tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post3504318917145070381..comments2024-03-27T18:24:19.683-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Maybe it wasn't all Le Corbu's fault?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-77686629372366267382012-01-30T19:17:32.851-08:002012-01-30T19:17:32.851-08:00Anonymous Rice Alum #4,
Small world, I guess. I ...Anonymous Rice Alum #4,<br /><br />Small world, I guess. I lived pretty close to you for one of those years, but that's about all I'll say, this being iSteve and all.<br /><br />I've always wondered if anyone else I know reads iSteve. So now I guess the answer is 'yes', assuming that we interacted at some point.Anonymous 1/29/12 5:00 PMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-48057090879688821012012-01-30T18:13:02.776-08:002012-01-30T18:13:02.776-08:00"You can also gzilch from the ground and take..."You can also gzilch from the ground and take out a 4th floor sid rich window...<br /><br />"Weiss '79"<br /><br />A mere tactical setback that couldn't undermine Sid Rich's strategic dominance from on high.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-11444577041264865002012-01-30T09:30:57.774-08:002012-01-30T09:30:57.774-08:00Anonymous 1/29/12 5:00 PM, I remember the couch at...Anonymous 1/29/12 5:00 PM, I remember the couch at Brown as well. I was class of '93, lived on the west side of third floor my junior and senior years.<br /><br />Oh, before I forget:<br /><br />Sid Rich sucks! Death from behind!<br />BSWBAnonymous Rice Alum #4noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-35831546524803544772012-01-30T06:30:06.377-08:002012-01-30T06:30:06.377-08:00"because that means that the rest of them hav..."because that means that the rest of them have to go live in Champagne-Urbana or Round Lake Beach or somewhere else far away from Chicago."<br /><br />Actually the cities that the former residents of the Chicago housing projects are moving to are cities that aren't upscale college towns like Urbana but industrial cities that are run down like Galesburg. The black population in Chicago in general has gone down by over 200000 in the last 10 years. That is around a 20% drop. Many, if not most, of these are the people who lived in the public housing high rises.Dahindanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-59469896426785054322012-01-29T21:06:25.838-08:002012-01-29T21:06:25.838-08:00You can also gzilch from the ground and take out a...You can also gzilch from the ground and take out a 4th floor sid rich window...<br /><br />Weiss '79Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-11034892176537856942012-01-29T17:00:13.928-08:002012-01-29T17:00:13.928-08:00Seem to be quite a few Rice alum reading iSteve. ...Seem to be quite a few Rice alum reading iSteve. When I was at Rice (Brown College) throwing stuff off the roof was all the rage. IIRC, they even had a Friday afternoon "study break" (i.e., kegger) sanctioned by the university that involved throwing stuff off the roof. <br /><br />Another time, some guys in the dorm had an old couch they felt like destroying and threw it right onto the main walkway into the building without doing due diligence on what was going on below. There was a guy walking toward the entrance who heard a strange flapping noise and looked up and stopped just in time to avoid being brained by it. Some of the shit I did in school was kind of stupid, but that was ridiculous.<br /><br />Doing Baker 13 once was one of the most fun things I've ever done. Good idea for a statue in the main quad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-15676912985824840372012-01-29T16:07:13.948-08:002012-01-29T16:07:13.948-08:00Dearime - I see what you are getting at, but a hig...Dearime - I see what you are getting at, but a high rise with 100s of families within is not quite the same as a tenement with maybe only 6. Defensible space and all that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-17168266872867599042012-01-29T12:43:42.709-08:002012-01-29T12:43:42.709-08:00While in my second yr. at Univ. of Science Music a...While in my second yr. at Univ. of Science Music and Culture (USMC)RVN campus, we'd lob 81mm mortars over the wire at short brown people! Improved the gene pool...you're welcome Pussies.Loose Agenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-90247509810481164152012-01-29T07:19:59.892-08:002012-01-29T07:19:59.892-08:00I enjoyed Anthony Daniels' article about Le Co...I enjoyed Anthony Daniels' article about Le Corbusier, which begins: "Le Corbusier was to architecture what Pol Pot was to social reform," so much that I can't now go ahead and stop blaming him for everything.FredRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-25525271728893357002012-01-28T22:31:35.987-08:002012-01-28T22:31:35.987-08:001.) @Hail:
Here's a couple of quotes from th...1.) @Hail: <br /><br />Here's a couple of quotes from the very odious Adam Serwer on Paul's thoughts on affirmative action's role in the housing crisis:<br /><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/AdamSerwer/status/162710430521901056" rel="nofollow">1</a><br /><br />and <br /><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/AdamSerwer/status/162710632104329216" rel="nofollow">2</a><br /><br />Paul is on to something if it moves Serwer to move into reflexive "racism!!1!(!*!" mode.<br /><br />2.) I was once given a $50 fine/10 hours of community service as a freshman at my undergraduate institution for throwing snow balls off the roof of our 6 floor dorm's ceiling at 2am. Incredibly, alcohol not involved.DCThrowbackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02595347138052680931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-19170305261410129742012-01-28T21:05:24.497-08:002012-01-28T21:05:24.497-08:00The theory they're mocking is "architectu...The theory they're mocking is "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_determinism" rel="nofollow">architectural determinism</a>".<br /><br />Regarding renting vs owning, it sounded plausible to me, but as Steve (and others) have pointed out, Compton actually had a pretty high home ownership rate.TGGPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11017651009634767649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-24475802617906801542012-01-28T20:27:05.211-08:002012-01-28T20:27:05.211-08:00I don't mind somebody like Wolfe cheering, bec...I don't mind somebody like Wolfe cheering, because you know there's a "Mwahahaha" in there somewhere. It's the people who lack the introspection to even understand that they're chasing away the Blacks who you want to grab by the neck and rub their faces in what they've actually done.Svigorhttp://svigor.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-36501478777932413922012-01-28T17:39:21.533-08:002012-01-28T17:39:21.533-08:00Anonymous 3:42 PM:
Contrary to popular belief, th...Anonymous 3:42 PM:<br /><br /><i>Contrary to popular belief, the Cabrini Green housing projects did NOT have high residential density. They had a mere *50* housing units/acre, owing to the acres and acres of greenspace surrounding them.</i><br /><br />Anonymous 2:13 PM:<br /><br /><i>Jane Jacobs, Jane Jacobs, Jane Jacobs.</i><br /><br /><i>Eh, why bother, who listens.</i><br /><br />Bingo. <br /><br />Urbanists like Jacobs have long pointed out that Corbu-style Towers in the Park[ing lot] had the same or lower densities than the main-street walk-ups they typically replaced. <br /><br />But you have to distinguish between different kinds of density.<br /><br />And, of course, between different kinds of population. No doubt a population of lumpenproletarians will trash any neighbourhood. Equally, a wealthy, educated population will always be well behaved. <br /><br />This doesn't mean that urban form has no effect whatsoever. Consider a scruffy but viable working-class/immigrant neighbour somewhere, one that could go up or down. There, the glaring design flaws of the Corbu model can do real damage: vast areas of unsupervised semi-public space, large numbers of units on the same entrances, etc. And the pro-social features that Jacobs identified in the trad model can really do good: eyes on the street, etc.<br /><br />CennbeorcAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75889597608054691002012-01-28T17:33:37.927-08:002012-01-28T17:33:37.927-08:00"Does this reflect the difference between Mas..."Does this reflect the difference between Massachusetts and Texas, or am I reading tea leaves here?"<br /><br />It does reflect a difference in people though I'm pretty sure it can't be attributed to socialization. How quaint your believing that Rice U is filled to the brim with the high IQ offspring of Texas ranchers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43316043541698539932012-01-28T16:12:48.236-08:002012-01-28T16:12:48.236-08:00So, of course, all sensitive, sophisticated Chicag...<i>So, of course, all sensitive, sophisticated Chicagoans now want a handful of handpicked poor people to enjoy lovely lowrise accommodations ... because that means that the rest of them have to go live in Champagne-Urbana or Round Lake Beach or somewhere else far away from Chicago. </i><br /><br /><b> If Revilo P. Oliver wasn't rolling over in his grave already, he will be now! </b>Darfur Millernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31513140717076248582012-01-28T15:42:20.203-08:002012-01-28T15:42:20.203-08:00Yet again, you start with conclusions and twist th...Yet again, you start with conclusions and twist the facts to meet your conclusions. <br /><br />Contrary to popular belief, the Cabrini Green housing projects did NOT have high residential density. They had a mere *50* housing units/acre, owing to the acres and acres of greenspace surrounding them. <br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUvR9QNAzvc<br /><br /><i>"In other words, the current orthodoxy that public housing projects for poor people should be low to the ground less reflects some design theory breakthrough than it does the covert realization that if you don't stack poor people up high, then you can't have as many around you."</i><br /><br />Perhaps this is true in some parallel alternate universe, but not in this one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-74092365903017124912012-01-28T14:13:31.890-08:002012-01-28T14:13:31.890-08:00Jane Jacobs, Jane Jacobs, Jane Jacobs.
Eh, why bo...Jane Jacobs, Jane Jacobs, Jane Jacobs.<br /><br />Eh, why bother, who listens.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-86059705540294532462012-01-28T13:43:59.886-08:002012-01-28T13:43:59.886-08:00Forgive me, but the difference between Pruitt-Igoe...Forgive me, but the difference between Pruitt-Igoe and Penn South is rental vs. owner-occupied, so all the writer has demonstrated is that owners take care off their property. As if often said, no one washes the rental car before returning it...<br />ForbesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-35779556763956362872012-01-28T13:30:34.203-08:002012-01-28T13:30:34.203-08:00Pruitt-Igoe's architect, Yamasaki, later remar...Pruitt-Igoe's architect, Yamasaki, later remarked: “I never thought people were that destructive.” <br /><br />The aerial photos of Pruitt right after it was completed are kind of bizarre. It's row after row of perfect looking, regimented white high rises contained in a neat square and surrounded by a sprawl of 19th century brown brick buildings. It looks as if alien invaders had leveled several dozen blocks and then rebuilt in their own style.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79618644815837500192012-01-28T12:50:36.160-08:002012-01-28T12:50:36.160-08:00Skipping over the "what to do about public ho...Skipping over the "what to do about public housing for the poor" issue for a sec ... <br /><br />The main case against Corbu-style skyscraper-in-a-park-style development isn't that it NEVER works, it's that its batting average is so incredibly low. Kimmelman doesn't want to deal with this because (like many arts journalists, especially of the type you're likely to run into in the pages of the NYTimes), he's deeply committed to the idea of modernism, which in his mind represents progressivism, rationalism, the idea that enlightened elites can design benevolent and successful top-down structures that the rest of us will flourish in (and be grateful for). Why? Well, because he's an arts intellectual and that's what they believe.<br /><br />In actual and practical fact, there really are modes of building and developing that have had better and worse batting averages, and the tower-in-the-park one has had one of the worst batting averages ever. It's probably the worst disaster in the history of architecture. <br /><br />Anyone who wants to explore some of these ideas and some of this history might enjoy Christopher Alexander's "Timeless Way of Building" and "A Pattern Language," David Sucher's "City Comforts," Sarah Susanka's books, "Patterns of Home" by a bunch of authors, and the (much more theoretical and abstract) work of Nikos Salingaros. <br /><br />Forgive the self-promotion, but I did a q&a with Nikos at my old blog. He's great. Get to all five parts of the interview from here:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/000735.html" rel="nofollow">LINK</a>Ray Sawhillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02434181069400646328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79809242002329734122012-01-28T12:39:20.678-08:002012-01-28T12:39:20.678-08:00While researching Yamasaki, I learned that his ori...While researching Yamasaki, I learned that his original plan for Pruitt-Igoe was a mix of low-rise and high-rise. But the St. Louis housing authority nixed that-- the all-high-rise which was built was evidently more "cost-effective".<br /><br />Yamasaki has been accused of being arrogant, but in truth I think he was more wishy-washy than the average architect, often acceding to the wishes-- even stupid wishes-- of his clients.<br /><br />(Incidentally, while the rest of his family in Seattle was interned, he was off in the U.S. Army designing bunkers. That's one way to stay free! [Actually, he had already moved to the Midwest before the war started.])<br /><br />So yes, the demographics was hopeless to begin with, but the criticisms of the architecture are still valid, no matter who lives there. That the Chinese can thrive in places equally ugly and inhuman says something about them, too.Reg Cæsarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-59091661435730015702012-01-28T12:34:43.411-08:002012-01-28T12:34:43.411-08:00http://deconstructingleftism.wordpress.com/2011/08...http://deconstructingleftism.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/the-green-city-a-world-without-blacks/Thrasymachushttp://deconstructingleftism.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-54082295983831241692012-01-28T12:28:17.049-08:002012-01-28T12:28:17.049-08:00Pruitt-Igoe did at least inspire that thrilling pi...Pruitt-Igoe did at least inspire that thrilling piece of music that Phillip Glass wrote for the remarkable film "Koyaanisqatsi" (and which was later used in that vile piece of trash called "The Matrix").Mr. Anonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-50313692713116422232012-01-28T12:19:17.220-08:002012-01-28T12:19:17.220-08:00Architecture can fix homo sapiens about as well as...Architecture can fix homo sapiens about as well as alchemy can.<br /><br />The number one problem of people was and remains people, in all their variety.<br /><br />No lipstick will turn a pig into a beauty queen.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-8746380781742205182012-01-28T11:46:10.850-08:002012-01-28T11:46:10.850-08:00When I lived at Sid Rich (the Rice high-rise to wh...When I lived at Sid Rich (the Rice high-rise to which Steve is referring), the rule was that the only thing that could be dropped from the balconies was "free-flowing water." But the giant slingshot stories were legendary.<br /><br />Sid Richardson College earned its "Death from Above" ("Mors de Super") motto.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com