Monday, January 01, 2007

"Architect Opposes Stadium"


The text string "architect opposes stadium" returns no matches in a Google search. Why is that ? I oppose the stadium tax and the less than democratic way it was imposed here in Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA, and as a result, am willing to oppose the stadium. I can't be the only person in the architectural profession to do so, can I ?

Today is the day that Hennepin County starts collecting additional sales tax to pay for a baseball stadium for the Minnesota Twins – a privately owned company that generates millions of dollars in profits regardless. This demonstrates that team owners are in no real need of public subsidy. But billionaires have the clout to coerce government entities (and therefore taxpayers) to pay millions. Sounds like extortion to me. And of course, every occupying force has its collaborators, and in this case, it’s the Hennepin County Commissioners, and the Minnesota State Legislature and Governor who granted the Commission the power to levy the tax without a citizen vote.

Architects are apparently shy to speak out against almost anything that might come back to effect a project in the future– a restaurant around the corner from the stadium, a dream house or corporate campus for a CEO that might also be a big baseball booster. So it seems that a likely cadre of professionals that might have great insight into what is appropriate or not, remain silent – almost to a person – about the ethical nature of the public subsidy.

I am already strategizing about how to shift some of my purchasing outside the county – its not that hard for many people near the county border to do this. I can easily go to Ramsey or Anoka County instead. Luckily, those alternatives save me .5% in addition to avoiding the .15% Stadium Tax. Hennepin County deserves to lose some business, and perhaps there will be more pressure from the business community on the local government to let the voters have direct say in corporate welfare programs like the stadium tax.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Make no small demands: the INURA


INURA ( International Network of Urban Research and Action ) is a network of people involved in action and research in localities and cities. There goals are herculean - to disempower the current global players, and make profits in neoliberal terms, unsustainable. The Network consists of activists and researchers from community and environmental groups, universities, and local administrations, who wish to share experineces and to participate in common research. Examples of the issues that Network members are involved in include: major urban renewal projects, the urban periphery, community-led environmental schemes, urban traffic and transport, inner city labour markets, do-it-yourself culture, and social housing provision. In each case, the research is closely tied to, and is a product of, local action and initiative. There are many architects and planners connected to this world wide project.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Who Will Organize the Architects Union ?


Architects may need to consider activism within the practice to retain jobs domestically. It is increasingly common that architectural services are being outsourced abroad along with other services and high-tech jobs. Are we as architects deluding ourselves by assuming that our design skills will translate into other fulfilling jobs here at home, while the work we are being specifically trained to do is contracted abroad to lower labor costs ?

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Architects for Peace Down Under

Architects for Peace network of design professionals, started in Australia during the build up to the war in Iraq by the United States. They proceed as a nonprofit to create dialogue and awareness within the design professions of the connections between building and war.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Architects Boycott Prison Design


Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) are helping to build a movement of designers who say no to prison design. The growing prison population not only exacerbates the racial and economic inequalities in our society, but is also bankrupting many of the public institutions that form the best alternatives. See if you know someone who has already signed the pledge, and consider adding your name.