Does the destruction of buildings matter when black Americans are being brazenly murdered in cold blood by police and vigilantes?
That’s the question that has been raging on the streets of Philadelphia, and across my architecture-centric social media feeds, over the last two days as a dark cloud of smoke spiraled up from Center City.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a nuanced look at the relationship between protest, property destruction, and economic development in under-invested areas in her latest column. The article comes as cities around the country grapple with fierce protests seeking to force change in how America's police departments treat African Americans and other people of color. The protests have included acts of vandalism and property destruction on the part of both demonstrators and police.
Arguing that the destruction of buildings can have negative as well as provocative repercussions, Saffron writes, "You can be appalled and heartbroken by our country’s deadly racism, and yet still quake at what the damage to downtown portends for Philadelphia. Racism is built on strong foundations. The momentary satisfaction of destroying a few buildings does nothing to remove those structures. All it does is weaken our city."
24 Comments
Excellent thread on Twitter about how building destruction can have terrible consequences for people who already live in distressed built circumstances.
https://twitter.com/TheAriBella/status/1268240219507171330
Very well written. Thanks for sharing!
thanks Donna, great insight from her.
Even offering a nuanced take can be taken as "racist" nowadays--as if burning down a grocery store in a food desert is somehow good for the community. Even the "people over buildings" motto i've seen some places is a non sequitur. Nobody is saying "people over hospitals" or "people over schools." It's just a way for woker-than-thou types to express temporary superiority while doing nothing to physically help the communities that have been oppressed.
Would you like more straw? That man is looking really thin.
Obviously it is not "just" property - redlining, segregation, real estate lending, and "urban renewal" were all spatial and property issues that led to the further dehumanization of communities of color and lower class.
Can't burn down a grocery store or commercial strip and expect the community to not be affected.
Unfortunately it is a false dichotomy - People over property - in that the vast majority of protesters are not causing any property destruction.
Last night thousands protested peacefully in Oakland for three+ hours after curfew. The day before thousands protested peacefully for the entire day before the cops gassed them to enforce that same arbitrary curfew. But by all means, let's focus on the rioters and the destruction so you can keep ignoring the institutional racism. Keep calling others woker-than-thou hypocrites while you do LESS THAN NOTHING.
I bet you refuse to condemn the rioters--the ones that burnt down grocery stories and a Walmart in Oakland. And then you will say, "oh, a few buildings isn't a big deal" and "buildings don't matter" which is designed to uphold the status quo of trust fund anarchists who hijack the movement.
this guy gets it (Chemex). Trust Fund racism at it's finest - hijack a movement 'cause you hate you rparents and 'merica. But hey you made your instagram screen black the other day, you for it, you PC, you a good person (all lies.) Btw most those Anarachist teach at your local college ;)
You want me to jump through your hoops in order to prove what, that I'm not the thing you and sheds already assume I am? I'm not your fucking monkey.
civil response.
It's better than either of you deserve.
Appreciate your open mindedness to a discussion. ...now where is that list of of those academics contact info...hold on...
Look around the forum for the past few days to find evidence of my open-mindedness to discourse. Willing discourse doesn't mean I meet your every demand.
you make a lot of assumptions.
Pot, kettle, you know the rest. Any time you think of something to say that isn't a banal, pithy comment followed by a link or a lickspittle agreement to another poster's comments, you should feel free to just go right ahead and post it.
well if you're ever in the NYC area, hit me up for a beer. peace
Can't speak for Petey, but I sure love when people insult me and then accuse me of being intolerant when I call them out on it.
Here I'll help everyone out here - it's a simplified version of a systemic problem: in short - it's not uncommon to allow communities to go to waste so that developments can happen that makes lots of money, moreover there was a time and you can even question it now, where "thugs" were indeed paid to get people to move out for new development. That would be the "dichotomy" that would be systemic, but that takes real journalism and research and not fluff pieces and click bait, but no one has the brain power to focus that long, here a movie -
1987 movie - Batteries Not Included
the joke of the day: Philadelphia even sets things on fire when they win the Super Bowl...Their fan base is crazy.
Lastly, remember the only winners here are the wealthy, but i appears "anarchists" aren't that smart (I've been saying that for years, every WTO demonstration is a good chance to change out that storefront). Wonder if unemployed architects are throwing bricks?
good morning angry unemployed people -Billionaires Are Getting Richer During The COVID-19 Pandemic While Most Americans Suffer....but let's distract, distract, hurry....
Yeah, keep up the good work, useless word and/or link generator.
"All Buildings Matter," the new "All Lives Matter."
This author really misses the boat on a couple of things. When people say "people over property," they aren't saying "property doesn't matter." We all know property matters, of course it does. No one needs to say that. What the discussion is about right now is that black lives have not mattered. Looters that destroy property, and are found, can and will almost certainly be held accountable. Police that kill or damage property on the other hand are protected by immunity from repercussions and even losing their jobs by police union agreements --even when the police chiefs want to fire them for cause.
Saying "what about the buildings and destruction of property" also is a way of putting the protesters on the defensive and switching the subject. Now, protesters must come out to condemn the destruction of property first, or else their concerns on protecting life are somehow invalidated. Yet, not all law enforcement are willing or able to condemn their bad actors.
Lastly, this argument about protecting property rings as hollow as "All Lives Matter." There is a long history of not caring about the property of black communities. Throughout American history black communities have been the ones that have lost their property with no recourse or been put at a disadvantage from attaining wealth and property. Federal highways were paved through communities of color throughout the country. Black communities were demolished for public housing, then that public housing was underfunded and left to deteriorate so that it could be turned over to private development --this is not long ago history. Black Americans were kept from owning property to redlining and deed restrictions, as this community likely knows.They were also kept from farm loans putting black farms out of business as they couldn't compete with white farmers with access. How long did it take to get the Tulsa riots in the school books? Oh and that doesn't even go into the author's advocating for protecting public space, as though that space is equally safe to even go bird watching without having someone calling the police.
We all know property and buildings matter. We should prove that lives matter too.
so what you're saying is end all public service unions and all lobbying. I can get behind that.
SQUIRREL!
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