ding ding ding ding!!!!

Actually, the “wealthy” part would be good in any era, but indeed — the way things were ‘back then’, and the big social transformation from then to now are simply inseperable. Swerens would agree with that much, I think, but one wonders what he would have to say about that expressway that was never built; about all those families who weren’t white who never got a buy-out, and who never got displaced from downtown, and who therefore didn’t get the opportunity to move elsewhere in Fort Wayne, where the (mostly white) IH and Tokheim and ITT and Fruehauf workers (etc) lived.

etcetera

edit: I forgot one ‘dog whistle’ moment in Mr Swerens’ presentation, wherein he related a story he’d read somewhere, and which struck him as insightful. The supposition regarded the societal difference between 1900 to 1950, as compared to the difference from 1950 to 2000; the idea was that if a man was magically transported from the circa-1900 city street to the 1950 city street — he’d be taken aback by the cars and trucks (instead of horse-drawn carriages), but if he saw a lady and tipped his hat, or held a door open for her, he’d be right in-step.

But, if a man was magically transported from the 1950 street to the 2000 street, he’d offend one person after the next with the things he’d be liable to say or do.

Several folks nodded at that; my chin dropped a little, but while I pondered what he was trying to say the talk proceeded on, so I have no idea how that changed our city-scape, or whether this was really thought to be the city we want to go back to, or what.…(sorry!)

It’s just…zoning? Huh? I think most of us would consider reasonable zoning restrictions a good thing. But Leo Morris, also my former N-S colleague, is also one of those who believes zoning constitutes an infringement on personal liberty. I just don’t get it. One of the things about old cities that I don’t like is how factories and such are located in residential neighborhoods. There was a reason for it once upon a time — in fact, I believe generally the neighborhood came after the factory — but their time has passed. (As anyone cursed enough to own a house next to the Packard plant would surely agree.)

My late father-in-law was a dreamer and visionary like his son and he had lobbied for that highway. Thought it was a huge mistake to not build it.

My aunt and uncle in Iowa still live in the fifties. It’s a wonderful place if you are white, male, and wealthy. Life today is much less powerful and more threatening for Leininger, Swerens, and their ilk, what with women and people of color surrounding them. No wonder they want to turn the clock back.

Snork.

Anti-zoning folk love to say “you can’t” when the actual fact is “you can, but now you have to tag second base on your way around the field.” They just don’t want to do that.

Brian: How was the Andrew Sullivan talk?