Street Vending

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/street-vending-as-a-way-to-eae-joblessness/

 

 

 I ran across a NY Times article that discussed street vending.  It seems that in light of hard economic times more people are pursuing the option and it is becoming an issue.  It reminded me of Harvey’s Right to the City.   It brought up the question- should people be able to vend and use city at their own will and discretion, even without permits.  Apparently in recent years the number of illegal street vendors has increased drastically.   I guess that question remains- what is our right to the city, spaces, and resources…especially in capitalist society?

Republican party in danger…getting smaller and dominated by the hard right

Specter defends decision to switch parties

The Specter of Republican marginalization

Republican Party Shrinking

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×5557282

Here is a fun and biased article regarding the right-wing 

Abortion Powerpoint

Kerby and Hunter.ppt

I apologize about the delay, there was a miscommunication between Kerby and I.  Nonetheless, here is our powerpoint. 

After the End of the Death of Conservatism

Is conservatism dead?  Yes, says Sam Tanenhaus.  No, say George Nash and Thomas Frank.  Depends on what you mean by ‘conservatism’, explains newly christened NYT Op-Ed Olympian Ross Douthat (can ‘post-conservatism’ be far behind?). Well, if by conservatism you mean ‘the conservative intellectual tradition’, huffs Columbia political theorist Mark Lilla, then it’s dead–and Sarah Palin killed it.  Nuh-uhhh!, say some conservative intellectuals.  Time to go grade, says I.

Pecha Kucha: Lefebvre on the Right to the City

Slowly catching up on the PK backlog…

PowerPoint: Case for Gentrification

Gentrificationblog.pptx

Tide Shifting?

Could the 2008 election be the beginning of the shift away from the situation Frank describes, where folks in poorer Congressional districts tend to vote against their economic interests?  The New York Times featured an interesting article on how folks in Indiana (which went for Obama by a very slim margin in November) are planning to use their stimulus money.  Are smaller, High Plains towns starting to turn back towards the Democrats?  As the local Republicans note in the article, they believe that “the furious pace of spending in Washington could complicate Mr. Obama’s re-election efforts in three years.”  When in actuality, the entire point of a stimulus package is, in fact, to spend money.

Article about Dharavi slum in Mumbai

Here is a link to a National Geographic article about the Dharavi slum in Mumbai. This article gives a deeper look into life in the slums and the families that live there, and also describes one plan to rebuild and “fix” the Dharavi area. This gives closer to a “worms eye view” of the slums, and also shows many of the problems and challenges of improving the slums. 

I Am Everyday People

Hah!

The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.