Friday, February 5, 2010

Avoid contact with the eyes

The thing about $ocial Stimulus with our Fair Lady Debra Hensley.

"This is not so much about me," she said, on Her Stage tonight at an event I was more than happy to attend, "but about US, the community. This is not about ME. This is NOT about me. This is not about Me..."

I get nervous when anyone goes out of their way to proclaim as much.

This was my first. My partner Tom and arrived. We planned to socially connect in the Spirit of the evening.

Let's get to know the local Manchester Street market that makes very tasty chili. Yum. Let's celebrate the local Mission that does God's work and provides undeniablly needed social services. Let's have Mecca dance and provide ART.

Let's know that this city is about to completely raze a neighborhood so that the upperclass might have another brilliant place to party.

I'm among you, elite, don't get me wrong. The Neuropeptide Facial Contour I used on my face to get me ready for tonight's elite event to make my face "ready". Label said: Avoid contacts with the eyes.

Let's not avoid contact with THEIR eyes.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for opening my eyes. I hadn't given the folks who currently live over that way much thought.

    But actually, most of what will be torn down is just abandoned commercial properties. There are a fairly small number of residential properties that will be affected. At least as far as I can see.

    And I have looked at the development plans and maps.

    Of course, even if they are few in number, they still deserve the consideration any human being would.

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  2. Allan, thanks for commenting. Living on Merino St. in property that overlooks...the Rupp Arena Parking Lot...I think sometimes of those who may have been displaced when the city decided they were disposable. As we grow inwardly (greenspace, anyone?) and not outwardly, I choose to believe that we will not make space for more ghosts in the machine. Together forward, Jansen.

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  3. The property that Rupp was built upon was, as I recall, an extension of the railyards that still exist to the west of the Cox Street lot.

    I think the location was chosen, in part, to avoid displacing any homes.

    Of course, I remember when the railroad tracks ran all the way down the current Vine St/Water St corridor.

    Yeah. I'm that old.

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  4. One last thing, Michael. You might find this article from New York Magazine about the gentrification and the Displacement Myth of interest.

    http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/62675/

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  5. Interesting New York Magazine perspective! I do believe, though, that at least part of the neighborhood was residential when they did Rupp/Parking Lot. I'm speaking of the High St./Maxwell lot, not Cox St.

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  6. Yes, I believe you are right.

    But I do not recall anyone complaining about the compensation they received for their properties, either.

    Lexington has always been pretty fair in such matters.

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  7. Someone (possibly UK) did a pretty major study about all the people who were displaced by Rupp (more specifically Rupp parking) -- their mortality rates post re-lo were astonishing

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