FAKE IS THE NEW REAL

The United States, mapped by drawing lines between cities with the same name.

Neil Smith's art, as shown on his website, fakeisthenewreal.org, consists largely of abstract maps depicting real places that are created by connecting real data points through bizarre relationships. When one considers that Smith is also an urban planner, this methodology seems like a (il)logical extension of his profession. Smith operates from the quintessential perspective of a planner - in what is literally the "plan view" (aerial) , while manipulating data points such as transit stations, public schools, buildings (by height), cities, etc. The "art" part of it comes from the connections and comparisons he makes. For example, Smith has created maps by such arbitrary spatial relations as connecting cities with the same name with lines (shown above), drawing a line through a plotting of all the New York public schools in numerical order, comparing transit systems at the same scale, drawing lines through buildings in the order of their heights etc. In this way he give us a lens for understanding new (il)logics of familiar landscapes. This is good mental/visual exercise. Check it out.

SKATEBOARDING AS A TRANSFORMATIVE APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURE

From http://www.lifeactionrevival.org/skatearchitecture.html :
Skaters are the sensualists, the kinesthetic lovers of space and form. Architectural theorists rarely grasp the significance of skateboarding, at least not in regards to their field and art. Skateboarding is a high model, a sharp-figure exemplar, of an intimate and transformative approach to architectural experience. A gleaming gem of agent-within-structure.

I'll be frank: streetskating is, I think, the most successful and contagious form of urban détournement, re-appropriation, and transformative action that we have. Streetskaters are the other great horde of architectural fetishists. The fetish is slightly different in aspect but not in intensity. Perspectivally, architects are generally schooled to gaze upward, and cultivate an awe of form. Skateboarders remain at eye-level, street-level, on the plane of human actions. Architects strive to behold totalities; skaters fixate, on smaller parts— they look closer, at details and textures and otherwise unremarkable typologies.

Colin says: R I P P E R !

OAKLAND ESCALATING

It's important to know what is happening right now in Oakland. As the city was still struggling in the wake of the brutal murder of Oscar Grant by BART police on New Years Day, parolee Lovelle Mixon shot four officers after a traffic stop on March 22. Now there are people in the community arguing that the murder of Oscar Grant legitimized the killing of the police. MC Zumbi of Zion I, in his new track "Cops Hate Kidz," is among them and I couldn't disagree more. Even if Zumi sees Mixon's crimes as linked or even retaliatory to the Grant murder, both acts should be called out as only escalating a downward spiral into more violence and more loss for Oakland.A ll due respect to Zumbi and Zion I, the message to this music doesn't hold.

HOORAY - ONE STEP CLOSERT TO BIKE/PED ACCESS SHORE TO SHORE IN THE BAY AREA (SF Streetsblog)

Streetsblog SF is reporting that MTC is now funding a study exploring the addition of two bike/ped paths along the Western span of the new Bay Bridge, which would connect Oakland to San Francisco for walkers and bikers for the first time. This is fantastic news. Not only will it be a great tourist attraction, recreational path, it will continue to decrease vehicle miles driven, reduce BART peak congestion, and it should also decrease the socio-economic isolation that faces West Oakland.

BRAVO! Lets keep the pressure on to make sure this project goes forth!

POOR MAGAZINE: POLICE CHECKPOINTS IN THE MISSION ABUSING IMMIGRANT FAMILIES

SQUATTING AMERICA

In his second inaugural address, President Bush offered a grand vision of for the future of America: the ownership society. We now know what such a property-obsessed society looks like: one where publicly bailed-out banks own thousands of boarded-up, foreclosed homes and the people are on the street. While the massive steroid-like injection of federal funds bailed-out the banks' broken balance sheets (instead of regulating them), it is doing far less to help families get back into foreclosed homes. Working-class households are experiencing a new kind of informality of residence not seen since the Great Depression. The stories are telling: NPR recently interviewed members of a growing tent camp of 400 along the American River in Sacramento and the he New York Times reports on an somewhat invisible mass of homeless families now cramming themselves into hotels after being evicted from their homes.

Take Back The Land is a group dedicated to re-taking control of the land in their communities from banks, real-estate powers, and the government which are not sitting on thousands of empty houses across the country as families are put out on the streets. Take Back the Land is headed They are the intersection of the radical and the ethical. Focused on putting an end to brutal cycle of land dispossession and denial of land rights to in African American communities that has taken multiple forms over the course of our national history - from slavery to sharecropping to ghettoization, renewal, and gentrification. Although their greater struggle is about the control of land, to meet their objective of feeding and housing the people in a time of foreclosure crises the group's current tactic is moving families into illegally foreclosed homes. Their well-spoken front man, Max Remau has been very public in discussing the tactics of his group and articulately explains how squatting in foreclosed homes is saving homeless families, revitalizing neighborhoods in decline, and doing more to maintain vacant foreclosed homes. So far the police say they will not force out the families unless the banks ask them to.

Check out the website and TV interviews on the TAKE BACK THE LAND WEBSITE

The Umoja Village: Being Homeless is Not a Crime

I just learned about the Umoja Village project as I have been following Take Back the Land's recent actions moving homeless families into foreclosed houses. From the website:

On October 23, 2006 a group of homeless people and local activists took over a vacant lot on the corner of 62nd Street and NW 17th Avenue, jointly owned by the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County, and erected tents. We planted a sign exclaiming the emphasis and name of the movement: Take Back the Land. Since then, the Umoja Village Shantytown, which takes its name from the Swahili word “umoja” or unity, has grown into a self-sustaining community housing 50 otherwise homeless people. The Village includes approximately 20 wood-framed structures, multiple duplex-style housing units built from wooden pallets, a fully functional kitchen, two porta-potties and a shower powered by an elevated water container. Residents are trained to run the Village themselves and vote on aspects of Village life.

GENTRIFICATION: La Misión VS. The Mission.

Allan Jacobs taught me to read the little details on a street scape to learn what is happening ther. This is what gentrification looks like. I photographed this last year during my studio project on the Cesar Chavez corridor. Even if you don't speak Spanish, you can see what is going down. While this business is adapting, it's clear that the neighborhood demographic has changed from a Mexican community shopping for grocery basics to English-speaking bobos looking for espresso and tea.