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Oct. 13th, 2009 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogNo more with the bizarre and really disturbing dreams please. I'm really done with that.
The air is cold and it bites at my throat as I breathe in the morning. I'm not used to it, and I need to find my scarf. On the plus side, I don't know if it's the wind or the temperature or some other strange quality of the chill, Fall air, but the chocolate smell from the Blommer factory is clearly present most of my walk from the train station to work.
It makes me wonder what cities used to smell like before so much manufacturing went away. For the most part, I'm sure it wasn't very pleasant, but it's an experience I'd like to have, as a reference point if nothing else.
And that makes me think about cities, and their different characters. Though I used to walk through Milwaukee with my family when we all worked the games library at Gen Con, I wasn't paying very much attention to the city itself. So I feel that I've only had the chance to experience three of their downtowns enough to get at least a superficial sense of some their character. (Though I definitely have to see more of Milwaukee sometime soon. It's too close not to!)
New York...is just huge and old has everything. I guess that's what defines New York for me; the unending multitude of places and things. Chicago is younger, all river and bridges and elevated trains. What I saw of Saint Louis, the one short day I spent in it, is defined for me by the remnants that I saw of its role as a hub of commerce and the flow of goods.
As I was waiting for a new rim for my car, I wandered the downtown. Within just a couple blocks, I found four ornately detailed buildings that were once dealerships for such diverse automobile companies as DeSoto, Hudson, Studebaker, Franklin, Peerless, Viking, and more. (If you're interested in such things, you might enjoy reading copies of the plaques on these buildings over here.) Near them, peeking over the rest of downtown, I could see a number of taller buildings of a similar vintage, with old inscribed script identifying them as headquarters of trade groups and organizations. Even though it seemed like four out of five of the old buildings were being, or had been, converted to lofts, I still got the sense of a city that had seen untold amounts of goods and commerce flowing through it. It felt like a hub in a great system of trade.
Yet, it's clearly no longer the place it was. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
faeriecat told me, St. Louis is full of abandoned buildings of many varieties. Much of its industry and trade have left it. Just as much does seem to be in the process of redevelopment, but into things like lofts and condos. It's special, unique flavor is being diluted.
I think this is probably happening to cities everywhere in this country. Globalization and the coming of the information society lead to genericized downtowns that, from city city, aren't honestly all that different from each other, in terms of use and purpose. I don't have enough first-hand experience to know for sure what trends affect modern day cities, but I can't help but think that, in the age of big-box stores and national chains, cities seem to be following suit. I wish I knew where to read about subjects like the transformation of cities on a national level in the post-industrial society. Anyone know any good books?
It's funny; I used to think history was boring as hell when I was in school. And in a way, I still do. A lot of what we talked about was not of interest to me. But approaching it on my own terms is so different. I want so much to read about the history of the rust belt, and what happened to the cities in it as manufacturing moved overseas. I want a more in-depth understanding of why the American industrial base shrunk the way it has, and how that affected our society in general, as well as the rest of the world. I want to read about the history of Detroit, and how it came to be the most segregated city in the country. I think I need to go to the library this weekend.
---
I bought train tickets yesterday for Washington DC. I'm so excited to be taking a long trip by Amtrak! I've never done it before, but my mom talks bout going to California by train with her parents long ago. It feels so classy, so vintage, compared to a bus or plane. I'm imagining photographing the passing scenery and the inside of the passenger cars and the lounge and dining cars. I see myself sitting in my seat with my computer in my lap, tapping out my thoughts and feelings about the trip. It'll be kind of like my trip to Oregon by bus about ten years back, where I actually wrote longhand in a notebook (I didn't own anything so exotic as a laptop) as the coach rolled along down the road. I'm looking forward to this.
---
And finally, here's a picture of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, seen across the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park. It was such a beautiful place.
The air is cold and it bites at my throat as I breathe in the morning. I'm not used to it, and I need to find my scarf. On the plus side, I don't know if it's the wind or the temperature or some other strange quality of the chill, Fall air, but the chocolate smell from the Blommer factory is clearly present most of my walk from the train station to work.
It makes me wonder what cities used to smell like before so much manufacturing went away. For the most part, I'm sure it wasn't very pleasant, but it's an experience I'd like to have, as a reference point if nothing else.
And that makes me think about cities, and their different characters. Though I used to walk through Milwaukee with my family when we all worked the games library at Gen Con, I wasn't paying very much attention to the city itself. So I feel that I've only had the chance to experience three of their downtowns enough to get at least a superficial sense of some their character. (Though I definitely have to see more of Milwaukee sometime soon. It's too close not to!)
New York...is just huge and old has everything. I guess that's what defines New York for me; the unending multitude of places and things. Chicago is younger, all river and bridges and elevated trains. What I saw of Saint Louis, the one short day I spent in it, is defined for me by the remnants that I saw of its role as a hub of commerce and the flow of goods.
As I was waiting for a new rim for my car, I wandered the downtown. Within just a couple blocks, I found four ornately detailed buildings that were once dealerships for such diverse automobile companies as DeSoto, Hudson, Studebaker, Franklin, Peerless, Viking, and more. (If you're interested in such things, you might enjoy reading copies of the plaques on these buildings over here.) Near them, peeking over the rest of downtown, I could see a number of taller buildings of a similar vintage, with old inscribed script identifying them as headquarters of trade groups and organizations. Even though it seemed like four out of five of the old buildings were being, or had been, converted to lofts, I still got the sense of a city that had seen untold amounts of goods and commerce flowing through it. It felt like a hub in a great system of trade.
Yet, it's clearly no longer the place it was. As
faeriecat told me, St. Louis is full of abandoned buildings of many varieties. Much of its industry and trade have left it. Just as much does seem to be in the process of redevelopment, but into things like lofts and condos. It's special, unique flavor is being diluted.I think this is probably happening to cities everywhere in this country. Globalization and the coming of the information society lead to genericized downtowns that, from city city, aren't honestly all that different from each other, in terms of use and purpose. I don't have enough first-hand experience to know for sure what trends affect modern day cities, but I can't help but think that, in the age of big-box stores and national chains, cities seem to be following suit. I wish I knew where to read about subjects like the transformation of cities on a national level in the post-industrial society. Anyone know any good books?
It's funny; I used to think history was boring as hell when I was in school. And in a way, I still do. A lot of what we talked about was not of interest to me. But approaching it on my own terms is so different. I want so much to read about the history of the rust belt, and what happened to the cities in it as manufacturing moved overseas. I want a more in-depth understanding of why the American industrial base shrunk the way it has, and how that affected our society in general, as well as the rest of the world. I want to read about the history of Detroit, and how it came to be the most segregated city in the country. I think I need to go to the library this weekend.
---
I bought train tickets yesterday for Washington DC. I'm so excited to be taking a long trip by Amtrak! I've never done it before, but my mom talks bout going to California by train with her parents long ago. It feels so classy, so vintage, compared to a bus or plane. I'm imagining photographing the passing scenery and the inside of the passenger cars and the lounge and dining cars. I see myself sitting in my seat with my computer in my lap, tapping out my thoughts and feelings about the trip. It'll be kind of like my trip to Oregon by bus about ten years back, where I actually wrote longhand in a notebook (I didn't own anything so exotic as a laptop) as the coach rolled along down the road. I'm looking forward to this.
---
And finally, here's a picture of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, seen across the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park. It was such a beautiful place.
