Shokufeh is... home

Thinking about...

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the inequities of life. For a long while, I've been meaning to write about entitlement and how I think it's a good thing, but that will continue to simmer on the back burner. And this current entry is not really going to go anywhere, as MrMan is on the prowl and I'd like to direct the prowling toward fun rather than trouble. So I guess the short version is that I need to spend some time with The Prosperity of Humankind and Century of Light.

But, since MrMan is currently distracted, I will add that today's front page article is about the prospect of using public-private financing to partner the City Park golf courses and the currently closed St. Bernard housing project. The article mostly focuses on a similar project in Atlanta that is touted as successful. But it's hard for me to see as successful a transformation of an complex if it started out with 425 families and only 78 of them returned after the doors reopened. Where did the other families go? On the surface, I don't disagree with the concept of requiring jobs and banning drugs and criminal records. But, it doesn't sound like there were any tools developed to deal with such, or that the occupants of the complex had any say in these rules. Is it really addressing the problem of drugs and violence to simply ban them from a particular area? While there are a number of things in this complex that benefit the families that live there, the skeptical side of me focuses on the benefits for the people playing golf at the private club across the street from the complex. What message does it send that only those who follow the rules (and culture) of the people with the money get to stay? But even they do not get to play on the same greens.