Here is a page of opinion by my friend in Topeka, Bob Cutler. I think he nails many points head on.....
City Celebrates Fart-Sniffing Party with another Fart Sniffing Party
by Bob Cutler on Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 4:05pm
Mr Jiggles was half right when he wrote:
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Pound Sand Beteta!
By MrJiggles | 04/01/11 - 10:09 pm
Call me when the gay community starts buying up property in NOTO and gentrifying the slum.
Then it will be a success and that won't happen until our city comes to its senses and has a Human Relations Commission with enforcement capability and expands our ordinances to protect everyone from discrimination.
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This idea of "Gays buying up property and then gentrifying the slum" is a badly misunderstood concept here in Topeka.
Bunten didnt get it, Duffy didn't get it, and CERTAINLY Beteta and his crew of the same old white collar criminals sure as hell dont get it, cant get it, and wont get it. Mr Jiggles almost sort of gets it.
There is a time-line to this idea. The Topeka "leaders" and many others don't understand time-lines. Just a basic refresher course here: A time line is a chronological description, or illustration of an order of events going from the earliest, or first event, and placing in chronological order (Look that word up if you need to) events as they occured up until the most current event. USUALLY a time-line shows a "Cause and effect" system of these events. "Cause and effect", for those who dont understand THAT concept (Hello Beteta, Go Topeka, DTI, and the rest of the visioneers) if when one event, causes or effects the NEXT event. An event does NOT effect or cause an event that happened BEFORE it. (Remember, you can only go in ONE direction along a time-line. From earlier event to more current event) (Unless you're REALLY good at metaphysical or quantum physical arts and science, none of which are being exercised at NOTO BTW)
One example of cause and effect: You leave your cake out in the rain, and THEN it gets wet and ruined, and THEN no one wants to eat it.
Or maybe: You push a button on your remote control, and THEN the channel changes on your TV.
The cake doesnt appear wet, soggy and inedible, and THEN dry out during a rainstorm and THEN become nice and edible.
Your TV channel does NOT change and THEN you push the button on the remote.
To have these things happen would require magic. And magic is something that Beteta and the visioneers do not have, regardless of how many newts and mushrooms they sell us.
NOW as for this idea of "Make it nice, built it and the Gays will come and THEN it will be nicer and successful" is simply wrong in that it violates the cause-and-effect of a time-line. A cart cannot, and will not push a horse. Putting a cart in front of the horse will not get you anywhere, and will most likely annoy the horse. Put the horse in FRONT of the cart will allow the horse to pull the cart.
"Build it and they will come" simply doesnt work unless you work magic in a corn field. Look at the Colloeg Hill development: They built it, no one came, now they want more of our tax dollars to house poor people (And hoping they ONLY get poor people, and not irresponsible scum and criminals....like the guys who built it in the first place)
This idea of "Gays will move in if you build it up nice and THEN it will become successful" is a very distorted miss-understanding of a concept discovered in a book called "Rise of the creative class" by Dr Richard Florida. (And several other very well done studies of many urban areas across the country)
(I gave copies of this book to several city council members in 2004 or so. I think some of them read the back cover, then ate the book....the result being a very very poorly misunderstood set of sound-bites that eventually get reflected in statements like the one Mr Jiggles made)
In this case: Cause and effect are: Councilman and city leaders recieve book. Book recipients dont read entire book, but start at the LAST page and read that, THEN think they know the concept, THEN eat the book, and the readers digest it, and poop out some really badly formed ideas and concepts that only add to the cities existing piles of badly formed and executed ideas.
(BTW: I should point out that that book is NOT entirely about Gay people revolutionizing and revitalizing ghettos. There is much more to it then that. It is not quite THAT simple.)
Here is how it actually works:
You have a blighted, run down area of a city. An area that no one really wants to live in or have a retail business in. (This is a simple broad-stroke BEGINNING of the time line. The things that happened to MAKE the area into that blight is irrelevant, but usually has something to do with absentee landlords and developers)
The area is dangerous for several reasons: Criminals and gangs; huge potholes, and dilapidating buildings. The rent is cheap. So it is what very poor people can afford (Now dont get me wrong, I am NOT demonizing "Poor people" I am demonizing criminals and irresponsible scum (In this case, not the chamber of commerce) and gangster type who are so short sighted that they trash their own nieghborhoods)
THAT is "Cause"
GAY PEOPLE (and artists, often one and the same) are many times unable to get loans for homes. Banks wont recognize partnerships and the dual-incomes that come with marriage, and just wont or will rarely provide loans to Gay people (How they find out is a whole different story) And of course the "Starving artist" doesnt have the funds or credit to afford anything decent. (And of course there are the apartment managers, neighborhoods, real estate agents etc who wont tolerate any Gay people living in or around them....cause, you know...homosexuality is contagious, Gays recruit children, and eat babies....)
This is ALSO "Cause"
SO, those Gay people and artists search out places that they can actually afford. Those places are almost always in run-down parts of town where the rent is very cheap. They are able to buy, or lease, spaces to live and work.
The term "Loft apartments" generally refers to the living spaces that the artists etc build in the "Lofts" of places like old warehouses or factory buildings. (The term "loft" does NOT refer to some over-priced CONDO refurbished in the Palace building, or an old 2nd floor apartment downtown that someone refurbished and is now charging 4 times the rent as a.....college Hill "Town home")
So artists and Gay people start moving into these areas. They start cleaning the place up, and re-building the old buildings as best they can. An artist can have the large, open space that they need to create their work. Often a couple of artists will go in together to rent such a space, and have a "Loft" living space or two in the building.
BECAUSE there is now some traffic in the areas, and it is more lighted, and BECAUSE the artsists and Gay people have a mutual RESPECT and sense of community, they watch each others back, and each others spaces. THIS causes crime to go down (The EXACT same concept that "Nieghborhood watch" and "Crime watch" programs promote)
THEN the artists recognize another problem: There are no gallaries around where they can show and sell their work. There is ALSO nowhere to eat nearby, or really to hang out.
AND, with some buildings and spaces being cheap enough, DIY music promoters, and "cutting edge" underground bands and musicians can afford places to practice where no on is going to call in noise complaints, AND they can have a venue cheap enough that they can put on concerts, or small "Black box" theaters and dramatic productions. BECAUSE IT IS CHEAP AND NO ONE WILL CALL THE COPS FRO THE NOISE OR "SCARY" LOOKING PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!
SO, someone within that community (Or someone that has been run out of their home elsewhere for being gay, and wants to be in the community with their friends and peers) finds and rents a ground-level retail space, OR a back-room space, and opens a little art gallery for the artists to show their works. ALSO, someone who isnt really an artist, but is part of that community and is tired of commuting to a job where they have to be in the closet and pee in jars just to keep their job....opens up a small cafe or coffee shop for the artists and other people in this area to hang out at and eat at, AND build a community (BTW: a "community" isnt just a building, or a center, or some government/developer partnership. A community is about PEOPLE connecting with and respecting and sharing with each other)
So NOW we are starting to see an EFFECT of what happened above.
This is a RESULT of what happened above.
The nieghborhood is becoming safer, the buildings are being fixed up. Small retail is sprouting up. And people outside of this community are starting to come into the area to eat at the hip little cafe they heard about. People who really appreciate art are visiting the area to go to the small galleries and art openings. People are coming in to check out the new music, musicians and bands.
(Oh, did I just mention that people are coming in to see the bands and musicians? Should i ALSO mention that people are starting to trickle in from other nearby cities?)
THIS is "The creative Class Rising".
This isnt happening because some greedy scumbags hire the likes of Beteta or Susan MaHoney, or invent some charade like the visioning project. In fact, it is the OPPOSITE.
This is true organic growth.
It happens BECAUSE the city wasnt in the way. it happened BECAUSE the real estate developers were NOT trying to bulldoze it to build yet another crappy shopping maul.
And....now get this....this is the part that many people, especially the puritanical tyrannical neo-con scum that run Topeka totally lose it.....And cant find a sound-bite from Bill Orealy or Rush limbaugh to guide their reaction......
This happens in cities that are more then just TOLERANT of their "Creative class" GAY and Minority citizens, but cities that are also supportive of those groups.
The type of "Support" we are seeing with NOTO is NOT that kind of support or tolerance, it is support for realestate and land-banking, and "Gentrifying" for no other reason the profit.
So, any guess why Topeka hasnt grown for 40 years? Any guess why there is no real arts and culture in Topeka? Any guess why when people want to go out, they head for lawrence and KC, cities that are MUCH more tolerant and supportive of their Gay, Minority, and Artistic communities.
Can you see the cause and effect time line yet?
If you cant, then i hope that you NEVER get into any position in city government, and just stay in the visioneers club where you probably cant and wont get anything done anyway.
So thats it, painted in broad brush-strokes.
Some yuppies running into north Topeka spreading a LITTLE bit of money around, and then hand-picking the most vanilla and mainstream artists to occupy "For cheap" (Lets see how "cheap" it is a year from now. if it hasnt already reverted back to blight) is NOT going to create the kind of "rebirth" that they hope for.
AND creating retail space for things that really have nothing to do with arts, or culture, or anything but profit.
Now look to the east. Look at the "Cross roads" district and its "First fridays"m and "Art walks"
In response to:
City celebrates N. Topeka rebirth
New NOTO arts district greets crowds for initial First Friday festivity
Posted: April 1, 2011 - 9:25pm
Guess how THAT started?
It didnt start BECAUSE some real estate scum went in and built brand new condos (And marketed them as "Lofts" to the very kinds of suburban scum that are going to call the cops on the artists and MUSIC VENUES already in the area)
THAT is only a sad and destructive RESULT of greedy developers and slumlords cashing in on OTHER peoples blood sweat and tears like giant parasites....who eventually leave their hosts dead or dying.
These things happen when the city does NOT "help" and when the likes of beteta and Mahoney and their puppeteers are NOT sticking their noses in their own crap.
I hope someone prints this out and leaves it on their desks.
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