All We Are Saying Is Give Detroit a Chance

First, let me start out by apologizing to anyone who is immediately incensed by the word "porn."

This posting is not about, the, uh, "traditional"-? use of the word porn. At least not in the Judge Potter "I-know-it-when-I-see-it" Stewart sense of the word. (fun fact: Judge Stewart was quoted in the 1964 case of Jacobellis v. Ohio 378 U.S. 184 commenting on the Louis Malle film, the Lovers) Thanks Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it

Second of all, while I'm not outraged, I'm certainly fatigued by less-than-creative bloggers, journalists, and anyone with access to a keyboard and a reliable Internet connection, to use the word porn in conjunction with another noun, such as food or real estate to generate shock or at least attention to what they're saying. What they really mean are glossy, superficial images, which yes, are meant to generate a reaction, though not necessarily erotic. Examples-

source: http://ayeshahaq.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/choc_cake2.gif

source: http://www.archithings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/The-Finest-Finishes-Penthouse-Apartment-7.jpg

OK, now that that is out of the way- on to the point of this posting. As always, Planetizen surprises and delights me with a plethora of topics. The latest is "ruin porn." We all know that Detroit's in trouble. While it may be a phoenix, it has yet to rise from its own ashes.

People are befuddled as to what to do, but one of the most popular, and frankly, well-received, ideas is the you-can't-ignore-what's-in-front-of-you tactic, ie graphic images of the fall that has become Detroit.

http://www.tnr.com/article/metro-policy/81954/Detroit-economic-disaster-porn

And while I am against the exploitation of anything (except the cuteness of cupcakes. Seriously, if you Google Image "cupcake" you may in fact die from the cuteness!) I doubt that the people of Detroit want to be treated as the Little Nell of the North, the charity case that we should all pity. Yes, they are in dire straits, some without the economic means to improve their station, others enjoy the Mrs. Havisham air while keenly aware that things are not as they could be. But this doesn't mean that they need our pity. They need our assistance, be it financial, be it through prayers, be it through actual manual labor if you have the time and resources.

Noreen Malone says, "Pictures are naturally more memorable than a well written, evenhanded magazine storyabout the scope and tragedy of Detroit’s economic woes could ever be. But that’s precisely the problem. These indelible pictures present an un-nuanced and static vision of Detroit. They might serve to “raise awareness” of the Rust Belt’s blight, but raising awareness is only useful if it provokes a next step, a move toward trying to fix a problem. By presenting Detroit, and other hurting cities like it, as places beyond repair, they in fact quash any such instinct. Looked at as a piece of art, they're arresting, compelling, haunting ... but not galvanizing. Our brains mentally file these scenes next to Pompeii rather than a thriving metropolis like Chicago, say, or even Columbus." -the Case Against Economic Disaster Porn by Noreen Malone, http://www.tnr.com/article/metro-policy/81954/Detroit-economic-disaster-porn

I agree with Ms. Malone that we already have the awareness, we need action. But to cull a line from an old church camp song "it only takes a spark to get a fire going" and we are an ever-increasingly visual culture (case in point- this blog. You're reading my words on a computer screen, not on the pages of a book). And people associate objects within imagery with specific events- the oil slicked pelican of this past summer's Gulf oil spill, the firemen standing on the rubble of Ground Zero, the soldiers erecting the flag at Iwo Jima. The more people that are made aware, they more potential to gain collective action we will receive.

It's a cheap trick, but we are galvanized to action seeing defenseless little otters covered in oil, abused puppies and kitties, or starving children with ribs poking through as they sit in the dirt in developing countries.

Ms. Malone makes an interesting point that so many of the pictures of Detroit are devoid of people.

"The human brain responds very differently to a picture of a person in ruin than to a building in ruin—you'd never see a magazine represent famine in Africa with a picture of arid soil. Without people in them, these pictures don’t demand as much of the viewer, exacting from her engagement only on a purely aesthetic level. You can revel in the sublimity of destruction, of abandonment, of the march of change—all without uncomfortably connecting them with their human consequences." -the Case Against Economic Disaster Porn

However, it could be asked, if you were in that situation, would you really want to be the poster child of Detroit? Especially if you are a fully-grown adult? Even with your consent, it would be embarrassing and frankly more than a little degrading to have the documentarian turn the camera on you and say, "And here we come to Frank. Frank has lived in Detroit for his entire life. Frank's father worked the line building gleaming Chevys and Fords. But now Frank sits on this abandoned porch and dreams of the past." "Here is Marie. Marie remembers the X House when it was the pride of the neighborhood. "They used to decorate it for all of the holidays, she recalls wistfully. "Now the lights have gone out." Maybe forever? intones the narrator That sounds equally exploitive.

But maybe one solution could be that it takes people, who would appear to be far-removed from such a situation, to spur us to do something?

So help me, I love Jackass, especially Johnny Knoxville. No matter how stupid you may think you are for doing X, there are people out there who are happy to show that they are light years ahead of you in terms of bad decisions. Or maybe they're just overgrown kids with underdeveloped rationalizing areas in their cerebral cortexes. But my heartfelt and sincere thanks to Johnny Knoxville for lending his celebrity, no matter how dubious in nature it is, to a worthy cause.

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-23-going-beyond-ruin-porn-in-detroit

I'd also like to direct your attentions to one of my all-time favorite magazines, Juxtapoz, who asked some of their favorite artists (6 of 'em) to work in Detroit in conjunction with Powerhouse Productions for Juxtapoz's 15th Anniversary Benefit and Auction Project. If the name Juxtapoz rings a bell, I did a posting on JR, an amazing artist, who was featured in their publication.

For more info please check out their links-

http://origin.juxtapoz.com/Features/featuremitch-and-gina-of-powerhouse-productions-and-the-story-behind-juxtapoz-in-detroit

http://origin.juxtapoz.com/Current/the-detroit-photos-of-yves-marchand-and-romain-meffre

Detroit, I know that you have yet to regain your former splendor. But we have not forgotten about you. Motor City keep on truckin. Through awareness and ultimately action, we will help you rise again.

365 Cities?

I was thinking as I have been getting ready to go to Chicago in the dead of winter for a poorly-thought out birthday present to self how can we make 365 Cities?

What I mean is that we in the planning world talk about "24 Hour Streets." 24 Hour Streets are streets where there are few lags in activity throughout a 24 hour period. Think New York City streets- many of them have delivery trucks coming at the crack of dawn or in the middle of the night to make their drop-offs, then the commuters hustle along the same streets to get to work. After the morning rush hour tourists or senior citizens or work-at-home people may take a walk on the same strips of cement that a mere hour before expensive wingtips and stilettos traipsed upon. Then comes the lunch crowd and the afternoon tourists, students, and free lancers. 4 o'clock - 7 o'clock the corporate workers pour out of their office buildings and make the trek home. They mingle with the dinner crowd and after that comes the wave of pub crawls and nightlife seekers. Although last call may come at 2 or 3 AM the delivery trucks are starting up. And the cycle continues.

This is of course an idealistic concept and not every street in NYC is busy at every hour of the day. But the point is that there is usually always something going on.

Therefore, I wondered, if there are 24 Hour Streets, could we make 365 Cities?

In THE biggest cities in the world like New York and Tokyo yes we can have 365 cities. These two places, and maybe London? (I wouldn't know, haven't been) or Rome-? are such hubs of activity that like the Post Office neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor hail will deter the public from using the city be it for work or pleasure. If it's raining in Tokyo and it's your first time there are you seriously going to just stay in your hotel room and watch it come down? Unlikely!

But what about places where there may not be as many attractions to pull you out of your hotel room or there are attractions, but the weather can be mercurial? For example, Chicago.

It's easy to create walkable communities in places where it is sunny and warm at least 8 months out of the year (though it can also be potentially humid or muggy during those sunny warm times). But what if 8 of those months, or it feels like 8, are either snowing, raining, or hailing?

Although I have great respect for the New Urbanists, but they tend to gloss over the effect regional weather can have on people's desire to go for a walkabout. The New Urbanists are also are savvy enough to build their most well known developments below the Mason-Dixon line. Two of the most well-known members, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk made their names with Seaside, FL and Celebration, FL, www.dpz.com

In a related argument there are several critics who scoff at the "skywalks" of Minneapolis and other cities, saying that it takes away from the character of the street. But what if the "character" is only out for 6 months of the year? Yes, I know, 6 is more than zero. But 4 of those months you are all but guaranteed snow, wind, and/or freezing temperatures. People think I'm joking. Ha! Come to Minnesota in April or October and we'll see who the joke's on now! PS- bring a scarf. As Dean Martin said, "baby, it's cold outside!"

And I would argue that skywalks will not provide the final nail in the proverbial coffin. I first encountered the skywalks of Minneapolis in the third grade, from the street level thank you very much. Contrary to whatever futurist nightmares the critics think skywalks will produce I can assure you that Minneapolis does not look like some Bladerunner-like city out of the Matrix with tubes coming out of buildings. There are a few. They are incredibly useful in the winter. But the downtown skyline doesn't look like a cyber-punk octopus is trying to strangle all of the buildings.

However, all is not lost. Ray Oldenburg, in his work, the Great Good Place, talks about "third spaces," which I also cite a lot, especially in this blog. And I would like to propose that perhaps, although we planners advocate for increased walkability and people mingling on the streets, perhaps "third spaces" are more realistic for places with less than ideal weather and an auto-centric world.

Oldenburg's examples of third spaces include: cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons and other hangouts (to crib from his subtitle). For my pop culture reference of the day, the movie Barbershop (starring Ice Cube and Eve) predominately takes place in a "third space," a barbershop, from which the movie takes its title. The movie is also set some time in winter on the South Side of Chicago and as it is too cold to mingle on the streets for long many of the characters in the film come into the barbershop for their social contact. See if that happens at your local Supercuts be it in Chicago or San Diego.

I'm all for walkability, but I think that critics need to be realistic about what people are willing to do under normal circumstances. And if there are not ideal meteorological conditions, people will be apt to stay inside. This doesn't mean that there can't be indoor third spaces. Will this lead to 365 Cities? Probably not. What makes Tokyo and New York so special is that they're always on, they have an electric pulse that thrums with the life of their city. Should Cleveland or Rochester be strive to be like that? No, but finding ways to create third spaces within their cities would serve them well, especially when "baby it's cold outside!"

Just Because You Could, Does It Mean You Should?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a recovering impulse-buyer. I used to go into Target with a list of five essential items- toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo, dish soap, and Q-tips. I would come out with maybe three of those items, plus a new pack of pens, a t-shirt, something Hello Kitty and at least three gotta-have-its from the dollar bin. But I'm getting better. One day at a time.

Therefore, it is with no intentional disrespect to Mr. Irvin Dawid who summarized a real estate report from the San Francisco Examiner, that I take issue with his usage of the word "practical"-

"The foreclosure crisis has made it more practical to buy rather than rent in 72% of America's 50 largest cities." http://www.planetizen.com/node/47903

Dictionary.com defines practical as- definition #7- mindful of the results, usefulness, advantages ordisadvantages, etc., of action or procedure.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/practical

However, I would say, is it any more practical to buy a house (or condo or townhome) than to rent just because it is currently "on-sale"!? A six pack of toothpaste may be on sale at significant savings (let's say $4 instead of $10 for the same net weight had I purchased the same six pack not on sale, or even more so, say $12 if I bought the net weight in individual tubes) and is therefore "practical." I will need toothpaste in the foreseeable future. In fact, I will technically need toothpaste until the day of my demise be it tomorrow or be it in 2052. But do I need 6 tubes of it all at once??? Probable not, and while I doubt one must play hard and fast with toothpaste's expiration date, it is likely that they will reach their best-by date before you are done with half of them.

Now take this example and blow it up into house-sized proportions! A house, also known, as the biggest financial investment of your life. Unless you're a sheik who buys islands and small countries to put in your investment portfolio. A house that requires maintenance, invokes property taxes, and is hard to liquidize on a whim in a tough market such as the one that we are currently experiencing.

I've been following the current mortgage crisis with the morbid curiosity of a rubber-necker at a crash site. And there have been multiple books written on the subject. A cursory Amazon search shows that several people have done their homework and are now eager to have you buy their research: from the benignly-titled I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and Why No One Can Pay by: John Lancaster (I read this and highly recommend it), False Profits: Recovering From the Bubble Economy by: Dean Baker, to the damning- the Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America- and Spawned a Global Crisis by: Michael W. Hudson to the poetic- Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, the Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near Collapse of Bank of America by: Greg Farrell and the Christopher Buckley-esque- All the Devils Are Here: the Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by: Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera. I imagine that B&N and Borders will have to dedicate a new section in their stores entitled What the F Happened!? Though I imagine that the Financial Section will just be expanded.

Therefore, this isn't any different than having people who didn't understand the intricacies, nor the interest schedule, for a sub-prime mortgage sign up anyway. Let's not get land-happy just because it's at a discount. Get it because your lifestyle needs are changing- your family is growing, your knee isn't getting any better with age and a one story (heck on a lakefront!) is more appropriate for your needs, etc., but not just because the open house had shiny granite countertops and you're regretting your Corian. When the water heater breaks in the house that has the shiny granite countertops because an unscrupulous developer tossed in the bargain-basement water heaters because s/he wanted to shave off a few pennies on their side and you're out $1,500 while the water heater in your Corian house quietly hums away, you'll have no one to blame but yourself.

On a related plug, one of my prior Amazon popped up this book- Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us by: Alyssa Katz. I think I borrowed it from the library, but have yet to read it. If you finish it before me, let me know what you think! And to all- caveat emptor.

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, But Don't Forget to Stop and Smell the Roses

My boss at the Planning Department at the City of Los Angeles recently asked when I graduate. "In May." I replied. "Wow, that's what, three months away?" he observed. Well, technically, four, but yeh, soon.

Besides the heart-pounding palpitations that the thought of graduation invokes, I have also been thinking what have I learned in grad school and what is still missing.

My brilliant friend E, who can pilot a helicopter, drive a race car, make a ten course French meal with one hand tied behind her back, tie speaks or can read 5+ languages, and sew wedding dresses while writing computer code or snapping beautiful photography once said that she is often tormented with all of the areas of knowledge of which she is ignorant. I laughed at her pointing out all of her accomplishments, many of which a vast majority of people will not never come close to mastering. She was unconvinced, but Socrates said that "the beginning of wisdom is the admission of one's ignorance."

As I review my resume I wish that my hair were long enough to chew on. There are so many things that I wish I knew. This, that, gah! x, y, and z! It's enough to render a person catatonic.

But if I am honest with myself, even the director of planning of the City of Los Angeles doesn't know evvvverything about planning. If he did, we would live in Utopia, not Los Angeles. We are always learning, always ever evolving, all of us.

I know more than I did when I first started grad school, some valuable lessons and others are hard-won truths. But I will know more two years from now than I do now. And even more two years from that time.

One of my favorite poems in high school was Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins Make Much of Time." This was due in no small part to Robert Sean Leonard's tortured role in the movie Dead Poets' Society, perfect for an angst-ridden teenager in the Midwest, in which this poem played a key part. Being a perfectionist I am often consumed with thoughts of what am I missing?! What don't I know!? Time nips at my heels! I must round out my wheelhouse! Instead, I need to sit back, take a breath, and now that while my drive for perfection will serve me well in my work mode, not to let perfection be the enemy of good. Focus on what I know how and know well and be sure that future employers are made aware of these attributes.

As another favorite poet, T.S. Eliot soothed in "the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

"There will be time, there will be time

To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;

There will be time to murder and create,

And time for all the works and days of hands

That lift and drop a question on your plate;

Time for you and time for me,

And time yet for a hundred indecisions

And for a hundred visions and revisions

Before the taking of a toast and tea. "

{stanzas 23-34}

OK, it's doubtful that Eliot would be highly sympathetic to my plight. He came off as rather stingy emotionally and more than a little pretentious. But it is gratifying to know that there is "time yet for a hundred indecisions/ And for a hundred visions and revisions/ Before the taking of a toast and tea"

And although it is unrelated to anything in this post, it is another poem about time and one of my favorites by Henry van Dyke,

"Time is too slow for those who wait,

too swift for those who fear,

too long for those who grieve,

too short for those who rejoice,

but for those who love, time is eternity."

Here is Herrick's poem in its entirety-

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer,
But being spent, the worse, and worst,
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

Better The Devil You Know

Planetizen cited an interesting article that was originally published in my local paper, the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-commre-retail-20110123,0,1033716.story

The article focused on the mall in Culver City, which is now owned by the Westfield Corporation.

The reason that I bring this up is because so often in my school readings the authors feel like any sort of corporate involvement in a project is on par with flag burning and/or human sacrifices.

But sometimes, I would argue, we cannot bring about major economic redevelopment without a major infusion of cash, ideally from a source who has a lot of it and doesn't mind throwing it around ie one who won't always be nervously eyeing the books.

I'm not advocating for the Disneyification of the entire developed and developing world. But sometimes corporate sponsorship is justified. They have the resources to dedicate to security, upkeep, and even that luxury, design. A bunch of small investors may not have the portfolio or priorities to invest in such things and a project may suffer from more of a piecemeal approach and disjointed final project. Westfield et al., may be a little on the "slick" side (see another example, Ed Roski's (who is also an USC alum) project, LA Live/Staples Center, but who can argue with revenue generation? And developers shouldn't be required to taste to everyone's whim and design aesthetic.

Las Vegas fills me with loathing and disgust, but I acknowledge that it employs a lot of people. The Staples Center invokes seizures on sight, but I like having the LA Kings play near where I live.

So it really 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't'? Or should we live free (of corporate intervention) or die trying while trying to cobble together enough resources in order to execute a project on our own terms? With the closing question being if not thee, then who? It can be very lonely and more than a little, waiting alone on one's moral high ground.

The Invisible Hand Gets a Slap on the Wrist

As one may have noticed from the nature of my blog I possess a variety of planning interests. But two of my key interests, nay obsessions, are zoning and the market, ie how do planning decisions play out in the real world? (I am also a closet theory fanatic too and economics enthusiast, even if I don't always understand what's being said)

So, imagine my surprise and delight when Planetizen showed this story-

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-01-20/story/jacksonville-planners-eye-new-rules-discourage-urban-sprawl

Apparently, Los Angeles isn't the only one who is taking a good long look at what their zoning says and what they want it to say, and more importantly, do.

http://cityplanning.lacity.org/PressRelease/MythsNFacts.pdf

If you don't have time to read the article, I've pulled out the most salient points. Jacksonville is abolishing what they refer to as concurrency, in which "developers are assessed a fee based on transportation improvements their project may require, whether or not those improvements are ever made. . .

Under the current system, developers pay when their new houses, strip malls or other projects are expected to lead to more people using local roads than those roads are designed to support. Using a complicated formula, the city figures out how much of the cost of improving that road is the fair share that the developer should pay.

Once the congested road is widened, though, another developer that comes would end up paying much less than the first developer because that project doesn’t require more work to be done.

“Some property owners end up being asked to pay more than their property is worth while a guy a mile away is paying almost nothing,” said T.R. Hainline, a land-use attorney who chaired the committee that worked on the mobility plan."

- from " Jacksonville Planners Eye New Rules to Discourage Urban Sprawl" by Timothy J. Gibbons. The fee doesn't having any "teeth" as we call it. Developer A has to shoulder the brunt of the fees while Developers B, C, and D trot behind on the already paved path. Think older sibling isn't allowed to see PG-13 movies until they are 13 while kid brother (or sister) is taken to R rated movies at age 10 without any lobbying, just a smug grin as they walk into the darkened theater knowing what they're getting away with.

From now on Jacksonville will utilize their "new system [which] divides the city into five areas, from downtown to rural, and then into zones. Developers pay a fee based on which zone their project is in and can get credits for doing things that reduce trips, such as locating offices by stores or on a bus route. . . Instead of having to wait until a project is completed and asking the city to figure out its fair-share payment, Killingsworth said, developers can figure out the fee up front by looking at the project’s zone and how many trips it will create." (Gibbons)

I'm all about the "invisible hand" letting things go their way as socialism has a far from truly successful track record of implementation. But to let things go any which way in the built environment, according to the whims of the latest financially solvent developer, is a recipe for disaster.

Granted, we didn't have the foresight to predict how big of an impact auto-dependency and building in greenfields instead of working what we already have. Manifest destiny man! *best spoken as the Big Lebowski's "the Dude"*

An interesting theory, but horrible ramifications, especially for several generations down the line. My parents always told me that actions have consequences, often after I decked my younger brother. And while my relationship with my sibling is much healthier, our relationship with our cars is slowly becoming toxic.

But until there is policy written to mitigate or even transform our behavior we'll keep shouting Manifest Destiny! While the cost of food and gas steadily and stealthily increase around us. (supply and demand at its down and dirtiest- the less there is of a resource, the higher the cost. This is fine when it comes to things few of us can afford, like a $100K+ Ferrari. Not so great when your loaf of bread costs $5 and your gas is $7.50/gal)

While it isn't ideal, we have to hit developers where it hurts- in the pocketbook. Until they all become altruistic and want to build infill, for now it's easier to build out and that system can't self sustain itself forever. Therefore, sometimes that invisible hand needs a slap on the wrist so that it can steer in the right direction.

East vs. West, or I Always Wondered About This

I was always curious about why it can sometimes seem like the "west side" of an area is nicer than the east side. The author postulates that it was due to the direction of the wind, which would blow pollution eastward, prompting the rich to move westward.

http://www.planetizen.com/node/47486

The "west is best" argument is obviously not true in Wausau, as clllllearly the academically gifted reside on the superior east side of town. The fact that I used to live on the east side (go Lumberjacks!) has nothing to do with my statement of "fact" ;) The east side also has the gorgeous historic homes of Franklin Street and the Leigh Yawkey Art Museum.

The west side of LA is definitely "nicer" than the east side of LA. My beloved gelato shop is there, there is more shopping, and all kinds of vibrant businesses and creative venues. In fact, when many people speak of "East LA" it's in a tone reserved for the "poor Little Nells" of the world.

East LA may not have the reputation for violence that South LA has, but it does have blight and as East LA proper is unincorporated it suffers from being economically disadvantaged. But people make it their home. There are street cart vendors and small businesses. Family ties are probably stronger and stretch further than one's immediate family. And there are some lovely affordable housing sites whose models resemble market-rate homes elsewhere.

However, no matter how you frame it, it's significantly hotter, especially in the summer, than the west side which is cooled by delicious ocean breezes, even a few miles inland. And when the temperature reaches the triple digits I'd rather be at the beach than espousing the benefits of having your extended family under your roof.

The author's theory, on closer inspection, could be a sweeping generalization. In New York it's not a clean cut haves and have-nots. The Upper East Side is the swankier side, the west is more liberal. Though in some areas some boho babies are also trust fund kids who are slummin it with their beatnik and hipster buddies. And in Chicago it's kind of hard to say as it's built almost on the lake. There is the Gold Coast that is on the east side, but Lawndale, which is a really rough section of Chicago is on the west. Though if you drive for a few more minutes you are in the very nice suburb of Oak Park. And the swank city of Pasadena is on the east side of the general area of greater Los Angeles.

But in smaller cities the west side can be nicer, more cosmopolitan, etc., For example, in MSP- Minneapolis is the more cosmopolitan, while St. Paul, though lovely, is more reserved and less glam.

At least, when it comes to LA the answer is literally blowing in the wind! (And a lot of history that I am blatantly glossing over as this is a blog post not a book) For more info on the history of LA there are a ton of books, but the Reluctant Metropolis, by my former prof, William "Bill" Fulton is great and City of Quartz or the Ecology of Fear are "interesting" reads by Mike Davis. They're on my bookshelf. But Amazon.com will be more than happy to supply you with hundreds of other titles. :)

You Can't Go Home Again, and Yet You Can

Having spent almost an entire month under my parents' roof, despite being a full-fledged adult- with my health (thank you God) intact, has been surreal at best.

With the exception of a short-term return to the nest after I graduated from undergrad with an oh-so-useful (not) but passionately prized degree in art history I have been living entirely on my own.

But with graduation from graduate school looming on the horizon I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to spend some "quality time," a phrase I've never really understood, with my parents before I plunge back into the work world.

It's been fantastic doing free laundry, not having to scrounge for meals or gas money, and all of the other cliche (but very much appreciated) perks one has staying at Mom and Dad's.

It's also been a time of reflection. Regardless of how famous or how smart or how anything you are today, your past makes up a part of who you are. Even the hypothetical self-made millionaire who went from rags to riches is keenly aware of where s/he is- or isn't- from time to time. The uber-hipster from Missouri who's living the bo-ho glam life in Silverlake may still feel a tug at the holidays as s/he isn't having a white Christmas. And the hard-bitten but non-native New Yorker from Kentucky, who fled the rural countryside, may wish, in fleeting moments, that one didn't have to visit Central Park to see green space.

I'm a self-confessed city snob. But I also love the countryside, especially down South. And every once in a while I feel the tug of the suburbs and its single family houses- the bane of planners' desire for utopia. It's a symbol of my childhood and of my concept of home. As I never lived in an apartment as a child, the Playskool/Fisher-Price house is a part of my memory make-up.

One of my primary interests in planning is seeing where my generation winds up living- even on a semi-permanent basis.

We all know that the cities have been usurped by the safe appeal of the suburbs yadda yadda- territory I've tread many times in my blog and won't rehash for you.

And there have been many attempts to try to "reinvent," "rebrand" the city- to highlight its cultural sophistication, to glamorize the bohemian appeal of it, even to try to turn it into a hipper version of the suburbs. Some attempts have worked in some parts of the country. Others are embarrassing attempts.

Joel Kotkin has an interesting take on this in his article for "the New Geography"-

http://www.newgeography.com/content/001657-the-myth-back-city-migration

And Christopher Leinberger has an equally provocative rebuttal-

http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0709_walkable_spaces_leinberger.aspx?rssid=transportation&utm_source=feedburner&utm_mediu

Here are the Vimeo links-

http://vimeo.com/16431631

http://vimeo.com/16431824

http://vimeo.com/16432364

FYI- if you walk around the halls of my school, USC's School of Policy, Planning, and Development- you'll see the same thing physically. For the most part the urban planning people are the equivalent of the Steve Jobs computer geeks- not unattractive, but a little scruffy around the edges. While the real estate folks look so youthfully preserved you wonder if they bathe in the blood of virgin unicorns. Though if anyone asks, my school has the best looking faculty, period. :) (Except for UPenn's Witold Rybczynski, who I wish taught at my school. But I have Bill Fulton so ehhhhh)

One of the most interesting things about twenty-somethings that I've observed, especially those desperate to throw off the shackles of their bourgeois suburban upbringing, is that they move to a city either during or after college. But once they have kids, they move back to the suburbs. Understandably a child's education is much better in the suburbs where the tax base is higher so the quality of education is proportionate to taxpayer income, an unfortunate but nevertheless true real-life ratio. But it doesn't make it any less amusing for those of us who don't have to get in our SUVs to "return" to the city on the weekend. Cuz we're already there. Observing the hordes of yuppies drive in through our hipper-than-thou oversized sunglasses from the 80s with a barely concealed look of derision and scorn.

Even Arcade Fire wrote their latest (as of this writing) album about the suburbs. They even called it "the Suburbs." You can take a kid out of the suburbs, but you can't take the suburbs out of the kid?

I've noticed that a lot of people in my generation, who I personally count from 1983-1988, have gotten married young and some have even started families young. Many more so than our predecessors, Gen X, who bore more of the brunt of their parents' freedom from the stigma of divorce, but didn't escape the effects divorce has on the children. Some Gen X'ers have gotten married, but others have opted for live-in situations, sometimes proceeding with legal formalities later on.

If pressed, the general consensus between myself and my peers my age (27-28 years old, again, as of this writing) is that there is a new generation every year. iPods and cell phones have a different frame of reference for myself compared to my brother who is four years younger than me and bought both items well before me. Another, more historic example- I vaguely remember the Persian Gulf War, I don't think my brother does at all.

Beloit College puts out its yearly "mindset" list citing pop culture touchstones that the incoming class has always known or has no idea what you are talking about.

In the spirit of democracy, I am also including this link from the WSJ critiquing said list. Though points are subtracted for journalists showing off their smarts and citing "Hecuba" for no good reason at all.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704868604575433783887009678.html

I also thought that this was an interesting complement to the concept-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/17/beloit-college-mindset-li_0_n_684308.html

I officially feel old now, but my closing point is that people will go where they want to go. And I'm curious as to who goes where and for how long. Time will tell. Until then, wristwatch? What's that? ;)

How Hazardous Driving Conditions Are Good for You, or Reflections on a Des Moines* Driving Experience

*actually, it should be Windsor Heights/Clive, Iowa driving experience to be geographically correct, but Des Moines Driving sounds better :)

I like to think of myself as a "seasoned" driver. I was taught how to drive in late fall in central Wisconsin. This included several stints of white-knuckled driving (and white-knuckled front passenger seat riding) in winter complete with snow, ice, freezing rain, hail, the works.

Receiving my driver's license (on my second attempt) in early February I was still in Wisconsin. The first time, in true Wisconsin fashion, snow had blurred the painted lane dividers and during my road test I was instructed to make a left hand turn. I did as instructed, feeling confident, until a truck pulled up on my left hand side, alerting me to the fact that I was not in the left hand turn lane as anticipated. After that I honed my driving skills in Connecticut, land of windy roads carved into mountain sides. And I rounded it out driving in downtown Chicago.

Though I have yet to drive the lawless roads of LA I am confident that I could handle whoever decides to cut me off having born witness to my friends' driving.

But driving in Des Moines can spoil a person. Although the strictly enforced speed limits, which rarely exceed 35 mph have reduced me to squeaky indignation, one gets used to it. I am a self-confessed speed demon, but I am also a creature of habit. And having been warned of law enforcement's hard-nosed approach to speed limits I have caught myself mildly panicking when I exceed 45 mph. This is from a person, who under any other driving conditions usually takes the posted speed limit and adds 15.

Also, in LA, where every third person is trying to make a left-hand turn on a two lane street, left hand turn lanes are rare and left hand turn signals a luxury. Therefore, one must often inch one's way oh so cautiously into the intersection and pray that oncoming traffic will at least be courteous not to swipe your bumper as you wait for the light to turn red. At that divinely appointed, or at least culturally accepted moment, you can crank the wheel, stomp on the accelerator, and make the turn that you've been waiting five minutes to make. Here in Des Moines, where I am spending my last full 24 hours, there are left hand turn lanes everywhere!

There are even those sections of road that are sectioned off in the middle of the road, reserved for traffic that is coming from either direction to make a left hand or a right hand turn into a shopping center. As I am not a traffic engineer I don't know the technical term for them. I do know that they are rare in LA.

And don't get me started on the number of left hand turn lights Des Moines has en masse. Oh that LA could install a few of those! Maybe Angelinos could DRV HPY.

There are even green *right hand* turn lights. I almost weep with pleasure when I see those as I know I won't be sideswiped by some jerk trying to run the light. The law is on my side! Nevertheless, the paranoid city driver in me still checks before inching into the intersection.

As much as I love these traffic conveniences and the fact that they are spoiling the heck out of me, that is also the downfall. I have opted to use the children's storybook characters the Country Mouse and the City Mouse in lieu of and to not directly offend any homo sapiens. I would argue that the City Mouse is a "better" driver due to conditioning. S/he is used to the perils of driving as s/he is faced with them every time they get behind the wheel. (This is assuming that there are cars correctly proportioned for mice. As Stuart Little had a car I would argue that there are. There's your random pop culture reference for today's post.)

The City Mouse doesn't have an illusions about his or her fellow driver. S/he knows getting on the 5, the 110, the 101, or any road for that matter, there's going to be some one who's driving distracted- be it texting on their phone, yelling at their kids, fumbling with the radio dial, etc., *Chances are the City Mouse is doing the same things too* Though not this City Mouse. Speed is my only vice. Unless of course I am employed by a city or state agency. Then, I will be the paradigm of law-abiding citizen!

Roads are also more crowded in the city making space more limited. Therefore, one has to be more aware lest one scratch that $100,000 Maserati that is ahead of you. Beautiful as they are, it is better to look not touch lest one wishes for one's auto insurance rates to skyrocket to the stratosphere.

The Country Mouse, bless those that still exist, often still harbors the notion that people, or in this case, "mice," are inherently good. That everyone else is driving just as carefully as s/he. And while one should always drive defensively, other drivers are not going to cut you off arbitrarily because everyone drives nice, right?

Two minutes on any big city road will vaporize any belief in other drivers being inherently "good." Someone's going to merge into your lane without looking, someone else will be riding your bumper like you're playing Bumper Cars, a third driver is merging onto the on-ramp without regard for the other cars that are already there. And if you're lucky all three conditions will converge at the same time like a traffic Bermuda Triangle.

Therefore, the Country Mouse is snapped out of his or her revelry that s/he was able to indulge puttering around in his or her small town accelerating or slowing at a whim, not bothering to signal lane changes This does occur in big cities too. But such actions do not go unnoticed. Many a driver anoints him or herself a traffic cop and is more than happy to tell you what you did wrong complete with hand gestures, colorful language, and commentary on your ancestry.

While I'm not advocating that we should all drive like the self-centered jerk that wants to be unleashed from our id, I do hypothesize that a little hazardous driving conditions isn't always a bad thing. Just like Midwestern winter weather driving conditions as sucky as it is to have to deal with it, given enough exposure it could save our lives. (think how vaccines work, same concept). Drive into that big city Country Mouse, you'll thank me later.

New Year's Resolutions status: unlikely

And so a new year is upon us. Happy 2011 y'all! Perusing other people's blogs, Facebook postings, etc., it appears that the spirit of this year's resolutions are one of determined optimism, something I wholly support.

If 2009 was the year that came up and whacked us from behind like a mobster, then 2010 was the year to learn with the permanent ringing in our ears. But 2011- like the 5th stage of grief per Elisabeth Kubler-Ross from her seminal work, On Death and Dying- is one of acceptance. And through that acceptance comes freedom and maybe even optimism. Hey, one could be more random. In my last post I cited Joan Crawford. Never be boring! Though rarely be academic either ;)

While I, like many people, vow many resolutions for the coming year including actually starting my exercise regime in earnest- this time it's the Bar Method http://www.barmethod.com, remembering to floss more than once a month, volunteering more, breathing deeper, and actually blogging I imagine that the only resolution I will be able to keep through December 31, 2011 is brushing my teeth for the required two minutes. Drinking 64 ounces of water a day -!? seems unthinkable for those of us who are not independently wealthy and don't have to schedule our lives around more personal and pressing biological obligations.

I do vow to view planning through a broader lens and not just the "magic bullet" paradigms of mixed-use developments, transit-oriented developments, and urban villages that I love so much. They are still great and have their place. But to diversify- say for a small town in Virginia or northern Wisconsin- I need to think of what other problems befall planning and how can it be addressed.

As always, I aim to be lively here while viewing the world through my semi-permanent irreverent perspective. May your 2011 be filled with love, laughter, and job security!