CityWalk Community Spotlight - YMCA

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

We started our Community Spotlight series with a visit from Paul Conklin, associate executive director of the T. Boone Pickens YMCA in downtown Dallas. The YMCA is offering membership discounts to CityWalk residents (the YMCA is located right next door to our building) so that they will be able to access all of the great resources at the Y.

Johnice Woods, our director of projects, made smoothies for attendees and gave away a blender.

Paul Conklin talks about the benefits of joining the YMCA.

Johnice Woods presents resident Synithia Page with a blender.

Healthy Eating Basics a hit

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Jason's Deli hosted our first Healthy Eating Basics class for our residents at CityWalk. Renay Grubaugh of Jason's Deli talked to residents about the importance of eating "real" food and reading product labels.

The class also included an amazing buffet lunch by Jason's Deli that our residents are still talking about!

Thanks so much to Jason's Deli!

Renay Grubaugh of Jason's Deli

Resident Annie Brumfield

The food was so good, Miss Wanda broke out in a dance!

This Day in History

May 27, 1937:
Golden Gate Bridge opens

Source: history.com

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a stunning technological and artistic achievement, opens to the public after five years of construction. On opening day--"Pedestrian Day"--some 200,000 bridge walkers marveled at the 4,200-foot-long suspension bridge, which spans the Golden Gate Strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay and connects San Francisco and Marin County. On May 28, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic.

The concept of bridging the nearly mile-wide Golden Gate Strait was proposed as early as 1872, but it was not until the early 1920s that public opinion in San Francisco began to favor such an undertaking. In 1921, Cincinnati-born bridge engineer Joseph Strauss submitted a preliminary proposal: a combination suspension-cantilever that could be built for $27 million. Although unsightly compared with the final result, his design was affordable, and Strauss became the recognized leader of the effort to bridge the Golden Gate Strait.

During the next few years, Strauss' design evolved rapidly, thanks to the contributions of consulting engineer Leon S. Moisseiff, architect Irving F. Morrow, and others. Moisseiff's concept of a simple suspension bridge was accepted by Strauss, and Morrow, along with his wife, Gertrude, developed the Golden Gate Bridge's elegant Art Deco design. Morrow would later help choose the bridge's trademark color: "international orange," a brilliant vermilion color that resists rust and fading and suits the natural beauty of San Francisco and its picturesque sunsets. In 1929, Strauss was selected as chief engineer.

To finance the bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District was formed in 1928, consisting of San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Del Norte, and parts of Mendocino and Napa counties. These counties agreed to collectively take out a large bond, which would then be paid back through bridge tolls. In November 1930, residents of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District voted 3-1 to put their homes, farms, and businesses up as collateral to support a $35 million bond to build Strauss' Golden Gate Bridge.

Construction began on January 5, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression. Strauss and his workers overcame many difficulties: strong tides, frequent storms and fogs, and the problem of blasting rock 65 feet below the water to plant earthquake-proof foundations. Eleven men died during construction. On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to great acclaim, a symbol of progress in the Bay Area during a time of economic crisis. At 4,200 feet, it was the longest bridge in the world until the completion of New York City's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964. Today, the Golden Gate Bridge remains one of the world's most recognizable architectural structures.

Greener Pastures

BY NICK SOWELL

If the grass is greener on the other side, then water your own.

This quote can be interpreted in many different ways according to your perspective. To me, this quote means work on yourself to better your life, which will make you happy with who you are and what you do. Once you are happy with your position in life then that will reflect onto others and in turn will make others happy and content. This may sound superficial, but you are only able to help others if you have first helped yourself.

Madame Butterfly

The Dallas Opera performed one of the most beloved operas of all, Madame Butterfly, this May. The performances (with one exception) were exemplary, the singing glorious, and the sets and costumes very well done. I was impressed and enjoyed the opera.


I hope never to see it again.

The problem with Madame Butterfly is the story. An American naval officer named Pinkerton marries Madame Butterfly while he is stationed in Japan. To him, the marriage is a meaningless sham; it means no more to him than the house he rents. To her, it is everything. She changes her religion and is estranged from her family. When his ship goes to sea, Pinkerton largely forgets her and marries an American wife.

Madame Butterfly waits loyally for him with his son (born after he leaves for sea). Pinkerton returns to claim his son and, after much beautiful singing, she kills herself.

I think the problem is not only that Pinkerton acts so horribly but also that he is the character with whom it is easiest for us to identify. He is the American. I don’t know if Italian (the opera is by Puccini) or other audiences would face the same problem, but for me I can hardly stand to watch this dashing American naval officer act in so despicable a fashion.

I don’t know how the opera could be saved for me. I don’t see the opera as melodrama, where we know who the villain is and expect no more from him than evil. Melodrama makes the moral choices easy. Perhaps a different staging, where Pinkerton is less attractive—or more so—either simpler or more complex could make the opera appealing again to me.

For now, however, like The Merchant of Venice I think Madame Butterfly is a work that is now culturally inappropriate. Until someone works out a way of treating the characters differently, I really would rather not see it again. It doesn’t matter how beautifully it is presented.

Moby Dick at the Dallas Opera

Earlier this month I saw the future of opera. It is Moby Dick at Dallas’s Winspear Opera House.

Moby Dick, which was commissioned by a group of opera houses that included Dallas, Calgary, San Francisco, and South Australia, was dramatic, compelling and, best of all, new.


If opera is to remain a living art form, then it needs to be dragged into the 21st century. Even opera buffs can’t be happy seeing the same operas like Don Giovanni (which I’ll see for the third time next year) or Madame Butterfly (which I’ll review soon). Audiences unfamiliar with opera are going to be even less excited about classic works in foreign languages. In its heyday, opera was contemporary art told in the vernacular. New operas were in great demand and the genre didn’t shy away from contemporary technology.

Moby Dick is the first 21st century opera. It is American and dares to turn one of the most heroic novels in American literature into a story for our time. The opera also embraces technology. The whaling ship is projected onto the stage as are the figures of the whaling boats and the sea.

Everything worked to stunning effect. It’s too late to see Moby Dick in Dallas now. It’s run is done. But if you happen to have a chance to see it during its tour, I couldn’t more strongly recommend it.

I’ll be looking forward to reviews from other venues to see if the technological advances used are dependent on the Winspear Opera House or work in other places as well. Maybe at some point one of you can let me know.

The Man in the Arena

BY NICK SOWELL

It has always had a deep profound meaning for me.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

A Visit Home

Next week I will be off to visit home—the Traverse City, Michigan area. I don’t get back very often. That is partly because I rarely take time off and partly because it’s a long way to drive from Dallas. It takes either three days or two very long days to drive. You can fly into Traverse City, but the airport is small and the flights are expensive.

Here’s an aerial picture of Traverse City:


The city nestles at the bottom of a long bay off of Lake Michigan. The Traverse Bay is divided into two parts (creatively called East Bay and West Bay) that are separated by a narrow band of land known as Old Mission. The views from the surrounding hills are tough to beat.

Old Mission has become a favorite location to establish vineyards over the past few decades. I don’t know if it is especially good for growing grapes, but the narrow band of land between the waters is certainly a great location to establish picturesque wineries.


This will be a pretty low key vacation. My wife and I are just going to drive there and spend time with my father and his wife and my brother and sister-in-law. We will do some sightseeing, maybe a little walking, at the most maybe we’ll find time to paddle a canoe.

I hope to decompress from an extremely busy winter and spring. There are some books that I’ve been wanting to read and I have some material for blogs that I just haven’t had time to write. I hope I’ll have time next week to do those simple things.

The 1970s Come Back Again

On the way to work, I often listen to KERA and today I heard an opinion piece that made me wonder whether I’d fallen through a time warp and back to 1970. The topic was whether it was permissible for a woman to keep her original surname after she married. You can read or listen to the commentary here:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kera/news.newsmain/article/0/1/1651504/North.Texas/Commentary.Surnames

When I get home, I guess I’ll check the date on today’s newspaper to make sure I didn’t misplace forty years, because I thought the right of a woman to keep her birth name if she wanted to was decided about that long ago—and if it is 1970, then I want to know why I’m not twenty-five years old again.

There comes a time when we need to put an issue behind ourselves as decided. We can’t keep fighting the same wars over and over again—not that I’ve run into anyone in years who says it’s wrong for a woman to keep her original surname after she marries. I don’t doubt that there are some people who believe that still around. There are people who believe the moon landing was faked; that they’ve been abducted by aliens; that the world is run by a secret society of Jewish Bankers, but not all opinions are equal and we don’t need to respond to everything.

Sometimes we just need to go forward and ignore some people’s opinions. We still have a lot of racist people, but I can’t see wasting time to argue with them whether racism is wrong or not. When you act as though an outdated opinion is worth arguing against, then you give it credence.

Not every issue has two sides. Not every question is open to argument.

This Day in History

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive patent for blue jeans
Source: history.com

On this day in 1873, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world's most famous garments: blue jeans.

Born Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Bavaria, in 1829, the young Strauss immigrated to New York with his family in 1847 after the death of his father. By 1850, Loeb had changed his name to Levi and was working in the family dry goods business, J. Strauss Brother & Co. In early 1853, Levi Strauss went west to seek his fortune during the heady days of the Gold Rush.

In San Francisco, Strauss established a wholesale dry goods business under his own name and worked as the West Coast representative of his family's firm. His new business imported clothing, fabric and other dry goods to sell in the small stores opening all over California and other Western states to supply the rapidly expanding communities of gold miners and other settlers. By 1866, Strauss had moved his company to expanded headquarters and was a well-known businessman and supporter of the Jewish community in San Francisco.

Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, was one of Levi Strauss' regular customers. In 1872, he wrote a letter to Strauss about his method of making work pants with metal rivets on the stress points--at the corners of the pockets and the base of the button fly--to make them stronger. As Davis didn't have the money for the necessary paperwork, he suggested that Strauss provide the funds and that the two men get the patent together. Strauss agreed enthusiastically, and the patent for "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings"--the innovation that would produce blue jeans as we know them--was granted to both men on May 20, 1873.

Strauss brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee the first manufacturing facility for "waist overalls," as the original jeans were known. At first they employed seamstresses working out of their homes, but by the 1880s, Strauss had opened his own factory. The famous 501 brand jean--known until 1890 as "XX"--was soon a bestseller, and the company grew quickly. By the 1920s, Levi's denim waist overalls were the top-selling men's work pant in the United States. As decades passed, the craze only grew, and now blue jeans are worn by men and women, young and old, around the world.

Volunteer Appreciation Potluck

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

CityWalk residents Leslie and her six-year-old daughter hosted an appreciation potluck this past Sunday for the volunteers of Dwell with Dignity, the nonprofit organization that designed their new apartment. http://citywalktalk.blogspot.com/2010/04/labor-of-love.html




It's wonderful to have a place like our beautiful 3rd floor community room and patio to offer to our residents for events. Just another reason why CityWalk is a great place to live.

Back to Nimbyism, Part II

Another commentator in the Unfair Park discussion offered up this piece of satire:

As the owner of a luxury home here you can imagine how appalled I was when I saw a old Honda parked on the street, someone who clearly could not afford to live here was spending time in my neighborhood, likely getting intoxicated and using restroom facilities that were not their own. . . . Just the thought of sharing the street with people that have so little money compared to me makes me sick, who knows what kind of diseases and pests they are bringing with them. Many of them can't even afford a Lexus, even an used entry level model and instead assault my eyes with junk like 15 year old Hondas and Chevys. . . . . I want to be very clear, I don't "hate" poor people, I just wish they wouldn't be so, poor, it's so distasteful.

This is funny stuff, but it would be even funnier if it weren’t absolutely true.

One of my favorite recent issues was a dispute over whether a Frisco resident could park his new Ford 150 in his driveway. The homeowner’s association (“HOA”) said no:

Earlier this year, [Jim Greenwood] the Concentra Inc. CEO began getting notices from the Stonebriar HOA threatening to fine him for parking his truck in his driveway. They say pickup trucks are not allowed in the driveway – although other luxury vehicles, including the Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Mark LT, pass muster.

Bill Osborn, a board member with the association, had explained that those vehicles are “fancier,” “plush with amenities” and do not look like pickups. Most domestic pickups are banned.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/081908dnmetfriscotrucks.ecbc1d7.html.

What could be worse than having to look out at your neighbor’s home and see a domestic pickup?

Seriously, though, if people are concerned enough to worry about the type of car your neighbor drives, I have to think that it will be a long uphill battle to convince a neighborhood to let us build homes for homeless people in their neighborhood. This isn’t work for the faint at heart or the easily discouraged.

It seems to bring out a primal fear in people. Perhaps it’s the fear that you won’t be able to keep your separate status. If people can see that your neighbor drives a domestic pickup, then maybe they will assume that you drive a domestic pickup as well.

The next thing you know everyone will be driving a 15 year old Honda or Chevy instead of a Cadillac Escalade or a Lincoln Mark LT.

Can you imagine anything more distasteful?

Back to Nimbyism, Part I

Once again I’ve been thinking about Nimbyism (Not In My Backyard). Take the opposition to EVERgreen Residences, a proposed project to be located at 3800 Willow, near Exposition Park in Dallas. The neighborhood spoke out against this particular project:

This type of residential housing, we don't oppose," said Ken Maxwell of Exposition Park Association to the near-capacity crowd of approximately 175 people gathered in the Central Library auditorium. "We actually want this kind of housing, and think it should be a part of Dallas.

"However, this is not the neighborhood for that kind of housing," he continued. "Across the street from a gallery? Next door to 500X? Adjacent to the Santa Fe Trail? This is not where you put this type of housing."

Quoted in Unfair Park: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/04/strong_expo_park_showing_oppos.php.

There is a long discussion (69 Comments!) about this project at the link above that I got somewhat involved in. Here’s part of my comment:

If I hear one more person say I support this kind of project but it doesn't belong in my neighborhood because (we're too rich; we're too poor; we don't have any homeless people; we already have too many homeless people; etc.) I will vomit.

Man up and just say you don't care what happens to these people so long as they aren't allowed in your neighborhood. I can respect honesty.

I thought about this discussion recently when I read the following statement by a former resident of the Robert Taylor Homes, a massive former housing project in Chicago:

“They didn’t care about these people when they were in the buildings,” he said. “They don’t care about ‘em now.”

http://trueslant.com/megancottrell/2009/10/16/nimby-if-not-your-backyard-then-whose/.

I think we need to start with what is true and try to work out a solution from there. It sounds a lot nicer to say that you support permanent supportive housing in principal and then offer some rationalizations as to why your particular neighborhood just happens to be the wrong one in which to build it, but I don’t believe it. Most of us just don’t care very much about the down and out. That’s especially true when it might inconvenience us in any small way.

Almost Perfect Biscuits

I’m still making biscuits and still trying for that elusive perfect biscuit recipe. I want a recipe that will make a fluffy, flakey, high-rising biscuit with a perfect “biscuit” taste every time. I’m getting pretty close, but I’m not there yet. Let me talk about what I’ve learned, and then I’ll offer my current best recipe.

First, you’ve got a trade off. The more baking powder that you use (within reason), the higher your biscuits will rise. There is a penalty. Too much baking powder will affect the taste of your biscuits—I found that out early on (http://citywalktalk.blogspot.com/2010/03/biscuits.html). But this trade off is different for every person. It depends on your taste buds. If I use more than two teaspoons of baking powder, then I can taste it in the biscuits. Some people can’t taste the baking powder if you use twice that amount. So a recipe might be perfect for you—and I won’t like it.

Second, even small variations in the ingredients make a big difference. I find that using pastry (cake) flour helps the biscuits rise. I also find that I get a better biscuit, flakier and more flavorful if I use lard as the fat. Lard is, after all, a southern tradition.

Third, if you want high biscuits, then it’s best to roll out the dough as thick as an inch, or even more. The biscuits only rise so much, but if they are bigger to begin with, then they will be taller when you are done.

Finally, you can’t get away from measuring. I love to cook by eye, but when I try to bake by approximating the quantities, the results are uneven at best. So here is my current recipe:

2 cups white pastry (cake) flour
1/3 cup lard
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Either sift the dry ingredients together or do what lazy people like me do: Pour all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and use a whisk to stir them together. Add the lard (if you insist on using butter or another fat, then you’ll need ½ cup rather than 1/3 cup). You need to mix the lard with the dry ingredients until they are thoroughly incorporated and the biscuit dough looks like pea gravel or large grains of sand. The only way to do that is with your fingers—don’t believe anyone that tells you a pastry cutter works as well.


But if you put the lard in the center of the bowl and toss some of the flour over it before you start squeezing then you won’t get as much lard stuck to your fingers. After you are done mixing the lard with the dry ingredients, pour the buttermilk in all at once. Use a wooden spoon to mix the buttermilk in until you get a dough that barely sticks together (if it won’t stick, then use a little more buttermilk—but only as a last resort). Put the dough on a floured board and knead it a couple of times before flatting it out so you can cut the biscuits.

Real experts use a biscuit cutter, but I don’t have one so I just use a glass.


Cut out as many biscuits as possible and put them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Take the leftovers and gently form them together, either to cut out more biscuits or just sort of form them by hand. The less you work the dough, the more tender your biscuits will be.

Place the biscuits in the oven and bake for twenty minutes. Then eat them with butter, jam, honey, slivers of ham or whatever you like.

In Praise of Renting

Homeownership has long been central to the American dream. At the very founding of our country, ownership of land and civic virtue were seen as intertwined:

"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural."- Thomas Jefferson

Homeownership is often seen as the key to individual financial stability and strong communities.

I think it may be time to start thinking differently (of course Central Dallas CDC is mostly a developer of multifamily properties—a landlord—so you may want to take that into account in considering what I say). In the United States today, less than 3% of us work in agriculture. For most of us, our home is only a place to live, not to grow our food. In 1930, when we had less than half as many people as we do now, we had more than six times as many farmers.

The recent housing crisis has brought home the risks of homeownership. JPMorgan Chase issued a warning just yesterday that 29% of homeowners in the United States may owe more on their home than it is worth. (See here, for example, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/11/jpmorgan-chase-warns-inve_n_571103.html). There are a lot of cool calculators on the Internet that purport to show whether it’s better to buy or to rent a home. Here is one from The New York Times, with great graphics: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html.

The problem with all these calculators is that in order for them to work you have to tell them how much home prices and rents will increase or decrease over the number of years for which you want information. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a clue what will happen to the economy tomorrow, let alone in thirty years. In general home prices have risen over the long term—but not for the last couple of years. Government tax policy also generally supports homeownership, if you are in the right tax bracket, but government policy can always change.

There is something to be said for renting, however. Renting allows us to be mobile. We Americans tend to move a lot. One in six of us move every year, and as a group we average almost twelve moves in a lifetime. My wife and I have lived in the same house for twenty-three years now (but we are moving this year) and almost everybody else I know has moved once or more during that time.

Each move makes homeownership less financially attractive. We may be at the end of a time period in which housing prices always rose at more than the inflation rate. That doesn’t mean that people still won’t want to buy homes and live in them and, hopefully, pay them off. It might mean, however, that it won’t make sense to buy a house until you are done moving. Too many people now would like to move for a new opportunity and can’t because they can’t sell their house.

Two great American loves, owning our own place and the freedom to pick up and start again somewhere else, have always been in conflict. That conflict may be getting worse.

Eviction

I’ve said it before, but I often need to repeat the fact: Central Dallas Community Development Corporation is a landlord. In many ways we aren’t like most nonprofits. We don’t give anything away. If you don’t pay the rent or you break the rules at one of our apartment complex, then we will evict you.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t trying to help people. All our efforts are to develop high quality sustainable and affordable housing. The way we help requires more severity than most programs directed towards low income people. If we can’t pay our bills, then we can’t help anybody. More than that even, affordable housing currently has a poor reputation in communities. The only way I think that reputation can be improved is by long-term, consistent excellence in the operation of our projects.

There may be times when we fall short of our goals, but those goals are always uppermost in our minds.

Because, however, we do evict people, we have a responsibility to think about the effect of our actions. A recent post on the Urbanophile (http://www.urbanophile.com/2010/05/11/megan-cottrell-eviction-is-to-black-women-what-incarceration-is-to-black-men/) reprinted from One Story Up (http://trueslant.com/megancottrell/), brings home how evictions effect people. Here’s an excerpt, but you should really go to the link above and read the entire essay:

“We know a lot about the consequences of incarceration. That doesn’t mean that no one should be locked up,” [Matt Desmond] says. “But it probably means that not so many people should. It may be the same for eviction.”

That means anti-poverty programs need to listen up. Free school lunches are nice. But no amount of school lunches make up for not having a home and not being able to get one. We’ve got to figure out what’s going on in our communities and what solutions can help.

We’ve still got a lot to learn. But to begin, I think we need to start seeing eviction – witnessing what’s happening in our city.

Imagine it’s you. You lost your job. The bills are piling up. The rent is three months late. You’ve borrowed money from everyone you can think of, and there’s nothing left. The notice comes, and you pray it won’t happen, but it does. Your stuff – in boxes. Your children don’t have a place to come home to after school. Where will you go? And how will you put your life back together?

In the same way that we need to think about the after effects of incarceration—because almost everyone in prison comes back to the community sooner or later—we need to think about the after effects of eviction. Just like sometimes we have to jail people, sometimes we have to evict them. It’s part of our responsibility to the larger community of people who live in our apartments.

Even though we’ve had to evict someone that doesn’t mean they disappear. They are here somewhere in our community; maybe on our streets.

Swimming with Canoes by John McPhee, Part II

Last Thursday (May 6) I talked a little about an essay by John McPhee called Swimming with Canoes. I hope you’ve had a chance to read it, but if not here’s the link again: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201005/canoes.aspx.

In addition to being beautifully written, I think John McPhee embeds an idea in his work that we need to re-embrace—the value of play. When the canoe overturns and McPhee is trapped beneath it, he knows just what to do. Not because he’s trained for that particular event, but because he’s spent hours playing with the canoe. He’s stood up in it (surely someone has told you never to stand up in a canoe!), he’s fallen out of it, he’s spun it around and around and swam underneath it.

The canoe in all its capacities is familiar to him. That isn’t something you learn by formal training. Sure, if you want to go fast in a canoe, then you need to spend your time practicing and perfecting your stroke (right, brother?), but if you want to know everything a canoe can do, then you need to play with it; use it in unconventional ways; stretch the limits of the possible.

The same principle applies to most things. The best way to learn to use a computer or a cell phone is to play with it. You can find out all, or at many, of the things it can do by playing with it. You don’t need to worry about making mistakes, because in play there are no mistakes. You aren’t trying to go anywhere or do anything in particular. You are just playing.

When we become adults, we often lose the ability to play. When we do, we lose the ability to be creative. You can play with ideas, just as you can with things.

For me, many of my ideas—like the concepts that led to CityWalk@Akard--begin as play. In my mind I spin the building around; cut it into layers; combine uses; combine different funding mechanisms; draw sketches and trials of numbers. All this activity is usually dressed up with fancier terms—brainstorming or something—but it is just play.

Here’s a thing or an idea. What are all the things we can do with it? Most of those things turn out to be silly, like standing up in a canoe. Sometimes though, you discover a way to use an idea that opens new and different possibilities.

The more we open our minds to look at all the possibilities, the better is the chance that we will find something new.

Is It Still a Frivolous Lawsuit If You Win?

One benefit of not actively practicing law for me is that I get told a lot fewer lawyer jokes. But here’s the story of a lawsuit that probably justifies all those lawyer jokes:

In 1996 an Israeli woman sued a TV station for predicting fair weather, prompting her to dress lightly and be rained upon later that day. She asked for $1000 for her resulting sickness which caused her to miss work. We don't know what's more strange: the fact that she actually sued over an act of nature, or the fact that she won (source).

Even I never thought seriously about suing the weatherman or weatherwoman. Looks like I missed a good bet.

This Day in History

May 11, 1947:
B.F. Goodrich Co. announces development of tubeless tire

Source: history.com

On this day in 1947, the B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announces it has developed a tubeless tire, a technological innovation that would make automobiles safer and more efficient.

Pneumatic tires--or tires filled with pressurized air--were used on motor vehicles beginning in the late 1800s, when the French rubber manufacturer Michelin & Cie became the first company to develop them. For the first 60 years of their use, pneumatic tires generally relied on an inner tube containing the compressed air and an outer casing that protected the tube and provided traction. The disadvantage of this design was that if the inner tube failed--which was always a risk due to excess heat generated by friction between the tube and the tire wall--the tire would blow out immediately, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

The culmination of more than three years of engineering, Goodrich's tubeless tire effectively eliminated the inner tube, trapping the pressurized air within the tire walls themselves. By reinforcing those walls, the company claimed, they were able to combine the puncture-sealing features of inner tubes with an improved ease of riding, high resistance to bruising and superior retention of air pressure. While Goodrich awaited approval from the U.S. Patent Office, the tubeless tires underwent high-speed road testing, were put in service on a fleet of taxis and were used by Ohio state police cars and a number of privately owned passenger cars.

The testing proved successful, and in 1952, Goodrich won patents for the tire's various features. Within three years, the tubeless tire came standard on most new automobiles. According to an article published in The New York Times in December 1954, "If the results of tests…prove valid in general use, the owner of a 1955 automobile can count on at least 25 per cent more mileage, easier tire changing if he gets caught on a lonely road with a leaky tire, and almost no blowouts." The article quoted Howard N. Hawkes, vice president and general manager of the tire division of the United States Rubber Company, as calling the general adoption of the tubeless tire "one of the most far-reaching changes ever to take place in the tire industry." The radial-ply tire, a tubeless model with walls made of alternating layers--also called plies--of tough rubber cord, was created by Michelin later that decade and is now considered the standard for automobiles in all developed countries.

Another busy weekend

BY NICK SOWELL


The past four days have been long days for me. I’ve had my best friend’s wedding that I was a part of, which of course as you know involves a lot of stuff. However, I am very happy for both he and his new wife.

Also, happy belated Mother’s Day to all those mothers out there who have worked so hard for their children. I love my mother very much, so I was very happy to have spent Mother’s Day with her, my father, and my brother and his girlfriend.

I’m also happy to be starting a new week.

This Day in History

Source: history.com

On this day in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issues a presidential proclamation that officially establishes the first national Mother's Day holiday to celebrate America's mothers.

The idea for a "Mother's Day" is credited by some to Julia Ward Howe (1872) and by others to Anna Jarvis (1907), who both suggested a holiday dedicated to a day of peace. Many individual states celebrated Mother's Day by 1911, but it was not until Wilson lobbied Congress in 1914 that Mother's Day was officially set on the second Sunday of every May. In his first Mother's Day proclamation, Wilson stated that the holiday offered a chance to "[publicly express] our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

In 2002, President George W. Bush echoed Wilson's sentiments by acknowledging mothers in his official statement on Mother's Day in 2002. He commended foster mothers as well as his own "fabulous mother" for their "love and sacrifice." He also mentioned past presidents' expressions of appreciation for their mothers. He quoted John Quincy Adams as having said "all that I am my mother made me" and Abraham Lincoln's sentiment that "all that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother...[my mother's prayers] have clung to me all my life." Bush's own mother, Barbara, was a popular first lady when the elder Bush served as president from 1989 to 1992.

TV Moms We Love

From some of the most popular TV shows in history, here are some of the most memorable TV moms.

Source: biography.com

The Munsters, 1964-66
Character: "Lily Munster"
Family: Herman, Eddie, Marilyn

The Brady Bunch, 1969-74
Character: "Carol Brady"
Family: Mike, Greg, Peter, Bobby, Marcia, Jan, Cindy

Family Ties, 1982-89
Character: "Elyse Keaton"
Family: Michael, Alex, Mallory, Jennifer, Andy

The Cosby Show, 1984-92
Character: "Claire Huxtable"
Family: Cliff, Theo, Sandra, Denise, Vanessa, Rudy

Life Skills set to change lives

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Our Life Skills sessions started yesterday evening with the Our Calling ministry,which is headed up by Wayne Walker. Several of our residents came out to meet Wayne and his team and to talk about some of the topics/personal issues that they want to address and work through during the sessions, which will now be offered at CityWalk on a regular basis.

Some of the topics to be addressed include:
Personal Dignity - Character - Relationships - Ethics
Health - Addictions - Life Purpose - Honesty
Money Management - Responsibilities - Tolerance
Communication - Forgiveness - Keeping a job
Accountability - Anger - Fear - Stress - Life Management

Our Calling also provides bible studies, 12 Step programs, mentoring and coaching. You can find out more about this organization here: http://www.ourcalling.org/.

Here's Wayne (right), Taylor Patterson and an Our Calling ministry volunteer.


We're excited and grateful to be working with them!

Swimming with Canoes by John McPhee, Part I

First, let me say this, if you don’t already know John McPhee’s work, then you need to come to know it. McPhee is the winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and the author of thirty books, including such classics as Levels of the Game, The Survival of the Bark Canoe, and The Control of Nature.

But today I’d like to draw your attention to a short piece that’s posted on the Sierra Club website. Here’s an excerpt:

Now and again, Keewaydin let us take our canoes not so much onto the water as into it, during swim period. We went swimming with our canoes. We jounced. Jouncing is the art of propelling a canoe without a paddle. You stand up on the gunwales near the stern deck and repeatedly flex and unflex your knees. The canoe rocks, slaps the lake, moves forward. Sooner or later, you lose your balance and fall into the water, because the gunwales are slender rails and the stern deck is somewhat smaller than a pennant. From waters deeper than you were tall, you climbed back into your canoe. If you think that's easy, try it.

After three or four splats, and with a belly pink from hauling it over gunwales, you lost interest in jouncing. What next? You sat in your canoe and deliberately overturned it. You leaned hard to one side, grabbed the opposite gunwale, and pulled. Out you went and into the water. This was, after all, swim period. Now you rolled your canoe, an action it resists far less when it is loaded with water. You could make your canoe spiral like a football inside the lake.

You can read the whole essay here: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201005/canoes.aspx.

I hope you will read it, because there are some ideas buried in the essay that I think we could all benefit from thinking about.

Thank you Winstead!

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Yesterday, Colleen Lujan of Winstead PC dropped off monies donated by Winstead employees that will help furnish two of our apartments here at CityWalk. The employees held a Jeans Day event to raise money for CityWalk and have also been donating household goods on a regular basis to assist our residents.

For information on how you can help, please contact me at 214.573.2570 ext. 2133.

This Day in History

May 4, 1865:
Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois

Source: history.com

On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln is laid to rest in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois.

His funeral train had traveled through 180 cities and seven states before reaching Springfield. At each stop, mourners paid their respects to Lincoln, who had been assassinated on April 14. Lincoln's son Willie, who died at age 11 from typhoid fever in 1862 and had originally been buried in Washington while Lincoln was serving as president, was interred next to his father in the family plot that same day.

This Day in History

May 3, 1952:
Fletcher lands on the North Pole

Source: history.com

A ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict of California becomes the first aircraft to land on the North Pole. A moment later, Fletcher climbed out of the plane and walked to the exact geographic North Pole, probably the first person in history to do so.

In the early 20th century, American explorers Robert Peary and Dr. Frederick Cook, both claiming to have separately reached the North Pole by land, publicly disputed each other's claims. In 1911, Congress formally recognized Peary's claim. In recent years, further studies of the conflicting claims suggest that neither expedition reached the exact North Pole, but that Peary came far closer, falling perhaps 30 miles short. In 1952, Lieutenant Colonel Fletcher was the first person to undisputedly stand on the North Pole. Standing alongside Fletcher on the top of the world was Dr. Albert P. Crary, a scientist who in 1961 traveled to the South Pole by motorized vehicle, becoming the first person in history to have stood on both poles.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Source: emaxhealth.com

Mental health issues affect all of society in some way, shape, or form. It is estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year and that translates to about 57.7 million people.

Research shows that the number one obstacle in seeking treatment for mental illness is stigma. Negative stereotypes and a lack of understanding of mental illness keep people from actually getting help for treatable conditions.

Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Mental illnesses are serious medical illnesses. They cannot be overcome through "will power" and are not related to a person's "character" or intelligence. Mental illness falls along a continuum of severity.

Mental health issues are treatable and without treatment the consequences of mental illness for the individual and society can create unnecessary disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, inappropriate incarceration, and even suicide. The economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than 100 billion dollars each year in the United States.

During mental health awareness month professionals, organizations, schools, communities, hospitals and even media outlets will join together in an effort to raise the awareness about mental health and attempt to decrease the stigma that prevents people from getting the help they need.

This Day in History

Source: history.com

On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City's Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building's lights. Hoover's gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.

The idea for the Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could erect the taller building. Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building, the gleaming 1,046-foot skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. Not to be bested, Raskob assembled a group of well-known investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith. The group chose the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. The Art-Deco plans, said to have been based in large part on the look of a pencil, were also builder-friendly: The entire building went up in just over a year, under budget (at $40 million) and well ahead of schedule. During certain periods of building, the frame grew an astonishing four-and-a-half stories a week.

At the time of its completion, the Empire State Building, at 102 stories and 1,250 feet high (1,454 feet to the top of the lightning rod), was the world's tallest skyscraper. The Depression-era construction employed as many as 3,400 workers on any single day, most of whom received an excellent pay rate, especially given the economic conditions of the time. The new building imbued New York City with a deep sense of pride, desperately needed in the depths of the Great Depression, when many city residents were unemployed and prospects looked bleak. The grip of the Depression on New York's economy was still evident a year later, however, when only 25 percent of the Empire State's offices had been rented.

In 1972, the Empire State Building lost its title as world's tallest building to New York's World Trade Center, which itself was the tallest skyscraper for but a year. Today the honor belongs to Taiwan's Taipei 101 building, which stretches 1,670 feet into the sky.