Alderman Vi Daley and her committee knew during judging for this year's show that they wanted the sculpture on this site, so I built the sculpture to be "site specific," to fit the dimensions and the scale of the site nicely.
The sculpture was created in response to the Art in the Gardens Project . . . that I did last summer in Grant Park on Michigan Ave. @ Balbo across from the Hilton. I had created a 40'x 100' living sculpture with plants as my medium.

Most of the gardens in this city-wide public art project were created to be looked at, but my project Snake Gourd Chamber Maze was designed to have a Celtic knot looped garden path that the viewer could walk through to experience the full beauty of the garden. . . .

Chicago WhatKnot was a response to Snake Gourd Chamber Maze in STEEL & GLASS! . . . For Chicago WhatKnot, the tendrils at top were created separately and bolted into place for ease of shipping and then the cast glass is installed on site into customized gaskets that also bolt into place.

I think of the cast glass discs as water droplets randomly interspersed throughout the tendrils sprays OR as stars in the sky seen through the bare tree limbs of winter.

This sculpture was a departure for me in that the lines are playful and lyrical and dance in space (alot of my other pieces are hard-edged and geometrical) see my web site.

There is talk of wanting to keep this piece permanent for the neighborhood, or perhaps rebuilding the piece in stainless steel (but will cost much more for this, as stainless is a VERY expensive material these days.)

But, I hope that the funds are collected as I personally believe that this piece belongs at this site and is no wonder, since it was specially designed specifically for this place.

I especially appreciate the night lighting with spots on the sculpture that make the discs glow and sparkle.

The Children in the Box

I almost choked when I came across this last weekend while walking Boomer through the Ogden Park mall near Hudson and Sedgwick.

Do ya think they could have thought about the weather implications before they chose a precious fountain that needed to be wrapped up all winter? What is the point of putting a fountain in a park if you have to look at this ugly box six months out of the year? Whose bright idea was this?

Obviously, a fountain can't run during the winter, but it can still look nice. No fountain at all would be nicer than this box half of the year.

The other thing that really gets me is that I hate this fountain. It's a little boy and girl depicted at scale. Each holds a saucer. She has birds on her shoulder and he has frogs in his pocket. God, it's enough to give me cavities just thinking about it.

But, what I double hate about it is that the two little kids are white. (Well, technically, I think they're bronze.) But, they're depictions of what white kids look like. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against white kids. I have two of my own.

But, my point is that this is a public place and when you depict people, especially with public art, you've got to think about the implications of how others, not in the depiction, might feel about seeing that in what is also their public space.

What does this sculpture imply to children of color about whom the park is for? Particularly given the fact that it's located in a predominantly white neighborhood? If it was a statue of civic pride -- like a tribute to the two youngest botanists ever, okay, maybe I get it. But, thinking about things from several vantage points shouldn't be that rare when shaping our civic spaces.

And, now that you got me thinking about it, it's creepy. Two children frozen in a green box all winter long. That's so screwed up.

Running on Water

About two weeks after I posted on Water Reclamation candidate Debra Shore, the Reader published a cover article on her by Christopher Hayes. (They had it in the works for a long time -- so my point is not that I had scoop but that there seems to be some kind of harmonic convergence forming around Shore.)

Choice quote by Shore on what the Water Reclamation District does and why you should care:

Over the next 20 to 25 years we are going to find substitutes for oil -- there are substitutes for fossil fuels. There are no substitutes for water. It's an irreplaceable resource. And I think the eyes of the country and the eyes of the world are going to turn to those Great Lakes communities that sit on 20 percent of the world's freshwater.

Why is it called "Real Estate"?

Straight Dope answer here.

It's Probably Not as Easy as It Looks

I suppose if you're the guy who lives next door to the building coming down, you feel better when you see this printed on the hungry backhoe.

1800 block of North Orchard.

It Could've Been a Massive Train Wreck

I know that you don't visit my blog to learn about what all the cool kids are doing, but just in case you've missed it, everyone's listening to Sufjan Stevens CD, Come on Feel the Illinoise.

This evocative musical journey rattles around the geography of our state in a smart, deep way even though, according to the liner notes, it was made in Brooklyn. Stevens shows a compassion for the history, horror, and oddities of our state that urbanista/os will especially appreciate.

Take these lyrics, for instance, from Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step Mother:

Our step mom we did everything to hate her
She took us down to the edge of Decatur
We saw the lion and the kangaroo take her
Down to the river where they caught a wild alligator.

Those lyrics sent me on a search about the alligator of Decatur.

In one part of his John Wayne Gacy, Jr., Stevens lets out the most anguished, chillingly beautiful "oh my god" in reaction to Gacy's crimes. You hear that overused phrased in a completely new way to information you stopped thinking about long ago. Yet, the song ends with lyrics that disturb in their own right:

And in my best behavior
I am really jsut like him
Look beneath the floorbaords
For the secrets I have hid.

His play on the Sears Tower as Seer's Tower made me think about that building anew, too.

Not surprisingly, I find myself listening to the album over and over as it is as musically lush as it is lyrically. He uses instruments that evoke an old time prairie feel -- banjo, accordian and, as the liner notes say, hoots and hollers. There are other times when I'm certain I hear a Philip Glass Songs from Liquid Days influence.

Stevens is also wise enough to stay away from Abraham Lincoln, who as I've blogged about before, is rich in parody and irony as well as history. Stevens recognizes the former President is too difficult to succinctly, lyrically classify. Lincoln doesn't make an appearance in the music -- only on the CD insert. (His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, however has a brief interlude named for her entitled A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons.)

Nor does Stevens attempt to write a song "about" Chicago. Rather, he writes a very personal song that's set, partly, in Chicago and again he plays with the words:

I fell in love again
All things go, all things go
Drove to Chicago

According to Stevens' label's website, he grew up in Michigan, and he's intending on doing an album for every state. Illinoise is his second; the first was Greetings from Michigan.

As one reviewer wrote aptly,

Sufjan Stevens sure is ambitious . . . simple melodies, punched up with erudite lyrics and frequent appearances by a full orchestra, a horn section and an honest-to-goodness choir—everything here smacks of an epic reach. And the weird thing is, it totally works.

While Stevens’s let’s-put-on-a-musical approach could easily come off as precious, he’s got just the appropriate mix of sincere emotion, songwriting chops and arranging skills to pull off everything from a two-part, three-movement ode to the 1893 World’s Fair to a quiet, moving acoustic meditation on serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

It could’ve been a massive train wreck; instead, Illinois is alternately funny, sad, thoughtful and heartbreaking—and one of the best albums of 2005.

Update: He does mention Lincoln once -- in the song about Decatur, "Abraham Lincoln was the Great Emancipator."

CRC Steps in Where City Goofs Up

I got a postcard in the mail two days ago inviting me to come see the Chicago Recycling Coalition's new, beefed-up website.

I must say it's not a moment too soon. This city desperately needs a credible, one-stop resource for recycling information and a widely-heard public advocate for the cause. To date, the Coalition, grass-roots effort that it is, has seemed to be the one-woman Betsy Vandercook show.
And, I mean that in the best possible way.

It's not easy gaining traction on an issue the mayor would prefer to avoid or address superficially. Thankfully, it seems whenever the subject comes up, Besty has been there to hold up the pro-recycling end of things. (See here, here, and here.) We're lucky to have her. And, to the extent this enhanced website signifies a growing step for the CRC, that's good news as well.

The site tells you where you can recycle just about everything, and they watchdog the city's problematic blue bag program. I was disappointed to see that some of the most important components of recycling (buying recycled products, the discussion of reuse and resale, and composting) got lumped under the title "Extreme Recycling," which to me implies that everyone but the super-serious-recyclers are off the hook for doing those things. Composting is extreme? I don't think so. They probably should re-think that headline.

Nonetheless, all you really need to do is pop over to some of the city's recycling web pages to see what a necessary resource CRC's site is. Or, you can try calling 311 the next time you have a recycling question. Like the IRS, they get the answers right only about half of the time.

Mies on Looper/Looper on Mies

Looper has a nice photo essay of Mies's IBM Plaza Building.

Housekeeping: Loading Times and Thanks to Daily Dose of Architecture

I spent the day re-working my code behind the template, and I think I got it all straightened out so that my pages load more quickly. If you are a returning reader, I hope you'll find this site easier to use. If you're here for the first time, trust me -- it used to be annoyingly pokey and now, I hope, it's better. And, welcome!

I'd also like to say thanks to Daily Dose of Architecture for his Monday morning call out to my blog. It's an honor. Thank you. Also, thanks to those of you who clicked through his site. Come right in and make yourselves at home. Mi blog es su blog.

Happy Wednesday.

Most Men Go There for the Expressive Components

This month's issue of the Journal of Planning Literature features an article entitled Exotic Dance Adult Entertainment: A Guide for Planners and Policy Makers by Judith Lynne Hanna from the Department of Dance at the University of Maryland.

I don't doubt the relevance or need for a better discussion of what to do with and how to respond to adult entertainment in the realm of city planning. I just get a kick that whenever academia and XXX meet, the straight faces come out. Here's the abstract (It's $15 if you want to read the whole thing, which, I admit, I didn't pay to do):

Because exotic dance adult entertainment is a nationwide lightning rod for conflict, a comprehensive knowledge base is necessary.

This bibliographic summary of literature addresses some misperceptions and notes new United States Supreme Court cases that can lead planners, policy makers, and government attorneys into legal difficulties over restrictions they try to impose on this industry. Costs to enact, enforce, and defend the restrictions may divert scarce resources. The multi-disciplinary literature encompasses books, articles, court testimony, and court rulings on exotic dance written by researchers in anthropology, architecture, biology, criminology, economics, journalism, law, photography, planning, police work, psychology, real estate, and sociology, as
well as accounts presented by former exotic dancers.

Topics include First Amendment-related characteristics of exotic dance, its expressive components, performers, patrons, adversaries, and supporters; the validity of studies used to justify zoning, alcohol beverage control, and other restrictive ordinances; and legal justifications and limitations on regulating exotic dance.

Debra Shore for Water Reclamation Commissioner in 2006

While attending Chicago's Green City Market on Saturday, I met Debra Shore. She was collecting petitions to be on the Water Reclamation Commissioner ballot in 2006.

In our brief conversation, I was pleased to hear she's a conservationist. She's also the founding editor of Chicago Wilderness magazine. When I got home and checked out her reasons for running and her resume, I was even more impressed.

The top three vote getters win a spot as commissioner. Let's get Debra in. Surely, you'll remember her last name when you're in the voting booth.

From the Wright Brothers to Rara Avis

It's hard for me not to marvel that it was just over a hundred years ago that the Wright Brothers launched us into flight. It's worth about a thousand words on progress to see this 1903 photo of them taking off at Kitty Hawk on a cold, windy morning in December.

I found myself thinking about Wilbur and Orville last weekend when I flew out of Midway Airport to attend a friend's wedding. I passed Ralph Helmick's Rara Avis for the third or fourth time. I've found it so moving that this time I pulled out my camera and snapped a few shots of the rare bird.

The photo at right is how I usually come across the sculpture.












And, then I go around it and down the escalator. And, as I descend, the bird appears to take flight. The entire piece soars.

The bird itself is made up of tiny airplanes, all of which, I believe, are bi-planes. (Helmick considers his work to be "pointillist" sculpture.) It seems fitting and noble that the bird's scale ranks above the planes', a relationship one could expect humankind to easily screw up.

Unfortunately, the terminal's warehousey architecture does little to enhance the work and a lot to challenge it. Also, I was disappointed when I learned Helmick has done other sculptures similar to this one. The rara avis, it seems, is not so rare. It may even be a bit formulaic.

Nonetheless,the sculpture represents a compelling merger of place and meaning. In fact, in spirit, it reminds me of Eero Saarinen's 1962 TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in NYC. Saarinen said he wanted to create:

a building in which the architecture itself would express the drama and specialness and excitement of travel... a place of movement and transition...The shapes were deliberately chosen in order to emphasize an upward-soaring quality of line. We wanted an uplift.

On a smaller scale, I think Helmick created just that for his corner of Midway Airport.

The Great Lakes and The Great Place

The Alliance for the Great Lakes has just released a K- 8 curriculum kit called "Great Lakes in My World." The curriculum was developed according to the Alliance's philosophy. They hope the curriculum will, among other things, instill a sense of place. Here's what they said about that (boldface is mine):

At the root of a flourishing relationship between a child and the Great Lakes ecosystem is the ability to acknowledge and build upon connections with places. "If you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are," says author Wendell Berry. We encourage students to explore their personal connection to the landscape. Ecosystems evoke feelings. Acknowledging that a place holds meaning, and inquiring about its special characteristics, gives new definition and importance to the word "home."

Through these activities, students ask questions that explore the science, history, beauty and mystery of the Great Lakes watershed. This moves students toward developing a greater sense of place - a connections to the lake through new awareness, reflection and experience. As students build relationships with the ecosystem, they gain a new understanding that can inspire a lifetime of learning and care.

The Conurbation of Chicago & its Suburbs is Frequently Called "Chicagoland"

Just for the helluva it yesterday, I signed up for one of those Word-of-the-Day listserves, and, wouldn't you know it, my first word was an urban one.

Word of the Day for Thursday October 13, 2005

conurbation \kon-uhr-BAY-shuhn\, noun:

An aggregation or continuous network of urban communities.

To live there in that great smoking conurbation rumbling
with the constant thunder of locomotives, filled with the
moaning of train whistles coming down the Potomac Valley,
was beyond my most fevered hopes.

--Russell Baker, "Memoir of a Small-Town Boyhood," [1]New
York Times, September 12, 1982

Indeed the population in the greater London conurbation
grew by 125 per cent in the period 1861 to 1911 when the
population of England as a whole grew by 80 per cent.

--Terence Brown, The [2]Life of W. B. Yeats
_________________________________________________________

Conurbation is from Latin con-, "with, together" + urbs,
"city" + the suffix [3]-ation.

References

1. http://www.nytimes.com/
2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0631228519/ref=nosim/lexico
3. http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=-ation

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=conurbation

As Mega-Mansions Rise, So Do Neighbors' Eyebrows

Street address on older, relatively modest home on elite Howe Street.

LaSalle Flower Shop Sign

When phone numbers had letters.

19th Century Falling

I've been watching this demolition along a block on West Fullerton for a while. I naively had been thinking the demolition would stop when they got to this 1888 building. Yesterday, I saw them tearing it down (near the northwest corner of Fullerton & Southport). Sigh.

Explore the World We Build for Ourselves

That's the slogan of the National Building Museum. They're a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and exploring our built environment from the viewpoints of construction, urban planning, design, architecture, and engineering.

They're up to all sorts of fascinating things. Check out their online exhibit Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset here.

Eventually -- Why Not Now?

What a beautiful day for a walk. What a bonus that I wandered aross this bit of history lingering on the north face of a building on the 1900 block of Bissell in Lincoln Park. (It's now a single family home, but must have once been a storefront.)

According to Gold Medal Flour's company history, this advertising campaign began in 1907 and continued through 1954.

During (1907), Washburn, Crosby launched its long-running advertising slogan, "Eventually-Why Not Now?" B.S. Bull, the company's advertising manager, is credited with the creation of the slogan. As the story goes, he was editing a wordy text about the superior quality of Gold Medal Flour and found, that when he was finished he had edited out all the words except 4: “Eventually." He then added, "Why Not Now?"

Having had this brilliant idea, he was struck with self-doubt and tossed the paper into the wastebasket. It was said to have been found by a young member of the firm, James Ford Bell, who later became the first president of General Mills, Inc. (The slogan was used on billboards, company trucks, train cars, flour bags and in the company's printed advertisements, appearing as late as the early 1950's. . . . "

If you click on the photo, it becomes a bit larger. The "Eventually" is written on a diagonal across the top left, and in smaller letters on the bottom right is the "Why Not Now?"

The billboard added interest and a sense of discovery to my walk. I appreciate so much that someone else appreciated this little bit of history enough to not scrub it off their bricks. The neighborhood is richer for it.

License Plates as Keepers of State Identity: Exploring Abe

"Land of Lincoln" standard Illinois license plate on car parked in Grant Park garage. Here Abe makes an appearance smack dab in the middle of the plate. He seems a bit stern or vacant, like he isn't at all prepared to have an opinion on cars. The Previous Exploring Abe series thread here.

Update: Found this site with a photo history of Illinois' license plates. Lincoln's face is a new addition, but the slogan goes back to 1955.

Chicago's New York Life Building Under Threat from Really Poor Ideas

Preservation Online reports an update on the threat to Chicago's New York Life Building.

Representative quote:

"You won't allow someone to add a dormer to their cottage, but you're going to allow a skyscraper on top of the New York Life Building?" asks Jonathan Fine, president of Preservation Chicago, which included the structure on its 2002 list of "Chicago's Seven Most Threatened Buildings."

Preservation Chicago's website here.
Photo Courtesy of Preservation Online via the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.

Are you reading Lynn Becker? He's on fire.

Is there a better architectural and cultural critic writing in Chicago today than Lynn Becker? Probably not.

The problem is the guy is on a manic, prolific binge. I can't keep up with all the good stuff exhausting out of his keyboard. I still have this essay to read on how planning works in the city, and a piece on the disappearance of Marshall Field's to reflect on. Then, today he posts this article on the beauty that only excellent acoustics can rouse and its relevance in our fast-food society.

His site, called Repeat because it frequently houses stories that originally appeared in The Reader, is more Times Square than Mies van der Rohe in its design, but the payoff's there in content. (He also writes an accompanying blog, but a lot of the stuff is cross-posted on the website.)

With the Tribune's Blair Kamin forced to write his architectural reviews with a national audience in mind so they'll play in Baltimore and beyond, we are left to wonder why one of our city's main newspapers allowed its architectural critic to water himself down and out of our city, our place.

Kevin Nance over at the Sun-Times brings a local, man-on-the-street perspective which I like and think we need. (See his memo to Anish Kapoor about the Bean, for a fun instance.) But, we are the architectural city in this country. Chicagoans talk about architecture like we do sports which is to say a lot. We also need a high-brow critic like Becker who has both feet firmly planted on the sidewalks -- our sidewalks.

Here's an excerpt from Becker's post today on last night's concert at the Pritzker Pavillion, which closed with Ravel's Bolero:

From the quiet beginnings with a snare drum, the relentlessly recurring theme moved in a slow, continuous crescendo from section to section, to the strings, to the woodwinds, each having their own solo turn to shine, before climaxing in blaring brass and full tutti that collapses into a brief, precipitous coda like a lover after climax. The audience leapt to their feet in one of those rare, unforced standing ovations that comes from the giddy delight only great music-making can provide.

We live in the rabid stages of a market economy that seeks to bring every activity to its cheapest, most "efficient", lowest common denominator, whether it be Walmart driving out all local competition and the variety it provided, or Federated destroying the department store as a local institution as it rushes to smear every last one with the Macy's name. To hear the CSO firing on all cylinders is a bracing reminder just what this chronic leveling robs us of.

If you read the entire article, you'll see why I so appreciate his expertise and his service to a better built environment. He makes the leap for the reader from the structures to their relevance in our everyday lives. He recognizes that architecture can be transcendent when it makes the leap . Becker gets it. Chicago deserves that.

Chicago Humanities Festival: Lots for Urbanistas and -istos

It is hard to believe that the Chicago Humanities Festival chose "Home & Away" as their theme long before Katrina hit. The timing is uncanny. It's almost as if the universe knew we would need to be talking about this kind of stuff right about now.

My program is for the festival, which runs from October 29 - November 13, is all marked up with ball point pen. There's a lot of good stuff going on for anyone interested in architecture, place, and notions of home and community.

Here are just a few highlights, but be sure to dip into the program for the full bag of idea cookies:

Northwestern Professor Louise W. Knight on "What Jane Addams Gained on Halsted Street."
(Nov. 12)

Keynote Speech by Richard Florida on "The Flight of the Creative Class." (Nov. 3)

Debate: When Jobs Leave Home with Daniel W. Drezner assistant professor of poly sci at U. of Chicago and Thea Lee, chief international economist for the AFL-CIO (Nov. 5)

Robert Venturi on "Mies is More -- earning from Mies." (Nov. 9)

Roberta Feldman on "Re-Placing Home." (Nov. 13)

Oh, there's so much great stuff. This only scrapes the surface. Really, please go to the program and look for yourself. I'd hate for you to miss it.

Starbucks & Public Space: They're "Getting" It

A while ago I blogged about how difficult it was to distribute and post materials relevant to a community in that community. Many corporate-owned "public" places, like shopping malls and national bookstore chains, no longer allow the distribution of flyers and free newspapers.

I lumped Starbucks in that category because they have turned me away at least twice from dropping off flyers for a church event. I was pleased this summer to see they had recognized the problem and came up with a solution with this official community bulletin board. I appreciate that they recognized their role as a public meeting/recreational space in communities and they took steps to enhance it.

Car-Free City Sources

Websites for Walking and Living




Car-free Cities

CarFree.com

The Car-free Cities Network

Image courtesy of Carfree Places, taken in Siena, Italy

The Meanings of Place: NOLa

It has been a sad few weeks watching the good people of the Delta suffer through unthinkable fallout from the hurricane. As my sister-in-law Laura put it, "They suffered two tragedies: Katrina and the relief effort."

Here are just a few things I want to comment on in the wake of this catastrophe.

You Can Take the People Out of the City, but You Can't Take the City Out of the People: New Orleans Metrobloggers

As someone who reflects on the meaning of place for a hobby, I can not think of a more unique place in this country than New Orleans. It was impossible for a visitor to leave that town without a suitcase of lush memories.

Tasting my first beignet. Ordering a Hurricane. (Think of it -- that was the name of the must-have-knock-you-on-your-feet-come-home-with-a-woman-shaped-glass- drink!) Strolling the French Quarter, always a little leery for my safety. Avoiding the rowdy, "show-us-your-tits" revelers whose numbers rose as night fell. Hearing Mose Allison and one of the Marsalis's at Snug Harbor. (Their website defies the tragedy. Ellis Marsalis plays there this weekend it says. The September concert schedule is full.)

New Orleans was, is, and will be distinctly a place because of its history, architecture, culture, and people.

The New Orleans Metrobloggers (sister to Chicago's Metroblog to which I contribute) have been providing rich coverage of the place where they live (and have been displaced from) and the impact of the tragedy. Their posts are lessons in the meaning and importance of place in our lives.

Here are some recommended posts:

• Chris Martel rebuts Washington Post editorial entitled "A Sad Truth: Cities Aren't Forever." Hearty debate follows.
  
• Craig Geisecke writes about his desire to return to NO. I think this is my favorite statement that I've read anywhere about New Orleans the place:

I started to post yesterday about the overall situation with the evacuees -- thousands of us out on the road and looking for a place to land. An entire culture on the move. In one place on this forum, I saw us compared to those waiting in Casablanca for the plane to Lisbon. That's as apt as any, since there's an element in us that's not going to be happy until we get out of where we are and back where we belong. Where we are is safe -- and that's exactly what's wrong with it.

Ships are safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships are made for. New Orleans is, as much as New York and a few other cities, a combination of the terrible, the unique and the sublime. Often all in the same room and sharing the same table.

• Craig Geisecke also wrote this compelling and beautiful post about returning to a place you know so well after it's just gone through something awful:

I wangled media credentials for trip over the Crescent City Connection early this morning. We drove past the badly-looted Wal-Mart on Tchoup (carts and racks are scattered for blocks). The place is now a military staging area.

We went down Tchoup, right on Second, left on Constance and left on Third before we parked near Parasols (which lost its awnings, but that's about it). Lots of downed trees and power lines, but brick buildings appeared to have more damage than wooded ones (note to Laura -- your house appears untouched). We lost only one small upstairs window, which I covered with a plastic trash bag.

Down Third, right on Annunciation, then right on Fourth because we were blocked by a crushed truck. I was taking a picture when I hear men talking to Kim nearby. I turn around and see her with three National Guardmen, heavy weapons drawn. Turns out they were chasing a looter who had vanished between houses.

Up to St. Charles, right to Jackson, then back to Tchoup and out the way we came. Took 90 to Houma, Morgan City, then up to Lafayette and finally here.

Weird thing last night wasgoing through the I-10/I-12/I-59 interchange in Slidell. It's usually lit like Vegas on Christmas, but now it's this inky, velvet black except for the headlights. Iffy power until you get to about Covington.

Lots of emotion today. I'm still processing. More later after I catch up.

• Those of us who blog on Metroblogs don't get paid for it. We do it because, well, we love the place where we live and we think it's fun. The guy who started all this, Sean Bonner, set up a CafePress store where you can buy "I 'heart' NOLA" sportswear. ALL the proceeds will go to the New Orleans Metrobloggers and their families. Please consider buying something from them. My tank top arrived today. I can't wait to put it on tomorrow. Really, I mean that. I am bursting with good will for that region. Now I have a t-shirt to assist me.

Area Man Drives Water There His Goddamned Self

We spent a lot of the weekend packing up grocery bags of supplies for Katrina victims. My alderman had sent out a list and notified us of two trucks leaving from Reebie Storage on Clark Street.

My son cleaned up a Power Rangers scooter he had outgrown. He sprayed it with the orange cleaner we use on the kitchen counters and wiped it dry with paper towels. He rode with us to the moving company. Then, he hoisted it to the truck loading bay and watched the Reebie folks move it to a pile with the bedding and canned goods and bottled water.

"When will the trucks get there?" he asked.

I predicted this morning. Was I right? Did it make a difference? Whose little boy is riding the scooter now? Many blessings to them all.

(The header above is borrowed from The Onion's Katrina headlines.)

The Best of New Orleans' Great Space

Here is a summary of the "Great Public Places" in New Orleans via the Project for Public Spaces. I found myself wanting to know more about what might have been lost or saved in NOLA. Thought you might wonder the same.

Artillery Park A combination urban scenic overlook, river overlook and informal
amphitheatre for street performances.
USA

City Park A large city park with activities ranging from weddings to paddle boats to an art museum.

Crescent City Farmers Market A gentle farmers' market made distinctive by its location: the walls of the parking lot are covered in beautiful full-scale murals of rural farming scenes.

French Market New Orleans once had markets in nearly every neighborhood; this place, with the longest and most colorful history, is the last in operation.

French Quarter
Colonial Spanish architecture, great New Orleans food and jazz, plus the highest
concentration of colorful characters in the whole USA.

Jackson Square This lively and heavily trafficked park in the French Quarter is a popular site for artists, street performers and musicians who entertain tourists and locals.

Latrobe Park A small park with ample seating and lush planting.

Lower Garden District Neighborhood with an extensive collection of 19th-century residential and commercial buildings, many pre-dating the Civil War.

Pirates Alley A pedestrian walkway between historic buildings, The Saint Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo.

St. Charles Avenue Streetcar Line Historic avenue, greenway and transportation corridor

Vietnamese Farmers' Market At 5am each Saturday, over 20 vendors set up shop in a dilapidated shopping square, spreading out produce on blankets; live ducks, rabbits and chickens wail to a background chanting of Asian pop music.