Music Videos & Lyrics on Urbanity

Popular culture often influences society — Leave it to Beaver set an expectation that was different than The Cosby Show (homemaker vs professional mom), for example. Although these are more a reflection of what existed than influencing.  Yet I can’t help but think the Brady Bunch, Soap, The Jeffersons and other 70s shows influenced me.

Long before television, music has played a role in societal attitudes.  With music videos these setting can project positive or negative images about certain places. I couldn’t think of any video set in the parking lot of a big box store but videos in urban settings are numerous.  One of my favorites is Doo-Wop (That Thing) by Lauryn Hill.  This video shows a block party in 1967 on the left and the 33rd anniversary block party on the right.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6QKqFPRZSA

Should have been 31 years, not 33, in 1998.  The imagery is great though, I love the use of the buses as backdrops.

The lyrics to songs also bring up imagery in our minds. I’ve excerpted parts of a few songs that came to mind, the links are to the full lyrics.

Living for the City – Stevie Wonder (YouTube)

His hair is long, his feet are hard and gritty

He spends his love walking the streets of New York City

He’s almost dead from breathing on air pollution

He tried to vote but to him there’s no solution

Living just enough, just enough for the city…yeah, yeah, yeah!

Downtown – Petula Clark (YouTube)

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city

Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty

How can you lose?

 

The lights are much brighter there

You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go

Downtown, things’ll be great when you’re

Downtown, no finer place for sure,

Downtown, everything’s waiting for you

(Downtown)

Dancing in the Street – Martha and the Vandellas (YouTube)

There’ll be dancin’, they’re dancin’ in the street.

This is an invitation, across the nation,

A chance for folks to meet.

There’ll be laughin’ singin’, and music swingin’

Dancin’ in the street

Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell (YouTube)

They took all the trees

And put them in a tree museum

Then they charged the people

A dollar and a half just to see ’em

Don’t it always seem to go,

That you don’t know what you’ve got

‘Til it’s gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

Little Boxes – Malvina Reynolds (YouTube)

Little boxes on the hillside,

Little boxes made of ticky tacky

Little boxes on the hillside,

Little boxes all the same,

Theres a pink one & a green one

And a blue one & a yellow one

And they are all made out of ticky tacky

And they all look just the same.

Turn your volume up to 11 and enjoy some music this weekend.

– Steve Patterson

Three Downtown Aldermen Seek Place for Stakeholders on Discussion of Homeless Encampments

Last week the three aldermen representing downtown sent the following letter to Mayor Slay:

Dear Mayor Slay:

As the Alderwomen who represent our city’s downtown area, we write you today regarding news reports that local government is developing plans to relocate the homeless men and women living along the downtown banks of the Mississippi River. Recent events have drawn increased attention to these encampments, however their presence is an ongoing regional issue that predates even the beginning of your administration ten years ago. We commend your office for showing leadership on this important issue and taking the first steps toward implementing solutions that work for St. Louis’ most vulnerable and impoverished residents.

We look forward to being included in the process that develops the best approaches and solutions for this population. A lasting solution requires input from community leaders and residents. As you know, local partnerships, like the St. Louis City Continuum of Care, work with the homeless population day in and day out. They know the needs and problems that face this community and ought to be part of the solution for its future. Other stakeholders, such as nearby residents and business owners, should also be heard.

In short, this is a longstanding issue that requires an enduring solution. The proper approach must be delicate and allow the voices of those who directly serve and represent this population to be present at the planning table. Throughout the process, elected officials, social service agencies and community leaders should be able to offer their input, thoughts and guidance to ensure that this is a permanent approach to a decades-long issue. A process that neglects their advice or excludes their participation is simply a recipe for failure.

We urge you to reject any approach that does not include the numerous stakeholders involved in this issue. A “take it or leave it” plan developed without proper input and participation is inappropriate here and will only exacerbate existing problems surrounding this situation.

Thank you for your consideration of our position. We look forward to collaborating with you and your office on this issue, and the many others that face our great city.

Sincerely,

 

Hon. April Ford-Griffin, Alderwoman Ward 5

Hon. Kacie Starr Triplett, Alderwoman Ward 6

Hon. Phyllis Young, Alderwoman Ward 7

Last week I was nominated to the board of The Bridge:

The Bridge provides sanctuary for homeless and at-risk persons in St. Louis. Meals and support services for basic human needs are offered by a staff intent on eradicating homelessness by guiding guests on a path to self-sufficiency.

If elected to the board, the three-year term will begin in July. I look forward to learning more about this complex issue and exploring possible actions. I first typed solutions but I’m realistic enough to know homeless will always exist in our city & region. Our policies, however, can vary greatly.

– Steve Patterson

Screening of ‘The Pruitt-Igoe Myth’ Saturday May 14 at Noon

Failed buildings are often forgotten shortly after they are abandoned and razed, if not before. Pruitt-Igoe is different, the public housing complex has been gone nearly twice as long as it stood and it remains of interest around the world.

Many were impacted, both good and bad, by having lived at Pruitt-Igoe.   A recently completed documentary, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, looks at the buildings and the people housed in them:

Destroyed in a dramatic and highly-publicized implosion, the Pruitt- Igoe public housing complex has become a widespread symbol of failure amongst architects, politicians and policy makers.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth explores the social, economic and legislative is- sues that led to the decline of conventional public housing in America, and the city centers in which they resided, while tracing the personal and poignant narratives of several of the project’s residents.

In the post-War years, the American city changed in ways that made it unrecognizable from a generation earlier, privileging some and leaving others in its wake.

The film was directed by Chad Freidrichs and produced by Chad Freidrichs, Jaime Freidrichs, Paul Fehler and Brian Woodman. The film’s Flickr account contains great images. The film can be followed on Twitter and Facebook. Saturday (5/14) you can see the film for $10 at the Tivoli Theater on Delmar, noon.

Here is the film’s trailer:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7RwwkNzF68

The filmmakers spent nearly four years on this project. I was shown a rough cut at my loft a couple  of years ago but Wednesday night was my first viewing of the completed film.  I’m very impressed how they showed the good, bad & ugly sides of Pruitt-Igoe.

– Steve Patterson

Readers Not Too Interested In Gov. Nixon’s Actions on Controversial Bills

Only 54 readers voted in the poll last week, the lowest response I’ve ever had for a weekly poll:

Q: Gov. Nixon signed ‘compromise’ bills on puppy mills & vetoed workplace discrimination bill, thoughts?

1. Nixon should have vetoed both 22 [40.74%]
2. Nixon got it right 15 [27.78%]
3. Nixon should have vetoed the puppy bills but signed the workplace discrimination bill 12 22.22%
4. Nixon should have signed both 4 7.41%
5. unsure/no opinion 1 1.85%

Glad to see that 40% thought Nixon should have vetoed both.

– Steve Patterson

Guest Opinion: The Free State of St. Louis

Guest opinion by Chris Andoe

In the event you’re not familiar with the allegory of the frog in boiling water I’ll share it with you. Drop a frog in a pot of boiling water and it’ll immediately jump out. Drop it in a pot of cool water, slowly heat until boiling, and it will just sit there and die.

The St. Louis region is the frog and the pot of boiling water is Missouri.

St. Louis has always had an uncomfortable relationship with outstate Missouri, leading to byzantine arrangements like the state controlling our police department. There’s a general understanding that nobody from St. Louis could go on to be governor, and we can’t even agree with our rural neighbors on how to pronounce the state name.

The temperature has been turned up a degree or two at a time for well over a hundred years and with recent events we find it at a rolling boil. Still, many don’t see a need to jump.

The perverse new congressional map guts representation in the St. Louis region, the economic engine of the state, shifting even more power to the rural areas.  Outrageously some of our region’s own “leaders” collaborated with the GOP to allow this to happen, including Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, who said she was not concerned about the Democratic Party’s objections to the eliminating of one of the region’s congressional seats, or that 75% of Missourians now find themselves in gerrymandered districts that are solidly Republican. No, as long as the new map preserved Congressman Clay’s seat she’d back it. “I’m black before I’m a Democrat” Nasheed infamously said.

Can you imagine the delight of Republican strategists upon hearing her divisive, inflammatory, racially charged statement? Not only did she give them what they wanted with the new map, she gave them an outstanding tool in their efforts to get the votes of white Independents and Democrats. As the television infomercials say, “But wait! There’s more!” The self-serving Nasheed also helped Republicans to gut Prop B, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act which passed by large margins in her St. Louis district.

State leaders were more concerned about upsetting the puppy mill lobby than the people of St. Louis and Kansas City. Because of pitiful leadership St. Louis gets one less congressional seat, puppy mill dogs get less humane conditions, and Nasheed gets a coveted third floor office in Jefferson City.

Time and again the St. Louis region winds up infighting over the crumbs after the bloated Jefferson City eats its fill. St. Louis pays the bills in the state with only meager representation, and some of the region’s own representatives are merely the lapdogs of outstate Republicans.

If there were ever a time for radical thinking, this is it. In a world economy built on innovation, the Missouri state motto “Show Me” doesn’t cut it. It’s time for the St. Louis region to lead. I also think it’s time for the region to secede from Missouri.

There’s legal precedent for the separation of a portion of an existing state from the original state in order to form a new one. In 1820, Maine split off from Massachusetts and was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state. At this moment there’s an aggressive movement in Pima County, Arizona to form a new state. Hugh Holub, the founder of this movement, explains “If the original American Revolution was triggered by the colonial people feeling they didn’t have a say in the government from London….the movement to create Baja Arizona is another in a long history of people wanting not to have their lives run by people with very different values and agendas who live somewhere else.”

A similar movement has begun in South Florida.

Think of all we’re giving to a state that values backwoods puppy mill operators more than the citizens of their mightiest city. Everything from tax dollars to electoral votes. It doesn’t make sense.

I’m asking the people of this region to shake the “show me” mentality and participate in innovative discussions about the future. Research what’s going on in Pima County, brainstorm about what’s possible. Even if secession doesn’t happen maybe the discussions will serve to wake the sleeping giant that is St. Louis, leading to a revolt against the tyranny of Jefferson City.

– Chris Andoe

Chris Andoe is a writer and community organizer who has divided his time between St. Louis and San Francisco for the past decade. He earned the moniker “The Emperor of St. Louis” as the crown wearing Master of Ceremonies for the zany Metrolink Prom, where hundreds of transit supporters pack the train for the city’s biggest mobile party. Andoe writes for St. Louis’ Vital Voice.