The New York Times has joined the gaggle of news outlets featuring the ruins of Detroit. The accompanying essay from the August 21, 2011 Arts section discusses the tension between art for its own sake and its possible exploitation of a bad situation. To charges that such work can be considered “ruin porn,” Andrew Moore … Continue reading Looking Beyond Urban Ruins…
Cities
More Grousing About Publicly Assisted Housing
The Clarion Ledger has provided another positive report on the work of the Wishcamper Companies, another housing renovation in Jackson, Mississippi, Lincoln Garden Apartments. Once again, complainers have swooped in to comment, predicting the complex’s demise in a matter of months, not even years.We have lots of examples of well-managed publicly-assisted housing throughout the United … Continue reading More Grousing About Publicly Assisted Housing…
Neoliberalism revived?
By any reasonable judgment, the current recession should have overturned any support for the practice known as neoliberalism, so named for its complete confidence in unfettered private markets, following the vision of Adam Smith. Instead, what appears to have been happening, is that the lack of funds in the public sector has encouraged cities to … Continue reading Neoliberalism revived?…
Poverty in Newark
We’ll be looking at poverty in Newark and what to do about it April 6th at the Rutgers-Newark campus. I’ll be talking about affordable housing. Other speakers include my colleague Wayne Glasker and Temple University’s Bryant Simon. The sessions will be filmed by makers of the important documentary Revolution67. For a report on the conference … Continue reading Poverty in Newark…
Between Justice and History
Fredric Miller Memorial Lecture May 5, 2011 This lecture, remembering archivist, historian, and scholar Fred Miller, offers the opportunity to address issues central to the practice of public history. To mark my retirement July 1, I intend to reflect back on a series of experiences where history has served to illuminate social justice issues. While … Continue reading Between Justice and History…