Garton Ash: "Americans need to discover how the world sees them."

Read up, tea partiers. You too, KZ.

Americans need to discover how the world sees them, by Timothy Garton Ash (Guardian)

There's little awareness of how the budget crisis has eroded US credibility. It's time for a reverse Christopher Columbus

On Monday, government offices were closed in Washington DC, to mark Columbus Day. Except that most of them had been closed anyway, because of the US government shutdown. As everyone knows, Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator who, in the service of the Spanish crown, supposedly "discovered" America and reported its potential to a wondering world. I have spent the summer in the United States watching, with growing alarm, a country engaged in a degree of self-harming which, if observed in a teenager, would lead any friend to cry "call the doctor at once". As I set course back to Europe, my conclusion is this: America should do a reverse Columbus. The world no longer needs to discover America; but America urgently needs to discover the world's view of America.

Ordinary Americans, and especially the small minority active in Democrat and Republican primaries, must learn more of what people across the globe are thinking and saying about the US. For if you follow that, you realise that the erosion of American power is happening faster than most of us predicted – while the politicians in Washington behave like rutting stags with locked antlers.

"Amen" is not a word I use very often, but in this case ...

The following essay from This I believe is by Jeff Nixa of South Bend, Indiana, as heard on "The Bob Edwards Show" (September 2, 2011). Ted recommended it on Twitter, and it's a good one, indeed.

A Good Neighborhood

That’s when I realized that all those warnings really weren’t about crime, real estate values, or schools. They were code words white folks like me use to signal “low income people of color”—a perfectly concealed racist weapon, hidden deep in the anxious beliefs of my own friends and colleagues.

I believe sometimes the truth does set people free. So we bought the house on Cottage Grove.

Meet the Candidates, Face the Nation, and a $100 Bet with the World

As has been mentioned in NAC comments and elsewhere, the Uptown Neighborhood Association is hosting a Meet the Candidates event on Thursday, March 1, to bring local political hopefuls and voters together.

As fellow traveler and Uptown Neighborhood Association President Lloyd “Highwayman” Wimp explains over at View From the Highway:

The Uptown Neighborhood Association is neither endorsing nor sponsoring any particular candidate for any particular office. We are doing this solely to give the public a chance to meet those seeking office personally and for the seekers to hear what is on the voters minds up close.

An opportunity to register to vote will also be offered.

Event details:

Meet the Candidates
Thursday, March 1
7:00 p.m.
Silver Street United Methodist Church, Fellowship Hall
Corner of Spring and Silver Streets
Parking accessible from the alley off Elm


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In other good news, The Tribune reports that the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana’s rehab and marketing efforts at 1605 East Spring Street have garnered national attention via a full-page spread in This Old House Magazine.

A chat with HLFI Regional Director Greg Sekula on Tuesday revealed that he’d already received inquiries about the property from as far away as Utah. That’s an impressive turnaround for a house that had been condemned a year ago.


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Questions of neighborhood perception led to the beginnings of a healthy discussion yesterday, as the good and bad of local appearances were debated. A recent meeting with Danny Flanigan, Home Repair Coordinator at New Directions Housing Corporation, revealed a small but intriguing idea for improving perception known as the $100 rule.

How would perceptions of a given city block change if each house on it, for $100 or less, boasted a new mailbox, new or improved house numbering, a freshly stained or painted front door, and a well maintained, functioning porch light?

Seems like a small ante for a bet that could pay off on considerable odds.

The Chores of Perception

Creating neighborhoods of choice- four words that have become synonymous with revitalization.

Choice implies just what it says: the act of determining one alternative more valuable than another. Something isn’t valuable until someone wants it and, in the sense of commodification, is willing to pay for it. To be sure, neighborhoods and their accompanying lifestyles are a commodity just as much as gasoline, candy bars, and toothpaste.

The question for those interested in revitalization, then, is what causes someone to perceive value in a neighborhood?

Some of us have already chosen to invest in New Albany’s urban neighborhoods. What are your perceptions of where you currently live or do business? As you traverse its thoroughfares, what sense of place pervades your experience?

Perhaps more importantly, what does the broader market perceive when encountering urban New Albany in its current condition? Is it revitalizing or declining at first glance? Does it inspire sufficient confidence to justify investment?

If residents and potential residents don’t see the same thing, what can be done about it?