scholarly journals The Castro District in San Francisco as a Contemporary Utopia: “Somewhere over the rainbow”

K@iros ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Idil Basural

In search of a utopia in a real place, in which groups marginalized by society recreate a space, this article offers an analysis of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco. This neighborhood inhabited by sexual minorities is an example not only of a utopian counter-space, but also of a resident identity based on an urban space, of an international LGBTQ+ community. First, a micro-history of Castro and the imaginary construction of the neighborhood through images, narratives, words, everything visual and discursive will show, the infrapolitics, the invisible structure of this resistance. In a second phase, the promises and conditions of the neighborhood will be examined in order to discuss the accessibility and credibility of this utopia. Based on Foucault’s concept of heterotopias, the principle of "a system of opening and closing" of this utopian space will be questioned through testimonies of the current inhabitants during the San Francisco Pride of 2019. This analysis of the history, structure and semiology of the neighborhood and its relationship to the outside world will allow us to question the possibility of a utopia that is feasible or achieved in today’s world.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Idil Basural

In search of a utopia in a real place, in which groups marginalized by society recreate a space, this article offers an analysis of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco. This neighborhood inhabited by sexual minorities is an example not only of a utopian counter-space, but also of a resident identity based on an urban space, of an international LGBTQ+ community. First, a micro-history of Castro and the imaginary construction of the neighborhood through images, narratives, words, everything visual and discursive will show, the infrapolitics, the invisible structure of this resistance. In a second phase, the promises and conditions of the neighborhood will be examined in order to discuss the accessibility and credibility of this utopia. Based on Foucault’s concept of heterotopias, the principle of "a system of opening and closing" of this utopian space will be questioned through testimonies of the current inhabitants during the San Francisco Pride of 2019. This analysis of the history, structure and semiology of the neighborhood and its relationship to the outside world will allow us to question the possibility of a utopia that is feasible or achieved in today’s world.


SPAFA Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freta Oktarina ◽  
Kemas Ridwan Kurniawan

In the history of Jakarta, Chinatown played a significant role to the formation of the city. The Chinatown area accompanied Jakarta along its journey and has been around since the city was still known as Batavia. The Chinese were among the actors who played a major role in the formation of urban space when Batavia began to develop. After four centuries, Jakarta’s Chinatown, which is now known as the Glodok area, continues to exist and is a bustling commercial area. The research conducted tries to dig further into the existence of Jakarta’s Chinatown to reveal what lies behind its current formation. The Chinatown that can be found at this time is the second phase of the Jakarta Chinatown. At the beginning of Batavia, the Chinatown area was part of the city center. In 1740 there was a massacre that killed almost the entire Chinese population in Batavia. After the massacre, the Chinese no longer lived in the city center but filled the area outside the city walls. Through the study of archives and documents, the research tries to trace Jakarta’s Chinatown from the 17th to the 19th century to examine the spatial transformation that occurred when the first Chinatown was destroyed and a new Chinatown area grew. This research is a study of architectural history to better identify the formation of hidden layers in urban space. The findings show that there is an important role of the city gate or Pintoe Ketjil as a transition area and a starting point for the renewal phase of Chinatown. The market that develops from people's houses is a characteristic that enlivens the area. Glodok was originally the final boundary for the area before the relocation of the city center turned Glodok into the gateway for the new Chinatown.   Pecinan memiliki peran yang signifikan di dalam sejarah terbentuknya kota Jakarta. Kawasan Pecinan telah mengiringi Jakarta di sepanjang usia perjalanannya dan hadir sejak kota berdiri saat masih bernama Batavia. Penduduk Cina adalah di antara aktor-aktor yang berperan besar dalam pembentukan ruang kota pada saat Batavia mulai dikembangkan. Setelah empat abad berjalan, daerah Pecinan di Jakarta yang kini dikenal sebagai kawasan Glodok masih terus hadir dan merupakan kawasan perniagaan yang ramai. Penelitian yang dilakukan mencoba menggali lebih jauh keberadaan kawasan Pecinan Jakarta untuk mengungkapkan apa yang berlangsung di balik terbentuknya Pecinan saat ini. Pecinan yang dapat ditemui kini adalah fase kedua dari Pecinan Jakarta. Pada awal Batavia berdiri, kawasan Pecinan merupakan permukiman penduduk Cina berada di pusat kota. Hingga di tahun 1740 terjadi pembantaian yang menghabisi hampir seluruh penduduk Cina di Batavia. Pasca pembantaian penduduk Cina tidak lagi tinggal di pusat kota melainkan memenuhi area di luar dinding kota. Melalui kajian arsip dan dokumen, penelitian mencoba menelusuri kondisi Pecinan Jakarta di abad ke-17 hingga akhir abad ke-19 untuk menelaah transformasi ruang yang berlangsung pada saat Pecinan pertama musnah dan tumbuhnya kawasan Pecinan baru. Penelitian ini merupakan studi sejarah arsitektur untuk lebih mengenali formasi dari lapisan-lapisan tersembunyi di dalam ruang kota. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa terdapat peranan penting wilayah pintu gerbang kota atau Pintoe Ketjil sebagai area transisi dan titik awal tumbuhnya Pecinan fase kedua. Pasar yang berkembang dari rumah-rumah penduduk adalah ciri khas yang menghidupkan kawasan. Glodok pada awalnya adalah batas akhir kawasan Pecinan, sebelum kemudian terjadinya perpindahan pusat kota mengubah Glodok menjadi pintu gerbang Pecinan baru.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 78-90
Author(s):  
Theresa McCulla

In 1965, Frederick (Fritz) Maytag III began a decades-long revitalization of Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, California. This was an unexpected venture from an unlikely brewer; for generations, Maytag's family had run the Maytag Washing Machine Company in Iowa and he had no training in brewing. Yet Maytag's career at Anchor initiated a phenomenal wave of growth in the American brewing industry that came to be known as the microbrewing—now “craft beer”—revolution. To understand Maytag's path, this article draws on original oral histories and artifacts that Maytag donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History via the American Brewing History Initiative, a project to document the history of brewing in the United States. The objects and reflections that Maytag shared with the museum revealed a surprising link between the birth of microbrewing and the strategies and culture of mass manufacturing. Even if the hallmarks of microbrewing—a small-scale, artisan approach to making beer—began as a backlash against the mass-produced system of large breweries, they relied on Maytag's early, intimate connections to the assembly-line world of the Maytag Company and the alchemy of intellectual curiosity, socioeconomic privilege, and risk tolerance with which his history equipped him.


1960 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-71
Author(s):  
William M. Bennett

Author(s):  
Carlos Machado

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.


BMC Nutrition ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Milagro Escobar ◽  
Andrea DeCastro Mendez ◽  
Maria Romero Encinas ◽  
Sofia Villagomez ◽  
Janet M. Wojcicki

Abstract Background Food insecurity impacts nearly one-in-four Latinx households in the United States and has been exacerbated by the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We examined the impact of COVID-19 on household and child food security in three preexisting, longitudinal, Latinx urban cohorts in the San Francisco Bay Area (N = 375 households, 1875 individuals). Households were initially recruited during pregnancy and postpartum at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) and UCSF Benioff prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this COVID-19 sub-study, participants responded to a 15-min telephonic interview. Participants answered 18 questions from the US Food Security Food Module (US HFSSM) and questions on types of food consumption, housing and employment status, and history of COVID-19 infection as per community or hospital-based testing. Food security and insecurity levels were compared with prior year metrics. Results We found low levels of household food security in Latinx families (by cohort: 29.2%; 34.2%; 60.0%) and child food security (56.9%, 54.1%, 78.0%) with differences between cohorts explained by self-reported levels of education and employment status. Food security levels were much lower than those reported previously in two cohorts where data had been recorded from prior years. Reported history of COVID-19 infection in households was 4.8% (95% Confidence Interval (CI); 1.5–14.3%); 7.2% (95%CI, 3.6–13.9%) and 3.5% (95%CI, 1.7–7.2%) by cohort and was associated with food insecurity in the two larger cohorts (p = 0.03; p = 0.01 respectively). Conclusions Latinx families in the Bay Area with children are experiencing a sharp rise in food insecurity levels during the COVID-19 epidemic. Food insecurity, similar to other indices of poverty, is associated with increased risk for COVID-19 infection. Comprehensive interventions are needed to address food insecurity in Latinx populations and further studies are needed to better assess independent associations between household food insecurity, poor nutritional health and risk of COVID-19 infection.


2007 ◽  
Vol 292 (6) ◽  
pp. E1775-E1781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Cusi ◽  
Sangeeta Kashyap ◽  
Amalia Gastaldelli ◽  
Mandeep Bajaj ◽  
Eugenio Cersosimo

Elevated plasma FFA cause β-cell lipotoxicity and impair insulin secretion in nondiabetic subjects predisposed to type 2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM; i.e., with a strong family history of T2DM (FH+)] but not in nondiabetic subjects without a family history of T2DM. To determine whether lowering plasma FFA with acipimox, an antilipolytic nicotinic acid derivative, may enhance insulin secretion, nine FH+ volunteers were admitted twice and received in random order either acipimox or placebo (double-blind) for 48 h. Plasma glucose/insulin/C-peptide concentrations were measured from 0800 to 2400. On day 3, insulin secretion rates (ISRs) were assessed during a +125 mg/dl hyperglycemic clamp. Acipimox reduced 48-h plasma FFA by 36% ( P < 0.001) and increased the plasma C-peptide relative to the plasma glucose concentration or ΔC-peptide/Δglucose AUC (+177%, P = 0.02), an index of improved β-cell function. Acipimox improved insulin sensitivity (M/I) 26.1 ± 5% ( P < 0.04). First- (+19 ± 6%, P = 0.1) and second-phase (+31 ± 6%, P = 0.05) ISRs during the hyperglycemic clamp also improved. This was particularly evident when examined relative to the prevailing insulin resistance [1/(M/I)], as both first- and second-phase ISR markedly increased by 29 ± 7 ( P < 0.05) and 41 ± 8% ( P = 0.02). There was an inverse correlation between fasting FFA and first-phase ISR ( r2 = 0.31, P < 0.02) and acute (2–4 min) glucose-induced insulin release after acipimox ( r2 =0.52, P < 0.04). In this proof-of-concept study in FH+ individuals predisposed to T2DM, a 48-h reduction of plasma FFA improves day-long meal and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. These results provide additional evidence for the important role that plasma FFA play regarding insulin secretion in FH+ subjects predisposed to T2DM.


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