THE ULTIMATE TESTAMENT TO AN URBAN LIFE LIVED: MENTION IN A NY TIMES OBIT

52 McGs.: The Best Obituaries from Legendary New York Times Writer Robert McG. Thomas Jr.


By La Gringa

Most of us would like to be remembered -- at least just a little bit -- after we depart this life.

We could do a whole lot worse than to have someone as gracious and gifted with words as Robert McG. Thomas Jr. write our obituaries.

Thomas was a career newsman who, after years of cops beats, sports writing and editing, hit his career zenith as an obituary writer for the New York Times. Over five years, he developed a cult following as he wrote obits for 657 of this world’s unsung and off-the-wall folks who marched to their own drummers.

In 52 McGs.: The Best Obituaries from Legendary New York Times Writer Robert McG. Thomas Jr., editor Chris Calhoun has assembled the crème de la crème of Thomas’ work.

Don’t look here for words memorializing legendary Hollywood stars and renown robber barons. Thomas specialized in obits about wacky goat herders, mob fixers and industrialists of products such as baskets and Kitty Litter.

Says Thomas Mallon in the book’s foreword: “…the burly six-foot-four Thomas was ready to escort a parade of eccentrics and unknowns through a needle’s eye toward improbable fame and, for all one knows, heaven.”

One entry, with the headline “Charles McCartney, Known for Travels with Goats, Dies at 97,” is graced with this lead by Thomas: “You take a fellow who looks like a goat, travels around with goats, eats with goats, lies down among goats and smells like a goat and it won’t be long before people will be calling him the Goat Man.”

Thomas knew how to have fun with writing, though never at his subject’s expense. As he wrote of basket king and native Ohioan David Longaberger: ”…Longaberger, a born basket weaver and business visionary who figured out that the way to make basket weaving pay was to get a lot of other people to do the weaving and lot more to do the selling, died on Wednesday at his home outside Newark, Ohio.”

In just a few words, Thomas deftly sketched his subjects while often provoking a wry smile from the reader. As he wrote of Emil Sitka, an actor who appeared in 35 Three Stooges’ shorts: “Since the death of the last of the Stooges…,Mr. Sitka had been widely regarded by the Stooges’ dedicated fans as the last living link to a madcap, slapstick era that to virtually everyone else’s dismay shows no signs of going away.”

Yet not all of the entries are humorous. Thomas was equally adept at hauntingly beautiful send-offs for those who would otherwise have passed into obscurity. Of a Holocaust survivor who sought solace in the splendor of flowers, Thomas wrote: “Fred Rosenstiel, who spent his life planting gardens to brighten the lives of his fellow New Yorkers, and to alleviate an abiding sadness in his heart, died on Tuesday…”

Thomas’ own obit, written by Michael T. Kaufman is included at the end of the collection.

“Mr. Thomas saw himself as the sympathetic stranger at the wake listening to the friends and survivors of the deceased, alert for the moment when one of them would tell a memorable tale that could never have made its way into Who’s Who or a resume but that just happened to define a life.”

Indeed.

Little Havana Gringa treasures the sea, sunshine and Cuban coffee.

52 McGs.: The Best Obituaries from Legendary New York Times Writer Robert McG. Thomas Jr. is a collection edited by Chris Calhoun, with a foreword by Thomas Mallon (Scribner; $20).

THE MUSIC OF ICE CREAM

THE MUSIC OF ICE CREAM by Miami Gringa Haydee

People often select music to enhance their lives: music by which to do housework, dine or relax. The soundtrack for my daily life at home is selected for me, and consists of a mish mash of American folk tunes, Christmas carols, and nursery rhymes, with a dash of classical thrown in for good measure.

I never have to turn on a radio, put a CD in a stereo, or boot up my laptop. The music floats on the picuala-scented, Miami-humid air from across the street and into my home. The instrumentation is light and whimsical, and the tunes, admittedly repetitious. The source of my life’s soundtrack are the ice cream trucks that circulate around an exquisite slice of urban green space in my neighborhood.

Because the green space is unprogrammed and precious, it is constantly in use: one day a soccer field, the next a gridiron for girls’ flag football, and the next, a diamond for a kindergartener with a whiffle bat. And so the trucks come, like remora fish perpetually circling a shark, bringing their music with them.

On any given day, I may find myself humming along to a Stephen Foster classic or “Pop Goes the Weasel.” Some days the musical fare is bit of Bach, and some days, “O Tannenbaum” or the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” I used to find the holiday music out of place in the heart of a sweltering July day. After eight years in the neighborhood, it feels as natural as my own heartbeat.

I love my neighborhood for many reasons, not the least of which is its delightful mix of urban flavor and suburban tranquility. What makes it unique and livable for me is its urban core location, walkability to things like Latin supermarkets, dollar stores and hair salons, and its stock of gorgeous, mature trees such as poincianas and tropical almonds.

And, oh yes: the daily command performance of "Oh! Susanna.”

PRESERVATION: THE ORIGINAL SUSTAINABILITY MOVEMENT

PRESERVATION: THE ORIGINAL SUSTAINABILITY MOVEMENT

Long before the LEED designation created by the United States Green Building Council.

Way before going green got adopted by both Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

There were a group of us thinking about sustainability long before that concept became a part of every urban and ecological dialogue.

We were preservationists. Some were skilled architects peeling back layers of: dropped ceilings, painted over windows, covered up terrazzo floors and other sins of the second half of the 20th century – to reveal beautiful architectural details and human-scaled public spaces.

Some of us simply dedicated all of our nonworking hours to preserving a bit of green space slated for over development.

We’ll take credit for fighting the City of Miami tooth and nail to preserve more than half of historic William Jennings Bryan Park as open green space – when the City wanted to pave most of it over in the name of a revenue-generating tennis center.

Let’s hope in these times of budget gaps, the City doesn’t try once again to destroy a single family diverse and working class neighborhood by selling its 2-acre park to the highest bidder.

In the city with the least amount of park space of any large population center in America, that would be immoral.

But whether the preservation movement aims to protect precious park space, a fabled downtown theater, a courthouse or an entire historic district, the end goal is much more than keeping alive something that we find pretty and sentimental.

Preservation is green. Restoration is sustainable.

While attending the American Institute of Architects national convention in Miami Beach this week, we couldn’t help but think of preservation in terms of green building.

On Monday, before the conference began, we looked at AIA architecture guides to Miami and lamented the loss of so many historic buildings torn down to make way for….ugly modern structures and far too often, lots that remain vacant years or decades later.

On Tuesday, we read an email from Anthony Flint, the great author of Wrestling With Moses that How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City.

Jacobs, of course, is the patron saint of American preservation. Moses, a complicated figure who first enhanced New York with greenways, parks and urban amenities…then destroyed so much with freeways, apartment demolitions and self-aggrandizing schemes that, if all were completed, could have injured the city’s urban fabric to a point of no return.

On Wednesday, the informal opening on the AIA conference, we caught Richard Heisenbottle’s session on preservation. Highlighted was his R.J. Heisenbottle Architects’ proud restoration of Miami City Hall.

The former Pan American Airlines sea plane terminal right on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove had been half ruined with ugly paneling, dropped ceilings, covered grand windows and worse.

We had the pleasure of working in the restored City Hall for the better part of a decade, when not a day went by without a stranger wandering into the restored landmark and asking about is great history.

If the structure -- which is very small compared to many City Halls and is on nearly priceless waterfront land -- had been demolished, no one would care about whatever soulless edifice would have replaced it.

That evening, we met architect Steven J. Pynes, a board member of the Miami Design Preservation League. Were it not for the MDPL, half of South Beach could have been turned into a cold, unsustainable redevelopment project.

Without the late, great Barbara Baer Capitman and other angels of preservation, the Art Deco district might have become a giant parking lot to serve development to the south.

Without the her vision and determination, movies, TV shows, models, clubs and designers never would have had the chance to remake the Art Deco district one of the most successfully-preserved neighborhoods in America.

Where the MDPL saw a perfectly human-scaled, mixed-use urban neighborhood that could rival the most livable and beloved districts of Europe, the majority saw a fading God’s Waiting room ready for senseless “urban renewal.”

The intrinsic, sustainable value of preserving our public realm was driving home Thursday during the AIA’s preservation lunch.

Arva Moore Parks, the great Miami author and historian, gave a fun and fact-filled presentation on the value of preserving livable communities such as the Art Deco District and George Merrick’s Coral Gables.

The program, fun for both local and visitor, noted Miami’s history of diversity – long before it even became a city. Parks observed that with the history of Spanish exploration and ownership of Florida, it will be more than a century before English will have been spoken here as long as Spanish.

Today, while at the AIA convention, we lament that our journalistic and town-building pursuits will prevent us from properly observing our 22nd wedding anniversary this evening of June 11.

Tomorrow, after the AIA concludes, we will make our final arrangements for an upcoming trip to New York to celebrate more than two decades of marriage in high urban style.

We will stay in Chelsea and head toward Penn Station when we want to use the small fraction of the subway system that is accessible to wheelchair users.

We will think about sustainability and smart urbanism when we ride enter the much-loathed “modern” Penn Station that replaced the artful and soul-enriching “old” Penn Station back when progress was too often was equated with senseless bulldozing of the past.

We will take the elevator up to the High Line and marvel at how a handful of preservationists turned the city’s planned demolition of long-abandoned, elevated freight train lines into the hottest urban space the early 21st century.

What surely the majority saw as ugly old rusting tracks over an industrial district has been turned into a green, alive, wheelchair-accessible urban amenity where people now want to live, work, dine and more.

Let’s hope our future is filled with High Lines, preserved architectural treasures with adaptive re-use and the likes of Jane Jacobs, Barbara Baer Capitman, Richard Heisenbottle, Arva Moore Parks and the good keepers of the flame at the Miami Design Preservation League.

The Good, Bad, Ugly and Transcendent of Urban Redevelopment (LAZARUS BUILDING CASE STUDY FROM OHIO)

The Good, Bad, Ugly and Transcendent of Urban Redevelopment

While attending the American Institute of Architects national convention in Miami beach, we ran into a familiar face from Columbus, Ohio – where our eyes were first opened to the dangers of sprawl and the not always successful attempts to fight it.

Robert D. Loversidge, FAIA -- President and CEO of the Schooley Caldwell Associates architecture firm in Columbus told us the old Lazarus department store building had been reborn in its second century of use.

When we arrived in Columbus in the mid-1980s, Lazarus was the local department store and had been for decades. Though the vast majority of its business had moved to the suburban malls, it kept a presence on Statehouse Square with a huge, multilevel store that encompassed several structures and nearly 1 million square feet.

The not as sexy as the modern suburban and exurban stores, the old Lazarus was shabby but steeped in the tradition of the giant downtown dry goods store that had a half dozen restaurants, gourmet food, a bargain basement, electronics, furniture, fashion – you name it.

When we worked at the newspaper on the opposite side of Lazarus, we loved to spend lunches shopping and dining in the fading grand dame. Life was good.

Then came the well-intended but bad idea of “saving” Lazars and the rest of the core downtown from sprawled suburban retailing by…plopping a hideously internalized suburban shopping mall onto several acres immediately south of Combos’ Statehouse square.

The mall, with upscale shops and anchor department stores never heard of in the state capital, would connect to Lazarus by sky bridge.

The badly-designed suburban mall in an urban setting spiraled downward from a splashy opening with fancy shops into a decade-plus of: closed upscale tenants, an abandoned department store space, failure to capture shoppers after 5 p.m. crime including a grisly shooting and other failures.

City Center, 1.2 million of square feet on three levels, was demolished in less than two decades. The downtown Lazarus, serving customers since 1909, also died.
But then something transcendent happened.

Rather than demolishing a landmark building that stood for a century, wise people decided to gut the interior, correct sins (covered historic windows, loss of architecture details) of the past and make one of the nation’s largest green buildings out of the old Lazarus.

Schooley Caldwell teamed with Elkus Manfredi (schematic design), Turner
(construction management), Georgetown (developer) and the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation (the nonprofit CDDC owner of the building/site after private investors donated it) to create a LEED-certified GOLD project.

Where everything from winter coats to bathing suits and barbecue grills used to be sold, state of Ohio agencies such as the EPA, Department of Insurance and Health Human Services now reside in clean, green offices.

The Lazarus Building houses 2,600 downtown workers and has earned praise from the US EPA for:

• Reducing, reusing, and recycling materials during renovation and construction.

• Using recycled-content products and materials in construction.

• Producing cost savings and environmental benefits.

• Raising awareness of sustainability in central Ohio by earning environmental. awards and recognition.

• Spearheading Local community revitalization.

The Columbus Chamber of Commerce supported the project by moving its offices to the renovated structure that also features ground floor retail and space for art displays. Our longtime friend and mentor Ty Marsh, president and CEO of the Chamber, is quite pleased with the Lazarus Building’s success story.

We quote from the Chamber website:

“Once a thriving department store and Columbus landmark, Lazarus has been renovated into a premier "green" office space. Located in the heart of downtown, the Lazarus Building is once again a prominent destination due to its innovative method of redevelopment. The method included recycling more than 75 percent of the materials removed from the facility and the inclusion of a rooftop living garden which keeps the building cool. The Lazarus Building is the most significant "green" building in the country and is certified Gold through the LEED Program. The Lazarus Building provides space for 2,600 jobs in Downtown Columbus.”

For more information, visit

http://www.columbus.org/about-the-chamber/lazarus-building.php

http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/rrr/imr/pdfs/lazarus.pdf

http://www.sca-ae.com/portfolio/project_detail.asp?ID=36&service=civil%20/%20public#

A PLEA FOR PEDESTRIAN SAFETY

A PLEA FOR PEDESTRIAN SAFETY (made to the visiting AIA experts)

The American Institute of Architects national convention will bring about 18,000 of this nation's best designers and planners to Miami starting tomorrow -- June 9.
I am proud to live in the Magic City and pleased my hometown is hosting the AIA for the first time since 1964 -- the year I was born.

I would like to ask the AIA experts a simple question about why my beloved Greater Miami allows construction to endanger pedestrians.

Pedestrian-friendly, safe streets and walkable communities are have become almost sacred chants uttered by every elected official, banker, builder, planner, chamber and urban dweller in Greater Miami. We have adopted famous plans and paid millions of dollars to build a roadmap for a city where the pedestrian is king and street life valued and vital as it is in Europe.

But what do we do when the next development starts construction in our 21st century walkable city? We let the developer block an entire lane of traffic and even worse, block an entire stretch of sidewalk for a city block or more – to facilitate construction.

Talk about pennywise and pound foolish. Why do we force wheelchair users and other pedestrians risking their lives to needlessly cross lanes of traffic?

We do, because if construction closes a block of sidewalk on the north side of a street, we force all types of pedestrians to cross to the south sidewalk and back north a block later -- needlessly, in the name of construction necessity.

This is not a knock on the developer. Perhaps when the barricades are removed, after many years of inconvenience and endangerment to sidewalk users, the new site will have a wider sidewalk and beautiful pedestrian amenities.

This is a knock on a system – one that claims to be full throttle focused on walkability – that grants permission to shut down a sidewalk used by tens of thousands, ironically in the name of urban progress.

Anyone who has spent 48 hours in Manhattan knows that the most amazingly tall and architecturally-significant building can be built on a postage stamp-sized piece of properties in one of the most expensive places to buy and build on land – without so much as a week of disturbance to the throngs of pedestrians that energize the economy of the most productive urban center in the western world.

The futuristic innovation that allows people to safely walk the streets while skyscrapers are being erected overhead? A simple pedestrian-protecting scaffolding that has existed before we even had cars on our streets in America.

So how can sidewalks be much wider and unobstructed in the mega-populated City That Never Sleeps while the Magic City has narrow, broken, unshaded and often construction-closed sidewalks to serve its growing urban population?

We don’t know. But we sure know that it is NOT a necessity to block a sidewalk for a year and a half of construction, because great cities have managed to build great buildings while still protecting pedestrians.

As the spouse of a wheelchair user who risks her life for unneeded pedestrian detours, I hope someone from the AIA reads this and backs my notion that the solution is simple -- require some scaffolding for safe access during construction.

--Steve Wright

HUMOR COLUMN -- MESSIN' WITH TEXAS

HE MESSED WITH TEXAS, BUT LIVED TO TELL

By Steve Wright

Darlin’, we’re not doin’ Dallas.
Honey, put Houston on hold.
And sweetie, we sure ain’t sailing down the River Walk in San Antone.
Why? Because I’m wanted in Texas, on the lam from the Lone Star State.
My crime involves temptations -- not of the flesh, but of the flash.
All I tried to do was snap a lousy a picture. The scene of the crime: The Buckhorn Saloon and Museums, aka the Hall of Horns, Fins and Feathers.
I should have known to steer clear of a place with thousands of stuffed creatures, tall Texans and free beer.
Buckhorn is a repository of tanned, taxidermied and otherwise preserved remains of giant finned, antlered, furred and other creatures. I love it for: campy wax dioramas portraying bloody scalpings, mounted record-catch sea creatures, the kitschiest gift shop this side of the Rio Grande and Bimbo.
Bimbo is a two-headed calf. His preserved hide rides the range with other eight-legged lambs, rabbits with horns and other marvels of nature.
The grand, self-guided tour concludes at a classic stand up bar decorated with lots of Lone Star memorabilia. Visitors are given two tokens apiece to cash in for a pair of rather small cups of draft Lone Star, on the house, at the historic saloon.
I ran afoul of the law before I even sipped the suds. Looking through the viewfinder at fine woodwork and smiling barkeeps, I angled along a back wall to capture the scene without including my reflection in the giant mirror at the back of the bar.
Suddenly, accidentally and forcefully, I crashed into an antique table holding up the much-beloved replica of a Spanish mission made from 50,000 toothpicks.
They say don’t mess with Texas. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out what happens to Ohioans who trod on its historic missions.

Wright is a travel author, radio commentator and an award-winning writer.


EDITOR'S NOTE: The museum has since moved closer to the Riverwalk in downtown San Antone. No telling if the replica mission or Bimbo survived the move.

Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines

REVIEW OF the ADA Companion Guide: Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a civil rights law that’s all about equality, inclusion and integration for people with disabilities. The focus of the ADA is not bricks and mortar, anymore than the focus of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the mounting heights of drinking fountains or the dimensions of lunch counters.

That being said, the built environment must be made accessible to ensure that folks with disabilities can get to the government programs or public accommodations housed inside physical structures. Concisely-written, well-organized resources that clearly explain the relevant standards are always welcome.

For the most part, Marcela Abadi Rhoads’ recently published (WILEY.COM) tome, “The ADA Companion Guide: Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA)” is such a resource. Both a registered architect and a registered accessibility specialist, as well as an experienced Accessibility Plan Examiner and Accessibility Building Inspector, Abadi Rhoads has the experience and credentials needed to pen this useful, soft cover guide.

The book is organized into sections that cover changes between the existing ADAAG and the design guidelines published in 2004 by the US Access Board, as well as the application, scoping requirements and building blocks of the design guidelines. It also covers the application and scoping of the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA), a set of standards used primarily for facilities designed, built, altered or leased with federal funds.

The majority of the book is dedicated to laying out the 2004 design guidelines, with exceptions and advisory notes integrated throughout. But what makes this book valuable over and above the guidelines, which are available online for free, are the instructive black and white photos and commentary that both clarify the standards and provide practical advice for design professionals, capital project managers, contractors, ADA professionals and facilities managers.

For example, in the section on ramps, the author’s commentary mentions why a compliant cross slope is critical: “People using the ramp…could lose their balance or have difficulty navigating…if the path of travel perpendicular to the direction of travel is not level.” Unfortunately, there are some missed opportunities here as well. Abadi Rhoads would have done well to advise that ramps be designed with a running slope no greater than 1:14. Designing with a slope lesser than the maximum can guard against things that can go awry during construction, including concrete’s tendency toward slump. Such smart design makes the odds better that you’ll end up with a compliant ramp.

Despite its flaws, the $45 book is a useful resource, provided one keeps in mind that the US Department of Justice may ultimately promulgate enforceable regulations that are more stringent than the Access Board guidelines.

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470583924.html