Tangentially Pynchon. see today's Google Doodle

[David Morris]

the Street is a major V. and GR theme.  I think it aligned with "The
Mobility" in M&D.  Essentially it is the Zone in smaller increments: a
place where the Preterite try to live amidst structural damnation. The
Street in GR and VL is the site of deadly conflict, where structural
daisy-chain  power dynamics manifest.  The outcomes are not determined,
because super-forces against the obvious superior forces can always
intervene.

David Morris

On Monday, May 9, 2016, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:

>
> And urban space is not the least theme of Pynchon's two latest novels,
> Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge!
>
> On 09.05.2016 03:32, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
> even I,  who can walk into walls, believe physical environments have to
> matter a lot or---who are we? The space to be human in, not the least theme
> of AGAINST THE DAY, I suggest. And TRP and cities, what say?
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On May 8, 2016, at 3:42 PM, David Morris <
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>fqmorris at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
> As a designer I obviously don't like #3.  I firmly believe that the
> physical environment influences social interaction, which is central to an
> urban ecology.  Obviously it is not the only, nor even predominant factor.
>
> Concentrated poverty (ghettos) existed in neighborhoods that were not
> catostrophic failures before modernist anti-urban neighborhoods became war
> zones.  Ghettos (old-style)  were usually staging grounds for the newest
> wave of immagrents on their way up and out.  So poverty doesn't necessarily
> create war zones.  Thus I posit that concentrated poverty plus inhuman
> design environment seems a likely culprit to urban war zones.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Sunday, May 8, 2016, David Morris <
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>fqmorris at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
>> I pick #2, and that's what I was trying to say earlier with this: "Design
>> does matter, as does concentrated poverty.  Money might trump (is that word
>> still usable?) poor design. But design can help mitigate the effects of
>> poverty."
>>
>> I would guess that ST/PCV isn't a place of concentrated
>> multi-generational poverty.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 5:55 AM, Monte Davis <
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','montedavis49 at gmail.com');>
>> montedavis49 at gmail.com
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','montedavis49 at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>
>>> I don't take anything said as personal attack or criticism. I'm simply
>>> telling you that in my own experience, and in what I know of that the
>>> almost 70 years that ST/PCV has existed, there has been
>>>
>>> NO deterioration or trashing of "indefensible" public spaces (neither
>>> halls, elevators and lobbies nor lawns, walkways and playgrounds between
>>> buildings)... and a consistently very low crime rate. In 1960, when I was
>>> turning 11, I and younger children were going unescorted between apartments
>>> and playgrounds, roller skating and scootering on the (mostly vehicle-free)
>>> interior drives -- as children were in Sept. 2015, the last time I was
>>> there.
>>>
>>> NO shortage of multiple, varied forms of social solidarity and
>>> engagement. There are no restaurants, bars, churches, or athletic fields
>>> within ST/PCV. But its population strengthens (in many cases is the primary
>>> support of) scores of them in the adjacent blocks. Within the apartments
>>> were more rather than fewer poker nights, book clubs, crafts groups, small
>>> potluck suppers etc, per capita than the small-town and suburban
>>> communities I've lived in.
>>>
>>> Possibilities (none exclusive):
>>>
>>> (1) ST/PCV is a freakish anomaly
>>>
>>> (2) demography/socioeconomics and property management entirely
>>> compensate for the destructive effects of modernist design
>>>
>>> (3) those destructive effects are much exaggerated. Maybe architects and
>>> community planners of *all* persuasions -- Jacobites and New Urbanists as
>>> well as their Modernist predecessors -- ascribe much too much influence to
>>> their own work.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 12:16 AM, Keith Davis <
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','kbob42 at gmail.com');>kbob42 at gmail.com
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','kbob42 at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Monte,
>>>> I'm not sure I understand your response either. I certainly didn't
>>>> intend my comments to be taken as a personal attack or criticism.
>>>>
>>>> Www.innergroovemusic.com <http://www.innergroovemusic.com>
>>>>
>>>> On May 7, 2016, at 11:53 PM, David Morris <
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>fqmorris at gmail.com
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> What?
>>>>
>>>> Have you been drinking? Or what?
>>>>
>>>> David Morris
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, May 7, 2016 at 5:33 PM, Monte Davis <
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','montedavis49 at gmail.com');>
>>>> montedavis49 at gmail.com
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','montedavis49 at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I assure you I will give due weight to these insights, and due weight
>>>>> to 25 years of my family's (and 25,000 neighbors') experience.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, May 7, 2016 at 2:45 PM, David Morris <
>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>fqmorris at gmail.com
>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Also I forgot to mention another very important aspect of
>>>>>> old-urbanism's semi-public spaces where "owners" of the street could be its
>>>>>> defenders:  Those stoops, porches and fire escapes naturally resulted in
>>>>>> residents interacting with their neighbors, forming community bonds,
>>>>>> knowing who on the street lived in their neighborhood, and who didn't.
>>>>>> Streets thus had many "mayors" wise to normal street patterns, and they
>>>>>> defended their neighbors as well as their streets.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> David Morris
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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