Row Houses Research Articles

Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Tokyo (review)

Reviewed by: Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Tokyo Matthew W. Shores Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Tokyo. By Lorie Brau. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008. xv, 257 pp. 9 black-and-white illus. Notes, glossary, bibliography, and index. Cloth, $75.00; paper, $34.95. Japan scholars, students, and those interested in traditional performing and narrative arts, early modern and modern history, popular culture, media, humor, and heritage—all these will surely want to have Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage by Lorie Brau on their shelves, for both research and enjoyment. Rakugo is imperative to consider in gaining a fuller understanding of early modern Japan’s comic literature (gesaku), the origins of modern Japanese literature, and contemporary Japanese humor, so this reviewer welcomes Brau’s book. Rakugo is a one-man/woman narrative art that requires little more for props, costume, or setting than a paper folding fan, a hand towel, a kimono, and a cushion to kneel. Partly because of this minimalism, rakugo is not discussed with the more dramatically “exciting” Japanese performing arts such as nō, kyōgen, bunraku, and kabuki. Because these four Japanese theater genres showcase much for our visual and aural senses, they have drawn more academic attention in both the West and Japan. Rakugo may also have been over-looked by the West until recently since the primary mode of communication is language. Indeed, in classical stories (those composed in the Edo and Meiji periods) old words and subject matter challenge today’s listeners—Japanese included. Listeners must both come to shows ready to set the stage with their imaginations and having done a bit of research before walking into a yose (variety hall) to listen to rakugo. One day at lunch, Murakami Haruki translator Jay Rubin asked me, “Sure, rakugo is funny, but can you write about it and still make it funny?” Fear not, Professor Rubin, Lorie Brau has indeed made rakugo “funny,” and still remained objective. Brau’s opening is much like the makura (introduction) to a rakugo story. She efficiently lays out her study on rakugo and offers empathy for her readers, who are new to or perplexed by rakugo. She drolly confesses that she did not understand rakugo at first. “During their recitations, waves of laughter crashed around me, an island of silence” (1). [End Page 191] Chapter 1, “Ethnographer as Mummy-Hunter,” is an accurate and enjoyable portrayal of rakugo storytellers (hanashika or rakugoka) as kind-spirited people despite being traditional artists. Of special interest is Brau’s personal account of seeking out contacts and teachers. She tells of trying to fit in as a hanashika herself—opening a world that most Japanese (much less Westerners) never see. Chapter 2, “A Night at the Yose,” is an entertaining “blow-by-blow account” of a telling of Nagaya no hanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing of the Row House Tenants) by the late master hanashika Katsura Bunchō (1942–2005). Brau describes the yose in great detail and makes her readers feel as if they are experiencing the show. This is the most extensive treatment of a single rakugo story published in English to date. Chapter 3, “What Makes Rakugo Rakugo? ” details the history, functions, themes, characteristics, and traditions of rakugo. Also discussed are rakugo research societies and the classic canon. These final two features make the art important for Japanese cultural knowledge, heritage, and identity. Chapter 4, “Wits, Outlaws, Flatterers, and Antiquarians: Hanashika Heritage,” elaborates the nature and traditions of hanashika. Brau notes storytellers’ humble spirit and individuality and the fact that more weight is placed on the conference of legitimacy to pupils than actual instruction of their art (i.e., it is initially more important to be able to say, “I am master so-and-so’s pupil,” than be a capable storyteller [though the latter could not hurt]). Chapter 5, “Rehearsing Tradition: Zenza Apprenticeship and the Hanashika Career,” details the author’s personal experiences and interviews. Brau outlines the busy daily life of zenza (apprentice hanashika) and the trainee’s important role in the yose and gakuya (dressing rooms). Brau also discusses the implication and politics of the more advanced hanashika levels: futatsume...

Towards modern urban housing: redefining Shanghai's lilong

This paper examines both the traditional and the modern aspects of the lilong, traditional low‐rise row houses adapted from the Western tradition to accommodate the families of Chinese workers from the beginning of the Treaty Port era in the late 19th century to the establishment of the People's Republic in 1948. The paper aims to redefine the abstract concept of the lilong, arguing for their potential to be rethought as a typology of low–medium rise‐high density (LMRHD) housing today. In particular, the paper delivers a practical answer to a conceptual question: how does lilong provide the dwelling identity of Shanghai, China, taking into account its form, meaning, and culture? The emergence of both lilong and Western modern housing is rooted in a crisis of space and the economic drive of modern cities. Lilong architecture and the normative living programme embedded in the typology of modern housing have been proper development housing strategies in modern Shanghai. By closely examining both the physical and community aspects that make lilong a mediating agency between Chinese locality and Western modernity, the paper presents the assumption that the architecture of lilong does not confine itself to certain forms or physical configurations; instead it is an “abstract concept” of an urban neighbourhood – the spatial organization, architectural practicality, casual formation of semi‐private space, and community lane‐life – a concept that should be taken into account for the design of urban housing today. The redefinition of lilong is a conceptual idea that will serve as a point of departure for the last part of the paper: a discussion of the possibility to develop this housing strategy for today's situation. This paper also presents the preliminary strategies for the designing of the new LMRHD housing.

Building characterization and aerosol infiltration into a naturally ventilated three-story apartment building

Understanding infiltration of outdoor pollutants was an integral part of the Brooklyn Traffic Real-Time Ambient Pollutant Penetration and Environmental Dispersion (B-TRAPPED) study. For this reason, the structural and air exchange properties of the three-story row house in Brooklyn, NY, USA, that was used in the B-TRAPPED experiments were fully characterized. Factors investigated included representativeness of the construction and impact of building design features on the natural ventilation and infiltration of outdoor aerosol. Both blower door and perfluorocarbon tracer (PFT) air exchange rate (AER) experiments showed that the ventilation rates of the building were quite typical of similar structures in the New York City (NYC) metropolitan area. Indoor/outdoor (I/O) aerosol count ratios by particle size were comparable to a similar vintage naturally ventilated building in Boston, MA, USA. I/O ratio analyses were consistent with literature findings and showed I/O ratios ranging from 0.310 to 0.601, varying across particle sizes (from 0.3 to 5.0 [corrected] mum) and between first and second floor apartments. An effort to apply the rebound method of Thatcher et al. (Aerosol Sci. Technol., 2003, 37, 847-864) in determining aerosol infiltration rates proved unsuccessful due to unexpectedly long (>60 min) equilibration times after the filtration period. Uninsulated interior wall renovations in the study house created a cavity that resulted in a large intermediate dead volume (for infiltration) that apparently could not be accommodated by a simple infiltration model. Simple two-compartment models evidently have finite application limitations for even modestly complex settings.

Analysis of indoor air pollution trends and characterization of infiltration delay time using a cross-correlation method

High-density housing in close proximity to freeways in conjunction with high concentrations of traffic emissions may contribute to significant degradation of indoor air quality. Densely populated areas may also be targeted for intentional releases of biological or chemical agents because an urban release could result in higher morbidity and mortality from the attack. Since people tend to spend the majority of their time indoors, it is paramount to explore the relationships between outdoor and indoor air quality and, specifically, the time scales that characterize transport of airborne contaminants from outdoors to indoors. In the Brooklyn Traffic Real-Time Ambient Pollutant Penetration and Environmental Dispersion (B-TRAPPED) study, a three-story row house with a flat face and roof and multiple rooms was used to investigate outdoor-to-indoor contaminant time scales. The building was located in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, USA, in the vicinity of a major expressway and a heavily trafficked arterial road. It was found that the building shell has a profound impact on the indoor concentrations. A strong hourly periodicity (see Eisner et al., this issue, DOI: 10.1039/b907132f) in concentration outside the building during the morning "rush hour" was used as evidence to suggest that indoor contaminants originated from outdoor air penetration. Although the indoor concentrations followed a similar pattern, indoor concentrations were found to be more persistent than outdoor concentrations. Stronger persistency is used here to describe the tendency of the indoor concentration to continue to rise even if the outdoor concentration has started to drop, or vice versa. This may be an important factor in assessing negative health risks to inhabitants or first responders. A cross-correlation technique was employed to study the correlation between outdoor and indoor time series. In the high-density housing residential building used in the study, it was found that a long lag time exists (11 min) before indoor and outdoor concentrations reach maximal correlation.

The effect of a tall tower on flow and dispersion through a model urban neighborhood : Part 2. Pollutant dispersion

This article is the second in a two-paper series presenting results from wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of flow and dispersion in an idealized model urban neighborhood. Pollutant dispersion results are presented and discussed for a model neighborhood that was characterized by regular city blocks of three-story row houses with a single 12-story tower located at the downwind edge of one of these blocks. The tower had three significant effects on pollutant dispersion in the surrounding street canyons: drawing the plume laterally towards the tower, greatly enhancing the vertical dispersion of the plume in the wake of the tower, and significantly decreasing the residence time of pollutants in the wake of the tower. In the wind tunnel, tracer gas released in the avenue lee of the tower, but several blocks away laterally, was pulled towards the tower and lifted in the wake of the tower. The same lateral movement of the pollutant was seen in the next avenue, which was approximately 2.5 tower heights downwind of the tower. The tower also served to ventilate the street canyon directly in its wake more rapidly than the surrounding areas. This was evidenced by CFD simulations of concentration decay where the residence time of pollutants lee of the 12-story tower was found to be less than half the residence time behind a neighboring three-story building. This same phenomenon of rapid vertical dispersion lee of a tower among an array of smaller buildings was also demonstrated in a separate set of wind tunnel experiments using an array of cubical blocks. A similar decrease in the residence time was observed when the height of one block was increased.

The effect of a tall tower on flow and dispersion through a model urban neighborhood : Part 1. Flow characteristics

Wind tunnel experiments were performed to examine the effect of a tall tower on the flow around an otherwise uniform array of buildings. Additionally, preliminary CFD simulations were run to visualize the flow with more resolution. The model used in both the wind tunnel and CFD studies was designed to simulate an area of Brooklyn, NY, USA, where blocks of residential row houses form a neighborhood bordering a major urban highway. This area was the site of a field study that, along with the work reported here, had the goal of improving the understanding of airflow and dispersion patterns within urban microenvironments. Results reveal that a tall tower has a dramatic effect on the flow in the street canyons in the neighboring blocks, enhancing the exchange between the street canyon flow and the freestream flow aloft. In particular, vertical motion down the windward side and up the leeward side of the tower resulted in strong flows in the lateral street canyons and increased winds in the street canyons in the immediate vicinity of the tower. These phenomena were visible in both the wind tunnel and CFD results, although some minor differences in the flow fields were noted.

Radical Democracy, African American (Male) Subjectivity, and John Edgar Wideman's Philadelphia Fire

According to Jacques Derrida, meaning in the West is defined in terms of binary oppositions, violent hierarchy, where of the two terms governs the (41). Within the white/black binary opposition in the West, the African American is defined as a devalued Other. One of the aims of many postmodern African American writers such as Ishmael Reed, Toni Morrison, Clarence Major, Bonnie Greer, Samuel R. Delany, Xam Cartier, and others has been to deconstruct in fiction this binary opposition, unleashing and re-positioning African American subjectivities. To escape but not leave western logocentrism, of which the novel is a subsystem, these writers have turned to certain African American cultural forms such as the blues, jazz, and voodoo to challenge the Eurocentric horizon of the novel. John Edgar Wideman's Philadelphia Fire (1990) uses a peripheral, cultural paradigm or technique to challenge the conventions of the novel and to re-represent the African American. This essay examines how Fire contests the traditional, modern novel, as it aims to re-describe African American subjectivity. I also explore how Fire undermines the western quest narrative by giving heteroglossic perspectives on the MOVE bombing. Finally, I examine how Fire shows its heteroglossic limits in its treatment of women. Contesting the Traditional Novel In its desire to challenge the traditional novel, Fire plays with instrumental reason and other Enlightenment ideas. Using the concept of radical democracy--a diversity of perspectives and points of view that parallel, intersect, and contradict each other, without the desire for totality or mastery--Fire gives a different perspective on the African American, one that does not construct the African American as experientially monolithic. In an interview with James Coleman, Wideman discusses his conscious, overt efforts to violate the conventions of the modern/realistic novel, which attempts to impose a single, unitary language on heterogeneity, and to unleash differences: I don't think that you can write a very meaningful book about a culture that's in flux, a culture that is changing all the time, and a culture [that] is infused with minority points of view ... and [still] use the conventions and traditions of narrative fiction. (159) Fire engages a democratic search for the flux, or multiple meanings. It gives the reader a radically democratic text where African Americans from different socioeconomic, educational, and cultural levels represent the same event/social reality, the bombing of the MOVE row house in Philadelphia. It shows how each station in life, along with its own individuality, affects the construction/perception of reality. Although the novel is sensitive to the immense plurality of experiences among African Americans, it does not disassociate difference from economic and social inequality. It gives us radical democracy at the narrative and ideological levels, but it remains Eurocentric and hegemonic in terms of subjectivity, except for the masculine, where, theoretically, it affirms difference, but obscures this difference by positing representations of the Selfsame.1 In Fire, the masculine narratorial 'T' of Cudjoe and Wideman the character is never deconstructed. In addition to maintaining a masculine self/Other binary opposition, it fails to engage the reason of the Other, (2) particularly Euro-American women who participate in heterosexual coupling, love interest, or who are the recipient of the male gaze. It thereby erases feminine differences. Fire uses several textual strategies to push the boundaries of the traditional narrative, opening it up to other forms of speech. Wideman admits that he takes chances with the narrative: I like to take chances, and one chance that I have been taking lately ... is a chance with the texture of the narrative--letters, hymns, poems, song lyrics, thoughts, speech, time present, time past, future time, philosophical discourse, scatting, etc. …

Very Decent of You

If you drive east on D117 you come up on a twisty road out of the scenic gorge where the town of Quillan is spread, and cross part of the Plateau du Sault to get to the little French town of Puivert. As you dip down the road to drive in, you notice a recreational lake, which was at one time a much larger body of water. If you come in from the west on the D road, you go through the market towns of Lavalenet and Foix before you arrive. You turn into the village and notice the aged stone row houses leaning over the narrow streets. An old church near the mairie just off the town square seems to be crumbling, some of its windows cracking as it falls back to an earlier time. There is a severe, cold looking war memorial near a bricked-up fountain, and a small caf? just up the hill beside an open atrium. You turn on to a road that swings toward the lake and drive through clusters of newer dwellings on the outskirts of town before you turn right into another row of stone houses at least several centuries old. These are in various states of order and disorder?but something catches your eye as you make a turn and drive down the narrow pavement. Propped against the bright blue door of one of the houses as you pass is a pair of binoculars leaning on the baseboard against the painted steel trim. If you know anything about optics, you quickly see that these are very good binoculars?Bushneil, made for the National Audubon Society, 8 x 42WA, a focus that brings distant objects up in marvelous clarity, 430 feet at 1100 yards with adjust able lenses in both eye pieces as well as the main focus wheel. There it is?this very good instrument without a case, just propped up on the base against the blue door. Perhaps fifty yards further down the pavement, past three or four more houses, the landscape opens to pastures and a stunning view of the Pyrenees foothills. You would like to reverse the car and go back to borrow those binoculars to take a look at this view, but you drive on a bit puzzled.

MODELING GAMMA RADIATION DOSE IN DWELLINGS DUE TO BUILDING MATERIALS

A model is presented that calculates the absorbed dose rate in air of gamma radiation emitted by building materials in a rectangular body construction. The basis for these calculations is formed by a fixed set of specific absorbed dose rates (the dose rate per Bq kg(-1) 238U, 232Th, and 40K), as determined for a standard geometry with the dimensions 4 x 5 x 2.8 m3. Using the computer codes Marmer and MicroShield, correction factors are assessed that quantify the influence of several room and material related parameters on the specific absorbed dose rates. The investigated parameters are the position in the construction; the thickness, density, and dimensions of the construction parts; the contribution from the outer leave; the presence of doors and windows; the attenuation by internal partition walls; the contribution from building materials present in adjacent rooms; and the effect of non-equilibrium due to 222Rn exhalation. To verify the precision, the proposed method is applied to three Dutch reference dwellings, i.e., a row house, a coupled house, and a gallery apartment. The averaged difference with MCNP calculations is found to be 4%.

Bicycle-Theft Victimization in Contemporary Urban China

China has been characterized as a “bicycle nation.” Since the economic reform was initiated in the early 1980s, bicycles have become a major target of criminal activities because of their availability, utility, and monetary value, and because of the difficulty of securing them. The present study discusses the Chinese concern with bicycle theft and explores the social and legal aspects of bicycle-theft victimization in China. Drawing upon the lifestyle-exposure and routine-activities perspectives, the present study specifies a number of important household- and neighborhood-level variables as indicators of target attractiveness, guardianship, and exposure to potential offenders to explore the risk of bicycle theft in urban China. Using data collected from a recent survey in the city of Tianjin, the study conducts multilevel analyses of the risk and protective factors for bicycle-theft victimization. The data show that house type (row houses) and number of adult household members are significant protective factors for the risk of bicycle theft, whereas neighborhood poverty level is a significant risk factor. Exposure to potential offenders, which is measured in terms of neighborhood deviance and/or crime level, is also a risk factor for bicycle-theft victimization.

Transmission of impact sound in wood-framed construction

Ongoing studies in the flanking transmission facilities at NRC-IRC have developed a framework for predicting the overall sound transmission, including flanking, in wood-framed multifamily buildings. Power flow via each flanking path is affected by five factors that determine a path transfer function specific to the type of excitation (airborne or impact) and the construction details. This paper examines how common construction details affect transmission of impact sound between adjacent rooms, which are either side-by-side or one above the other. Since the source room floor is an element common to all impact flanking paths, a series of toppings were evaluated as treatment options. Additional layers of gypsum board and improvement due to resilient mounting were evaluated for the walls in the receiving room. Estimates of the resulting impact SPL were obtained by summing the energy transmitted by the direct path through the floor assembly separating the pair of rooms (if applicable) and all the flanking paths involving the relevant wall-floor junctions. These estimates provide the basis for a design guide to predict sound isolation in typical wood-framed row housing or apartment buildings.

権利関係から見た在日コリアンが集住する長屋ブロックの空間変容

The objective of this research is to clarify the characteristics of formation process of row houses block No.5 in Higashikujo, Kyoto, which mostly occupied by Korean, focusing on a shift in right of lands and buildings. The research also aims to reveal the process of a change in right of ownership and life style of people due to transformation in living spatial configuration of row houses block. Using the oral history for analysis, the characteristics of transformation process of row houses block can be concluded as follows; 1. In the beginning, each family of Korean who usually are relatives or came from the same local area in Korea immigrated to the area. 2. The early stage of transformation is the outcome of changing the original living spatial configuration to meet the life styles and living patterns of Korean who was still mere tenants. 3. The next stage of transformation when Korean had gained the right of lands and building, is the result of making sure of stable and peaceful living environment by them.

Weavers Restaurant Trust

The article describes Weavers Restaurant Trust, set up by Providence Row Housing Association to provide support into work for disabled and disadvantaged people in the East End of London. In the past seven years, the Trust has grown into a highly successful enterprise, providing a unique quality of training and winning numerous awards. Most important, is has assisted many people to find suitable skilled employment.

Residential construction quality and production levels in Taiwan

PurposeThe aim of this article is to present a new, simple applicable method of inferring and assessing residential construction quality at an industry‐wide level.Design/methodology/approachConstruction quality is measured using ratios of structural materials to production levels. Cement and reinforcing bar per 1,000m2 of residential floor space are the metrics, especially appropriate in Taiwan as new dwelling units (virtually all apartments and row houses) and all of reinforced concrete. Complementary measurements of quality for labour and non‐structural construction material inputs were also made.FindingsThe structural input and complementary measures indicate that the quality of Taiwanese residential construction declines dramatically and consistently at higher production levels. The implication is that dwelling units from the 1990s construction boom are especially at risk.Research limitations/implicationsThe methods cannot be used to identify specific buildings at risk. The methods are difficult to apply in situations where construction methods and residential types are heterogeneous.Practical implicationsConstruction quality can be monitored on a regular basis so industry‐wide steps can be taken if quality declines appear. The evidence is consistent with Taiwan's sub‐contractor network enabling rapid expansions and contractions at the expense of hidden quality failure.Originality/valueThis paper provides information that could lead to much firmer regulatory systems, hence has the potential to help save lives and property.

The Extendable Patio House as Public Support

A theoretical social trend prevailed in the Western World during the mid-20th century aimed at creating a sense of belonging to the community, a physical and personal identity and affiliation to a place through planning and architecture. This trend gained popularity especially after the dismantling of CIAM in 1956 at Dubrovnik, the organization of Team X, and in light of research by the SAR group (Stichting Architecten Research). A short-lived project initiated by the Public Housing Project in the State of Israel expressed this trend. During the years 1956-1959, small one-story row houses were built in order to provide housing for newly arrived immigrants. The houses were initially partially built; the dweller was expected to complete the remainder of work using his own resources and during his free time. The perception whereby the resident is expected to extend his home on his own and bear the responsibility for building his house corresponded with the prevailing belief that social pluralistic contents could be implemented using architecture. The addition to the house was determined in advance. The one-story row house was to be extended along its length while incorporating a small patio that would serve as a source of light and ventilation. Due to the existence of the patio, the above-mentioned extended house was called “The Patio House,” and is the subject of this paper. This paper examines the design of the house in light of the prevailing theoretical background, the attempts made to implement it, and the results. The conclusions relate to the implementation of support system buildings in the context of public housing.

The Conservation of Cultural Heritage Along Amphawa Canal, Samut Songkhram Province

The Amphawa community houses the birth place of King Rama II Nowadays this community is still water-based and one can see Thai-styled and row houses, canal-side walkways and ladders leading down to the canal. Against this backdrop are coconut plantations and mixed orchards of pomelo, lychee, etc. Amphawa is also rich in Thai culture featuring mural paintings, traditional dance and music and architecture. Water-based ways of life are very much alive as evidenced by water traffic. The objective of the project is to modify and apply the SAVE and CHIP techniques devised by the Danish Government as part of Cultural Heritage Conservation, awareness-raising campaign and demonstration of conservation campaign of traditional buildings ranging from government buildings, Thai-styled and contemporary houses and row houses to the rehabilitation of a canal landscape. As a result, local people are better aware of the advantages of cultural heritage conservation while the project enhances the preparedness of the community to accommodate ecological tourism. Finally, the experience gained from this project can also be applied to other areas of Thailand.

The People of This Generation: The Rise and Fall of the New Left in Philadelphia (review)

Book Reviews63 appears in the Appendix, was written by Michael Frenzei, an East German resister who served time in a Communist prison. Several authors described the negative impact of prisons on inmantes and insisted that an enlightened society would find creative alternatives to incarceration as they had experienced it. Besides their intrinsic readability, these essays provide a useful reference tool for researchers studying a prison system based on the assumption that increasingly punitive tactics bring desirable results. Despite frequent use of severe punishment, including solitary confinement, only one of the resisters included in this anthology abandoned his pacifism. These Strange Criminals is must reading for any young man or woman considering a moral stand that might lead to a prison sentence. It will also help make visible the absolutist pacifists from past wars, for their stories constitute an important chapter in the much neglected history of active nonviolence. For collecting these memoirs, and contributing one of his own, Peter Brock has earned the thanks of all Friends and others who are working to end the horror ofwar. Larry Gara, EmeritusWilmington College The People of This Generation: The Rise and Fall of the New Left in Philadelphia. By Paul Lyons. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. 288 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. $39.95. The story of the New Left in Philadelphia is complex, tangled, ultimately both sad and inspiring. Paul Lyons tells it clearly and sympathetically in seven well-focused chapters. He weaves together a broad overview in the first and final chapters and documents the social activism fueled by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam anti-war movement, first on the Quaker campuses—some ofwhose students had traveled South and worked in predominantly African-American communities like Chester, Pennsylvania; then in the Catholic institutions La Salle, Villanova, and St. Joseph's; and in the commuter school Temple University and the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania. This leads on to his account of the emergence of two dominant organizations, the Philadelphia Resistance and People Against Racism. A large part of this story is Philadelphia itself, not only Quaker Philadelphia but also the city of small industries, homeowners, and neighborhoods spread over an extensive area. Lyons draws the sharp contrast between Quaker pacifism and patrician liberalism. . . .and Frank Rizzo, the high school dropout who becomes Police Commissioner and is twice 64Quaker History elected mayor. Rizzo is the urban populist and avenger, hero of the row house people and the ethnic communities who were convinced that they were getting nothing. Where was the war on their poverty? Readers of Quaker History will be especially interested in how Lyons assesses the impact ofQuaker activists and organizations on Philadelphia's New Left. The Philadelphia Resistance exemplifies a "prefigurative politics " of personal authenticity, living one's revolutionary values as one engages in revolutionary struggle, by establishing "the beloved community " and practicing participatory democracy. The Quaker organizations were "the backbone ofmuch ofthe movement," providing and subsidizing office space, equipment, and paid jobs. They were the ongoing, stable institutional that the New Left activists ridiculed, denigrated, exploited, but finally depended on. Readers will recognize many familiar names of organizations and individuals in the story: WILPF, SANE, AFSC, Friends Peace Committee, AQAG, FOR, CCCO, Stuart Meacham, Larry Scott, Robert Gilmore, Lillian and George Willoughby, Lynne Shivers, Charles Walker, Robert Eaton, Norval Reece, George Lakey, David Gracie, and many others who helped create a morally consistent, pragmatically grounded antiwar movement which avoided many of the ideological conflicts of SDS and other activist groups. Many factors contribute to the fall ofthe Philadelphia Left, among them an uncritical support of Maoism and Third World violent revolutionary movements, a readiness to romanticize any deviant behavior as resistance to bourgeois forms of social control, and an obliviousness, if not a contempt , for the suburbs and their mostly middle-class residents. The New Left could not connect with the row house and ethnic constituencies for whom Frank Rizzo spoke. But as Lyons tells it, this fall is also a fertile scattering of activists into new movements—feminism, gay rights, ecological concerns—and into social work, public health, law, medicine, teaching, and not least into careers in Quaker schools and the AFSC, where we...

Post-war new town 'models': a European comparison

Stevenage, Tapiola (Hagalund) and Vällingby were the first exponents of the new town concept in Britain, Finland and Sweden respectively, attracting attention not only within their home countries but also widely in Europe. In all three places, general plans were finalized around 1950, testing the latest ideas B such as neighbourhood units, the Radburn concept and community centres. The towns were to be organized in cohesive neighbour-hood areas, each with its own identity and its own community centre. The three towns differ in their morphological character. In Tapiola the scale is modest but the variation all the greater. In Stevenage the single-family house predominates, while in Tapiola there is a mixture of house types. Vällingby is dominated by blocks of flats, though there are also row houses and detached houses. In all three towns resources and interest were invested in achieving a modern main centre, which included cultural and social activities as well as commercial ones. Each town epitomized a new, brighter future, perhaps reflecting an optimism that was stronger in Scandinavia and Britain than elsewhere. The firm faith that characterized the drive to build the three new towns may seem slightly naive from today=s point of view. Yet it is clear that we can learn a lot from the enthusiasm and fighting spirit of the 1950s, the social commitment, and the desire to create good housing, preferably with ample outdoor environments, affordable to broad groups of citizens.

A study of urban housing demolition as a source of lead in ambient dust on sidewalks, streets, and alleys

We examined changes in ambient dust lead (Pb) levels associated with the demolition of older row houses containing lead paint in Baltimore, MD, USA. Our previous paper describes the three study sites, the demolition processes, and increases in the Pb dustfall rate during demolition (>40-fold) and debris removal (>6-fold) within 10 m of sites where wetting was of limited effectiveness. This paper presents the analysis of settled dust collected using a cyclone device from streets, sidewalks, and alleys within 100 m of study sites before, immediately after, and 1 month after demolition. We found acute increases in Pb loadings and dust loadings after demolition and debris removal that are of public health concern. Streets and alleys had the greatest increases in Pb loadings and the highest levels overall. At one site, geometric mean (GM) Pb loadings immediately after demolition increased 200% for streets to 8080 μg/ft 2, 138% for alleys to 6020 μg/ft 2, and 26% for sidewalks to 2170 μg/ft 2. One month after demolition, the GM Pb loadings for streets, alleys, and sidewalks were reduced on average by 41–67% from postdemolition levels and were below baseline levels for alleys and sidewalks. The other main site had smaller increases in GM Pb loadings immediately after demolition—18% for alleys to 1740 μg/ft 2 and 18% for sidewalks to 2050 μg/ft 2—and a decrease of 29% for streets to 2730 μg/ft 2. Exterior dust is a public health concern because it is a pathway of ambient Pb exposure and a potential source of residential exposure via tracking and reaerosolization and redeposition. Our findings highlight the need to control demolition-related Pb deposition and to educate planners, contractors, and health and housing agencies. This is particularly important given the large numbers of aging US dwellings that will be razed as part of future urban redevelopment efforts.

Optimizing Parallel Layout of MRHC to Improve Quality of Views from Dwelling Units with Genetic Algorithm

This paper attempted the design method for the optimal parallel layout of Multistory Row House Clusters (MRHC) to maximize the overall quality of views from dwelling units with Genetic Algorithm (GA). The evaluation function of GA was designed based on the regression model established in our previous study. Five simulation models were executed respectively, which differed in the combination of Neighbor Blocks (NB) that MRHC faced and abutted. The optimal solutions to all the models can be sorted into similar three types of layouts which have common features such as: 1) improvement in the overall quality of views over the popular layout in the reality; 2) separated green lands inside MRHC; and 3) a not straightly aligned road. Furthermore, the discrepancy of the best solution in the models indicated that MRHC with different external surroundings demanded a different layout. Finally, the influences of the external surroundings on the quality of views in our model of MRHC were compared.