Architecture Critic

A funny thing happened. My senior year at CVS [Chicago Vocational High School; Chicago Vocational Career Academy, Chicago, Illinois]--had a teacher, Thomas Doyle [ph.], God bless him, too--$$(Laughter).$$--because I really liked this teacher, his English class, so he let us write essays. So because he would let us write and, you know, and encourage us to think, I did some of my best work in his class. One day, it was March of 1983--I graduate in June of '83 [1983]--he's handing back papers. I need to write something about, you know, you know, you know, defense issues and the Cold War. And stuff was still hot then, and military buildup--I mean, this was just--this country have--all this stuff was still hot then. We had to write a paper that argued one side of the case or another, and had to balance it against some social issue, essentially asking the question, why spend all this money for [U.S.] military when there's your social need to, and all, all that kind of stuff? And Mr. Doyle is handing back papers, March of '83 [1983], and he hands the paper, and he says, you know, you're a good writer. You ever think about journalism? And he keeps on, and as he's passing out the papers.$$What, just like this--$$Exactly. He's throw-, and I cannot tell you what that did. I mean, I thought, journalism, journalism--yeah, and all of a sudden, it made, it made sense. I mean, and it--had he not said that, I don't know what, I don't know if I would have ever come to that conclusion.$$I would be speaking to [HistoryMaker] Lee Bey, the print shop owner?$$Exactly, the print shop owner, that's right or the, or the out-of-work print shop owner maybe. And, and I thought, this is it--journalism. Aww, that, that's what I want to be. I could write, I always could, I could always write well, and I kind of liked newspapers, reading, and the stuff like that, so I thought this is it. About two weeks later, I'm in print shop, and there's a guy named Darryl Alexander [ph.] who's one of the students there. I haven't seen Darryl since we graduated.$$That time--$$And--$$--but you still remember his name?$$--I still remember his name, and here's the reason why. He's, he's printing up something and doing something. And in the next room, he has this paper called the Englewood Express [ph.]. So, I said, "What's that?" He says, "Oh, this?" He says, "This is the Englewood Express--this is the paper that I write for." I said, "I didn't know you wrote." And he says, "Yeah." He's like, "I go there on weekends." So, I said, "Well, I want to write, too." I said, "How do I, how do I get into this?" So, he says, "Well, the next meeting," staff meeting was that weekend. He says, "Why, why don't you meet me there?" So, I rode my bike from 83rd [Street] and Constance [Avenue]--$$What kind of bike?$$It was a Schwinn World, a ten-speed bike--my mother [Lula Dixon Bey] had bought me for being for, you know, for trying, for putting through the effort to, you know--$$To be, be a good boy?$$--to be a good boy. And I, I love this bike. I still dream about this bike even, even to this, even now. And I rode that thing from 83rd and Constance all the way to the Kelly Branch Library at 61st [Place] and Normal [Boulevard]--$$What?$$--where, where upstairs this thing is. I get there and it dawns on me, I don't have a chain. So the librarians let me actually bring the bike in. I mean, today, that would never happen, but bring it, bring it. So, I go up there, and there's the staff of the Englewood Express. And it was headed by this guy, Larry Muhammad, young guy who was--I worked for the Defender [Chicago Defender]. And I think I worked for one of the dailies, and, and I worked for the AP [Associated Press]. And he was--remember, he was thirty-six years old, had an [U.S.] Army coat, and a silver Honda Civic with a, with a stick shift. And I thought he was the coolest guy in the world. And, and if he'd--that day, if he'd told me to march into the lake [Lake Michigan], I would have done. it. And, I--$$So, you're a little impressionable?$$A little impressionable, that's right. And I, I thought he was just the coolest guy. So, you know, so we get, and we meet, and he says, welcome aboard. And, and I show my writing, and, and that, that start, that started it. So, as much as I regretted, you know, leaving, having to leave Lindblom [Robert Lindblom Technical High School; Robert Lindblom Math and Science Academy, Chicago, Illinois]--think of why not--(unclear) with a hot poker for the most part. I mean, had it not been for that, and going to CVS and meeting, you know, the people in those circumstances, I never would have found journalism.$$That is a very interesting kind of convoluted (laughter)--$$Yeah (laughter).$$--but, ultimately, a very beautiful story. I like that.$$Thank you.$I know that you are scheduled to speak, or you just spoke at a, a New Urbanists conference. I, I printed it out, and now I can't remember (laughter). But is, is that something that you're, you're part of--are you part of that movement? Do you like some of it what it represents?$$Sort of--I, I kind of looked at the movement, you know, and sometimes I play, and some-, sometimes I, I don't. New Urbanism is a sense that they would--yeah, right, that it's, it's embodied in this. The, the idea of New Urbanism is that, essentially, we, we built cities and suburbs, especially all wrong, and that we have to return to the planning of these areas--the things we all know makes sense. You know, perpendicular street, low-scale housing, you know, it even goes as far as putting jobs not far from where you work, to put the emphasis, emphasis back on the pedestrian, and the, the human experience, and not so much in suburbia, getting in cars, and driving all over everywhere. And in the city, of having, having people, particularly public housing residents, live in high rise buildings. You know, it's, it's a good thing and, and you would think--well, who can argue with that? Why--who can argue with that? But, you know, it, it still bears to be seen of how some of these things play out in, in the city. I mean, will a person who, in the long term, wants to live next door to a person who lives in public housing, or vice-versa, will a person who is familiar with public housing want to be stuck on a block with a bunch of snoots? I mean, he, he may not, he may not want to. And, and if New Urbanism is more than just a cosmetic approach to solving a problem--if it is just a cosmetic approach to solving a problem--make a building look like this, make a street go this way without some kind of life into it--you run the risk now of doing what the original public housing did back in the '50s [1950s]. Believe it or not--$$I never thought of it that way.$$--believe it or not, these, these tower, these, these public housing high rises that we hate, set far back off from the street, no streets surround it, so sort of marooned in the, in, in an acre, you know, acres of land, was actually part of a utopian vision for cities that the French architect planner, Le Corbusier, thought of in the '20s [1920s], the idea being that, that somehow people crammed up in cities and living in a, you know--my house is in the back of yours. And you can walk through your unit to get through mine--that idea of putting everyone, putting everyone in a tower with equal access to, to, land and that kind of thing, was, was a good thing. And this was, this was utopia. And the efficiencies of a tower and elevators, and all, and all that kind of thing would be, would be somehow good. And, of course, it works when you put rich folk in a tower, but it doesn't work when you put poor folk in a tower, and don't take care of the tower once you get them in there. So--$$(Laughter) That's a strange, crazy thing.$$Yeah, and funny how that works though? So, so these ideas are hatched with, you know, with the noblest of intentions. But sometimes when they meet the real world, they fail, and the guy who hatches them, he just says, oh, yeah, I was wrong. And the people who live there are the ones who have to suffer through this thing.$$I guess because we've seen the most recent flare-up is in France in the high rises, the, the public housing outside of, of Paris [France], and actually across France, the same thing--$$Exactly.$$--and Le Corbusier is French.$$He's from there. And, you know, and it's the same thing. Those, those places in Paris, those suburbs are cut off physically from jobs. I mean, they, they're isolated. They're like reservations. And, and I mean, so it's, so it's very much, very much the same, the same thing.$$Yes. So, we have a great experiment that we see does not work. But I never thought about New Urbanism as not working, but putting it in its historic place that, yes, it has the potential. Now, I know there's like one small aspect of it I wanted to address like, in, in the suburbs, what they call those snout houses where the, the most prominent feature is the garage.$$Is the garage, right, yeah.$$And so, and the, the response to that are planned communities like Seaside [Florida]. And I'm forgetting another one.$$Celebration [Florida], I think, is one (simultaneous)--$$(Simultaneous) Celebration, right--$$--yeah, um-hm (simultaneous).$$--(Simultaneous) that incorporates those almost that you were speaking of before.