July 16, 2009
Day 8,411
Three months to the day of post #1, I'm wondering how to nudge the discussion along. There has been no formal "marketing" of this blog, so not many comments READ: NONE; have been posted by others, though I know of several people who have mentioned reading it. In short, I was too busy and not in focus.
This brings to mind a consideration of Priority & Judgment.
The social and economic demands of contemporary American middle-class culture (generally speaking) require those of us who are "there," to make many judgments about how we want to spend our time, treasures, and talent as each day passes by. Like many people I know, I find myself juggling a great number of relatively menial tasks and countless ideas about how to get by in some way or another, striving to fulfill my commitments to workplace, family and a search for new adventures within a limited social network. This daily event requires a fair amount of priority assessment, or simply a lot of decisions about what to do next.
Tonight: motivations being as they are, let's re-invigorate the discussion with this news, an act of priority and judgment...
D:Center Baltimore has launched a new identity on line with a new website: http://www.dcenterbaltimore.com/
Just more than a year in the rough-planning, this nascent, grass-roots collective has begun to introduce the idea of a region-wide forum of ideas and activities for interested people and organizations to begin to affect a better quality for the designed/built environment and cultural lifestyle in the Baltimore Region.
Badger Baltimore is encouraging interested readers to participate and support this endeavor.
D:Center can be fresh, it can be effective and it can have substance. The organizers consist of persons associated with various art, design, architecture/development, university/academic organizations as well as a fairly diverse group of concerned individuals. Slowly an entity is taking form, and D:Center should likely become a non-profit org., in the next several months with a self-defined mission to stir the local pot with new and fresh perspectives on the Urban Condition.
My hope is that the new organization will be able to fuel and maintain an energetic passion for all things well-designed, and affect the direction of a fledgling creative class community in Baltimore and surrounding areas.
We don't need another 501c3 that is solely self-sustaining. We are ready for some shake-up of the status quo. I think D:Center is challenged to take that on.
Cheers.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Now or Never
April 30, 2009
DAY 8,320
Save a few months in Massachusetts during the early 1990's, Baltimore has been the place I've called home for 8,320 days including today. This is no small feat, and I'd like to say it's a cause for celebration. According to US Census data (2008), the average American moves 11.7 times. I've changed addresses at least that many times already, and anticipate at least a few more, but nearly all of the changes so far have been within the limits of Charm City. Surely many other people have been in B'more much longer than me, a non-native. Kudos for them. I hope the champagne continues to pour for them for a long, long time. I hope they love it and will work to keep it good (for them), making it better for others as well. Since the mid '80's I have loved Baltimore very much, but for a few years now have been feeling more like an enabler in a dysfunctional platonic, formerly romantic relationship. It is not a healthy feeling.
Now, some 23 years into the endeavor, the time has come for a little tet a tet. This blog is committed to a dialogue about making things better by Badgering Charm City.
Baltimore is Broken. (The lists of concerns on this point are lengthy, trust me, and a negative spin is not intended, but I generalize for the sake of having an open mind about discussions on this blog). We need to fix Baltimore and everything around it. We need to fix ourselves and not ignore our responsibilities as humans---self respecting, compassionate humans. At least we need to try. And I am committed to trying help make it better before I choose to give up, leave this place and seek a better experience elsewhere.
Would you like to help?
My motivation stems from a genuine desire to participate in a process of enlightenment, an evolution of mind and spirit, manifesting itself in a new inspired relationship with the place I have loved to live. We shouldn't fool ourselves about how things are "about to get better" because "Such and Such" has promised to do "So and So..." We need to get specific about what needs to be done to make Baltimore safe, clean, functional and creatively spirited. We need to bring more lively discussions to bear. We need to bring more people into the city to live, work, play and all that catchy marketing jargon....Really, we need people to choose to simply Be in Baltimore.
These qualities are fundamental to the evolution of our species and the survival of our culture, locally, regionally and yes, globally.
Let's talk about it.
DAY 8,320
Save a few months in Massachusetts during the early 1990's, Baltimore has been the place I've called home for 8,320 days including today. This is no small feat, and I'd like to say it's a cause for celebration. According to US Census data (2008), the average American moves 11.7 times. I've changed addresses at least that many times already, and anticipate at least a few more, but nearly all of the changes so far have been within the limits of Charm City. Surely many other people have been in B'more much longer than me, a non-native. Kudos for them. I hope the champagne continues to pour for them for a long, long time. I hope they love it and will work to keep it good (for them), making it better for others as well. Since the mid '80's I have loved Baltimore very much, but for a few years now have been feeling more like an enabler in a dysfunctional platonic, formerly romantic relationship. It is not a healthy feeling.
Now, some 23 years into the endeavor, the time has come for a little tet a tet. This blog is committed to a dialogue about making things better by Badgering Charm City.
Baltimore is Broken. (The lists of concerns on this point are lengthy, trust me, and a negative spin is not intended, but I generalize for the sake of having an open mind about discussions on this blog). We need to fix Baltimore and everything around it. We need to fix ourselves and not ignore our responsibilities as humans---self respecting, compassionate humans. At least we need to try. And I am committed to trying help make it better before I choose to give up, leave this place and seek a better experience elsewhere.
Would you like to help?
My motivation stems from a genuine desire to participate in a process of enlightenment, an evolution of mind and spirit, manifesting itself in a new inspired relationship with the place I have loved to live. We shouldn't fool ourselves about how things are "about to get better" because "Such and Such" has promised to do "So and So..." We need to get specific about what needs to be done to make Baltimore safe, clean, functional and creatively spirited. We need to bring more lively discussions to bear. We need to bring more people into the city to live, work, play and all that catchy marketing jargon....Really, we need people to choose to simply Be in Baltimore.
These qualities are fundamental to the evolution of our species and the survival of our culture, locally, regionally and yes, globally.
Let's talk about it.
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