Browsing the Internet recently I saw a story about how Western Washington University was dropping its football program. I am a sports fan, but don’t pay too much attention to football anymore. In the last 15 years my interests have gone more toward the Literary Arts, but I’ll still go to a baseball game.
In the comments after the news article I saw something that caught my attention. (Is it just me, or is the level of dialog usually quite angry and immature on those forums?) Someone mentioned how relevant the Liberal Arts department of the college was to the mainly blue collar population of Bellingham.
I am not sure where being intellectual started becoming something to be despised in our culture, but that rancor seemed to peak with the 2008 campaign of Sarah Palin, who in mid-October suggested she liked to visit the “pro-America” parts of the country. That may have been the beginning of the end of the McCain-Palin campaign, but I doubt the anti-intellectualism died there. And I am not here to defend any snobs or effete professors, because arrogance is repugnant in any arena and teachers should strive to be models, humble and otherwise, for students.
That said, the reason for Liberal Arts departments around the country is to help people READ and THINK. Critical thinking is a lost skill in our culture. No one reads the classics, which created the very foundation of our culture, and continue to shape it despite a mainstream media’s efforts to distract us with the latest Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears story, or big football game result.
How does football serve our culture, with the exception of being a distraction? What does it provide that other sports can not? I’m not sure. I do know that about 140 million people attended sports events in the US in 2008, but that’s about 16 percent of the 850 million that went to a museum. So is the question is football programs versus Liberal Arts, we must ask ourselves, do we want people who can read and think critically, or who can sack a quarterback, or catch a pass? What would be sustainable? Apparently, Western Washington has already decided.
peN – 1.14.09
Link:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/what-do-museums-have-that-sports-games-dont/?apage=2
Football vs. Liberal Arts, Part 2
I’m not sure what the attendance was for local high school football this season. I did not go, but if I had a son playing, that might be a different story. Of course with violence being such an integral part of the game, had I a son, I’d probably steer him towards baseball, basketball, golf or track and field.
I did want to continue the thread from the last column, which looked at Western Washington University’s decision to drop their football program, but continue their Liberal Arts program, much to the chagrin of one person who commented on-line about the story.
For anyone interested in the origins of THIS town, you’d be well-served to attend the current exhibit at the White River Valley Museum. Ilalko, then Slaughter, now Auburn: Historic Photographs of Place by Arthur Ballard is the exhibit on display until April 12. It is a small exhibit, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in fascination. To see Main Street as it was years ago, or even to get a sense of what this place was before cars, before trains, before settlers, is an extraordinary experience. Poet and philosopher George Santayana has it right when he said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Not sure how good ol’ George was with an open tackle.
Greg Watson is a curator and one-man cheering squad for the late Arthur Ballard, who spoke the local Indian language, Wholshootseed, was the son of the man who platted Slaughter (now downtown Auburn) and who spent much of his life taking the stories of elder Native people with such dignity that we’re blessed with a great deal of information of how that fascinating culture works. Arthur Ballard is one of this town’s true heroes and having a museum and exhibition of this quality in our town is a remarkable achievement. Preserving his legacy ought to be one of the priorities of the folks who make such decisions.
The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from Noon to 4:00 pm and their website is: http://www.wrvmuseum.org/
Friday, February 13, 2009
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Sustainable High School Design
The Auburn School Board was expected to pass a resolution this past Monday to put a $239 million bond measure on the March 10 ballot that includes, among its many options, tearing down the current Auburn High School and replacing it with a building south of the current one.
Many questions need to be asked in advance of that vote.
Would the design be sustainable? One of the world’s expert architects on sustainable design (he wrote a book on it) is Seattle’s Dan Williams. In the American Institute of Architects journal he says:
“Typically, the thing that’s missing is the ability to interact with the exterior environment on ‘comfort’ days because the building is a hermetically-sealed box that doesn’t allow the participants to make their own comfort zone work better …”
Williams also is concerned about how to make structures more connected to place. When you think about it, or look at downtown Auburn from the sky – or maps.google.com, with the satellite feature – you see that the ball field there and the nearby field at Washington Elementary are the only bits of open space in downtown Auburn. Veterans Memorial Park is a 7.65-acre jewel, but farther away from downtown.
So, question No. 2 is: How would open space be preserved?
Is there new parking lot technology that can prevent runoff from cars further polluting streams? Well, the answer to that is yes, based on the work of Tom Holz in Lacey. He helped that city adopt a progressive policy for new impervious surfaces designed to protect receiving waters and aquatic resources. The Natural Resources Defense Council says it’s a national model. It’s called the Zero Impact Development Ordinance and it was adopted 10 years ago.
Perhaps it is time for Auburn to do what we can to prevent future floods. Such a policy would have been a good idea for Auburn Mountainview, but that will require vision and an increased commitment.
Would the design recognize Auburn’s culture? West Auburn High School teacher Greg Watson is the expert here, already working with the city to see that Japanese settlers, Native Americans and Auburn’s historic industries are recognized in the new Auburn Junction development.
One example is the glazed and unglazed terra cotta made by the Northern Clay Products Co. in Auburn. It was a backbone industry for Auburn, Renton and Seattle, and used in building many cities and towns all the way north to British Columbia at one time.
These are but a few questions, but more will emerge. Some will say we can’t afford to do this, but that’s another way of saying we need future generations to fix our problems – or worse, that we are not creative enough or committed enough to do so now and impact change.
I hope the school district can find the courage to do the right thing, both for the environment and the future generations it hopes to nurture in the new building.
Links:
http://www.aia.org/nwsltr_aiaj.cfm?pagename=aiaj_a_0408_firminsider
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/storm/chap12.asp
http://www.wrvmuseum.org/journal/journal_0796.htm
Many questions need to be asked in advance of that vote.
Would the design be sustainable? One of the world’s expert architects on sustainable design (he wrote a book on it) is Seattle’s Dan Williams. In the American Institute of Architects journal he says:
“Typically, the thing that’s missing is the ability to interact with the exterior environment on ‘comfort’ days because the building is a hermetically-sealed box that doesn’t allow the participants to make their own comfort zone work better …”
Williams also is concerned about how to make structures more connected to place. When you think about it, or look at downtown Auburn from the sky – or maps.google.com, with the satellite feature – you see that the ball field there and the nearby field at Washington Elementary are the only bits of open space in downtown Auburn. Veterans Memorial Park is a 7.65-acre jewel, but farther away from downtown.
So, question No. 2 is: How would open space be preserved?
Is there new parking lot technology that can prevent runoff from cars further polluting streams? Well, the answer to that is yes, based on the work of Tom Holz in Lacey. He helped that city adopt a progressive policy for new impervious surfaces designed to protect receiving waters and aquatic resources. The Natural Resources Defense Council says it’s a national model. It’s called the Zero Impact Development Ordinance and it was adopted 10 years ago.
Perhaps it is time for Auburn to do what we can to prevent future floods. Such a policy would have been a good idea for Auburn Mountainview, but that will require vision and an increased commitment.
Would the design recognize Auburn’s culture? West Auburn High School teacher Greg Watson is the expert here, already working with the city to see that Japanese settlers, Native Americans and Auburn’s historic industries are recognized in the new Auburn Junction development.
One example is the glazed and unglazed terra cotta made by the Northern Clay Products Co. in Auburn. It was a backbone industry for Auburn, Renton and Seattle, and used in building many cities and towns all the way north to British Columbia at one time.
These are but a few questions, but more will emerge. Some will say we can’t afford to do this, but that’s another way of saying we need future generations to fix our problems – or worse, that we are not creative enough or committed enough to do so now and impact change.
I hope the school district can find the courage to do the right thing, both for the environment and the future generations it hopes to nurture in the new building.
Links:
http://www.aia.org/nwsltr_aiaj.cfm?pagename=aiaj_a_0408_firminsider
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/storm/chap12.asp
http://www.wrvmuseum.org/journal/journal_0796.htm
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Industry Generated Culture
My guess is that it was after the introduction of television to U.S. Americans, as new immigrants abandoned the cultural mores of the lands they abandoned, that what passed for culture in this country began to shift to an industry generated culture. This is the case in much of Auburn.
While churches have established a religious culture for many in the town, and other subcultures abound—including what is left of the indigenous culture of this place once called Ilalqo—culture is now passed on via TV programs, commercials and talk radio.
I first heard the phrase industry generated culture from Media Literacy Activist Gloria DeGaetano, who founded the Parent Coaching Institute. In short, DeGaetano says this is a culture which is seeking what it can get from the people, rather than what it can give to the people. This is a complete perversion of what culture is supposed to be and it is indeed, often perverted. See the wardrobe-malfunction incident of the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, or something much more relevant to people: food.
It was in getting directions from Maps.Google.com where I saw it. I plugged in my destination address, then my own address and in back and white it confirmed my worst fears. A left on Auburn Way North, then a left onto 15th Avenue N.E. which it said was known as Fast Food Row. Now, I give in and have a quick meal at a local establishment now and then. When I do, my first choice for lunch is the Sunbreak Café, locally owned and purveyors of home made soups and an awesome Reuben sandwich. My money stays in the hands of local folks, then goes to other places and creates a multiplier effect which helps many more local businesses.
Each dollar spent at Arby’s, Taco Bell, Dairy Queen and other fast food chain restaurants goes immediately out of town, except for the small bit which ends up in the pockets of their employees. Interesting how the word ‘chain’ is used to describe these restaurants. This is an image which implies servitude.
Breaking bread with someone is one of the most powerful ways to create connections between people. It is one way in which culture is transmitted. When it is a cheap, fast-food meal, which barely nourishes and is consumed in one’s car, we have to wonder what that says about our culture and how—if we care—do we change that. One way we can begin to change is to support and encourage establishments like the Sunbreak and purchase produce from local farms. We can limit the time we watch commercial television and we can add more art to our lives. Auburn deserves better than recognition as a fast food mecca.
4:45P – 9.16.08
While churches have established a religious culture for many in the town, and other subcultures abound—including what is left of the indigenous culture of this place once called Ilalqo—culture is now passed on via TV programs, commercials and talk radio.
I first heard the phrase industry generated culture from Media Literacy Activist Gloria DeGaetano, who founded the Parent Coaching Institute. In short, DeGaetano says this is a culture which is seeking what it can get from the people, rather than what it can give to the people. This is a complete perversion of what culture is supposed to be and it is indeed, often perverted. See the wardrobe-malfunction incident of the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, or something much more relevant to people: food.
It was in getting directions from Maps.Google.com where I saw it. I plugged in my destination address, then my own address and in back and white it confirmed my worst fears. A left on Auburn Way North, then a left onto 15th Avenue N.E. which it said was known as Fast Food Row. Now, I give in and have a quick meal at a local establishment now and then. When I do, my first choice for lunch is the Sunbreak Café, locally owned and purveyors of home made soups and an awesome Reuben sandwich. My money stays in the hands of local folks, then goes to other places and creates a multiplier effect which helps many more local businesses.
Each dollar spent at Arby’s, Taco Bell, Dairy Queen and other fast food chain restaurants goes immediately out of town, except for the small bit which ends up in the pockets of their employees. Interesting how the word ‘chain’ is used to describe these restaurants. This is an image which implies servitude.
Breaking bread with someone is one of the most powerful ways to create connections between people. It is one way in which culture is transmitted. When it is a cheap, fast-food meal, which barely nourishes and is consumed in one’s car, we have to wonder what that says about our culture and how—if we care—do we change that. One way we can begin to change is to support and encourage establishments like the Sunbreak and purchase produce from local farms. We can limit the time we watch commercial television and we can add more art to our lives. Auburn deserves better than recognition as a fast food mecca.
4:45P – 9.16.08
Monday, September 15, 2008
Can We Handle Panhanders?
How long is the average traffic light? It seems like a long time, but it is usually thirty seconds, sometimes more. If you don’t get through in one cycle, it could be a minute or more. Life is not like Tivo, where you can skip past the unwanted or unpleasant parts, but a city that strives for sustainability does not only try to address symptoms of challenges, it addresses the root causes as best it can.
In the case of our woeful economy, there is not much the city of Auburn can do, especially when former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan suggests it is the worst economy he has ever seen, as he told ABC News on Sunday, the fourteenth . So, when it comes to what was called in this paper aggressive panhandling, the city can only make sure there are resources for the truly needy. The city has assisted the work of the Auburn Food Bank to the point where it is a model for such projects and it is run by someone who believes in the concept of Christian charity, which speaks much louder than any words can.
Is it legal to be aggressive? No. Are more laws needed to handle such panhandlers, or is this another case for that old Libertarian bumper sticker that says, There Ought to be a Law and the word Law is crossed out and the word choice is pasted in. You decide. There will always be folks looking for a handout, rather than a chance. In a free society, we must put up with them and work to fix the systems that make food too expensive for many. Encouraging local agriculture is one step a truly sustainable city takes. More on that in future columns.
Link to Auburn-Reporter version.
In the case of our woeful economy, there is not much the city of Auburn can do, especially when former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan suggests it is the worst economy he has ever seen, as he told ABC News on Sunday, the fourteenth . So, when it comes to what was called in this paper aggressive panhandling, the city can only make sure there are resources for the truly needy. The city has assisted the work of the Auburn Food Bank to the point where it is a model for such projects and it is run by someone who believes in the concept of Christian charity, which speaks much louder than any words can.
Is it legal to be aggressive? No. Are more laws needed to handle such panhandlers, or is this another case for that old Libertarian bumper sticker that says, There Ought to be a Law and the word Law is crossed out and the word choice is pasted in. You decide. There will always be folks looking for a handout, rather than a chance. In a free society, we must put up with them and work to fix the systems that make food too expensive for many. Encouraging local agriculture is one step a truly sustainable city takes. More on that in future columns.
Link to Auburn-Reporter version.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Sustainable Auburn is Launched
The initial business plan for Sustainable Auburn has been created and we will begin to submit it to potential funding sources. The whole plan is linked here, but here is a sample of what we are talking about with this project:
Executive Summary
Sustainable Auburn is an initiative with a mission of advancing the awareness and practice of environmental, economic and cultural sustainability and the opportunities they present. We seek to advance the need for acting on challenges facing the Auburn community, including, but not limited to: clean air, food and water. At the same time, we’re interested in facilitating opportunities for artists to live and work here. By creating a renaissance in the local arts community and providing more opportunities in the arts, working artists living in Auburn will help establish a creative culture that will further develop innovative solutions needed to address the critical issues of our time
Introduction
Sustainable Auburn is a project that brings together several of the deeply-held concerns regarding quality of life in Auburn, Washington. Combining earlier efforts in artist housing along with a longstanding commitment to literary arts, this project would bring greater awareness to the need for food system sustainability and would create projects designed to give youth exciting, new, cutting-edge projects in which they could engage. It would give the city of Auburn a regional reputation consistent with its historical heritage, as the region’s food provider, now focusing on organic produce for local citizens and restaurants and create new business opportunities by serving as a research center for sustainable urban agriculture, housing and construction approaches.
Project Description
Sustainable Auburn is designed to conceive, initiate and deliver sustainable approaches to dealing with the realities of life in a town with a distinct identity south of Seattle. Sustainable Auburn envisions the implementation of multiple initiatives in seven distinct areas. These include Artist Housing, Cultural Programs, Green Construction/Building, Innovative Water Conservation Methods, Urban Agricultural Programs, Visionary Clean Air Initiatives, and Youth Programs. Through the Internet, a regular column in the Auburn Reporter a strategic partnership with Puget Sound Access and other print and digital media that implement and incorporate our expertise garnered through years of radio broadcasts on these issues, the project exists to focus community energies on activities that improve the quality of life using creative, environmentally-friendly methods and programs.
Executive Summary
Sustainable Auburn is an initiative with a mission of advancing the awareness and practice of environmental, economic and cultural sustainability and the opportunities they present. We seek to advance the need for acting on challenges facing the Auburn community, including, but not limited to: clean air, food and water. At the same time, we’re interested in facilitating opportunities for artists to live and work here. By creating a renaissance in the local arts community and providing more opportunities in the arts, working artists living in Auburn will help establish a creative culture that will further develop innovative solutions needed to address the critical issues of our time
Introduction
Sustainable Auburn is a project that brings together several of the deeply-held concerns regarding quality of life in Auburn, Washington. Combining earlier efforts in artist housing along with a longstanding commitment to literary arts, this project would bring greater awareness to the need for food system sustainability and would create projects designed to give youth exciting, new, cutting-edge projects in which they could engage. It would give the city of Auburn a regional reputation consistent with its historical heritage, as the region’s food provider, now focusing on organic produce for local citizens and restaurants and create new business opportunities by serving as a research center for sustainable urban agriculture, housing and construction approaches.
Project Description
Sustainable Auburn is designed to conceive, initiate and deliver sustainable approaches to dealing with the realities of life in a town with a distinct identity south of Seattle. Sustainable Auburn envisions the implementation of multiple initiatives in seven distinct areas. These include Artist Housing, Cultural Programs, Green Construction/Building, Innovative Water Conservation Methods, Urban Agricultural Programs, Visionary Clean Air Initiatives, and Youth Programs. Through the Internet, a regular column in the Auburn Reporter a strategic partnership with Puget Sound Access and other print and digital media that implement and incorporate our expertise garnered through years of radio broadcasts on these issues, the project exists to focus community energies on activities that improve the quality of life using creative, environmentally-friendly methods and programs.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Quality of Life
Money Magazine is out with its list of the best places to live in the United States. The financial magazine, part of the CNN, Time Warner corporate behemoth, may be best known for this annual summary. Of course the list, plus $3 dollars will get you a skinny single tall latte, but it makes for good water-cooler fodder while you sip that latte. This year’s top ten small towns are:
1. Plymouth, MN
2. Fort Collins, CO
3. Naperville, IL
4. Irvine, CA
5. Franklin Township, NJ
6. Norman, OK
7. Round Rock, TX
8. Columbia/Ellicott City, MD
9. Overland Park, KS
10. Fishers, IN
Where is Auburn, you ask? Not on the top 100, though browsing the Cnn.Money website, I was a few clicks away from seeing how Auburn fares in the criteria used by the magazine to determine quality of life in American small towns. First off, they did not list the current population, which is now over 66,000, and was listed at 48,800. Certainly the recent annexations are not considered in Money’s figures, so next year the ranking is likely to change.
Right off the bat you see Auburn does not do well against the average of the Best Places in terms of the top two categories: Median Family Income and Family Purchasing Power. Residents here are at only 62% of the median income and have only 57% of the best places purchasing power.
Other areas of concern include: Job Growth (less than half), Test Scores in Reading and Math (very poor in comparison), Property Crime and almost all the Leisure and Culture categories, which include access to Movie Theaters, Restaurants, Golf Courses and the Arts. Auburn spends half per capita on arts funding, though this apparently is a state-wide statistic.
Auburn is about average in Health concerns, less educated, less racially diverse with a higher divorce rate and slightly better than average percentage of residents who walk or bike to work. We do a little better in the median home price and, believe it or not, in property tax rate. The air quality is significantly better here in Auburn, but crime is a serious problem, according to the statistics, in terms of personal crime and property crime incidents.
The Auburn ranking is linked at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/snapshots/PL5303180.html
1. Plymouth, MN
2. Fort Collins, CO
3. Naperville, IL
4. Irvine, CA
5. Franklin Township, NJ
6. Norman, OK
7. Round Rock, TX
8. Columbia/Ellicott City, MD
9. Overland Park, KS
10. Fishers, IN
Where is Auburn, you ask? Not on the top 100, though browsing the Cnn.Money website, I was a few clicks away from seeing how Auburn fares in the criteria used by the magazine to determine quality of life in American small towns. First off, they did not list the current population, which is now over 66,000, and was listed at 48,800. Certainly the recent annexations are not considered in Money’s figures, so next year the ranking is likely to change.
Right off the bat you see Auburn does not do well against the average of the Best Places in terms of the top two categories: Median Family Income and Family Purchasing Power. Residents here are at only 62% of the median income and have only 57% of the best places purchasing power.
Other areas of concern include: Job Growth (less than half), Test Scores in Reading and Math (very poor in comparison), Property Crime and almost all the Leisure and Culture categories, which include access to Movie Theaters, Restaurants, Golf Courses and the Arts. Auburn spends half per capita on arts funding, though this apparently is a state-wide statistic.
Auburn is about average in Health concerns, less educated, less racially diverse with a higher divorce rate and slightly better than average percentage of residents who walk or bike to work. We do a little better in the median home price and, believe it or not, in property tax rate. The air quality is significantly better here in Auburn, but crime is a serious problem, according to the statistics, in terms of personal crime and property crime incidents.
The Auburn ranking is linked at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/snapshots/PL5303180.html
Monday, July 14, 2008
Auburn Gets Sustainable
This column represents the launch of a regular series, and of a project, both of which share the name Sustainable Auburn. Sustainability is a word that has been, in its current usage, with us for 16 years. Just writing that makes me feel older. It was in 1992 that the Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, stating quite plainly what was intended by the phrase sustainable development.
Before we go any further down THAT road, keep in mind that when we are talking about something that is sustainable, we mean EVERYTHING in an ecosystem and that would include humans, so the question is what is sustainable development? Wikipedia says it’s, “…a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future.”
For much longer than these last 16 years Environmentalists have been saying that the way in which we live is not sustainable. The exorbitant use of fossil fuels in this country, the single-occupancy vehicles, the shipping of food from California, or Mexico, or Chile, the two-block drive to the store for milk, highway commuting instead of mass transit, these have all been targets of that Environmentalist agenda for a long time, but we basically let the natural environment subsidize this lifestyle by letting it absorb the pollution. Now, with gas approaching five bucks a gallon, the basic economics are catching up to the reality of the inherent unsustainable nature of this.
Yet if you think this sustainability agenda is the push of extremists, then you can count the Auburn City Council as extreme, with the recent approval of Resolution No. 4368. After a slew of Whereases, (and where would lawmakers be without the word Whereas?) the Council goes on to say they support actions which enhance sustainability environmentally, economically, for social viability, through green constructions standards, using energy and other resources prudently and by reducing the town’s carbon footprint. Now they have to go and figure out the town’s carbon footprint, or the measure of how human activities are impacting the environment in terms of greenhouse gases.
So in the next few weeks this column will address these issues, looking at how we can live and make this town more sustainable and leave it a better place ecologically AND economically than it was left to us. Do our grandchildren deserve any less? The dialogue starts here and on-line at http://www.SustainableAuburn.org
2:38P – 7.2.08
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