From The New Yorker.

Limbambulators Unite! Walking + Reading to save a city

Writer Lee Klein in swink discusses walking about Philadelphia while reading and suggests such actions can have a positive impact on our cities. On the romantic side for sure (and the essay devolves into politics near the end), but important in this sense: People’s physical presence matters. Their positive presence matters. Their intellectual presence matters.

Some are called to build. Some are called to preach. Some are called to walk and read (be it Tolstoy, Shakespeare, The Bible or some other work ).

Consider this: instead of tooling down the street, cursing myself, my neighbors, and a malevolent God; instead of smoking mentholated cigarettes, expelling alcoholic flatulence at great volume from both of my bodily ends, littering for sport, leering at Catholic school girls; instead of doing anything remotely unbecoming of civil humanity like that, I’m walking and holding War and Peace. I’m silently reading to myself, not even moving my lips, not impeding on anyone, not shoving the big book too deeply into anyone’s eyespace, not demeaning anyone with unsolicited offers to do them good. …

The overriding question isn’t really whether saving the city via walking and reading is a possibility; it’s more about whether it’s a necessity. Let’s see: lots of unemployment, more than enough murder, corruption, racism, and a statistically unquantifiable vibe that seems to distrust anything “intellectual.” But at least it has a solid folk hero in Rocky. Maybe Stallone, Herzog, and I are on the same page? We’re interested in overcoming ridiculous odds. …

we’re talking about the ecstatic beauty of an impossible act, of saving a city through walking and reading. All I want to do is humbly transmit my love and respect for literature—for the thoughts and worlds transmitted within those books that relate to the real world—in a city and a cultural climate in America that often seem in need of some serious freakin’ salvation.

Urban acupuncture

Architect and urban planner Jaime Lerner, writing in the Harvard Business Review, obviously loves cities and believe even the most run-down have potential to become vibrant communities again. I appreciate his interest in engaging the residents who live there now about what they want and need, not some future cohort of people attracted to rising value or gentrification.

Many cities are losing the battle against degradation and violence because they settled for the view that difficulties were too big and could only be dealt with after all planning instruments and financial resources were in place. …

There are three fundamental issues that are key to the good quality of urban life: sustainability, mobility and sociodiversity.

Before I die project in New Orleans

With a little paint, imagination and work, artist, designer and urban planner Candy Chang converted a boarded-up eyesore into a public space that people in the neighborhood could use to express their thoughts and dreams.

One month and seven hours of intense stenciling later and it’s up! With a lot of support from old and new friends, I turned the side of an abandoned house in my neighborhood into a giant chalkboard where residents can write on the wall and remember what is important to them. Before I Die transforms neglected spaces into constructive ones where we can learn the hopes and aspirations of the people around us.

If you’d like to discuss these or any other ideas for Hartford, pull me (Matthew) aside. I’m curious what you read in public. What you’d like to see in the North End’s future. What you’d like to do before you die.

Our friend Courtney: A scholar and cherub!

Keyanna Pettway showing off her quilt

Paula Lumpkin shows off her quilt.

Special thanks to Master Quilter Denise Weeks.

Everyone,

This past Saturday we learned that a significant portion of the federal funding for the Husky Sport program may be cut next year.  Obviously, this could result in less staff and fewer field trips and activities.  The kids spent some of their time on Saturday writing letters to Senators Lieberman and Blumenthal.  If any of you have any persuasion with our elected officials please join the kids in pleading our case.

To get a sense of what Husky Sport means to us I put together a photo album of just a small fraction of their activities at the Green House during the past several years.  The album should be located here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/sdahlem1/HuskySport#slideshow/5578856210694504130

Please keep in mind, along with Clark School and the Anderson Center, the Green House is just one of the three sites that Husky Sport collaborates with in Hartford.

Tiqua, Isaiah, Floyd, KK, Buba, and Mark are all in their second semesters in college, and I’m not sure any of them would be in college right now if it wasn’t for Husky Sport.

Maybe instead of 3,500 cruise missiles at $1.1 million each, we could live with only 3,499 of them and spend the money on something a lot more powerful.

See you soon,

Steve

Our Christmas newsletter has been published. You can download a copy directly from this link or by visiting our Newsletters page.

Skateistan: “Afghanistan’s—and the world’s—first co-educational skateboarding school. Operating as an independent, neutral, Afghan NGO, the school engages growing numbers of urban and internally-displaced youth in Afghanistan through skateboarding, and provides them with new opportunities in cross-cultural interaction, education, and personal empowerment. Skateistan’s students come from all of Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.”

This nine-minute documentary focuses on a couple of the young people impacted by the program.

Jobs: “The youth want a better future and they want to work. They might not have entered school because of conflicts, but unfortunate life events have ‘educated’ them. Some, at the age of 20, have commanded warriors. From my discussions with many, I know they have seen the ‘pit of hell’ and never want anything to do with it. The challenge for the society is to tap into their energies and passions and remake them.”

Ndubuisi Ekekwe writes a Harvard Business Review post about ideas for youth jobs after conflicts, specifically in Africa, but with questions and possibilities for all of us.

The Advent 2010 Newsletter has been published. This marks 100 issues of The Hartford Catholic Worker in print!

The Summer newsletter has been published. Please see the Newsletters page.