Category Archives: New Utopia

I want that!

Three words youve been saying, out-loud or quietly to yourself, ever since youve been able to talk. Because, of course, you want things, treats, toys, and other accoutrements of humanness. You want them, and you wont take no for an answer even if, as in the new book Electric City by Thomas Hager, there are big hurdles.

If you can imagine a jagged, goofy smile from east to west across the top of Alabama, then you can envision the Tennessee River. Its an area filled with welcome vistas but in the late 1700s, when settlers began showing interest in living along the bottom loop of the Tennessee, they were met by unwelcoming Natives. After Andrew Jackson removed those Natives from the area, called Muscle Shoals after the mussels found in its waters, he allowed development there.

Ninety years later, in 1921, Henry Ford was invited to take a look.

Just decades prior, Thomas Edison had stunned the world with electricity and the possibilities it offered, and developers wanted in on that. Two of them, Frank Washburn and J.W. Worthington, landed government support to build large dams across the Tennessee River first, as electricity generators and secondly, to make nitrogen fertilizer for American farmers. Crews worked feverishly on the project until the end of World War I, when officials realized that new, better technology had already made its factories obsolete.

Muscle Shoals, as a project, was done.

Towns that sprung up to house factory workers disappeared and the government was stuck with buildings for which they had no use. Meanwhile, in Michigan, Henry Ford began construction on new facilities for Model T manufacturing; officials noticed and Ford was invited to view the Muscle Shoals compound, for which he shrewdly made a bid.

But it was a weak one, complete with half-promises and vague assurances and Ford dug in his heels, convinced hed win. Repeatedly given the chance to change his bid, he stood firm. Ford was a take-it-or-leave-it kind of guy.

And certain government officials were inclined toward the latter

Tell your average toddler no, and youd best be prepared to do battle in a dozen ways. They wont go down quietly and neither did Henry Ford. Some may admire him for his perseverance, or for his vision, or read Electric City, and you might call it folly.

Or hubris, as author Thomas Hager shows in his account of Fords many attempts to prevail and the political contention that thwarted him and the utopia he foresaw. Hager tells of government officials and the public taking sides and readers will, too, perhaps paralleling modern opinions on wealth and privilege. Hager writes tantalizingly of an early-twentieth-century President Ford, leaving us to imagine a big what-if, and he brings readers current.

So did Ford deserve to get his way? And was Edison, who seems to be a peripheral character in Electric City, really as supportive as he appeared at first? Find out by reading this fascinating, widely-sweeping slice of Americana. If you love history, yeah, you want that.

c.2021, Abrams Press $28.00 / $35.00 Canada 296 pages

Read the original here:

Electric City: The Lost History of Ford and Edison's American Utopia by Thomas Hager - Winchester Sun - Winchester Sun

Jessica Bellamy 14, now a masters degree candidate at USC Roski, uses paint and paintbrush to make sense of the dystopian utopia of Los Angeles. [5 min read]

When shes not rollerblading by the beach, you can find alumna Jessica Bellamy painting in her studio while listening to public radio station KCRW. (Photos: Courtesy of Jessica Bellamy.)

Los Angeles most beautiful sunsets usually occur when a forest fire is raging. The sky flares orange, hot pink and lavender as smoke drifts across the L.A. basin. Instagram feeds fill with shots of the neon sky as news reports tally up the acres burnt.

These are the sunsets that Jessica Bellamy finds most inspiring. For Bellamy, who graduated from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in 2014 with a degree inpolitical science, the beautiful sunset of a disastrous fire is part of the dystopian/utopian experience of living in L.A.

Much of her work as she now pursues a master of fine arts degree at theUSC Roski School of Art and Designexplores the tension of living at the edge of a tenuous paradise. For instance, fire followers the lush plants that thrive after a fire sweeps through an area make an appearance in a recent painting that also recorded a fires devasting march in real time.

I did a bunch of etching marks into the bottom panel of the painting for how many fires burned 1,000 acres during the time I worked on this, says Bellamy. By the time I finished, I think it was close to 100 marks.

The art of politics

Bellamy enrolled as a political science major at USC Dornsife with the intent of eventually becoming a lawyer. She had taken art classes since she was a child, and both of her parents like to work with their hands her mother as a landscape designer and her father in construction so she decided to add classes from theUSC Roski School of Art and Designto her schedule as well.

Her coursework at USC Dornsife helped her get more comfortable during the critiques occurring in her art classes, where students provide feedback on their classmates artwork. She cites the class European Thought II (POSC 371) withAnthony Kammas, associate professor (teaching) of political science, as particularly helpful in finding her voice.

Early on in college, I was a little bit shy and I wouldnt speak unless called on. But, as soon as I started taking classes at Roski, all of those political science discussions from his class really came with a different relevance. I felt comfortable sharing and critiquing, says Bellamy.

An internship with the Hammer Museum while an undergraduate solidified her realization that her place was in the arts rather than law. She added a minor in fine arts painting to her political science degree. After graduation, she got a job as an arts partnership and events coordinator at public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica, California.

A modern artist

Jessica Bellamy will graduate with an MFA from USC Roski in 2022.

After finishing her shift at the radio station, Bellamy spent her evenings painting. She worked at her kitchen table, where obliging roommates would cook around her, and sold prints online.

Bellamy picked up commissions from major brands. She painted a mural live for Google Pixel at Coachella and painted custom sneakers for guests at a party hosted by Kenneth Cole. Eventually, she tallied her income as an artist in a spreadsheet and realized her side job, and the time spent on art projects, was adding up considerably.

She also realized that she wanted more community: You don't really get that when youre working full time and then trying to also be involved in the art world, says Bellamy. You dont grow as fast on your own.

After such a positive USC experience her first time around, applying for the masters degree program at USC Roski was a no-brainer. Her first year of school has been mostly online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but she was already well-versed in the positive side of virtual connections: The gallery that represents her found her on Instagram.

Shes upgraded from the kitchen table, however, and with the easing of restrictions, shes now receiving friends and clients at her art studio.

USC Dornsifes influence

Even though shes switched to a different school, USC Dornsife is still sparking inspiration. She recently attended an event hosted byUSC Dornsifes 3rd LA projectthat celebrated the 50th anniversary of Reyner Banhams influential bookLos Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies.

Banhams 1971 book defined L.A. as made up of four distinct areas: surfurbia (the beach environs), Autopia (the citys freeways), The Foothills (its surrounding hills), and the Plains of Id (the flatlands outside the core of the city). His work is a major inspiration for Bellamy who plans to depict her own interpretations of L.A.s core identities as part of her masters thesis.

Im trying to come up with new ecologies based on my own experience in the city. Im looking at the built and natural environment, but also at pollution, smog and light, sort of updating his vision, says Bellamy.

Shes hoping to enroll this fall in a USC Dornsife class, Los Angeles: A Polymathic Inquiry (CORE 450), to help develop her thesis further.

Apocalypse now

Bellamys painted sunsets are also layered with L.A. iconography: palm trees, chain link fences, a Lakers player dunking a basket. Clippings from theLos Angeles Timesare a particular obsession both as inspiration and as physical material. Its archives generate a constant reminder of her works theme.

Even when Im searching [the archives] for keywords like immigration. itll show up next to an op-ed thats about smog or what California needs to do in the future to survive, as if were going to have an apocalypse here every year, says Bellamy. By embedding clippings physically into the art, I think the politics lens is coming out in a different way.

When Bellamys not in the studio or browsing the archives, she can often be found in surfurbia, rollerblading along the Dockweiler Beach path sidewalk a hobby honed during the recent quarantine. Behind her gliding figure will perhaps be a vivid, California sunset, one shell likely lay down later on the canvas.

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A political science alumna speaks her mind on the art canvas > News > USC Dornsife - USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Known to its founders as the Diminishing Republic, and to legend as Palm Tree Island, this sandbar has been a cultural hub for 20 years. (Port City Daily/Preston Lennon)

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH Nancy Faye Craig walks from her townhouse in Wrightsville Beach down to a small shore in her private neighborhood that faces the mouth of Lees Cut Harbor Islands northern saltwater border through which small craft can cruise between the Intracoastal Waterway and Banks Channel.

Its a Saturday afternoon and the tide is dead low. Families who live in the townhomes that dot Wrightsville Beachs edge near the public boat ramp read magazines and watch their children play in the water.

Craigs attention is directed to the fully exposed sandbar across the cut. Marked by a synthetic tree, a parking meter and the American flag, the twice-a-day haven locally known as Palm Tree Island has been a cultural hub for two decades.

With a party schedule determined by the tides, Palm Tree Island exists in its full glory for brief windows of time, until the water rises once more and only the tips of the palm fronds are visible to passing vessels.

Everybody always migrates toward a focal point, said William Salling, an original pioneer of the island. Once the tree went up, we started noticing small groups, small gatherings that would go on over there. It was very low key and thats the way we always wanted it.

A woman in her 70s, Craig is a local watchdog. She serves on the Channel Walk homeowners board and has rung alarm bells to law enforcement agencies, calling attention to what she says is a debaucherous scene that came about during the previous decade.

According to beach-town lore, a group of locals installed a live palm tree on the sandbar around the year 2000. Salling, one of those founders, said the official name for the outpost is the Diminishing Republic.

We call ourselves Belongers amongst our tribe, Salling said. And were there to welcome people. It didnt matter where youre from. The whole idea was just to create a gathering space.

Twenty years later, a new crowd of boaters have asserted control over the islands culture. The focus is less kumbaya, more partying.

Craig calls it a nuisance. Young folk Uber into her neighborhood and then hop on a boat to cross Lees Cut. They return hours later, drunk and rowdy, she said.

There was one young woman, Craig recalled, who passed out on the neighborhoods community dock: She refused to be transported to the hospital. What can you do with someone like that?

Another incident in recent memory also caught her ire: A partygoer traversed across the water into the lawns of her neighbors and asked a couple who were sitting on their deck permission to use their restroom.

Now, that is gall, Craig commented, while peering toward the small group that had gathered that afternoon on the sandbar. Though tidal conditions were ripe for a large crowd with low tide hitting around 3:15 p.m. it was a relaxed atmosphere: frisbee-throwing, tube-floating, and light music.

They tackled Masonboro and got it under control, Craig said. Then all those people came here. So why cant they tackle this one too?

Wrightsville Beach police intermittently dock a patrol boat in the marina near Craigs neighborhood to deter loud music and other commotions. But Palm Tree Island itself lies in the jurisdiction of the New Hanover County Sheriffs Office, where its treated like any other unincorporated coastal territory.

Palm Tree Island is just a sandbar, so its technically not an official anything, said NHCSO spokesman Lt. Jerry Brewer. Its the equivalent of being at Masonboro.

Two years ago, the party culture became so extreme that a crackdown was required, Brewer said, but since the Covid era, the scene has been relatively tranquil.

The first time I went out there, I was like, Oh my god. The people were basically being held hostage at their home, Brewer said. It was so loud it sounded like you were at a concert.

For Salling, the Diminishing Republic that he and his compatriots cultivated in the early years of the 21st century has been subverted by something different.

People have a sense now, Salling said, that, You cant mess with me. This is our space. Were going to do whatever we want to do, and if you challenge us, were going to challenge you right back.

Its largely a generational gap, said Salling, who is now in his upper fifties.

Im not saying Im disappointed in it because everybody has a right. But I always try to say, if you respect your fellow man over there the younger culture should try to think about that a little more it would be a better place.

Coastal forces formed Palm Tree Island more than 20 years ago, where previously there was nothing but a waterway channel abutting a sea of tidal marsh grass.

As the tides ebb and flow and all that stuff, I guess the sands found a sweet spot where there was no current, Salling said. And it just started growing from there.

He and his buddies bought a live palm tree and stationed it on the emerging sandbar in the christening of the Diminishing Republic. Once it rotted, they replaced it with an artificial lookalike. Local media initially attributed the out-of-place palm to the work of UNCW fraternity brothers, a misconception that the Diminishing Republic trailblazers allowed to fester, Salling said.

At that time, a family in Channel Walk near where Craig lives was simultaneously grieving their lost son, Salling recalled.

They scattered his ashes the day that we put the palm tree in, he said. They didnt know it, and they woke up the next morning and were looking out there, and they said that was their son, reincarnated.

A few years later, the Town of Wrightsville Beach entered into its quest to monetize as many parking spaces on the island as possible, a new philosophical turn that prompted the Diminishing Republics next landscaping addition: the parking meter.

An individual over in Channel Walk put it out there. And we laughed. We thought it was the funniest thing, Salling said. It was a political jab.

Read More: Wrightsville Beach grants itself ability to tow cars on Lumina, more parking changes afoot

The final addition was the flagpole bearing the Stars and Stripes, put up by another individual, completing the trifecta of symbols that now define the enclave.

It started with just a spindly little tree, Salling said. We laid low. We never wanted to be focal points.

Then came the cultural tug-of-war. The energy envisioned by the Diminishing Republic founders was a coastal oasis, a micro-utopia, where participants help friends in need, share provisions and maintain an open door.

Its not the same now, Salling said. Its harder because theres different views. Whether its political, or way of life, or anything of that nature.

Younger adventurers now lay claim to the sandbar. Its commonplace for weekend low tides to attract dozens of boats filled with eager drinkers.That element has always been there, Salling said, just not with such force.

Lt. Brewer said during the wild times a few years ago, one of the new-generation social ringleaders endured a string of citations, which tampered down the vibe.

The major player who was a problem, we cited him enough to where hes tired of getting cited for having loud music, Brewer said. And its pretty much calmed down.

Salling thinks the new hard-core energy at Palm Tree Island arose in part due to a migration of boaters away from Masonboro, looking for new haunts. Even though the Diminishing Republic has lost its grip on the islands culture, he doesnt have the urge to intervene. Its not his role, he said.

We dont own the island, we dont control it, he said. Its just there, and thats what we wanted to do, was just create a space for people.

Timothy Vandenberg moved to Wilmington a few years before Salling and his troop installed the first tree on the newfound sandbar. Vandenberg is a video marketing coordinator at Cape Fear Community College, and said he saw potential for the Palm Tree Island symbolism to be the defining brand of Wrightsville Beach like South Carolinas crescent moon and palmetto tree, or Californias bear.

He trademarked Palm Tree Island as a brand and produces products adorned with the image of a palm tree accompanied by a parking meter.

We wanted to take something that had local significance, and tried to come up with a cool way to represent Wrightsville Beach, Vandenberg said.

Philanthropic partnerships are intertwined with the brand. The company makes a sun shirt along with Wilmington Dermatology, and sends proceeds to the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Vandenberg said when formulating his business, he tried to make inroads with the Diminishing Republic crowd.

I want to pay respect to those guys, he said. Those guys are like the stewards of the island.

Messages werent returned. I kind of took that as, they werent necessarily cool with it, Vandenberg said.

The brand enjoyed strong growth throughout past years. Just recently, he made final touches on a kiosk at Wilmington International Airport that will carry Palm Tree Island gear.

His brand is now sold at numerous local surf shops, including Surf City Surf Shop. Vandenberg said the stores owner inquired about his relationship with the Diminishing Republic, and their reception to his commercial venture. To make things smoother, the Surf City owner connected the two parties and helped work up a gesture of goodwill, Vandenberg said. Proceeds from the lines Surf City sales are contributed to an upkeep fund for the Diminishing Republic, for when the palm fronds need replacing or if the parking meter ever makes a haywire escape.

Sallings said, personally, he is opposed to commercializing the island.

That was never our intention, he said. That symbol over there, of the parking meter and the tree and the flag, it represents a community.

Vandenberg added hes working on another initiative: donating additional proceeds to the Wrightsville Beach Museum.

Craig, wearing a pink visor and carrying a clipboard, surveys the view from her neighborhood shoreline. She tells a younger man that he needs to move his crab trap somewhere else other than his dock.

The Diminishing Republic, I like, she said, acknowledging that the islands founders are unaffiliated with her current adversaries, who party on across the water.

And I like it when it diminishes.

She helped broker a meeting between residents in her locale and nearby law enforcement agencies, but said she thinks the sheriffs hands could be tied.

Marine agents police for underage drinking and overly loud music, but for the most part, Palm Tree Island is still a good-time frontier, accepting of anyone with boat access.

Former Wrightsville Beach Police Chief Dan House told the StarNews in 2018, in reference to Palm Tree Island: If the problem is solely on the island, we really get into a gray area if we can do something or not.

Current chief David Squires confirmed to Port City Daily the territory is overseen by the sheriffs office.

Lt. Brewer said during recent weeks, the marine unit has been prepping for Independence Day, the only day of the year in which all five boats in the sheriffs fleet are deployed simultaneously.

For Craig, what appears to be a second sandbar forming further east within Lees Cut is causing even more headaches. She continues to vouch for a heavy-handed police presence near her home to deal with the voyagers who use her neighborhood as a loading dock for sandbar festivities.

Hopefully, going forward we wont have any problems there, Brewer said.

Despite losing the reins of the frontier that he helped establish, Salling said he and his crew continue to act as stewards, preserving the sandbars prominent symbols. (The flag is maintained by another individual, Salling said.)

We start new every single 12 hours, Salling said. Its covered up. And the only thing that sticks up is that tree. And as the tide starts to flow out, the sand rises out of the water, and its kind of like shes showing herself again. Its neat to watch.

Send tips, comments and criticisms to preston@localdailymedia.com

Read more:

The Saga of Palm Tree Island - Port City Daily

HBO Max has a slew of new originals and highly anticipated releases heading to its library in July. First and foremost, Space Jam: A New Legacy will hit the streaming service the same day as theaters on July 16. The new take on the classic 1996 film stars Lebron James and his son Dom who get stuck in a cartoon. The film follows in the footsteps of the original Michael Jordan version with a high-stakes Toons vs Goons basketball game to help the father and son duo get back to the real world with the help of the Bugs Bunny and the gang. The film really has an all-star cast including Michael B. Jordan, Jim Carrey, Zendaya, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and more. Note, Warner Bros. new releases including this one are only available on the $14.99/month Ad-Free HBO Max plan.

In another blast from the past, Gossip Girl is taking us back to the Upper East Side with a new generation of private school kids being surveilled by the mystery blogger. There will be lots more secrets, MET stairs lunchbreaks, and high fashion moments but probably fewer headbands this time around.

Judas and the Black Messiah and Tom and Jerry are both returning to the streaming service this month, plus newcomers including Warner Bros crime drama No Sudden Move, the season one part two finale of Genera+ion, season two finale of Full Bloom, and season two finale of Betty will all be available to stream in the month.

Exact Dates to be Announced:

FBOY Island, Max Original Season 1 Premiere

The Immortal (Gomorrah Film), Max Original Film Premiere

Romeo Santos: King of Bachata, 2021 (HBO)

Romeo Santos Utopia Live from MetLife Stadium, 2021 (HBO)

July 1:

Come! (aka Eat!), 2020

8 Mile, 2002 (HBO)

All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, 1996 (HBO)

All Dogs Go to Heaven, 1989 (HBO)

Behind Enemy Lines, 1997 (HBO)

Beneath the Planet of the Apes, 1970 (HBO)

Bio-Dome, 1996 (HBO)

Black Panthers, 1968

Blackhat, 2015 (HBO)

Brubaker, 1980 (HBO)

Cantinflas (HBO)

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, 1972 (Extended Version) (HBO)

Cousins, 1989 (HBO)

Dark Water, 2005 (HBO)

Darkness Falls, 2003 (HBO)

Demolition Man, 1993

Dirty Work, 1998 (HBO)

Disturbia, 2007 (HBO)

Doctor Who Holiday 2020 Special: Revolution of the Daleks, 2020

Duplex, 2003 (HBO)

Escape from the Planet of the Apes, 1971 (HBO)

Eves Bayou, 1997

Firestarter, 1984 (HBO)

First, 2012

For Colored Girls, 2010 (HBO)

For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada, 2012 (HBO)

Full Bloom, Max Original Season 2 Finale

Gandhi, 1982

Ghost in the Machine, 1993 (HBO)

The Good Lie, 2014 (HBO)

Gun Crazy, 1950

House on Haunted Hill, 1999

Identity Thief, 2013 (Extended Version) (HBO)

Ira & Abby, 2007 (HBO)

Joe Versus the Volcano, 1990

Judas and the Black Messiah, 2021 (HBO)

Laws Of Attraction, 2004 (HBO)

Lucky, 2017 (HBO)

Maid in Manhattan, 2002

Married to the Mob, 1988 (HBO)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 1997

Mississippi Burning, 1988 (HBO)

Monster-In-Law, 2005

Mousehunt, 1997 (HBO)

My Brother Luca (HBO)

No Sudden Move, Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021 (Available to stream in 4K UHD, HDR10, and Dolby Vision on supported devices)

Planet of the Apes, 1968 (HBO)

Pleasantville, 1998

The Prince of Tides, 1991

Project X, 1987 (HBO)

The Punisher, 2017 (HBO)

Punisher: War Zone, 2008 (HBO)

Rambo, 2008 (Directors Cut) (HBO)

Reds, 1981 (HBO)

Reservoir Dogs, 1992 (HBO)

The Return of the Living Dead, 1985 (HBO)

Return of the Living Dead III, 1993 (Extended Version) (HBO)

Rounders, 1998 (HBO)

Saturday Night Fever, 1977 (Directors Cut) (HBO)

Scream, 1996

Scream 2, 1997

Scream 3, 2000

Semi-Tough, 1977 (HBO)

The Sessions, 2012 (HBO)

Set Up, 2012 (HBO)

Snake Eyes, 1998 (HBO)

Staying Alive, 1983 (HBO)

Stuart Little, 1999

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003

Tom and Jerry in New York, Max Original Series Premiere

Trick R Treat, 2009 (HBO)

Tyler Perrys Daddys Little Girls, 2007 (HBO)

Tyler Perrys Diary of a Mad Black Woman, 2005 (HBO)

Tyler Perrys I Can Do Bad All by Myself, 2009 (HBO)

Tyler Perrys Madea Goes To Jail, 2009 (HBO)

Tyler Perrys Madeas Big Happy Family, 2011 (HBO)

Tyler Perrys Madeas Family Reunion, 2006 (HBO)

Tyler Perrys Why Did I Get Married Too, 2010 (HBO)

The Watcher, 2016 (HBO)

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, 2007 (HBO)

Westworld (Movie), 1973

White Chicks (Unrated & Uncut Version), 2004

The White Stadium, 1928

Wont Back Down, 2012 (HBO)

Zero Days, 2016 (HBO)

July 2:

Lo Que Siento por Ti (aka What I Feel for You) (HBO)

July 3:

Let Him Go, 2020 (HBO)

Nancy Drew, Season 2

July 7:

Read more:

'Space Jam: A New Legacy,' 'Gossip Girl,' and More are Coming to HBO Max in July 2021 - Cord Cutters News

Cecil Hurt| The Tuscaloosa News

The sun was bright, the way itshinesin Tuscaloosa as summer approaches. In that light, a pristine white baseball lay on an unsullied chalk baseline.

Alabama baseball star Roberto Vaz never saw it.

We were playing Southern Cal in the regional finals, Vaz recalled. The NCAA didnt have super regionals then so it was for a trip to Omaha. I was hitting second in the lineup, with (David) Tidwell hitting first, taking seven swings and then two bunts.

"We were hitting pearls (brand-new baseballs) and Tidwells second bunt rolled about 30 feet and stopped right on the baseline. I never saw it. I finished my swings and am headed down to first base and USC was coming into the stadium at the same time so I am kind of watching them and I step on the ball.

I knew right away I had broken my foot.

Vaz had a Jones fracture of a metatarsal.He was taken to DCH Regional Medical Center, a short drive from Alabamas stadium. There was some cursory talk of a brace or a special baseball spike, but the doctors werent optimistic.

It was discussed, but coach (Jim) Wells overruled all that talk, Vaz said. "He said, Youve had a great year, youre about to be drafted (by Major League Baseball) and we arent going to take the risk.

Tuscaloosa baseball players: Tuscaloosa baseball players ready to begin college careers at Alabama, Florida State

Chase Lee: Alabama baseball reliever Chase Lee named third team All-America

Alabama went on to defeat Southern Cal, 9-8, in one of the classic games ever at Sewell-Thomas Field, but the price was steep. Vazwas a Golden Spikes finalistwho hit .400 with 22 homers and 73 RBIs. He was also the Crimson Tides ace left-handed pitcher, going 4-1 with a team-best 3.40 earned run average. As a closer over the first half of the season, he had eight savesand opponents batted just .198 against him.

He watched his team in theCollege World Series with a cast on his right foot,

They did surgery before we left Tuscaloosa, Vaz said. I think they were afraid that when we got to Omaha, Id grab a bat and try to hit. We reached the finals. We lost twice, to Miami in the second game and then to LSU in the championship. I probably would have been the starting pitcher in both of those games. So it was frustrating.

It was also Vazs last trip to the College World Series for 24 years. He played a few games against the Omaha Royals in Triple-A but never came back for the CWS, even as a college assistant coach. (He is currently an assistant at NJCAA national champion LSU-Eunice.)

That was 1997. Now, Vazis back in Omahawatching his son, Javier, who is preparing to play for a national championship as a Vanderbilt Commodore.

Whatever emotions I might have had, whatever frustration, it doesnt compare, Vaz said. I cant even explain the joy of watching our child out there.

Vaz hasnt been to the old Rosenblatt Stadium site and says he is "the typical supportive dad in his first trip to TD Ameritrade Park.

I cheer for every kid, Vaz said. I do see the game differently as a former player and a coach, so I move around my seats a lot on defense and stand on the concourse when we are hitting. I dont want to get in conversations about what we should or should not have done in a situation. I cheer for every kid equally. I think his mom is a bit more emotional."

Im hoarse, Roberto's wife, Stephanie, said. Ive had to pinch myself. You think of the days when you took (Javier) to practice, when he changed high schools after the eighth grade, when he was playing in junior college on those long trips and I see the utopia hes in now, Ive had to pinch myself.

We were waiting when the team bus came the other day and I was cheering so much. Roberto was like, What are you doing? Youre his mother, youcan see him whenever you want. And I told him I am here to see my team and my favorite player.I was a total fan, like an out-of-body experience.

T.J. Reeves: Alabama baseball outfielder T.J. Reeves transferring to Jacksonville State

Vanderbilt will begin championship series play Monday after an NCAA decision cancelled a potential elimination game against North Carolina State due to COVID-19 protocols.

Anyone who knows Vanderbilt knows we wanted to play, the coaches wanted to play, the players wanted to play, Roberto Vaz said. You want to compete.

Perhaps no one knows that feeling better than Vaz, who reached an NCAA championship game as a player and had to watch from the dugout, a hundred feet or so away from the batters box where he will now watch his son perform.

Am I still frustrated about 1997? he said. Not now. Im a supportive dad. Theres no feeling like it, none that Ive experienced.

Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil@tidesports.com or via Twitter @cecilhurt

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Roberto Vaz missed the College World Series with an injury but now is watching his son play for Vanderbilt - Tuscaloosa Magazine

To double-cross or not to double-cross. That is this evenings question. Ive already written about it once, but its a major moment. An hour after allegedly making a bipartisan infrastructure deal with ten senators, including five Republicans, Mr. Biden then walked away and threatened not to sign it.

That is, the President took the podium by himself (always tricky business with Mr. Biden) and basically said if he doesnt get his $4 trillion Green New Deal, high-taxed, entitlement state through a 51 vote reconciliation hes not going to sign the infrastructure deal. He said but if only one comes to me, Im not. This is only when it comes to me. Im not signing it. Its in tandem.

In other words, he would insist on linkage. He never really used the word veto, but linkage was clear. Now, despite what some prominent Republicans said on television yesterday, I dont think Uncle Joe Biden has walked anything back. He can walk back a veto because he never explicitly used the word veto.

No matter how much White House aides have tried to re-spin this, though (and Ive been there, done that), Im arguing nothing has changed. My Senate Republican friends had best wise-up to that.

On Friday, after Mr. Bidens supposed walk back, Madam Psaki said that Mr. Biden expected these initiatives would move forward on a dual track. Thats Psaki 1 Friday night. Additionally, well call it Psaki 1-a, Mr. Bidens press secretary said, the President will leave it to leaders in Congress to determine the timeline and the sequencing.

Reporter: Is he going to wait for both of them to land on his desk before signing the bipartisan package, waiting for the reconciliation package to come through?

Ms. Psaki: He fully expects, hopes, plans to sign both into law, and he will leave it to leaders in Congress to determine the timeline and the sequencing.

Today, Madam Psaki call her Psaki 2 said the President intends to sign both pieces of legislation into law. As you know, they are both moving forward in dual tracks... The leaders in Congress are ensuring that is happening.

So I dont see much difference between Psaki 1, Psaki 1-a, and Psaki 2. The key word here is dual tracks, as in you want a bipartisan infrastructure bill? I want the American family plan. Both.

In addition, on one of the Sunday talk shows, Mr. Bidens senior adviser, Cedric Richmond, when asked if the President would sign an infrastructure bill on its own without reconciliation, Mr. Richmond said, I dont think its a yes-or-no answer.

Then there was this:

Jake Tapper: If it happens, if the bipart infrastructure bill lands on his desk on its own, if that were to happen, he would sign it? Yes or no?

Mr. Richmond: I dont think its a yes-or-no question. We expect to have both bills in front of us to sign. And I expect that President Biden will sign the infrastructure bill, he will sign the families plan.

Now, heres one technical point. In regard to President Bidens original package of roughly $6 trillion in additional spending and up to $4 trillion in additional taxes, just to review the bidding, the first leg was the $2 trillion covid relief plan.

That, we now know given the booming economy and the rise of inflation shouldve been a non-starter. Most of the country now believes the federal plus-up in overly generous unemployment benefits was a detriment to the economy.

The second part of the Biden package, roughly estimated at $2.3 trillion dollars included a small piece called infrastructure and a very, very, large piece to implement the Green New Deal and to raise taxes across the board to finance it. Prominent in this tranche was hiking the corporate income tax, which now includes the Group of Seven global minimum tax as part of the Biden-Yellen tax surrender and also a domestic minimum tax.

The third piece of the Biden pre-Berlin wall coming down, Bulgarian Green Workers Paradise utopia consisting mainly of a wave of new entitlements and other income transfers to be made permanent. They would be financed by a series of brutal income tax increases and a doubling of the capital gains tax and a whopping increase in the inheritance tax by eliminating the step-up basis for capital gains at death.

So you have $1.9 trillion Covid plunge, a $2.3 trillion American worker plan, and $1.8 trillion American family scheme coming to a tidy $6 trillion and something like $4 trillion in tax hikes. Which will throw a wet blanket over the Trump boom were experiencing and yield massive lower tax revenues as a consequence of higher tax rates, per the Laffer Curve.

Stuck in there some place is this $80 billion in money on IRS agents, which is supposed to generate $700 billion from tax cheats like Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill gates, and other liberal tax cheats. I feel their pain.

So at this point Im still in the camp that believes Uncle Joe double-crossed the GOP. It was bait and switch. All were hearing is blue smoking mirrors from not-so-clever White House aides who are frantically attempting to hide the truth.

Whats the truth? President Biden is still held hostage by the ultra-left, progressive wish list of Senator Bernie Sanders, House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Squad. If Republicans keep their wits about them, they can whoop this. Because the country is not behind it.

________

From Mr. Kudlows broadcast on Fox News.

Continued here:

The Real Truth Behind the Biden Budget Double-Talk - New York Sun

Rendering cliches moot is no small achievement. Yet if these two records prove anything, it is that it's possible to accomplish this daunting task in a variety of ways. In the case of Paul Taylor, aka New Memphis Colorways, his truth lies in the restoration of the fundamental notion a single individual can indeed sound like a larger ensemble. For their part, Utopia implicitly addresses the verity that two musicians can best illustrate the essential difficulty of playing music well together. Indirectly, however, these artist's records also confront the essential challenge of how to address that paradox of complexity within simplicity, a conundrum of no small proportions inside and outside of the creative realm. If it is indeed true that art mirrors life and vice-versayet another hackneyed sayingthen these artists are confronting philosophical issues of the highest order and making it sound like it's an unmitigated pleasure to do so.

New Memphis Colorways It Is What It Isn't Owl Jackson Jr. Record Company 2021

Making true solo recordings was hardly a novelty even before the quarantines arising from the pandemic. Yet the dexterity and depth of feeling with which Paul Taylor imbues New Memphis Colorways would be distinctive no matter the context. It certainly helps that the sound, mastered by Justin Perkins, spans the audio spectrum and virtually leaps from the speakers/phones. But such dynamism has its source in the one-man playing of all manner of guitars, keyboards and percussion. On cuts like "Hey F****r, Don't Do That," the multi-instrumentalist exhibits the musicianly touch of restraint combined with naturally fluid thought patterns manifest in the shifting instrumental tones and textures. Therein lies a palpably human sensibility at work, captured as much in originals like "Hangover Funk" or disparate choices of cover material in the form of Hammerstein and Kern's "All The Things You Are" and the late Jaco Pastorius' "Teen Town." It Is What It Isn't constitutes a stern lesson in self-discipline leavened with the utter joy of creation.

Utopia Imaginably Self Produced 2021

The uncanny instrumental marriage of acoustic guitar and saxophone fostered by Yuto Kanazawa and Yuto Mitomi is a gateway to the pair's individual and shared ingenuity. Crucially, the musiclover's journey is far less rife with the unknown of the novel because of the familiarity in choices of material like The Beatles' "Blackbird." Yet it matters not if the song under exploration is a well-known cover like Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" or the somewhat knotty title tune original: the virtually non-stop flow of ideas between the two musicians, airy but substantial, t bespeaks their own (re) discovery of possibility, not just in the material, but in their own musicianship. At approximately thirty-three minutes slightly longer in duration than its companion piece, the listener's sense of time is otherwise suspended because Kanazawa and Mitomi conjure more than a little otherworldly atmosphere as they interact. Thankfully, it's all recorded with Jason Borisoff's technical skill and pure feel, a own combination of virtues comparable to the musicians.'

Tracks: Hangover Funk; Hey F****, Don't Do that; All the Things You Are; ffs,tmi; On The downs; Stanlee's Sonata; Teen Town

Personnel: Paul Taylor: guitars, basses, synths, keyboards, omnichord, percussion.

Imaginably

Tracks: Karatachi No Hana; Imaginably; I Want You Back; Blackbird; Doralice; Ugly Beauty; Isn't she Lovely; Sweet Lorraine.

Personnel: Yuto Mitomi: tenor and soprano saxophones; Yuto Kanazawa: Brazilian 7-string guitar.

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New Memphis Colorways and Utopia: Way Outside the Box ...

17 March 2021, 13:33

The Houston rapper has confirmed his new album 'Utopia' will be dropping this year.

Travis Scott has geared up his fans after releasing new details about his highly-aniticapted new album 'Utopia'.

Following the 2018 release of his third studio album 'ASTROWORLD', there is nothing but great expectations from the stars forthcoming project.

The Houston native's last album enlisted some of the biggest names in pop/rap music, including; Frank Ocean, Drake, The Weeknd, James Blake, Philip Bailey, 21 Savage, Swae Lee, Gunna, Nav, Quavo, Takeoff, Juice Wrld, Sheck Wes, Kid Cudi, Don Toliver and others.

But what does Travis Scott have in store for his upcoming album?

Find out more details on the album below.

Travis Scott revealed new details on his new album 'Upotia' during a recent interview with I-D Magazine.

The "Goosebumps" rapper explained that he is developing a new sound for his upcoming project.

Travis said: I never tell people this, and Im probably going to keep it a secret still, but Im working with some new people and Im just trying to expand the sound".

He continued Ive been making beats again, rapping on my own beats, just putting everything together and trying to grow it really."

"Thats been one of the most fun things about working on this album. Im evolving, collaborating with new people, delivering a whole new sound, a whole new range. Travis told the publication.

He added "I want to make a f**king new sound. I might spend days banging my head against a wall trying to figure it out, but once I do it, its like ultimate ecstasy.

Travis Scott initially teased 'Utopia' for the first time on in late summer 2020.

On the second year anniversary of his 'ASTROWORLD' release, he celebrated it on social media while cryptically teasing his new album 'Utopia'.

In August 2020, the "SICKO MODE" rapper posted a handwritten note on Twitter, which read: "Happy Astroversary a 2 year ride that's still one of my favorites!!! Album means so much to me!! To every one that bumps and rages to that soundtrack I love you."

He added, "Let's keep the ride going see you in Utopia."

During a recent interview with I.D Magazine, Travis Scott revealed that 'Utopia' will deifnitely be dropping this year.

Infact, to quote the rappers words, he said his new album will be coming soon.You can bet that.

The rapper also revealed that the COVID-19 restrictions of quarantine enabled him to be way more productive without concerts and travel on the agenda.

You in the crib, and I got the studio at home and I have the peace to record all day, you know? Obviously like, you lose a little bit by not being able to travel and, you know, just see the earth. the star told the publication.

As for now, there is no guarantee who will be on Travis Scott's new album as there is no official track listing.

The star has also revealed that he is switching up his sound, making it hard to guess who may be on his new album.

There is no official tracklist to Travis Scott's new album 'Utopia' as of yet.

However, Genius has put together a list of songs that are to be confirmed and that are already out, which may appear on the project. See below.

1. Highest In The Room

2.The Last Time

3. Niagara Falls Ft 21 Savage

4. Franchise (featuring M.I.A and 21 Savage)

5. Franchise Remix (featuring Future, M.I.A and 21 Savage)

This article will be updated with relevant information when it is released.

Travis Scott fans took to Twitter to claim his new album 'Utopia' was allegedly leaked online.

On Tuesday (Mar 16) people began speculating whether Travis' album was leaked or not.

One fan wrote "think i found the utopia album cover leak" while others claimed they had the actual album.

Another Twitter user wrote "Okay okay, UTOPIA boutta drop, PLEASE, LETS BEHAVE, NO LEAKS" while one added "ISTFG IF UTOPIA GETS DELAYED CUZ SOME DUMBASS DECIDED TO LEAK HALF THE MUSIC AND THE COVER I WILL GO ON A RAMPAGE".

While there has been no official leak link on the social media platform, it is all speculation at this point.

See other Tweets below.

Continue reading here:

Travis Scott new album 2021 'Utopia': Release date ...

Utopia Falls is a science fiction drama that follows a group of teenagers as they prepare to perform in a dance competition to honor the founder of their colony, New Babyl, which is the only Utopian colony in the post-apocalyptic world. Ahead of the event, one of the teens makes a startling discovery that changes their lives forever.

Canadian writer-director Randall Thorne serves as the creator of this futuristic series. He is known for working with hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg and Drake. The co-directors are Melanie Orr, Warren P. Sonoda, and Sudz Sutherland.

The show aims at portraying the significance of culture and history in the modern world that seems to have lost touch with its roots. Packed with a fresh cast and invigorating music, the first season of Utopia Falls received a mixed response. Which obviously makes fans of the show wonder: will there be an Utopia season 2? Lets find out.

Utopia Falls season 1 released on February 14, 2020, on Hulu. It consists of ten episodes with a runtime of 55-60 minutes each.

As far as the next season goes, heres what we know. Even though the concept of the show is conducive for multiple seasons, the tepid response to the first season is a worrying sign. At this point of time, we can only wait and watch. The final decision will be taken by Disney based on viewership numbers. Our best guess is that if renewed, Utopia Falls season 2 can release sometime in February2021.

Utopia Falls puts the spotlight on a fresh ensemble that comprises Robyn Alomar (Riot Girls) as the daughter of the Tribunal, Aliyah, Akiel Julien (American Gods) as Aliyahs performance partner and friend Bohdi, Devyn Nekoda (Degrassi: The Next Generation) as Sage, Robbie Graham-Kuntz (Full Out) as Tempo, Phillip Lewitski (Supernatural) as Apollo. Snoop Dogg voices The Archive.

The show also stars Humberly Gonzlez (Orphan Black) as Brooklyn, and Mickeey Nguyen (Make It Pop) as Mags, Melissa Strong as Jia, Jeff Teravainen as Gerald, Huse Madhavji as Mentor Watts, Sean Baek as Ryden, Kate Drummond as Authority Phydra, and Stephanie Hood as Nada.

Utopia Falls features some extraordinary teenagers whose lives are about to change. In a dystopian world, set over 300 years into the future, there is a Utopian colony called New Babyl. Each year, a few teens are chosen to perform at the Exemplar entertainment competition to honor the legacy of their founder Gaia.

One of the candidates Aaliyah, accidentally finds a secret library of cultural relics The Archive. A stunned Aaliyah introduces the place to her fellow candidates, and they begin to wonder why the Tribunal has deprived them of such a multi-faceted assemblage of art forms like Rap and Hip-Hop, etc.

After Bohdi is captured for performing a hip-hop inspired set during the rehearsals, all the Exemplar Candidates, led by Aliyah, start a rebellion against the Tribunal. Aliyah, Apollo, Bohdi, and Brooklyn embark on a quest to uncover whether there are more people beyond the shield that covers New Babyl. Aliyah and her group decide to expose the real side of their idyllic colony through the power of dance and music at the competition. Meanwhile, Authority Phydra does whatever she can to stop Aliyah from fulfilling her purpose.

Check out the gripping trailer of Utopia Falls season 1.

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Utopia Falls Season 2: Release Date, Cast, Hulu, New ...

The Minimes barracks in Paris dont look like the future of cities. A staid brick-and-limestone complex established in 1925 along a backstreet in the Marais district, its the sort of structure you pass without a second glance in a place as photogenic as Paris.

A closer look at its courtyard, however, reveals a striking transformation. The barracks former parking lot has become a public garden planted with saplings. The surrounding buildings have been converted to 70 unusually attractive public housing apartments, at a cost of 12.3 million ($14.5 million). Elsewhere in the revamped complex are offices, a day-care facility, artisan workshops, a clinic, and a cafe staffed by people with autism.

The green, mixed-use, community-friendly approach extends to the streets beyond. Five minutes down the road, the vast Place de la Bastille has been renovated as part of a city-funded 30 million revamp of seven major squares. No longer a roaring island of traffic, its now dedicated mainly to pedestrians, with rows of trees where asphalt once lay. A stream of bikes runs through the square along a freshly repaved, protected coronapisteone of the bike freeways introduced to make cycling across Greater Paris easier during the coronavirus pandemic. City Hall has since announced that the lanes will be permanent, backed by 300 million in ongoing funding from the region and top-ups from municipalities and the French government.

Place de la Nation, one of seven transformed squares.

Photographer: Dmitry Kostyukov for Bloomberg Businessweek

Taken together, the new trees and cycleways, community facilities and social housing, homes and workplaces all reflect a potentially transformative vision for urban planners: the 15-minute city. The 15-minute city represents the possibility of a decentralized city, says Carlos Moreno, a scientific director and professor specializing in complex systems and innovation at University of Paris 1. At its heart is the concept of mixing urban social functions to create a vibrant vicinityreplicated, like fractals, across an entire urban expanse.

Named Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgos special envoy for smart cities, Moreno has become a kind of deputy philosopher at City Hall as it endeavors to turn the French capital into what he calls a city of proximities. His 15-minute concept was developed primarily to reduce urban carbon emissions, reimagining our towns not as divided into discrete zones for living, working, and entertainment, but as mosaics of neighborhoods in which almost all residents needs can be met within 15 minutes of their homes on foot, by bike, or on public transit. As workplaces, stores, and homes are brought into closer proximity, street space previously dedicated to cars is freed up, eliminating pollution and making way for gardens, bike lanes, and sports and leisure facilities. All of this allows residents to bring their daily activities out of their homes (which in Paris tend to be small) and into welcoming, safe streets and squares.

Similar ideas have been around for a long time, including in Paris itself. Walkable neighborhoods and villages were the norm long before automobiles and zoning codes spread out and divided up cities in the 20th century. Yet the 15-minute city represents a major departure from the recent past, and in a growing number of other cities its become a powerful brand for planners and politicians desperate to sell residents on a carbon-lite existence. Leaders in Barcelona, Detroit, London, Melbourne, Milan, and Portland, Ore., are all working toward similar visions. Theyve been further emboldened by the pandemic, with global mayors touting the model in a July report from the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group as central to their recovery road maps.

With climate change, Covid-19, and political upheaval all challenging the ideals of globalism, the hope is to refashion cities as places primarily for people to walk, bike, and linger in, rather than commute to. The 15-minute city calls for a return to a more local and somewhat slower way of life, where commuting time is instead invested in richer relationships with whats nearby. These crises show us the possibility for rediscovering proximity, Moreno says. Because we now have the possibility to stay closer to home, people have rediscovered useful timeanother pace for living.

Its a utopian vision in an era of deep social distressbut one that might, if carried out piecemeal, without an eye to equality, exacerbate existing inequities. Skeptics also wonder whether a city thats no longer organized around getting to work is really a city at all.

Dreams of breaking down the segmented urban planning that dominated the 20th centurywith industry on the outskirts, residential areas ringing the city, commerce in the core, and auto networks connecting long distancesof course arent new. Urban thinkers have been advocating for the preservation or return of walkable, socially mixed neighborhoods at least since the 1961 publication of Jane Jacobss paean to Manhattans Greenwich Village in The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

This advocacy has slowly filtered into mainstream planning orthodoxy. Copenhagen pedestrianized its main shopping street in 1962, the first of many densely built European cities to take this approach in their downtown cores. In the U.S., the so-called New Urbanism of the 1980s and 90s created a planning template (first fully realized in Seaside, Fla.) that saw a preference for row houses and apartments over detached houses, as well as for walkable, tree-lined streets and a careful dispersal of schools, stores, and parks to reduce the need to drive. Since the turn of the millennium, rising concerns over air pollution and climate change have led to further innovations, such as the congestion charge London introduced in 2003 for cars driving into the center and massive expansions of public transit networks in cities from Moscow to Medelln.

The 15-minute city concept draws all these trends into an intuitive rubric that ordinary residents can test against their own experiences. Its also served as a response to pressures wrought by property speculation and rising tourism, which have pushed up rents and driven residents and businesses out of some long-standing communities. The 15-minute city seeks to protect the vitality that made diverse, locally oriented neighborhoods attractive in the first place.

Paris has been moving in this direction for some time. Under the mayorship of the Socialist Partys Hidalgo, who was first elected in March 2014, the city introduced bans on the most polluting motor vehicles, transformed busy roads flanking the Seine into a linear park, and, in a bid to maintain socially mixed communities, expanded the citys network of public housing into wealthier areas. It wasnt until 2020, however, that Hidalgo grouped these efforts together under the umbrella of the 15-minute city, plucking the term from the academic realm and giving it new political urgency.

Moreno

Photographer: Chaire ETI

During her reelection campaign, she teamed with the concepts originator, Moreno, a former robotics specialist whod realized that his primary interest was the environment in which robots functioned. Hidalgo had already laid much of the political groundwork for Morenos blueprint in her first term; now she could link all those bike paths and car lane closures with a vision that matched the vibrancy and convenience of a metropolis with the ease and greenery of a village.

Since winning reelection in June, shes doubled down, appointing a Commissioner for the 15-Minute City, Carine Rolland. A Socialist Party councillor whod previously served in a culture-oriented role in the 18th arrondissement, Rolland also became Pariss culture commissioner. Its true that Paris is already a 15-minute city to an extent, she says, but not at the same level in all neighborhoods and not to all sections of the public. Theres much to be done in the working-class districts on Pariss eastern edge and in many quarters close to the Boulevard Priphrique beltway, for example. In areas like these, social housing towers frequently predominate, and grocery stores and community facilities such as sports centers and clinics are sparse. This has particularly acute consequences for older people and those with limited mobility, Rolland points out.

Closer to Pariss heart, she says, are areas characterized by what we call mono-activitya single commercial activity occupying a whole street. These are notably around the eastern section of the citys inner ring of boulevards, which are dominated by offices and small shops, leaving streets that are lively on workdays to become quiet and uninviting on evenings and weekends.

Rollands job as 15-minute-city commissioner entails coordinating related efforts by different departments. In September, for example, 10 Parisian school grounds reopened as green oasis yards, bringing the total to 41 since the initiative began in 2018. Each has been planted with trees and remodeled with soft, rain-absorbent surfaces that will help battle the summer heat. The yards are left available after school for use as public gardens or sports grounds, and they open onto revamped school streets where cars are banned or severely limited and where trees and benches have been added. Transformations like these, Rolland explains, involve bringing together departments responsible for education, sports, roads, and parks, as well as local business and community organizations.

Paris is far from alone in attempting this sort of transformation. Londons new Mini-Hollands import Dutch planning ideas that seek to reduce or block car access to neighborhood shopping hubs. Barcelona has been turning 400-by-400-meter chunks of road in areas dominated by apartment towers into mostly car-free superblocks. Madrid has declared plans to copy that approach, in keeping with its goal to be a city of 15 minutes as it recovers from the pandemic. Milan has said the same, with hopes to turn Covid-19 bike lanes and sidewalks permanent as its economy restabilizes. But turning the 15-minute city into a truly global movement will require a big battle over a core urban tension: the primacy of the car.

Its one thing to turn a Paris or a Barcelonacities that were almost completely shaped before the automobile was inventedinto a neighborhood-centric utopia. Transforming them is rather like giving a supermodel a makeover. The challenge is far greater in the kinds of younger, sprawling cities found in North America or Australia, where cars remain the dominant form of transit.

Some are trying. Since 2017, Melbourne has been working on a long-term planning blueprint centered on the 20-minute neighbourhood. But while the citys aspirations are similar to Pariss, the issues involved in implementing them could scarcely be more different, especially in areas beyond the already densifying core and inner suburbs. Some middle suburbs are well-served by public transport and are starting to experience densification, but others arent on the bandwagon, explains Roz Hansen, an urbanist who oversaw the preparation of Melbournes blueprint. Meanwhile, the outer suburbs are still at very low densities, partly because of poor public-transport connections.

The city has tried to improve transportation and job options in the outer suburbs, which are marked by single-family homes. Some of the middle suburbs have hosted pilot projects where new mixed commercial-residential developments are being encouraged and streets are being remodeled to increase cycling space and improve walkability. But to create and connect true 20-minute neighborhoods, investment in public transit will be key. The bureaucrats kept thinking, Oh, this is also about getting in your car for a 20-minute trip, but its got nothing to do with the car, Hansen says. The 20-minute neighborhood is about active modes of transport and increasing an areas catchment of accessibility. If youre walking, 1 to 2 kilometers [1.2 miles] is your catchment. If youre cycling, it could be up to 5 to 7 kilometers. With public transport, it can be 10 to 15 kilometers.

Of course we need to adapt this concept for different realities. Not all people have the possibility of having jobs within 15 minutes

U.S. cities holding similarly optimistic blueprints are also struggling to strike a balance between vision and reality. In 2016, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan laid out a plan to turn high-density corridors outside the central business district in his sprawling, 140-square-mile city into 20-minute neighborhoods. Its leading edge thus far is a $17 million pedestrian upgrade in the Livernois-McNichols area, 9 miles northeast of downtown. The project concluded in early 2020 with an emphasis on narrower streets, wider sidewalks for cafe seating, and new lighting. Residents and business owners have been largely pleased with the improvements; a walk to the supermarket is now a much more pleasant ambition.

But that basic urban function is out of reach for the vast majority of the city. An estimated 30,000 citizens lack access to a full-service grocery store, according to a 2017 report by the Detroit Food Policy Council. Katy Trudeau, the citys deputy director of planning and development, says it wasnt long ago that many people had to travel to the suburbs for shopping and other errands. Thats improved overall, and nine other districts have been targeted for upgrades along the lines of the one in Livernois-McNichols. Yet chronic fiscal problems and large swaths of blighted structures left vacant as the citys population declined have made rapid transformation implausible.

So far, most of Detroits achievements under the 20-minute rubric have been modest, including moves toward a comprehensive transportation plan and ongoing investments in lighting and resurfacing. Trudeau also points to a new $50 million public-private affordable housing fund, which seeks to help low-income residents stay in place as property values rise in redeveloping neighborhoods. These things might seem really basic in Paris, but here weve suffered so much in the form of population loss and financial uncertainty in the form of bankruptcy, she says. We have to balance these concentrated strategies with citywide strategies that help everyone with their quality of life. The 20-minute label has served mainly as useful shorthand to communicate the citys goals with residents and investors. Trudeau hopes initiatives such as the housing fund will ensure that it includes a diverse cross section of the population.

Within 15 minutes of the + symbol

Data: Remix, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, OpenStreetMap, Google, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Detroits plans were partly inspired by Portland, Ore., which is celebrated in urbanist circles as a model of U.S. city planning. Portland has the highest rate of bike commuting of any major American metro, a tight boundary that defines how much it can sprawl, and forward-thinking policies aimed at spurring dense, lower-cost housing production. Were often mixed up with Paris, jokes Chris Warner, director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT).

Yet even there, it will take years to achieve the level of compactness that makes for a complete neighborhood, as the citys 2013 plan phrased its goal. About three-quarters of Portlands residential land is occupied primarily by single-family homes, and more than half of its population commutes by car. A recent Brookings Institution report that studied local travel behaviors found that among six U.S. metropolitan areas, Portland had the shortest average trip distance for people traveling to work, shopping, and errands. But that distance was still 6.2 miles, hardly a 15-minute walk or bike ride to the dentist or laundromat. To combat this, PBOT is spending most of its $150 million capital-improvement budget on bike and walking infrastructure inside complete neighborhoods, and on transit to connect them.

Adie Tomer, a fellow at Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and co-author of the report, says the 15-minute concept falls flat in America because people in the U.S. already live in a 15-minute city, its just that theyre covering vast distances in a car. Planners concerned with urban livability and rising carbon emissions might do well to focus on distance rather than time, he says. He suggests that the 3-mile city might resonate better.

However the concept is cast, Art Pearce, PBOTs manager of policy planning and projects, sees signs that Portlanders are keeping their travel closer to home as the pandemic changes the way they relate to their surroundings. Were seeing a lot of people adjusting their behaviors to focus more on their communities, he says. That produces an opportunity to strengthen those ties as people return to a more normal life.

One thing would-be 15-minute cities everywhere will have to reckon with is social equityand affordable housing in particular, as Detroits Trudeau points out. Many neighborhood services rely on lower-income workers who often make long commutes, and a 15-minute city isnt really one if only the well-off can stay put. To that end, Paris aspires to have 30% of its housing stock in the public domain by 2030, and its been increasing the share even in richer districts despite resistance from well-heeled neighbors. It is completely part of Anne Hidalgos program to resist real estate pressure, to maintain public housing, and to diversify the housing offer for the middle class, says Rolland, the 15-minute-city commissioner.

Cyclists along Rue de Rivoli in Paris.

Photographer: Dmitry Kostyukov for Bloomberg Businessweek

Such measures can, to a degree, counterbalance Pariss trends toward high rents and social polarization. But in a city where property prices rose even during the pandemic, theyre unlikely to prevail completely. And other goals of the 15-minute city, such as greening and pedestrianizing the heart of Paris, risk alienating lower-income suburban commuters. This accusation was leveled against Hidalgos administration in 2016, after it introduced changes to the Seines lower quayside that eliminated a key route for car commuters. Valrie Pcresse, president of the regional council for le-de-France, which encompasses Pariss suburbs, accused Hidalgo of acting in an egotistical manner by pushing through road closures, noting that some people dont have any solution other than driving into Paris for work, because they dont have the means to live there. Others have pointed out a related concern: that, by prioritizing local infrastructure, governments will overlook badly needed regional investments, such as in transit systems for more distant commuters.

Moreno recognizes that large segments of the population might never enjoy the slower-paced, localized life he envisions. Of course we need to adapt this concept for different realities, he says. Not all people have the possibility of having jobs within 15 minutes. But he emphasizes that many peoples circumstances could be profoundly changedsomething he believes were already seeing because of the pandemics canceled commutes. In his view, centralized corporate offices are a thing of the past; telework and constellations of coworking hubs are the future.

The 15-minute city could also be seen as what writer Dan Hill identified as a form of post-traumatic urbanisma way to recover from the onslaughts of such things as property speculation, overtourism, and now the pandemic. Already its become clear in Paris, Rolland says, that the city needs a more localized medical network, so people dont feel they have to go straight to the emergency room.

Following the unending traumas of 2020, theres an appealing nostalgia to a renewed emphasis on neighborhoods, even if it addresses only some of the citys modern challenges. This, too, Moreno acknowledges, pointing yet again to his ideas recuperative possibilities above all. The 15-minute city is a journey, a guideline, a possibility for transforming the paradigm for how we live over the next many decades, he says. Before, people were losing useful time. With the 15-minute city, we want them to regain it.

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