The Audacity of Truth

This blog post will not pertain to planning related issues.

Dr. Ford at her Senate Committee Hearing over her sexual assault

Dr. Ford did something that most of us can't do. She told the truth. It seems like an innately easy thing to do. I mean speaking the truth, it should come easy!

But it does not.

Dr. Ford did not want to rehash the events of her sexual assault. I do not know her personally but I can guarantee that she did not want to do this. That is why I admire her so much: simply for speaking out.

First, she had to admit this truth to herself. I mean think about it: would you be able to own your sexual assault like she did? If it were me, I would shut the memory out, lock it away, and hide the ugly scar. The hardest part of speaking the truth has to be self acceptance.

Second, she had to sit in front of millions of people and speak her truth. She had to sit through intense questioning as white men tried to invalidate her. She had to remain calm and collected as she spoke about the events of her assault. She couldn't even flinch as white men recounted step-by-step this most horrible of nights. It is astounding to even write what she did; Dr. Ford is a heroine.

Third, she now has to listen to people deny her truth because they can't swallow the evil that she herself had to come to terms with. And I can't even blame those people because accepting sexual assault as a daily event is a hard pill to swallow. But it does not make it any less a reality.

Recently, I met this bizarre boy at a club (this is happy story don't worry people). It was at one of these cool, suave, new-agey clubs that Dublin has to offer. I was really feeling myself that night too which was great. And then out of nowhere this boy comes and starts asking me extremely personal questions about who I am, my sexuality, my personal life, my own issues! I mean like c'mon, the audacity of this random boy, people!!! Caught up in the flurry of questioning, I answered truthfully but I was suddenly tired for what felt like no reason. He asked me questions that I normally just shove away and don't think about. Of course, I returned the rapid fire questioning to him, but he answered them so honestly and bluntly too! It was remarkable for some uncanny reason. 

I was really put off. My mood had suddenly shifted from "party" to "time for bed." The rest of the night was bust for me. I couldn't express interest in other guys, drink couldn't lighten my mood, and even dancing just felt pathetic. The truth hurt to listen to regardless if it were mine or his. The next day I compartmentalized that boy into the too abrasive/forget asap part of my brain. But of course, I kept thinking about the conversation because there was truth in it. Looking back, while the conversation was certainly invasive, it was also so refreshing to hear.

That's why the truth is audacious. Dr. Ford was audacious to speak her truth to the world because it was hard to hear. This boy was audacious to simply be frank and honest in public. We so rarely speak truthfully nowadays that when we do, it comes across as crazy or wild or invalid. It shouldn't be this way though.   

Senior year of high school, I suffered from major depression, almost attempted suicide, and was committed to a mental hospital. This is my audacious truth. For three years, I've kept it locked away; only a small group of people was privy to this part of my life. I had lost all value in myself and whenever I looked inward, I could only find faults with myself. I felt no joy in life and could find no reason for going on. It culminated in an event where I almost ran out of high school and onto the road where a car or bus could takeaway the inner pain that was wracking at me. Luckily, I was stopped before running out. Following the incident, I went to a mental hospital for five days where I can confirm to everyone reading this that mental healthcare is fucked. Eventually, I was able to see a psychiatrist and counselor privately who were able to help me.

Most people see me as a put-together young man that is involved, happy, and proud but this is a facade I built up from years of denying my own self-evident truths. I am no superman. In 2016, these truths came crashing down on me and I've been struggling to accept everything ever since.

But if Dr. Ford can speak her truth to the world, then I can too.   

This blog post isn't a cry out for help; at the moment, I am doing okay although I still struggle with depression. Instead this post is my truth. My hope is that you read it and understand the importance of listening. Listen to females! Listen to queer people! Listen to people of colour! Just fucking listen! Why? Because the audacity of truth is an oxymoron. The truth is the truth. It is an unquestionable statement. When we stop denying it, only then can we begin to accept each other rather than letting all the bullshit get in the way.

Tech Boom or Doom?

Silicon Valley products have become an integral part of our everyday life

I love my iPhone. I have to admit that my phone is an integral part of my life; sometimes it feels like an extension of me. Looking at its contents and apps, you get a snapshot of me and my life. You'll find Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Tinder, Spotify, YouTube, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the Irish Independent, Dublin Bus, Uber, myTaxi, Blackboard, wordreference, GCN, daft.ie, vipsy, and so many other apps that I use on a weekly basis. It screams out who I am without being a physical part of me at all. So...in the palm of your hard (literally at this moment since over half of my readers view this blog from their smartphone), you can probably find a neat and clear biography of yourself in the tools, apps, and networks you've packed into your smartphone.

The tech industry and its innovations are undoubtedly essential to our lives and how we live. Companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Samsung have changed our lives forever with their products. You can't help but sometimes marvel at the power and amount of information we literally have in the palm of our hands; it's actually incredible! But how have these companies impacted the places where they live and is it all so rosy and pink in their tech boom bubbles?

What Santa Clara Valley once looked like- covered in green orchards

In this blog, I would like to take you to a place back in time before all these companies existed. Its Santa Clara Valley in 1980. Located in between San Francisco and San Jose, this valley is home to a few sleepy hollow towns, a prestigious university, and extremely fertile agricultural land. In fact, Santa Clara Valley orchards produce some of the best, most plentiful fruit in California. Its fruits are sold nationwide and people associate Santa Clara Valley as California's most fertile region.

Next, as we all know this all-American story, Steve Jobs and his college mate dropouts develop Macintosh computers in a suburban garage outside Palo Alto. Stanford University becomes a breeding ground for fresh, new, innovative ideas. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Google, all base themselves near Stanford in Santa Clara Valley. The region transforms from sleepy hollow to global icon as it is renamed Silicon Valley. It encapsulates the American Dream, its story of hard work and homegrown ingenuity. Ask any American about Silicon Valley and the products created there, and they will probably proudly list off its companies and their inventions that changed the world.

But what about the original Santa Clara Valley, the place we called Silicon Valley before silicon was struck? In my opinion, its a sad tale which revolves around bad planning (surprise!). Driving through Santa Clara Valley today, you would be hard pressed to find any remaining orchards or farms. They have all been converted into bland housing estates, simple strip malls, and geometric office parks. For what was California's most productive region agriculturally, this is a surprising turn of events. Of course net productivity has increased from the outflow of creative capital, but I can't help but wonder if the Santa Clara Valley of the past could have coincided with the Silicon Valley of now.

Now, I want you to look at your smartphone again. With all its innovation and ingenuity, its a piece  of metal that required so much thought and energy I would like you to picture the kind of place that created it.

Intel's Headquarters in its bland suburban location - note the plethora of parking and parking garages!

Driving through the Silicon Valley of today, you will find a non-descript suburban landscape that matches any banal image of American suburbia. This landscape exudes little thought or energy. Its office parks are drab, boring, sprawling, unwalkable, and all-together unremarkable despite housing the world's most innovative industry. Its malls and shopping centres house the shops and brands of high couture and top-of-the-line products while on the exterior, offering nothing more than a big box look. Its housing estates stretch for miles in all directions swallowing up miles of rich soil for ranch-style homes and two-door garages. The urban design of Silicon Valley is a design synonymous with any other American edge city: unplanned, congested, and sprawling.

When I first discovered what Silicon Valley looked like, I was kind of shocked. How could the world's most exciting industry be contained in a setting that matched my own raising? But when my professor asked the class to picture in our head what Silicon Valley looks like, my mind wasn't able to muster any iconic image while it could clearly imagine Wall Street, Rodeo Drive, and even a Main Street in small town America.           

Aerial view of Silicon Valley

So there is definitely some doom in tech. The tech giants swallowed up Santa Clara Valley and the planners, politicians, and designers let these companies do this with no fight or push back. Hundreds of miles of California's most fertile soil was lost to urban sprawl. The United States' most influential industry is housed in a setting that one would choose to fly past on the expressway. Could this have been avoided? Of course (in my opinion)! Instead of letting office parks fly upward and outward to match the pace of growth, planners could've funneled growth along the rail corridor that passes through the valley between San Francisco and San Jose. Mixed-used development, higher densities, limiting expressway building, funding rail transport, and enacting smart growth all could've enabled Silicon Valley to look remarkable different (and more interesting) than the unrecognizable giant it is today.

And how about now, in 2018? Have tech industries changed their tune on how they want to grow, develop, and design their businesses within already existing regions?

Apple's New Headquarters in Cupertino

. . . NO! Of course not! Apple is building a sprawling "infinity" campus in Cupertino that while offering the latest services inside the building, does fuck all to the urban form of its area. The massive, unwalkable complex will require high car dependency to access the campus while the sprawling nature of the low density office block only blots out more of Cupertino's street grid since the municipality had to recede several blocks of already existing housing to make way for their tech giant. Elsewhere in Silicon Valley, private bus companies use public roads to commute tech workers to Google, Facebook, and Microsoft in the valley from their "cool" homes in San Francisco. Instead of investing in smarter, craftier design in new or retrofitted places with better walkability and public transportation access, tech companies are wholly disinterested in the region they call home. They are content with building their empires in closed off, private suburban office parks. While they are entitled to do so, the people of Santa Clara Valley are also entitled to call out the tech companies for their strain on public infrastructure and resources. Calling for better planning and mitigating the sprawl of the valley should be a priority moving forward for these towns, but with the power, money, and disinterest from their tech industry, building better communities will always be an uphill fight. 

Amazon's Skyscraper Headquarters in Downtown Seattle 

In Seattle, a similar situation is playing out. Amazon's growth has "outpaced" the size of the city, so Jeff Bezos has created a competition between twenty different regions for Amazon's second North American headquarters. I find this to be cop out though. Instead of working within Seattle's existing framework and around the city's parameters for how to grow and develop sustainably, Amazon is choosing to stop investing in Seattle because the company could no longer control how it wanted to grow. When the city began asking Amazon to start investing in affordable housing, in better transportation, in its neighbourhoods, Amazon motioned to build a new headquarters elsewhere instead of collaborating with the city it puts an immense pressure on. What Seattle is asking of Amazon isn't insane. The city wishes to see Amazon contribute more to the public system it relies off of for growth. What is insane, is that Amazon has flat out denied its taxing nature on the public infrastructure it uses. Instead, it has used this situation to create a media frenzy for its search for a new city it can conceivable chew up and spit out in a fashion the company sees fit.

This is wild to me because cities are practically giving up their rights in competition for the new Amazon Headquarters. Instead of focusing on the people already living in their regions, cities would rather throw billion dollar tax incentives at Amazon in hopes of a tech boom that Seattle and Silicon Valley have undergone. As this blog has pointed out though, not all is so rosy in these tech booms.

Another case study of the tech boom and city making is in its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Enticed to Dublin by Ireland's 12.5% corporate tax rate, the tech industry has set up shop in the docklands, an area the Dublin City Council has set aside for foreign direct investment. Walking through the docklands today, you will find modern, glassy five-storey blocks of offices, commercial space, and luxury apartments. Cranes tower over the area and most buildings are still under construction as the tech boom is in full swing. At the moment, one in four people in Dublin work with the tech industry. This percentage is only expected to rise as these tech companies complete and grow out their European headquarters, so the tech industry and its impact on Dublin is already making waves.

Dublin Docklands undergoing significant construction

Recently, I went on a walk through the docklands. While each building was interesting in its post-modern architecturally-designed way, for the most part, a walk through the docklands is quite boring. Its better than a walk through Silicon Valley I imagine, but looking at each building, I would be surprised to find that companies like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft were nestled inside them. Furthermore, I occasionally came across a remnant of the Dublin Docklands of the past: an old stone warehouse, a block of Georgian homes, a rundown pub. These little relics remind me that so much has changed here so fast. The docklands were such a critical piece of Dublin history, its disappointing to know that so much of it has disappeared in the name of economic development. And when I turned around and took in all the modern glory that is now the docklands and its tech boom, I couldn't help but think that this isn't Dublin at all. Even in an European context where planning law is more prominent and strict in city making, tech companies ignore urban design and choose to ram unconscious, sterile building for their own growth and development.

Looking forward, I hope the last remaining parts of the original docklands are conserved. The docklands can be regenerated without driving out what made the area its namesake. The tech industry will undoubtedly house itself in every crevice that the docklands have to offer (its a small area), but it can do so in a manner that is conscious of its surrounding and its historical precedents. As foreigners continue to pour into the docklands, Dublin City Council should do more to protect a part of the city that is just as critical to its past as the City Centre is. But if the tech industry has shown us anything, its hard to stop a boom even when you are aware of impending doom.

*Note: I am thinking of doing a part two to "Tech Boom or Doom?" that focuses more on the social impacts of the industry as this post tried to focus on the tech industry's impact of urban design   

My Not Quite A Planning Blog Post!

(Disclaimer: this post has little to pertain to geography or planning, sorry! But it's my blog, so simultaneously I don't care)

Everyone should really watch this movie

Yesterday, I watched the movie Love, Simon. To say I feel like I watched a reenactment of my own life feels like an understatement. The film follows the senior year of Simon, a shaggy brown-haired teenager from the suburbs of Atlanta. He likes to wear hoodies. He enjoys dabbling in film production and works on his school play's set. He has a great group of friends and knows pretty much everyone in his community. His mom is a powerful feminist, his dad is an all-American guy. His family life is sound, he hangs out with his friends every day, and drives through ATL in his used car. He loves his dog, watches t.v. with his family in the evening, and likes iced coffee.

The only caveat is that he's gay.

From there you watch his story unwind. You follow him along to his first time getting drunk at a Halloween party, late nights at Waffle House, his homecoming game experience, and the climax: his coming out.

Like any Hollywood movie, things don't go according to plan and you watch his life descend into chaos from public humiliation to losing everything dear to him. Some things he was at fault for while other things he cannot help but endure. And spoiler alert! in the end, everything settles out and he graduates high school and lives happily ever after.

Unlike Simon, I didn't come out my senior year. I waited until high school was over and even then it took several pints in a club in Galway for me to "discover" my sexual awakening.

^it's going to be a no from me St. Monica's! 

I don't know why I lived in such denial of myself for so long. I remember sitting through Catholic confirmation class in front of the Eucharist praying to God and asking him repeatedly, "Why don't you love gays, why don't you love gays, why don't you love gays?" I remember sitting in sullen silence as the priest shared with us that gay people weren't the devil, just diseased. One boy (who was clearly heterosexual in fact) choose to stand up and defend the LGBTQ+ community. He called the priest out for his bullshit and abruptly left the class. To this day, I wish I had the guts to join him instead of following through on a confirmation to an entity that thoroughly disgusts me.

I remember having dreams about males. I also remember the confusion and disgust at myself for having fantasized about such things. I was supposed to like girls, marry an intelligent, beautiful lady, find a white-picket fence bungalow in Grant Park, and have two children. There were no other options because that would be an acknowledgement of my true self.

I had one trial run with dating girls. I remember the excitement and build up to it and then asking her out. The whole experience was exhilarating. But then suddenly after the build up and exhilaration, something went missing in my heart. Now, I understand that the physical attraction never existed even if I really, really liked her personality. But back then, I was only confused, and the dating never materialized after that.

Love my second home❤

The day that Ireland democratically voted to legalize gay marriage, I was thrilled. I didn't even know this sort of thing was possible but it happened. I grabbed my outrageously large green hat I wore every St. Patrick's Day and took a picture hugging my dog. When the United States legalised marriage, the rainbow flag remained on my Facebook profile picture for months after. Despite all of this though, I lived in denial, refusing to accept the possibility of me liking other guys.

Towards the end of my senior year, a "horrible" rumor was started in my school year that I was gay. Everyone all of sudden was talking about me being gay. Like Simon, the horror hit me. This was not how it was supposed to happen. I wasn't gay or if I was I just didn't know what I liked (I had never kissed anyone before so). I denied it, told everyone that it a malicious fallacy, but it seemed that no one really believed me. And deep down in my heart, I don't think I believed myself. But this goes beyond the fact that Spencer Mull should not have spread this rumor. It was never his truth or lie to spread. It should've been mine. To credit my best friend Kaitlin Jacobson during the sacred moment of silence, she called him out in the dead quiet of their first period for his actions. I can't remember exactly what she said but it goes along the gist that it wasn't his tale to tell and then she turned it on him and called him gay I think. (Nothing like scaring off the heteros then by calling them gay!) 

Of course, this wasn't the first time I had been accused of being gay. I remember even in seventh grade, two football players were talking to the cute girls I sat with at lunch. While I was chatting to someone else, they had an entire conversation about my gayness. While the football players were convinced I was gay, the girls backed me up the whole time. To credit Melanie Mollard and McKay Culberson, they said that I wasn't gay if I hadn't come out and even if I was, why the fuck would it matter anyway. It had nothing to do with them.

One of the most touching parts of the film was after Simon came out to his family, and his mom (aka Jennifer Garner) had a candid conversation with him. She mentioned how when he came out to his family, he immediately followed it with, "but I am still me."

I said the exact same thing.

Simon's mom precedes to say that now after holding his breath for so long, for capping things up, for shutting feelings off, for closing himself down, he was free. Of course, he was still himself but now he could live his fullest life. And while there will be hard times and harsh comments, nothing could take away his freedom.

Jennifer Garner is the mom every LGBTQ+ child needs

I too am free. I am free and very gay. This doesn't take away from who I am. I still love late night Waffle House with Joe and Kaitlin. I still love drives with Delo and Kaitlin through Atlanta. I am still the same boy that got wasted at Ashley's ugly sweater party for the first time. Still the same kid who made the carriage for the Sleeping Beauty set, same guy who edited videos for fun in high school. Same guy who made varsity state cross country for three years. Still have a feminist mother, all-American dad, an amazing group of friends, and an affinity for bubble tea. I still want to run a lot, study hard, and excel at my life.

But since coming out, I can live my life without fear. And while being true to who I am is not easy and it is not an overnight journey (lots of shortcomings and failures, trust me:/) it feels good.

Why I Am Homesick

Beautiful Atlanta skyline from Donald Glover's Atlanta series

If you've ever walked between terminals in Hartsfield Jackson instead of taking the plane train, you're sure to have seen the African exhibit along the walkway. When I walk it while traveling through the airport, I am always subdued into silence. Its a striking exhibit with beautiful sculptures, incredible photographs, and a soundtrack of African folk music. The soundtrack in particular is powerful as many a person has been silenced by its booming drums and its harmonious melodies. You hear people comment about it every time.

African Heritage exhibit in between terminals at Hartsfield Jackson

It seems odd as to why there is this incredible but slightly out of place exhibit sitting beneath the world's busiest airport. What does Africa have to do with Atlanta? Why is this what the city choose to display before the world?

To put it in simple terms, it's the city's heritage. While my dad and I can trace our family history back to Italy and then across the alps to Scandinavia (a history that spans thousands of years), most black Atlantans can only trace their history back to just over a hundred years ago to a slave market in Savannah, Mobile, or Starkville. So when I hear the passerby comment on what Africa has to do with Atlanta, I wish they understood that the exhibit isn't just on African culture but on a city's lost heritage.

Georgia State Capitol "the Gold Dome" with accompanying racist confederate statue 

Recently, I've been homesick. When I think about home though, the picture is bleak. Recently, the Georgia State Senate passed a bill that could prevent same-sex couples from adopting a child. My district's state senator choose to support this bill, too. So logically, my head wracks itself to understand why my heart is homesick. Why should I miss a place that cannot see past the sex of the person I love? If the populace back home can't accept me for who I am then why should I call Atlanta a home?       

When people think of Georgia, of the deep south, they think of guns, white trash, and poverty. They group us up as a "deep" red state and say, "Oh Georgia, that's Trump territory." But let's be honest with ourselves! Killer Mike loves his guns just as much as Nathan Deal. Atlanta is a city of 5.5 million, but over ten million people live in the state. A substantial proportion of the state is a left behind rural pocket of white people that city folks call trash. And of course, every place in Georgia is marked with poverty: the homeless that line Peachtree Street, the trailer park behind the country club, the shanties underneath the plantation home. These simple thoughts of guns, rednecks, and poverty are ungenerous, but they're not wrong either!

Yet even still, despite all these sound turnoffs, I am homesick. I yearn for the warm sun. I ache for the long nights with loud crickets. I seek out a drive through the city with its zippy lights at night. I dream of the luscious green trees and cool shaded forests. I think about the people I left.

I left my family of course, but they are always a phone call away, so the people I miss aren't quite my friends or family then. What I miss takes me back to what is beneath the airport with the emphasis on beneath. What I miss isn't pretty to talk about; in fact, its ugly and most southern mamas would discourage such conversation matter, but I miss race. I miss it so much that it tugs at my heart.

Demographics map of Atlanta with a clear divide. 

And as you know, Atlanta is no angel when it comes to race and race relations. The city is one of the most racially divided places in the world. A black person born in the southside has a very small chance of making it out of the southside. A New York Times article in fact reported about how acute the racial divide is in Atlanta in 2013. According to the article, one's geography in the city predicts their ability to climb the income ladder. The divide is obvious too. Its Olympic village, once the eye of the world, has become surface parking lots surrounded by neighbourhoods that white people call the ghetto. The city's prized position is its airport which sits on top an African heritage installation about the people who keep the city running at unjust wages. The irony and symbolism is start.

Outsiders call Atlanta a black city. Americans call Georgians racist. Politicians colour the state red. Republicans outline the city in blue (albeit with a red pen). People love to characterise my home so much, but the other reality is that you don't have to dig too far into the clay to find something special. I grew up in a MLK generation: my friends were of every race, ethnicity, gender, and colour. I shared bubble tea on Pleasant Hill, listened to Outkast below Spaghetti Junction, marched for women's rights to the Gold Dome, and cheered every autumnal Friday under the lights. I did so with such a broad and encompassing set of friends that it took me to leave home to realise such.

So I am homesick. I am homesick for a place and generation where we acknowledge our faults while simultaneously strive to better ourselves along with our brothers and sisters. A place where we care about each other and wish to lift each other in a likeness to that of God while also struggling to understand one another. I come from the land of Martin Luther King and Jim Crow. I come from a city of black power and a state of white might. I come from the Migos and Luke Bryan, from Childish Gambino and Jimmy Carter. I come from white picket fence and grit. 

MLK's home on Auburn Ave

These are my roots. And while I struggle to come to terms with what my home means to me, I will forever be grateful for the lessons its taught me around the table of brotherhood.

My Ode to Cincinnati: an All-American City

Cincinnati Landmarks' Music Hall and Union Terminal overlooking Over-the-Rhine 

This post is going to stray away from my thoughts on policy and instead center on a place I called home for eight months: Cincinnati, Ohio. Recently, Cincinnati placed #8 on a list of 52 places you should visit in 2018 by the New York Times. To be honest, my first immediate thought was why? Not that I hated my time in the Queen City, but at first glance, it isn't a place people want to visit. In fact, Vox recently published an opinion piece describing why the federal government should decentralize unpolitical government agencies from D.C. to Rust Belt cities like Cleveland, Detroit, and Cincinnati. For the past seventy years, people have been leaving these Midwest cities as each of the cities have seen significant population loss while D.C. struggles to cope with the increased demand for land and better infrastructure.

Growing up in Atlanta, my knowledge of Cincinnati was as a place up north where my friends' grandparents lived. I couldn't have even told you if it was in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Indiana, I just knew a lot of my friends' parents had grown up there. When I figured out I wanted to study city planning in college, my studies pulled me to a program at the University of Cincinnati.

View of Cincinnati from I-71 North

On my first trip to Cincinnati, my mom drove me up to Ohio over a long weekend to go college touring. I vividly remember my first memory of Cincinnati because after seven hours of driving, we swung around a curve on I-71 North, and the entirety of Cincinnati appeared before us. Its an image that forever sits in your head because of its suddenness. Every Cincinnatian knows this curve because it offers a magnificent view before descending upon one of the most dangerous bridges in America. Where the interstate crosses the Ohio River, the bridge that connects the suburbs of Northern Kentucky to Downtown Cincinnati is literally falling into disrepair.

Dee Felice Cafe in Covington

Later that weekend, I remember searching for a place to eat in Covington, Kentucky (the town across the river from Cincinnati). My mom and I wandered through this beautiful but quiet town unbeknownst to us for its reputation with crime. Eventually, we found a small Cajun restaurant that was filled to the brim with people sitting on a quiet street corner. Inside it was like a party with all the tables filled, the bar packed, and a jazz band playing live on a stage behind the bar. It was one of the best dinners we had ever had, not necessarily for the food but because of the atmosphere and convivial mood. When we walked back outside, the quiet was overpowering compared to the party we had found.

While at college there, I remember being able to explore each of the city's unique neighborhoods. Every place was special. Whether the neighborhood was either emptied out, riddled with crime, or too affluent to afford, every neighborhood had a special story and history it seemed to me. I still remember each one not always because of their beauty or blight but because of the memories I made in these places.

Skyline in Clifton, my favorite Cincinnati neighborhood

Cold nights in Cincinnati called for a late night trip to Skyline Chili, famous for its three-way of spaghetti, Cincinnati chili, and cheese. Warm nights called for a voyage to Putz's or Zip Dip to grab a soft serve and enjoy a breezy sunset. Long nights called for morning runs to United Dairy Farmers for a bag of Grippo's, doughnuts, and a UDF milkshake. Everything revolved around the city and its people's businesses.       

Cincinnati and its people are really all-American. The city founded the most American thing of all (in my opinion): a professional baseball team. Their meal of choice is chili.  Most families have lived in Cincy for multiple generations. They have so many Cincinnati-only traditions: brunches at Frisch's, pizza from LaRosa's, beers from Rhinegeist, snacking from Grippo's chips. Opening day for baseball is a city-wide holiday practically, Labor Day calls for second largest firework display in the US, and any day is a good day to try a new bar there. The people of Cincinnati, they too thrive in my eyes as being the all-American type. Most people come from working class backgrounds, wear Bengal orange on Sunday to church, shop at Kroger (also a Cincinnati name), and raise children to do the same.

Compared to my glossy childhood in an nameless suburb of a Sunbelt city, Cincinnati always seemed more real, more gritty to me. By no means is it perfect, but I found people from Cincinnati had more of a reason to defend their home than people from other places had. It was once the fastest growing city in America. Walking around downtown Cincinnati feels like you've stepped back in time to downtown Manhattan circa 1920. You can still picture the inclines and streetcars gliding past untouched row homes from the 1890's. Its parks are beautiful and plentiful albeit often empty. They're so many stunning views around the town (there are seven hills actually). When I went on runs and walks around town, I often pictured the city in its heyday, completely full and bursting with people and life.

Dixie Hall in Downtown Cincinnati- an old public streetcar terminal reused as a private business center

As the Vox article points out, Cincinnati has room to grow because it was built for a city of a half million more people. It has the infrastructure, arts, and culture to accommodate more people, yet the city is just now beginning to grow again. While my fellow Cincinnatians would fight against the labels of being solely Midwestern, a Rustbelt town, and a dying city, the rest of the country sees this image. When east-coasters and west-coasters hear of Cincinnati, their mind obscures to a cold, gray city filled with old factories and abandoned homes. At least that's what my mind once did and what the Vox authors seem to imagine too.

Yet here come's the New York Times saying its 8th on their list of places to visit this year. While we could deride the Times as fake news, I chose to consider why Cincinnati should be visited and the more I think about, the more I miss Cincinnati and all its quirky institutions, its empowered people, its special places.

The Cincinnati's Reds stadium is even called Great American Ball Park

So to Cincinnati, America's Queen City: please stay you, stay true to what makes Cincinnati unique. It doesn't have all the glitz and glam of newer cities. Cincinnati is a dressed down American city. Its tough, its had it share in hardship, and at its core, I imagine America's core values lie.

Planning in 2018: What to Think About

Looking back on 2017, I was fortunate enough to live in three different places. In fact in the previous three years, I was able to live and study in five different cities, each with their own culture, dynamic, and difficulties. Through my experiences, observations, and studies, I have noticed a few common trends occurring among these places, and in this blog I'd like to analyze these trends. I'm going to focus on homelessness, affordable housing, and community values.

First, it is time to acknowledge systemic homelessness that affects every community. Families are being forced out of their homes and onto to the streets more and more. Whether it be urban, suburban, or rural, this is a widespread issue; it affects everyone. In the United States, families unable to pay rent are evicted often without a place to go and with no help from the government. Their last resort becomes motels along the interstate that dot every exit. Similarly in Ireland, families are evicted from homes and their communities, and while the government does house these families impermanently in hotels, this isn't a solution.

Motels such as above have become impermanent places of residence for too many families

I wonder why homelessness isn't just increasing but proliferating particularly with more families falling homeless? And what does it say of our society that we aren't outraged and called to action by the fact that children are left stranded on the street? Every human has a right to housing, yet we as a society can't even be bothered by the homelessness of some of our community's children.

I'll be honest in that I haven't done much reading and study on homelessness. This trend I've noticed with my own eyes and through conversations with those around me in my community. While I wish to continue researching and reading up on homelessness and the many facets that cause it, I currently do not know of any quick fix within the current planning system to solve systemic homelessness. Yet we as individuals can do small things to alleviate homelessness. We can start at our local schools and find out what homeless students need from school councilors. We can make small scale solutions like local food banks at community schools, more job fairs at community schools and churches, a goodwill service that works on a hyper-local scale, and accessible community gardens. While a lot of these solutions already exist, they matter not if homeless persons can't access them. The point being that we need to ensure there is equity and accessibility in the solutions being forwarded particularly in the deformed, sprawled-out places many of us live in. Twenty small food banks better serve the local communities then one giant warehouse inaccessible to the majority who need it. Smarter, more commonsense solutions are required on a community-by-community basis to alleviate current homelessness within our own communities and in our own backyards.

In a similar matter, communities aren't being provided enough affordable housing. The housing crisis worsens in Europe while in the United States, its effects are still impacting the housing market. Put simply, the housing market has failed us. Its need to provide adequate and affordable housing seems impossible to the private market. Public-private partnerships created to produce social housing ended up failing in the face of the recession or when successful, don't provide enough housing. Inclusionary zoning makes only a dent in the need to continue producing affordable housing. The neo-liberal policies that decimated public housing budgets and replaced them with "partnerships" and external funds have failed. Let us stop lying to ourselves in hope that affordable housing will trickle down from the top because it will not. American and European governments will revert back to these same failing policies, and the problem will only worsen.

A change in policy is needed. In one of my geography classes, the lecturer coined this term: "Affordable housing is inadequate and adequate housing is inaffordable." But this shouldn't be. With all the wealth and money the Western countries have, we should be able to provide both affordable and adequate housing for our citizens. The key is a return to social housing. About 50% of the housing stock in the city of Amsterdam is social housing. Similarly, beyond 70% of housing in Austria is public. Public and social housing in these places take on a new nuance, they aren't places to be scorned or segregated but places that provide equity and homes for its people. If we, as a society, cannot rely on the private market to produce affordable housing, then demand the government provide it. High quality, well designed social housing will come to fruition if public housing programs are 1) funded fully again and 2) expected to provide affordable housing. Sometimes, the private market doesn't work, and in the case of affordable housing, a government-led initiative will provide the results that we seek.

What looks like luxury living in a place like New York is actually social housing in Vienna

In the meantime, what can we do? Getting involved at a local scale and demanding affordable housing would be a start. Far too often, affordable housing projects are pushed away from affluent communities because of intolerant residents who seek a certain lifestyle apart from others. The idea that they lead separate lives from another income group is ridiculous. In fact, these residents in many ways are reliant on the people who need affordable, social housing. More people going to the local planning commission and demanding that certain plots and zones be reserved for affordable housing would make a difference. Affordable housing can be made right now, but it takes an army of community activist to ensure its delivery in our government's current neo-liberal state of functioning.

That last idea draws into my final observation. Despite more ways of connecting, more ways to get involved and make a difference, communities seemed to experience the opposite effect. Residents are less engaged, less interested, and more apathetic about the change occurring around their own neighborhood now more than ever it seems. If a horrible development has been proposed, community residents often lack motivation to fight it. For instance in Cincinnati, a twelve year legal battle resulted in a big box store development only a few miles from its downtown. By the end of the legal process, residents were too tired to fight for a smaller scale, more walkable development in what was a relatively walkable area. 

Oakley, Cincinnati- one site plan of a contested development

Bedford et al. (2002) argues that the system of participation in the planning process is what isn't working. She notes that while residents did go to planning meetings and voice their concern in her London case study, their concerns for the most part were looked over by the planning commission and the developer. But on the other hand, she also notes how there is less enthusiasm, less of an appetite for participation causing less political will to enforce new policy and better development.

I find it hard to believe that citizens just don't care about what is going on around them, so I tend to agree with Bedford in that the participation system is broken. When people try to make a difference, try to object to the planning process, more times than not they are shut down by the planning commission and developers. In the current neo-liberal condition of most governments, commissions and developers will sacrifice the community's wants for economic development.

This infiltration of money doesn't just mark the participation process, I believe. It has infiltrated the very values our communities live by. Instead of focusing on the needs and wants of its citizens, communities focus on the needs and wants of its economy. I acknowledge that economic progress is essential to providing for one's people but economic interests shouldn't supersede everything. The idea that social programs take away someone's taxpayer money and wastes it on a useless program is ludicrous. Cutting social programs and funding for social programs will only worsen the poverty around you. Forcing people "off the teat of government" (as I have heard social programs be called...) will only serve to hurt them and eventually yourself.  There is a reason the middle class is diminishing but when words like "social welfare" have a negative connotation I wonder why the middle class is diminishing with no programs to promote upward mobility? When we cut taxes in the name of greater economic freedom, I wonder why more people are less equipped to better themselves with less public funds to go around their own community? When people say the government doesn't work for them, I wonder why it doesn't work when the government can barely balance its own budget? I wish we could acknowledge the truth that neo-liberalism is just a pretty word for corporate welfare state. Unfortunately, it seems we've let this pretty word seep into our very own communities that are hurting now more than ever.

Affordable housing along the Atlanta Beltline, the Beltline being a prime example of community residents taking control of their space (albeit still with many challenges)

To change this would require a generational shift it seems. Luckily, the millennials and the generation after them may be whom to place our new hope, so-to-speak. Greater information is being spread, and people are more worldly. Alternatives exist to our current state of being, but change is necessary to seek any alternative than what is occurring. In our own communities, we need to get more involved, vote in representatives that actually look like their community, and take ownership of our community. As Ryan Gravel likes to say, the Atlanta Beltline isn't the Atlanta Beltline without Atlantan's ownership of the space. So don't be afraid to demand more out of your local school, local park, or community center. Take back the reigns of public space and make them work for you. I guarantee you, others will appreciate and support your efforts.

Racism, Gwinnett, and MARTA: A Never-ending Tale

What a welcoming sign into Gwinnett County from DeKalb! 

This blog post is going to be a very local one. (Sorry to all my non-Atlantan readers, but some of what you read may resonate with you too!) It covers the relationship between MARTA and Gwinnett county. I am going to split up the post into three sections: 1) some facts, 2) some sobering history, and 3) the current situation. If you find my opinions to be scathing or hard, then hopefully your eyes will have been opened to how bad the current situation is.

First some facts:

• 56% of Gwinnettians are willing to pay more for public transportation
• Half of likely voters in Gwinnett support a 1% tax increase to join MARTA
• Gwinnett is the second most populous county in Georgia
• Within the next fifteen years, the population will top one million residents
• The county is under-served by its transit system: Gwinnett County Transit
• The county has a minority-majority populace but its commissioners are all white, all Republican
• CAR OWNERSHIP IS A PRIVILEGE
• ACCESS TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT

County Commissioner seats... I wonder how the gerrymandering works here to ensure Republicans maintain control of all seats, not even allowing Democrats to have a seat at the table!

Now, I will recount a long (and  racist) history between MARTA and Gwinnett County:

• In 1971, Gwinnett voters rejected joining MARTA. At the time, MARTA was being created to bring mass transit service across the Atlanta area. Voters in DeKalb and Fulton Counties voted to join the authority while Clayton, Cobb, and Gwinnett voters voted against the expanding authority. There were multiple reasons for this split: large costs, low densities, small populations, a tax increase, and a rural setting. Decidedly though, the large black populations of Fulton and DeKalb Counties deterred white voters of these bedroom communities into voting against the MARTA system.
• In 1990, there was a referendum in Gwinnett about joining MARTA. Again, the vote failed. This decision though was more pure. By 1990, Gwinnett was growing rapidly. It was becoming more urban and less rural. People were told to expect a massive population boom in the coming decade according to growth models. So why the denial of public transit despite the stronger need for it? Racism. White Gwinnettians didn't want black people in Atlanta to have access to their community.  
• In 2001, 2002, express and then local bus service began by Gwinnett County Transit (GCT). A little too late though, as the county had already become the fastest growing county in the country at this time. Notably, local bus service primarily services middle or low-income communities, not the wealthy neighborhoods to the north and east.  



Sorry to curse, but what the actual fuck is this kind of service? How does this adequately serve Gwinnett? Someone ask Charlotte Nash for me because I'd love to know!

• Since then: the recession has cut local bus service (essential to those who can't afford a car) while express service has been expanded to serve the Atlanta commuters. The county has continued to grow resulting in worse traffic. Bad traffic creates unhealthy smog that hurts asthmatics during the year. In addition, the county has diversified. People hold different backgrounds and different opinions than those of 1990 or 1971. It has become distinctly urban with the only remaining agricultural uses at the fringes of the county away from the major highways. Additionally, surveys and polls show Gwinnettians support expanded public transit and/or MARTA expansion. 

The current situation:

• Charlotte Nash, county commissioner and chairwoman, on MARTA expansion: "It's an uphill battle... Its about feeling like they don't have control of the county's transit system." 
• Translation: 'Uphill battle' = her political career, she's unwillingly to jeopardize her political future by allowing a referendum, literally a decision made by the public, to go forward. 'Don't  have control of the county's transit system' = don't have control of preventing poor people from moving northward. Currently, GCT is limited to local bus service in certain disadvantaged areas in the west and center of the county. Joining MARTA would mean robust local bus service for the whole county since MARTA has the funds available for this. The only problem in that is she and her cronies would no longer have a say in preventing bus service to her affluent areas. Apparently providing public transit to her constituents isn't critical as long as the rich don't have to encounter a bloody bus allowing people to get to work. 
• John Heard, county commissioner: "I believe that if we put it on the ballet, a local transit SPLOST will pass -- for Gwinnett County only. Nobody wants to send our money down to the City of Atlanta."  
• Translation: 'for Gwinnett County only' = he's only interested in helping the affluent Atlanta commuter, not the average Gwinnettian (or Atlantan for that matter) without a car. 'Nobody wants to send our money down to the City of Atlanta' = Democrats/black people aren't taking our money. This might sound like a harsh translation, but it's not. He is being explicitly racist in what he is saying here. If Gwinnett joined MARTA, all taxes raised would go toward the expansion of MARTA in Gwinnett. He is lying to his constituents or he is being naive. He for sure is being racist in showing his distaste towards allowing a transit service use funds to provide robust transit that will directly allow better mobility for people of color.  

So here is what is actually going on. Our county commissioners are misleading the public by already throwing out incorrect facts about MARTA. MARTA, by no means, is a perfect transit system, but if Gwinnett joins it, we aren't losing control of where are money goes, how it is used, and how we are serviced. Ask Clayton County. They recently joined MARTA, now have robust bus service across the whole county, and will soon be discussing how to provide a commuter train to its communities. Gwinnett, on the other hand, recently lost NCR and its 3,000+ jobs because of a lack of transit access. Gwinnett has no plans moving forward on how to deal with its traffic problem. In fact, all Gwinnett is doing is sitting in traffic wasting time and money behind the wheel. Charlotte Nash and her Republican controlled commission are unfairly using their power to prevent democracy. They are preventing the county from moving forward by not allowing a referendum on MARTA. They are clinging onto power in a time when Gwinnett needs strong leadership and real change. Business as usual is failing. Growth and the economy is moving elsewhere but for some reason, everyone is sitting in traffic in denial about this.

Dacula, on the right, in relation to the rest of the county

What should you do? Demand your referendum! Charlotte Nash doesn't live along the 85 corridor; she lives all the way out in Dacula. She doesn't have to sit through an hour of traffic a day to get to a well-paying job that happens to be outside of the county. She doesn't grasp how bad it is. She and her fellow commissioners also don't grasp what it means to be apart of a region. Gwinnett is great, success does live here, but it is great because it relies on the greater Atlanta region. Gwinnett needs to be a part of its transportation system if it hopes to stay competitive in the future. Ask your neighbor what they would think of getting MARTA service. Chances are they wouldn't mind it! 

Remember these water towers? A moto we need to continue to live by! 

Our leaders are playing politics. It doesn't take much to read between the lines of their statements and see where their true opinions lie. Luckily, that doesn't mean we can't sway them. If enough of us raise a racket, we will get our referendum and the congestion relief and public transit that WE DESPERATELY NEED. 

*A lot of this article references David Wickert's reporting from the AJC. I encourage you to read his reports of the state of transportation in the AJC. http://commuting.blog.ajc.com/2017/10/27/will-gwinnett-county-join-marta-not-likely-officials-say/