Rob Halpinはなぜシカゴ市長選に出馬し、リタイヤしたのか？

　オバマの側近として、、ホワイトハウス入りしたEmanuelがワシントンD.C.に移り住もうとした、その時期に、Emanuelのノースサイドの家の借り手だったRob Halpinは、Emanuelに家を出てくれるよう頼まれたというが…　Jon Kassいわく、”驚いたことに、彼はラームファーザーの申し出を拒絶した”。

そしてこの59歳のインダストリアル・デベロッパー、Halpinは、自らが市長選に立候補したのだ…

　この突飛な話を書いたJohn Kassの11月上旬の人を食ったコラムは、こんな風だった：

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1110rahm-20101109,0,696673.column

"Rahm Emanuel's tenant mulling racing against him for mayor "ラーム・エマニュエルの間借り人が、市長選の対抗馬として立候補"- （ジョン・キャス）

　ここに、Rahm Emanuelが市長になることを阻もうという努力の、新たなひとひねりの展開がある。

　…Rob Halpin、ビジネスマンにして、シガーの愛用者、市長候補者となる運命を背負った男。

　火曜日に彼は、”このことは、Rahm Emanuelとは関係がない”と私に言った　…本当なのか？

”これは私のアイデアではない”、とHalpinは言った。”私はメインストリームの外に居る。私はプロフェッショナルな政治家ではない…私に何人かのビジネスマンがアプローチして来て、私が市長選に立候補することに興味はないか、と尋ねたのだ。そして彼らが私に…なぜ彼らが、私が良い候補となり、よい市長にもなりりうると考えるか…について説明した”

　 私が思うに、その男たちはHalpinが候補者となったならシガーの味わいに興味をもつような男ではない、と考えたのだと思う─彼らは、彼がRahm Emanuelの家の頑固な借家人であること興味をもったのに違いない。

　HalpinはRahmのノースサイドの家を借りていた男だった。Rahmはホワイトハウスに向けてシカゴを発とうとしていた頃に、彼に家を出て欲しいと頼んだ。驚くべきことにHalpinは、Rahmfatherの頼みを断った。

　今やEmanuelのキャンペーンは、法廷での審問にさらされる予定だ…それはStop Rahm movementの一部である、サウスサイドの男たちによる法的な戦術だ。そしてHalpinの立候補は、Rahmはシカゴの居住者ではない、という議論に光を当てるわけだ…

　Shenanigans（いたずら、悪ふざけ）で有名なこの都市で、これはまさにShenaniganliciousだ！（この言葉を発音してみよ）

　だが私は、この件には、地元の代議士、Ed Burkeの指紋が沢山ついているのでは？と疑った。彼はRahmstopperのタグつきだ…それゆえ、私は確認すべく、１４ｔｈWardの民主党のボスに電話してみたが、”私は、その男に注目したことは一度もない、私は彼と会話したことがなく、彼を知らない。私はその件の背後にはいない”、とBurkeは言った。

　一体、Halpinはきみたちが知っている奴らを知っているのだろうか？

私は19thWardの共和党議員たち…　そうだ、人類学者はそんな人類がいることを証明している…　がこの週末に、Halpinを訪問したことを知っている。

　”それは日曜日だった”、Halpinは言う。”私は私の子供たちと、Chicago Bearsの試合をみていた。彼らは私に、数分の間、彼らが私がよい市長になるのではないかと思う理由について話をしたいといった”　　彼らのうち2人はJames Parrilli、19thWardの共和党の委員会委員で、もう一人はJoh Cleary、保険会社の男だった。

　”その家に住んでいる男たちはRahmに何の愛着も抱かなかった”…とParrilliはいった。”彼（Rahm）はビジネスマンだ。彼はこの市の歴史について、少々、知っているのだ。そして我々は、雇用を創出し、この市にビジネスをとり戻すために、我々が立候補者となり、成さねばならないことを理解しあった” 　　　　

　─今や、15日が立候補の最初の申し出の期限日で、最終期限は１１月22日、立候補者は12,500人の署名を集めねばならないのだ…　後略… http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1110rahm-20101109,0,2254708,full.column

　…Halpinの立候補に関しては、同じく反Emanuelの対戦候補であるJames Meeksへの3,160名の支持署名とともに、アップタウンのシェルターに住む、あるホームレスの男が3,990名もの支持者の署名を集めて提出した、という話があった。その署名はHalpinへの支持署名全体の22％になったという。また、彼が集めたMeeksへの支持署名は彼への署名全体の6%だった。 http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/2930062,new-meeks-halpin-campaign-tie-112910.article

Homeless man gathered thousands of signatures for both men 　…しかし12月初旬になって、Halpinは　”市長選立候補を続けるためには、財政的・法的なハードルに突き当たった”のだという。

　12/6のChicago Tribuneの記事によると…

　 　“火曜日に、シカゴの選挙委員会の建物に殺到したEmanuelの立候補への数百名の反対者たちをよそに、今日彼（Halpin）は弁護士のBurt Odelsonを通じ、「静かに立候補辞退を届け出た…Halpinの”即興的な立候補”の合法性には疑問も唱えらたが、立候補に必要な12,500人の支持者の署名も集めた。しかし先週シカゴトリビューンが、それらの署名の多くが本人の知らぬまま名前を使われていた、と報じた。”

　Halpinの立候補取り止めに安堵した者もいたが、Emanuelに対しては彼以外に数十件以上の市民やコミュニティー運動家による反対が提出されていた…。

　”…弁護士OdelsonはHalpinの候補取りやめに安堵したというが、彼以外にも30以上の市民やコミュニティ運動家らがEmanuelの立候補の合法性への反対を出し、その中には市長候補の一人、William "Dock" Wallsもいた”

　 “選挙委員会本部の地下会議室に、反Emanuelの大勢の騒々しい群衆が詰めかけ、”Rahmを弾劾せよ”のコピーを掲げ、ハンディビデオカメラで法廷を撮影した。彼らの中には選挙委員会は詐欺的な組織で、信用に足らないと主張する者もいた。

　公聴会の担当オフィサーJoseph A. MorrisはEmanuelへの反論の幾つかはプロフェッショナルなレベルのものではない、と述べた。ある提訴人は記者達に、最近Emanuelが自家用車に貼っていたシカゴ市のスティッカーのコピーを配布した（Emanuelは一度もシカゴに住んで、合法的にそのスティッカーを買ったことはないとOdelsonが主張したことに対抗すべく、Emanuelは昨今それをどこからか入手して車に貼ったのだろう…それは彼が市に違法に借金を負うことを証明する、従って彼に立候補する権利はないと彼らは主張していた）

EmanuelのキャンペーンスポークスマンBen LaBoltは、Emanuelがそのスティッカーを2009年6月まで購入していたが、その後、車を伴ってワシントンに移住したため、最近またシカゴに戻った時まで買っていないと述べる。LaBoltはそれが、事の本題とは関係のない、意味のない事柄だ、と述べた。（写真は公聴会の席でのRahm EmanuelのAttorneyたち）http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-chicago-mayor-race1207-20101206,0,5549768.story Emanuel renter ends campaign 　Emanuelの居住地問題に関する、現職のDaley市長の見解は、Emanuelがホワイトハウスに勤めていたからといって、市長選から除外されるべきではない、というものだ。彼はいう：“…これは受け容れられている事実（accepted fact）だが、ワシントンに連邦政府の仕事で赴任した人々はシカゴのResicencyを失うものではない。もしそれがあるなら、これまでに首都で働いていた人々が皆、シカゴでも投票したことで連邦法を犯していたことになる。私が思うに、それは現政権下でも、ブッシュ政権下でも、クリントン政権下でも、父ブッシュ政権下でも、レーガン政権下でも、カーター政権下でも行われたすべての人々の例を語ることだし、時の始まりにまで戻る話だ…” 　市の選挙委員会はもちろんDaley市長の味方…つまりRahmの味方だとか。シカゴで16年の任期をつとめたDaley市長はカリスマチックとはいえ、コラムニストはその腐敗ぶりを批判し続けて家族も脅しを受けたとか。＊写真はRechard Daley市長

絶対笑えるChicago Tribune…ジョン・キャスとラーム

ラーム・エマニュエルは先日、シカゴの市長選に立候補すべく、ホワイトハウスでのオバマの側近の職を辞した─オバマとラームの涙、涙のエモーショナルな歓送セレモニーのようすがネットでもくり返し流れたものだ…

（cartoon："The Birth of Rahm" by Scott Stantis on Oct.2）

Rahm Emanuel gets an emotional send-off
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43008.html

…ラームが慌ててシカゴに帰った理由は、最近1年間シカゴに居住歴がないと、市長選への立候補ができないという19世紀の州の古い法律がネックとなり、彼の野望を阻むかも知れない、と目されていたからだ。
しかしラームがシカゴに戻ると、シカゴ・トリビューンのコラムニストJohn Kassが、連日のようにラーム叩きをはじめた。
親会社が倒産しかけているためかシカゴ・トリビューンは購読料が週に4日間のみ限定配達でわずか週に1ドル、2ヶ月間で13ドルの叩き売り状態？（だが、権力や腐敗嫌いの反抗的な姿勢は温存…?）

　このところ、シカゴのメディアでは彼のような、腐敗疑惑のある要領の良いジューイッシュ政治家を嫌ってか、“Anybody but Rahm”　ラームでさえなければ市長は誰でもいい… といったジョークもある。 コラムニストのKassは、Rahmfather™（ラーム＋ゴッドファーザー?）とか Rahmstoppers™（ラームの市長選出を阻止する対立候補）という新語を連発して、その凌ぎあいを面白可笑しく書いたコラムを２，３日おきに書いていた…

　特に、可笑しかったのはラームの対立候補として、現職Daley市長の元側近、ゲイリー・チコ等の有力候補に混ざって登場した新たな無名の“Rahmstopper”…　Rob Halpinの記事─　ラームの家の以前からの借家人だったHalpinが、ラームに立ち退いて欲しいと頼まれたが拒否し、ラームの向こうを張って市長選に立候補したという…
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1110rahm-20101109,0,696673.column
Rahm Emanuel's tenant mulling racing against him for mayor - John Kass

人を食ったような記事のおふざけ調に親ラーム派が怒りを覚えたのか、抗議のメールが殺到らしい?…それを、次のコラムでコラムニストがメールを送った読者をさらに名指しで罵倒！…
　http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1111-20101111,0,7827430.column
Answering the mail — in a trademarked way, of course - John Kass

…感謝祭前の時期で、Kassが昨年の感謝祭コラムに書いていた“しっとりターキー（moist turkey, turkey brining）の作り方”のコラムを、またやらないのか、と揶揄する読者も…）

　でも残念ながら借家人Halpinはその後12月初旬に、ラームに対する公聴会直前に立候補をリタイヤしてしまった。
　…12/21の公聴会ではなぜか、選挙委員会はラームの居住地の問題を容認、候補者名簿には名前をキープさせる結末となったとか。1月初めには上級裁判所での上告審が残っているのだが。http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-rahm-emanuel-20101224,0,4210447.story　Chicago election board upholds Emanuel's residency　
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-mayor-20101223,0,4569232.story
Rahm wins Round 1　
　最新の世論調査ではラームの支持率が他の候補者を抜きやはりトップにあると明らかにされた。といっても32％だけれど…

　黒人候補が3人競合し黒人票が割れることも懸念され…その結果、当初期待をもたれていたサウスサイドの黒人牧師で上院議員のジェームス・ミークは市長選を早々とリタイヤしてしまった─

Japan, in Its Old Life and Modern Life

For hundreds of years Japan has followed traditions handed down by many generations from the Feudal Age, but rapid economic growth after the WW2 changed much of this. Even though I was born in the post-war period, I could still somewhat remember: how the taste of our older day life was different. In Japan, our eating habits, clothing, and dwelling life have changed drastically since around that period.

When it comes to eating, Japanese vegetables and fruits produced by nutritious black soil are the best in the world, and we Japanese also have great deal of seafood hauled from our coastal and deep-sea fisheries. Even if Western food has already become familiar among us, our basic, traditional eating habits have been preserved and unchanged.

However, we just missed a particularly great aroma which used to be filling entire houses many years ago. It was common when people were often engaged in time-consuming work for preparing traditional food, commodities, preserved foods or ceremonial foods, etc. Today when I suddenly come across the elegant smell of the dashi soup of konbu(a seaweed) cooked in volume, just by the swoony smell in older days, I would feel stunned. When “real foods” were all around, it used to emit a stronger smell and aroma, but now the ingredients are replaced by artificially flavored, mass-produced foods.

Japanese houses also made significant changes from the old period. Before the modern way of living was introduced, the Japanese were co-habitating with natural environment at a much higher level, closely attached to the breath of nature. Not only were the people living by farming and fishing, but also, the people were living in urban areas, which have experienced great lifestyle changes.

As an urban person, my most cherished memory of childhood was about how we spent the summer days. Until the period early Showa 30’s (1955-1965) in the reign of Emperor Showa, we had no air-conditioners. We lived out our hot and humid summer only with electric fans and uchiwa (paper fans), but we had also a lot of nice, traditional wisdom of living for the dog days of summer. For example, pure Japanese style houses built in wood characteristically had excellent ventilation, to always allow a good breeze. The draftiness would make one feel pleasantly cool inside, even in the hottest summers. Our traditional residences were mainly developed adjusted to hot summer season, rather than to winter.

These elegant old houses were still common in my childhood. The wooden, high-floored houses were equipped with large en-gawa, a wooden veranda-like porch, facing the garden. It functioned as the spot for people to communicate with, or be inspired by nature. (“En” means “border/edge”, but also means “link by fate” in Buddhist term./“Gawa” means “side.”) Under the eaves, we made “mukae-bi,” a small fire lit at gate of a house in the evening of the first day of the Bon Festival （July 13-15 or August 13-15）, to welcome back departed souls of our ancestors.

When it turned to fall, it is also recalled that “Moon viewing” ceremonies were held in the lunar calender’s full moon nights. In the clear, crispy nights, we put decorations of pampa grass, moon-offerings of sake and ball cakes, served at engawa. Engawa was also the spot for people’s open communication, to have conversations with neighbors, but it has almost been lost these days, since houses are now built in concrete and mortar.

We also offered plenty of special food and drinks of summer. Our early summer was started with taste of freshwater fish, such as grilled ayu or yamame. When you feel groggy in the hottest end of July, you could enjoy unagi (crispy kabayaki eels, which is almost like teriyaki) on Doyou day (Midsummer Day of the Ox), to get your stamina back. We had variety of traditional cool summer noodles, such as hiyamugi and so-men, or cool sweets such as mizu-yokan, a transparent jerry-like cake with sweet bean paste, along with watermelons or ice creams. Plenty of summer treats were waiting for children, relaxing on summer vacation. A tidbit for alcohol, such as “Edamame with beer”, was also our summer delight especially favored by the daddies after work, in a somewhat patriarchal family scene

When it comes to clothing, Japanese’ everyday attire had been already half-Westernized since pre-war period, and kimono has been increasingly diminishing. In my guess, today kimono just means quality: it is often well-prepared pricey clothes for authentic formal situation. However, we could still enjoy yukata (inexpensive, casual cotton kimono) in some summer events such as bon-odori (Bon festival dance at shrines and local communities) , and firework festivals. For today’s young people, these are rare opportunities for them to casually enjoy kimono. Yukata is still getting increasingly popular among youth; urban young girls in fashionable yukata would be seen in the trains, when firework festivals are held in nationwide waterfronts in mid summer.

After all, the image of our sweet summer days always resides in the summer vacation’s memory in childhood. We enjoyed hunting insects (cicadas, unicorn beetles) with an insect net in the forest, or we enjoyed sea-bathing on the beaches. Today’s urban parents are struggling to pass down nice summer memories to their children.

While now our residences are modernized and sealed up, we are losing the touch of nature and its fascination.

Our autumn, winter and spring are also recalled with countless seasonal delicacies. During winter break, family members spent together in freezing days. Our most important ceremony is indeed, still the New Year holidays, but its traditional details were lost. Kagami-mochi (rice cake display) was set up as offering to the gods during the holidays, which becomes all covered with mildew by the end. On the Seventh Day of New Year, people used to hammer it into pieces to remove the mildew, and put it into sweet bean soup, or seven spring herb soup. Today’s plastic sealed rice cake displays never gets mildew, and people almost never eat it anymore.

When there were no greenhouses, vegetables grown in outdoors tasted more glamorous in each season. People recognized season from foods. If you have a plum tree in your garden, try creating pickled plums (umeboshi) in June. You would dip the ripen, yellowish plums in shochu liquor and rock salt (shochu is distilled strong spirit made from rice, potatoes, wheat or the like) just for two weeks, then dry them on bamboo sieve in the sun for forty-eight hours. If you put them back into shochu with purple Shiso leaves, it will turn pickles. It would be only processed by bless of nature, not by any machines. It somewhat arouse empathy in my mind about how old time people might have felt;

“I’m only concerning about tomorrow’s weather forecast just for sun drying my food in the sun..”

I was born and grew up in Tokyo after it was well urbanized. I lived in a sealed house for decades, commuting to the office by a crowded train and eating the foods only bought at super-markets. A significant part of our grandparents’ culture may have already lost here. Things have turned artificial, electrical, automatic and convenient, but people may rather feel poor or not blessed.

How to Change a Bad Neighborhood to a Good Neighborhood?

This is what I wrote in busy final week..many grammatical errors remaining.

I wish you would ignore it..

What has caused the “bad neighborhood” in America? As a foreign student who lived in some different neighborhoods in America from time to time, I was purely curious about why this situation was created. While the racial segregation in residential areas in Chicago is known as especially severe (as an old city whose basic structure was built well before the civil-rights period,) I already made some research on this issue in my sociology class; ..but the more I learned about the background, or heard about gloomy situations from some of my class mates about their home towns, I tended to feel dismal or have negative views about faces of the city. When I find the racial separation seen outright in each CTA line’s neighborhood (which almost appears as..Brown Line=for whites, Green Line=for African Americans, Pink Line=for Mexican?) as a new comer, I wondered if it wasn't shameless in the name of modern city. Why CTA train station’s facility itself should remain seemingly different, depends on each area's economy? I don’t think the CTA should abandon their facilities’ obvious physical decay in low income neighborhood.. I think the people of the government and legislators should initiate the reform of situation, having much different mindsets..

Then what do the government legislators, or do the residents of the neighborhood need to do for improving bad neighborhood? It seemed to be not solved unless the federal government’s strong, reformative measures are exercised, because it was the consequence made by the government’s poor urban policy and the structural exploitation of low income people, such as the unequal tax system kept over the decades. I noticed there were long historical or structural backgrounds: not only for the deeply institutionalized “racial economy” which still influences to perpetuate the segregation, but also, the cultural traits of both white and black people have been interlocked in entrenched situation..

I even didn’t know that the term “inner cities” would mean bad neighborhoods. Sociologists explain how “inner city” has been created: It was brought about by “industrial decentralization and the excessive suburbanization of the cities,” “federal government’s failed public housing policies and defective welfare policies in the past,” or there has been also many hidden forms of “racial economy” (..such as contract system in Chicago, reported by Beryl Satter’s “Family Properties.”) “Inner city is a euphemistic term, usually applied to the poorer parts of the city center area or the outlying parts of cities, perhaps a ghetto or slum…where residents are less educated, and more impoverished and where there is more crime...” (Wikipedia, p1).

W. J. Wilson argues the cause of the deterioration of inner cities as follows; “Because of the suburbanization of employment and improvements in transportation, inner city manufacturing jobs were no longer a strong factor pulling migrants to central cities.” As a consequence, these neighborhoods’ high poverty concentration has been aggravated, “along with the outmigration of higher income families, joblessness, crime, and poor performing schools...” He also says,

“Research suggests that the adverse effects of living in such neighborhoods are not solely structural. Among the effects of living in poor segregated neighborhoods over extended periods is repeated exposure to cultural traits that emanate from or are the products of racial exclusion, traits such as verbal skills, that may impede successful maneuvering in the larger society” (Wilson A, p42) .

While we at least know the world is only, primarily driven by savage economical principle, reform of neighborhood is not an easy task to do for individuals, but it should be basically a government’s job. However, American people have long tradition of detesting the idea of becoming a “socialistic, welfare state” (although sounds nonsensical to foreign outsiders, who don’t see so many homeless people in one's home countries as what they see in America..) Even if America has been first created as a defiant child separated from the old European world, and its people still support such proverb “freedom of individuals,” how come Americans still need to restrict sufficient social welfare system for its own people, as a progressed..independent society?

Today, critics announced that America becomes resembling to the “banana republic,” whose richest 1 percent accounts for 24 percent of the nation’s income. Today’s income distribution in this country is now more unequal than that of Latin American countries, such as Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (Noah, P1). When I often tend to see dispirited people, especially dark skinned aged men on the streets or public transportations in late night (some of them look like as if really, hopelessly feeling agonized in their situation?) I just feel quite disturbing seeing them, while I know they are good-hearted people. While wealthy Americans are craving to keep their privileges in unequal society.. what is the use for us to talk about improving the neighborhood?

In order to rescue low neighborhood’s people, and make the community upward, naturally the most important things should be creating more jobs for the adults; improving the quality of local schools; and also, you should provide strong spiritual awareness for them, to stimulate the people to improve their own situation. Primarily it has to be the government who should become serious to eliminate the excessive racial segregation of the local communities. At first, it should be eliminated artificially by the effective law enforcement, as a strong medicine. For example, the state government planned to convert the infamous public housings' neighborhood: such as former Robert Taylor Home's area in South Side Chicago, or Cabrini Green's... into artificial “mixed income neighborhood”, where now three different income level residents would be induced to live together. Because the goverment people thought: if some people of better income moved into the area, they can generally push up the living standard of entire area.. while supposedly, middle income people would buy more fresh produce and daily commodities, and it would activate local grocery store business. The jobs in local business may increase, etc. However, the reality is, these mixed income neighborhoods are reportedly still remaining to look like low income area..where you could only see particular people of particular colour of skin.

If decent job opportunities are provided for the adults, it will facilitate them to raise children, and give them good education for their future. For having better job position instead of low-waged menial job, people need higher education, to win the competition in the job market. While such holistic approach is required in urban policy, actually Obama administration has already created “White House’s Office of Urban Affairs” to enhance comprehensive national urban policy including educational reform, (including their “Choice Neighborhood” program..etc.) However, amid his political difficulty in the adverse wind blowing against him, I wonder how much his administration could excercize effective reforms..

While I have already lived in some racially mixed neighborhoods in America, such as Queens or Upper West Side in New York, Cicero/Humboldt Park/Edgewater in Chicago.., I recall something. Three years ago when I briefly lived in the Upper West Side's Puerto Rican neighborhood, my landlady who rented me her apartment was a divorced woman. Her teenage daughter, called Cathy, was a high school student, but always staying at home doing Internet, being truant from her school everyday. She said she didn’t like to go to her school, because she was horrified by the gang violence rampant in her school. “I even saw, a pregnant black girl was thrown out of the window of the classroom on upper floor.. by other students,” she said. She wanted to go to a college in Utah, once if she could graduate her high school. Her mother Clara also told me she was feeling fed up with the deteriorated family moral or corrupt sex moral in her society, especially about the degeneration of white people—she said she knows degenerate white people commit incest everywhere around her. As a divorced single mother having a heart disease, she was living on renting her rooms for young “innocent” Asian students. She said her blood was a mixture of Puerto Rican, Spanish, Italian and Native American, but she was “especially proud” of her Native American blood, shared with her grand mom. “Because Native Americans are ethnically Asian-descents, who are the only people who keep pristine traditional family ethics or sex moral even today, unlike the corrupted European whites,” she said. She also mentioned that she sometimes saw the ghosts going around the house, mostly victims of the troubled family..for example, she saw a young girl used to live next door, and killed herself after raped by her father, while it sounded creepy. Although New York has an image of always new & trendy, thriving big city, in fact it looked like an old city..with many old buildings, where old spooky spirits are haunting? When I heard such story from her, I didn’t take heed of her words so much.. I was preoccupied by other things—but now I feel like recalling what she and her daughter Cathy said for no special reason.. Since lately I also find it in Chicago, some people whom I befriended looked also have problems.. distressed and threatened in their neighborhood..and it has become trouble for myself again...

Maybe at first I preferred to live in highly racially mixed neighborhood such as Queens, because I had some childish curiosity for living in a strange neighborhood, which was completely unimaginable in my country.. (especially..for me, Queens almost looked like a fairy tale city, where the renowned Taiwanese actress Lucy Liu grew up..) Of course, Queens must be a moderate or low income neighborhood of immigrants which has high crime rate, and I was soon..somewhat fed up with living in the neighborhood, within three months. I never forget the dark, depressed eye of a skinny, blonde white cop guy- while I bothered him to take a police report for me, when I was stolen my purse. It was also, around the time when the black guy, Sean Bell was shot dead by police’s 52 bullets on his wedding night, in Jamaica, Queens. I saw 40,000 African Americans marched on Manhattan’s 47th Street, protesting against police’ violence.. I never really wish to preferably live in New York again..unless any particular reason would arise..

Until now I haven’t had any room for breath by myself when hearing about other people’s troubles in their neighborhood in foreign city, maybe because I was feeling unsarisfied, hasty and unfulfilled staying abroad. However, maybe I’m returning home again very soon. I might get a decent job this time—or I might also transfer to the other school next year in Chitown, if I get a chance. If I get such stable new life, I wonder..what kind of new thing I can do next by myself, about other people who are living in troubled neighborhood..

Ref..

*Wikipedia: Wikipedia “inner city”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_city

*Wilson A: “The Obama Administration’s Proposal to Address Concentrated Urban Policy” by William Julius Wilson, Harvard University (ASA, City & Community 9:1, March 2010)

*Wilson B: Book Review about William Julius Wilson’s “More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City” (written by Paul A. Jargowsky, on ASA City & Community 9:2, June 2010)

*Noah: “The United States of Inequality- Introducing the Great Divergence” by Timothy Noah, Slate.com, September3, 2010
http://www.slate.com/id/226625/entry/226626

*Re. Infamoust public housing: 'Robert Taylor Home' & 'Cabrini Green' in Chicago

“Mixed Results on Mixed-Income Chicago Public Housing” by Natalie Moore (Oct. 05, 2009)
http://www.wbez.org/story/news/local/mixed-results-mixed-income-chicago-public-housing

"Won't You Be My Neighbor?" By Kari Lydersen (The Chicago Reporter, May 21, 2008) http://www.chicagoreporter.com/index.php/c/Inside_Stories/d/Won%27t_You_Be_My_Neighbor%3F

"Cabrini-Green's sad saga ends as last family leaves last high-rise" (Dec 10, 2010)

A symbol of squandered hope soon to be rubble, fading memories
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-schmich-1210-20101210,0,276957.column

"Cabrini-Green through the years"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-cabini-through-the-years-schmich,0,6188441.storygallery

Chicago's Candy Man
http://urbanlegends.wikia.com/wiki/Chicago%27s_Candyman
The End of Infamous Cabrini Green
http://realestate.bryanellis.com/3566/the-end-of-infamous-cabrini-green/

This is the Craziest? CTA Christmas Train..

This is the Craziest? CTA Christmas Train..

I saw it on Dec 15 at Redline Bryn Mawr











[- Already there are a lot of YouTube videos posted over the years..]

圧倒的に夜の方がキレイ
[- Twinkling night view is overwhelmingly nice..]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP7FTgqwNGA&NR=1
CTA Holiday Train 2010.mov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UwPtNB8hJA
CTA Christmas train 2010-North bound red line @ Belmont


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCmGUUgRGSI&feature=related
CTA Holiday Train - Dec. 2010 - Connections - Chicago Transit Authority


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMIcP0YCazI&NR=1
Wintermission : Operation Santa

http://www.yelp.com/biz/cta-holiday-train-chicago
people's review
CTA Holiday Train


CTA Info
http://www.transitchicago.com/travel_information/holidaytrain.aspx 2010 Holiday Train The Chicago Transit Authority is getting into the holiday spirit with the 2010 version of its popular Holiday Train! Santa and his helpers will ride the train passing out candy canes and season's greetings.





at the Macy's

"Enigma of the State Street?"

The End of the "EYE" of Chicago..

The creepy sculpture which modeled the artist Tony Tasset's own eyeball came out in late June, but now..it is gone...It has gained some popularity..although criticized for its outrageous cost.
(photo 1.2.3: Sep.19.2010) (Photo 4: Nov.9, 2010...The eyeball, shown during the summer time days, was fenced off and removed soon after then.)
(Photo 5.6.7.. Dec.3, 2010..There is no eyeball anymore at State & VanBuren..)
People miss it.

The Brand-new "Mexican Contemporary Art Museum" in Pulaski

*I visited the museum when "Dia de El Muertos" exhibition was going on in Halloween period. I expected much more kitch Mexican museum, but actually it was pretty SERIOUS or SOPHISTICATED contemporary art museum.