Living as a Flâneur

Most of my memories of Salt Lake City take place on 400 S. This was the street we would often drive through when I was a kid, before I went to the University of Utah. It is the street where the Salt Lake City Public Library (SLCPL) is, and I would spend a lot of time there when my mother would work in Art of the Main, the art gallery in the library. In 2008 during the Presidential campaign, we would visit the Democratic Party headquarters located in a building just off 400 S. When my church, Wasatch Hills Seventh-Day Adventist Church, would have their Inter-City Outreach (ICOR) program hand out clothing and other essentials to the homeless, they would do so at Pioneer Park, right along 400 S. And every day, when I commute to the University of Utah on Trax, the train drives up along 400 S. The street is synonymous with Salt Lake City to me, so naturally I chose to observe 400 S.

Empathy

In my last blog post, I discussed the power of community. A closely related topic is empathy. In fact, you cannot have one without the other, and both are so deeply ingrained in our programming we are barely aware of their power.

Seeing

My favorite part of the film Collector of Bedford Street was when the community banded together to help Larry. Larry, an intellectually challenged individual, was very depressed. He was surviving because of the support of his 80+ year-old uncle, who would not live forever. Larry knew that when his uncle passed on, he had no support. He could not make it on his own. He also did not want to be a burden, so one day he left his home and his community, running off with a homeless man, telling his neighbor Alice never to look for him and that now she was free from him.

Towards a Just Metropolis

When I was seventeen, I volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. I decided that since not only was I too young to vote I lived in a solidly red state, I would do what I could to make an impact by volunteering for the campaign. My dad decided he would too, and together we went to Grand Junction, Colorado, for a weekend. We canvassed throughout the town, collecting data for the campaign to use. It was a fantastic experience. The weekend before the first Tuesday of November, I decided I could do even more, and I participated in a call center to get the vote out. This may be the only time of my life where I could consider myself taking charge and seeking to make a difference rather than hope a change comes on its own.

Human Scale and Cities for People

I wake up every morning to an air raid alarm from my iPad, just ornery enough to make sure I get out of bed. After hitting the snooze button five times, it’s 6:00 AM by the time I actually leave bed. My floor is mostly clean in the morning, though I’ve often dropped homework or some other project down there, so I do need to be conscious of where I step. Certainly that could be improved, but after years of habit, I know it won’t be.

Cities I Love: Washington

I remember a story my brother told me about when he visited Salt Lake City with some friends of his from Idaho Falls (he grew up with me here, but was living in Idaho at the time). His friends hadn’t strayed far from Idaho Falls for most of their lives, so when they visited Salt Lake City, they declared it the greatest city in the world. My brother couldn’t help but smirk.

I hate to disparage the city where I grew up, but I outright laughed when he told me this story.