Rebuilding New Orleans: Segregation by Topography

Mikaela posts:
Today's op-ed in the Washington Post gives a clear picture of the uneven development that New Orlean's residents face. (It also puts a good face on historic preservationists, often the whipping boys of planning discussions. In this case, preservationists are on the side of those fighting for their communities by fighting for their houses.)

Whose New Orleans Will Live?

By Eugene Robinson

It's understandable (though not admirable) that city officials would try their best to avoid ... life-or-death decisions. Would you want to explain to voters why a bunch of rich, white neighborhoods get primped and buffed to pristine splendor while poor, black neighborhoods get bulldozed and turned into green space? That's the outcome topography suggests, and in New Orleans topography is conterminous with wealth and race....

The wealthy strip of high ground alongside the Mississippi River that didn't flood -- the French Quarter, the central business district, the Garden District, Uptown -- resembles the footprint of the city circa 1850. They call this strip the Island, and while life there hasn't quite returned to normal, it's close enough for people to spend time devising new post-disaster routes for the upcoming Mardi Gras parades.

Out in what was marshland in 1850, much of the Lower Ninth is ruined. Some houses were swept off their foundations into the streets; others were simply pulverized into jagged piles of debris. Politics or no politics, whatever happens there will have to start with bulldozers.

The real problem lies in the endless city blocks, mile after mile after mile, that were flooded but not erased. You can start on the Island and drive north, toward Lake Pontchartrain, and soon you are in a silent, empty wasteland where all the houses have a visible waterline, sometimes at the windowsills, sometimes all the way up to the eaves. These vast neighborhoods aren't destroyed, but they aren't habitable, either.

Last week I spent a morning in Holy Cross, the part of the Lower Ninth nearest the Mississippi, which never had real flooding problems until Katrina. It is, or was, a tightknit neighborhood of black homeowners where roots run generations deep.

Robert Smith, a 71-year-old retiree who could pass for 20 years younger, has been living near Dallas since the flood, but he was back in town last Friday working on his house in Holy Cross. Next door, the shotgun house where his mother, Mildred Bennett, lived until Katrina hit -- a house that has been in her family for 127 years -- is being rehabilitated as a demonstration project by the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The preservationists argue convincingly that it is cheaper and smarter to restore these moderately flooded older houses -- which survived much better than newer homes, since noxious mold doesn't have an affinity for plaster but loves modern drywall -- than tear them down and start over again. That should be true, they argue, in most of the city's empty zones.

But the homeowners of Holy Cross didn't have flood insurance. They weren't eligible for it because the area wasn't considered a flood plain. Without some sort of universal grant or tax credit, there is no way that most of the working-class evacuees from Holy Cross can afford to renovate. The neighborhood remains silent and empty.

In the coming months, the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- which has already been so helpful -- is expected to issue new flood maps for the city, and those maps could be decisive. If FEMA decides a certain neighborhood is a high-enough flood risk, insurers and lenders will stay away.

No one here wants a New Orleans that consists of just the Island plus a bunch of widely scattered residential atolls, washed by a bleak sea of abandonment. But that may be where things are headed unless something or someone intervenes.

Alito and the Failure of Senate Confirmation Hearings

Mikaela asks:
Anyone satisfied by this exchange?

Senator Leahy seemed concerned about the judge's membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton University, an organization that the senator said had resisted the admission of women and members of minority groups to the elite Ivy League institution.

"Why in heaven's name, judge?" Mr. Leahy asked, seemingly incredulous that a man with Judge Alito's immigrant heritage and working-class background could have belonged to such a group.

The judge said that he had never active in the group's activities and that he had belonged chiefly because he disagreed with campus hostility to the Reserve Officers Training Corps in that Vietnam War era.

That back and forth afforded Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, a chance to serve up a friendly question. The senator asked the nominee whether he was against women and minority groups in college.

"Absolutely not, senator, no," the judge replied.

"Tough question, Orrin," Senator Leahy interjected with a chuckle. "Tough question."

"Good question, though," Mr. Hatch retorted.

Today's reading

Maggie says:
Good reading on the Web today. Check these out:

• 10 Worst Americans (Alterdestiny). Yay, Erik's back! M-pyre friend Erik is writing his ass off again now that's moved himself and his blog to Albuquerque. Here, Erik ponders who he thinks the ten worst Americans are; it's a must-read list. He has tons of great stuff up lately, including the best reflection on coal mining I've seen since last week's tragedy and a musing on the historical importance of the Clinton impeachment. Check him out, ABQ!
• Goodbye, Suburbs (New York Times). Loneliness, unfriendly strangers, terrible commutes, weight gain... This is a really great article (thanks for the tip, Mikaela) on urban New Yorkers moving to the suburbs with their young children and then moving right back to the city, with less space and less money but a whole lot more happiness. Brings up some interesting points about choices, patterns, human nature, and lifestyle preferences.
• The Truth, Exodus Style, in SC (Pam's House Blend). I discovered this North Carolina blogger recently and just love her. Here, Pam rails against a billboard in South Carolina promising to "fix" lesbians alongside billboards for strip joints. An excerpt:"It's clear that the level of bible beating in this state has to be tied to the level of guilt-ridden beating off in dark dank joints, along with the Sunday prayers to cleanse...and then the cycle starts fresh the next week."
• Fair Share for Health Care Heats Up (Wake-Up Wal-Mart Blog). A great piece detailing the latest organizing in Maryland over fair share health care reimbursement for Wal-Mart. "We have the power to hold multi-billion dollar corporations accountable for their behavior and it starts with making sure Wal-Mart pays its fair share for health care. Because when they don’t, the results are disastrous. For example, 600,000 Wal-Mart workers have no company health care and nearly 1 out of every 2 children of Wal-Mart workers have no health care or are forced onto a taxpayer program at a cost of $1.2 billion every year."
• Minutemen? KLANSMEN (Arvin Hill). Another m-pyre fave, Arvin does his thing here with a first-hand account of a Denton, TX counter-protest against the Minutemen, who were gathering to make a statement to Mexican day laborers lining up for jobs. Thanks, Arvin.
• Love (and leave) Thy Neighbor (New York Times). An absolutely charming story about the tawdry lives of neighbors in NYC, where hookups are plentiful but can be much too incestuous inside an apartment building, where tenants are like family.
  

Enraged in Tennessee, Tickled in Oklahoma

Maggie says:
Finally pulled back into town last night, after an interesting two-day NC-to-NM drive across I-40. Two highlights from the road:

• Confederate wake-up call. Somewhere between Knoxville and Nashville, a huge Confederate flag is flying high for all I-40 passengers to see. On the mountains overlooking the interstate, some nice family decided to install an indestructible steel flagpole on their back lot line, which just happens to overlook an interstate with thousands of travelers on it each day. I can't overstate the enormity of the Confederate flag; it's literally the largest flag I've ever seen, this shock of red and blue against the green trees. When we passed it, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. My breath was just knocked out. The inevitable conversation ensued: what are the limits to free speech in situations like this, with a symbol so damaging and hurtful to so many people? My co-traveler maintained that I should support their right to fly that flag as much as my right to have my anti-W sticker on my bumper. I hear that, and I know in my head it's true, but my heart still says that someone should firebomb that house. And you all thought I was so nice...
  

• Tickled red, white, and blue. On an entirely different note, I discovered just how patriotic sex toys can be in Henrietta, Oklahoma the next day. The report from the men's room in a tiny gas station goes like this: next to the condom machine, there was another machine offering "French Ticklers" for $.75. Here's how the machine has been updated to respond to our country's admirable War on Terror:

The French Freedom Tickler

"Tickle her fancy the Patriotic Way!"

75 cents
(not to be substituted for a condom)

Gotta love our country. Gotta love road trips. It's good to be back.

College Investment Model for Community Development

Mikaela says:
Great article in today's Washington Post about the new trend of colleges in urban areas taking an interest in community development -- for their own benefit, of course -- that should be a model for corporations and others.

Ten years ago, the University of Pennsylvania was under siege, its ivy towers wreathed by an abandoned industrial wasteland, filth and soaring crime. Parents feared for their children after two student homicides.
...
"They had one of two choices after the murders. They could build up more barricades, surround them with a moat and fill the moat with dragons," said Barry Grossbach, a community activist in the West Philadelphia neighborhood. "Or they could reach out and save the community. . . . It was self-preservation."
...
The university and private developers have invested about a billion dollars over the past decade in security, retail, schools, the local housing market and what Penn refers to as "economic inclusion" -- making sure the community and minority companies get a piece of the success.
...
Penn is at the forefront of a national trend of urban colleges that are aggressively trying to bridge "town-gown" tensions by investing heavily in adjacent troubled neighborhoods -- and by making a connection with local civic life. Since Penn launched its efforts in 1996, officials from more than 100 schools have made pilgrimages to study how it transformed a decaying neighborhood with a thriving drug traffic into a vibrant college community.
...
"We sees ourselves as an extension of the community," said Maybelle Taylor Bennett, director of the Howard University Community Association. "It's enlightened self-interest."
...
As a case study, Penn's urban renewal effort is probably the most comprehensive -- targeting every service and institution that makes a community vibrant. The university restored shuttered houses and offered faculty incentives to move into the neighborhood; invested $7 million to build a public school; brought in a much-needed 35,000-square-foot grocery store and movie theater; and offered the community resources such as hundreds of used Penn computers.
...
"We said we teach our students about civic engagement. You can't do that and not be role models for civic engagement," said former Penn president Judith Rodin, who was a catalyst in the renewal efforts.
...
In the 1950s and '60s, the university -- with the help of federal and local officials -- displaced residents to expand. Homes were abandoned, businesses fled, crime took over -- and Penn simply fortified its walls.
...
"We destroyed a neighborhood that had existed for 50 years. And we replaced it with a neighborhood that had no life, no vibrancy on the streets," said Omar Blaik, Penn's senior vice president for facilities and real estate services.
...
The first steps were to form a partnership with community leaders and neighborhood associations and to light the neighborhood, clean it and make it green. Lights were enhanced at 1,200 properties, and 400 trees were planted as well as 10,000 flower bulbs.

Gradually, university buildings were refaced to open out toward the streets, and all new buildings had ample windows facing the street, making the school appear welcoming and providing additional lighting on the streets for safety.
...
To bring back residents, Penn spent several million dollars renovating 20 dilapidated houses and priced them so middle-class residents could afford them. Nearly 1,000 employees have accepted the incentives to buy homes in the community.
...
But most people agree that the most important thing the university did was commit to build a public school. "That changed everything," said Tony Sorrentino, director of external affairs for the facilities office. "It brought families back."

SWOP: 25 Years in the Movement!

marjorie says...

If you ever wanted to know all about SWOP, here's your chance. This is going to be a great show:

Espejos de Aztlan, a production of the Raices Collective at KUNM, will be airing a special live radio show on SWOP's 25 years of social justice early next week.

The special can be heard at 7:00 pm Monday, January 9, 2005 on 89.9 KUNM here in Albuquerque and can be found streaming live for folks outside the broadcast area on the net at www.kunm.org/listen.

Hosts Roberta Rael and Henry Gonzales will be talking to a pretty fantastic group of people.

• Richard Moore, a founder and former director, and Roberto Contreras, a founder and current board member, will be discussing the founding of the organization.
• Loretta Naranjo Lopez (Martinez Town), Eleanor Chavez (District 1199, former board member), Michael Guerrero (former co-director), and Gabe Lucero (Las Vegas) will be talking about building local power in local communities.
• Eileen Gauna, (Southwestern Law School), Ruben Solis (Southwest Workers Union), and Pam Tau Lee (Northern California), will be on hand to discuss SWOP's role in helping to build a regional and national Environmental Justice Movement.
• Teresa Cordova (Bern. Co. Commissioner), Eric Schmieder (Duranes, ABQ) and Steve Viederman (formerly with Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation), will have a discussion about SWOP's corporate accountability campaigns.
• Fernando Abeyta (ABQ), Rosina Roybal (Jovenes Unidos Coordinator) and Celia Fraire (ABQ) will talk about SWOP's youth organizing work.
• Robby Rodriguez, SWOP director, will talk about current and future SWOP work.
  

Looks to be a lively, informative discussion. Tune in and find out about an important part of the state's history.

A Plan for Louisiana

Mikaela says:
A Louisiana Republican representative, elected from a mostly white, suburban part of Baton Rouge, is championing what the NY Times is calling a "big-goverment" solution to the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Representative Richard H. Baker's housing recovery plan "would make the federal government the biggest landowner in New Orleans - for a while, at least. Mr. Baker's proposed Louisiana Recovery Corporation would spend as much as $80 billion to pay off lenders, restore public works, buy huge ruined chunks of the city, clean them up and then sell them back to developers."

This sounds less like big government and more like massive privatization machine that will take "worthless" (meaning we refuse to value it) property, use public money to clean it up, and then turn it over to developers who will make massive profits building housing for people who can afford to live there, who will NOT be the same people who lived there pre-Katrina. They won't be the same color, and they won't be the same income level.

It's the Iraq model domesticated. Use government forces to take the land, then turn it over to private corporations so they can make money. Gotta love Republican consistency. When they find something that works, watch out! Export the model and go go go.

Sound like a good plan to you? Well, it may not matter.

"It's the only game in town,"says James A. Richardson, director of Louisiana State University's Public Administration Institute.

The question for me is this: how do you assure controls? Oversight on windfall profits... Oversight on what gets sold to whom and for how much... Oversight about fair prices for buy-backs?

We sure don't have a good track record as a nation for paying enough for what we take. Think: our treatment of Native American tribes when we kicked them off ancestral lands. Think: our treatment of inncer-city residents when we kicked them out of their neighborhoods during urban renewal.

Why will this be any different? Can it be? More importantly, how can we ensure that it is?

A Better Moment

Mikaela writes:

after Piñero

We need your voices, America,
all your accents,
the way you light up tongues
with your turned-corner phrases.

How will we tell our stories, America,
without all your stories
pouring forth like so much music
blaring from each of your packed cars?

We move forward, America,
at the speed of the slowest among us,
and we're holding ourselves back
when we tell ourselves it has to be this way.

We have to make room for our ghettos
in Wall Street, America,
because what you sell,
we buy, and it's a collective dream now,

so pay up, America.
We owe so much to so many
let's hand out praise
and remind everyone that a hand up

asks a question
that two hands together
can answer
when we say, your voice says it all.

I'm listening, America.
Your story is the one I need to learn.
Tell me soft and slow.
Let's write it down together

and we can read it out loud on days
when things don't look so good
and remember
just how far we've come.

Good riddance to 2005

Maggie says while STILL in NC:
Reading the local News and Observer on New Year's Eve, I was struck by this opening to a Dennis Rogers column:

The year 2005 began with the nation at war against a deadly enemy. It ends tonight with the nation at war with itself.

There may have been more dispiriting years - 1968, for one - but for sheer nastiness, historians should relegate 2005 to its own corner of hell.

I can't say I disagree. Massive death and destruction in Iraq. A great city imploded less by a hurricane than by our nation's own missteps. Outrageous political pandering that turned the death of an invalid, Terri Schiavo, into something ugly rather than something merely sad. The list could go on and on...

Even progressive "victories" feel tinged with dread. It's hard to applaud our country's ban on torture knowing that it only happened because a politically threatening Republican demanded it. Thank goodness it did happen, by the how and why is troubling, given that the bill should have been a given all along. In the House, John Murtha's courageous calls for an end to the war were undeniably timely, but soon overshadowed by the continued appeals to patriotism at any cost, such as today's new defense of the Patriot Act.

To me, tonight, this seems to be a time when getting things right the right way just doesn't happen anymore. We may have some victories, but they won't happen cleanly, clearly, or decisively, and to the broader public, all of those elements must be in place to see true change happening. I can't help but place blame for this year with the Democrats, who were nothing more than the party of silence when they should've been on the offense all along.

I'm usually much more positive than this, but now and then a night like tonight hits, when I find it hard to breathe with everything happening around us. There's so much to do and to change, and those of us trying to make a difference work small because it's the only way to stay sane, but who is going to work big? Who is going to get in people's heads and shake them out of their complacence, out of the talking points they've been fed for years and years? Who, and when? Sometimes I feel like I'll drown in the news of the day if it doesn't happen soon.

A Bad Moment

Mikaela says:
I can't shake Philip Roth's Plot Against America, especially with news pouring in like this from Democracy Now:

Secret Prisons, Renditions Enacted Under Broad CIA Program
The Washington Post is reporting new details of the covert CIA program enacted shortly after 9/11 by the Bush administration. The Post says the program, known by its initials GST, marks the largest CIA covert initiative since the height of the Cold War. It includes a range of controversial programs that have been recently uncovered or subjected to public scrutiny -- including the kidnapping of terror suspects abroad, the maintenance of secret prisons in at least eight foreign countries, the use of interrogation techniques considered illegal under international law, and the operation of a fleet of aircraft to move detainees around the globe.

Powers authorized by President Bush include permitting the CIA to create paramilitary teams to hunt and kill designated individuals anywhere in the world. The Post reports the CIA is working to establish procedures that would allow for the quick cremation of a detainee’s body in the event the detainee dies in custody.

A government official who has been briefed on the program said: "Everything is done in the name of self-defense, so they can do anything because nothing is forbidden in the war powers act. It's an amazing legal justification that allows them to do anything."

and this:

National Security Agency Whistleblower Warns Domestic Spying Program Is Sign the U.S. is Decaying Into a “Police State”

---

Former NSA intelligence agent Russell Tice condemns reports that the Agency has been engaged in eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without court warrants. Tice has volunteered to testify before Congress about illegal black ops programs at the NSA. Tice said, “The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state."

What Philip Roth shows so well, with such eerie and scary prescience is just how easy it is to slip from freedom to fear. Such a small chasm. So dangerous. There's so little that fastens us to the "good side." There's so much that pulls the other way.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard the people of Gernmany denounced for staying silent during the horrors of WWII -- how could they let it happen?

Well, folks, look around. It happens just like this. It looks just like this. A steady decay under pretext of national safety. But Hitler invaded countries, you say? We're invading countries. Hitler wanted unbridled power in utmost secrecy? Have you heard our president lately? Hitler was a fascist? Fascism is nothing more than the marriage between government and corporations. Look around. The neocon agenda is the Nazi agenda with --- what did Rumsfeld call it? -- a slimmed-down military and less outright aryan justifying rhetoric.

I'm sure the historians will take offense and go to elaborate pains to prove how each little circumstance is substantially different. Fine. Hitler and Bush are not the same. But the danger is the same, if not worse. Hitler killed people in ovens. We've outsourced our killing to starvation and disease through hands-clean, capitalist methods.

But the overall point remains. History looks just like us, only we're more complacent and much more comfortable than I'm comfortable with.

What year is this again?

Mikaela says:
When planning students read about the biggest mistake in planning history, urban renewal -- the systematic displacement of mostly poor, mostly minority residents by the undiscerning demolition of entire inner-city neighborhoods -- most can't believe how bad it was or how utterly it decimated close-knit communities. It's hard to impress upon them the arrogance, condescension, racism, classism, and cavelier disregard planners and politicians showed in making these sweeping decisions without input from or reparations to affected citizens.

This last semester, it was much easier to illustrate, with the live-action case-study unfolding in New Orleans after the destruction caused by Hurrican Katrina. Well-meaning politicians have called for urban planners to be involved in the rebuilding efforts. It's almost as though planners have lived down their own historic involvement in such bad plans. To call on urban planners as though we have power or unquestioningly good ideas seems to me a blueprint for disaster yet again. Involving planners should NOT be a subsitution for citizen involvement and community organizing. Planning expertise is so clearly NOT a panacea for urban problems. What we can bring is support for an approach that can lead to a more democratic, more grassroots, more equitable rebuilding effort -- if we can convince politicians that that's important and keep the capitalist pigs and greedy developers at bay.

Unfortunately, that's not what the situation seems to be shaping up to look like, according to this latest from Democracy Now:

9th Ward Residents Win Temporary Halt to Demolitions
In New Orleans, residents of the low-income 9th Ward have won a temporary restraining order against the planned bulldozing and demolition of their community. The order was won on behalf of a coalition of groups including the Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood and the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund. The residents launched legal action following the city’s announcement 2500 homes would be demolished with 3,000 more to soon follow. The residents said city officials did not consult with them in making the decision nor even inform them once it was made. A full hearing is scheduled for January 6th.

NYC Public Transit Strike Update

Mikaela reports:
Democracy Now indicates striking Transport Workers Union were effective in their demands for benefits in New York City. I heard exactly no one in New York talk about this, and the trains and buses certainly were working smoothly! Go labor!

Transit Union Has Won Most Demands: Analysts
This news on New York’s recent public transit labor dispute – the New York Times is reporting analysts widely agree the Transport Workers Union has won most of the goals that led to its three-day strike last week. Under the tentative deal approved by union leadership this week, workers would receive close to an 11% pay raise, maternity leave, improvements in disability and retiree health plans, and the adoption of Martin Luther King's Birthday as a paid holiday.

Steven Malanga, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute, a conservative research organization that has been harshly critical of the union said: "It's a good contract for the union in that it does keep in place, for the most part, benefits that are extremely favorable to them. For them, you can say this is a great deal."

Wrapping up New York

m&m update:


Our trip is coming to a close. Since our last post, we've walked a lot. We've taken the bus, ridden in taxis, and hopped on the subway a LOT.




It's incredibly easy to get around in New York. Subways live up to their reputations. Ironic that density makes subways both possible and necessary.

We found the Triangle shirtwaist factory after some effort to discover the actual address. When the search wasn't looking good, Marjorie was ready to stand in the corner store of a nearby building and just feel that it was the one. Mikaela pushed for more historical accuracy.

Gabe consulted the silver box -- which we grew to grudgingly admire and which garnered our increasing reliance as the days went on. We found a cryptic address and after a few hair-raising minutes of searching, Gabe found the historical plaque. There were two, actually. One on one corner of the building commemorating the fire, one on the other commemorating the building itself, which was designed by a prominent New York architect at the time.



The building is now on the National Historic Register. Both plaques highlighted the importance of women in the labor movement, both before and after the fire. We took pictures and paid homage.






Then we continued our day of happily making Marjorie happy and went to an AMAZING vegetarian restaurant called Zen Palate.


"All in all it was a great day," Marjorie says. "I got to see the shirtwaist factory and eat in the best vegetarian restaurant in New York City. Then I got to spend the evening with a good old friend from East Texas who happens to be a labor guy. It doesn't get better than that."

It's been a good trip for reconnecting with old friends in general. Gabe (back and hat pictured above) has been a rock-star tour guide. With us for almost every step, he's been cruise director, question-answerer, transportation director, and major subsidizer of our shoe-string vacation. And the sweetest part of all is how much he seems to enjoy it. We were at an anglophile bar -- The Red Telephone (or something) -- and Gabe wanted a term for the people in your life -- sometimes ex's but not always -- who become family. Mikaela offered les etoiles -- the stars. Marjorie offered companeros. Gabe said, maybe they're just family.

It's been great doing these walking tours in these neighborhoods we've always heard about. We walked through Harlem and saw posters of Che and major black civil rights leaders, which is the only area of town we've seen them on the street. We also saw a lot of disinvestment.


Despite that, Harlem lives. People on the street seemed busy and friendly. One man greeted us warmly from the doorway of a barbershop with Bob Marley playing loudly into the street.



Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge was a major milestone. "Walking over the fricking Brooklyn Bridge," Marjorie says in disbelief. We took about a million pictures over there.











We saw the New York Stock Exchange draped with the American flag in lights, a gigantic Christmas tree, and men with heavy military armor and weaponry guarding this bastion of capital freedom. The guy with the helmet, flak jacket, and AK-47 was especially reminiscent of our free society and made Mikaela's little patriotic heart flutter in defiance.

(Gabe laughs and says, "What did you say that was? That's not an AK-47. That would be a Russian soldier. I personally saw it as a true sign of freedom. And I would guess it was an M-16.")

The World Trade Center site, on the other hand, just blocks away, had a sign asking tourists not to buy or sell anything directly in front of the pit, out of respect for the dead. Flags lit and flying, a timeline of the event, and a history of the building's design and construction were prominently displayed.

Marjorie looked at the utter destruction and thought, "My feet hurt." No really, she says, she was impressed by the size of it but didn't really reflect a lot. "I didn't want to think about it, really. I did think about people jumping to their deaths."

Looking back, there is an eerie historical echo of the shirtwaist factory, but one seems to have served the purpose of rights and freedoms, while the other has led to multiple wars and more unbridled capitalist expansion of global empire. Hmmm.

Mikaela reflects, "Two seconds after leaving the World Trade Center site, we ducked into a nearby shop to try on sweaters and some boots. Ahh, America."


New York is so big that in a few short days, all you can really do is get a survey of the neighborhoods and get a general idea of what it's like. The next trip will have to be much more detailed and focused in on the things we want to know more about. Marjorie says one whole trip could be graveyards and churches. Mikaela says architecture could fill her days for a week.

Apparently, there's a book on Radical Walking Tours of New York City. That would be a trip in and of itself.

Here is a partial list of all the things we didn't get to see that would make our list next time:

• All the cool cemetaries
• Riker's island
• Astoria
• Walking around in the burroughs more and areas other than Manhattan
• Gabe adds the Sex museum
• The Empire State Builing
• The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
• The Staten Island Ferry
• The A Train
• More of Central Park, perhaps even going so far as to ice skate
• Central Station
  
• The New York City Museum
• Punkrock Karaoke at Arlene's Grocery
• Burlesque at Galapagos
• Pizza at Fornino's and John's (2 places, not a NY couple)
• Gabe adds, a tour of the NBC building
• The Guggenheim (We only went in the lobby. Too crowded! We'd been museumed out already, and Mikaela was put out that the famous exterior is under renovation and looks like CRAP.)
  

(Gabe interrupts the list to object to some of these being attributed to him and some not. He asks, am I just attributing the things I don't like. Duh! Of course! For the record, he helped with the entire list. So there. Happy? "Oh," he says, "It's going to be a silly list.")

Gabe's List of Things Other People Should Not Miss in New York:

• Museum of the Moving Image
• Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
• The Comedy Cellar
• The Blue Note, Village Vanguard, maybe Iridium
• Le Bernardin
  
• The North Six
• Paul Auster's house
  
• Coney Island
• Open mic at the Sidewalk Cafe
• Go back in time to see transvestites impersonating the stars at Bar d'Oh
  
• The Angelica

We did walk past the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. We spotted the Empire State Building on multiple occasions. I took a picture of the Flatiron Building from the 5th Avenue bus (pictured right) and saw the Chippendale building and the New York Public Library lions.


We went to a really cool burlesque -- not a cabaret -- in the East Village with women who were real women. And talented. And smart. And funny! Our hands-down favorite was the last dancer who performed to "I Want Candy" with little dots on white paper covering her breasts. She was one of two ladies who produce and mother the show. They rock! Gabe especially liked the woman who performed to the song from David Lynch's still photography show to music from the soundtrack to the Lost Highway. See? Smart and hot.


Tonight is New Year's eve. We contemplated going to Times' Square, but they're estimating a million people, and to get anywhere close, you have to go and hang out starting at 6 pm. That's not going to happen. There's also a costume parade and midnight run at Central Park that looks fun, but we'll probably just toast and bring in the New Year at some bar. New Year in New York is good enough entertainment!

All in all, a great trip. We'll be home soon enough... (And then/now we'll [have] add [ed] pictures...way too slow from here, sorry! Good to leave it up to your imaginations, though!)

ABQ Represents at the Nuyorican

Mikaela says:
News flash not-quite-so-hot off the not-quite-presses:

Hakim Bellamy, Albuquerque's city champion, has taken the Nuyorican by storm. That's right, our adopted son won his first poetry slam at the preeminent poetry venue in the biggest of big American cities.


He'll go on to compete Friday against the big boys and powerful girls in what I have to hope is a real competition.

The shocking thing for me was that the rest of the contestants last night were soooooooooo bad. ABQ, I'm telling you, most of your talent could have come here and won last night, which is not to detract from Sir Bellamy, cause he rocked the house. But ... there was some baaaaaaaaaad shit last night. Not sure if it was an off night or what, but Jesus. I know I'm an opinionated bitch, but holy bad metaphor, bat man. Horrible!

On the upside, it was totally cool that by a major fluke, Hakim just happened to decide to descend from New Jersey to try his hand at some poetry NY style. And here I am, innocently on vacation in the big apple seeing the sites, of which the Nuyorican is an indispensable part.


I'll try to go back and see our boy on Friday and tell you how he does. Let's all keep our fingers crossed and send him our best love, with the spicy hot that only our chile love can send.

New York Minutiae

m&m say:

Greetings and most happy holidays to you all. Here we are, thankfully not embroiled in a transit strike. We touched down, expecting to be overwhelmed. Instead, under. Cab to Manhattan -- any minute now it will REALLY hit us. Any minute it didn't. Maybe once we walk around. Walking, walking, walking. Nope. Instead, this hits us: IT'S JUST A BIG CITY. Shocking.

Yesterday we walked a lot around the city (by choice), and per Maggie's request here are some impressions:

Times Square: Corporate mega-neon welcome to New York, with a mobile "Bringing Mitzvah to People on the Go" truck rolling by. Globalism embraced with greedy, consuming arms. Rumor Has It on the 5th Floor of the moviehouse.

Chelsea: A hot-spot for super-cool. Spying on a couple eating candlelit dinner in sunken apartment. Window into a little world of intimate peace.

Soho: Beautiful place with beautiful people buying beautiful things.


Brooklyn: Marjorie's place of choice were she ever to live in New York. Industrial aesthetic reigns. Squatters in buildings zoned commercial. Loft apartments above manufacturing businesses. Sun and steely blue wind.

Little Italy: Eateries and historic photos only remain.

Chinatown: Thrives. Living culture. They'll take your money, but they won't pretend they like it.

Strand bookstore: 3 stories of discounted bliss.

Everywhere: Architecture, architecture, architecture.

In General...

8th is our byway of choice. 6 times and counting.

There are a lot of poor people in the midst of the splendor, which is to be expected in one of the world's mega-capital centers. On 6th Street in particular, there are people with varying maladies hobbling around. Not asking for help. Just hobbling. Getting by. Getting through. Surving the best they can.

There are a lot of mixed-color couples. Streets are a panopoly of languages and accents. Tolerance level seems necessarily high.

Mikaela keeps reminding herself of probabilities and statistics. Multiply any fraction by 7 million, and you're bound to see a lot of it. Everywhere.

Much of what is good here was a public intervention in the capitalist system. Central Park. Washington Square. Subways. Go planners.

Mikaela was out later than ever before in her life. 4 am eating at a Kabob-ery. Cabbing it back for 4:30 am giggles between the bestest of friends.

Eating so far: Italian and Thai. Tonight, perhaps French. This morning: bagels and COFFEE. Mikaela is suprised that great restaurants aren't visibly omnipresent. Vegetarian places more than in Albuquerque for sure, but fewer than you might otherwise expect. Coffeeshops ditto. Internet cafes ditto. There's so much that you see so little.


Trash in bags piled up everywhere, picked up once a week, sometimes twice. Recycling, too (for motivation, see 7 million above). Good reminder of what it takes to support this many people in this little space. Our host, Gabe, thinks trash trains are the next big idea. Dump your bags down the subway vents. Why not? They have money trains and every other kind of train. Why not trash trains? The infrastructure possibilities abound.

Today: museums, bus tour, Nuyorican Cafe for poetry slam.

Too tired for verbs.

m&m, signing off

m-pyre EAST

Maggie says:
I'm fresh from a tour of liveable, urban Raleigh neighborhoods graciously given by my hometown best friend in the hopes that she can entice me away from ABQ (gotta admit, she showed me some damn enticing neighborhoods...). I've also just finished an Eastern NC barbecue sandwich (which is entirely different than Western NC BBQ, and worlds away from Texas BBQ), meaning I've just eaten home in one bite. So things are good, all about familiar comforts accented with the intrigue of new possibilities.

Yet my days are nothing compared to the excitement being had by Marjorie and Mikaela, who are spending the entire week in New York City. Not sure how much blogging they'll be doing, but M&M, if you see this: check in and tell us about your trip! For every walking neighborhood tour you mention, I'll go green with envy that I'm not there beside you. We want the scoop!

NYC Transit Workers are Right On

marjorie says...

I've been sitting here in East Texas for days now watching the news about the NY transit strike on television. Perhaps it all seems incredibly lopsided because I've been mainly getting snippets here and there from Fox (bleck!), but I've gotten some from CNN too. I kind of figure its pretty bad all over the corporate media.

Well, first, let me say that I am *very* happy the strike is over, for selfish reasons. I'll be going there next week for a little R&R (with a fellow m-gal) and wasn't relishing the idea of hoofing it all over the city. But I can assure all of you, our gentle m-pyre readers, that you would not have heard me saying the transit workers shouldn't strike. In fact, I applaud them for striking, and I don't even need to know all the ins and outs to say that. Why? Because I am PRO-UNION, and I do not think that such unity would have been displayed by 33,000 union employees if the stakes weren't high.

Watching the god-awful corporate media you'd think labor was evil incarnate--selfish bastards who couldn't care less about making sure the poor people of NYC get their Christmas shopping done. Which brings up another issue...the fact that our economy turns on things such as spending droves of money to commemorate the birth of Sweet Baby Jesus. Frankly, as much as I like giving gifts, I more and more think we should ban Christmas shopping--it epitomizes the subversion of spiritual life and social communion in our culture, not to mention most of the stuff is made in sweatshops. Which brings us back to the point: Labor.

If you listen to the corporate media, all you hear is that the transit workers were violating the Taylor Law, which is a law in New York banning strikes by public workers. What you *never* hear in the media, and I presume neither the Mayor (one of the wealthiest men on the planet btw) nor the Governor said it either, is that the Taylor Law also prohibits dealing with public employee pension plans during contract negotiations. Changes to pension plans are proposed to the state legislature and in the past they have been jointly crafted by the union and the MTA. In this case, essentially, the MTA was trying to cram rollbacks in the pension plan down the throat of the union in contract negotiations, which caused the breakdown. Meanwhile, the workers have been without a contract.

What we hear overwhelmingly in the media and from these rich white men running New York is how awful the strike is for New York. Rarely a word about the value of labor, although that is something that has been amply demonstrated. We hear a lot about the outrage of everyday New Yorkers, but very little from the rank and file, other than highlights of the "heroic" few with hearts of gold who crossed the picket line. In other words, the scabs. That's my perspective anyhow, from over here in East Texas, watching the news. But let's think about what really happened. A 33,000 person strong union decided to walk off the job during a week in which they surely knew they would be subject to heightened anger and condemnation. As I said, in my mind this shows the stakes are high and it shows incredible unity.

The strike is over and the pension point is unresolved. It could be that the workers go out on strike again. If it comes down to it, I hope that they do.

We live in a country with an increasingly decimated manufacturing base and a huge and growing gap between massive amounts of low-wage service workers and a well-to-do professional and entrepreneurial class. It would serve us all well to remember that our middle class is founded on a strong and unified labor movement. We owe labor a lot and in these moments we all owe them our loyalty. As a movement, labor is under attack. Despite all the faults and misplaced energy we might point to in union leadership, it still remains essential that we protect and enhance the right to organize, to have organized labor.

As for the corporate, for-profit media (Fox, CNN, etc.)...don't forget that Corporations by their very nature despise organize labor. Again, Corporate bosses are the enemies of organized labor. Plain and simple. It is simply outlandish to expect balanced and objective reporting from corporations when it comes to labor unions. That's just all there is to it.

Parking: When Main Street and Suburbia Collide

Maggie says:
A dinner conversation tonight came back to the same issue planners, shoppers, and business folks have been debating for ages: what to do about parking? No easy answers here in the “The Peak of Good Living,” but lots of the same circling ‘round. See, my little town finds itself in a modern pinch these days. For decades now, “progress” in Apex has been touted as new shopping centers and residential subdivisions, entities built for the auto at any cost. Yet downtown on Salem Street, true business revitalization is taking place. Boarded-up buildings are becoming shops, cafes, a great Mexican restaurant, and now a full-blown fine dining restaurant, which was where we were tonight.

Salem Street epitomizes our notion of the small town “Main Street.” Picture a narrow street where buildings sit right on the sidewalks. Picture parallel parking. Picture rocking chairs in front of shops. Picture folks waving across the street at each other. All of that’s happening on Salem Street. But these days, so is the traffic.

Small towns that have become suburbs are now facing a really interesting dilemma when it comes to promoting their long-neglected Main Streets. When shoppers are used to parking lots the size of football fields and shopping centers so vast one must drive from big box store to big box store, what will it take to make them realize that suburban expectations will not only never be satisfied by a “Main Street” experience, but that bending to the suburban lifestyle is exactly what destroyed Main Streets in the past, and can do it again in a heartbeat.

The story goes like this: a downtown shopper is frustrated that parking’s hard to come by and complains about it with friends the next day. But the reality is that the frustrated shopper didn’t drive off in a rage when she didn’t see a spot right away. Instead, she calmly found a spot that wasn’t right in front of the store, then she took a tiny little walk into the store. It probably took her longer to park than at Best Buy, but she did it because of the unique offerings at that particular shop. And while she’s parked, chances are really great that she’ll poke into the other shops downtown, maybe grab a cup of coffee and a slice of cheesecake, maybe run into a friend unexpectedly and end up devouring enchiladas a few doors down.

When we’ve parked near a street full of interesting options, anything is possible, and everything’s open to us. In the opposite scenario, the woman goes into Best Buy, comes out and gets back into her car, and drives home. Nothing unexpected, and everything very corporate-minded. Efficiency, right? What’s that bumper sticker? Oh yeah: “Efficiency=Death.”

“Business advocates” talk tough about parking and the need for shops to be easily accessible for their customers, but they forget this simple notion: we like the hard-to-get-to. You know: the one we can’t have, the impossible dream. Now don’t get me wrong; I’ve said parking is far easier downtown than people might have us believe. But the little shops in downtown Apex are doing amazingly well. People are crammed into those prime spots because they want to be downtown. Downtown offers different, unique, local. And people will do what they can to get it.

And let’s not even begin to talk about how a tearing down one of our great, railroad-era buildings in Apex to make room for a parking lot is going to solve anything…

In the South Valley, these same issues are going on, with exciting proposals being considered. A recent survey done by the Resource Center for Raza Planning showed that when it comes to consumer choices, South Valley residents prefer local options to cheap ones. That’s the magic answer for community development enthusiasts like myself, who see strong, truly local economies as the only way we can reconnect with our neighbors and where we live. Another effort that I know a little something about – the Isleta Boulevard and Village Centers Sector Development Plan – will drastically rethink parking guidelines if it’s passed. It's about getting away from those 3-acre lots, and toward shared parking that promotes connection, thinking smaller, and living more in scale with reality instead of day-after-Christmas shopping traffic.

Planning is everything and everywhere; that’s why it’s so much fun. What seems mundane can actually be the lifeblood, the heart, the identity of a place. And who wouldn’t want to work on that stuff?

Coming soon: Is being able to order $18 salmon really the answer for downtown Apex? A tribute to balance.

What Scotty Wants to Talk About

Mikaela says:
Great story today in Washington Post on Scott McClellan, robot spokesman for Bush. I will be the first to hold his lying tongue to the fire when the time comes, but he does allude to a break in loyalty because of the fracturing of the implacable White House by some lawbreakers, leading to the outting of a CIA agenda.

The story starts with this rather illuminating Bush quote:

On the Thursday morning after his reelection in November 2004, President Bush bounded unexpectedly into the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where about 15 members of his communications team were celebrating. He just wanted to thank everyone for their hard work on the campaign, he said, before singling someone out.

"Is Scotty here? Where's Scotty?" Bush asked, half-grinning ....

"I want to especially thank Scotty," the president said, looking at his aide. "I want to thank Scotty for saying" -- and he paused for effect. . . .

" Nothing ."

The story then turns to McClellan's role as the blocker of information, making sure reporters learn nothing but the lies the White House endorses:

Last Friday reporters battered McClellan over a New York Times report that the president had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without warrants on people in the United States. Over several minutes, McClellan emphasized that:

• The president is doing all he can to protect the American people from terrorists (10 times);
• The administration is committed to protecting civil liberties and upholding the Constitution (seven times);
• Congress has an important oversight role, and the administration is committed to working with it on these difficult matters (five times); and
• He would not discuss ongoing intelligence activities (five times).

What about PlameGate?

Colleagues (on-message) say McClellan has held up well in these difficult months. Others (off-message) say he's had a tough time, has lost hair, gained jowls and looks stressed, especially over the Plame case, which made a return to the briefing room Thursday after an absence of a few weeks.

What about Bush declaring DeLay innocent when he refuses to comment on his own White House aides' invovlement in PlameGate?

NBC's David Gregory ... declar[ed] the administration to be "inconsistent," then "hypocritical."

"You have a policy for some investigations and not others, when it's a political ally who you need to get work done?" Gregory asked.

McClellan: "Call it presidential prerogative; he responded to that question. But the White House established a policy. ...You can get all dramatic about it, but you know what our policy is."

What does McClellan think of Bush?

McClellan says that he is "honored" to serve George W. Bush, that he will "vigorously defend the president and his agenda," that there are "a lot of bright people working in the White House," that ... he's merely "part of a team." And that: "It's a good team."

Yeah, except for those lying lawbreakers, a great team!

What does he think about his job as Spokesman/Deflector?

"Sometimes the nature of this job will put you in a tough spot," McClellan says. He is speaking about the Plame investigation....

He has anguished that his credibility has been harmed by his statements in 2003 that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby "have assured me they were not involved in this," this being the outing of Plame as a covert CIA agent.

Today Libby is under indictment, Rove's involvement has become apparent and McClellan's public statements haunt him.

He says, repeatedly, that he would like to say more about the investigation, and in time he will, "hopefully sooner rather than later."

McClellan assur[es] the reporter he just ate with that he said more than he usually does. "I think I talked about how badly I wanted to talk about it," McClellan says by phone a few days later, referring to the thing he can't talk about.

Time for Pajamas

Mikaela scolds:
Did you ignore my ardent plea? Did you miss Love and Beauty? I shake my head at your folly.

And offer a second chance at redemption: For the last time in a long while, take the time tonight to see the Pajama Men this Dirty Thursday.

Native sons Mark Chavez and Shenoah Allen perform their hearts out -- all improv, all the time. Get ready to guffaw.

Tonight only!

Pajama Men Dirty Thursday
Tricklock Performance Space
118 Washington Avenue (1/2 block south of Central)
(505) 254-8393
chad@tricklock.com
8 pm, 10 measley bucks

Call for reservations! See you there!