Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Early Growth Moon<\/p>\n
Writing the post below reminded me of a topic I pursued in some depth for many years, cities. \u00a0Cities fascinated me from the moment I visited Chicago, Washington and NYC as a teenager. \u00a0Small town central Indiana, even the Indianapolis of the late 50’s and early 60’s, had none of the energy, the danger, the possibility.<\/p>\n
(Cedar-Riverside People’s Center, formerly Riverside Presbyterian Church. \u00a0I had an office there in the late 70’s and early 80’s.)<\/p>\n
When I moved to New Brighton in 1970, on my very first day at Seminary, also my very first day in Minnesota, we visited the Guthrie, the Walker and the MIA. \u00a0Not too much later I discovered a program, I don’t recall its name, that allowed students to buy theater tickets and orchestra tickets for\u00a0ridiculously low prices. \u00a0That put me in the seats at the Guthrie, its design in the old spot based on the Stratford, Ontario festival theater, a theater in the round(ish) with a thrust stage, a theater I had visited many times.<\/p>\n
At some point not long after that I got a job as a weekend staff person for Community Involvement Programs (CIP), a facility for training recently released and high functioning developmentally disabled adults. \u00a0The concept involved apartment based training, teaching folks how to live independently. \u00a0The next stop after C.I.P. was your own apartment.<\/p>\n
I lived in the facility, located in Mauna Loa apartment building, just to the east of what was then Abbott Hospital in the Stevens Square Neighborhood. \u00a0After that move I lived in either Minneapolis or St. Paul until 1994, our relocation year from Highland Park, St. Paul to Andover. (There was a brief and unhappy hiatus at the Peaceable Kingdom, my first wife and mine’s 80 acre farm in Hubbard County, and a bit of time in Centerville, the rest all in the cities.)<\/p>\n
Over those years, starting with the organizing of the Stevens Square Community Organization and its subsequent redesign and redevelopment, which featured a very public fight with General Mills over their purchase and rehabbing Stevens Square apartments, my life became inextricable from the life of urban neighborhoods. \u00a0That engagement stuck until I left the Presbyterian ministry in 1991. \u00a0It even lasted a year beyond that when I took on teaching a small group of students in urban ministry internships.<\/p>\n
Someday, I’m going to write about those years. \u00a0They were fun and a lot of good got done. \u00a0Plus I learned a lot of things about cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Early Growth Moon Writing the post below reminded me of a topic I pursued in some depth for many … Continue reading Cities<\/span>