Sometime soon, I hope one of these games of "knockout" are finished when the target decides to go "stabby". That's a winner.
Focus: Some quick commentary on Doug’s David Simon links…
Author of that blog: Self-righteous, privileged, and indignant.
Just look at her bio:
Callie Neylan is an assistant design professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Her research interests include designing for the disabled, wearable computing, and the intersection of interaction design and the urban space. She is passionate about design in all its disciplines; technology; photography; fixed-gear bicycles; skiing; good, slow food; Weimaraners; and artisanal espresso.
Artisanal espresso? That’s one of her self-described "passions"? Are you farking kidding me?
In contrast, this gal would make Gwenyth Paltrow look like Ice Cube in 1988.
David Simon: Yeah, I’m a fan. Big time.
I generally agree with how he describes the forgotten urban underclasses and how they are marginalized by society at large. It's commonplace, passively institutionalized, isolated/isolating, and tolerated on a day-to-day basis.
Then again, one has to ask: Hasn’t this same sort of marginalization taken place for poor people since cities first sprung up? To some degree or another, could the plights of the poor in Rome be seen as comparable to those in the modern American city today? What strategies have been undertaken within these communities, historically, to increase one’s ways of life, whether by promoting these communities or leaving them?
One thing not mentioned in David Simon’s piece is the role of the independent charitable organization within these communities. Large numbers of churches work to help the urban poor, both from within and from outside these communities. The United Way has done so much for our City, and with donations and leadership from the largest corporations & institutions in the metro area. Just think of the influence of Big Brothers / Big Sisters on the lives of hundreds of young children in StL who sure could use an adult friend who can give guidance and support. I know a retired executive from a major company in StL who now works with incubators on the North Side, working to give guidance to entrepreneurs from within an area Simon describes; in deference to the blog author, this retired executive is white and lives in the suburbs, doing this only out of a desire to see people rise up from the power of their own work & inspiration, and making StL better with each new business.
