Local documentarian and friend, John Paget, won the Congress for the New Urbanism's video contest. Here is the press release: http://www.cnu.org/cnu17/node/2853. John Norquist, president and CEO of CNU said, "Built to Last made me laugh out loud... But this video is serious too."
John is an award winning documentarian, the talent behind Paget Films (www.pagetfilms.com) and the producer/director behind the local internet tv channel, truebluebuffalo.com. John produced Let's Grow Buffalo, the short film that makes a case for urban agriculture and preservation in Buffalo.
John also teams up with other friends from Southern California, Chris Elisara, Drew Ward and Aaron Lemen. It was this team, collaborating as First and Main Media (www.firstandmain.tv), that produced Built to Last.
Congrats friends! I hope to see all of you in August.
Grace and peace to all.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Rethinking the Lord's Supper
Below is a link to a blog that I read on a regular basis. I have been thinking this way about the Eucharist for some time now. I believe that Christ's word about being present when two or three are gathered in His name is simply another way of saying, "remember me when you break bread together."Rethinking the Lord’s Supper
Grace and peace to all.
Image is the work of deb hoeffner.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Housing Crisis My A@#
Forgive the provocative title. It's all about the headline right?
I have been asking myself this ever since the word foreclosure became the most commonly used word in the national media.
What's the big deal?
The housing crisis has been in full swing for decades in my neighborhood. Of the 50 grand homes that used to sit on my block, 18 are still standing. That's 64% of the housing gone. Not in foreclosure or sitting vacant... GONE! That means that 64% of the houses on my block have already been through foreclosure and sat vacant for many years and fallen apart and been torn or burned down. Another 10% sit vacant today. This is just one block out of the hundreds like it in Buffalo and hundreds of thousands like it throughout the nations urban communities. Where is the outcry? Where are the billions of dollars of federal money to bail out these communities? Welfare right?
Welfare in the form of federally funded highways that make wealthy suburbs possible?
Welfare in the form of mortgage interest tax deductions that make middle and upper class homeownership possible?
Without these, the largest welfare programs in the history of humanity, everyone would be stuck in the 'hood. But, if everyone was stuck in the 'hood then the 'hood wouldn't exist. Instead, the 'hood would be a stable, viable community. Not perfect, but stable. Not without problems, but with solutions. Almost like it was before this mad scientist experiment called suburbanization began.
How do we move forward from here? We have moved to one of the abandoned places and are building a community here. With our neighbors we are trying to cross racial lines, socio-economic lines and spiritual lines. We are sharing the joys of new babies and the pain of mothers having to leave those babies to go to war. We are loving our neighbors but more importantly, our neighbors are loving us. "Move to the 'hood and minister" is the call but the surprise is that the 'hood has much more to give than we do.
Grace and peace to all.
P.S. Here is the news item that started this little rant: Empty neighborhoods fill Rust Belt
Also, 6 of NY State's 10 most abandoned neighborhoods are on Buffalo's East Side - our neighborhood.
The picture above is the view from our front window.
I have been asking myself this ever since the word foreclosure became the most commonly used word in the national media.
What's the big deal?
The housing crisis has been in full swing for decades in my neighborhood. Of the 50 grand homes that used to sit on my block, 18 are still standing. That's 64% of the housing gone. Not in foreclosure or sitting vacant... GONE! That means that 64% of the houses on my block have already been through foreclosure and sat vacant for many years and fallen apart and been torn or burned down. Another 10% sit vacant today. This is just one block out of the hundreds like it in Buffalo and hundreds of thousands like it throughout the nations urban communities. Where is the outcry? Where are the billions of dollars of federal money to bail out these communities? Welfare right?
Welfare in the form of federally funded highways that make wealthy suburbs possible?
Welfare in the form of mortgage interest tax deductions that make middle and upper class homeownership possible?
Without these, the largest welfare programs in the history of humanity, everyone would be stuck in the 'hood. But, if everyone was stuck in the 'hood then the 'hood wouldn't exist. Instead, the 'hood would be a stable, viable community. Not perfect, but stable. Not without problems, but with solutions. Almost like it was before this mad scientist experiment called suburbanization began.
How do we move forward from here? We have moved to one of the abandoned places and are building a community here. With our neighbors we are trying to cross racial lines, socio-economic lines and spiritual lines. We are sharing the joys of new babies and the pain of mothers having to leave those babies to go to war. We are loving our neighbors but more importantly, our neighbors are loving us. "Move to the 'hood and minister" is the call but the surprise is that the 'hood has much more to give than we do.
Grace and peace to all.
P.S. Here is the news item that started this little rant: Empty neighborhoods fill Rust Belt
Also, 6 of NY State's 10 most abandoned neighborhoods are on Buffalo's East Side - our neighborhood.
The picture above is the view from our front window.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Built to Last
A few friends of ours put together a short film for the Congress for New Urbanism's YouTube video contest. John Paget is a Buffalo based film maker behind the web tv channel, TrueBlueBuffalo.com. The contest is based on the number of views on YouTube so show your support of walkable communities and local artists by watching this thought provoking film.
Here is the link: Built to Last
P.S. I would embed the film but then it doesn't count as a view on YouTube. Now go to YouTube and watch the film.
Here is the link: Built to Last
P.S. I would embed the film but then it doesn't count as a view on YouTube. Now go to YouTube and watch the film.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Here we grow again!
Today was a huge blessing. Our neighbor took his dump truck out to Amherst's municipal composting facility this morning and picked up 10 tons of beautiful soil. He backed into the vacant lot that we own and tried to dump the load. Unfortunately for me, even his skilled driving couldn't get the soil out of the bed. I ended up climbing inside and shoveling the remaining soil out of the truck.
Duffy, a volunteer from the Wesleyan Church at Hamburg came over and spent the morning helping me remove the sod and mound our raised beds with soil. A few hours of hard labor and we have several beds almost ready for planting. Come Memorial Day we will set out 150 tomato plants and a variety of other veggies. Thanks to all who lent a hand.
Duffy, a volunteer from the Wesleyan Church at Hamburg came over and spent the morning helping me remove the sod and mound our raised beds with soil. A few hours of hard labor and we have several beds almost ready for planting. Come Memorial Day we will set out 150 tomato plants and a variety of other veggies. Thanks to all who lent a hand.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Buffalo's Urban Farms
A neighborhood friend and blogger just posted about Buffalo's urban farm history. fix Buffalo highlights the city program to establish urban farms to feed the poor and hungry during hard times in the 1890's. Ironically, Buffalo was following the example of Detroit's urban agriculture program. Today, Detroit is working to establish urban farms on its acres and acres of vacant land. Let's hope that Buffalo can again follow the example of others in developing urban agriculture.
The aerial photo above is a 150 acre farm at the Buffalo Psychiatric Asylum in 1927. In 1927 Buffalo's population was more than double the current population and we still had room for 150 acres of farm land. We now know this farm as Buffalo State College.
Links:
fix Buffalo's 1890 urban farm post
WNY Heritage Press article on 1890's urban farms
Detroit urban farm proposal
The aerial photo above is a 150 acre farm at the Buffalo Psychiatric Asylum in 1927. In 1927 Buffalo's population was more than double the current population and we still had room for 150 acres of farm land. We now know this farm as Buffalo State College.
Links:
fix Buffalo's 1890 urban farm post
WNY Heritage Press article on 1890's urban farms
Detroit urban farm proposal
Friday, April 3, 2009
The First Step to Recovery
I work at a school with 105 students. 103 of these students are African-American and 2 are white. The demographics of the surrounding neighborhood are similar and my wife and I have chosen to live in a neighborhood with similar racial demographics. In this environment the saying: "don't judge a person until you walk a mile in their shoes" has taken on new meaning for me. I have become the racial minority in my community. I feel my skin color every time I walk outside. I wonder how the people walking and driving down my street think about my skin color. I hope that they don't judge me based on their previous experiences with people of my similar hue. My skin color, its cultural meaning and its practical ramifications in my community are never far from my mind. This experience has challenged me to think about, talk about and study race, racism and race relations.
Depending on your perspective you might think this is odd in a "post-racial society." With the ascent of President Obama we have heard a lot about the end of racism. The most common phrase I hear when I talk to white Americans that are not engaged in race relations is: "I'm not racist." Now, I'm not going to present an argument for the position that our society is profoundly racist (although I believe it is and may attempt this in the future). However, I think we do ourselves and our communities a disservice by pretending that we are not prejudiced or biased. It is impossible not to be biased, in some way, toward almost everything. It might be argued that the highest form of injustice is the refusal to recognize injustice in the first place. I believe that it is time for us to stop pretending, admit our prejudices and work together to break them down and eliminate them. Elimination of prejudice is the goal that will never be achieved because of human nature but it is the goal nonetheless. I would like to challenge you to reflect personally and honestly about your beliefs and feelings, conscious and subconscious, about people with a different racial heritage than your own.
To encourage you to reflect honestly I would like to admit that I am racist. As our recovering friends tell us, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. I know that our society and my position in it has taught be some profoundly racist attitudes. I also know that this is no excuse for inexcusable behavior. No matter where my beliefs and attitudes come from they are still mine and I must own them and deal with them in a morally, ethically, and socially responsible way. The problem is that I can't deal with the problem if I am unwilling to recognize it, admit it and address it. This is why conflict of interest policies and judicial recusal policies exist at every level of society. The purpose is to identify bias and prejudice and take steps to reduce or eliminate its impact on ourselves and our communities.
Harvard University has an ongoing project that seeks to identify subconscious attitudes in many areas including race. I completed the race test and received the following result:
"Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for European American compared to African American."
Here is the breakdown of how all respondents scored:
I don't want to imply that these tests are perfect but they are challenging and may help you to think and identify attitudes and feelings that you may not have realized were there.
Here is the link to Harvard University's Project Implicit. Go to the demonstration tests and choose a category to test yourself on. I would suggest race.
Depending on your perspective you might think this is odd in a "post-racial society." With the ascent of President Obama we have heard a lot about the end of racism. The most common phrase I hear when I talk to white Americans that are not engaged in race relations is: "I'm not racist." Now, I'm not going to present an argument for the position that our society is profoundly racist (although I believe it is and may attempt this in the future). However, I think we do ourselves and our communities a disservice by pretending that we are not prejudiced or biased. It is impossible not to be biased, in some way, toward almost everything. It might be argued that the highest form of injustice is the refusal to recognize injustice in the first place. I believe that it is time for us to stop pretending, admit our prejudices and work together to break them down and eliminate them. Elimination of prejudice is the goal that will never be achieved because of human nature but it is the goal nonetheless. I would like to challenge you to reflect personally and honestly about your beliefs and feelings, conscious and subconscious, about people with a different racial heritage than your own.
To encourage you to reflect honestly I would like to admit that I am racist. As our recovering friends tell us, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. I know that our society and my position in it has taught be some profoundly racist attitudes. I also know that this is no excuse for inexcusable behavior. No matter where my beliefs and attitudes come from they are still mine and I must own them and deal with them in a morally, ethically, and socially responsible way. The problem is that I can't deal with the problem if I am unwilling to recognize it, admit it and address it. This is why conflict of interest policies and judicial recusal policies exist at every level of society. The purpose is to identify bias and prejudice and take steps to reduce or eliminate its impact on ourselves and our communities.
Harvard University has an ongoing project that seeks to identify subconscious attitudes in many areas including race. I completed the race test and received the following result:
"Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for European American compared to African American."
Here is the breakdown of how all respondents scored:
I don't want to imply that these tests are perfect but they are challenging and may help you to think and identify attitudes and feelings that you may not have realized were there.
Here is the link to Harvard University's Project Implicit. Go to the demonstration tests and choose a category to test yourself on. I would suggest race.
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