(no subject)
oh hey, read this: FALSE magazine. the whole issue is posted online there. or if you're in atlanta, it's all over the city in various hip coffeeshops and independent businesses.
my article's there, along with a bunch of other great pieces.
Orange County, California, 1973. The city of Irvine has been planned and developed entirely by the Irvine Corporation. Now officially incorporated into the county, Irvine is the product of a greater national endeavor of social engineering. The corporation began construction under the pretense of a desire for “balanced communities.” This balance came in the form of small, separated villages, packed with tennis courts, clubhouses, and swimming pools, presented as space to be purchased by the wealthy. Man-made lakes dotted a utopian landscape. A homeowners’ association was established to maintain the pristine fa ade, vital for the stability of property values and Irvine’s profits. The plan for development continued with principles of protection, convenience, privacy, and decentralized community. Public spaces were limited to the sphere of consumption, the main activity in which citizens could seek solidarity. Similarly, homes were high-priced, available only to the middle and upper-class, producing a homogenous, white-washed population.
This plan for development achieved the corporate goal of conservative spirit through spatial isolation and the elimination of community. The separation and homogenization of citizens occurring across the United States would allow the government to centralize. While we sat in our gated communities, clutching our possessions and building fences to keep the neighbors in their own backyards, government officials gathered in a single room to decide when and where it would be appropriate for us to live, work, consume. Corporate planning assured a certain degree of racial and economic segregation. We would never have to worry about or understand anyone but like-minded individuals. And the most powerful like-minded individuals would never have to worry about oppression, discrimination, or poverty.
Next came suburban sprawl and urban renewal, propelled by the American separation of the residential, commercial, and industrial. Developers built houses miles away from the city, connecting residents to their jobs with long stretches of highway. Even if the distance were walk-able, there are no sidewalks. The laborers working within the business districts, unable to afford renovated downtown lofts, must now buy a car to drive to work. They will continue driving to work to pay for that car, and corporations will thrive on a compliant workforce.
New regulation of public spaces is at the crux of this renewal. Police officers have begun attending seminars on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. In these seminars, law enforcement officials learn concepts such as “natural surveillance” and “territorial reinforcement” to achieve social control of supposedly open public space. Cities curb loitering and associate crimes by reconstructing public spaces with maximized visibility and minimized escape routes. Low landscapes and street lights remove hiding spaces. In these altered landscapes, every move we make has become conspicuous, or we at least have to think it is.
There is specific intent in the architecture that surrounds us, the streets we travel and the neighborhoods we make our home. Our world is being built by corporate law and we have become the passive observers. Can we trust these ersatz shepherds to safely tend our flock?
my article's there, along with a bunch of other great pieces.
Orange County, California, 1973. The city of Irvine has been planned and developed entirely by the Irvine Corporation. Now officially incorporated into the county, Irvine is the product of a greater national endeavor of social engineering. The corporation began construction under the pretense of a desire for “balanced communities.” This balance came in the form of small, separated villages, packed with tennis courts, clubhouses, and swimming pools, presented as space to be purchased by the wealthy. Man-made lakes dotted a utopian landscape. A homeowners’ association was established to maintain the pristine fa ade, vital for the stability of property values and Irvine’s profits. The plan for development continued with principles of protection, convenience, privacy, and decentralized community. Public spaces were limited to the sphere of consumption, the main activity in which citizens could seek solidarity. Similarly, homes were high-priced, available only to the middle and upper-class, producing a homogenous, white-washed population.
This plan for development achieved the corporate goal of conservative spirit through spatial isolation and the elimination of community. The separation and homogenization of citizens occurring across the United States would allow the government to centralize. While we sat in our gated communities, clutching our possessions and building fences to keep the neighbors in their own backyards, government officials gathered in a single room to decide when and where it would be appropriate for us to live, work, consume. Corporate planning assured a certain degree of racial and economic segregation. We would never have to worry about or understand anyone but like-minded individuals. And the most powerful like-minded individuals would never have to worry about oppression, discrimination, or poverty.
Next came suburban sprawl and urban renewal, propelled by the American separation of the residential, commercial, and industrial. Developers built houses miles away from the city, connecting residents to their jobs with long stretches of highway. Even if the distance were walk-able, there are no sidewalks. The laborers working within the business districts, unable to afford renovated downtown lofts, must now buy a car to drive to work. They will continue driving to work to pay for that car, and corporations will thrive on a compliant workforce.
New regulation of public spaces is at the crux of this renewal. Police officers have begun attending seminars on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. In these seminars, law enforcement officials learn concepts such as “natural surveillance” and “territorial reinforcement” to achieve social control of supposedly open public space. Cities curb loitering and associate crimes by reconstructing public spaces with maximized visibility and minimized escape routes. Low landscapes and street lights remove hiding spaces. In these altered landscapes, every move we make has become conspicuous, or we at least have to think it is.
There is specific intent in the architecture that surrounds us, the streets we travel and the neighborhoods we make our home. Our world is being built by corporate law and we have become the passive observers. Can we trust these ersatz shepherds to safely tend our flock?