The Fair that Never Was

2016 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-25
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Shanken
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
World's Fair ◽  
Architectural Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Richard Neutra ◽  
The City

The unbuilt proposals for the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair offer a cross section of designs put before the public in a formative moment just before modernism came to dominate architectural discourse and production. Projects by luminaries Bernard Maybeck and Richard Neutra joined projects by Joseph Strauss and Henry Killam Murphy. Here were architectural hopefuls at the nadir of the Great Depression attempting to draw their way into the commission of a lifetime. Thus, a Beaux-Arts bohemian competed with a sincere modernist, a self-promoting engineer, and America's leading practitioner in China. At the same time, the proposals were part of the larger economic and political landscape of San Francisco, as neighborhood associations and politicians used them to attract the fair to their part of the city. More than pie in the sky, these designs show in amplified form the way architecture is embedded in public discourse as a form of persuasion, a kind of politics by other means through which elites and other stakeholders argued for their preferred reality. As tools of intra-urban boosterism, these plans reveal the competing interests within San Francisco at a pivotal moment in its development, when its future lay in the formation of a regional metropolis that could compete with Los Angeles for commerce on the West Coast and beyond.

Utopian Visions in United States Urbanism

Moreana ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (Number 164) (4) ◽  
pp. 157-186
Author(s):  
James M. McCutcheon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
New World ◽  
New Technology ◽  
World's Fair ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Central Park ◽  
Garden Cities ◽  
Oneida Community ◽  
The City

America’s appeal to Utopian visionaries is best illustrated by the Oneida Community, and by Etienne Cabet’s experiment (Moreana 31/215 f and 43/71 f). A Messianic spirit was a determinant in the Puritans’ crossing the Atlantic. The Edenic appeal of the vast lands in a New World to migrants in a crowded Europe is obvious. This article documents the ambition of urbanists to preserve that rural quality after the mushrooming of towns: the largest proved exemplary in bringing the country into the city. New York’s Central Park was emulated by the open spaces on the grounds of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. The garden-cities surrounding London also provided inspiration, as did the avenues by which Georges Haussmann made Paris into a tourist mecca, and Pierre L’Enfant’s designs for the nation’s capital. The author concentrates on two growing cities of the twentieth century, Los Angeles and Honolulu. His detailed analysis shows politicians often slow to implement the bold and costly plans of designers whose ambition was to use the new technology in order to vie with the splendor of the natural sites and create the “City Beautiful.” Some titles in the bibliography show the hopes of those dreamers to have been tempered by fears of “supersize” or similar drawbacks.

The Resilient City

2005 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Oklahoma City Bombing ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Trade Center ◽  
The City

In 1871, the city of Chicago was almost entirely destroyed by what became known as The Great Fire. Thirty-five years later, San Francisco lay in smoldering ruins after the catastrophic earthquake of 1906. Or consider the case of the Jerusalem, the greatest site of physical destruction and renewal in history, which, over three millennia, has suffered wars, earthquakes, fires, twenty sieges, eighteen reconstructions, and at least eleven transitions from one religious faith to another. Yet this ancient city has regenerated itself time and again, and still endures. Throughout history, cities have been sacked, burned, torched, bombed, flooded, besieged, and leveled. And yet they almost always rise from the ashes to rebuild. Viewing a wide array of urban disasters in global historical perspective, The Resilient City traces the aftermath of such cataclysms as: --the British invasion of Washington in 1814 --the devastation wrought on Berlin, Warsaw, and Tokyo during World War II --the late-20th century earthquakes that shattered Mexico City and the Chinese city of Tangshan --Los Angeles after the 1992 riots --the Oklahoma City bombing --the destruction of the World Trade Center Revealing how traumatized city-dwellers consistently develop narratives of resilience and how the pragmatic process of urban recovery is always fueled by highly symbolic actions, The Resilient City offers a deeply informative and unsentimental tribute to the dogged persistence of the city, and indeed of the human spirit.

Financial Crises and the Public Discourse on Financial Elites

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef Cassis ◽  
Giuseppe Telesca
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Late Twentieth

Why were elite bankers and financiers demoted from ‘masters’ to ‘servants’ of society after the Great Depression, a crisis to which they contributed only marginally? Why do they seem to have got away with the recent crisis, in spite of their palpable responsibilities in triggering the Great Recession? This chapter provides an analysis of the differences between the bankers of the Great Depression and their colleagues of the late twentieth/early twenty-first century—regarding their position within, and attitude towards the firm, work culture, mental models, and codes of conduct—complemented with a scrutiny of the public discourse on bankers and financiers before and after the two crises. The authors argue that the (relative) mildness of the Great Recession, compared to the Great Depression, has contributed to preserve elite bankers’ and financiers’ status, income, wealth, and influence. Yet, the long-term consequences of their loss of reputational capital are difficult to assess.

The war against the homeless: Frank Jordan, broken windows, and anti-homeless politics in San Francisco

2019 ◽  
pp. 63-81
Author(s):  
Sean Parson
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Public Space ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Broken Windows ◽  
The Public ◽  
Matrix Quality ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Chapter 4 discusses Mayor Frank Jordan’s (1992–1995) revanchist Matrix Quality of Life Program, which sought to enforce a broken-windows policing system in San Francisco. The impact of the policy was felt largely by the visible homeless in downtown San Francisco, who were regularly harassed and arrested by the police and forced out of the city. Because quality-of-life policing desires to sanitize the public space of disruptive and asocial behaviour, the public meals of Food Not Bombs near City Hall resisted the city’s attempt to criminalize homelessness. This chapter argues that the city attempted to construct the homeless as anti-citizens and exclude them from the political and physical spaces of the city.

Trials and Tribulations

2020 ◽  
pp. 65-97
Author(s):  
Stephen Lovell
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The People ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
People Movement ◽  
The City

This chapter tells the story of public speaking in Russia from the imposition of greater restrictions on the public sphere in 1867 through to the eve of Alexander II’s assassination in 1881. It shows that in this period the focus of the Russian public switched from the zemstvo to the courtroom, where a number of high-profile trials took place (and were reported, sometimes in stenographic detail, in the press). The chapter examines the careers and profiles of some of Russia’s leading courtroom orators. It also explores the activities of the Russian socialists (populists), in particular the ‘Going to the People’ movement of 1873–4 and later propaganda efforts in the city and the courtroom. It ends by considering the intensification of public discourse at the end of the 1870s: the Russo-Turkish War saw a surge of patriotic mobilization, but at the same time the populist adoption of terrorism seized public attention.

scholarly journals Tactical urbanism in the context of urban practices development in Ukraine

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Loktionova
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
The Public ◽  
Internet Resources ◽  
Tactical Urbanism ◽  
Local Initiatives ◽  
Process Of Urbanization ◽  
New Form ◽  
The City

The article presents the study of tactical urbanism phenomenon as a way of integrating a person into the socio-cultural environment of the city. The works and publications of both domestic and western researchers are considered. The research sources are outlined: from the classics of sociology to contemporaries, informational and analytical Internet resources which highlight the content of the tactical urbanism ideas. The author has revealed that the research focus of the predecessors is mainly focused on rethinking the problem of urban area spatial development. Taking into account this, the process of research definitive field theorizing is highlighted (starts from M.Castells).The content of «tactical urbanism» concept in the public discourse presented. It should be understood as targeted actions of the city authorities and the public in the field of urban environment in order to fill its traditional content. The process of urbanization movement institutionalization in the context of domestic development is presented. The domestic formal / informal local initiatives are analyzed. The basic forms and practices of tactical urbanism are demostrated, the circle of actors involved in the process of their realization is outlined. The main results of the sociological research showing the level of citizens responsibility and involvement in the process of improvement / arrangement of the city’s territory are highlighted. The features of the tactical urbanism phenomenon in the context of the domestic society development in modern conditions are generalized. It is established that the citizens involvement in the practice of tactical urbanization is fairly called a new form of civil participation. However, the results of the conducted sociological research have shown that despite the development of tactical urbanism ideas in the context of domestic urban practices implementation, the population readiness in urban changes and the level of their responsibility for these changes remains low.

Building Dignity’s Diaspora through Rapumentary Film: Learning from Ngātahi

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Cultural Work ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethnic Affiliation ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Many ◽  
Rapid City

Through an exploration of Ngātahi: Know the Links, a six-part docu/rapumentary film by Maori filmmaker, rapper, musician, and activist Dean Hapeta, I propose that Hapeta, the folks in his films, and the many they identify with are part of a diaspora, one based on interlinked struggles for dignity rather than any particular place or ethnic affiliation. The film uncovers and encourages a diaspora made up of the many local spaces and small politics that seek to make dominant neoliberal, race, or power relations unworkable on the ground, even if only for a moment at a festival, spontaneous musical or poetic performance, or house party. The project both documents and cultivates dignity’s diaspora, showing how people make sense of and strike back against the forces of globalization. They reveal connections between a range of movements for autonomy and freedom. In the larger-than-life murals of pre-Columbian history in Los Angeles and revolutionary struggle in Belfast, the poetic verses thrown on streets in Rapid City and Cape Town or the public marches for the return of indigenous land and against police brutality in San Francisco and the Philippines, Ngātahi illumines dignity’s diaspora. Hapeta and the many new friends he makes along the Ngātahi trail show us that the small politics of cultural work and performance may not be so small after all. More than just imaginary solutions to real problems, the cultural practices evident in Ngātahi enable people to speak back against their own erasure by making a record of events, injustices, and calls for change that might be otherwise ignored or forgotten. Hapeta’s films suggest that “revolution” in the neoliberal, postmodern, postcolonial era may be more plausible with a small “r” and an “s” at the end. The artists and activists in Ngātahi ultimately practice a politics of the possible, demonstrating that utopian hopes for a better future can emerge from the dystopian and almost apocalyptic misery left in the wake of global capitalism and imperialism.

Putting It To A Vote: The Provision of Pure Milk in Progressive Era Los Angeles

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Koslow
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Tuberculin Test ◽  
Front Page ◽  
New Right ◽  
The Public ◽  
Katherine Philips ◽  
New City ◽  
The One ◽  
Pure Milk ◽  
The City

On May 28,1912, Katherine Philips Edson took her seven-year-old son by the hand and headed for her local polling precinct. Women had recently won suffrage in California, and Edson went to exercise her new right. This was a special referendum election, and she needed to consider a number of very different issues. Should she support the creation of an Aqueduct Investigation Board? Should she allow the city to collect funds to erect a new city hall? On this day, the question on the ballot that interested her most was the one that she had played a role in crafting. It read, “Shall the ordinance providing for the tuberculin test to be applied to dairy cattle producing milk furnished to the City of Los Angeles, or its inhabitants, be adopted?” After casting her vote, she remained outside with her son at her side and attempted to persuade the electorate that they should vote in favor of the tuberculin ordinance because it protected the public, especially children, from tuberculosis. The Los Angeles Herald photographed her plea for pure milk and placed it on the front page of the evening edition. Much to Edson's dismay, however, the bill was resoundingly defeated.

The Functions of Faith in Primitive Pentecostalism

1984 ◽  
Vol 77 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 353-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Wacker
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Small House ◽  
Azusa Street ◽  
The City

On a foggy evening in the spring of 1906, nine days before the San Francisco earthquake, several black saints gathered in a small house in Los Angeles to seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Before the night was over, a frightened child ran from the house to tell a neighbor that the people inside were singing and shouting in strange languages.Several days later the group moved to an abandoned warehouse on Azusa Street in a run-down section of the city. Soon they were discovered by a Los AngelesTimesreporter. The “night is made hideous … by the howlings of the worshippers,” he wrote. “The devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement.”

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