There's almost nothing in music I like better than the used CD section in the local record store. Most music stores now mix used high-demand titles in with their new CDs, as they probably make as much money selling a new-used CD for $9.99 as the new version for $14.99. It also helps them compete with the chains, since you can buy new CDs cheaper at Costco, Target or Wal-Mart than the local record store.
But it's not those titles I'm not interested in. My local store, Rasputin Music, has a whole aisle of 50 cent CDs. And a few times a year they lower the price to 25 cents. But what's in there?
A lot of it, I'll admit, is stuff that most people wouldn't even pay 25 cents for. There are a lot of genres I'm not interested in (rap, country, or most pop) and there are a lot of CDs by unknown artists, various compilations, foreign pop CDs, cheap classical, etc. You may have to flip through 1,000 CDs, but there's always something good. Take tonight, when I came home with two 70's collections; "The Soul of Russia" by 101 Strings; Brazilian Beat Remixes; Rachael Yamagata; a CD of U2 remixes by Paul Oakenfold; Volume 3 of the Lilith Fair compilations; an R.E.M. single ("Strange Currencies") with a couple of live tracks ("Drive," "Radio Free Europe"); Trance Nation; the "Rush" soundtrack, entirely written and performed by Eric Clapton; George Michael's "Listen Without Prejudice"; a CD called "Paris under a groove"; and, another compilation called "Monitor This!" with songs by Gomez, The Doves, and others. The whole pile was $7.08.
A couple are disappointments: the 70's compilations are described as "New Studio Recordings by the Original Artists," which really means that the producers bought the rights to the music but not the original performances. It's a little unnerving to hear a 55-old-man sing a song intended for a 20-year-old. But it has great, obscure songs like "Indiana Wants Me" and "One Toke Over the Line" that I haven't found elsewhere. The 101 Strings version of "The Russian Soul" is, well, 101 Strings. And it's not really Russian soul, or folk, but some of the post popular Russian classical compositions done in the inimtable 101 Strings style.
The compilations: I think these are some of the best bargains, especially in the discount bin. This Lilith Fair CD has both Suzanne Vega's "Luka" and Sixpence None the Richer's "Kiss Me"; both indipensible addiitions in a 90's collection. Usually soundtracks are great collections, too, but in the case of Rush it's all original compositions by Clapton, except for "Tears of Heaven" which of course appears elsewhere. By I buy everything I see by Clapton, as is the case of R.E.M. I have most if not all of their albums so singles and other EPs are a great find.
Single artists: The George Michael CD popped up recently on VH1's "100 Best Songs of the 1990's" not as a winner, but as one that just missed the cut. Still, it's a good CD and for 50 cents hard to pass up. The other was Rachael Yamagata. I know her name and know I've heard the music but couldn't (and still can't) name any song she's done. A good intro at 50 cents.
Then there's the remixes: who could resist Oakenfold remixing U2? Or MAW featuring Liliana Chachion doing Brazilian beats? The "Paris under a groove" CD is great: just the thing for a quiet (and maybe sexy) evening at home. It's divided into Cocktails, Party Groove, and Light Night Groove. What could be better? The last is an edition of Trance Nation, just to add to my collection of trance music.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Hello Friend
"Hello Friend" is a phrase recently popularized by Bill Cosby after the murder of his son Ennis at a freeway exit in Los Angeles. It was a greeting used by Ennis and the grieving Cosby wore it stenciled on sweatshirts for several years when he performed.
It's also a phrase for our times, with the growth of Facebook and the phenomenom of "friending." The world is now divided into three groups: those on Facebook, those who haven't joined yet, and those who've joined but aren't working it very hard.
I've been thinking about Facebook a little lately. I joined in early 2008 because I wanted to share photos from my trip to Harvard with others in the class, and wasn't familiar with Flickr or any of the other photo sharing programs. Plus, I was bored at home recovering from surgery and it gave me something to do. I now have a good number of friends, though some friends are organizations.
The list grows and shrinks as friends are added, people leave Facebook, or they just decide to defriend you.
Strangely, I haven't been bothered by being defriended. I can't decide if it's just like real life or actually a little bit different. First of all, it takes a while to figure out if somebody has dropped you. (Just like real life.) If they have, you may not be sure when and you'll never know why, unless you ask them in person (gasp!). I've had two former coworkers defriend me, one when she left Facebook because she couldn't stand the lack of privacy, and the other to spare my feelings because she tended to post religious messages. Nothing to get worked up about.
I have a lot of artist friends, as well as those involved in theatre. I've also had a number of people I know in both groups ignore requests. Same with architects and realtors -- lots of friends in both categories, which makes it surprising when somebody doesn't respond. It's a little more understandable when it's a consultant that you've only worked on one or two projects. In the category of people that I knew a little, largely through the arts or architecture, from projects or being friends of friends or knowing each other by reputation, it's understandable that there's a pretty thin connection there. One was an artist that originally friended me and that I wasn't sure I knew, but maybe knew peripherally. I wasn't completely sure. One day he was gone, though, perhaps after waking up and realizing he really didn't know me either.
A business associate that moved out of town, like me, accepted my request, then we exhanged the "what are you up to these days?" messages and carried each other for a few months on our friends lists until one day he was gone, too. I also had another colleague that was a personal friend drop me, too, as well as another colleague who was, I guess, friendly, also drop me. There must be reasons, or maybe no reason at all.
So far, one Fresno friend has dropped me. It was a local gadfly/blogger, a colorful chap who ended up moving out of town. He either dropped everybody, everybody in Fresno, or everybody associated with the City. I was on one of those lists. I still haven't friended that many people yet in Fresno, but so far I've already had a few business owners I know ignore the request. We're still friendly in "real life," and neither of us mention the ignored request.
I have only defriended one person: a guy I know who friended me, sent a dozen different notifications, and finally sent a notification to joind the group "I just want to bang girls on Facebook." This is guy at least in his 50's. He had to go.
A restaurant defriended me but the owner is still a friend. Not sure why that happens.
I'm still not sure what to think when people ignore a friend request. It's surprising sometimes. How do you know if they've hit "ignore?" Check "All Connections" under the friends tab, and their name isn't there with a "Friend Request Pending" label, they got your request and hit "ignore." One of the beauties of Facebook is its politeness. Nobody "declines" or "rejects" your request, it just gets ignored and quietly disappears. It's as if you never sent the request, and if neither of you ever mention it in person, nobody needs to be embarrassed.
The other alternative, of course, is to withdraw a request that's lingered too long. I give organizations three business days, and I used to give potential friends about three weeks to respond, though that changes every now and then. Organizations in Fresno seem especially slow to respond, and I've withdrawn requests from a number of them. But the Coachella Valley is not immune, and I even withdrew a request from Carnegie Mellon when it sat for weeks without a response.
I've had a former Assembly member and traveling companion ignore my request, along with a couple of current mayors, even though Antonio Villaraigosa and Arnold Schwarzenegger accepted my request (until Arnold hit the 5,000 friend barrier and had to switch to a fan page). I've withdrawn a request from a local councilman (not in a city I worked) who let it sit. I think it was around he time he was losing his race, too.
I've been ignored by a handful of local and national media figures, but one was in the middle of having her contract terminated while my request was pending. The request disappeared at the same time she did. I had a film festival ignore me (not Palm Springs). Go figure. Also ignoring my request was a locally prominent fashion designer, though that didn't surprise me. No connection.
I've also been ignored by a few high school, college and grad school classmates. With the high school friends, a few I knew (it was a small class) but were not close to, but one was a friend during high school years, I think. I think that was a case of "don't be somebody's first friend." The college friend was a former Iranian student who, I think, was living in Iran at the time of the recent elections and my friend request. Another was part of a small circle of friends (women) from another college. We'd traded Christmas cards for a few years after school, but that was hard to sustain an we didn't pick up on Facebook. A couple, like above, were periheral friends in grad school. It also helps to figure out the line of appropriate friending: a year ahead or behind in school, less likely. Somebody in your class or, better yet, in your study groups or circle of friends, much more likely.
I had a couple of good friends from Rotary ignore me, though one was new on Facebook and I believe he did it by accident, and the other seems to be on, then off, then back on again. A third friend from Rotary was somebody I'd also helped with his business, so I thought we were better connected. We weren't. It's less and less likely I'll be adding more, since I've been away for about a year now. A number of former co-workers have ignored me. Some colleagues from other cities have ignored me, which is sort of understandable. A local attorney who'd represented the other side in a number of my projects, but with whom I'd had a fun, very cordial relationship, ignored me. A couple of locally prominent preservationists ignored me, I guess because my preservation cred is suspect.
Not that developers are more likely to respond. Several developers with whom I'd worked for years on their projects failed to respond to a friend request. Is it because their projects never got built? Blame the market, not me.
Still, it's been fun following people that I know and being part of their "audience." Some of my most interesting Facebook friends are people I barely knew in real life, but turn out to be great foodies, or have a passion for music or art or design, or have something else very cool to offer. The wider the circle gets, the more interesting the daily news feed becomes -- it's not just Farmville and Mafia Wars.
It's also a phrase for our times, with the growth of Facebook and the phenomenom of "friending." The world is now divided into three groups: those on Facebook, those who haven't joined yet, and those who've joined but aren't working it very hard.
I've been thinking about Facebook a little lately. I joined in early 2008 because I wanted to share photos from my trip to Harvard with others in the class, and wasn't familiar with Flickr or any of the other photo sharing programs. Plus, I was bored at home recovering from surgery and it gave me something to do. I now have a good number of friends, though some friends are organizations.
The list grows and shrinks as friends are added, people leave Facebook, or they just decide to defriend you.
Strangely, I haven't been bothered by being defriended. I can't decide if it's just like real life or actually a little bit different. First of all, it takes a while to figure out if somebody has dropped you. (Just like real life.) If they have, you may not be sure when and you'll never know why, unless you ask them in person (gasp!). I've had two former coworkers defriend me, one when she left Facebook because she couldn't stand the lack of privacy, and the other to spare my feelings because she tended to post religious messages. Nothing to get worked up about.
I have a lot of artist friends, as well as those involved in theatre. I've also had a number of people I know in both groups ignore requests. Same with architects and realtors -- lots of friends in both categories, which makes it surprising when somebody doesn't respond. It's a little more understandable when it's a consultant that you've only worked on one or two projects. In the category of people that I knew a little, largely through the arts or architecture, from projects or being friends of friends or knowing each other by reputation, it's understandable that there's a pretty thin connection there. One was an artist that originally friended me and that I wasn't sure I knew, but maybe knew peripherally. I wasn't completely sure. One day he was gone, though, perhaps after waking up and realizing he really didn't know me either.
A business associate that moved out of town, like me, accepted my request, then we exhanged the "what are you up to these days?" messages and carried each other for a few months on our friends lists until one day he was gone, too. I also had another colleague that was a personal friend drop me, too, as well as another colleague who was, I guess, friendly, also drop me. There must be reasons, or maybe no reason at all.
So far, one Fresno friend has dropped me. It was a local gadfly/blogger, a colorful chap who ended up moving out of town. He either dropped everybody, everybody in Fresno, or everybody associated with the City. I was on one of those lists. I still haven't friended that many people yet in Fresno, but so far I've already had a few business owners I know ignore the request. We're still friendly in "real life," and neither of us mention the ignored request.
I have only defriended one person: a guy I know who friended me, sent a dozen different notifications, and finally sent a notification to joind the group "I just want to bang girls on Facebook." This is guy at least in his 50's. He had to go.
A restaurant defriended me but the owner is still a friend. Not sure why that happens.
I'm still not sure what to think when people ignore a friend request. It's surprising sometimes. How do you know if they've hit "ignore?" Check "All Connections" under the friends tab, and their name isn't there with a "Friend Request Pending" label, they got your request and hit "ignore." One of the beauties of Facebook is its politeness. Nobody "declines" or "rejects" your request, it just gets ignored and quietly disappears. It's as if you never sent the request, and if neither of you ever mention it in person, nobody needs to be embarrassed.
The other alternative, of course, is to withdraw a request that's lingered too long. I give organizations three business days, and I used to give potential friends about three weeks to respond, though that changes every now and then. Organizations in Fresno seem especially slow to respond, and I've withdrawn requests from a number of them. But the Coachella Valley is not immune, and I even withdrew a request from Carnegie Mellon when it sat for weeks without a response.
I've had a former Assembly member and traveling companion ignore my request, along with a couple of current mayors, even though Antonio Villaraigosa and Arnold Schwarzenegger accepted my request (until Arnold hit the 5,000 friend barrier and had to switch to a fan page). I've withdrawn a request from a local councilman (not in a city I worked) who let it sit. I think it was around he time he was losing his race, too.
I've been ignored by a handful of local and national media figures, but one was in the middle of having her contract terminated while my request was pending. The request disappeared at the same time she did. I had a film festival ignore me (not Palm Springs). Go figure. Also ignoring my request was a locally prominent fashion designer, though that didn't surprise me. No connection.
I've also been ignored by a few high school, college and grad school classmates. With the high school friends, a few I knew (it was a small class) but were not close to, but one was a friend during high school years, I think. I think that was a case of "don't be somebody's first friend." The college friend was a former Iranian student who, I think, was living in Iran at the time of the recent elections and my friend request. Another was part of a small circle of friends (women) from another college. We'd traded Christmas cards for a few years after school, but that was hard to sustain an we didn't pick up on Facebook. A couple, like above, were periheral friends in grad school. It also helps to figure out the line of appropriate friending: a year ahead or behind in school, less likely. Somebody in your class or, better yet, in your study groups or circle of friends, much more likely.
I had a couple of good friends from Rotary ignore me, though one was new on Facebook and I believe he did it by accident, and the other seems to be on, then off, then back on again. A third friend from Rotary was somebody I'd also helped with his business, so I thought we were better connected. We weren't. It's less and less likely I'll be adding more, since I've been away for about a year now. A number of former co-workers have ignored me. Some colleagues from other cities have ignored me, which is sort of understandable. A local attorney who'd represented the other side in a number of my projects, but with whom I'd had a fun, very cordial relationship, ignored me. A couple of locally prominent preservationists ignored me, I guess because my preservation cred is suspect.
Not that developers are more likely to respond. Several developers with whom I'd worked for years on their projects failed to respond to a friend request. Is it because their projects never got built? Blame the market, not me.
Still, it's been fun following people that I know and being part of their "audience." Some of my most interesting Facebook friends are people I barely knew in real life, but turn out to be great foodies, or have a passion for music or art or design, or have something else very cool to offer. The wider the circle gets, the more interesting the daily news feed becomes -- it's not just Farmville and Mafia Wars.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Art and Culture in Regional Economies
It was announced a few weeks ago that the American Craft Council will move to Minneapolis. It was headquartered in New York for 66 years, but the high cost of doing business in New York caused them to look elsewhere. The Board president Leilani Duke said that "As part of a year-long strategic planning process, the Council Board determined that relocating to the Midwest — with its rich craft traditions and energetic artist communities - is an exciting and positive step."
"Minneapolis, one of the country’s most vibrant centers for art and craft, provides tremendous opportunities for the Council to enhance its contributions to art and craft communities at a national and local level," Duke said.
Of course the Minneapolis Mayor was happy and quick to point out the economic impact of artisits in the Twin Cities. "Nearly 9,000 people work in the arena of nonprofit arts and culture in Minneapolis. The arts are a driving force in the city’s economy. Already home to 275 arts and cultural organizations, we welcome the American Craft Council to our community."
From my perspective, Minneapolis is a natural location for ACC. A year or so ago, I got to attend a lecture by Dr. Ann Markusen of the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Center at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Look up her work on the economic impact of artists and cultural institutions in a regional economy. Their impact extends beyond the "charitable" giving to the museum or opera and goes right to the core value of a community: quality of life is what drives the decision of those who have options to stay or go. And it is those who can live anywhere you want in your community.
See the full article:
http://www.minnpost.com/artsarena/2009/11/05/13200/american_craft_council_will_move_to_minneapolis
I've rounded up a few articles on arts in the places I'm familiar. Palm Springs undervalues its museum and its public art program, but both succeed nonetheless. Fresno struggles, but actually has a more dynamic community of working artists than the desert -- it's a bigger area, there are more young people and more types of voices here. With the university here, there are also more artists and more academics studying and documenting the benefits of an arts economy here. Just wish they had a good public art program. Are you listening, Jennifer?
Arts in Palm Springs
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/07/palm-springs-museum-gets-bonanza-of-contemporary-art.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2008/11/dudamel.html
http://www.huliq.com/13/78515/palm-springs-museum-exhibits-portraits-robert-mapplethorpe
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2008/11/haring-prop8.html
Panel unveils 'Cubes' uptown mydesert.com The Desert Sun
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=32145
Arts in Fresno
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/business&id=6681248
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=28104
http://my.fresnoarts.net/group/artistsfornewurbanism
http://fresnobeehive.com/opinion/2008/10/starving_artists_are_worth_mil.html
"Minneapolis, one of the country’s most vibrant centers for art and craft, provides tremendous opportunities for the Council to enhance its contributions to art and craft communities at a national and local level," Duke said.
Of course the Minneapolis Mayor was happy and quick to point out the economic impact of artisits in the Twin Cities. "Nearly 9,000 people work in the arena of nonprofit arts and culture in Minneapolis. The arts are a driving force in the city’s economy. Already home to 275 arts and cultural organizations, we welcome the American Craft Council to our community."
From my perspective, Minneapolis is a natural location for ACC. A year or so ago, I got to attend a lecture by Dr. Ann Markusen of the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Center at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Look up her work on the economic impact of artists and cultural institutions in a regional economy. Their impact extends beyond the "charitable" giving to the museum or opera and goes right to the core value of a community: quality of life is what drives the decision of those who have options to stay or go. And it is those who can live anywhere you want in your community.
See the full article:
http://www.minnpost.com/artsarena/2009/11/05/13200/american_craft_council_will_move_to_minneapolis
I've rounded up a few articles on arts in the places I'm familiar. Palm Springs undervalues its museum and its public art program, but both succeed nonetheless. Fresno struggles, but actually has a more dynamic community of working artists than the desert -- it's a bigger area, there are more young people and more types of voices here. With the university here, there are also more artists and more academics studying and documenting the benefits of an arts economy here. Just wish they had a good public art program. Are you listening, Jennifer?
Arts in Palm Springs
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/07/palm-springs-museum-gets-bonanza-of-contemporary-art.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2008/11/dudamel.html
http://www.huliq.com/13/78515/palm-springs-museum-exhibits-portraits-robert-mapplethorpe
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2008/11/haring-prop8.html
Panel unveils 'Cubes' uptown mydesert.com The Desert Sun
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=32145
Arts in Fresno
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/business&id=6681248
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=28104
http://my.fresnoarts.net/group/artistsfornewurbanism
http://fresnobeehive.com/opinion/2008/10/starving_artists_are_worth_mil.html
Hard Times in the Valley
It's hard to even know where to start with the farm crisis. First, there's the drought: several years of lower-than-average rainfall that have reduced the Sierra snowpack and therefore water deliveries to farmers in the Central Valley. Then, there's the fish: federal court rulings and various biological opinions that have required water to be diverted into the San Joaquin/Sacramento River delta to ensure the survival of endangered fish species. The combination of the drought and the biological opinions have lead to water delivieries that have been reduced by 90% or even eliminated. Farmers are plowing under fields or even cutting down orchards in anticipation of permanent water reductions.
Then there's the misery. Towns like Mendota, largely agricultural, have been flattened economically by the water reductions. Unemployment is officially at 40% but that doesn't even include those that are underemployed, and then there are the families. The foodbanks are out there weekly for distribution and even they can't keep up with the demand.
The problem is that even before the drought life in those towns were already miserable. Between the seasonable labor, the low wage, the pesticides, other forms of pollution, the lack of services, and just the poverty, the places were already pretty marginal. See the NPR article on the poor nutritition in the Valley.
I'm still thinking about what I think.
Hard Times in the Land of John Steinbeck Newsweek Business Newsweek.com
Mendota: A Town Scraping Bottom (SF Gate)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/25/MNQ718IAAI.DTL
Central Valley Disconnect: Rich Land, Poor Nutrition (NPR)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106061080
Drought Adds to Hardships in California (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/us/22mendota.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Dying on the Vine
http://www.newsweek.com/id/211381
Then there's the misery. Towns like Mendota, largely agricultural, have been flattened economically by the water reductions. Unemployment is officially at 40% but that doesn't even include those that are underemployed, and then there are the families. The foodbanks are out there weekly for distribution and even they can't keep up with the demand.
The problem is that even before the drought life in those towns were already miserable. Between the seasonable labor, the low wage, the pesticides, other forms of pollution, the lack of services, and just the poverty, the places were already pretty marginal. See the NPR article on the poor nutritition in the Valley.
I'm still thinking about what I think.
Hard Times in the Land of John Steinbeck Newsweek Business Newsweek.com
Mendota: A Town Scraping Bottom (SF Gate)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/25/MNQ718IAAI.DTL
Central Valley Disconnect: Rich Land, Poor Nutrition (NPR)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106061080
Drought Adds to Hardships in California (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/us/22mendota.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Dying on the Vine
http://www.newsweek.com/id/211381
Down and Out in Fresno
In June, Esquire published an article about being down and out in America, specifically California. As it turns out, the author, Colby Buzzell, lives in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco and actually seems to like it. It's inexpensive and he's learned to navigate the obvious hazards and besides, it's more fun to drink with colorful characters than with boring suburbanites.
That's fine. Every freelance writer needs to live through his bohemian phase. But the article starts in Fresno. Fresno scared the shit out him. Three days later, he was back in the comforts of the Tenderloin.
First, he ventured into Motel Row. Seen from the 99 Freeway, Motel Row is a row of mid-century motor lodges that were located on the "Old 99," now Golden State Boulevard, and were part of the early auto culture in California. Palm Springs is full of properties of the same vintage and architecture and slowly they're being recaptured into hip, lively destinations. In Fresno, their fate is quite different. Many of them, like the Storyland (see the link below) devolved into de facto SRO housing. Families, sometimes large families, crammed into small motel rooms; prostitution, drugs, the list is familiar. They are scary properties, and would be anywhere.
The problem is, what's the alternative? When the City of Fresno shut down the Storyland Motel this winter, displacing something like 60 families, where do they go. The Astro, next door? The solution, of course, is safe, clean, affordable housing, but the Fresno Housing Authority has a waiting list of 20,000 for public units. I think that's about 8 years.
Then there's the actual homeless. The second part of Buzzell's stay in Fresno was in one the homeless encampments near the Union Pacific tracks. I think what he learned was that housing of any type, even a small flat in the Tenderloin, was preferable to living in a "rented" tent in a homeless camp. We forget that safety is one of the things we take for granted, and something that the homeless never take for granted. The ongoing stress of just being homeless takes a physical and mental toll that takes a long time to unwind, even if they are placed into housing.
An example of just how tought the problem is, the City made a commitment to shutting down one of the encampments, in part because it bought the property for a future downtown water tank (more on downtown water in a future post). They received about $600,000 in Rapid Relocation funds from HUD and working with the Housing Authority, moved about 130 people into permanant housing. Several months later, about 95% of the relocated are still in housing, which is a good track record. But the problem hasn't gone away. A month ago the tents started appearing again, this time at Ventura and F Street, just off the freeway.
Sometimes it feels like we're dealing with teaspoons.
Down & Out in Fresno and San Francisco
Posted using ShareThis
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26tents.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6527424&rss=rss-kfsn-article-6527424
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/19/18590374.php
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6858971
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/65578.html
That's fine. Every freelance writer needs to live through his bohemian phase. But the article starts in Fresno. Fresno scared the shit out him. Three days later, he was back in the comforts of the Tenderloin.
First, he ventured into Motel Row. Seen from the 99 Freeway, Motel Row is a row of mid-century motor lodges that were located on the "Old 99," now Golden State Boulevard, and were part of the early auto culture in California. Palm Springs is full of properties of the same vintage and architecture and slowly they're being recaptured into hip, lively destinations. In Fresno, their fate is quite different. Many of them, like the Storyland (see the link below) devolved into de facto SRO housing. Families, sometimes large families, crammed into small motel rooms; prostitution, drugs, the list is familiar. They are scary properties, and would be anywhere.
The problem is, what's the alternative? When the City of Fresno shut down the Storyland Motel this winter, displacing something like 60 families, where do they go. The Astro, next door? The solution, of course, is safe, clean, affordable housing, but the Fresno Housing Authority has a waiting list of 20,000 for public units. I think that's about 8 years.
Then there's the actual homeless. The second part of Buzzell's stay in Fresno was in one the homeless encampments near the Union Pacific tracks. I think what he learned was that housing of any type, even a small flat in the Tenderloin, was preferable to living in a "rented" tent in a homeless camp. We forget that safety is one of the things we take for granted, and something that the homeless never take for granted. The ongoing stress of just being homeless takes a physical and mental toll that takes a long time to unwind, even if they are placed into housing.
An example of just how tought the problem is, the City made a commitment to shutting down one of the encampments, in part because it bought the property for a future downtown water tank (more on downtown water in a future post). They received about $600,000 in Rapid Relocation funds from HUD and working with the Housing Authority, moved about 130 people into permanant housing. Several months later, about 95% of the relocated are still in housing, which is a good track record. But the problem hasn't gone away. A month ago the tents started appearing again, this time at Ventura and F Street, just off the freeway.
Sometimes it feels like we're dealing with teaspoons.
Down & Out in Fresno and San Francisco
Posted using ShareThis
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26tents.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6527424&rss=rss-kfsn-article-6527424
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/19/18590374.php
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6858971
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/65578.html
The Fultonia
The Fultonia.com Blog
Okay, the cool part of Fresno is The Tower District. It's a little northwest of downtown, sandwiched between the older Lowell neighborhood (more on Lowell later) to the south and the historic Fresno High School neighborhood to the north. Lots of homes built in the 1920's and 1930's, and a real mix of small bungalows and estates. Even the older multi-family units feel like you're in an up-and-coming area, with a lot of energy. And why not? The historic Tower Theatre is there, along with a couple of smaller venues, a good percentage of the city's clubs are in this one neighborhood and while it lacks great dining there are plenty of good, comfortable restaurants there.
All true, if you stay north of Olive Avenue. The south part of the Tower has all of the architecture and most of the charm of its sister neighborhood to the north, but as you drive south, closer to Lowell and Belmont Avenue that divides the two areas, things get, well, dodgy. The commercial vitality found along Olive disappears and the number of vacancies swallows the number of occupied units. But along Fulton is a collection of great mid-century apartment buildings, including the Fultonia, a late moderne building with a neon tower of its own, 10 empty commercial units along the street and most of the 39 apartments sitting empty, stinky and rotting.
The debate early in the year was what to do with it. The City (maybe) wanted to buy it for the homeless program, the housing authority looked at it and one property owner finally bought it at auction: Terance Frazier. Later in the summer we at the RDA agreed to make a $600,000 loan for renovation and the work is underway.
I've been out there a few times, first before the deal was closed and a couple of times as we put the agreement, to get a handle on the scope of work. On the first trip, the entire complex smelled like wet, dirty dog. Dog. Ugh. So we put that in the scope -- clean out all of the feral animals, including the family of cats that had taken up residence in the hallway behind the commercial spaces.
On the second trip, we got to look into some of the units, a couple of which were still occupied. I'm not sure what was worse, the empty, trashed units or the ones that still had tenants. One of the things I've had to get used to working in Fresno is working in really, really poor areas. Palm Springs has a low median income and a fair amount of working poor, but the geographic scale of the poverty here is really daunting.
The follow up visits have been a lot better. The funk is gone, the water damaged plaster is gone, and the contractor is busy rebuilding the entire place. The next challenge is to figure out how to make the buildings on either side get dressed up.
So there's hope for SoTow. We need to clean up Belmont, and any progress we make in Lowell to the south will help, and we're buying foreclosed homes in that neighborhood, too. Sometimes you have to go right at the worst property on the block. It's the right thing to do.
There's a link to the property's website embedded in the title (click on the title) and below is an article on the deal.
Business Street fresno
Business Street fresno
Nashville Resurgence
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/travel/08hours.html
The article begins "Nashville isn't nicknamed Music City for nothing....But there's more to Nashville than country music, especially in the once-sleep neighborhoods that now beat to a different rhythm. Districts like East Nashville and 12 South thrive with lively bars, stylish restaurants and a young, eclectic crop of music makers, churning out everything from bluegrass to punkabilly."
What's not missing from this story? Artists. Once again, a city has figured out that arts districts -- places where artists and musicians can afford to live, as well as perform, create vibrant, lively communities. The article takes the reader through a dozen or so happening spots, but I still like to head down to Broadway and see the old Ryman Auditorium, Ernest Tubb Music, and the handful of honky tonks left where musicians can play -- and drink -- for inspiration.
Oh, and check out my cool Nashville pictures, too.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
America's Smartest Cities—From First to Worst - The Daily Beast
America's Smartest Cities—From First to Worst - The Daily Beast
A few weeks ago Tina Brown's blog The Daily Beast labeled Fresno as the dumbest city in America. Ouch. First came the jokes, then the denials (we can't possibly have a collective IQ of 3, can we?), then the hand wringing, then something else. Acceptance? Sort of. Screw them? Sort of. Hard to describe.
But read the blog. Was the index unfair? It was intended to measure community brainpower. Was it unfair that they weighted the score 35% for bachelor's degrees and 15% for advanced degrees? What else should they have chosen?
One of the real keys to looking at the index is that they selected metro areas of a million people or more. Fresno itself has about a half million people and Clovis -- more affluent and presumably more educated -- about 100,000. Where are the other 40% of the residents picked up in the study? Most, living in surrounding farming communities: farmworkers.
I don't want to pick on farm workers. They have enough heaped on their plate. But large parts of Fresno and Clovis look and feel like other parts of California -- I can walk to Starbucks, Whole Foods and even J. Crew in 10 minutes -- but huge areas of the City are deperately poor. As a society we heap scorn on the cause and effect of education and income (the Ph.D. cabdriver was legendary before he became a Senegalese cabdriver) but the correlation between education and income is undeniable. Especially now that good blue collar jobs are evaporating in the recession.
The second half of the study, I think, is what really hurts. (Actually, I shouldn't even really call it a study -- it was done by the blog staff.) Non-fiction book sales, the ratio of colleges per capita, and political engagement. We should have scored better than a 3.
Anybody upset about ending up at the bottom should read the list, especially the top ten cities or so. College towns. Research towns. High tech meccas. For the most part, their agricultural history is pretty much behind them (though I think they still grow tobacco in North Carolina). We can dream, right?
(See the articles below.)
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_13569950?nclick_check=1
A few weeks ago Tina Brown's blog The Daily Beast labeled Fresno as the dumbest city in America. Ouch. First came the jokes, then the denials (we can't possibly have a collective IQ of 3, can we?), then the hand wringing, then something else. Acceptance? Sort of. Screw them? Sort of. Hard to describe.
But read the blog. Was the index unfair? It was intended to measure community brainpower. Was it unfair that they weighted the score 35% for bachelor's degrees and 15% for advanced degrees? What else should they have chosen?
One of the real keys to looking at the index is that they selected metro areas of a million people or more. Fresno itself has about a half million people and Clovis -- more affluent and presumably more educated -- about 100,000. Where are the other 40% of the residents picked up in the study? Most, living in surrounding farming communities: farmworkers.
I don't want to pick on farm workers. They have enough heaped on their plate. But large parts of Fresno and Clovis look and feel like other parts of California -- I can walk to Starbucks, Whole Foods and even J. Crew in 10 minutes -- but huge areas of the City are deperately poor. As a society we heap scorn on the cause and effect of education and income (the Ph.D. cabdriver was legendary before he became a Senegalese cabdriver) but the correlation between education and income is undeniable. Especially now that good blue collar jobs are evaporating in the recession.
The second half of the study, I think, is what really hurts. (Actually, I shouldn't even really call it a study -- it was done by the blog staff.) Non-fiction book sales, the ratio of colleges per capita, and political engagement. We should have scored better than a 3.
Anybody upset about ending up at the bottom should read the list, especially the top ten cities or so. College towns. Research towns. High tech meccas. For the most part, their agricultural history is pretty much behind them (though I think they still grow tobacco in North Carolina). We can dream, right?
(See the articles below.)
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_13569950?nclick_check=1
New Online Music Mix As Independent As You Streaming 24/7 - KCRW Eclectic24
New Online Music Mix As Independent As You Streaming 24/7 - KCRW Eclectic24
KCRW is the best radio station in the world. If you've noticed cooler music in TV shows? Thank KCRW. Better commercial songs, replacing cheesy jingles? Thank KCRW. They've introduced a generation of Angelenos to small artist and, I think, moved the needle in the direction of indie music. I think the Coachella wouldn't have existed without KCRW.
The station jockeys with KUSC (classical music) for the largest public radio listenership in the LA area, but its influence is international. Its mix of heavy NPR support and groundbreaking locally-produced music programs makes it the choice of, well, the hippest part of LA.
Left, Right & Center originates there. Le Show originates there. They were the first station to carry This American Life. Unabashedly progressive, the station delights in having articulate, smart conservatives on the air because the highest value is free and entertaining discourse.
I remember when they replaced Joe Frank with Car Talk (the single most popular hour on public radio). Car Talk, as fun as it is, is not a good fit for the station and didn't last.
Try the music. If you don't like it, I'll refund your money. :)
KCRW is the best radio station in the world. If you've noticed cooler music in TV shows? Thank KCRW. Better commercial songs, replacing cheesy jingles? Thank KCRW. They've introduced a generation of Angelenos to small artist and, I think, moved the needle in the direction of indie music. I think the Coachella wouldn't have existed without KCRW.
The station jockeys with KUSC (classical music) for the largest public radio listenership in the LA area, but its influence is international. Its mix of heavy NPR support and groundbreaking locally-produced music programs makes it the choice of, well, the hippest part of LA.
Left, Right & Center originates there. Le Show originates there. They were the first station to carry This American Life. Unabashedly progressive, the station delights in having articulate, smart conservatives on the air because the highest value is free and entertaining discourse.
I remember when they replaced Joe Frank with Car Talk (the single most popular hour on public radio). Car Talk, as fun as it is, is not a good fit for the station and didn't last.
Try the music. If you don't like it, I'll refund your money. :)
Smithsonian Folkways - The Folkways Collection
Smithsonian Folkways - The Folkways Collection
This is a test of how to save articles and links to the blog, but this is a great program on the history of folk music in the U.S. Right now it's an interview with Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead talking about listening to pygmy recordings on Folkways Records in the 1960's. Cool.
This is a test of how to save articles and links to the blog, but this is a great program on the history of folk music in the U.S. Right now it's an interview with Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead talking about listening to pygmy recordings on Folkways Records in the 1960's. Cool.
It's about time
Before I lose my edge....
I've been in Fresno now for almost a year, and before I get used to it, I want to get some of my observations out there. The same is true for Palm Springs. Before I've been away too long, and all of the players have changed, I'll use this opportunity to comment on the news of the day.
This isn't just a complaint page. For the most part I'll stay positive. I've got a few hundred articles stored on Delicious.com, and I'll use this as an opportunity to post and comment on them in public. And they're about everything: business, politics, architecture, Holyoke, art, tourism, Tennessee football, Fresno, Palm Springs, development, celebrities, Russia, technology and a lot more. You can only post so many articles on Facebook before you bore your friends.
I chose the name The Out of Towner because I think it reflects where I am. I've lived a lot of places since leaving for college, sometimes for a long time, but don't feel that I'm from anywhere anymore. Even when I visit Holyoke it's strange.
So here goes:
I've been in Fresno now for almost a year, and before I get used to it, I want to get some of my observations out there. The same is true for Palm Springs. Before I've been away too long, and all of the players have changed, I'll use this opportunity to comment on the news of the day.
This isn't just a complaint page. For the most part I'll stay positive. I've got a few hundred articles stored on Delicious.com, and I'll use this as an opportunity to post and comment on them in public. And they're about everything: business, politics, architecture, Holyoke, art, tourism, Tennessee football, Fresno, Palm Springs, development, celebrities, Russia, technology and a lot more. You can only post so many articles on Facebook before you bore your friends.
I chose the name The Out of Towner because I think it reflects where I am. I've lived a lot of places since leaving for college, sometimes for a long time, but don't feel that I'm from anywhere anymore. Even when I visit Holyoke it's strange.
So here goes:
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