Utopias without Time

I took a "Utopia and the Landscape" seminar in graduate school. Not something explicitly practical from a scientific perspective, but it has been incredibly informative in the way I look at manifesto, mass media and geopolitical trends. I want to discuss the timelessness of utopias and then draw parallels with that and some contemporary trends I've noticed.

Utopias without Time
One of the most interesting things I learned in this Utopia seminar is that utopias are by definition timeless. One cannot have a perfect society in time. There cannot be a history or future. History would make it seem like there is something to learn from. History would show stupid decisions at best and horrors at worst. This cannot be in a utopia! And what about the future? Forget it! There is nothing to build and nothing to aspire to. Avant Garde - beggone! Everything is already perfect. Utopia, in the classic sense, exists as a static moment. Honestly, if you really think about it, utopia (and perfection) can be downright hellish.

Utopia in Time
But as humans, we're always looking to create utopia. (Yes, this can be argued.) So what happens if we hypothetically reached utopia at some point and then went past this point of perfection? I'd argue you'd get today's USA. Now let me qualify, I don't actually believe there ever was a point when all people, irrespective of race and social class had a perfect life. Especially not in the USA. But I believe we came close enough... and have since spiraled away. So what trends do I see pointing back to a near-utopian moment?

First, I see suburban sprawl. This is the physical manifestation of the perfect balance of community and open space.... gone out of control. The volume of suburbs we have in America is not sustainable. Suburban land use patterns are hugely inefficient at providing basic services (hospital, water, social, fire and police). Let's not forget the infrastructure maintenance, and oil and automobile dependence either. Suburbs aren't inherently bad, but when they destroy farmland and hollow out cities, something is out of balance.

Secondly, there is the food we eat. Our farm policies in the US are crafted to provide us with plenty of food. We spend less of our income on food than any generation prior. Perfect right? Well, this food has little-to-no nutrient value. We have a generation raised on sugar, caffeine and fat. This has created an obesity "epidemic" which is leading to huge problems with diabetes and heart disease. But, isn't this abundance?

Thirdly, we have access to perfect information. The internet and our technology does an amazing job of keeping us all in the loop. But a lot of that information can be wrong. And who remembers Enron? That company profited through the manipulation of information only to collapse under its own delusion. Sadly, most of the information we access is meaningless.

Fourthly, our collective apathy. I'm being a little polemic in my language with this one, but as a culture, we no longer seem to remember the past or think about the future. We rack up huge debts on credit without thinking on the long term implications. We build in flood plains and in the path of hurricanes. To me, all of these things shout that, as a culture, we have little concept of what happened in the past or care about what will happen in the future. We are living as if we are in a utopia.

Time will march forward. These systems and trends will either collapse, or reinvent themselves. But people, we don't live in a utopia. We can't expect things to stay the same.

(I'm sure there are other trends out there and I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this.)

Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There are some traditions that my family would do every year and some we would switch out. In either event, there is a rhythm to those days which remain little changed from my childhood.

Christmas Eve
Sometimes my family would go out for dinner on Christmas Eve. This was always at some nice fancy place, kind of a quiet evening with my family. Those were special, but the real fun happened when we could have Christmas Dinner at Aunt A's house. She would have meatballs, lasagna, breaded clams, calamari, pizzelle, struffoli... The works. This wasn't just for my small nuclear family, but for the larger Italian side of my family. And that is a lot of people. On my father's branch along, I've got seven brothers and sisters. I'm an uncle 15 times over. I am also a great-uncle twice over! And likely my Aunt A's branch is probably even larger. Granted, most of my father's branch doesn't show up, but I think I am conveying the point.

Sometimes that night, we could go to midnight mass. Growing up we would go to the Dutch Reformed Church down the street. As my one brother and I got older, we stopped going. None of us were particularly religions. Just spending time together at home had more meaning for us. We would relax, unwind and have some eggnog. Now as a teenager, I tried implementing this "open one present on Christmas Eve night" tradition. Alas, that one did not stick!

Christmas Day
Obviously, as a child, this was dominated by presents. However, this was soon replaced by Christmas Breakfast. One traditional food that we would make every year was "pizza friet" which, as I understand it, means "fried pizza dough" in Italian. My brother and I would form a pizza friet team. One would cut the dough into interesting shapes, the other would watch the fry pan, flipping and taking out the friet as necessary. My mom would make this really interesting egg and cheese souffle, and sometimes we'd have this cinnamon balls baked together in a bundt pan. All this food definitely became more important than presents.

After we had a huge brunch, we'd then saunter over to the living room and tree. Hudson, my brother's dog was actually the most excited about presents. This dog knows which presents are his (by the scent) and can actually unwrap most presents. It's an amazing thing to watch. One person would be "Santa" and dole out the presents, and we'd make sure everyone got equal shares. As our family grew (with spouses) this part of the day would take up more and more time. We've since agreed to a reduced present load, but somehow we all violate it and go over.

After unwraping presents we'd usually all retreat to our own spaces and rummage through our new hoard of goodies. The afternoon would pass with us relaxing and having some down time.

Christmas dinner was on of two things. When I was smaller, we'd have a ham or turkey for dinner that my mom spent the afternoon cooking. But as I got older, my friends' parents would have my family over for Christmas dinner. These parents, by the way, owned a award-winner, internationally acclaimed pastry shop. So yeah, good food and all my friends were there with all our parents. My friends and I would compare note about presents and hang out. It was good times.


Two days of traditions and non-stop awesomeness with friends and family. That is why I love Christmas time.

Growing Up

I think I'm growing up. I am not longer quite as excited to visit my mom's house for Christmas. Now, let me preface this a bit. I grew up without my biological father. Family, and family traditions are of extreme importance to be because I was keenly aware of how delicate family life can sometimes be. To this end, I always looked forward to the two weeks around Christmas. My mother is a teacher and she would have those weeks off. My brother would either return from college, or have those weeks off (he's got an awesome boss). The three of us would all be together. It was so special for me. The friends I grew up with would be around. I felt known. I felt understood. I felt like I was surrounded by family.

Now, I have my own house. I am married and have my own family. Granted we don't have kids yet, but hopefully someday. We do have our needy cat though. It's a hassle to leave our house and find someone to water the plants and watch the cat. We have our own tree and our own holiday decorations. My brother has a wife now too. They have their own tree. My mom has even remarried.

So times has changed and I feel like I'm grasping at this romantic notion of my past. I still love my family and I still feel close with them. I can't imagine spending Christmas somewhere else. But I no longer hang around for two weeks. One week is the most I manage now and often times that seems like more than enough.

Tax Exempt

I've heard a lot of talk about how the Mormon Church, upon pumping millions of dollars into Proposition 8 should have its tax exempt status revoked. Personally, I don't see why ANY church should be tax-exempt. I can understand not getting taxed based on your income from tithes. These are essentially donations, and I think donations should be tax exempt. But people, churches don't have to pay taxes for ANYTHING. My big beef with this is with regard to cities. (Of course it is.)

Cities have a dwindling tax base. Yes, this is largely due to population loss from white flight. However, the number of tax-exempt buildings within most cities is ASTOUNDING. Here's a list off the top of my head of tax-exempt institutions:

• Universities
  
• Government Buildings
• Hospitals
• Churches

And you guessed it, a lot of these institutions are predominantly found in cities. Their concentration is especially high in older cities. And even higher in cities with poverty.

Now, universities are good things to have. Assuming there isn't a walled campus, universities have help cities out tremendously. They bring in young, creative people. They foster new ideas. They give a city a sense of place. Some people even seem to get excited about their athletic programs. Though their grounds are tax-exempt there is a lot of spin off value that is generated.

Government buildings are good to have in cities too. Being located in the urban core means more people have access to the building. Given that governments are technically about all people (not just the rich) this should be a deciding factor. However, it is tough on a city when the municipality hosts not just city hall, but also the county seat, various federal buildings and branches of state offices. Those buildings add up, however they create a stable base of employment which supports various weekday spin-off activities (like lunch spots).

Hospitals. These are definitely important to have in a highly accessible (ie, urban) environment. It doesn't help anyone if by the time they get to the hospital, they are dead. Also, like government buildings and universities, hospitals and generate spin-off income for cities. Bed and breakfasts for families staying near a loved one in the hospital. Restaurants for families. Near-by medical offices.

Now churches. What do churches provide? What do they generate for the civic good? (Note: I am not questioning their spiritual efficacy, but am keeping this to the material body) A single preacher / pastor does not generate much spin off income. One does not see businesses appearing around churches. In fact, in many urban communities, churches spring up everywhere. I know of some parts of my city where there are multiple churches on a block. Keep in mind this is a de-populating rust belt city. Do the few remaining residents really need that many churches? And what happens when the church closes?

In short, get those church off the tax extempt status. Make them pay property tax like any other corporate business. Oh wait.... corporate businesses don't pay taxes either.

Ugh, I'll have to save that for another post....

Life Updates

Slow Food is moving along nicely. I just have one more piece to fit together before sending out the chapter application. I also need to contact L about getting her web expertise which was so generous that I haven't even been able to respond to her offer. Lame of me, I know.

Wedding Planning is also moving along nicely. We have almost fleshed out our address list. Mike also came up with an awesome idea for our reception location. We received our "save-the-dates" and need to start distributing them. I just wonder if at this point, I should focus more on sending out the actual invitations. Hm.

Music is not moving. I realized that I may have to drop this entirely this year. I would like to go hang out at some jam sessions just to meet the people and take in the music. Unfortunately, I will not realistically be able to dedicate the time to learning a new instrument. On the plus side, I realize I should first learn guitar, that basic instrument, before moving on to more complex instruments, such as a mandolin.

Fraternity is unfortunately moving. I still have three fraternity commitments and one of them is taking up an unhealthy amount of my time. I am beginning to extricate myself from the responsibility of this task. However, this is a very important task and I will not just drop it. It will still take some substantial effort to responsibly pass this task on to another.

Path is slowly moving. Unlike music, which was also supposed to be a stress reliever, Path is actually functioning as a pleasant distraction. I've done more work to craft this work as my own original place and have fleshed out a one-shot adventure highlighting some of Path's unique features.

A business? Hah! I've been so busy with other things I haven't even contemplated it. This is one task that I definitely have put to bed for the time being. Thank goodness!

Brotherhood

I am a Brother of Delta Lambda Phi. It's official tag line is that it is a fraternity "for gay, bisexual and progressive men" however, I like the tag line "founded by gay men for all men." I've been a Brother since 2001, but have been involved since December 0f 1998. That's ten years now.

During these ten years, I feel I've grown a lot as an individual. Until I decided to become involved in DLP I had never taken on a position of leadership. Now I have plenty of leadership experience. Heck, I speak and give presentations to the public as part of my job now. I am constantly starting projects (not always successfully but such is life). But what has DLP really given me? Would I have grown into a leadership role eventually? A network of Brothers around the county? The ability to help foster the next generation of leader?

Let me focus on this network of friends I can rely on. This is true in the abstract. Unfortunately, when I sit down and look at all of the brothers I've met over the years, I only feel I can really rely on 25 people in the fraternity (give or take). 25 people over 10 years? For an organization that purports to be about brotherhood, those are not the best statistics. Now don't get me wrong. Those 25 (give or take) people are all awesome people who have touched my life in so many ways. I have no regrets about meeting them. But do I regret the time I put in versus the effort I get out?

I believe in the ideals of brotherhood. I consider brothers people who are trustworthy and honest. People who don't just support someone, but who actively build up that person. However, over the many years, I've more often found people who belittle others in order to make themselves look bigger. I've found people who go back on their word. I've found people who are more interested in drinking and/or doing drugs than trying to get to know the person next to them.

Now I don't blame my fraternity. I honestly believe DLP is well intentioned fraternity founded with the best of ideals and principles. I just question if fraternities in general attract these negative types of people. I wonder what my life would be like if I hadn't spent all my time on fraternity issues. What it would be like if I got involved in Slow Food ten years ago instead of my fraternity. But then I think about those 25 (give or take) people and I know that the grass will always be greener on the other side.

I've got plenty of years left in me to meet awesome people through Slow Foods.

... besides, I got a cool secret handshake out of the deal.

Musical Follow Up

So I went to the local community choir last week.

Not feeling it. It felt incredibly disorganized. I didn't get a strong sense of leadership from the conductor. It felt like a bunch of people hanging out and singing around a campfire (or in this case, a stand-up piano). And you know... I can do that with my friends. M and I sing together all the time when we're in the car, or around the house. I want something more professional. I want to take my singing to the next level.

In high school, choir was wonderfully directed. I felt myself learn and grow and make amazing sound. I joined the community choir in my county and I was picked for the a capella group at school. It was great and I still remember some of those madrigal tunes. In college, I feel I leveled off in my development. I joined the university's choir and sang amazing works, and performed in amazing spaces (like at the Boston Symphony Hall). But I wasn't a vocal student, and in a crowd of 300, I was easily overlooked. When I was auditioning for the four (my senior) year the director noticed me. She said I had a wonderful voice and welcomed me to the choir. When I (politely) shared that I had been in the choir for three years already, she was shocked. That year, I was able to do some smaller ensemble singing, but again, I feel that I wasn't able to keep up with all the vocal students.

Five years have passed since I graduated college and I haven't performed since. I know I have a good voice. I know I have a good sense of pitch. The raw talent is there, I just know it. It again all comes down to intention and focus.

I sat down and did a little time analysis in my head: community choir would take roughly 3 hours a week, plus concerts. I would rather spend those three hours taking voice / guitar lessons. Yes, it will cost money, but I believe this is a much more intentional choice than just simply going with what's available.

We'll see. Now I need to find a teacher.

Natural Cycles

I went for a walk in Three Falls Woods today. It's a 175 acre wood that acts as a buffer between suburban subdivisions and a huge open-pit mine. My friend Z grew up on a house bordering the woods and took me around with M and H.

Now Z is one of the more amazing people I know. She is an environmentalist in a true sense of the word. Her job involves environmental activism. Her spirituality is both earth-based and rooted in political activism. Heck, she even lives cooperatively.

And driving into Manlius and looking around at the sub-division in which she grew up, I couldn't help but be surprised. In my experience, I've found that subdivisions created zombie people beholden to consumerism and cut off from the rhythms of the planet. How could my awesome activist friend be a subdivision monkey?

I found my answer at Three Falls Woods. Her property bordered onto the woods and she literally had a backyard of waterfalls and woods in which to grow up. The place was beautiful. The leaves were off the trees and there was a simple calm about the land. The air was fresh but not frozen. The geology was very... interactive. The path was uneven and people would stumble as a rock would jump out at them. Moss carpeted the exposed cool gray stones. And then we got to the waterfall basin. I could see where the ancient falls rushed into the hollow and smiled at the three little streams that remained, claiming the right of water to erode.

It was a great walk and it got me thinking about how our childhood homes shape us. I grew up on the tidal portion of the Hudson River near the ocean. I used to think all bodies of water had tides and that when my shore was at high tide, the opposite shore was at low tide! I would scamper among the exposed rocks looking for baby crabs or eels when the tide was out. I explored the wetlands and find forgotten trees and hidden streams. I wandered around neighboring woods and saw old stone farm walls, waterfalls and abandoned swiming basins. My brother and I both grew up in this environment. And while we turned out quite differently we both carry a strong environmental ethic. Z, growing up at the edge of Three Falls also grew up with a similar ethic.

This helps me understand why I find the whole Slow Food movement so important. Not everyone can have access to large amounts of greenspace in the way that Z and I did and see natural cycles unfold like that, but everyone can get involved with the natural cycles of food. If people have the space they can plant some edibles in their garden. At the very least one can still plant a fruit tree along the street, or have a window box of herbs. These cycles release anxiety in a stress-inducing modern world. (I know the studies are out there but I can't find a link - help, anyone?)

I was given a great gift by growing up with access to nature. My walk today remined me of it and helped me understand why Slow Food is so important to me.

Growth

Capitalism needs to expand to survive. Capitalist economies were first set up during the Colonial Era. Companies took resources from around the world and made a profit off of them. This ended when governments were established around the globe. However, free market policies turn governments into the next resource to exploit. The intent is to hollow out governments so they only exist to collect taxes and manage contacts. Contract out health care. Create vouchers for private schools instead of having public schools. Hire mercenaries instead of using our own military.

Without continued expansion, capitalism starts collapsing. We all saw it with the stock market this fall. One horrible day spirals into another horrible day, which continues the trend. Capitalism is a positive feedback loop: growth creates more growth, decline creates a further decline. And in nature, there is only one thing that following a positive feedback loop: cancer.

The ultimate problem here is that we live on a finite world with finite resources. Markets can't grow forever. The planet has been exploited. Governments are being exploited. I can only guess at what next the market will go after in its continuing quest to expand.

Economics is Politics

This summer I read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine. It was intense. The Shock Doctrine shows how the driving force behind many recent political maneuverings have been about an economic showdown. One on side of the ring you have the regulatory Keynesian economic policies. On the other you have the unregulated free market policies of Milton Friedman.

Before reading this book, I was like "well, some regulation is good to protect the environment but welfare does not work, our school system has a lot of problems, and government is bloated and ineffectual." I said this from experience: I worked in government. However, reading this book made me realize that I wasn't thinking about the implied values of each system.
The private sector largely has one bottom line: Increase revenues.
The public sector also has a bottom line: Protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.
Is this a simplification? Yes. But at its core the difference is there. When push comes to shove, a company needs to either stay profitable or go bankrupt. Governments are built to answer to their constituents.

Klein uses the formerly-communist countries of South America as one case study. Under Keynesian (socialist) policies, these democracies were approaching First World status. People didn't want free market policies. The US had to forcibly replace democracies with dictators because no freely elected politician would sell out his/her people. These coups weren't about Cold War influence - it was about pushing through economic "reforms." (Also: note the language American media uses toward the contemporary socialist: Hugo Chavez)

With free markets, the poor got poorer and the rich got richer. The middle class vanished and things became very dog eat dog. As a whole, the country became more poor. That is what pure capitalism, without regulation brought to South America. Look around. It's happening here in the US too.

Where goes the intention

As a follow up to my last post, I've been thinking about what it means to be successful at something. Confidence is one part yes, but I realize it's also about where I'm putting my energy. To get specific, right now I have a bunch of balls in the air. I usually do. Here they are:

1. Get a chapter of Slow Food USA started here in Syracuse. You can read more about that here.
   
2. Evolve Path. Path is the name I use for the world in my head. No, this isn't some crazy thing (I don't think....), but I use it for running my roleplaying campaigns and as the setting for my fantasy writing.
3. Fix up my house and yard.
   
4. Plan for my wedding. Yes, I'm getting married. Next August 8th.
5. Get in touch with my musical side. I recently reached out to initiate contact with some folk musicians in the area (Syracuse / Central New York has an amazing folk scene).
6. Start a small side business (see previous post). I've settled on the idea of being a designer for people's houses and landscape. My spin? I'd be doing it with an east/west fusion of principles. When all is said and done, I have some strong credentials to stand upon with this one: Masters of Landscape Architecture, Bachelors in Geology and Geography, and nearly ten years of experience with Feng Shui and eastern aesthetic principles.
7. Stay involved with my fraternity. Once a brother always a brother. My home chapter closed down this summer and I've spoken about working to organize my chapter's alumni and get something started again in Boston.
   

Phew. My point in all this is, confidence is good, but focus is better. Where goes the intention, goes the energy. My intention is scattered. Here is my resolution about these tasks / foci below:

1. Slow Food. Getting this chapter started is very important to me. I also believe it will help with my wedding, as I want the wedding to have a strong component of local food involved. This one get's the majority of my attention right now. I should do something about this daily.
   
2. Path. At it's core, this is make believe and I do realize that. It's a fun stress relief to contemplate on this one. This one get's some attention, mainly as a stress relief. Spend a few hours a week on this.
   
3. Home Improvement. It's getting into fall. Things are winding down. There are still some projects that I want to get done before spring, but again, this is not a high priority. This is also a stress relief (when things don't explode on me). Spend a few hours a week on this.
   
4. Wedding. This is my ceremony comitting myself to Mike for this life. Super important to me. This one get's the second largest part of my attention. Mike and I really need to finalize our guest list and talk to places about getting our reservations together.
   
5. Music. This is another creative outlet / stress relief. I realized I don't have the time to committ myself to anything serious right now. I am just going to join the local community choir to keep my chops warm until I have more free time. Spend a few hours a week on this.
   
6. Business. Yeah... Not going to happen until this Slow Food thing has a bit of its own momentum and my wedding is complete. Spend no time on this until next year.
   
7. Fraternity. Another "Yeah....." This one is also not going to happen. Honestly, I started my home chapter way back as an undergrad. It's time to let someone else carry the torch. I would be very excited to support someone in this, but it's not going to be me leading the charge. Spend no time on this until I see someone else taking a leadership role.
   

Phew again. It's good to sort all this out. Daily focus: Slow Food and the wedding. Weekly / Stress Relief: Music, Path and Home Improvement. See Ya Later: Business and Fraternity.

Confidence

So in 28 years of life, I've wanted to be....

• an architect
• a geologist
• a tarot reader / psychic
  
• the owner of a gem and mineral store
  
• a professional musician (tuba or voice)
• a cartographer / GIS technician
  
• an accupuncturist
• a traffic engineer
• a landscape architect
• a Feng Shui consultant
• a transportation planner
  
• a community designer
• a politician (very briefly, thank all the gods)
  
• a developer
• a farmer / urban farmer
  
• a sci-fi fantasy writer
• a graphic designer
• a folk singer
  
• a food activist
• a community organizer
  

.... and I ask myself, "what the hell?" My interests are all over. I wish I could just focus on one thing, but my mind craves doing different things to keep my interests. I enjoy making people happy and smile. I enjoy alone time. I enjoy being outdoors. I enjoy being behind a computer. I enjoy flexibility with my time. I enjoy working with my hands and my body. I enjoy sitting back and thinking. I enjoy writing.

Right now I work for the government, and that is fine. I like my hours, salary, benefits, and coworkers. I'm even allowed to be somewhat creative and progressive. But, like a good friend of mine, I have this feeling that I'm spending my life living for someone else. I want to live for myself.

What is a career anyway? Can "being myself" be a career? I would love to be an independent contractor, but I asking for money is difficult for me. Let me be frank with myself: I mysticize the exchange of funds from client to contractor to disempower myself from facing my fears of inadequecy. I am afraid I'm not good enough to get paid for the work I do. And the catch? There isn't even a "work" that I am doing to be afraid to ask for the money (kudos if you can follow that twisted psycho-logic).

So to empower myself. Starting small seems like good common sense. Pick something to do that gets paid per hour and start doing it informally. Then, as word gets out, make a transition to start doing it formally. The question is, what to do? I don't have enough confidence in anything I do to ask someone to give me money. However, it seems likely that the deficiency isn't in my skills, but moreso my confidence is deficient.

So I have two tasks ahead of me:

1. Become more confident then. I'm open to suggestions on how to do this.
2. Choose something to do as a contractor.
   

Dangerous Suburbs

It's always nice to have confirmation of my rants. In my last post I talked about how there is a greater perception of danger in cities, but the reality is that suburbs are actually more dangerous. I got to this point through reasoning through my points, but I didn't do a study or look for statistics. Well, here is the statistic: You’re 20 percent more likely to die in the suburbs from accidental deaths. (And by accidental deaths, we are referring to cars.) Here's the article. It's largely about how our land use patterns contribute to many chronic health problems. Sounds like a future post to me.....

Fear of the City

The myth: "Cities are dangerous. Suburbs are safe." This is such a common myth and I have no idea why it exists. I can only point my finger to mass media's focus on spectacle to an increasingly anesthetized audience. It's so chilling and mind numbing in its simplicity. The media focuses on gang violence, guns in schools, rape, and other graphic and disturbingly violent crimes. Do these crimes happen more frequently in cities? Well, to be honest, yes. However, where will I be safer: a city or a suburb? The answer is a city. There are three factors that explain why: (1) the density of crime, (2) the propensity of crime and (3) the type of crime.

Density of Crime
This is going to sound crazy but.... there's more crime in the city because there is a higher density of people in the city. Instead of thinking about the sheer number of crimes, think about the crimes per capita. It's surprising how the city-to-suburb field levels out. Another aspect of this is there is greater social friction in cities. People in cities knock elbows with one another, while people in the suburbs have plenty of elbow room. There is a greater chance for interaction, and thereby a greater chance for conflict. However, there is also a greater (I would argue MUCH greater) chance for serendipity to occur when interacting with someone.

Propensity of Crime
This aspect gets into the types of crimes found in a city. The annual list of Safest / Most Dangerous Cities is complied by looking at six types of crime:

1. Murder
2. Rape
3. Robbery
4. Aggravated assault
5. Burglary
6. Motor vehicle theft

As uncomfortable as this is to admit, studies find that murder, rape, and aggravated assault mostly happen between people who know one another. Yes, there is the rare case of the rapist attacking a random person in a park, or of a stranger getting held at gun point (these stories make wonderful fodder for sensationalist media, by the way). However, most often these situations happen between people who know one another. And yes, they happen frequently in impoverished (urban) communities where role models and supportive families are few and far between.

That leaves us with robbery, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. Now these can happen to anyone. But, these are all easy to avoid if people take precautions. Most of these precautions simply involve using common sense and trusting your instincts.

Type of Crime
In my mind, this is the clincher. Yes, we can worry about the six crimes above from happening to us, but do you know what is the biggest cause of accidental deaths? CARS. And it has been for years. One person is killed every five minutes from a car accident. So really, don't live in fear of someone coming along and shooting or raping you. You should live in fear of your car. Bringing this back to the urban / suburban divide... where do people drive more? The suburbs. Where do people taking longer driving trips? The suburbs. No matter what way you cut it, if you're in the suburbs, chances are you'll be driving a heck of a lot more than your urban counterparts. Think about that next time your turn the ignition!

Conclusion
The "Cities are dangerous. Suburbs are safe." myht is completely false. The city is actually safer than the suburbs. Per capita, crime rates are not much different between the two. Urban crimes do not affect most people who use common sense and avoid dangerous situations. And really, the level of danger in your life ultimately comes down to how much you drive.

My first blog

Welcome to the 21st Century.

Blogging always seemed so self indulgent to me. Who would want to read about my self-aware comments? Would the fact that this is being broadcast to the entire world shape what I put on here? I don't have answers to these questions, but I will tell you this: I read my friend's blogs. Moreso, I *like* reading my friend's blogs. So maybe, just maybe people would want to read my blog.

Since this is my first post, I want to record the types of things I expect to discuss here. Let's see how accurate this becomes.

1. Food: Slow Food, food systems, seasonal eating, productive landscapes, urban gardening, cooking and recipes.
2. Books: sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction, history, politics, and economics.
3. Design: landscape architecture, urban design, public art, and Park(ing) Day
4. Sustainability: Peak Oil, transportation planning, highway infrastructure, urban living, Onondaga Creek, local living / local history, fixing up my house

Let's see how this all pans out.