Oldtimers here know that Roger Williams keeps its own somewhat strange calendar. Because the government years ago moved a lot of national holidays to weekends in order to give people more three day weekends, RWU decided that, rather than cancel Monday classes, Tuesday classes would be canceled instead and Monday classes meet on Tuesday. So, lucky me, I will still get to meet you twice next week.
But, rather than spoil your holiday weekend, I'm planning on showing a film today. entitled Dogtown and Z boys--a documentary about growing up poor in an urban neighborhood. Prowl around Dogtown in the streetview below.
Thursday, October 13, Read, in Isenberg,
Ch. 5 "Demolition of our Outworn Past" pp. 164-202
Ch. 6 "The Hollow Prize", pp. 203-254
These two chapters continue the themes of the chapters we read last week. We've seen how the "traditional" downtown was created to attract women shoppers, whose responsibilities were associated with "running the family," which incuded shopping. As we'll see, the era of the automobile and interstate, created a different urban scene downtown. The chain stores, which had done so much to augment the downtown in the first half of the twentieth century, moved to the malls, following families to suburbia.
The two versions of "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds give you a sense of what she thought of suburbs. As we see in this chapter, carrying on into the next, There was a tendency to "blame the victim" as a result of the "flight" to the suburbs. The map from City Data below, shows how the migration to the suburbs made inner cities poorer and "blacker". Click on the image below and you'll be led to the City Data website. I chose the city of St. Paul, Minnesota because Isenberg mentions it in some detail. The darker areas are the areas where the population is predominantly black. On the website you'll be able to click on each area, change the measurement, and look at the area in some detail. I want you to survey your individual cities on this site. If people have some trouble, I'll give a short demonstration.
Although we won't talk about the next readings in Isenberg until today, It would be a good idea to read ahead as much as you can. Remember there will be two, rather than three days between class sessions. I will still give my little demonstration on the day I introduce this web page. You may want to do some playing around with it regarding your chosen city, as well.
