Long

Along Martin Luther King

Along Martin Luther King is the title of a wonderful book that documents the travels of two reporters along nearly 500 streets around the US named after the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  This is my first post in a long time and it was this NYTimes article (Boulevard in Newark Runs from Decline to Rebirth) that inspired me.

I used to live in DC and had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in SE where MLK Drive winds through a mix of mostly very low income neighborhoods.  I hated the perverse irony that the corner of Good Hope and MLK roads became an unofficial memorial to youth who were killed by violence in the surrounding neighborhoods.  These experiences led me to the aforementioned book and to spend time on MLK streets, blvds, and drives in other cities.  The situation was always a little different in each city, but they all rhymed with the central theme - fallen from grace. 

This former resident of MLK Blvd in Neward describes the transformation that I have only witnessed the last bottom of.

“I can see Lawyer Tate, Dr. Shelton, Old Lady Ruffin and all the beautiful buildings,” Mrs. Whigham said, ticking off the people who once filled the granite-and-marble Victorians. “It was a gem. For a black family, it was a dream to be living here.”

In the summer of 1967, the Whighams huddled on their rooftop as rioters burned neighboring buildings; then the Whighams helped bury a dozen victims of the violence. In the decades since, they have witnessed the flight of the professional class and the onslaught of drugs and despair, planning countless funerals for teenagers killed by gunfire and young mothers felled by AIDS.

I came across an professor of geography at East Carolina University, Derek H. Alderman, who studies geographies of public memory and commeration.  Described as

My work recognizes the socially constructed and contested nature of commemorating the past and the importance that space, place, and scale play in the memorialization process.  Where a memorial is located is not incidental but actively shapes how people conceptualize and carry out the politics of commemoration and the larger goal of achieving social justice.  Much of the work in this area has focused on the commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr.—examining the role of African Americans in naming streets for the slain civil rights leader, the controversies they face, and the ultimate locations which these named streets occupy.  I am particularly interested in understanding how place names serve as arenas for debating the meaning of King’s historical legacy.

I am interested to learn more about what Alderman's uncovered about these locations serving as arenas for debating King's legacy.

Some interesting facts about MLK streets

• At least 730 streets have been named in MLK's honor in 39 states and DC
• Chicago was the first city to name a street in 1968
• 70 percent of places with King streets are in the seven Southern states of Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, and North Carolina.

Finally, there is a Flickr set tagged with MLKblvd that has some good pictures, this was my favorite, though I thought the Google Image set was more interesting.

I continue to think that it would be an interesting viral project to engage students to document the residents and business owners along these streets on a shared site.  I liked the brevity and simplicity of The Thought Project and you could pair it up with a google maps mashup like Wayfaring.

Post Article on Evangelicals Broadening Their Moral Agenda

I am in the middle of finals(3 down, 1 to go) and taking a break catching up on the news a bit.  At first, I was excited to read this headline.  I have liked to see evangelical groups getting behind issues like hunger, poverty and the environment in order to be true to the teachings of the bible.  All that said, this article in the Post today hardly paints a rosy picture for ongoing support of these issues.

"I definitely don't like the widening of the agenda, because it muddies the water," said the Rev. Michael Haseltine, pastor of the 2,000-member Maranatha Assembly of God Church in Forest Lake,Minn.

"Be good stewards of the environment? Sure, but how? These tree-huggers and anti-hunters think it's terrible to kill animals. Oppose poverty? Sure, but what's the best way to do it? We can't solve everybody's problems for them," he said. "Family and life issues -- abortion, sexuality -- they're much more clear from the biblical standpoint."

First, no offense, but "we can't because it's hard" is the lamest kind of excuse.  Nothing truly worth fighting for is ever as simple as showing up to church each week or voting yes on a ballot initiative. I am really disappointed by that attitude.  The last time I checked Jesus' life wasn't terribly comfortable, and that was largely a result of the kind of people he looked to help - the poor.  However, to me, the most striking part of that quote "We can't solve everyone's problems for them."  If you're poor, that's your problem. But if you're gay, that's my problem. That doesn't seem right to me.

This kind of got my hackle up this morning because we're headed to New Orleans tomorrow for Share Our Strength's annual conference and I know how much work is still to be done there.  To be sure, local faith-based organizations have been absolutely critical in the recovery of the region, particularly in the early days.  I guess I have problem with the transparent desire to have power and to avoid the real work of the bible (as I understand it) that seems to define much of the most vocal evangelical activity these days. Happy to be wrong on this one, but this my impression from my readings. I recognize this does not define all evangelicals, but I have little choice but to believe the words of the folks they have chosen to represent them nationally. 

People's Design Awards - Play Pump

The People's Design Awards for 2006 are open now.  They give awards for things like the paperclip and wheeled suitcases - great design for the unwashed masses. This year Play Pump (PBS story about the org. here) is one of the nominees.  It's a very cool well system designed for developing countries that places  a merry-go-round on top of the well so that children playing actually draw the water up out of the well and into an elevated cistern.  Play Pump also sells bill board advertising on the elevated cistern.  

Other nominees include the US Constitution which we all seem to have forgotten is brilliantly designed for the people, not for autocrats, and the Katrina Cottage, whose brilliance was necessitated by the lack there of by aforementioned autocrats.

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CIA World Fact Book - Taiwan

I love the fact that the CIA World Fact Book lists Taiwan in its drop down menu.  I especially love it that Taiwan is listed after Zimbabwe (alphabetically last).  The Chinese government will never find it down there. It's a very interesting solution to what is not an easy problem.  (The EU is now listed after Taiwan after Zimbabwe for less obvious reasons to me.)

"Poverty" Photo Set from Flickr

Here's a set of photos of our citizens living on the street or in poverty from a photographer in S.F.  There are some really powerful photos in the set and the accompanying explanation is a welcome addition, providing some perspective on the individual in the image.

Rise of Nationalism in Japan

Well, Shinzo Abe easily won election.  This is what Murakami was talking about in this earlier post.

American Dream - Breaking the Cycle of Payday Loans

A very cool article in USAToday about payday loans and the steps that a credit union in NC took to help create a competitive product that benefited its members.

Tellers at the North Carolina State Employees'
Credit Union noticed a troubling change several years ago: The first
people in line on payday were high-cost lenders, waiting to cash checks
from credit union members.

A glance at the records showed thousands of
credit union customers were turning to payday outlets for small loans
to be repaid with their next paychecks. Such products typically carry
annual fees of 300% to 1,000%. Many strapped borrowers repeatedly roll
over the loans, sinking deeply into debt.

To wean its members from payday providers, the
State Employees' Credit Union (SECU) in 2001 introduced a short-term
loan that has a 12% annual interest rate, a maximum limit of $500,
requires borrowers to repay via direct deposit of their paychecks and
put 5% of loan proceeds in savings accounts. Each month, more than
40,000 people use the product, which has a maximum 31-day term.
Overall, members have accumulated $10 million in savings accounts.

American Dream - Breaking the Cycle of Payday Loans

A very cool article in USAToday about payday loans and the steps that a credit union in NC took to help create a competitive product that benefited its members.

Tellers at the North Carolina State Employees'
Credit Union noticed a troubling change several years ago: The first
people in line on payday were high-cost lenders, waiting to cash checks
from credit union members.

A glance at the records showed thousands of
credit union customers were turning to payday outlets for small loans
to be repaid with their next paychecks. Such products typically carry
annual fees of 300% to 1,000%. Many strapped borrowers repeatedly roll
over the loans, sinking deeply into debt.

To wean its members from payday providers, the
State Employees' Credit Union (SECU) in 2001 introduced a short-term
loan that has a 12% annual interest rate, a maximum limit of $500,
requires borrowers to repay via direct deposit of their paychecks and
put 5% of loan proceeds in savings accounts. Each month, more than
40,000 people use the product, which has a maximum 31-day term.
Overall, members have accumulated $10 million in savings accounts.

Cool - Early Warning System

Yikes! School is keeping me more busy than I anticipated.  Had to add this story about using bluegills to monitor contaminant levels in our drinking water supplies as follow-up to the earlier urban aquaculture post.   

Small numbers of the fish are kept in tanks constantly replenished
with water from the municipal supply, and sensors in each tank work
around the clock to register changes in the breathing, heartbeat and
swimming patterns of the bluegills that occur in the presence of toxins.

"Nature's given us pretty much the most powerful and reliable early
warning center out there," said Bill Lawler, co-founder of Intelligent
Automation Corporation, a Southern California company that makes and
sells the bluegill monitoring system. "There's no known manmade sensor
that can do the same job as the bluegill."

Faith - Zoroastrians

The NYTimes has an interesting article about the current state of Zoroastians.  There is considerable concern about the future of the religion given the dwindling numbers.  The Washington Post had a piece on Zoroastrians earlier this summer that I talked about earlier.