Urban 2008 Spring - Superheroes Archvillains

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S IN

James Cocks

HeroesVillains

Is it just me, or did it take superhuman efforts to make it this far?

In Bruce Wayne’s Gotham City, heroes and villains are easy to identify.

In the real-life Gotham and beyond, such distinctions are difficult.

Conflicting ideologies, methodologies, and politics—intentionally or otherwise—obscure exactly who is behind the plans and policies that affect our lives, subjecting us to the vague feeling that things are always just a little beyond our control, our comprehension, and our reach.

With this edition of URBAN magazine, we hope to cut through this haze by casting the spotlight on the individuals shaping our world—for better or for worse. Whether these heroes and villains inspire admiration or loathing, we hope that they inspire—above all—action.

Love, Andrea.Kevin.Stephanie

“I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.”

Bob Dylan

A

Melissa Valentine

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Kasey LaFlam

K

HeroesVillains•Your Editors•1

Yuan Tang

ContestedAcre James Cocks

Tourism and Villainy in the Old City

Some people know Old Acre as a small tourist city in northern Israel. My experiences departed from travel guide descriptions. I had been warned of the city’s crime, especially property theft. But the escalation of violence—including stabbing, shooting, and car bombing—had nothing to do with the usual conflicts reported in the media. Urban planners, as it turned out, played a silent yet crucial role in developing the city’s violent informal economy.

I was there for the summer, living alone inside of a Crusader castle that adjoined an Arab ghetto. On my first day, I wandered the city’s streets. It was remarkably beautiful. The tidepools along the ancient city walls, the winding paths through the Arab market, the smells of spices, and the smiling faces all had the air of 19th-century Romanticism. When I came to the southernmost tip of the city, I noted the beautiful harbor and its many small fishing boats. But where were all of the fish?

James Cocks

ContestedAcre•James Cocks•3 James Cocks

I learned later that, although a few fish were sold in the market, most of the fishing boats were used to shuttle drugs from Lebanon. My concerns were confirmed when, during a visit to Bethlehem, I met a Palestinian in his late twenties. Like many of his peers, he had spent his teenage years in prison. As we were talking, he interjected: “You’re living in Akka? That’s a tough town.”

This led to the establishment of organizations that would advance the city as a tourist destination. One of them, the Old Acre Development Company, had the power to seize property and evict residents, replacing them with hotels, museums, shops, restaurants, or any other use that it so pleased. Unfortunately, this gave very little control to residents, contributing to an even greater disparity of power. By 2000, the Israeli Land Administration held the deeds to 85 percent of the property in the Old City, while religious entities held another 10 percent and private interests owned the remaining 5 percent.

One could see why. After returning to the city, I awoke one morning to an explosion a few blocks away. A Palestinian drug dealer, known on the street as Rambo, had been the target of a car bomb, reportedly by the Russian mafia.

Other factors contributed to the rise of an informal economy. Following decades of mandating manufacturing, the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords resulted in the manufacture and shipping of the same goods from Jordan at a lower price. This effectively shut down Acre’s manufacturing industry and left many workers in the city unemployed. Although official census data do not exist, unofficial estimates claim unemployment rates of 40 percent.

The Creation of an Informal Economy One urban planner played an important role in bringing about the city’s current conditions.

Percy H. Winter was a British planner working for the Government of Palestine Public Works Department during World War II. His master plan of 1944 identified the city as an unsanitary slum with outstanding tourism potential. The report’s post-war plans included clearing slums, widening streets, decreasing population density, and developing manufacturing.

All of his goals focused on boosting tourism and the physical appearance of the city.

Unfortunately, they did not account for the needs of the existing residents.

Following the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 and despite the city’s government changing hands, Winter’s master plan was eventually adopted.

The government built factories adjacent to the city, imported workers, and made physical improvements that were implemented over the next 60 years.

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The resulting monoculture of tourism has boom-and-bust cycles that are tied to regional political instability. Drops in tourism have become pronounced in the years following conflicts, such as the Second Intifada and the 2006 war with Lebanon. This has left even those servicing the tourist sector at a loss.

James Cocks

Despite all of these drawbacks, city planners have continued to follow the general recommendations of Winter’s master plan and focused Acre’s development on tourism.

UNESCO recently crowned it with a World Heritage stamp. Professional antiquarians have convened from around the world to discuss its physical characteristics. Non-resident interests have lobbied the city policies into certain types of physical infrastructure upgrades, but without a comprehensive approach to city-wide improvements. Few opportunities for upward social mobility exist within the city’s formal economy. Failure to provide for the social needs of the residents has contributed to the rise of an informal economy.

ContestedAcre•James Cocks•5

Acre Today The reality of today’s Old Acre is one where most of the upper and middle class has fled, and the subsidized public-sector jobs serve commuters. The region shows strong disparities in education, income, and wealth, mostly along ethnic lines. Finally, the planned formal economy focuses so heavily on tourism that it leaves little room for development or innovation in other sectors.

Sources Cocks, James. “International Conservation Center in Acre: Historic Assessment,” US/ICOMOS International Exchange, in association with the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Old Acre Development Company, 2007. http://www.iaa-conservation.org.il/article_Item_eng. asp?subject_id=36 “Nomination of the Old City of Acre for World Heritage List,” Submitted to UNESCO in 2000 by the Old Acre Development Company

If we accept that people have a limited amount of recreational income, competing cultural sites enter a type of zero-sum game where one site attracts tourists over another.

Unfortunately such a system does not actually expand an economy—it simply takes money away from a competing site. A city that is coerced into relying on just one such industry is not encouraging development, innovation, or adaptability.

Shared Heritage of Akko: Preliminary Draft Report Vol. 1 (2004). Assembled by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Zinman Institute of Archaeology and the University of Haifa for the Wye River People-toPeople Project and the US Department of State

Geopolitical instability, rising costs for or perceived risks of travel, changing fashion tastes among the cultural elite, and the emergence of other competing tourist destinations all create large fluctuations in tourism rates, which can lead to high service-sector unemployment. If such instability does not provide enough to sustain the city’s formal economy, a desire for upward mobility fuels an informal economy. In Acre’s case, ruthless drug dealers emerged in the Old City.

Maya Kapelushnik

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Mr. Winter’s development plan, while probably of heroic intentions, has led to villainous consequences.

Vens, Hartwig, “Hip-Hop Speaks to the Reality of Israel,” World Press Review, Vol. 51, No. 1, February 2004. http://www. worldpress.org/Europe/1751. cfm

Acre, c. 1918

Winter, Percy H. “Acre Report: Preservation and Restoration of Acre Survey and Report,” Government of Palestine Public Works Department, 1944

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MarittaDunn Catherine Kim

Currently, Dunn sits on the Board of the Uptown Dance Academy and is busy as the Executive Director of the Harlem Valley Heights Development Corporation, where she is devoting her energies to organizing members of the Manhattanville Area Consortium of Small Businesses.

When asked why she has chosen to work with small businesses when there are so many other issues, Dunn explained that she has an intense interest in local economic development and enjoys connecting this community of businesses with the type of capital needed for growth. The greatest challenge for her has been gaining the trust of the business owners, some of whom she has known as friends for decades. Tirelessly, however, Dunn continues to walk door-to-door hand-delivering invitations to local merchants, asking them to attend meetings. She aspires to build a true consortium of businesses that can armor themselves against the impending changes in Manhattanville and West Harlem.

A Harlem Native Protects Her Turf

Maritta Dunn is no stranger to urban battles, victories and change. A proud West Harlem native, Dunn is invested in her community. Her many levels of involvement in her neighborhood express her commitment to representing West Harlem, particularly its oft-underestimated diversity and vitality. More specifically, Dunn wants her community’s “issues of concern to be spoken and registered.”

Dunn began her community work 15 years ago, before which she was a full-time working mother committed to raising her children, all of whom have now moved out of state. Her love for New York City, Manhattan and Harlem has kept her local, despite many opportunities to relocate—she could be living Maritta Dunn and CB 9 Chairman Jordi ReyesMontblanc review the progress on the Harlem Piers in Barbados instead. Even though she has always lived here, she has learned to not take the City’s vibrancy and endless options for granted. She remains deeply enamored with what the City has to offer, and her passion is reflected in her indefatigable, active community engagement.

Appointed to Manhattan Community Board 9 in 1993, Dunn served as the Chairwoman from 1995–2007. During that time, she also served as Vice President of the Manhattanville Houses Residents Association, Chairperson of the Advisory Committee for the Manhattanville Houses Community Center and was involved with the Better Bronx for Youth.

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New York Times

The greatest challenges that Dunn feels her community currently faces are the rising prices and desirability of the area that threaten neighborhood affordability, particularly concerned with housing. Much of this, she realizes, has to do with the fast change towards “the mix” that Harlem is experiencing. In other words, she worries about the neighborhood’s shift toward a greater disparity between black and white and high- and low-income. This is the greatest change she has experienced as a native Harlem resident, and while not necessarily negative it is threatening the livability of the neighborhood for her community members.

With a shrug of her shoulders, Dunn does not claim any solutions to this challenge, but rather picks up her invitations and carries on with her busy day.

Maritta Dunn has professed that one of the ramifications of being an urban hero is making a lot of enemies. It is indeed true that Dunn’s enthusiasm and pride for Harlem is matched with a fearlessness for expressing her opinions. Regardless of who is right or wrong, it is decidedly true that Dunn is a local urban hero whose passions for her neighborhood and the direction in which it is headed runs deep.

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RobertSmithson

Kevin Leichner

“…the artist seeks… the fiction that reality will sooner or later imitate.”

Robert Smithson, 1968

The Earthworks Artist Who Could Make Land Float

DennyMont, www.flickr.com

Among artist Robert Smithson’s (1938-1973) superpowers was the ability to transform water into land, even from beyond the grave. A native of Passaic, he studied at the Art Students League in New York City. Much like his more famous project Spiral Jetty, Floating Island appears as a mirage of solid ground floating on the water. Derived from a small sketch and three decades of conversations, Floating Island circled a much bigger island, Manhattan, during the weekends of September 17-18 and September 24, 2005.1

This idyllic scene of trees, boulders and a path was pulled by a tugboat through the waters of New York Harbor. The two projects, conceived in the same year, also share a temporal quality. Much as the 1500-foot-long Spiral Jetty vanishes and reemerges from Great Salt Lake as the water level rises and ebbs, if you blinked during September 2005, then you missed Floating Island.

A dedicated group of superhero volunteers and Minetta Brook, a public arts organization, in collaboration with an exhibition that was mounted at the Whitney Museum of American Art, assembled Floating Island. The implementation followed a sketch Smithson prepared three years before his death in a plane crash in 1973. Some ideas were barely sketched out, while other details were as specific as moss growing on one of the rocks.

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This patch of Earth was assembled on a 30-foot by 90-foot barge on Staten Island for only $200,000, a shoestring budget compared to the $21 million spent on The Gates in Central Park.2 The rocks were borrowed from Central Park; they were returned to the park and the trees on the barge were planted there. All told, the barge required 18 tons of hay bales, which supported 50 tons of dirt and dozens of trees including maple, beech, birch, bur oak, sycamore and dogwood. It was intended to showcase native trees, much as Smithson was a native son of the New York area. It is also fitting that the trees and rocks became a part of Central Park, for he held great reverence for Frederick Law Olmsted, a superhero of his own, and the park that was his masterpiece.

mikenicholson, www.flickr.com

1Vogel, Carol, “A Posthumous Smithson Isle,” New York Times, June 10, 2005.

2Kennedy, Randy, “It’s Not Easy Making Art that Floats,” New York Times, Christina Davis, www.flickr.com

September 16, 2005.

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OpenSource

Stephanie Lim

Does LimeWire hold the key to better streets?

Mark Gorton is not a planner. Yet Gorton, who may be best known for creating the LimeWire file-sharing program, is making a surprising impact in the planning world. In the past decade, he and his growing team of software developers, journalists, and videographers have advanced the livable streets movement, engaged the community in the public process, and set the stage for a coordinated, regional approach to federal transportation policy.

Gorton’s inspired leap from hacking the digital landscape to shaping our physical landscape can largely be found in the open source software world—and the power of the many: in the same way that many developers working on a public code will produce a better piece of software, many people working on the public streets will produce a better city. This private-sector efficiency and innovation, coupled with strong democratic idealism and civicmindedness, make Gorton an incredibly effective champion of the public interest.

The goal of The Open Planning Project (TOPP) that Gorton founded in 1999 is, in effect, to make lay planners out of anyone interested. Several of its initiatives suggest that many people are excited to get involved. Open Plans, an initiative launched by TOPP in 2005, currently hosts more than 570 social activist groups, all using the site’s tools to organize

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more effectively. “You need tens of thousands of planners, not one per neighborhood,” Gorton says. “A one-block-long strip in the city might have to have 20 or 30 little things done to it in order for it to work right.”

This means that Gorton is never alone in his crusades. A few years ago, Gorton joined forces with Aaron Naparstek (MA Journalism, 1994) to advance the causes of the livable streets movement. While writing a piece on Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing “Open Source speaks to a single person’s ability initiative, Naparstek met Gorton, a longtime critic of the City’s transportation to change things in the world, to be an active problems. Trying to determine the best producer instead of a mere consumer.” lead-in for the piece, Naparstek realized that there were so many angles that the singular story looked more like a missing beat in the journalism world. Having connected with Gorton during the research process, he re-approached him with the idea of creating an entire blog dedicated to these overlooked issues.

The idea of Streetsblog resonated with Gorton on many levels. As a cyclist, Gorton finds it socially unconscionable that city streets allocate such a significant portion of space to private automobiles, while the vast majority of New Yorkers do not own vehicles. As an entrepreneur, he finds it ridiculous that New York City seems to equate traffic with economic activity. And as a highly trained engineer, Naparstek explains, “if [he] ran LimeWire like that, nobody would be able to download anything.” With TOPP providing the technological framework, Gorton enthusiastically offered to fund Streetsblog under the umbrella of the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign, with Naparstek as editor-in-chief.

Since its launch in 2006, the role of Streetsblog has evolved considerably, starting out as a watchdog for the Department of Transportation. In the beginning, it was easy. “The MTA

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would say slow buses and congestion were the product of New York City’s ‘vibrancy,’ or [former DOT Commissioner] Iris Weinshall would say Central Park’s Loop Drive is a ‘critical transportation link for commuters,’ as if she were talking about the BQE,” Naparstek says. “I didn’t even have to make an editorial comment,” he laughs. “It’s just like, ‘Are these people fucking kidding? I’m just going to put their words online and let people see.”

Since then, the blog has quickly become part of the catalyst for what Naparstek calls a “tectonic shift” in transportation policy. Site diagnostics indicate that city agency officials make up a large portion of visitors to the blog. This link between city agencies and the public is exactly what the team was aiming for, and both Gorton and Naparstek laud the responsiveness of the DOT and particularly Mayor Bloomberg, an intelligent believer in efficient government and someone who is “not threatened by new ideas.” As owner of Lime Brokerage and hedge fund Tower Capital, LLC (where he derives the financial backing for his planning nonprofits), Gorton— like Bloomberg—also brings a business-minded approach to attacking New York City’s infrastructural problems.

Despite the positive changes in city policy, the blog is maintaining its critical stance; its relevance and momentum depends on its ability to adapt to the rapidly reforming world of transportation policy. With the launch of Streetsblog L.A., the team is shifting focus from local politics to the national level, where a unified voice is necessary to fight for federal funding.

This fight has taken on an increased sense of urgency with the transportation act SAFETEALU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users) up

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for renewal in September 2009. To build on the current momentum they hope to “franchise” several more Streetsblogs across the country before year’s end, paving the way to Washington with coalition-building.

But for the team, it is not enough to change public policy. Although Gorton laughs at the idea that he has a master plan for New York, he does have the visionary trait of keeping close tabs on the immediate goals, while focusing on long-term progress. That’s why educating the public about these policy shifts is important—not just for consensus-building in the political realm, but to build lasting change rooted in the way we interact with our environment. This collective campaign is critical to the progress of the livable streets movement.

Also to this end, the redesigned Streetsblog 2.0 features a wiki highlighting best practices around the world. A schools blog is also in the works, as well as the formation of an educational curriculum schools can use to get the next generation thinking about planning on an everyday scale. Recalling the recycling movement as an example of how quickly reforms can embed themselves in the social fabric, Gorton is optimistic that the ideas and principles behind the livable streets movement can be incorporated into our consciousness.

The Open Planning Project and its many tentacles allow people’s plans to grow, merge, and change collaboratively. “That’s what The Open Planning Project makes democracy great,” says Gorton. “People making their own http://topp.openplans.org world better.”

Streetsblog http://www.Streetsblog.org Gorton, Mark. Interview. Tower Research, LLC, New York: February 29, 2008.

Moglen, Eben. Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the Death of Proprietary Culture. June 2003.

Naparstek, Aaron. Interview. The Open Planning Project, New York: February 20, 2008.

Streetfilms http://www.Streetfilms.org Open Plans http://www.openplans.org

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An important component of such growth is new housing and commercial construction.

Given the rapid increase in the population of cities and the country as a whole, with subsequent implications for housing and employment, private property owners who did not previously consider investing in their properties are now encouraged to demolish them and replace them with commercial buildings or redevelop them for higher-density residential use. These actions threaten the invaluable historic and traditional neighborhoods that have survived through long periods of continuous conflict.

The view over the Old City of Herat, November 2005

ConservingAfghanistan

Abdul Saboor

Balancing Development and Historic Preservation

Since the inception of the new government in 2001, the rate of development in Afghanistan has increased noticeably. Due to the long period of conflicts, this level of economic activity is the first major work in a couple of decades. This change is especially noticeable in the larger cities.

Now that the country has started to experience a certain level of stability and the international community continues its peacekeeping efforts to end long-term internal conflicts, demand for the provision of infrastructure is rising and now development in different sectors can be seen.

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Abdul Saboor

Afghanistan has a rich cultural heritage that reflects the ancient history and the culture of the country. Historic neighborhoods, mostly intact, are a significant part of this invaluable heritage that needs urgent attention and safeguarding. Unfortunately, lack of a strong and coherent regulatory system for new construction, an inefficient government, pressure for an improved standard of living, and the lack of a coherent development program could have serious consequences.

Weak government policies for safeguarding historic neighborhoods and controlling the rate and scale of new development, as well as the lack of availability of sufficient funding sources for revitalization and improvement of living standards in the traditional cores, are among the major threats to the long-term existence and the future of historic districts in Afghan cities. This could result in the destruction of these neighborhoods and part of the country’s heritage.

Abdul Saboor

New development near the Musallah Minaret Complex, May 2007

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Myung-bakLee Youngji Bae

Abdul Saboor

The Musallah Minaret Complex, Herat, May 2007

In response to these challenges, however, sincere efforts have been made by some international organizations to safeguard the historic fabric of the historic cores of Afghanistan’s cities. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, a Geneva-based international aid organization, is currently active in the capital city of Kabul and the western province of Herat.

It is working to revitalize areas and improve living standards by upgrading infrastructure and, at the same time, is conserving historic houses and public facilities.

The organization is also building historic preservation advocacy by collaborating with the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Culture and Youth, undertaking independent campaigns to raise public awareness of the importance of safeguarding Afghanistan’s historic heritage, and the need for government intervention to control the pattern of new developments.

To ensure further protection of Afghanistan’s historic fabric, and to guide and control the pattern of new developments, both the Afghan government and the international community must continue to formulate new, up-to-date plans and enforce more regulation to provide for protection, rehabilitation, and revitalization of historic sites.

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The Robert Moses of Seoul?

Questioning the Power of a Superhero in South Korea Mr. Myung-bak Lee is a classic protagonist of the modern Asian legend. Born to a poor family, he worked hard in the aftermath of the Korean War and entered Korea University, one of the country’s best colleges. From a start as a mere white-collar worker, Mr. Lee worked his way up to become CEO of Hyundai Construction in his thirties. After tripling the size of the company through the construction boom in the eighties, he switched his focus to the political domain. His career as a politician is no less successful; he was elected Mayor of Seoul in 2002 and won the presidential election last year with a landslide victory.

Mr. Lee, Superhero of Seoul During his four-year term as Mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006, Seoulites acclaimed his bold planning and quick implementation.

His major projects transformed the entire city: from historic plazas to bus stops and bus routes, from streams and parks to the subway ticket system, among many others. As his nickname “Bulldozer” implies, Mr. Lee has gotten a lot of projects done, by any means available.

hojusaram, www.flickr.com

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Among his major achievements, the restoration of the Chong-gye stream is the most highly appreciated. The Chong-gye stream functioned as a working tributary of Seoul for more than 600 years. Overcrowding after the Korean War polluted the stream, however, and the surrounding area eventually became a slum. Due to the strong impetus for modernization, the Chong-gye stream was eventually buried and decked over by an expressway in 1960. Many longed to have the natural stream back instead of this industrial cacophony.

Nevertheless, the restoration was deemed to be impossible, since merchants and residents in a thriving commercial area had to be displaced and the highly congested expressway had to be closed during construction. Regardless, Lee showed his typical bulldozer magic, and completed the initial phase of the construction in three years, as he promised in his mayoral campaign.

smklee@hanmail.net

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When the Chong-gye stream was opened to the public in October 2005, it was an instant success. The flowing water helped to decrease the temperature around the area by three degrees Celsius, eased air pollution by creating a wind channel in downtown, and hosted native species again. Above all, everyone loved having access to the water right in the middle of Seoul’s highest skyscrapers. Within three months of opening, the Chong-gye stream had welcomed 10 million visitors, a number equivalent to the total population of Seoul’s metropolitan area. Now, 80,000 visitors visit the stream every day.1

The Superhero’s Dark Side With all its success, the brand new flow of water did not completely erase the ethically challenged trail of the highly praised superhero. Behind its popularity, the Chung-gye stream suffers from several problems caused by poor decisions based on political calculations.

To complete the restoration project within his term of office, Mr. Lee rushed the construction with his typical bulldozer attitude. The project intentionally overlooked a fair competition process and a full environmental review.

As a result of these choices he made, Seoulites are now experiencing foretold side effects. Due to the skin rashes caused by mice and green algae from the old overflowing sewage system, epidemiologists now debate the possibility of closing up the stream during summers.

Many historians criticize the restoration project, since the construction went on regardless of ongoing excavations. Also, the symbolic art work installed at the Chung-gye plaza did not escape criticism from the public. ‘Spring,’ the 20-meter-high red, yellow, and blue spiral cone by American pop artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, is now more widely known as ‘the ugly snail.’

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dunfeel@hanmail.net

the proposed Grand Canal and the stock prices of construction companies skyrocketed ever since Lee became President. Now that his conservative Grand National Party took majority in National Assembly in the legislative election on April 9, 2008, the Grand Canal Project is more likely to be realized. However, with current opinion poll showing that the project is opposed by more than 59 percent of Koreans,3 and public approval falling to a record low, will the Korean people allow Mr. Myungbak Lee to become a superhero again? We will have to see.

Does Korea Need a Superhero?

Lee’s other planning projects follow the same pattern more or less; outcomes prevail, but appropriate democratic processes are overlooked. For instance, although it is now acclaimed as a public transportation best practice, the bus reforms on the day of July 1, 2004 are remembered as a painful and chaotic experience for many Seoulites. In order to enact these reforms on the day of his second-year anniversary as the mayor of Seoul, Lee forced the changes to take place with almost no consultation with citizens. Of course, one able man exerting such power might be effective in the short term, but also terrifying because of the high price the country will pay in the long term, especially one in which democracy is still a work in progress. Though he made an official apology Do people actually a few days later, his planning approach still posed a profound question: want superheroes do people actually want superheroes or are they just a necessary evil?

or are they just a necessary evil?

And Korean people answered the question. Despite Lee’s financial scandals, corruption charges, and disregard for democratic protocol, he received strong support in the presidential election, due to both fear and hope that the superhero would make their lives better by revitalizing the economy. It appears that his outcome-oriented public initiatives, along with his neo-conservative policies, could reshape the entire country in other dimensions as well, however, since his agenda includes privatization of government agencies, broadcasting services, public schools and the medical insurance system.2 Canal Fever Hits South Korea Now, Lee is abiding by his presidential commitment to his ambitious Grand Canal Project.

This large-scale planning initiative involves connecting approximately 1000 kilometers of the major river streams in South Korea by building dams and tunneling sections. Even though many experts refute Lee’s claim that the new canal system will create roughly 37 billion dollars worth of net social benefit, the canal fever is hitting hard; the property prices around

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1Seoul Metropolitan Government, 2008.

2Excerpts from Policy Outlines published

© Maeil Business Newspaper

As seen in this newspaper graphic, Lee’s new canals will criss-cross the peninsula

by Grand National Party, 2008.

3Grand Canal Project Opinion Poll, conducted by Joongang Newspaper and SBS, 2008.

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ReBuilding

Therese Diede

Cassandra Burrows, New Orleans, and Katrina

Indeed, the same New Orleanians who contributed to the fantastic uniqueness of the city before the hurricane have since been fighting not only to rebuild their personal lives but also to organize collectively against such blatant racism. As one everyday superhero recounts her experience in the rebuilding process, it seems there is no lack of passion and creativity, even in the face of government neglect (and demolition, literally).

We all remember the headlines from late August 2005: “COMPLETE DEVASTATION: Hurricane Katrina ravages the Gulf Coast,” “A City Under Water,” “Chaos,” and “Triage.”

Beyond the media’s superficial portrayal of New Orleans’ poor black families stranded on rooftops and shooting at the National Guard,1 however, was a city of strong social networks – disrupted by force, sorted and spread all over the country in just a matter of days. Indeed, the Katrina diaspora, of more than one million people, constitutes what is considered to be the most massive and sudden migration in United States history.2

Mid-City

Nowe Miasto 223 Jane Place

French Quarter Downtown/CBD

Uptown Central City

M is s issi ppi R i v e r

Therese Diede; mapping technology courtesy of Google Earth

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Not only was the migration both colossal and abrupt, but the continued displacement has occurred along racial lines. Between 2004 and 2006, the black population plunged by 57 percent compared to the 36 percent population decrease experienced among whites. The city of New Orleans, which was 68 percent black pre-Katrina, was estimated at only 59 percent black in 2006, with certain predominantly black neighborhoods still more or less deserted three years later.3 How are these communities dealing with their dislocation and broken networks? What is the potential for resilient collective action postKatrina?

Andy Allen

Cassandra Burrows is an activist and public health graduate student in New Orleans. Having resided in the city for five years before Katrina, she returned with a strong commitment to community and grassroots rebuilding efforts. One of many local heroes, Cassandra’s list of involvements include: the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, Katrina Information Network, Nowe Miasto Limited Equity Housing Cooperative, as well as the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic.

For those readers not as familiar with the amazing uniqueness of this Southern city, what does New Orleans mean to you?

New Orleans is painfully beautiful. It is a city of joy—not always happiness, but human expression which is used to deal with all the hurt, violence, poverty, and injustice. It is an ecstatic place and a deeply troubled place. One of the most important ways this plays out is through street activity. The people rule the streets in a manner I have never seen in another American city. I don’t mean in terms of criminal activity, but actually sanctioned, culturally dominant ways. People have really fought for their rights to be in the streets. The people of this city go out in public, expressing themselves through art and creating community and defining culture.

ReBuilding • Therese Diede • 25

Here, people just understand and accept that art and music should be outside, should be accessible to everyone.

Tell your story. How has Katrina impacted you?

I lived in New Orleans for five years before Katrina, first as a student living Uptown, then for a year working in a science lab and living in Mid-City. I lived at Nowe Miasto, which is a housing collective and art/performance space. Just prior to the hurricane, a member of the collective had purchased the building and we were working towards becoming a 501(c)(3) limited equity housing co-op. We are actually still working towards this goal, but the storm put some land mines in the way. We got at least seven feet of flooding and severe roof damage. The neighborhood was A society is only as good as its a disaster. Some of our neighbors are back better than ever, treatment of its members. Moral but there are still quite a few abandoned buildings.

orders that exclude significant numbers of people from the community deserve to crumble.

What motivated you to return to the physical destruction?

I was motivated by all the suffering people were facing and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the same time all the hard work and organizing people were doing to make it back or to achieve some minimal level of dignity. There were just so many human rights violations and so much loss and misery.

I wanted to help rebuild and also get these stories out in a way that would frame the bad policies which led to such a disaster and highlight the work of grassroots organizing to fight back.

Also, having had to deal with the destruction of my own living space, I think my experience underscores the fact that most of the folks from the Gulf Coast who were doing political work after the storm were also rebuilding their personal lives and dealing with the loss and anguish of a flooded city. The people most affected didn’t have a choice in the matter – they had to do the work because it was for their people, but they also had to deal with their own houses and their own mental health.

26 • Therese Diede • ReBuilding

What kind of re-building work have you done?

I had evacuated to western Louisiana and stayed there for two weeks; then I went to Chicago where my parents live. There I met with an organizer from Chicago who had worked in New Orleans with the Frederick Douglass School and a group called Community Labor United. She told me there had been a meeting attended by many activists from the Gulf Coast – and that they needed some help in getting organized and taking some action. Folks were really devastated at this time – everyone displaced, no one knew where any of their neighbors were, thousands in shelters, people without health care or medicine, prisoners locked up in random places with families uninformed...

Although I didn’t know much about PR or media advocacy at the time, I agreed to help work on a media and communications committee for two reasons: though displaced I could still communicate long-distance; also, a media-savvy friend of mine agreed to show me the ropes. In the end, I worked with what turned into the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF).

I also later worked with Katrina Information Network.

For a year, I was back and forth between Chicago and New Orleans, mainly supporting grassroots organizations through media advocacy. In Chicago I also did some work with local activists trying to locate people who had been displaced to Chicago. The purpose was to connect those folks with PHRF and other groups that could help. After a year, I moved back to New Orleans and re-focused on health care, which is more of a passion for me. For the past two years, I’ve been working with the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic and doing public health graduate studies. The clinic is an independent, multi-racial, feminist project that grew mainly out of the political analysis and activism of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. We are dedicated to reproductive justice and to making sure that the particular needs of women are not obscured by the hectic rebuilding process. In terms of more personal efforts, I just moved back into Nowe Miasto – we gutted the building, repaired the roof, re-worked some plumbing, and have been doing a lot of planning to make it awesome again!

ReBuilding • Therese Diede • 27

Great! Now tell me about your superheroes in New Orleans.

Shana Griffin, one of the founders of the clinic, is always one of my heroes. She works with tons of other groups, especially trying to bring attention to the specific issues facing women of color. Having stayed the storm in their house in the Upper Ninth Ward, Richie and Emily paddled around in canoes rescuing people and bringing food to elderly folks. Everyone at PHRF. It’s funny because for a while I felt like many of our efforts were a crumbling mess. I eventually realized that PHRF actually became an incubator for a lot of amazing projects still around today: International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic, to some extent Safe Streets Strong Communities, the People’s Environmental Center, and probably many more. I think it’s heroic that, while rebuilding their personal lives and communities, people were also able to create these really progressive organizations, which are now at the forefront of demanding real reforms in the region. The Mardi Gras Indians. I went to the “Super Sunday” parades – so beautiful, such dedication to public art and the preservation of culture. The hurricane destroyed a lot, but this tradition is by no means dead. Of course, I think everyone who is back here trying to raise their families and contribute to this city is a hero!

In your experience, what have been the most challenging aspects of rebuilding New Orleans?

Focused on health care at the moment, I’m finding the biggest obstacle in this area to be the continued closure of Charity Hospital. The city needs public institutions to provide health care to indigent people, and right now there are way too many gaps in care. In terms of public health, the lack of access to quality food is a huge problem – though some groups are working on it. Also, the closure of public housing is devastating. It’s an absolute waste of resources to demolish hundreds of buildings and rebuild (if they even rebuild).

What role could professional urban planners play in the rebuilding process?

Intelligent urban planning could benefit this city a lot. At the same time, there needs to be a serious effort for redevelopment to avoid further displacement. We need to bring the people back! If planners can figure out sustainable and healthy solutions, that would be great.

28 • Therese Diede • ReBuilding

1The Lower Ninth, which received much of the media attention because of its intense flooding, had a high percentage of homeowners.

In addition, the socalled shooting at the National Guard was not an aimed act of violence but rather a firing into the air as a desperate attempt to obtain rescue after being passed over for days 2Brad Edmondson.

American Diaspora. ePodunk. Available at http://www. epodunk.com/top10/ diaspora/ 3American Community Survey, 2004 and 2006

Karli Munn

Post-Interview: What is “Nowe MIasto”?

The name was written on a few squats in Poland that Brice and Merideth saw while they were traveling there. I think for the Polish folks, and probably for the people involved in the project at the begining, it was about reclaiming space and changing what a city is about, who has access to the resources of the city, who has self-determination in cities. I’m not totally clear on the whole story and am making some assumptions.

Now I think the name actually is a little problematic, especially post-K. This is because the project has primarily been developed by white, punk-ish people who are not from New Orleans. Although our vision has evolved and is not dedicated to this sub-culture, there lingers a sense that this space is primarily comfortable to people to tend to fall roughly in that category. So, the point is that white, out-of-town folks are moving to New Orleans in great numbers while indigenous black folks remain displaced. Who should really have the right and privilege to redefine a ‘new city’ to rebuild New Orleans and its neighborhoods?

I think the name is okay if we keep in mind that the new city we want is one of neighborhood, family and individual self-determination, one which honors human rights such as the right to return, and one which does not only provide space for people with money. If we forget our principles then the name sounds pretty colonial.

–Cassandra Burrows can be reached at casbur@hotmail.com

ReBuilding • Therese Diede • 29

UrbanFarms Jezra Thompson

Social and Environmental Justice for All

Among the multitudinous land uses within New York City, there is one use in particular that stands out. Sequestered within the zoning complexities and overlays of mixed uses, there is a land use resonant of democracy. It is one that works towards social and environmental justice in a City that is trying to remember why these things are necessary. These land use anomalies are realized with an ‘aha moment’ by the passerby, a moment that could be described as kana (a wonder-indicating syllable used by Japanese haiku poets, loosely translated as an exclamation point). The hurried urbanite rushing from point A to point B will often find a second of solace in the fortune of stumbling upon such earthly wonder in a place that has lost so much of its brown earth.

Kana is found among low-income housing projects, elaborate condominiums, and even reconstructed brownstones. It is tucked within the crevices among high-rise office buildings, and on the roof tops of restaurants and cafes, and clothing stores, often hiding within commercial zoning to secure its existence; scattered in plentitude on top of abandoned warehouses, next to printing presses, woodworking shops, and adjacent to breweries. It is the urban farm!

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) can be categorized as an urban farm if there is a considerable amount of food production cultivated with organic farming practices and sold to City markets. Through bio-intense cultivation methods, these often itty-bitty parcels can

30 • Jezra Thompson • UrbanFarms

Jezra Thompson

yield enough whole foods to meet nutrition needs in food-insecure communities within cities like New York,1 which suffers from alarming disparity when it comes to resource allocation.

According to a 2006 USDA report, 40 million Americans were living in food-insecure situations. This represents more than 10.9 percent of US households which, according to the US Census Bureau, are concentrated in city centers within the largest metropolitan regions.

Urban farms are urban design and planning phenomena. They are hubs for community connectivity and redevelopment. They regenerate the urban landscape, transforming derelict garbage dumping grounds into green spaces and mitigating unsavory antisocialism into patches of positivity. They initiate social enterprise in places that have been neglected.

They are a means to an end, closing the food gap in some urban low-income neighborhoods.

They are the bridge binding consumer to producer. In sum, urban farms are the superpower land use that has the ability to address many urban planning challenges at once.

East New York Farms, in the Brooklyn neighborhood of the same name, is situated within a poverty-stricken community; its goal is to bring food to a place with little access to anything not sold at a rundown bodega. Though the urban farm is coy in its presentation, taking root in an ad-hoc manner, it is big in presence. Sanguine and full of life, urban farms unite the disenfranchised and disenchanted to commune over fresh, healthy food. This is food that can be used for profit at the market and shared communally with neighbors.

UrbanFarms • Jezra Thompson • 31

Urban farming is kryptonite to the Robert Moses bureaucrats and stops the opportunists who are quickly buying up vacant parcels, low-income housing, and abandoned factories to build office and residential complexes that yield high economic returns. The political machines that strengthen mass production and big agribusiness focused in the rural parts of the country are also muted by urban agriculture, which supports localization and small farming grounded in community propagating ethics.

Though detached from what we normally associate with the word ‘urban,’ these rural functions are tightly linked to urban activities, and vice-versa. Therefore, urban farming and the various players that help farm the City’s urban landscape, including CSAs, farmers’ markets, and peri-urban farms that produce substantial quantities on larger plots of land, are associated with traditional agriculture and the livelihood of the rural farming family. This poses the urban farm as a powerful land use that actualizes many urban planning theories of spatial connectivity.

Lofty literature on democratic planning for marginalized communities discusses ways of utilizing urban planning tools, like charrettes and neighborhood outreach programs. These are intended to educate or inform the ‘afflicted public’ and ‘supply’ them with proper activist tools that encourage them to take pride, responsibility, and ownership over their space. These concepts that we read about in academia come to fruition by deploying urban agriculture in the built environment.

Without delving into the plentitude of research and case studies on urban agriculture and land use plans that describe patterns of growth and development in densely populated cities–several of them drawing from New York City as a main resource for examples–I encourage the denizens of the City to take a walk and feel, see, touch, smell, hear, and become a part of the connectivity of urban farming. These unique spaces reverberate with possibilities for change, impacted by urban agriculture’s ability to respond to social and environmental injustices found in many low-income communities in the City.

32 • Jezra Thompson • UrbanFarms

Get in contact with local organizations, institutions, and existing urban farms—there are several urban farms, CSAs, and farmers’ markets in New York City—to find out how a single person can be a radical influence in today’s urban planning, no expertise or technical experience required. This is true planning for the people, by the people.

Jezra Thompson

Sources Nord, Mark and Margaret Andrews. Issues in Food Assistance-Reducing Food Security in the United States: Assessing Progress Toward A National Objective. FANRR26-2, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, May 2002 Smit, Jac. “Farm the City.” Our Planet 8.4, November 1996. www.unep.org/ OurPlanet Smit, Jac. “The many Names of Urban Agriculture: Alphabetical with NO priority ranking.” From the Desk of Jac Smit – “Urban Agriculture.” City Farmer, Canada’s Office of Urban Agriculture, June 25, 2006

Resources Just Food is a major NYC non-profit that connects the consumer with the producer and works to establish markets and CSAs. www.justfood.org Brooklyn: Added Value farm in Red Hook is a 2.7-acre urban farm established in 2000. www.added-value. org. More information on East New York Farms can be found at www.eastnewyorkfarms.org.

The Bronx: Garden of Happiness is an urban farm and farmers market established in 1988, at Prospect Ave at 182nd St and Mapes Avenue. Taqwa Farms is at Ogden Avenue and 164th Streets. Bissel Gardens farm and market covers 5 square blocks. More information can be found at www.bisselgardens.org.

UrbanFarms • Jezra Thompson • 33

After many years (and many fields), the New York State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, echoing the long-voiced concerns of health and environmental professionals, has begun to focus attention on negative health outcomes associated with synthetic turf.

On October 24, 2007, the State of New York introduced legislation calling for a six-month moratorium on the installation of synthetic turf, until claims of adverse health impacts could be resolved.5 On February 29, 2008, Several environmental and civic groups, including New Yorkers for Parks, called upon DPR to stop developing plans for synthetic turf installation until potential health risks have been fully reviewed.6

RubberTurf

Andrea Marpillero-Colomina

The Villain of Open Space New Yorkers for Parks

The City of New York has found an unlikely green-hued “frien-emy.”1 Since 1998, the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has been quietly using synthetic turf to replace aging grass athletic fields in neighborhoods throughout the city.2 Along with capacity for higher use, lower long-term costs have become the rationale behind replacing live vegetation with fields of plastic. With a population of more than 8 million in a green-starved city, New York has quickly become the largest municipal buyer of turf in the country.3 Over the last decade, the DPR has installed synthetic turf in more than 70 city parks, sometimes replacing up to four fields in a single park. This practice has raised eyebrows; opponents of the grass-to-turf initiative question if such costly installation (typically $800,000 to $1 million) makes up for the long-term savings in maintenance costs. A budget-based analysis does not even begin to address the significant environmental, safety and public health issues that accompany the rubber tire “soil” and polyethylene and polypropylene “grass” into the park.4

34 • Andrea Marpillero-Colomina • RubberTurf

DPR Commissioner Adrian Benepe is quick to tout the benefits of synthetic turf; “no grass field in the world can withstand 12 months of use. If you play soccer every day in a ball field, there will be no grass within about six months.”7 But his argument seems to overlook an element one might naively hope that a professional of parks—the very emblem of nature in the urban jungle—would value; the green-space in and of itself. This performance and durability-based mentality has undermined the integrity of our parks, which should be recognized and treated as natural community resources to take care of and invest in.

1A colloquial term for a person who is recognized as a friend, but is perhaps, in fact, an enemy 2“A New Turf War,” New Yorkers for Parks, Spring 2006 3 Berger, Joseph, “Falling (Safely) For Artificial Turf,” The New York Times, March 20, 2004 4“Synthetic Turf Fields in New York City,” New Yorkers for Parks, 2007 5“Synthetic Turf Legislation.” State of New York 2007-2008 Regular Sessions: No. 9503 (in assembly), October 24, 2007 6Williams, Timothy, “Groups Urge a Moratorium on City Use of Artificial Turf,” The New York Times, February 29, 2008 7As quoted to Berger, Joseph, “Falling (Safely) For Artificial Turf,” The New York Times, March 20, 2004

RubberTurf • Andrea Marpillero-Colomina • 35

New Yorkers for Parks

GreenDiva

Kevin Leichner

James Chase

James Chase

Shining a Spotlight on the South Bronx

Majora Carter is using her superpowers to ‘Green the Ghetto.’ Her efforts are transforming the political and environmental landscape of the South Bronx and, particularly, her native Hunts Point. She is the Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx, which she founded with a $1.25 million Federal Transportation Act1 grant to design the 11-mile South Bronx Greenway. Sustainable South Bronx has secured $20 million in funding commitments and construction will begin this year.

Her advocacy for following the triple-bottom line, or financial, social and environmental benefits, and correct cost-benefit analysis – ‘embracing her inner capitalist’ – has helped her successfully raise capital and private-market awareness in the value of investing in the people and revitalization of the South Bronx.2 Carter and Sustainable South Bronx are embedded in a network of like-minded activists and organizations. Of particular note for the Urban Planning program, there are numerous ties between Columbia University and Sustainable South Bronx. In addition, Carter and

36 • Kevin Leichner • GreenDiva

Sustainable South Bronx are part of an activist cluster that includes Zena Nelson of South Bronx Food Cooperative, Omar Friella of Green Worker Cooperatives, and Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs New York.3 Carter also publicly challenged former Vice President and anti-climate change hero Al Gore to involve grassroots organizations and communities of color in policy development, the funding pipeline and project implementation.

kptyson, www.flickr.com

The South Bronx could not be a more challenging neighborhood to find hope for the next century.

With a median income of $20,000, a poverty rate of 40 percent and an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent, the neighborhood has suffered tremendous disinvestment and physical degradation since the conclusion of World War II.

www.leslieimage.com

“No community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other. Unfortunately, race and class are extremely reliable indicators… as a black person in America, I am twice as likely as a white person to live in an area where air pollution poses the greatest risk to my health.”

In the Bronx, 600,000 people were displaced Technology in Entertainment and

by Robert Moses’ highway-building agenda.

Design (TED) Conference, February 2005 Furthermore, the legacy of the collapse of industry and manufacturing is a neighborhood plagued with brownfields. Asthma rates are soaring here, most likely due to the proximity to major highways including the Bruckner Expressway and the 60,000 diesel trucks that weekly serve the Hunts Point food distribution center. To add insult to injury, New York City has pursued a policy to locate an unfair share of undesirable uses such as waste transfer stations and sewage treatment plants in Hunts Point, which handles 100 percent of the Bronx’s waste, as well as 40 percent of New York City’s commercial waste total.4

GreenDiva • Kevin Leichner • 37

Against “Antiquated zoning and land use this tragic regulations are still used, to this backdrop, day, to put polluting facilities in Carter’s my neighborhood… Who pays? prominence has been Who profits? Does anything growing, justify what the local community particularly goes through? …Once we with the realized that, we decided to do successful challenge our own planning.” to the City’s TED Conference, February 2005

intentions to locate a jail and additional waste transfer stations in the South Bronx, and a $500,000 MacArthur genius grant in 2005 for her leadership role as an ‘environmental revitalization strategist.’5 Carter also serves on the Clinton Global Initiative’s Poverty Alleviation panel, demonstrating that environmental and redistributive planning can work hand-in-hand, and has launched the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training Program, an urban green-collar job training program that focuses on retrofitting existing buildings and ecological restoration. 85 percent of the participants in the training program get jobs.6 Furthermore, Carter and her organization have been advancing the creation of an ecoindustrial park that would take advantage of the South Bronx’s advantageous location, existing building stock and industrial byproducts. This new application of a cradle-to-cradle industrial model could be applicable to historically disadvantaged communities nationwide, particularly those that are located in economically depressed former manufacturing areas.

38 • Kevin Leichner • GreenDiva

Carter did not start out as an urban revitalization strategist, but intended to use her Master’s Degree in Fine Arts to promote the development of the arts community in the South Bronx. At the Technology in Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference, Carter shared the story of how she became involved. Her dog pulled her off of their normal path into an illegal dump. She competed for a $10,000 seed grant for waterfront parks from the City of New York, and leveraged this into $3 million. What was a lost space is now the Hunts Point Riverside Park, the first new park in the South Bronx in more than 60 years. On a personal note, this is where she was married in 2006.

With the recent departure of Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff and the rapidly nearing conclusion of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s term, the political landscape in City Hall is changing.7 This could signal the end of plans to locate major noxious uses in the South Bronx. At the same time, Carter and other organizations are seeing the results of their civic engagement and community leadership in the form of significant environmental improvements in the creation of a South Bronx Greenway and tidal wetland restorations at the mouths of Pugsley Creek and the Bronx River.8

www.campaignforamericasfuture.com

1The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act, popularly known as SAFETEA-LU 2Majora Carter, keynote speech, Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference, February 2005.

3Email from James Chase, Director of Communications, Sustainable South Bronx 4Ibid.

5Breslau, Karen, “Environment: Majora Carter: Bringing Cleaner Air and a Bit of Nature to Where It’s Really Needed,” Newsweek, December 25, 2006.

6Ibid.

7Applebaum, Alec, “Daily Intelligencer: Doctoroff Goes to Harlem, Gets Smacked,” New York Magazine, February 2, 2007.

8New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, capital parks projects, 2008-09

GreenDiva • Kevin Leichner • 39

AFable

Pixie Alexander

40 • Pixie Alexander • AFable

Heroes of a (Supra) New York

AF able • Pixie Alexander • 41

42 • Pixie Alexander • AFable

AFable • Pixie Alexander • 43

Ratner has also suggested that the project will provide at least 4,500 rental apartments, of which half is reserved for low- and middle-income residents.4 According to Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the most vocal opposition group, at least 69 percent of the housing units will be luxury or market-rate dwellings, and only 12 percent of the housing would be for people who make less than $31,000 a year. The median income in Brooklyn is $32,000,5 which means that there will be high competition to obtain affordable housing.

On February 1, 2008, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s rejection of a lawsuit against the use of eminent domain at the site. According to The New York Times, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said that Ratner planned to appeal the case to the US Supreme Court on the grounds of public benefits.

RatnerGehry

Sadamitsu Sakoguchi

Villains with a Vision for Atlantic Yards Gehry Partners, LLP

The Atlantic Yards Project is a development plan that includes an 18,000-seat basketball arena for the NBA Nets, as well as 16 towers ranging from 20 to 58 stories high.1 This project has a 22-acre footprint covering seven large blocks, from Flatbush to Vanderbilt Avenues and from Atlantic Avenue to Dean Street. This is 1.3 times the size of the World Trade Center site.

This megaproject has been dreamed up by Bruce Ratner, principal owner of the New Jersey Nets and CEO of Forest City Ratner, and designed by internationally–renowned architect Frank Gehry.

The project relies on eminent domain, which allows Forest City Ratner to demolish private properties, homes, and businesses. The problem here is that “the use of eminent domain is almost exclusively for private benefit, rather than public benefit.”2 The most controversial aspect of Atlantic Yards is that displaced residents will not be compensated. Ratner claims there will be 10,000 new permanent jobs, but the New York City Economic Development Corporation has estimated that Atlantic Yards will create only 2,500.3

44 • Sadamitsu Sakoguchi • RatnerGehry

According to The New York Sun, 13 residents “within the project’s planned boundaries are petitioning” the US Supreme Court “to forbid their eviction.” This may ultimately stop the development. Since many Brooklynites think Bruce Ratner is nothing more than greedy, they aren’t buying his argument that “this project [comes from] a desire to benefit the public,”6 even if it was once draped in the Emperor’s new clothes — starchitect Frank Gehry’s glitzy pageant of towers led by Miss Brooklyn, the most visible proposed tower — before the credit crunch led Ratner to scale back to just the Nets Arena.

1noLandGrab website, http://nolandgrab.org/landgrab.php, accessed April 21, 2008 2PlaNYC website, http://www.plannyc.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Issues

www.massengale.typepad.com

&file=index&catid=1&issueid=5, accessed April 21, 2008 3 op cit 4op cit 5Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn website, http://www.dddb.net/php/aboutratner. php, accessed April 21, 2008 6The New York Sun website, http://www.nysun.com/news/new-york/atlantic-yardsmay-prompt-supreme-court-revisit-eminent-domain, accessed April 21, 2008

RatnerGehry • Sadamitsu Sakoguchi • 45

AcademicSuperheroes

A Few Dissertation and Thesis Abstracts from Tomorrow’s Planning LIONS On the Way, www.flickr.com

Marc Bleyer According to a little known document called PlaNYC, found in the moldy basement of Avery library, the building sector is responsible for 79 percent of insidious carbon emissions in New York City.

Because carbon emissions are directly tied to energy consumption, the powers of good can triumph over the powers of evil when buildings reduce their energy use through energy efficiency measures. But, the good guys have few tools at their disposal to implement these measures. This thesis examines the intergalactic barriers that our hero, New York City, faces in its effort to reduce energy consumption in buildings.

James Connolly My dissertation examines governance and planning for redevelopment of formally industrial brownfield sites. My focus is upon how insurgent civil society groups are working (often heroically) to create a more environmentally just urban environment by engaging in processes of institutional innovation through the reordering of organizational networks of urban governance.

Jennifer Ewing is researching a project involving eleven European cities that worked collaboratively to implement green procurement practices. Based on the lessons learned from this project, recommendations will be developed for American cities to work together to implement their sustainability plans.

Matthew Crosby is focusing on labor and welfare determinants of household cooking technology use in Miches municipality, Dominican Republic. In industrializing landscapes, households, in addition to firms, play major roles in technology diffusion.

Energy technology diffusion is relevant to economic development at the household level, aiding economic development planning. Improved propane cooking stoves are particularly germane for household well-being, as their use is associated with reduction of opportunity costs for fuel wood collection.

Maggie Grady FreshDirect: Superhero or Villan? Does FreshDirect provide good, affordable food for

46 • Dissertation and Thesis Abstracts • AcademicSuperheroes

underserved neighborhoods, or does it fuel gentrification and worsen air pollution? Using spatial analysis to analyze FreshDirect’s delivery locations as well as a survey of FreshDirect customers, my thesis will examine the relationship between food choice and neighborhood appeal, particularly in areas underserved by traditional grocery stores. On a larger scale, this study will increase planners’ understanding of the role that food options play in the process of neighborhood change.

Minna Ninova Can modern art change the spatial imagination of a city? Is one mega-project enough to re-brand a European capital? By looking at the MuseumsQuartier, a publicly funded contemporary arts complex in the historic city center of Vienna, Austria, this thesis attempts to understand if and how the effects of cultural policy and land use decisions are spatially diffused through the urban environment. A lot of Viennese roast will be consumed.

Leigh Harvey Municipal incorporation--the process by which unincorporated areas file for, and effectively achieve, cityhood status--has been a recurring phenomenon in California during the last several decades.

In her research, Leigh will focus on California’s eight most recently incorporated cities. By comparing each new city’s land use plan to the previous plans drafted by the county, she hopes to reveal any fundamental differences in land use planning priorities between county/regional and city/local levels of planning.

Sandy Padilla Green building has grown rapidly over the past decade in the United States. Prior to 2000, many companies and developers viewed green building as an interesting experiment, but as financially unfeasible.

This thesis will provide insight into the factors that have transformed green building from an interesting experiment into a more accepted building practice.

Further, it will analyze the spatial distribution of green buildings within the United States.

Alison Laitcher is investigating reentry and the role of programming that bridges incarceration and employment. This thesis studies the partnership between a horticulture therapy program for incarcerated people and a post-release internship program that offers employment in horticulture. This study seeks to determine the most effective ways to support formerly incarcerated people during reentry, offering opportunities to improve their ability to be positive forces in their communities and reducing recidivism.

Alex Maisuradze I am exploring equitable financing options for revitalization of Old Tbilisi, capital of Georgia.

In 1921 the communist authorities (villains), promoting universal equity and also to meet the housing needs for the newly empowered working class, seized all of the downtown luxury properties from their wealthy owners and turned them into tenements. Deemed bourgeois and excessive, the aesthetic value of these buildings was neglected, but they are now worth preserving.

Rob Viola Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling in “New York City: An Economic Development Perspective,” will first analyze the current state of construction & demolition (C&D) waste (landfill and recycling) in New York City, looking at tonnage of specific materials. Fundamentally, this research aims to answer two questions: How does C&D waste recycling affect employment? How would an increase in New York City’s C&D recycling be received by the C&D landfill and recycling sectors?

Pepper Watkins Historic Access Corridors are a land-use tool that emerged exclusively in Virginia in the early 1990s. Akin to historic districts “lite,” they enable design review for new construction in central access corridors adjacent to historic districts. HACs are growing in use but their function and results remain comprehensively unstudied; this thesis will provide such a study and conclude with recommendations for alteration and improvement. This will satisfy the requirements of the Historic Preservation and Urban Planning programs.

AcademicSuperheroes • Dissertation and Thesis Abstracts • 47

“Things can be done well or badly no matter what set of principles you’re following. That’s one of the things that came out in the discussions over

I think asking a question about sustainable design is one of my graduation requirements.

Last summer, HPD completed the first LEED-H certified affordable housing development in the state, the Morrisania Homes in the Bronx. Do you see a time in the near future when sustainable housing will be synonymous with affordable housing?

You can argue about what’s really sustainable and how far you can go, but every level of government is thinking about it at this point. Because of the centrally driven way that affordable housing gets built, there is a good chance that within a couple of years we won’t talk about it in the same way anymore because it will be a standard practice.

the designs for New Housing New York.”

More importantly, I think there is a real opportunity here for government to lead the private sector. The interesting thing about doing this kind of work in the U.S. is that you can’t ever just pit market against government or public versus private. Some of the most interesting things that government does are the ones that catalyze private sector involvement and, whether you agree with that or not, it’s how the system works. You’re never going to have a huge impact without moving practices into the private sector and figuring out how a profit-motivated actor can have a self-interest in adopting these practices. The idea is to get something that’s really widely dispersed, going from three-family houses in the Bronx to the condos in Battery Park City.

ShaunDonovan

Minna Ninova

Commissioner of HPD... and House Party Hero!

Minna Ninova

The Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) talks about why we should be careful when throwing around “isms”, what’s missing in the presidential debates, and how planning students can change the world.

48 • Minna Ninova • ShaunDonovan

So in the current housing climate, so to speak, you’ve got sustainable building at the two far ends of the spectrum – the affordable housing market and the luxury market. What happens in the middle?

Ultimately, we have to get to the part of the market that the government doesn’t really touch other than by regulatory planning and zoning. I think the way we’ve started to do that is doing pilot studies and gathering data that we can take back to the financial institutions and say, “Look, we can prove that this stuff pays for itself and that you have a self-interest in doing something about it because there’s business in it for you.” It’s not the fashionable part of the sustainability conversation, but for me it’s where the next challenge is.

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2007 was the year we suddenly realized that New York’s infrastructure is outdated. How does the older housing stock fit into the sustainable building discussion?

We’ve actually made more progress on green renovations than we have on new green construction. Fundamentally, preserving buildings is a sustainable idea so I don’t see that as any more or less of a challenge than the new construction. It tends to get less attention, but at the end of the day, I think it’s a similar challenge and we’re making progress.

Speaking of old buildings, why does Europe seem so much more progressive about bringing together innovative planning, design, and public financing? You’ve spent time as an architect in Italy - are they just better than we are?

I think there are really two things going on there. One, design is more integrated into the culture there than it is here and there’s a greater respect for the professions of architecture and urban planning, and, more broadly, for the connection between the public sector and urban development. Also, the cities are obviously much older and there isn’t this sense of an endless greenscape out there waiting to be developed. Reusing and rethinking urban areas come more naturally. But it also has to do with recent history. If you look at the U.S. up through the 1960s and 1970s, there was a real interest in the connection between design and affordable housing.

Peter Eisenman and a whole group of architects were doing shows at MoMA on Urban Development Corporation projects that were done at that point. There was real fertility there, but the experience of public housing policy and the Fountainhead ideal of demolishing some of those projects wreaked a lot of havoc, whether architects were running in terror from affordable housing or public agencies running in terror from architects because each thought the other had screwed it up. Clearly, the ideas weren’t brought together all that well. I think we’re still suffering from that history, and this is one of the reasons I was excited about the New Housing New York competition that [HPD sponsored and whose winners were announced last year]. I think we’re at a moment when we’re beginning to see confidence in the idea that maybe we do know what we’re doing in affordable housing,

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we’ve figured out some things and we can start to experiment in a positive sense with design and planning, in a way that is not a knee-jerk reaction to history, but instead integrate that history, a little more in the way that they do in Europe. And I felt like New Housing New York really began to see some typologies that were really novel in the best sense – that they might work.

You mention the New Housing New York Competition. Could this be a model activity to bring planning and architecture closer together? Sometimes I get the impression that the world is divided into planners who think architects have their heads in digitally rendered clouds, and architects who think planners are out to recast the country in the image of New Urbanism.

We miss the point if we go too far with using “-isms.” For example, what’s unexpected about [the New Urbanist town of] Seaside, Florida, is that a lot of architects---Debroah Nevins, Muchado and Silvetti, Stephen Holl---did really “...it can’t be just be about finding the one way to go, interesting buildings there that conform to all the rules but at but finding a set of voices, a set of ways to approach the same time they don’t look problems that are truly about innovating but also like what you think you’re going understanding the neighborhood and the context.” to find at Seaside. We tend to do a bit of deconstruction by taking a concept, consuming it, and repackaging it in a way that it comes out more commodified and simplified. Things can be done well or badly no matter what set of principles you’re following. That’s one of the things that came out in the discussions over the designs for New Housing New York. There were 32 entries from all over the world and we had a long debate about whether the runnerup: was it a tower in the park or not, and how it’s different, and what was happening in the public space. In other words, it can’t just be about finding the one way to go, but finding a set of voices, a set of ways to approach problems that are truly about innovating, but also understanding the neighborhood and the context.

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It’s just hard not be cynical when you see housing policy behaving like a pendulum, where one approach is declared a failure and the solution is to swing to the extreme, by funding affordable New Urbanism communities with HOPE VI grants because modernist towers in the park are now out of favor.

“You’ve got to judge the quality of the thing

You’ve got to judge the quality of the thing for itself and not fall victim to what you’re for itself and not fall victim to what you’re criticizing others for doing...” criticizing others for doing, like saying, “Well it’s New Urbanism, so it can’t be good.” This is a bit of what’s happened on both sides, and that often happens with styles – they become styles when people abstract them completely from the substance that they came from and the deeper understanding of that substance. We can be cynical about that, but how do you get beyond it? From a public sector perspective, I think you have to create an environment where people are encouraged to innovate. That’s a hard thing to do in the public sector, but I think it’s a big responsibility of government to figure out a way.

Is there such a thing as federal urban development policy? It seems like the really innovative stuff is coming out of the municipal leadership level in big American cities and around the world. You’ve worked at both levels of government – is there really a dialogue happening there and what’s it all about?

It’s true that there hasn’t really been a coherent urban policy at the federal level for a long time. [The Department of Housing and Urban Development] has really been a housing department as opposed to housing and urban development department.

At the same time, I wouldn’t overstate the shift to state and local policy innovation because if you look at the housing budgets of most big cities in this country, over 90 percent of their resources still come from the federal government. They may like to talk about it as a local resource because they get to allocate the funds – through tax credits, community development block grants, etc – but, fundamentally, the bulk of resources comes from the federal government.

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New York is an exception, and the majority of what we use for affordable housing is city money, but we’re not the rule. It would be a disaster for the federal government not to drive those resources. The book City Limits makes a really powerful argument for why we’re never going to get a system where states and localities are the prime funders of social policy.

I just don’t think we can ever depend on states and localities to do that themselves. I’m a very strong proponent of continuing a federal role. Having said that, I do think there exists a healthy balance of local flexibility of control over spending of that money in ways that makes sense locally. And so I don’t think the movement towards more state and local flexibility and innovation – largely driven by Republican administrations, by the way – is a bad thing, as long as it doesn’t mean giving up the responsibility that the federal government has, along with a very different kind of focus and innovation at the federal level itself.

To find out more about the New Housing New York Competition, visit http://www.aiany.org/NHNY/

What could that innovation look like? PlanAmerica 2030?

One of things I’ve learned while working for the City is that most people who concentrate on affordable housing at the federal level tend to focus too narrowly on subsidized housing and how government puts in money and makes certain requirements. There is much more focus needed on the bigger levers that government controls to create and interact with the broader housing market. Particularly when you’re looking at the highest cost areas around the country, and especially in suburban areas with a lot of growth, the federal government has helped to create a pattern of development that is discriminatory, unaffordable, and unsustainable. At the same time, it has not really played a role in trying to shape this development beyond many of the policies that it put in place decades ago that actually encouraged it (e.g. highway policies, lending policies, etc.).

The most interesting place to focus with the next administration in Washington, whoever that is, would be to really think about how the federal government can create a set of incentives and work with state and local governments to change the direction of our urban policy, to marry the various pieces, to bring together various agencies around cohesive

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James Cocks

thinking about planning. For me, on the housing side, the question of land use is the one that has the most potential to change the pattern of development that we’re seeing and to deal with a lot of the underlying issues that have created basic urban problems, like poverty.

Dodge City, Kansas. It’s things like that that might shift greater focus onto urban issues, along with the sub-prime housing crisis that has gotten people looking at housing and finance in a new light.

Speaking of the next administration, there’s a campaign going on now…I think McCain brought up eminent domain once…

I don’t think you’re going to get all the presidential candidates to do a debate on urban policy because at least 50 percent of viewers are going to say, “Oh, they’re not talking about me,” as opposed to a whole set of issues like education and health care that apply to the population as a whole. I think one of the big challenges to those of us who are interested in urban issues is that there is such geographical polarization around them.

As a planning student, I hear the following question every so often: “But hasn’t New York been all planned out? What’s left to do?” I’m running out of patient answers. Can you help me out?

Think about it in a different way. I grew up in New York City and went to the World Series in 1977 when Howard Cosell proclaimed that the Bronx was burning. One of the big reasons I do this work is because I grew up in New York at that time. But New York hasn’t planned for the future in a generation. We were planning for the past, wanting just to get back to where we were, and stop the future from coming. For example, we were building Levittowns in the Bronx because we never thought we’d get the population back. But now we’re planning again, with the resources to actually address the challenges we’re facing. So I think it’s an incredibly interesting time to be doing this type of work in New York, but also in other places around the country where people are feeling the importance of planning issues. When I worked in Washington, someone told me that all politics is felt need. I think we’ve reached a point where my counterparts in other cities will tell you that housing and transportation are top-tier issues for their mayor. I’ve always felt that if you want to do interesting things at a large scale and you want to change the world, like I think all planning students do, government is absolutely the best place to do it. It’s not the easiest place to do it, but it’s the best place.

You basically have the coasts and maybe a few other places that are experiencing population growth, increasing diversity, extremely high housing costs – basically all of the things that helped to create a focus on the issues in the first place, but you also have large parts of the country that are rural, are losing population, and are experiencing low housing costs. They have the fundamentally opposite set of challenges.

I’m not sure we’re ever going to overcome that challenge. Instead, a lot of the attention is coming from state and members of Congress in whose constituencies they’ve seen enough of a growth in housing costs, traffic, and other issues. I read a very interesting article, which said that the highest growth in housing costs relative to income anywhere in the country was

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“Should capital interests determine the contour of inner-city neighborhoods?

The role of a

As the result of a focus on large capital projects, economic development tends to overlook local small businesses—a tragic error—and emphasize new and grandiose projects over revitalization and “incumbent upgrading.” At the same time, Sutton is careful to draw a distinction between celebrating the local and being overly nostalgic. “While I believe in ‘community planning’ one must involve the myriad (local and extra-local) actors that shape communities.”

planner is to

StaceySutton

Catherine Kim and Kevin Leichner

On Neighborhoods, Capital, and Columbia

Local economic development may not initially sound like an area in which urban battles are fought and heroes and villains are born. Professor Stacey Sutton, well-known within the Urban Planning program as the core professor for local economic development planning, challenges this misperception. Many recognize her heroic efforts to promote justice and equity through academic research promoting student involvement and counseling local community groups. When asked, Sutton responded that her most wished-for superpower is “diplomacy” to help reconcile tensions between community and capital interests.

Sutton’s desired superpower finds expression in her newly formed Community and Capital Action Research Lab, which goes by the friendly-sounding ‘Carl’ (C2ARL). C2ARL is at the intersection of traditional research and planning application, with a focus on racial and ethnic neighborhoods and business enterprises. C2ARL projects cover an array of planning concerns, such as issues of socio-spatial stratification, civic engagement and neighborhood revitalization.

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Hakima Abbas

Sutton identifies socio-spatial stratification as one of our city’s greatest challenges. “Stratification is not new but contemporary mitigate tensions forms are particularly pernicious. While we have more between capital participatory planning processes, we also produce deep, and and community.” seemingly intractable, inequities in our cities.” City planners, architects, and policy makers have to help redress inequities rather than being complicit and exacerbating problems.

While there is a resurgent love for the built and urban environment, different aesthetics and different patterns of consumption are reinforcing barriers.

These barriers can be addressed through initiatives such as that of Professor Sutton’s C2ARL, which shed light on local communities working together to revitalize their neighborhoods. This awareness can help to channel the flow of capital toward local economic development initiatives.

Stacey Sutton Fort Greene’s small merchants take pride in their storefronts.

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On an academic level, Professor Sutton feels that Columbia University has a role to play in mitigating the inequality that is becoming far too characteristic of New York City. As a research institution and as a member of the community, the University should be looking at the long-term narrative of neighborhoods—the benefits and burdens of revitalization projects—and deliver on the good intentions of an urban institution. The University should seek to share the benefits of its intellectual resources; Sutton points out that Columbia is an ‘elite institution’ in a neighborhood of historically marginalized groups. Therefore, we as members of the Urban Planning program have a unique responsibility to balance the needs of the University and diverse community interests.

Finally, Professor Sutton also sees an important role for the Urban Planning program in encouraging students’ interests in broader planning projects. The various research labs within GSAPP, for instance, are well-positioned to address scholarly concerns while involving students in hands-on projects that push the boundaries of book-knowledge and challenge them to deal with the messy, complex realities of urban planning. Projects through C2ARL and other urban planning research units seek to better equip the next generation of planners to be urban superheroes in their respective fields and make the importance of our profession more visible to students and to raise the awareness of our program to the broader academic community and in the outside world.

“One of our profession’s greatest challenges is socioStacey Sutton View of the Target building at Brooklyn Atlantic Center (left) and Williamsburg Bank (right) from Fort Greene

spatial stratification within cities and across regions… instead of creating cities of opportunity, too often we exacerbate forms of marginalization and stratification.”

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TrumpSoHo

Preeti Sodhi

Trump Organization

Is Trump a Villain - or an Architect of the Inevitable?

“Possess your own SoHo,” says Donald Trump. He believes that downtown is ready for his brand of luxury living and with that brings us the Trump SoHo. This project is, however, flawed on many levels.

Hotel Condominium, a 46-story building at Spring Street between Varrick and Sixth Avenue.

A hotel/condominium is defined by unenforceable terms of residency, namely that one can only reside in their unit 29 days out of a 36-day period. Loopholes in the zoning code allowed for this primarily residential building to be branded as a hotel/condominium.

This controversial project has been met with intense protest by residents who are incensed by the height and bulk of this project in their primarily low-rise neighborhood, as well as effects on traffic and neighborhood quality of life. Work stoppages due to a variety of issues and numerous violations have plagued the project.

First, human remains were found while digging the foundation, since attributed to a church that had been on the site in the 1800s. Later, a construction worker fell 42 stories to his death and, mostly recently, a pane of glass fell to the street. Now, there is rumor that Trump’s Russian investors may have an unscrupulous past. Is Donald a villain? It depends on whom you ask. The residents of SoHo simply want him to possess someone else’s neighborhood.

Sources: http://www.trumpsoho.com/flash/index.html http://nymag.com/news/features/45591/ http://www.crainsnewyork.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070508/ FREE/70508013/1050 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/ nyregion/15scaffold.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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StreetVendors Kasey LaFlam

Mitchell Duneier and 6th Avenue’s Sidewalk World

Advocating the need for public space, in particular sidewalk space, to preserve the quality of urban life did not end with the great Jane Jacobs, but rather has continued with what could be considered her modern-day counterpart.

This philosophy lives on in urban folklore with ethnographer Mitchell Duneier. A professor of sociology at Princeton University, Duneier spent much of the 1990’s documenting the lives of street vendors on Sixth Avenue in New York City. Many of those that he encountered were “houseless.” They helped to educate him on the dynamics of sidewalk life. The stories he recorded and observations he made were compiled in his well-received 1999 book, Sidewalk.

By documenting their stories, he provides readers with an intimate glimpse into the lives of those typically marginalized and ignored in our society.

Duneier examines New York’s response to these street characters, as one has selfidentified, and advocates for a conscious awareness of the many variables surrounding the issue of “homelessness” before beginning to work on addressing it.

“The correct response is not for the society to attempt to rid public space of the outcasts it has had a hand in producing.

It is vital to the well-being of cities with extreme poverty that there be opportunities for those on the edge to engage in selfdirected entrepreneurial activity.”

Mitchell Duneier, Sidewalk, 1999

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As an ethnographer of urban life, objectivity can be difficult to achieve. Working to overcome preconceived notions of what makes a person “homeless,” or “houseless,” Mitchell Duneier, in his words, educates the reader about the effect of stereotyping those that make their living on the street.

Duneier truly captures the spirit of the overlooked street life in New York City and, more specifically, Greenwich Village. As Spike Lee is quoted on the book jacket, “Mitchell Duneier has opened [the sidewalk] world up to me… in a way that only a work of the greatest integrity could. He writes to inform rather than to impress. The result is the most readable work of sociology that I have ever come across.”

Reading Sidewalk first as a student of sociology, and then one of planning, the message is still the same, and perhaps even more important the second time around. As a planner, it becomes clear that it can be very difficult to choose which demographic group to represent.

Many see the sidewalk as an arena which should be clean and safe and reflective of the residents.

There is, however, much to be said of the importance of maintaining diverse urban streetscapes. During his research, Duneier was surprised to hear one such vendor, Hakim, quoting Jane Jacobs in reference to himself.

Not long after we met, I asked Hakim how he saw his role. “I’m a public character,” he told me. “A what?” I asked. “Have you ever read Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities?” he asked? “You’ll find it in there.” I considered myself quite familiar with the book…But I didn’t recall the discussion of public characters. Nor did I realize that Hakim’s insight would figure in a central way in the manner in which I would come to see the sidewalk life of this neighborhood.” (Duneier: 6)

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After spending more time with the vendors, he began to see that many regarded them as permanent fixtures and being, as Jacobs once described, “the eyes and ears of the street.”

Duneier comes to appreciate the role these mainly poor, African American men fill in the urban streetscape that most tend to overlook. He describes their presence as essential in that “…sidewalk life is crucial because the sidewalk is the site where a sense of mutual support must be felt among strangers if they are to go about their lives there together.” (8) He also becomes an advocate for changing the perception people have of those that society has played a role in helping marginalize. He sees open space as not just a physical entity, but a place of opportunity. “…The correct response is not for the society to attempt to rid public space of the outcasts it has had a hand in producing. It is vital to the well-being of cities with extreme poverty that there be opportunities for those on the edge to engage in self-directed entrepreneurial activity.” (Duneier:317) Duneier confronts stereotypes and negative reactions throughout his field study. Businesses “It is vital to the well-being of cities such as Amtrak even had a hand in trying to find with extreme poverty that there be ways to remove homelessness from the sight opportunities for those on the edge to of its customers by waging a campaign with statements such as “When you give money to engage in self-directed entrepreneurial the homeless, you help keep them homeless,” activity.”

(Duneier:130) He works to educate people on the importance of understanding this essential, yet misunderstood strand of the intricate urban fabric in which we live. “Only by understanding the rich social organization of the sidewalk, in all its complexity, might citizens and politicians appreciate how much is lost when we accept the idea that the presence of a few broken windows justifies tearing down the whole informal structure.” (315)

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In many ways Mitchell Duneier has become the modern day Jane Jacobs, advocating for the acceptance and understanding of the sidewalk as an essential location where urban life unfolds. Duneier recognizes how race and class dynamics have changed since Jacobs’ Life and Death, and how they have manifested themselves on the sidewalks of urban streets in the form of “vendors, scavengers, and panhandlers” (Duneier:315). Sidewalk is certainly worth the time of planners interested in broadening their understanding of the informal social structures that apply not just to the city of New York, but to cities across the country,and the importance of understanding the multiple factors that contribute to urban poverty and homelessness. Mitchell Duneier: professor of sociology by trade, urban superhero by choice.

Duneier, Mitchell. Sidewalk. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, New York, NY, 1999

YoungHeroes

Catherine Kim

Young People Who Are Making A Difference Catherine Kim

Youth are, more often than not, branded as being young; troublesome, ignorant, foolish or much too idealistic.

Across the globe, there are young people who continue to defy this perception and aspire to impact their worlds in ways immeasurable by age.

James Cocks

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15-year-old Abril de Los Santos and 13-year old Isabella Morales are Bronx natives who use the power of photography to demonstrate their precocity and to show their community how they see their world. Both ladies spend at least once a week attending classes at the International Center for Photography (ICP) at The Point. The Point Community Development

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Corporation is dedicated to youth development and the cultural and economic revitalization of the Hunt Points section of the South Bronx. The ICP is a world-class museum and school dedicated to exploring the possibilities of the photographic medium through dynamic exhibitions and educational programs.

Both Abril and Isabella feel that the public education system, namely the teachers, do not teach them “to have a view”; to think big of the world and for themselves. Fortunately, for Abril and Isabella, they have the support from their family and organizations such as the ICP at The Point that cultivates these ladies’ big ideas for impactful change.

Abril de Los Santos is a young lady who believes in and is moved by the idea of change -- reversing injustice and correcting what is wrong. On a global scale, she is personally invested in fighting for pro-immigration legislation, LGBT rights and furthering the anti-war movement. In her local The youth gets together his materials to world, she says that “invisible racism” build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, is the biggest challenge facing urban a palace or temple on the earth, and, at youth. By invisible racism, she speaks length, the middle-aged man concludes to of the metal detectors used daily in build a woodshed with them. her inner-city public school that she feels criminalizes her peers, the limited education system and the quality of housing – all components of a larger structure that she believes keeps minority groups immobile. With protest and a life-long commitment to photojournalism, Abril hopes to challenge and change her world – locally and globally.

Across the world, Isabella and Abril have counterparts who are trying to make similar types of change in a very different context. In South Africa, a team of young leaders formed a group in 2004 under the auspices of Childine Mpumalanga, a non-profit organization that serves the children in Mpumalanga province of South Africa. These young leaders call this youth development program LEOBU – a tribal word for chameleon.

Isabella Morales believes in the notion of servicing her peers who she feels are underserved.

She is motivated by a desire to turn her peers’ apathy inside out with the power of information, something she hopes will help address what she feels is the greatest challenge facing her urban peers: decisions around sex and sexuality. Other than photography, Isabella engages her community as a Club Captain at the Hall of Science in Queens. There, she works with elementary school children in after-school science activities. Through working with children and photography, Isabella wants to show the rest of the world the “beautiful parts of the Bronx that people take for granted.”

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Thabang Shabalala, Nhlanhla Lekhuneli and Mxolisi Mdluli are the founders of the program and chose this name because they see the world as a chameleon that changes its colors according to its vision and its ideas. These are boys who were able to transcend such realities of poverty, HIV/AIDS and crime that ravage their community with a vitality to act as agents of change. They did this with incremental activities, such as a mural painting day, helping community members to access social welfare benefits and starting an after-school program for HIV/AIDS orphans. Four years later, these three boys have moved on, but the program still exists and Childline Mpumalanga is working to emulate it across the Mpumalanga province.

Perhaps youth are youthful, but certainly not always young.

If anything, these youth demonstrate that youthfulness is a superheroic quality filled with precocious wisdom and foresight.

Abril De Los Santos

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Joyce Rosenthal

PostIndustrial Joyce Rosenthal

Route of Industrial Heritage, Ruhr Valley, Germany

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Minna Ninova

Andy Allen Allen Isabella Andy DeMorales

Abril De Los Santos

Maya Kapelushnik

Pixie Alexander

Pixie Alexander