Reflection on Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

This book was a good foray back into fiction. It was an easy, short read that was also engrossing. I like nonfiction because I always know the ending, but I think fiction is so powerful because it is always imbued with a realness coming from the author and their experiences. I particularly enjoyed the kind of "cut" writing style with abrupt flashbacks, lacking overt transition. Something about it felt like a friend telling a story, instead of contrived or forced writing.

 
The book was short, so I will keep the review short, but here are a few quotes to chew on:

On drive, "if there was a hunger, it was a different kind, the simple hunger of those who had been fed one thing but wanted another." (p.23)

On racism and insecurity, "The lesson I have never quite been able to shake: that I would always have something to prove and that nothing but blazing brilliance would be enough to prove it." (p.52-53) This quote brought me back to a book I read last year that I never got around to blogging, called Whistling Vivaldi. It was about the gap between demographics once they get to college and feel this same need to prove themselves on behalf of their race or gender and how, sometimes, the isolation from that actually hurts performance.

 
On judgment and family dynamics, "It's those who stay who are judged the harshest, simply by virtue of being around to be judged." (p.41)

On personality and family, "The thing I feared, becoming my mother, was happening, physically, in spite of myself." (p.45) This resonated with me because I think, at some point, everyone feels like they don't want to take certain traits from their parents, but there are some genetically you just can't avoid. I think it's humbling and a good way to look at yourself in the mirror and think fondly on strange, lovely family dynamics.

 
On people, and as a manner of compassion, "If I've thought of my mother as callous, and many times I have, then it is important to remind myself what a callus is: the hardened tissue that forms over a wound." (p.60)

On religion and Southern Baptism, "[Like they] saw God as a kind of prize that only some were good enough to win." "We read the Bible how we want to read it. It doesn't change, but we do" (p.107) These quotes were two sides of the same coin reflecting a religious journey I think a lot of people in this generation have embarked on.

On poverty, "I already understood the spectacle of poverty, the competing impulses to help and to look away," (p.83)

On addiction, "I watched him (her brother) repeat his doomed actions with that beautifully pure, deluded hope of an addict, the hope that says, This time will be different. this time I'll make it out okay." (p.100) "God, I wish it was cancer, not for his sake but for mine. Not because the nature of his suffering would change significantly but because the nature of my suffering would. I would have a better story than the one I had." (p.132) "[When I saw him and thought What a waste], But the waste was my own, the waste was what I missed out on whenever I looked at him and saw just his addiction." (p.177)

On living, "[Humans want] to run right up to the edge of our lives, which is, in some ways to live fully." (p.188)

Overall, this book was excellent. I was looking for something short that I could get through quickly, and the book exceeded expectations. I may even start rotating fiction back into my reads (after I finish all the planning books, of course). Thankful for Goodreads and a good title for picking this one!

Reflection on The Power Broker by Robert Caro

Well folks, I finally finished The Power Broker. It took too long, but this book is fantastic. The level of detail pursued by the author is unmatched. While this biography can get dry at times, the author does an excellent job describing Robert Moses as a complex person and taking the reader through his life and relationships. One of the most impressive aspects of this book is the writing. Reading a 1000 page biography of a man most people have never heard of is a big thing to ask, but Robert Caro makes it easy (even if it takes awhile). Taking a moment to reflect, Caro expertly guides the reader on an emotional journey through sympathy, pain with Moses, vilification of Moses, and, strangely, pity. Robert Caro's writing style works for the reader as a composer's music works for the movie goer, subconsciously signaling mood shifts. 

Robert Moses, as a person, was unique unto himself. I found it personally fascinating that Robert Moses was Jewish and that his mother's vigorous philanthropy to Jewish immigrants was out of shame to be associated with poor Jews. Then again, this same theme of paternalistic condescension came up when McCarthyism took hold of Moses, knowing that, at this time, many Jews in New York were socialistic and communistic. Instead of identifying with Jews at all, Moses became an anti-semite. 

This book's relevancy relies on consistency of systems and the people who run them. Robert Moses's World's Fair of 1964 actually reminds me of the Fyre Festival a few years ago- a total scam with FEMA tents advertised as luxury accommodations. With the World's Fair, people were promised government representation globally and received none. It was yet another desperate grasp at power for Robert Moses. At this point in his career, Robert Moses was so self-insulated he was delusional about logistical realities relating to the World's Fair and his position in politics. So far removed from criticism and the public eye, he avoided necessary improvements to the World's Fair. A friend of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Henry MacTavish was the only person to hold Moses accountable for his irresponsible and negligent spending habits during the 1964 World's Fair. Upon doing so, he was promptly fired and received a handwritten memo saying that, "under no circumstances" was he to attend the Fair employees' Christmas party (P1105). Shortly thereafter, the Fair totally fell apart. This is yet another example of his bitter personality. 

Finally, on Moses, an integral aspect of his success was his ability to rely on his parents for financial support for his family and self. We see this today in looking at who can afford to take things like unpaid internships or go to expensive colleges without full scholarships. This is applicable today where truly great people can't achieve their full potential because of financial insecurity and we, as a society, lose real brilliance to economic inequality. 

Although The Power Broker is about one person, it reveals the stagnancy in government processes and how the system never really changes. The book begins the journey in the 1920s through the 1960s and, the entire time, nearly 100 years later, I felt like I was reading a report from only the day before. In so many ways, still, there is so little communication between departments; complacency rules. In truth, one of the motivating factors for me to finish the book was the hope that, after all the roads were built, people evicted, natural places destroyed, the author would give a play-by-play on how to get rail (didn't happen). I find myself, today, feeling driven up the wall at the number of miles paved and the cost of it. I won't derail this book review to a road rant, but it would be easy to do so. Roads are how Robert Moses killed so many communities in New York City. Like East Tremont.  Looking at the battles fought between planners and Robert Moses then and those between planners and public works now is disheartening and, frankly, comical. 

East Tremont was like any other neighborhood that we see in urban environments- connected physically through a grid system, with intergenerational housing, affordable rents, and public meeting spaces (parks). The people in East Tremont didn't have much, but they had each other- until Robert Moses's haphazard Title I "Slum Clearance" Program. This portion of the book was the most effective in proving how cruel Robert Moses was. He needlessly evicted hundreds of families who put up an excellent fight and made them homeless. The author actually tracked down the displaced residents of East Tremont to hear their stories. The author did the same for every character, big or small, in Robert Moses's life. 

This book keeps you wide-eyed learning the political finesse of so many of its characters, yet disgusted by the undemocratic nature of its power. The book also demonstrates how far "reform" has come and its deep ties to urbanism. Robert Moses's power came from parks. It came from providing safe public spaces for our urban populations. With the rise of cars, Moses's visceral classism showed, building bridges that could not fit public buses, systematically defunding mass transit, and using his roads as a means of beauty for motorists only. It is fascinating and validating to see these struggles repeat themselves. 

Overall, I think this book teaches fantastic lessons for the public servant in all departments and drastically enriches the experience of going to or living in New York. In general, I learned: to reject complacency at every opportunity, use power for the people, call out those who try to undermine democratic processes, NO MORE ROADS, creative financing opportunities, the unique relationship between governments and media, and much much more. There are so many more aspects I could dive into from this book, but I'll leave it here for now. 

Many thanks to my brother, Jeremy, for encouraging me to read and finish this book!

Reflection on A Death in the Everglades: The Murder of Guy Bradley, America's First Martyr to Environmentalism

A Death in the Everglades by Stuart B. McIver was a story of pioneering Florida in its earliest, most desolate years. Guy Bradley was the son of one E.R. Bradley, who moved their family to Florida from Chicago in 1876. To give some historical context for the year, this was the same year Rutherford B Hayes won one of the most contested elections of all time against Samuel J. Tilden. Off the heels of the Civil War only a decade earlier, reconstruction was ending and the times were a-changin'. As a bit of a side note, reviewing the Hayes-Tilden Election sounds a lot like what we just saw in 2020: "But the election process in Southern states was rife with voter fraud—on the part of both parties—and marked by violent voter suppression against black Americans....." This election was actually used as rationale for the recent Electoral College chaos (Smithsonian Mag, linked at bottom).  

Anyway. Only a century after our country's foundation, we were still so young. Florida was a Wild West for Americans who needed to escape the law, wanted to escape society, or see the incredible Everglades. The Bradleys just couldn't stay put in any place for too long, leading them to our great state. It sure was a good thing the Bradleys came to Florida. E.R. Bradley took up the post office position in South Florida, pioneering the "barefoot route," finding that the best way to get from Palm Beach to Miami was on foot by the beach and by boats left at strategic points. The post office establishment was integral to successful settlement of Florida. As aforementioned, E.R. Bradley couldn't always stay put. He paved the way for the post office and later moved the family down to Flamingo, also known as "The End of the World," serving as the Superintendent of Dade County Schools. Later, E.R. Bradley worked for Henry Flagler as a surveyor in Flamingo. 

In his father's footsteps, the young Guy Bradley was an important part of Florida's establishment as a state. The Bradleys grew up mostly in the Lake Worth area, at a time when everyone needed boats to get around. Suffering losses of their siblings early on and a bizarre disease weakening young Guy, life in the country was no joke. The people of Florida hunted for their food and relied on the environment for their livelihoods- this included the Bradleys. Prior to becoming Game Warden, Guy Bradley was an avid bird hunter and relied on it for fun as a kid. However, it was not the Bradleys nor their fellow Floridians that were problematic for birds; The problem of bird decimation came from foreigners like J. Lechavelier from Paris and George Elliott Cuthbert. 

Hunters went to rookeries, shot them up mercilessly, and left recently hatched birds to die without parents. Tourists would come to our state and shoot birds and alligators from boats for fun. As early as 1886, the American Ornithologists' Union reported 5 million birds were killed for trade the  previous year. That same year, the first Audubon Society was established. As feathers became all the rage, plume hunting was destroying bird populations in Florida. Action was needed.  It wasn't until 1901 that a single bird protection law was passed in Florida, and the populations of birds like snowy egrets, roseate spoonbills, pelicans, and more were dwindling. William Dutcher, a long time president of the National Committee of Audubon Societies was integral in saving bird populations. After taking a days-long tour of local rookeries with Guy Bradley, Dutcher pushed relentlessly on government to pass a law protecting birds, finally successful in 1901. In June of 1902, Guy Bradley was named Monroe County game warden. 

Guy's family had a history of being in law enforcement and he ached to carry on that legacy. This position, with all its responsibility, was dangerous. After all, at the End of the World, there lived people who wanted to start anew. Some of these people, like Captain Walter Smith, had no regard for the law. Throughout 1902-1905, Captain Smith and his family blatantly disregarded the bird protection law and members of the Smith family had been arrested several times by Guy Bradley. In addition, there were two  gangs in Everglades: The Smiths and the Robertses. While Bradley was not directly part of the gang, he was close friends with the Roberts family. When the Smith home was shot at in the Spring of 1905, Captain Smith assumed it must have been the Roberts. In July of the same year, Captain Smith and two of his sons were on their schooner across from the Bradley home, shooting birds. Guy Bradley knew he had to arrest them for breaking the law with blatant disregard. As Bradley approached the Smith schooner in his little row boat, he was murdered by Captain Smith after a short conversation where the Captain would not give up his sons for arrest. 

While it was well known that Captain Walter Smith murdered an officer of the law on active duty, no justice was served. He turned himself in to the Key West Sheriff's Office and a trial was held. However, according to Smith, " we won because...people there were lawless, frontier types," (p165). 

Overall, this book was fantastic. It was short and while this post summarized only the main plot, the book was chock full of interesting historical tidbits. In a land of few people, Florida's politics was ruled by the lawless. I highly recommend. 

This book was gifted to me for the holidays by my good friend, Millie. Thank you Millie!

Source:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/confusion-voter-suppression-and-constitutional-crisis-five-things-know-about-1876-presidential-election-180976677/

Reflection: Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State, by Samuel Stein

In this book, author Samuel Stein demonstrates just how much our global and local economies rely on real estate development for GDP creating what he called the ‘Real Estate State’. According to Stein and Schwartz, there is no county in the US where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford an average two-bedroom apartment. Rent burdens continually constitute most of people’s overall financial burdens, year after year. For this book, Stein essentially embraces the question every planner asks: “How can we improve cities without sparking displacement?” (p.9).

One thing that stood out to me from this book is the idea that planners are less land use managers than they are wealth managers, as their roles have come to be. By examining how we’ve gone from manufacturing and industrial cities to hot spot residential resorts through the lens of a city planner, Stein gives the reader a glimpse into housing as the most lucrative industry in US cities.

Stein defined various types of planners from rational comprehensive and communicative to advocacy and equity planners. By doing so, he brought the reader to the same level for a more fruitful read. One of the most impactful parts of the book was an anecdote from those in Harlem are afraid of improvements to their neighborhoods, knowing those improvements are not for them and that they mean displacement (p.67).

Another point Stein makes which I think is important to note is that, in New York City, it seems the real estate state is almost inescapable, no matter the party in charge. He makes historically substantiated points on the evolution of how real estate has come to rule our states. As an industry reliant on rising land values, renters, who are often low-income minorities, are the most vulnerable to displacement.

It seems like some of the most harmful things identified by Stein include the excessive use of public-private partnerships in NYC and inconsequential community input: “The people must have their say, but their options must be limited.” (p.31). However, I think this book gave too much blame to planners. Functionally, planners are instruments of the governments they work for and putting the onus of planning equitably on just planners puts them in a difficult position.

Stein made a good point on the symbolism of having a real estate developer as President. While I already agreed that Donald Trump was corrupt to maintain his properties and capitalize off his Presidency, I did not realize the powerful symbolism that represents him and the industry as a whole – using government and taxpayer dollars to line his own pockets. The history of Donald Trump’s family did seem to reflect the different mechanisms for exploiting municipal governments and its planners for profit. From his great grandfather dodging the German draft to Donald Trump dodging the American draft, the exploitation of the public is ingrained. Starting with exploitation of speculation based on future transportation infrastructure by Friedrich and blatantly racist and discriminatory housing policies by Fred to exploitation of public housing regulations and racism by Donald Trump, exploitation runs in the family.

Some of the suggestions Stein made to remedy the housing crisis and rule of real estate were great, but not applicable to many cities or suburbs in the US which may be smaller but also struggle with gentrification. Of the suggestions Stein made, application of inclusionary zoning to white enclaves seemed the most obvious and applicable even in suburban areas. Integrating wealthier whiter neighborhoods instead of displacing poor people of color is clearly beneficial. One obstacle to this could potentially be the community feedback aspect of urban planning and who participates. We know that white people are highly participatory in local politics and people of color who do participate are often not heard.

Stein also suggests using historic preservation boards to the advantage of the working class and through preservation of character and housing. Additionally, the third and most robust strategy given was rent controls. While this seems to be a crucial tactic in New York City and other metropolises like San Francisco or Detroit, it does not seem applicable to growing cities. Further, creation of nonspeculative urban housing sounds fascinating, but requires intense community activism. The “right to sell” bill seems like one of the more applicable preventative measures to gentrification. By being able to sell their homes to the city, lower socioeconomic status occupants can make some money and that home is used to give back to the lower SES community through public housing.

The most important measure to mitigate gentrification is reexamining taxes and property. Funding education through property taxes is one of the most well documented and worst ways to help uplift communities. It is a vicious cycle of generations bound to poor education and poverty. Within that, Stein suggests cities tax any revenue traced to public initiatives or amenities. This would be highly effective given that the signal for gentrification is improved local amenities, at the cost of current residents who may not enjoy them in the future.

Stein’s last suggestion to reindustrialize cities may have potential but seems an inadvertent way to drive other forms of wealth out of the city potentially. Additionally, there would be greater concerns of air quality due to increased manufacturing.

Additionally, the principles defined at the end apply only to highly dense cities, not smaller cities like Gainesville or even Fort Lauderdale where gentrification is rabid. This book was about undoing mass gentrification, but I would have appreciated some time devoted to tactics which could be applied to reduce and prevent mass gentrification and displacement.

This book, towards the end, felt like a planner’s Communist Manifesto-lite. Saying that real estate comprises “60% of the world’s assets,” demonstrates just how much our global economy relies on real estate for revenue and economic flows. While I completely agree that the primary principle of planners should be public stewardship, this book’s conclusion relies on communism too heavily, even citing Karl Marx and discussing the seizure of the means of production. Furthermore, I wish this book provided opposing arguments to Stein’s own with comprehensive refutation to prepare people who may use his book for planning and experience backlash.

This book was actually a reading for a course, Housing in the United States. Thank you Mr. Suarez!

Reflection: Segregation by Design, by Jessica Trounstine

Author Jessica Trounstine describes segregation by design as the process in which federal housing subsidies, state regulation, and local zoning laws have collectively planned and created an environment in which segregation thrives. Trounstine expounds on the ways that different cities provide for their people differently: “poor and minority neighborhoods received fewer and lower quality services...some people have access to good schools, well paved roads...public parks...others do not” (Trounstine, p.2). Beginning with segregated blocks, then neighborhoods, and now cities, we have come to a society with increasingly homogeneous communities and high inter-city income disparities. Due to the way a tax base works, wealthier communities have more money to spend in their budgets and their public services are likely to be high quality. Lower income communities have less money to spend and their public services are likely to be lower quality. In this book, Trounstine reveals that this is no accident.  

Trounstine first disproves several theories of government operation including: pluralism, which only works if everyone can participate; structuralism, which assumes the interests of white property owners are the interests of all; and coalition politics, which gives too much credit to democracy in failing to realize most power eventually rests with private interests. 

Historically, the United States federal government has subsidized mortgages and home buying heavily in the interwar period. However, nearly all these subsidies went exclusively to white communities (Trounstine, 2018). In addition, home buying was and has stayed the most reliable investment one can make and is likely “the single largest component of household wealth” (Trounstine, p. 12). These two factors compounded to make it extremely difficult for people of color to obtain and retain intergenerational wealth through homebuying. This fact has separated the United States by class and is more likely to set people of color up to fail. Trounstine (p.12) writes, “segregation causes higher poverty rates for blacks and lower poverty rates for whites, lower high school and college graduation rates among blacks, higher imprisonment rates, and higher rates of single motherhood among blacks.” Segregation creates long term cycles of poverty in communities of color by directly depriving them of fundamental resources needed to succeed, principally a decent education. Trounstine later explains that black neighborhoods have historically suffered from significantly greater class sizes, lower school funding, and lower teacher pay than white schools. All this long-term inequality begins with segregation, as designed by zoning ordinances.  

Beginning with the federal government, “slum clearance” subsidies and “public housing funds” were given out in the 1930s, segregated by race (Trounstine, p. 6). When federal highway Interstate-95 was built, deliberate efforts were made to destroy black and Latino parks and neighborhoods (Trounstine, p.7). Additionally, because federal funds were focused on white homebuying and single-family homes, it forced suburbanization and segregation as well as cemented the intersection of race and class in society. In the 1960s, fair housing legislation was enacted but strongly opposed. However, opposition was due to the idea of individual property rights, not due to outwardly racist beliefs. This same argument is present today in many suburbs where public housing has been suggested as an option but emphatically struck down, including my own, Weston, Florida. 

The state’s role in segregation was influential in how localities could raise and spend their monies. Additionally, the state regulated local government’s control in zoning using a template given by the federal government in 1922 (Trounstine, p.83). Even though outright segregation was illegal in many states by 1947, states still enabled racist zoning laws. Segregation was just as much state-sponsored as it was sponsored by the federal government.  

Once away from the central city, white suburbia had free reign of local government zoning ordinances to “engage in exclusionary zoning practices” (Trounstine, p. 40). White communities have purposely formed their own cities outside of places of color to protect their property values. This has become a political buzzword for suburbs as people move to suburbs for the amenities which are publicly funded, influenced by property values. Property value preservation creates a scenario where the “white population...gets a vested interest in separation” (Trounstine, p.103). Historically, white communities used residential segregation to segregate schools and communities legally. There is often rhetoric that white communities feel they are paying for the public services of communities of color and, in a world of limited resources, they are being directly harmed by contributing to one collectively diverse tax base.  

Race and class as variables of segregation have become intimately intertwined because of the way race has affected class in this country. Through purposefully racist lending, housing, incarceration, defunding of community resources, and more, communities of color are significantly more likely to be in a lower socioeconomic class than white communities. Through deprivation of opportunity to build intergenerational wealth, race has become nearly synonymous with class in most cases. The overlap between race and class has become so extensive that many people assume people of color are of lower socioeconomic status. The painful truth is that there is a chance that assumption is correct because the United States continually deprives communities of necessary resources for socioeconomic mobility through deeply institutionalized racism.   

This book teaches important political context in US housing policy by providing historical context for why we see residential segregation today and why it persists. One of the most important lessons from this book is that the policies we see today that may not be explicitly racially charged are derived from racist ideas that people of color were not deserving of public amenities like parks, good schools, paved roads, or sewers. This created lower income cities with poor public amenities and no integration. As white communities wanted to separate themselves from poverty and people of color, they migrated to suburbia where they could control zoning policies and legally discriminate against people of color through manipulation of already institutionalized racism. To finish it off, this book was highly informative and dry at times. Nevertheless, it proves the clear point that governments at all levels and city planners have a lot to answer for when it comes to racist zoning. 

This was another course reading. Thanks Dr Suarez!