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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">M\u003c/span>y name’s Pendarvis Harshaw. I was raised in Oakland, and find passion in reading, writing, educating and biking… Oh, and \u003ca href=\"https://ogtoldme.tumblr.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">talking to OGs about their life experiences\u003c/a>, but that’s another story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-13833985\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_-160x184.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"184\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_-160x184.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/OGPenn.Cap_.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In my free time, I like walking on beaches and watching the process of creation and destruction. This past summer I was near Monterey Bay, and I saw a sandcastle built and then destroyed all in one day. And it made me smile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why would it make me smile? Because it was relieving to see something so carefully constructed and then rapidly demolished. Relieving because humans constantly compete with time and attempt to build things that last, when we all know that nothing is forever. Change is coming. And after that will be more change. It’s best to accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>here was once a mural of Oakland baseball legend Rickey Henderson on the backside of a club venue on the corner of Third and Washington Streets in Oakland’s Jack London District. The artist, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/amendtdk/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amend\u003c/a>, who I met while he was in the process of completing the mural, told me how Henderson himself stopped by and gave a hat tip of approval of the piece. It was the ultimate honor in Amend’s quest to show the Town to itself, an appreciation for our culture in spite of the “changes” going on right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not too long after completion of the artwork, the building changed ownership, and the mural was painted over with an extra-dark black coat of paint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13807707\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13807707\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend.jpg\" alt=\"Amend shows a passerby his A's mural-in-progress in Jack London Square.\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amend shows a passerby his A’s mural-in-progress in Jack London Square. \u003ccite>(@amendtdk / via Instagram)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Luckily, I still have photos of Amend’s work; even more importantly, I’m inspired by his efforts. There is honor in creating a moment of beauty in the face of impermanence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s who inspires me. The “live for the moment” kind of people. The people who leave their own mark, in their own hand. The people who say: I know this isn’t going to last forever, but dammit, while it’s here it’s going to be \u003cem>beautiful\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>n 2017 alone we’ve witnessed dramatic examples of destruction. The manmade disaster of the current administration is rivaled only by the natural disasters of the past few weeks, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/09/04/texas-continues-harvey-recovery-efforts-as-hurricane-irma-looms-in-the-atlantic/?utm_term=.1abdd95b4e57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">two hurricanes\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/03/19-wildfires-burn-california/629963001/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dozens of wildfires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">That’s who inspires me. The people who say: I know this isn’t going to last forever, but dammit, while it’s here it’s going to be beautiful.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>This year, we’ve also witnessed blossoms of benevolent change, sprouted from seeds planted long ago. Racist structures are being toppled, physically and metaphorically. Gender biases are readily being questioned, challenged and slowly dismantled. Socially acceptable language, symbols and customs continue to be in flux. And for better or for worse, demographics are shifting in inner cites all around the United States, changing the culture of the community — and the electoral landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m a firm believer in two things. Number One, that humans cannot effectively progress if we are divided. And Number Two, that I’m not the only believer in Number One.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there are divisions, they won’t last long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are people who enjoy the rich culture of Oakland, but that won’t last long if you keep displacing the culture creators and keepers. There are employers who underpay African-American women, while relying on them to fuel the economy — that won’t last long either. And there are those in a system that deports, incarcerates and subjugates members of the immigrant community while enjoying the fruits of their labor — that’s simply not sustainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are people building sandcastles on the beach while global warming causes sea levels to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are given whatever time we are given. We had no say in when it started, nor do we know when it will end. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t build something meaningful, purposeful and beautiful while we’re here, even if it only lasts until the next big wave wipes it away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13807717\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13807717\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_.jpg\" alt=\"The completed A"s 'STAY' mural in Jack London Square.\" width=\"800\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-160x81.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-768x389.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-240x122.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-375x190.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-520x263.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The completed A”s ‘STAY’ mural in Jack London Square, before it was covered in black paint.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And so I’ll be here each week, documenting meaningful, purposeful and beautiful things. I ask that you \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/OGpenn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">send comments, critiques and questions\u003c/a>; become participants in the construction of this work of art I call a column, for again, we evolve better when we work together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And finally, I ask that you go out there and create something beautiful. Something that isn’t built to withstand the test of time, but something that’ll be appreciated now. Something that will right the wrongs of the past, despite the fact more wrongs will manifest. Something that will inspire the future dwellers of this earth to create magnificent castles — no matter what changes may come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Pendarvis Harshaw is the author of ‘\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-og-harshaw-20170409-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">OG Told Me\u003c/a>,’ a memoir about growing up in Oakland. Find him on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ogpenn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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It was the ultimate honor in Amend’s quest to show the Town to itself, an appreciation for our culture in spite of the “changes” going on right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not too long after completion of the artwork, the building changed ownership, and the mural was painted over with an extra-dark black coat of paint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13807707\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13807707\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend.jpg\" alt=\"Amend shows a passerby his A's mural-in-progress in Jack London Square.\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Amend-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amend shows a passerby his A’s mural-in-progress in Jack London Square. \u003ccite>(@amendtdk / via Instagram)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Luckily, I still have photos of Amend’s work; even more importantly, I’m inspired by his efforts. There is honor in creating a moment of beauty in the face of impermanence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s who inspires me. The “live for the moment” kind of people. The people who leave their own mark, in their own hand. The people who say: I know this isn’t going to last forever, but dammit, while it’s here it’s going to be \u003cem>beautiful\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>n 2017 alone we’ve witnessed dramatic examples of destruction. The manmade disaster of the current administration is rivaled only by the natural disasters of the past few weeks, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/09/04/texas-continues-harvey-recovery-efforts-as-hurricane-irma-looms-in-the-atlantic/?utm_term=.1abdd95b4e57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">two hurricanes\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/03/19-wildfires-burn-california/629963001/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dozens of wildfires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">That’s who inspires me. The people who say: I know this isn’t going to last forever, but dammit, while it’s here it’s going to be beautiful.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>This year, we’ve also witnessed blossoms of benevolent change, sprouted from seeds planted long ago. Racist structures are being toppled, physically and metaphorically. Gender biases are readily being questioned, challenged and slowly dismantled. Socially acceptable language, symbols and customs continue to be in flux. And for better or for worse, demographics are shifting in inner cites all around the United States, changing the culture of the community — and the electoral landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m a firm believer in two things. Number One, that humans cannot effectively progress if we are divided. And Number Two, that I’m not the only believer in Number One.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there are divisions, they won’t last long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are people who enjoy the rich culture of Oakland, but that won’t last long if you keep displacing the culture creators and keepers. There are employers who underpay African-American women, while relying on them to fuel the economy — that won’t last long either. And there are those in a system that deports, incarcerates and subjugates members of the immigrant community while enjoying the fruits of their labor — that’s simply not sustainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are people building sandcastles on the beach while global warming causes sea levels to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are given whatever time we are given. We had no say in when it started, nor do we know when it will end. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t build something meaningful, purposeful and beautiful while we’re here, even if it only lasts until the next big wave wipes it away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13807717\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13807717\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_.jpg\" alt=\"The completed A"s 'STAY' mural in Jack London Square.\" width=\"800\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-160x81.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-768x389.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-240x122.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-375x190.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/09/Oakland.TDK_.As_-520x263.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The completed A”s ‘STAY’ mural in Jack London Square, before it was covered in black paint.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And so I’ll be here each week, documenting meaningful, purposeful and beautiful things. I ask that you \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/OGpenn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">send comments, critiques and questions\u003c/a>; become participants in the construction of this work of art I call a column, for again, we evolve better when we work together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And finally, I ask that you go out there and create something beautiful. Something that isn’t built to withstand the test of time, but something that’ll be appreciated now. Something that will right the wrongs of the past, despite the fact more wrongs will manifest. Something that will inspire the future dwellers of this earth to create magnificent castles — no matter what changes may come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Pendarvis Harshaw is the author of ‘\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-og-harshaw-20170409-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">OG Told Me\u003c/a>,’ a memoir about growing up in Oakland. Find him on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ogpenn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">O\u003c/span>n Sept. 2, 2005, as the death toll from Hurricane Katrina climbed past 1,000, Mike Myers appeared next to a nervous-looking Kanye West on primetime network television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few days prior, New Orleans native Harry Connick, Jr. had called NBC to propose a televised relief effort, and this was the result. Faith Hill sang “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” Aaron Neville performed “Louisiana 1927.” Matt Lauer, Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Gere and Lindsay Lohan took turns reading solemnly from a teleprompter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then Kanye went off-script. He let loose a smattering of disjointed thoughts about how the storm was affecting poor people, and how the government was handling recovery efforts. And then he distilled it: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUzLpO1kxI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all took a matter of minutes. NBC cut his mic, Myers looked like he’d just peed his pants, and suddenly we were no longer watching a standard celebrity telethon. In its place was the exhilarating sting of something we weren’t supposed to see: unvarnished anger, mixed with truth, breaking through the shiny, removed, and thoroughly predictable packaging of a tragedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">P\u003c/span>eople often talk about natural disasters as unifiers: the way they remind us we’re all just people at the end of the day, how they bring about inspiring displays of unlikely cooperation and neighborly love. This does not mean they aren’t political. Something that disproportionately harms poor people, disabled people and elderly people cannot \u003cem>not\u003c/em> be political. Something that so bluntly exposes the segregation, inadequacies and hierarchies in a nation’s infrastructure is by its nature ensconced in politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s probably not surprising, given the circumstances of Hurricane Harvey, that I’ve found myself watching that Kanye moment this past week. Like Katrina, we find ourselves in the midst of another devastating natural disaster under \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/31/trump-claimed-he-witnessed-harveys-devastation-first-hand-the-white-house-basically-admits-he-didnt/?utm_term=.7c7db6ef07c4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">federal leadership\u003c/a> that’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/09/02/trump_gets_a_chance_at_a_harvey_do_over_we_saw_a_lot_of_happiness.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">questionably equipped\u003c/a> for it, to \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/trump-sympathy-harvey-inspiration/538404/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">say the least\u003c/a>. Like Katrina, the people hurt most by Harvey will inevitably be \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/08/a-catastrophe-for-houstons-most-vulnerable-people/538155/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">people of color, people in Houston’s poorest neighborhoods, people who didn’t have the means to leave\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">At what point does performative do-gooderism become more about the performance than the good?\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Unlike Katrina, thanks to social media, the outpouring of support for victims now has a bigger stage. Or, rather — thanks, \u003ca href=\"http://www.salon.com/2011/09/29/how_niches_killed_culture/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Death of the Monoculture\u003c/a> — millions of tiny stages, ones we’re all watching separately, instead of just one at NBC Studios that we’re all watching together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sept. 12, \u003ca href=\"http://handinhand2017.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a major telethon is planned for Hurricane Harvey victims\u003c/a>, organized by Houston rapper Bun B and featuring Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand and more. It may be today’s closest analogue for 2005’s television special. But we don’t need a telethon to get access to stars anymore. We all have front-row seats on the internet as public figures try to ascertain, in real time, the best look for themselves with regard to disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s tricky, for some of us, to remember the world in which the Kanye Incident took place. Our interactions with famous people were one-way, for one: celebs gave interviews to magazines as part of album or movie promotion cycles, or released statements through their publicists. In 2017, people are brands; inauthenticity is a kiss of death; and at the intersection of these seemingly contradictory rules is this: endless self-curation of one’s brand via social media is a necessary component of fame. Which means, for better or for worse, that we hear a lot more seemingly unscripted statements from our pop culture figures than scripted ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, there’s a playbook. And the section for best practices during tragedies, in particular, fascinates me. It contains infinite calculations for speaking out while staying on-brand — does a police shooting of an unarmed black man warrant a Facebook post? Are you better off sticking to hunger, child abuse, diabetes? A temporary profile picture to show solidarity with Paris/Manchester/Orlando. A \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/HilaryDuff/status/902186182779523072\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet with the prayer hands emoji\u003c/a>. At what point does performative do-gooderism become more about the performance than the good?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is also no abstaining from this decision. No comment is in fact a comment, and one that often speaks volumes. \u003ca href=\"http://www.thedailybeast.com/its-time-for-taylor-swift-to-denounce-her-neo-nazi-admirers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Just ask Taylor Swift\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>hen, of course, there’s money. As I’ve mulled over Hollywood actors and how much good they can actually accomplish this past week, I’ve seen dozens of headlines about various A-listers’ donations to recovery efforts — headlines made possible, make no mistake, because said celebrities wanted to make damn sure you knew about those donations. I can tell you that Sandra Bullock and Leonardo DiCaprio have each given a million dollars. Miley Cyrus gave half a million, and broke down on \u003cem>Ellen\u003c/em> talking about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">I find myself hungering, if I’m honest, for a Kanye moment here. For someone angry enough to deliver blunt statements about the not-so-shiny side of this disaster.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jack Antonoff, in a nice touch, matched donations to a Houston-area LGBT center. Houston native Beyoncé, being Beyoncé, launched a Houston-specific relief program within her already existing BeyGOOD Foundation. Bay Area rapper Lil B, being Lil B, has offered \u003ca href=\"http://www.thefader.com/2017/08/29/lil-b-verses-houston-artists-hurricane-harvey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">free verses to any rappers or producers\u003c/a> affected by the hurricane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://archives.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2014/11/17/breaking-do-they-know-its-christmas-is-still-a-misguided-patronizing-terrible-song\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I can be the worst kind of cynic about celebrity charity works\u003c/a>, but let’s be clear: donations will help real people, with real food and real supplies. It’s the right thing to do and I’m glad people with the means to do so are giving a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I also find myself hungering, if I’m honest, for a Kanye moment here. For someone angry enough to deliver blunt statements about the not-so-shiny side of this disaster. About climate change, about inequality, about the \u003ca href=\"http://thehill.com/homenews/348424-trump-praises-turnout-outside-fire-station-where-he-was-briefed-on-harvey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">terrifying ineptitude of the rich guy supposedly running the show\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I know we don’t all watch one thing at once anymore. There’s too much noise. It won’t be as thrilling, won’t leave the same kind of sting. And also: the wounds are fresh right now. Stopping the bleeding is currently the most important thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I’m interested to see what happens when the water recedes — when it’s time to grapple with the actual lives lost, and the damage done. When those with a platform can break through the publicist-approved chatter and say something loud, unscripted, and painfully true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Emma Silvers lives in San Francisco. Find her on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/emmaruthless\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "For Hurricane Katrina, Kanye West famously went off-script. And though the landscape for artists has changed, we need another moment like it.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">O\u003c/span>n Sept. 2, 2005, as the death toll from Hurricane Katrina climbed past 1,000, Mike Myers appeared next to a nervous-looking Kanye West on primetime network television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few days prior, New Orleans native Harry Connick, Jr. had called NBC to propose a televised relief effort, and this was the result. Faith Hill sang “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” Aaron Neville performed “Louisiana 1927.” Matt Lauer, Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Gere and Lindsay Lohan took turns reading solemnly from a teleprompter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then Kanye went off-script. He let loose a smattering of disjointed thoughts about how the storm was affecting poor people, and how the government was handling recovery efforts. And then he distilled it: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/zIUzLpO1kxI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/zIUzLpO1kxI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>It all took a matter of minutes. NBC cut his mic, Myers looked like he’d just peed his pants, and suddenly we were no longer watching a standard celebrity telethon. In its place was the exhilarating sting of something we weren’t supposed to see: unvarnished anger, mixed with truth, breaking through the shiny, removed, and thoroughly predictable packaging of a tragedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">P\u003c/span>eople often talk about natural disasters as unifiers: the way they remind us we’re all just people at the end of the day, how they bring about inspiring displays of unlikely cooperation and neighborly love. This does not mean they aren’t political. Something that disproportionately harms poor people, disabled people and elderly people cannot \u003cem>not\u003c/em> be political. Something that so bluntly exposes the segregation, inadequacies and hierarchies in a nation’s infrastructure is by its nature ensconced in politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s probably not surprising, given the circumstances of Hurricane Harvey, that I’ve found myself watching that Kanye moment this past week. Like Katrina, we find ourselves in the midst of another devastating natural disaster under \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/31/trump-claimed-he-witnessed-harveys-devastation-first-hand-the-white-house-basically-admits-he-didnt/?utm_term=.7c7db6ef07c4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">federal leadership\u003c/a> that’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/09/02/trump_gets_a_chance_at_a_harvey_do_over_we_saw_a_lot_of_happiness.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">questionably equipped\u003c/a> for it, to \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/trump-sympathy-harvey-inspiration/538404/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">say the least\u003c/a>. Like Katrina, the people hurt most by Harvey will inevitably be \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/08/a-catastrophe-for-houstons-most-vulnerable-people/538155/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">people of color, people in Houston’s poorest neighborhoods, people who didn’t have the means to leave\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">At what point does performative do-gooderism become more about the performance than the good?\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Unlike Katrina, thanks to social media, the outpouring of support for victims now has a bigger stage. Or, rather — thanks, \u003ca href=\"http://www.salon.com/2011/09/29/how_niches_killed_culture/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Death of the Monoculture\u003c/a> — millions of tiny stages, ones we’re all watching separately, instead of just one at NBC Studios that we’re all watching together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sept. 12, \u003ca href=\"http://handinhand2017.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a major telethon is planned for Hurricane Harvey victims\u003c/a>, organized by Houston rapper Bun B and featuring Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand and more. It may be today’s closest analogue for 2005’s television special. But we don’t need a telethon to get access to stars anymore. We all have front-row seats on the internet as public figures try to ascertain, in real time, the best look for themselves with regard to disaster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s tricky, for some of us, to remember the world in which the Kanye Incident took place. Our interactions with famous people were one-way, for one: celebs gave interviews to magazines as part of album or movie promotion cycles, or released statements through their publicists. In 2017, people are brands; inauthenticity is a kiss of death; and at the intersection of these seemingly contradictory rules is this: endless self-curation of one’s brand via social media is a necessary component of fame. Which means, for better or for worse, that we hear a lot more seemingly unscripted statements from our pop culture figures than scripted ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, there’s a playbook. And the section for best practices during tragedies, in particular, fascinates me. It contains infinite calculations for speaking out while staying on-brand — does a police shooting of an unarmed black man warrant a Facebook post? Are you better off sticking to hunger, child abuse, diabetes? A temporary profile picture to show solidarity with Paris/Manchester/Orlando. A \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/HilaryDuff/status/902186182779523072\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet with the prayer hands emoji\u003c/a>. At what point does performative do-gooderism become more about the performance than the good?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is also no abstaining from this decision. No comment is in fact a comment, and one that often speaks volumes. \u003ca href=\"http://www.thedailybeast.com/its-time-for-taylor-swift-to-denounce-her-neo-nazi-admirers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Just ask Taylor Swift\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">T\u003c/span>hen, of course, there’s money. As I’ve mulled over Hollywood actors and how much good they can actually accomplish this past week, I’ve seen dozens of headlines about various A-listers’ donations to recovery efforts — headlines made possible, make no mistake, because said celebrities wanted to make damn sure you knew about those donations. I can tell you that Sandra Bullock and Leonardo DiCaprio have each given a million dollars. Miley Cyrus gave half a million, and broke down on \u003cem>Ellen\u003c/em> talking about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">I find myself hungering, if I’m honest, for a Kanye moment here. For someone angry enough to deliver blunt statements about the not-so-shiny side of this disaster.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jack Antonoff, in a nice touch, matched donations to a Houston-area LGBT center. Houston native Beyoncé, being Beyoncé, launched a Houston-specific relief program within her already existing BeyGOOD Foundation. Bay Area rapper Lil B, being Lil B, has offered \u003ca href=\"http://www.thefader.com/2017/08/29/lil-b-verses-houston-artists-hurricane-harvey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">free verses to any rappers or producers\u003c/a> affected by the hurricane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://archives.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2014/11/17/breaking-do-they-know-its-christmas-is-still-a-misguided-patronizing-terrible-song\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I can be the worst kind of cynic about celebrity charity works\u003c/a>, but let’s be clear: donations will help real people, with real food and real supplies. It’s the right thing to do and I’m glad people with the means to do so are giving a lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I also find myself hungering, if I’m honest, for a Kanye moment here. For someone angry enough to deliver blunt statements about the not-so-shiny side of this disaster. About climate change, about inequality, about the \u003ca href=\"http://thehill.com/homenews/348424-trump-praises-turnout-outside-fire-station-where-he-was-briefed-on-harvey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">terrifying ineptitude of the rich guy supposedly running the show\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I know we don’t all watch one thing at once anymore. There’s too much noise. It won’t be as thrilling, won’t leave the same kind of sting. And also: the wounds are fresh right now. Stopping the bleeding is currently the most important thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I’m interested to see what happens when the water recedes — when it’s time to grapple with the actual lives lost, and the damage done. When those with a platform can break through the publicist-approved chatter and say something loud, unscripted, and painfully true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Emma Silvers lives in San Francisco. Find her on Twitter \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/emmaruthless\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Calm of Courthouse Square",
"headTitle": "The Calm of Courthouse Square | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Liz and Lena and I walked down to Courthouse Square last night. Today’s the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/reunified-old-courthouse-square-poised-to-make-its-debut-in-downtown-santa/?ref=related\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">grand opening\u003c/a> ceremony with Chris Coursey and Gaye Lebaron and other official speeches, but we’d heard the fences were already down, and I couldn’t wait. Patching up a scar through he heart of the city is something I’d already waited for — for, oh, about 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kids tumbled on the brand-new grass. Dogs ran circles around each other. Everyone turned around in a panoramic circle, pointing out new features, or trying to estimate where the old ones had been. There was a sense of hesitant excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I overheard one guy nearby, sitting on benches, who shrugged. “I don’t know if I like it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah,” his friend replied. “I’ll give it time, though.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To those who grumble at the new square — a flat, expensive patch of concrete, they say — that may be my best advice. Give this new Courthouse Square time. We’ve got a lot of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You know the story by now: in 1966, the county outgrew its old courthouse, which anchored the center of Santa Rosa. The stately building was torn down, but instead of turning the land into an open park downtown, city planners ran Santa Rosa’s busiest street through it, squeezed some park features on either side, and, with a giant pair of scissors on opening day, cut a proud ribbon. It read: “Symbol of Progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911701\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-800x701.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-800x701.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-1020x894.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-160x140.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-768x673.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o.jpg 1189w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1990s, that “progress” looked more like de-evolution. The mall had been built, putting mom ‘n’ pop stores out of business all over downtown, and a huge cluster of megastores like Best Buy and Costco had been erected on Santa Rosa Avenue. The street that was paved through Courthouse Square — which had doubled as the transit hub for the city’s loud, noxious city buses — played host to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYz_iXO5Qjk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">constant stream of traffic, speeding right past\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-800x568.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-800x568.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-1020x725.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-768x546.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-1536x1091.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-1920x1364.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started to loudly declare that Courthouse Square should be reunified — in my zine, in letters to the mayor, at parties. I was “that guy.” I had no hope that it would actually happen, but at least discovered I wasn’t alone: cutting Courthouse Square in half was cited, with ever more frequency, as one of Santa Rosa’s famous mistakes. One that maybe could be fixed. Demolishing the mall or re-routing the freeway were unfeasible pipe dreams. But reuniting Courthouse Square, as I learned through donating to various fundraisers and commissions and think-tanks, wasn’t such an unobtainable goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took a long time. It only happened because of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/reunified-old-courthouse-square-poised-to-make-its-debut-in-downtown-santa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rare confluence\u003c/a> of a united city council, the right amount of funds at the right time, and a collective will to finally go for it. Today they open it officially, and cut a new kind of ribbon. One that might as well say: “Whoops, Progress Was Right Under Our Nose All Along.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s intermission time. Some favorite memories of Courthouse Square:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. The time the city tried putting speakers in the trees to pipe classical music into the square in an attempt to drive teenage punk rockers and derelicts out. (The idea failed spectacularly; in a \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em> story about its efficacy, a homeless person was quoted: “I like it, but I wish they’d play some Mahler or Shostakovich. Beethoven is so \u003cem>common\u003c/em>.”) My friend Donovan was there the day that one of the speakers fell out of the tree and onto the ground. A group of punks ran over and started kicking it, until one of them said, “Hey, this is a nice speaker, it’s probably worth some money,” and they picked it up and ran off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911703\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. Jumping into the circular Rosenberg fountain with Evan late one night. We’d been walking around, complaining about how we were tired of observing the world from a distance, as teenagers do, and how we wanted to live more \u003cem>in\u003c/em> the world. We threw pebbles in the water and watched the ripples bounce off of the walls and overlap, discussing how every action has an impact. It was all very deep. Then I realized we were doing exactly what we’d been complaining about earlier — observing something, instead of living in it — and I turned around and dramatically fell backwards into the fountain. I made Evan do it too. We walked home soaked, determined from then onward to live differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. Cutting school for a Gulf War protest in the square, 1991. The square was not only physically divided but politically divided: pro-war people on the East side, antiwar people on the West, both shouting at each other. I was sitting listening to speakers talk about oil and Middle East relations and Kuwait, when suddenly my mom appeared. “I thought I’d find you here!” she shouted across the crowd, pointing at me. I was busted for cutting school… or so I thought. My mom came over, sat down, put her arm around me and said she was proud of me. We hung out downtown the rest of the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911704\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. Playing on Courthouse Square’s stage with my band Santiago, celebrating the release of our album about Santa Rosa, \u003cem>Rosenberg’s After Dark\u003c/em>. (I’d recorded the intro late at night sitting on a bench near the Rosenberg fountain; you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYz_iXO5Qjk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hear cars driving on the fake cobblestone\u003c/a> of the now-removed street in the background.) We brought Madigan’s Stationery and Eggen & Lance Mortuary signs to flank the stage. We had a song called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY7g50PzgwQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Calm of Courthouse Square\u003c/a>,” about finding peace in the square on Christmas morning after breaking up with a girl who’d wanted me to decide between staying in Santa Rosa or following her to a bigger, more exciting city. We opened \u003cem>and\u003c/em> closed our set with it. I’ve played at famous clubs from CBGB to the Fillmore, but headlining Courthouse Square was more special.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>5. Finding \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202580895261158&set=p.10202580895261158&type=1&theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">two pot plants growing in Courthouse Square\u003c/a>! Crazy! They were only about six inches tall. I uprooted them and carried them home, where I planted them in larger and larger pots and watered them in our backyard until they grew taller than me. I don’t really smoke weed at all, but how often do you find it growing right in the middle of downtown? I gave away a lot of “Courthouse Kush” to friends that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>6. Driving Lena home from the hospital when she was just one day old, and parking in front of Treehorn Books. “I’ll be right back,” I told Liz. I ran to the fountain and pooled some water in my hands, and walked back to the car, and to our new child. I trickled some of the water on her soft forehead. “Welcome to town,” I whispered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I, of all people, should be sad and upset that the old square is gone. People who know my propensity for living in the past have joked that I was already nostalgic for the old square the minute they brought in the tractors. It’s true. I can’t help looking back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But like the man said, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. Santa Rosa has stayed the same, more or less, for the past 15 years, and I’m ready for some newness. Now, suddenly, we’re on a precipice of some major changes. The square is one of them. The SMART train is another. And lots of other changes add up to what could quickly be a very different Santa Rosa than the one we’ve known.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the square, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/hotel-plans-taking-shape-on-santa-rosas-old-courthouse-square/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">boutique hotel for tourists\u003c/a> complete with valet parking is coming soon. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomamag.com/category/biteclub?fbclid=IwAR1ATFQT6JJwmc6MhBQr0zefZLLcqGQpForARsZsG3KaVpGR6Qc06dk3_x8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eight new restaurants\u003c/a> are opening downtown in the next few months, bringing more handcrafted cocktails and artisanal menus. Even the Astro Motel is \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/spinster-sisters-restaurant-owners-buy-astro-motel-in-santa-rosa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">being remodeled and reopening soon\u003c/a> as another boutique destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911705\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More and more, we find ourselves on “Best Places to Live” lists. The Russian River Brewing Co. is ground zero for our status as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/beer/article/Santa-Rosa-dubbed-microbrew-capital-of-the-U-S-11084669.php?fbclid=IwAR2iJljIYdTBEJ5DYevugSf9BOS1knZ3Pf4XoZPIzFEywjU1fB0IX5_ooNg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">capital of craft beer\u003c/a>. Next door, what used to be Sawyer’s News selling magazines, racing forms and cigarettes is now an English-style tea parlor and a real estate sales office. Up the block, a storefront that sold shoes is now a financial planning service. Arrigoni’s, the 77-year-old family deli, is now a create-your-own-pizza place. And a restaurant from Healdsburg will soon take the place of La Bufa, the no-frills, family-run Mexican joint which \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/la-bufa-mexican-restaurant-in-santa-rosa-closing-after-42-years/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closes Sunday after almost 45 years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have you seen Clover’s new billboards? The ones that used to feature a cartoon cow and silly puns, and now present elegant phrases about their milk’s “mouthfeel”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa has been on this trajectory for a while, transforming from the Redwood Empire to Wine Country. But it’s gonna come extra fast and hard in the next year or so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, mere hours after the square’s fences came down yesterday, a man slept in a sleeping bag under the redwood trees. Twenty minutes later, Liz and I watched as a cop came and rustled him awake, and pulled out his ticket book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have an enormous housing problem in Santa Rosa, and more homeless than I can ever remember. I don’t know what to say to those who complain about homeless people without seeing the connection to the luxurification of Santa Rosa, except that you can only have so many landlords \u003ca href=\"https://www.airbnb.com/santa-rosa-ca/stays\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">turning their units into permanent Airbnbs\u003c/a> for Pliny the Younger fans before there’s no place for people who grew up here to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911706\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Home sales here have hit their \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-county-home-sales-median-price-fall-in-april/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">highest median price in history\u003c/a>, out of range for the average first-time buyer. Rents have skyrocketed, completely out of reach for most of my friends. And the freeway underpasses on Sixth Street and Ninth Street have become mini-villages of homeless people who simply can’t afford a basic roof over their head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city knows this, and is \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-thinks-granny-units-could-help-solve-housing-crisis/?artslide=0&fbclid=IwAR0S-oYaMNSNxMn6BF4DvNsoCu9ZWooP8ZjGJBbPOiQ8uxhTIj-T0i2L6QE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trying\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/FairandAffordableSantaRosa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">address\u003c/a> it. But the changes Santa Rosa faces are going to come much faster than city policy. Meanwhile, the city wants the square to succeed, and an important part of that — in the eyes of many — is to keep it “nice,” “clean,” and “welcoming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words: clear of homeless people. I mean, we witnessed it right there, firsthand, after the square opened, as if on cue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m nervous. I’m also excited. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I do know that I love this city, and that today is a historic day for Santa Rosa. To the critics of the new square’s design, I say: It’s a canvas. I know of no construction project that doesn’t go in phases. (And, $10 million is cheap. \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-states-120-million-green-center-takes-center-stage/?ref=related&gallery=2358864&artslide=0&fbclid=IwAR1XlYEGAuT4I8Z4J2V0TX8bJJmjw4bENE4LVH0beoqNveS57GeIDm_cGqk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Really\u003c/a>.) Look at the photo earlier for what the square looked like when it opened in the early ’70s: flat, empty, a lot of concrete. Things adapt. Trees grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, a town square is just that — a place. What makes it special are the people, and what they do with it. And time will tell what we do with this square. Some modern-looking LED towers are on the way. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11665156/ruth-asawa-fountain-delicately-removed-preserved-in-santa-rosa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ruth Asawa fountain will be reinstalled\u003c/a>. I, for one, would love to add a gazebo or permanent stage for speakers and musical performances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last night, as I noticed new plaques commemorating the old Rosenberg fountain and the current city council, I was glad to see an older plaque that someone decided to keep. Giving a brief history of the square, it includes the name “J. Carrillo.” That’s Julio Carrillo, someone I’ve written about at length, who donated his family’s land to help lay the foundation for Santa Rosa — including the land for the square. Developers and businessmen did their thing, and Santa Rosa flourished. Julio Carrillo, the son of Spanish settlers who drank and gambled as much as he believed in high-minded ideas, went broke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911707\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the end of his life, Carrillo, basically penniless, worked as a janitor for the courthouse. By day, he and his wife sold tamales on the sidewalk to help support their large family. All this on valuable land he’d once owned, and naively signed over in service of a high-minded idea called Santa Rosa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Change comes fast. Carrillo eventually got a prince’s funeral, with a huge crowd in the square, and a parade to the cemetery. And his name – some of it, at least – is memorialized on a plaque in this new, reunified square. But just like it was in Carrillo’s day, Santa Rosa is still a city of the haves and the have-nots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a grand metaphor to be made here about reunifying the square and reunifying our splintered city, divided by wealth and class and race, but I just can’t bring myself to be that hopeful. Not yet. But I’ll give it time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for today, and the big celebration in the new (finally!) reunified Courthouse Square, and this new era of downtown, whatever it may bring?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s our city. Our square. Let’s make it great. I’ll see you there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Liz and Lena and I walked down to Courthouse Square last night. Today’s the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/reunified-old-courthouse-square-poised-to-make-its-debut-in-downtown-santa/?ref=related\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">grand opening\u003c/a> ceremony with Chris Coursey and Gaye Lebaron and other official speeches, but we’d heard the fences were already down, and I couldn’t wait. Patching up a scar through he heart of the city is something I’d already waited for — for, oh, about 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kids tumbled on the brand-new grass. Dogs ran circles around each other. Everyone turned around in a panoramic circle, pointing out new features, or trying to estimate where the old ones had been. There was a sense of hesitant excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I overheard one guy nearby, sitting on benches, who shrugged. “I don’t know if I like it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah,” his friend replied. “I’ll give it time, though.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To those who grumble at the new square — a flat, expensive patch of concrete, they say — that may be my best advice. Give this new Courthouse Square time. We’ve got a lot of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You know the story by now: in 1966, the county outgrew its old courthouse, which anchored the center of Santa Rosa. The stately building was torn down, but instead of turning the land into an open park downtown, city planners ran Santa Rosa’s busiest street through it, squeezed some park features on either side, and, with a giant pair of scissors on opening day, cut a proud ribbon. It read: “Symbol of Progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911701\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-800x701.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-800x701.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-1020x894.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-160x140.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o-768x673.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156578_10211377613053605_8536823908719878453_o.jpg 1189w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1990s, that “progress” looked more like de-evolution. The mall had been built, putting mom ‘n’ pop stores out of business all over downtown, and a huge cluster of megastores like Best Buy and Costco had been erected on Santa Rosa Avenue. The street that was paved through Courthouse Square — which had doubled as the transit hub for the city’s loud, noxious city buses — played host to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYz_iXO5Qjk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">constant stream of traffic, speeding right past\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-800x568.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-800x568.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-1020x725.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-768x546.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-1536x1091.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o-1920x1364.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192447_10211377718816249_3016441479001586066_o.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started to loudly declare that Courthouse Square should be reunified — in my zine, in letters to the mayor, at parties. I was “that guy.” I had no hope that it would actually happen, but at least discovered I wasn’t alone: cutting Courthouse Square in half was cited, with ever more frequency, as one of Santa Rosa’s famous mistakes. One that maybe could be fixed. Demolishing the mall or re-routing the freeway were unfeasible pipe dreams. But reuniting Courthouse Square, as I learned through donating to various fundraisers and commissions and think-tanks, wasn’t such an unobtainable goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took a long time. It only happened because of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/reunified-old-courthouse-square-poised-to-make-its-debut-in-downtown-santa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rare confluence\u003c/a> of a united city council, the right amount of funds at the right time, and a collective will to finally go for it. Today they open it officially, and cut a new kind of ribbon. One that might as well say: “Whoops, Progress Was Right Under Our Nose All Along.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s intermission time. Some favorite memories of Courthouse Square:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. The time the city tried putting speakers in the trees to pipe classical music into the square in an attempt to drive teenage punk rockers and derelicts out. (The idea failed spectacularly; in a \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em> story about its efficacy, a homeless person was quoted: “I like it, but I wish they’d play some Mahler or Shostakovich. Beethoven is so \u003cem>common\u003c/em>.”) My friend Donovan was there the day that one of the speakers fell out of the tree and onto the ground. A group of punks ran over and started kicking it, until one of them said, “Hey, this is a nice speaker, it’s probably worth some money,” and they picked it up and ran off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911703\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18199347_10211377825858925_7681476918943987217_n.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. Jumping into the circular Rosenberg fountain with Evan late one night. We’d been walking around, complaining about how we were tired of observing the world from a distance, as teenagers do, and how we wanted to live more \u003cem>in\u003c/em> the world. We threw pebbles in the water and watched the ripples bounce off of the walls and overlap, discussing how every action has an impact. It was all very deep. Then I realized we were doing exactly what we’d been complaining about earlier — observing something, instead of living in it — and I turned around and dramatically fell backwards into the fountain. I made Evan do it too. We walked home soaked, determined from then onward to live differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. Cutting school for a Gulf War protest in the square, 1991. The square was not only physically divided but politically divided: pro-war people on the East side, antiwar people on the West, both shouting at each other. I was sitting listening to speakers talk about oil and Middle East relations and Kuwait, when suddenly my mom appeared. “I thought I’d find you here!” she shouted across the crowd, pointing at me. I was busted for cutting school… or so I thought. My mom came over, sat down, put her arm around me and said she was proud of me. We hung out downtown the rest of the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911704\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238100_10211377698575743_4982369222838759827_o.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. Playing on Courthouse Square’s stage with my band Santiago, celebrating the release of our album about Santa Rosa, \u003cem>Rosenberg’s After Dark\u003c/em>. (I’d recorded the intro late at night sitting on a bench near the Rosenberg fountain; you can \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYz_iXO5Qjk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hear cars driving on the fake cobblestone\u003c/a> of the now-removed street in the background.) We brought Madigan’s Stationery and Eggen & Lance Mortuary signs to flank the stage. We had a song called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY7g50PzgwQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Calm of Courthouse Square\u003c/a>,” about finding peace in the square on Christmas morning after breaking up with a girl who’d wanted me to decide between staying in Santa Rosa or following her to a bigger, more exciting city. We opened \u003cem>and\u003c/em> closed our set with it. I’ve played at famous clubs from CBGB to the Fillmore, but headlining Courthouse Square was more special.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>5. Finding \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202580895261158&set=p.10202580895261158&type=1&theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">two pot plants growing in Courthouse Square\u003c/a>! Crazy! They were only about six inches tall. I uprooted them and carried them home, where I planted them in larger and larger pots and watered them in our backyard until they grew taller than me. I don’t really smoke weed at all, but how often do you find it growing right in the middle of downtown? I gave away a lot of “Courthouse Kush” to friends that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>6. Driving Lena home from the hospital when she was just one day old, and parking in front of Treehorn Books. “I’ll be right back,” I told Liz. I ran to the fountain and pooled some water in my hands, and walked back to the car, and to our new child. I trickled some of the water on her soft forehead. “Welcome to town,” I whispered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I, of all people, should be sad and upset that the old square is gone. People who know my propensity for living in the past have joked that I was already nostalgic for the old square the minute they brought in the tractors. It’s true. I can’t help looking back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But like the man said, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. Santa Rosa has stayed the same, more or less, for the past 15 years, and I’m ready for some newness. Now, suddenly, we’re on a precipice of some major changes. The square is one of them. The SMART train is another. And lots of other changes add up to what could quickly be a very different Santa Rosa than the one we’ve known.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the square, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/hotel-plans-taking-shape-on-santa-rosas-old-courthouse-square/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">boutique hotel for tourists\u003c/a> complete with valet parking is coming soon. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomamag.com/category/biteclub?fbclid=IwAR1ATFQT6JJwmc6MhBQr0zefZLLcqGQpForARsZsG3KaVpGR6Qc06dk3_x8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eight new restaurants\u003c/a> are opening downtown in the next few months, bringing more handcrafted cocktails and artisanal menus. Even the Astro Motel is \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/spinster-sisters-restaurant-owners-buy-astro-motel-in-santa-rosa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">being remodeled and reopening soon\u003c/a> as another boutique destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911705\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18192450_10211377705335912_6964387410853039091_o.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More and more, we find ourselves on “Best Places to Live” lists. The Russian River Brewing Co. is ground zero for our status as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/beer/article/Santa-Rosa-dubbed-microbrew-capital-of-the-U-S-11084669.php?fbclid=IwAR2iJljIYdTBEJ5DYevugSf9BOS1knZ3Pf4XoZPIzFEywjU1fB0IX5_ooNg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">capital of craft beer\u003c/a>. Next door, what used to be Sawyer’s News selling magazines, racing forms and cigarettes is now an English-style tea parlor and a real estate sales office. Up the block, a storefront that sold shoes is now a financial planning service. Arrigoni’s, the 77-year-old family deli, is now a create-your-own-pizza place. And a restaurant from Healdsburg will soon take the place of La Bufa, the no-frills, family-run Mexican joint which \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/la-bufa-mexican-restaurant-in-santa-rosa-closing-after-42-years/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closes Sunday after almost 45 years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have you seen Clover’s new billboards? The ones that used to feature a cartoon cow and silly puns, and now present elegant phrases about their milk’s “mouthfeel”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa has been on this trajectory for a while, transforming from the Redwood Empire to Wine Country. But it’s gonna come extra fast and hard in the next year or so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, mere hours after the square’s fences came down yesterday, a man slept in a sleeping bag under the redwood trees. Twenty minutes later, Liz and I watched as a cop came and rustled him awake, and pulled out his ticket book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have an enormous housing problem in Santa Rosa, and more homeless than I can ever remember. I don’t know what to say to those who complain about homeless people without seeing the connection to the luxurification of Santa Rosa, except that you can only have so many landlords \u003ca href=\"https://www.airbnb.com/santa-rosa-ca/stays\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">turning their units into permanent Airbnbs\u003c/a> for Pliny the Younger fans before there’s no place for people who grew up here to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911706\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18238440_10211377647174458_537120752881380645_o.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Home sales here have hit their \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-county-home-sales-median-price-fall-in-april/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">highest median price in history\u003c/a>, out of range for the average first-time buyer. Rents have skyrocketed, completely out of reach for most of my friends. And the freeway underpasses on Sixth Street and Ninth Street have become mini-villages of homeless people who simply can’t afford a basic roof over their head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city knows this, and is \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosa-thinks-granny-units-could-help-solve-housing-crisis/?artslide=0&fbclid=IwAR0S-oYaMNSNxMn6BF4DvNsoCu9ZWooP8ZjGJBbPOiQ8uxhTIj-T0i2L6QE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trying\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/FairandAffordableSantaRosa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">address\u003c/a> it. But the changes Santa Rosa faces are going to come much faster than city policy. Meanwhile, the city wants the square to succeed, and an important part of that — in the eyes of many — is to keep it “nice,” “clean,” and “welcoming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words: clear of homeless people. I mean, we witnessed it right there, firsthand, after the square opened, as if on cue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13911700\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-160x15.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18157782_10211377597133207_2734933436833314751_n-768x73.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m nervous. I’m also excited. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I do know that I love this city, and that today is a historic day for Santa Rosa. To the critics of the new square’s design, I say: It’s a canvas. I know of no construction project that doesn’t go in phases. (And, $10 million is cheap. \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-states-120-million-green-center-takes-center-stage/?ref=related&gallery=2358864&artslide=0&fbclid=IwAR1XlYEGAuT4I8Z4J2V0TX8bJJmjw4bENE4LVH0beoqNveS57GeIDm_cGqk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Really\u003c/a>.) Look at the photo earlier for what the square looked like when it opened in the early ’70s: flat, empty, a lot of concrete. Things adapt. Trees grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, a town square is just that — a place. What makes it special are the people, and what they do with it. And time will tell what we do with this square. Some modern-looking LED towers are on the way. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11665156/ruth-asawa-fountain-delicately-removed-preserved-in-santa-rosa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ruth Asawa fountain will be reinstalled\u003c/a>. I, for one, would love to add a gazebo or permanent stage for speakers and musical performances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last night, as I noticed new plaques commemorating the old Rosenberg fountain and the current city council, I was glad to see an older plaque that someone decided to keep. Giving a brief history of the square, it includes the name “J. Carrillo.” That’s Julio Carrillo, someone I’ve written about at length, who donated his family’s land to help lay the foundation for Santa Rosa — including the land for the square. Developers and businessmen did their thing, and Santa Rosa flourished. Julio Carrillo, the son of Spanish settlers who drank and gambled as much as he believed in high-minded ideas, went broke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-13911707\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/04/18156338_10211377723096356_1643596746478933906_o.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the end of his life, Carrillo, basically penniless, worked as a janitor for the courthouse. By day, he and his wife sold tamales on the sidewalk to help support their large family. All this on valuable land he’d once owned, and naively signed over in service of a high-minded idea called Santa Rosa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Change comes fast. Carrillo eventually got a prince’s funeral, with a huge crowd in the square, and a parade to the cemetery. And his name – some of it, at least – is memorialized on a plaque in this new, reunified square. But just like it was in Carrillo’s day, Santa Rosa is still a city of the haves and the have-nots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a grand metaphor to be made here about reunifying the square and reunifying our splintered city, divided by wealth and class and race, but I just can’t bring myself to be that hopeful. Not yet. But I’ll give it time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for today, and the big celebration in the new (finally!) reunified Courthouse Square, and this new era of downtown, whatever it may bring?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s our city. Our square. Let’s make it great. I’ll see you there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Dylan Farrow Aside, Does Woody Allen Stink as a Film Director?",
"headTitle": "Dylan Farrow Aside, Does Woody Allen Stink as a Film Director? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>There’s no doubt the \u003ca href=\"http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-%20letter-from-dylan-farrow/\">Dylan Farrow\u003c/a> – \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/%202014/02/09/opinion/sunday/woody-allen-speaks-out.html\">Woody Allen\u003c/a> back-and-\u003ca href=\"http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dylan-farrow-responds-woody-%20allen-678552\">forth\u003c/a> has raised serious issues. Questions like how does society deal with allegations of child abuse? And how do \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/popculture/article.jsp?essid=133738\">audiences respond to an artist’s work after he has been accused of a deeply immoral act?\u003c/a> If on Oscar night, Woody Allen happens to win the best original screenplay award for \u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i>, the full range of \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=woody%20allen&src=typd\">140-character opinions\u003c/a> on such matters is going to, within seconds, criss-cross the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Allen does win, I’ll be crying foul not because of any moral transgressions on the director’s part, but because I thought his movie stunk. Last summer, when \u003ca href=\"http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blue_jasmine/\">many other critics\u003c/a> were hailing \u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i> as a masterpiece, I was busy writing a piece called \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/movies/article.jsp?essid=124365\">\u003ci>How Woody Allen Became a Hack\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, asserting that the director’s sloppy moviemaking and derivative screenplays over the past 20 years should have landed him in movie jail for various aesthetic crimes and misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, I’m well aware I’m living on a planet other than Earth when it comes to this topic. No less a critic than David Thomson, one of the most astute film minds around, in my opinion, called \u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i> “the best film (Allen) has ever made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So we thought that now, the day before the Oscars, was a good time to publish some of the online reaction we received to my Woody Allen piece, much of which expressed the opinion that:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A) Woody still has a lot on the cinematic ball.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>B) I’m a moron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>My favorite reaction:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">You are an imbecile. Probably a Republican? How you ever got to write anything is a surprise to me. Your logical reasoning is almost on par with a five year old. Please die soon and rid humanity from this banter. You are a waste of space. –Zetret\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m thinking \u003ca href=\"http://youtu.be/vLJzqvbxjqw?t=42s\">Marshall McLuhan\u003c/a> wrote that one …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLJzqvbxjqw&w=640&h=480]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More below. Feel free to chime in. Oh wait. This is the Internet — what an unnecessary invitation. (And by the way, if you think I was hard on Woody, check out \u003ca href=\"http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1979/aug/16/letter-from-manhattan/\">Joan Didion’s takedown of his films and his audience\u003c/a>, published in \u003ci>The New York Review of Books\u003c/i> in 1979, smack in the middle of the director’s glory years.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Responses to \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/movies/article.jsp?essid=124365\">\u003ci>How Woody Allen Became a Hack\u003c/i>\u003c/a> (culled from KQED Arts Facebook and the comments on the post):\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Totally disagree with this article. \u003ci>Midnight in Paris\u003c/i> is brilliant. \u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i> is not as good, but Cate Blanchett’s performance (Oscar for Best Actress for sure) is one of the best you will ever see. –John Leibee\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">When he’s good, he’s made some of the most fantastic movies. He has captured humanity in an amazing and excruciating way. With a career as long as he has had, is it fair for us arm chair critics to be so errr…. critical? Maybe… but have you created anything as brilliant in your lifetime? So you don’t like his new movies as much… big deal. What’s so great about being a critic anyhow? –Josh Alper\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">I thought \u003ci>To Rome with Love\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Match Point\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Cassandra’s Dream\u003c/i> were all excellent. They’re not \u003ci>Stardust Memories\u003c/i> or \u003ci>Manhattan\u003c/i> but are still intelligent, entertaining and well acted and crafted. –Victor Milin\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">He’s still got more originality than Quentin Tarantino. –Chris Knight\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Bitch, bitch, bitch. Yeah, Woody’s done some classics and some stinkers. But there’s no one I can think of who’s matched his output and few who can claim ownership of so many brilliant films. Criticism is easy, creating is difficult. –Mike Woolson\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">\u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i> was brilliant. –Louis\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">How moronic. Can’t imagine what the idiots who deride Woody think passes for good screenwriting. \u003ci>Iron Man\u003c/i>? Kevin James flicks? –Chris Faraone\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">His latest is always the greatest because it hits the current nerves of the time. –Lee Embrey\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Long may Woody entertain us as only he can! –Tim Street-Porter\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Another tired old putz complaining that Woody Allen hasn’t made a good film in 20 years. Here’s a suggestion — stop seeing the new ones and just watch \u003ci>Annie Hall\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Manhattan\u003c/i> over and over again. –Steven Kaye\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">I think many of the criticisms here are really strengths for what Allen does with them and certainly aren’t anything new to his work. The man works in a limited arena, but he always does it well. Also, to call \u003ci>Stardust Memories\u003c/i> a Fellini knockoff and leave it at that is criminal; it’s Allen’s best film and better than \u003ci>8 1/2\u003c/i> IMO. –redflagblackflag\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>And then there were those who agreed with me, more or less\u003c/b>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Have not been very enthusiastic about anything by Woodman since \u003ci>Annie Hall\u003c/i> or so. Found \u003ci>Midnight in Paris\u003c/i> a bit silly for a director in his 70s. Could not watch more than a few minutes of newer films –DeWitt Cheng\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">You are right on with this stuff. I will certainly not see the new one. And I have a very hard time understanding how anyone who like the old Allen stuff could also like this new stuff. I agree that the “quicker and cheaper” goal is primarily to blame, but I think it’s even more than that. I think Allen used to write about characters he knew, or at least felt. Now he’s all over the place — well any place except for his own heart/mind/intellect. And it’s out of those places that real comedy — and real pathos — springs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sitting in the theater for \u003ci>Midnight In Paris\u003c/i> its opening weekend, hearing laughter coming from all around, I was convinced that it was laughter at how bad the film was — how ridiculous the acting was, how flat and unbelievable the characters — really how terribly simple it all was. –CORE2THEMAXX\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Truthfully, the last film of his I liked was \u003ci>Hannah and Her Sisters\u003c/i>. –RC\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">I kept saying … “it’s about time someone said this” in my head as I read this essay. I think most people know that Woody isn’t making masterpieces anymore, but there’s not nearly enough\u003cbr>\nacknowledgement of how dreadful his work has become. This author’s take on \u003ci>Midnight in Paris\u003c/i> isn’t even in the realm of opinion as far as I’m concerned, it is stating an obvious case. And like the author of this piece, this is coming from someone who thinks Woody Allen was pumping out a great film almost every year for about a 15 year period. –Soxfan111111\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">My favorite answer to the question: Who is the most over-rated director of our lifetime? Plus, he is a major sleaze. –Paul Hurdlow\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">I feel like Woody exhausted all his ideas long ago, now he’s like a family member telling the same old stories over the holiday dinner table. His films have all the surprise and urgency of a new Stones record. –Dan Buskirk\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What do you think? Let us know…\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There’s no doubt the \u003ca href=\"http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-%20letter-from-dylan-farrow/\">Dylan Farrow\u003c/a> – \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/%202014/02/09/opinion/sunday/woody-allen-speaks-out.html\">Woody Allen\u003c/a> back-and-\u003ca href=\"http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dylan-farrow-responds-woody-%20allen-678552\">forth\u003c/a> has raised serious issues. Questions like how does society deal with allegations of child abuse? And how do \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/popculture/article.jsp?essid=133738\">audiences respond to an artist’s work after he has been accused of a deeply immoral act?\u003c/a> If on Oscar night, Woody Allen happens to win the best original screenplay award for \u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i>, the full range of \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=woody%20allen&src=typd\">140-character opinions\u003c/a> on such matters is going to, within seconds, criss-cross the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Allen does win, I’ll be crying foul not because of any moral transgressions on the director’s part, but because I thought his movie stunk. Last summer, when \u003ca href=\"http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blue_jasmine/\">many other critics\u003c/a> were hailing \u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i> as a masterpiece, I was busy writing a piece called \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/movies/article.jsp?essid=124365\">\u003ci>How Woody Allen Became a Hack\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, asserting that the director’s sloppy moviemaking and derivative screenplays over the past 20 years should have landed him in movie jail for various aesthetic crimes and misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, I’m well aware I’m living on a planet other than Earth when it comes to this topic. No less a critic than David Thomson, one of the most astute film minds around, in my opinion, called \u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i> “the best film (Allen) has ever made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So we thought that now, the day before the Oscars, was a good time to publish some of the online reaction we received to my Woody Allen piece, much of which expressed the opinion that:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A) Woody still has a lot on the cinematic ball.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>B) I’m a moron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>My favorite reaction:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">You are an imbecile. Probably a Republican? How you ever got to write anything is a surprise to me. Your logical reasoning is almost on par with a five year old. Please die soon and rid humanity from this banter. You are a waste of space. –Zetret\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m thinking \u003ca href=\"http://youtu.be/vLJzqvbxjqw?t=42s\">Marshall McLuhan\u003c/a> wrote that one …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/vLJzqvbxjqw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/vLJzqvbxjqw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More below. Feel free to chime in. Oh wait. This is the Internet — what an unnecessary invitation. (And by the way, if you think I was hard on Woody, check out \u003ca href=\"http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1979/aug/16/letter-from-manhattan/\">Joan Didion’s takedown of his films and his audience\u003c/a>, published in \u003ci>The New York Review of Books\u003c/i> in 1979, smack in the middle of the director’s glory years.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Responses to \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/movies/article.jsp?essid=124365\">\u003ci>How Woody Allen Became a Hack\u003c/i>\u003c/a> (culled from KQED Arts Facebook and the comments on the post):\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Totally disagree with this article. \u003ci>Midnight in Paris\u003c/i> is brilliant. \u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i> is not as good, but Cate Blanchett’s performance (Oscar for Best Actress for sure) is one of the best you will ever see. –John Leibee\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">When he’s good, he’s made some of the most fantastic movies. He has captured humanity in an amazing and excruciating way. With a career as long as he has had, is it fair for us arm chair critics to be so errr…. critical? Maybe… but have you created anything as brilliant in your lifetime? So you don’t like his new movies as much… big deal. What’s so great about being a critic anyhow? –Josh Alper\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">I thought \u003ci>To Rome with Love\u003c/i>, \u003ci>Match Point\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Cassandra’s Dream\u003c/i> were all excellent. They’re not \u003ci>Stardust Memories\u003c/i> or \u003ci>Manhattan\u003c/i> but are still intelligent, entertaining and well acted and crafted. –Victor Milin\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">He’s still got more originality than Quentin Tarantino. –Chris Knight\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Bitch, bitch, bitch. Yeah, Woody’s done some classics and some stinkers. But there’s no one I can think of who’s matched his output and few who can claim ownership of so many brilliant films. Criticism is easy, creating is difficult. –Mike Woolson\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">\u003ci>Blue Jasmine\u003c/i> was brilliant. –Louis\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">How moronic. Can’t imagine what the idiots who deride Woody think passes for good screenwriting. \u003ci>Iron Man\u003c/i>? Kevin James flicks? –Chris Faraone\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">His latest is always the greatest because it hits the current nerves of the time. –Lee Embrey\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Long may Woody entertain us as only he can! –Tim Street-Porter\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Another tired old putz complaining that Woody Allen hasn’t made a good film in 20 years. Here’s a suggestion — stop seeing the new ones and just watch \u003ci>Annie Hall\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Manhattan\u003c/i> over and over again. –Steven Kaye\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">I think many of the criticisms here are really strengths for what Allen does with them and certainly aren’t anything new to his work. The man works in a limited arena, but he always does it well. Also, to call \u003ci>Stardust Memories\u003c/i> a Fellini knockoff and leave it at that is criminal; it’s Allen’s best film and better than \u003ci>8 1/2\u003c/i> IMO. –redflagblackflag\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>And then there were those who agreed with me, more or less\u003c/b>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Have not been very enthusiastic about anything by Woodman since \u003ci>Annie Hall\u003c/i> or so. Found \u003ci>Midnight in Paris\u003c/i> a bit silly for a director in his 70s. Could not watch more than a few minutes of newer films –DeWitt Cheng\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">You are right on with this stuff. I will certainly not see the new one. And I have a very hard time understanding how anyone who like the old Allen stuff could also like this new stuff. I agree that the “quicker and cheaper” goal is primarily to blame, but I think it’s even more than that. I think Allen used to write about characters he knew, or at least felt. Now he’s all over the place — well any place except for his own heart/mind/intellect. And it’s out of those places that real comedy — and real pathos — springs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sitting in the theater for \u003ci>Midnight In Paris\u003c/i> its opening weekend, hearing laughter coming from all around, I was convinced that it was laughter at how bad the film was — how ridiculous the acting was, how flat and unbelievable the characters — really how terribly simple it all was. –CORE2THEMAXX\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">Truthfully, the last film of his I liked was \u003ci>Hannah and Her Sisters\u003c/i>. –RC\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">I kept saying … “it’s about time someone said this” in my head as I read this essay. I think most people know that Woody isn’t making masterpieces anymore, but there’s not nearly enough\u003cbr>\nacknowledgement of how dreadful his work has become. This author’s take on \u003ci>Midnight in Paris\u003c/i> isn’t even in the realm of opinion as far as I’m concerned, it is stating an obvious case. And like the author of this piece, this is coming from someone who thinks Woody Allen was pumping out a great film almost every year for about a 15 year period. –Soxfan111111\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">My favorite answer to the question: Who is the most over-rated director of our lifetime? Plus, he is a major sleaze. –Paul Hurdlow\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin-left: 20px;margin-right: 20px\">I feel like Woody exhausted all his ideas long ago, now he’s like a family member telling the same old stories over the holiday dinner table. His films have all the surprise and urgency of a new Stones record. –Dan Buskirk\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What do you think? Let us know…\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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