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Read ‘The Three Rules,’ and tell the author what you think

By on November 28, 2007 in Architecture, City culture, Downtown, Neighborhoods, Urbanism

To those who love our city, here’s your assignment:

First: Understand The Three Rules.

David Sucher loves cities. He hopes to foster what he calls “urban villages,” cities that are vibrantly urban but yet also in some way cozy and neighborly. Kinda like what many of us want in Fort Wayne.

His Three Rules are his attempt to help urban planners consider site plans as the key to urban vs. suburban:

If the problem is to create a walkable, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, much of the answer is architectural. Actually, it is not so much “architectural” in the usual sense of the word, for it ignores style. Site plan trumps architecture.

The Three Rules, in brief, are:

  1. Build to the sidewalk (i.e., property line).
  2. Make the building front “permeable” (i.e., no blank walls).
  3. Prohibit parking lots in front of the building.

Second: Download and read Chapter 3 of “City Comforts.”

In this 11-page chapter of his book, he expands on the rules and gives examples, photos and sub-rules.

Download the chapter here (PDF).

If you love cities, you’ll find this chapter all too short. You’ll probably want to buy the whole book sometime, but for now, stay on topic.

Third: Tell the author he’s full of it.

Really. Sucher has the crazy idea in his head to expand the chapter on The Three Rules into an entire book. But he wants your advice:

Praise it if you like but I am even more interested in hearing the reasons why I am full of it, why the “Three Rules” is naive, incomplete, simple-minded and overall just plain wrong and/or misleading. Let me have it. Bring it on, in the words of our bumbling leader. Tell me in as much detail as you are able why I should drop this project immediately and not embarrass myself any further by my clueless rantings.

So be sure to leave some comments at his blog (feel free to jot them here, too) when you’re done reading his chapter.

The prizes

If he really, really likes your critique, he’ll give you a book. If you convince him that he’s out of his mind and he drops the project completely, he’ll buy you dinner at a restaurant of your choice — in Seattle, naturally.

Now, if you win dinner with Sucher, I’ll want to see the photos. And you’ll have to take a ride on the Bainbridge Island ferry for me. But in the meantime, read, consider, discuss and distribute his short chapter. I believe Sucher has a lot to say to Fort Wayne at this juncture in our urban history.

– Jon Swerens 

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A maddening map of the precincts

By on November 6, 2007 in Elections, Neighborhoods

countygis.jpgHas anyone ever successfully used the Allen County GIS system to determine his own precinct or polling place?

I appreciate the effort that went into gathering all the information and pulling it into one system. But the county system is a classic example of enterprise software being written for programmers rather than for end users.

If you’re like me, you just jump into a site like the county’s, thinking that you’ll figure it out as you go along. But see all those folders down the sidebar in the picture? Some things in there are already selected, which is why you see so many colored lines in your map.

Good luck finding all the checkboxes that go with the renegade lines.

Next, you may try the instructions for finding your election information. This actually works, as far as it goes, although it does take nine steps.

But the big problem is that you get the address of your polling place, but all of the polls remain marked on the map. So, if you’re like me, and you’re unfamiliar with many Fort Wayne streets and buildings, you could end up at a closer, but incorrect, polling place.

vfwpolling.jpg

My polling place is not the VFW, a polling place actually located inside my precinct. The VFW is a polling place for a different precinct. My polling place is located two precincts to the north at the Eagles Club — meaning that if you don’t have a car, you have to either get a ride or take public transportation.

Why so far away? I believe it’s because of Americans with Disabilities Act concerns, which are valid as long as everyone has equal access to transportation — and that’s an unlikely prospect in my neighborhood.

A good city features polling places that are easy to find and, at least in the urban core, easy to get to by foot. Let’s hope better polling places — and maps — arrive before the next election.

– Jon Swerens

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It’s time for Christians to get over it and celebrate Halloween already

By on October 25, 2007 in Culture, Neighborhoods, Theology

This is a repost from my own blog at www.jonswerens.com.

Soon after my wife and I became Christians, the first holiday out the window was Halloween. It was obviously devilish, and we wanted our children to have nothing to do with it.

Back in the ’80s and early ’90s, Satanism scaremongers like the now-discredited Mike Warnke saw nothing but evil in the celebration of Halloween. American Christians, steeped in the belief that the end times were upon us, were all too eager to believe the worst about any subject.

As my wife and I grew to understand more fully the sovereignty of God, our views on Halloween relaxed. But we were never completely comfortable with the idea.

Until a few years ago, when one well-written article dismantled all manner of faulty prejudices.

You must read the whole article. For one thing, it’s short. Well, kinda short. For another, it’s rare to find someone with this opinion of what is so commonly believed to be a Satanic holiday co-opted by the church. The truth may very well be the opposite:

(M)any articles in books, magazines, and encyclopedias are written by secular humanists or even the pop-pagans of the so-called “New Age” movement. … These people actively suppress the Christian associations of historic customs, and try to magnify the pagan associations. They do this to try and make paganism acceptable and to downplay Christianity. Thus, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc., are said to have pagan origins. Not true.

Oddly, some fundamentalists have been influenced by these slanted views of history. These fundamentalists do not accept the humanist and pagan rewriting of Western history, American history, and science, but sometimes they do accept the humanist and pagan rewriting of the origins of Halloween and Christmas, the Christmas tree, etc. We can hope that in time these brethren will reexamine these matters as well. We ought not to let the pagans do our thinking for us.

Read the entire article here.

Now, if you still have serious moral reservations about Halloween, then don’t you dare celebrate it. As the Bible says, if you think it’s a sin, then to you, it is a sin.

But if all you’ve had is some sort of vague unease, then you can relax. Halloween is one of the few holidays left that are natural times to get to know your neighbors. Pass out candy (full-size Hershey bars — no apples or tracts, please) and talk to the wandering kids and their parents. Be friendly and be real.

On October 31st, the world is quite literally at your doorstep.

BONUS: Carve your own online pumpkin.

— Jon Swerens

Comments { 0 }

It’s time for Christians to get over it and celebrate Halloween already

By on October 25, 2007 in Culture, Neighborhoods, Theology

This is a repost from my own blog at www.jonswerens.com.

Soon after my wife and I became Christians, the first holiday out the window was Halloween. It was obviously devilish, and we wanted our children to have nothing to do with it.

Back in the ’80s and early ’90s, Satanism scaremongers like the now-discredited Mike Warnke saw nothing but evil in the celebration of Halloween. American Christians, steeped in the belief that the end times were upon us, were all too eager to believe the worst about any subject.

As my wife and I grew to understand more fully the sovereignty of God, our views on Halloween relaxed. But we were never completely comfortable with the idea.

Until a few years ago, when one well-written article dismantled all manner of faulty prejudices.

You must read the whole article. For one thing, it’s short. Well, kinda short. For another, it’s rare to find someone with this opinion of what is so commonly believed to be a Satanic holiday co-opted by the church. The truth may very well be the opposite:

(M)any articles in books, magazines, and encyclopedias are written by secular humanists or even the pop-pagans of the so-called “New Age” movement. … These people actively suppress the Christian associations of historic customs, and try to magnify the pagan associations. They do this to try and make paganism acceptable and to downplay Christianity. Thus, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc., are said to have pagan origins. Not true.

Oddly, some fundamentalists have been influenced by these slanted views of history. These fundamentalists do not accept the humanist and pagan rewriting of Western history, American history, and science, but sometimes they do accept the humanist and pagan rewriting of the origins of Halloween and Christmas, the Christmas tree, etc. We can hope that in time these brethren will reexamine these matters as well. We ought not to let the pagans do our thinking for us.

Read the entire article here.

Now, if you still have serious moral reservations about Halloween, then don’t you dare celebrate it. As the Bible says, if you think it’s a sin, then to you, it is a sin.

But if all you’ve had is some sort of vague unease, then you can relax. Halloween is one of the few holidays left that are natural times to get to know your neighbors. Pass out candy (full-size Hershey bars — no apples or tracts, please) and talk to the wandering kids and their parents. Be friendly and be real.

On October 31st, the world is quite literally at your doorstep.

BONUS: Carve your own online pumpkin.

— Jon Swerens

Comments { 4 }

A Few Thoughts on Renaissance Point

By on October 20, 2007 in Architecture, City culture, Downtown, Neighborhoods, Urbanism

dscn6502.jpg

Today I toured the model houses of Renaissance Point on John Street. You can see my photos here, though the other Scott has a better camera and his photos are available here.

Overall, I’ve been impressed with this whole development. For far too long there has been very little or nil investment in this part of town. Indeed, as I sat in the dining room of a Lancia home and talked at length with Rachel, I heard from almost everybody who came through that this is long overdo and that “it’s about time!” The overwhelming majority seems in favor of this.

However, Ms. Dowdell just happened to come into the house where Rachel and I were talking, and she said, when I asked her what she thought of all this, that she doesn’t like it because it’s displacement. Hmmm… Displacement. What’s she talking about, I wondered? She didn’t stay long enough to explain, but I was intrigued, and so I came home and Googled the words “gentrification and displacement”. Wow! A lot there.

So though I’m generally impressed with what’s being done, I have to admit I wonder about this issue. The prices of these new houses, while being less expensive than those being built elsewhere, are fairly affordable. And tons of incentives exist. But still, they are significantly more than anything else in that neighborhood. Who’s going to buy them? What will it mean for the low income, long term residents?

From “Gentrification, Integration, or Displacement: the Seattle Story”,

In 2006 former Seattle mayor Norm Rice, the city’s only African American to hold that position, summarized his frustration over the paradox of gentrification at a community forum in Seattle’s Central District. “I’m concerned and I am frustrated because I don’t know what the alternatives [to gentrification] are. [This process] clearly isn’t racist, it’s economic. The real question you have to ask yourself is: Is this good or bad?”

The questions are good ones, even if I’m not quite sure of the answers.

– Scott Greider

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Renaissance Pointe photos

By on October 20, 2007 in Neighborhoods, Urbanism

Scott Spaulding of the Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball blog has posted some of his photos from today’s Renaissance Pointe City Living Tour.

You can find them here, on Flickr.

Remember, you can tour the neighborhood from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Oct. 21, Saturday, Oct. 27, and Sunday, Oct. 28. Read more about it right here.

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Take a tour of Renaissance Pointe this weekend

By on October 18, 2007 in Architecture, Neighborhoods

The developers of Renaissance Pointe are hosting an open house of sorts this weekend and the next. If you’re interested in the renewal of Fort Wayne, consider taking a tour of the first few houses being built in this 36-block area south of downtown.

If you go, take your camera. Post some photos or videos online and let us know about them by leaving a comment below. (A good place to post photos is Flickr. For videos, you could consider Vimeo.)

The tour is from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and on Oct. 27-28 and includes the houses built in the 2400 block of John Street (Google map). Here’s the information about the tour.

And here’s even more info:

While you’re there, be sure to sit a while on a front porch. That’s the point of those, you know.

Related: Fate of future projects hinges on success of Renaissance Pointe. A column by Kevin Leininger

— Jon Swerens. Photo by The News-Sentinel

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