Just a question as I am certain all of us in some way or another went about our daily lives independent and unaware that we all seemed to follow the same script.
I like many needed to run a few errands this weekend. I needed to purchase groceries, I went out to eat; I visited family, went out with friends, and I attended church.
Though not always practical for many reasons all of these activities were located within walking or a reasonable biking distance from where I live.
How many items of the every sort not including your employment isolate you from your community and pin you to the automobile.
This weekend Sara and I learned that behind the Urban Eats Cafe at 3301 Meramec there was the original street car turn around loop for the grand route. What a shame to no longer have such a great and simple transit system in our city and ironic too as my step mother pointed out that many street cars across the county (including in San Fransisco still in operation) were originally made by the St. Louis Street car company.
Clang Clang Clang goes the trolley.
Showing posts with label stl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stl. Show all posts
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
A new blog a new year
I am checking off the first item of my new years list (which is still undergoing revision). Urban issues never initially mattered to me, in fact like most people I really only had one mental framework in which to relate. When we first moved to our house it was due to a timely suggestion of our Realtor who knew that we wanted a great house needing a rehabbing at a price we could afford.
Once announcing our intent most were excited for us and our purchase but a few dismissively suggested that moving to the city was a mistake. We heard a multitude of reasons from crime to where we would send our kids because the St. Louis School district was miserable. Some even shrouded their commentary with a racial tinge.
Only later after fully reforming myself of my suburban ways did I realize what it means to have an urban mindset. Is living in the city a perfect nirvana of course not nor would I claim it to be. No place is idyllic and our collective conscious has framed suburbia wholesome, safe, family oriented and good while portraying the city as decaying, decrepit, dangerous and bad.
I want to change peoples perceptions confronting these untruths head on. I believe that the future is the cities in which we live it is the heart of our identification with those outside our community and a common framework I now share with many others across our nation. I am an urban apologist.
Once announcing our intent most were excited for us and our purchase but a few dismissively suggested that moving to the city was a mistake. We heard a multitude of reasons from crime to where we would send our kids because the St. Louis School district was miserable. Some even shrouded their commentary with a racial tinge.
Only later after fully reforming myself of my suburban ways did I realize what it means to have an urban mindset. Is living in the city a perfect nirvana of course not nor would I claim it to be. No place is idyllic and our collective conscious has framed suburbia wholesome, safe, family oriented and good while portraying the city as decaying, decrepit, dangerous and bad.
I want to change peoples perceptions confronting these untruths head on. I believe that the future is the cities in which we live it is the heart of our identification with those outside our community and a common framework I now share with many others across our nation. I am an urban apologist.
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