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Showing posts from October, 2006

Richmond, California by bus

On October 14, we boarded a bus with several dozen people to "re-view Richmond." The bus tour was the culmination of a symposium on regional equity with Richmond as the case study. The one-day symposium was organized by the Department of Geography and the Center for Community Innovation at UC Berkeley as well as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities at Rutgers-Camden, New Jersey. The keynote speaker was MacArthur Grantee and photographer Camilo Jose Vergara. Vergara, Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, Donna Graves, Lewis Watts, and Paul Groth (UC Professor) narrated the bus tour. Groth prepared the site list for the bus tour. There are 36 points of interest on the site list. We photographed nine points, six of which are included in this post. 1. World War II Kaiser Shipyard #3, now a National Park Service site. (Notice the the water-level work chambers in the second photograph.) 2. Watermelon truck - Richmond used to host numerous truck farms. 3. Former Ford Motor

Signs of the season...Mayors, measures, districts

About two weeks ago, we began receiving election literature--in the mailbox, stuffed under the door, attached to the door. There was even a home visit by volunteers. Inspired by the deluge of election literature, I began to look around for signs, literally, that other people were participating in political life. The photographs were taken along Stuart between California and Adeline and within an area bounded by Shattuck, College, Dwight, and Ashby. Mayors Measures Districts

In the midst of an orchard

Made with Google Earth, 10/11/06 Here is my first attempt at a local "fallen fruit" map. I have mapped eight sites in Berkeley, three of which are in the public domain: the fig and apple tree at Halcyon Commons, the apple tree at Bowditch and Haste (People's Park), and the apple tree at 2329 Carleton (it is in the sidewalk nature strip). The remaining fruit trees are located on private property but the fruit does fall into and/or hang over the public domain. The fallen fruit or public fruit concept was developed by Fallen Fruit, an "activist art project" located in Los Angeles. The group encourages the mapping of public fruit locations across the country. Currently, there are four public fruit maps on fallenfruit.org. The site also offers a how-to sheet for mapping public fruit. I am familiar with several other organizations that focus on fruit. The Big Backyard Project is a "crop-sharing" program that collects surplus fruits and vegetable

Ode to the neighbor(hood)

Note: The original version of this post first appeared on 10/9/06. This version was made on 10/10/06. Silver, solar-powered, musical bus at Telegraph and Dwight, 10/8/06 Double-click on the image to read the text on the far left. In episode 318 of This American Life , a segment about a bad neighbor was accompanied by the song "I Got to Get Away" by Dave Parker. According to Jay Walljasper, guest editor of Terrain on "The Music of It All," Music, more than any other American art form or entertainment industry, truly reflects the rich geographic diversity of our country....Why is a sense of place usually an ingredient in the best music? That’s because great musicians...generally get their start by performing for hometown audiences, where they develop their skills and gain a following . The sighting of the musical bus, the special issue of Terrain , the airing of the neighbor segment on public radio as well as a posting on Walking Berkeley about entertainment f

Because it's fall

Prince and Wheeler Streets, Berkeley, CA Fall is the transition season between summer and winter. It's a time of harvest, ritual, and thanksgiving. Most of all, it is full of changes and we often develop a sense of decline with shorter days and colder or wetter weather. The photographs in this post were taken at various points during the past year. Only one was taken as a sign of fall (the yellowing locust above), but they all feel like the season that's upon us. Abandoned grocery store (A&P?), Bergen Mall, NJ Abandoned barn, photographed while taking the wrong road to Livermore

The idea of the "commons"

Note: This post was edited on Jan. 20, 2007. Hotlinked image(s) were removed. Follow the link(s) to the image location(s).   Salem Common , MA (UC Berkeley, Arch. Visual Resources Library)    From the town common of Puritan New England towns to Berkeley's neighborhood commons designed by Karl Linn in the 1990s, the idea of "commons" has been practiced in our town and city landscapes. This post considers points of view and the practice of the commons. Let's first consider the "tragedy of the commons," famously, though erroneously defined, by Garret Hardin in 1968. According to Peluso (2006), the tragedy of the commons is really "the tragedy of open access," or non-exclusive access and use. Hardin proposed (state) centralized resource management or privatization. Critiques of Hardin's formulation redefine a common as a group of people directly involved in decision-making about a resource or landscape (see Elinor Ostrom (1990) Governing th