Hello Friends,

Many of you have not heard from/seen me in years, and I hope this letter finds all safe and sound. As I try to keep up with California news from my Harlem apartment, I have followed the prospects of Proposition 8 - the ballot initiative to revoke equal marriage rights for gay couples - with some interest. I wasn’t much worried, though, counting on a fundamental sense of justice in the California people. But as polls continue to narrow, I can no longer conscience silence. I’m doing something I have never done: writing a bulk email.

This not a political matter, and this is not a choice which has any bearing on the love, sanctity, and meaning embodied in so many heterosexual marriages. Marriage is a civil right. If you have married, I’d imagine you believe it to be a fundamental one. Anything less than marriage - including a “separate but equal” pact under another name - is a profound injustice.

I urge you to vote NO on Prop 8 to preserve basic civil rights for all California citizens. If you identify as heterosexual, the need to stand up for our brothers and sisters even without our own stake in this fight is of particular ethical import. If you already plan on voting NO, I encourage you to read up on the state of the race and see if you, too, feel compelled to write as many people as you can.

In 1948, California was the first state to rule racist anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. That decision sparked a fire culminating in the landmark Loving v. Virgina almost two decades later. Our parents or grandparents never had the privilege to vote in support of civil rights on that issue, but on this occasion we do. While we pray that this struggle for a basic equality moves more speedily, we must not forsake the opportunity to make our voices heard on November 4th. Vote NO on Prop 8.

Much warmth,
Steve McFarland

Oh, sorry, I’m confusing Venkatesh’s article with HOPE VI. The parallel isn’t too hard to draw, and any conversation about the shortcomings of HUD - and the contestability of its interventions - inevitably involves HOPE VI, a fifteen year-old program to tear down the worst high-rise projects and rebuild them as new urbanist, mixed-income and mixed-use communities.

I read the piece last summer with some interest, but missed the vigorous discussion within the urban planning community. I’ve just discovered Randall Crane’s urban planning research, “essays on urban studies.” Crane* is the Vice Chair of UCLA’s esteemed urban planning program, and contacted Xavier De Souza Briggs at MIT for his reply, which included the following:

hope 6 plays out very differently from place to place. it isn’t fair to dismiss it as a mere give-away to developers or a program for displacement across the board. there are wonderful hope 6 developments, there are responsible and hardworking affordable housing developers delivering real innovation, and resident relocation improved in a number of cities after the flaws started to get documented a decade ago.

Having done a bit of research on HOPE VI at UEP, I was fascinated by this whole exchange, but am also well out of my depth here, so will leave interested parties to click-through to the professionals.

* Off topic, but according to Crane’s bio page, he was PhD advisor to Charisma Acey, who wrote the fantastic “Space vs. Race: A Historical Exploration of Spatial Injustice and Unequal Access to Water in Lagos, Nigeria,” which was published in last summer’s special issue of Critical Planning, focused on spatial justice. Her article, like many in that issue, helped form the practical foundation of my thesis.

“…all of this was held afloat by easy credit. Easy credit has been our nation’s substitute for decent wages.” -Barbara Ehrenreich

“Running a deficit defunds the left. They’ve learned how to kill social spending.” -Thomas Frank

[Speaking of placing black civil rights struggles, Dr. King, and historicizing the present] We have to have people who are willing to tell the stories, so you don’t just jump in without the context and start looking at x, y, and z. And that’s part of the discourse we’re not having.” -Cornel West

[On the 'Culture Wars' and discontent of the conservative heartland] “Why can’t my team have that sense of grievance?! People are seething and Palin speaks to that. They’re fucking furious!” - Frank

“[Barack Obama] is not the product of a native Black American experience.” - John McWhorter

“Martin [Luther King] has been deoderized since they had the holiday for him. If you can’t mention Martin who can you mention? There’s a difference between a quest for truth and justice, and power and the White House.” - West

“[Race is] already part of the mix. That’s part of what it is to be American, the question is when does it drop? If it comes down to Ohio, and it’s 49% Obama and 40% McCain and the Bradley Effect takes over and people get into the booth and say, ‘I-I-justcan’tdoit,” then we can say…” -West

The New Yorker has a recap, too.

What a great way to document a redesign.

This clip show of a day of same-sex weddings in West Hollywood made me cry. I am so, so, so, SO proud of my home state. I can’t contain it. I will do anything do defeat that ballot measure this fall. God, justice, equality, equal access, and love conquer all! (from Slate V)

Such respect for this Shel Silverstein-penned song and particularly this 1969 recording, but funny that my mind’s eye forgot that all the prisoners at San Quentin would be white. “A Boy Named Sue”