Shawna Atteberry

The Baker Who Also Writes and Teaches

May be Rachel Shteir should've just reviewed the books

TheThirdCoastLast week, Thursday night found me at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago with my good friend, Lainie Petersen, to hear Thomas Dyja talk about his new book, The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream. Both Dyja and the audience were excited that the book was going to be on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, and be reviewed it its pages. That excitement didn’t last long when Rachel Shteir’s “review” of The Third Coast and two other books about Chicago came out. Instead of reviewing the three books Shteir wrote an op-ed piece about what she hates about Chicago (the only three things she could find to like were: “The beauty of Lake Michigan. A former rail yard has become Millennium Park. Thanks to global warming, the winters have softened.”). She did make some good points about Chicago’s sins: corruption, the mob, nepotism, and the shooting violence in the city. But these were overshadowed by her diatribe, and a lot historical inaccuracies she cited in the article. She also portrayed Dyja’s book as a cynical take on Chicago’s history of how it all went wrong under the first Mayor Daley. But I know the way she “interpreted” Dyja’s book was wrong, because last week I heard Mr. Dyja talk about his book. I had a nice chat with him as he signed my book, and I had started reading it. I first found out about this op-ed piece masquerading as a book review on The Chicago Reader’s blog, The Bleader in Mike Miner’s insightful and accurate take-down of Shteir, “Not Quite Detroit: Chicago as described by a New York Times book critic.” I made this response:

Shtier’s article makes one of Dyja’s points perfectly from his talk last week at the Harold Washington Library. Dyja said that one of the hallmarks of Chicago (then and now) is the city’s inclusivity and intimacy. He contrasted that with NYC’s exclusivity: you have to know the right people to get in the right places, so you can rub where you go in everyone else’s face. Whereas in Chicago everyone’s welcome at the party. In contrast to how she depicted Hefner as free sex, Dyja said that Hefner was key in this because Playboy showed men how to come to the party and act at it. Hefner showed Playboy members how to live in this new, swanky America and everyone was welcome. Shtier’s derogatory attitude about Chicago shows NYC’s uppity exclusivity like nothing else can. She doesn’t like Chicago because she doesn’t like how inclusive we are, which comes through in Lina’s comment on the differences in the artistic communities between Chicago and NYC. Here you’re welcome to come and experiment and play all you want (another Dyja’s 6 qualities that produced the Chicago of The Third Coast); whereas, in NYC you have to have the right pedigree and credentials to get in.
I’ve only started reading The Third Coast, but based on Dyja’s talk last week, I think Shtier’s review warps the book into what she wants the book to be: why Chicago will never be as good as NYC. I think Ms. Shtier needs to move back to NYC since she’s so miserable in Chicago.

This was Thomas Dyja’s response to my comment:

Thank you Shawna, for sharing some of what I said at the library last week. Before people start to confuse my book with a review of it, I hope they give THE THIRD COAST a read. It’s by no means a take down of Chicago; if anything it’s an affirmation of the city’s importance to America.

Walter Ellison. Train Station, 1935, The Chicago Art Institute

Walter Ellison. Train Station, 1935, The Chicago Art Institute

I did have to qualify my “everyone’s invited to the party” comment because Chicago is one of the most racist and segregated cities in the U. S.:

I realize Chicago has its evil side. I was horrified when I moved here in 2006 by the nepotism of this city that blindly voted for Todd Stroger, who was obviously not qualified in any way, shape, or form for the office, but they “had” to vote for him because he was the Democrat. Someone made the point about my previous comment that not everyone was invited to the party in Chicago, citing Chicago’s racism and segregation. I absolutely agree. I was citing a point from Dyja’s talk that was actually based on the book, and not Shteir’s opinion about Chicago.

I should also add that Dyja does not paint in the broad strokes in the everybody’s invited to the party that I wrote about in my first comment. He talks about Chicago’s racism and segregation. No Bronzeville was not invited to the party during The Third Coast years. They had their own party: The Black Chicago Renaissance. But as Bontemps said: The main difference between the Harlem Black Renaissance and the Chicago Black Renaissance was that in Chicago they didn’t need the finger bowls. Harlem’s Renaissance was funded by upper-class white patrons, so only the right black artists were admitted. But Chicago’s Black Renaissance was a grass roots art movement, and most of the artists worked other jobs to support themselves while they made incredible art that was a scathing, beautiful and haunting commentary on Chicago’s segregation and racism. If you haven’t seen the They Seek a City exhibit at The Art Institute, I highly recommend it. It’s phenomenal. I’m sorry I painted that so broadly, but I still think that Dyja has a valid point: Chicago is much more inclusive, and NYC prides itself on being exclusive.

But the thing that bothered me the most wasn’t all the Chicago bashing. Rachel Shteir did not review the books. She wrote an op-ed about why she doesn’t like Chicago. As a writer I can’t imagine finally having a book reviewed in the Times then seeing that my book didn’t get reviewed–the reviewer took the opportunity to bash the subject of my book. I was happy to hear my friend Erin Shea Smith, the Vice President of Digital Content at Edelman nail this point home this morning on Chicago’s local NPR station: Shteir, as a book critic, did not do her job. She did not review the three books she was paid to review. She wrote an op-ed piece. An op-ed piece that The New York Times then published as a book review. There has been a fabulous discussion on Erin’s Facebook page about this “book review,” Erin’s response on NPR, and all of our responses. The main reason Erin was on NPR was that Shteir made a comment that Chicago had so few women writers. She named two: Nami Mun and Eula Biss. The response were lists of women writing in Chicago on both blogs and Facebook, and Erin is one of those writers. In a discussion on Erin’s Facebook page I made this observation (which I also shared in the Bleader’s comments):

Shteir is not doing women writers any favors. The Times does not review that many books written by women, and they don’t have that many women book reviewers. Publishing an op-ed instead of a review reinforces their sexist belief that women shouldn’t be taken seriously in the literary world. She whined that Chicago doesn’t have that many women writers, but she didn’t do us any favors by writing a fluff piece for the Times Book Review.

I’ve now looked up the numbers to back up that assertion. In 2012 The New York Time Book Review had 40 female book reviewers (down from 52 in 2011) compared to 215 male book reviewers. The reviewed 89 books by women compared to 316 books by men (Vida Count 2012). Earlier this month Deborah Copaken Kogan wrote “My So-Called ‘Post-Feminine’ Life in Arts and Letters” for The Nation. Last October, Sarah Sentilles wrote “The Pen is Mightier than the Sword: Sexist responses to women writing about religion” for The Harvard Bulletin Review. Both women cite in excurciating detail how both the literary and religious writing worlds do not take them seriously as authors and experts in their areas. Kogan cites how book after book, the cover was changed to look girly and given titles that did not reflect the content of her books, along with the fact that none of her books have reviewed by The Times. Sentilles writes how critic after critic treated her like she was a child instead of a 38 year old women with an M. Div. who knew what she was talking about. Both articles made me question if I really wanted to keep doing this writing thing. It’s hard to keep going when it looks like nothing is going to change. Rachel Shteir is one 1 of 40 female book reviewers for The New York Times Book Review, and “Chicago Manual: ‘The Third Coast’ by Thomas Dyja and More” plays right into the sexist attitude of the publication that women authors aren’t worth taking seriously. After all she couldn’t even be bothered to right a simple book review.

But as I wonder if things will ever change, and if this life in the arts, letters, and religion is worth it, Erin and her wonderful friends as well as the brave black artists of The Chicago Black Renaissance remind me that art can be used as a weapon to change things. Erin, Neil Steinberg (who’s book also was not reviewed in Shteil’s op-ed), and Morning Shift’s host Tony Sarabia make the point that a lot of Chicago’s famous artists and authors get some of their best material from all of Chicago’s evil and sin (you can listen or download the podcast here). On Erin’s Facebook post Adam made this comment:

They were talking about some of the characters that we’ve had in Chicago politics and crime and such. And Miner’s quoting of Atlas bit about the “sinful city” that fueled Saul Bellow’s art. Look at what Mike Royko had to write about, or Studs Terkel, or Neil Steinberg, Mary Schmich and our current writers. Great source material to start with.

My response was:

This city, its politics, its corruptions, and all of its wonderful ghost stories (I write urban fantasy) are a writer’s wet dream. If Chicago didn’t have its myriad of sins and just weird shit, we writers would be up the creek. The same is true for other artists. I recently saw the exhibit at The Art Institute, They Seek a City, that has a lot of work that came from Bronzeville artists during Chicago’s Black Renaissance. They are scathing, beautiful, and haunting commentary on Chicago’s racism and segregation. All of Chicago’s sins is what makes it such a rich artistic city. Or as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy said: “There is something incomplete about this city and its people that fascinates me; it seems to urge one on to completion. Everything still seems possible.” And he said that in the 1930s. I think its still true today.

Art: writing, painting, photography can change things. In Chicago we’ve never done art for art’s sake. Our art rises like dandelions in the cracks of the sidewalk as Thomas Dyja put it. Our art is grounded in our real life about real life problems and seeks justice in the face of oppression, corruption, sexism, and racism. Shteir implies that Chicagoans just go along with the flow of Chicago’s evils, but she’s wrong. At least she’s wrong when it comes to Chicago’s artists. We have a long history of creating art to force social change. And for that reason I will keep writing. If the establishment never recognizes me so be it. I will leave a record that as a woman writer, I did everything I could to change to patriarchal and sexist literary and religious writing worlds.

Company Girl Coffee: it's busy but in a good way edition

It’s been busy here, which is why I haven’t had a chance for coffee the last few weeks. My biggest news is that I’m now the Chicago Protestant Examiner for Examiner.com. So I’m getting the hang of reporting and actually covering things that are happening now and talking to living people instead of researching things that happened over 2,000 years ago and interviewing people in my head. It’s a change. 🙂

I am feeling really good. Joining the gym has really helped. Swimming and practicing yoga just sets me right. I love how both are a melding of meditation and movement. My time with my personal trainer is good as well, but I don’t get the spiritual practice on the machines the way I do in the water and yoga poses.

My biggest thing right now is time management: figuring out when and how long to work on various writing projects: The Book, Examiner, other freelance work, and being an editor on The Christian Godde Project (really need to get back to translating Luke), not to mention all the research that goes with each. Plus all the daily life stuff: running errands, cleaning, laundry, showering, eating, sleeping, etc. etc. Not to mention The Hubby appreciates it when I talk to him on occasion. 😉

My in-laws and a nephew are coming to see us in June, so that means we have a lot of cleaning out, organizing and cleaning up to do in the next few weeks. They’ll be here during the Printer’s Row Book Fair (every bookaholic’s best dream and worst nightmare), and I will be preaching at church that Sunday. My father-in-law wants to hear me preach. I’m a little psyched about it, but I’m sure it will all be fine. The Old Testament passage for that Sunday is Jezebel. And I love Jezebel. Wondering how much fun I can have with her even in a liberal Episcopal Church. We’ll see.

This weekend is pretty quiet. Tomorrow is cleaning and writing. I also need to make a trip to the grocery store for odds and ends. Then Sunday is Pentecost. I’m looking forward to that. Ooh, that reminds me: I need to start reading Acts 2:1-21 in the Greek, since I will be doing that Sunday morning. We will have the Acts passage read in several different languages in the service: English, Spanish, German, French, and Greek, and who knows what else. Last year each person started reading a few verses full voice, then read quietly while they walked through the sanctuary, then the next person picked up and read then walked. By the end of the reading, they were people reading the passage in different languages all over the congregation. It was so powerful. I’m not sure that’s they way we’ll do it this year, but I’m sure it will still be powerful.

I hope everyone has a good weekend and a blessed Pentecost!

Ash Wednesday Liturgies at Chicago Grace Episcopal Church

Chicago Grace Episcopal Church will be having two Ash Wednesday services including imposition of ashes on Wednesday, February 17. The first service is at 12:15–1:15 p.m. The second service is 6:00–7:00 p.m. with a soup and bread supper following the liturgy. All are welcome to come. I will be attending the service in the evening. Our church is on Printer’s Row, 637 S. Dearborn, right next door to Kasey’s Tavern, and our sanctuary is on the second floor.

Tonight we say good-bye to the alleluias. This hymn from The Saint Helena Breviary helps us to tuck them away until Easter.

Alleluia, song of gladness,

hymn of endless joy and praise.

Alleluia is the worship

that celestial voices raise

and, delighting in God’s glory,

sing in heaven’s courts always.

Alleluia, blessed Salem,

home of all our hopes on high.

Alleluia, sing the angels;

Alleluia, saints reply;

but we, for a time on this earth,

chant a simpler melody.

Alleluias we now forfeit

in this holy time of Lent.

Alleluias we relinquish

as we for our sins repent,

trusting always in God’s mercy

and in Love omnipotent.

Blessed Trinity of Glory,

hear your people as we pray.

Grant that we may know the Easter

of the Truth, the Life, the Way,

chanting endless alleluias

in the realms of endless day. Amen.

A huge thank you to Bosco at Liturgy for having it all typed out, so I wouldn’t have to do it. Bosco also posted a Shrove Tuesday mediation.

Let the NaNoWriMo Craziness Begin

November is National Novel Writers Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It’s to get you to stop thinking about writing and write. I took part in 2005. I am taking part this year. The building I live in, Burnham Park Plaza, used to the main YMCA Hotel in Chicago and the second largest hotel in Chicago. It was built in 1915, opened in 1916 and closed in 1979. I am having a ball researching this. The original building was 19 stories with 1850 rooms. By 1926 they were turning people away, so they enlarged the building and added another story, increasing to 2600 rooms. I live in addition they added to the front of the building at that time. My kitchen wall is beautiful exposed brick that was the original outer wall. Originally the hotel was for men only. Dearborn, a couple of blocks away, was one the major railroad stations in Chicago and a massive amount of people poured into the South Loop from there, many of them looking to make their way in the world in Chicago. The Y was built at 826 S. Wabash Ave. to be a safe and moral place for young men to stay among the flophouses, brothels, and bars in the South Loop. In 1933 the YWCA at 830 S. Michigan Ave. closed its doors, and the top four floors were open for women to stay. These were normally single woman who were working in Chicago.

In January I found out a lady I go to church with, Jean, stayed here when it was the Y. She moved to Chicago in 1945 with a friend from college and they roomed together in a corner room that had three windows, bunk beds, a dresser, and a closet. When her friend married, she moved to a single room that was 6’x8′. Jean remembers standing in the middle of the room and spreading out her arms she could almost touch both walls. There was one window, a twin bed, a metal dresser, and a metal closet. She paid $30 a month for the room. The 20th floor was the lounge for the women. There was a piano, and Jean would play it. There was also the roof garden with a wonderful view of the city. Most of the men who stayed at the hotel at this time were soldiers going to or coming from the fronts in WW2.

There wasn’t a whole lot in this area. South of 9th St. were warehouses. Jean never went south of 8th St because further south were the bordellos and slums. Though some of that was still in the area. She remembers there being several bottle stores (liquor stores) in the area and flophouses. She also remembers walking past drunks and the homeless living on the street when she went to work. The retail section didn’t start until Jackson or Adams in the Loop, although there was a fresh vegetable market at Congress and Dearborn. There were a lot candy stores like Fannie Farmer and Emmetts. When the hoisery stores got in a shipment, women lined up for blocks around the stores to try to snag nylons. The first restaurant you came to was Berghoff’s at Adams. Most people went to the restaurants in hotels to eat: The Drake, The Blackstone, The Palmer House, Ambassador East and West, and The Stephens Hotel. For six months Jean worked at The Stephens Hotel (now The Hilton Towers) as a reservation girl in The Boulevard Club. It was one of the swankiest clubs in town, women came in their furs, and the top bands, singers, and comedians performed there. That was also back in the days when the Italian and Sicilian mobs controlled the restaurants. She saw the Mafia come in and out, and thought the maitre’d was probably part of the mob. She laughed as she recounted that the mob guys would dote on her; years later she realized it was probably because she was such a “greenhorn.”

During the 40s the South Loop was the shady transition area between the proper people and the red light district further south (though earlier in the century it had been the nototorious red light Levee district). It was still a shady place but the YMCA Hotel was the one reputable place in the area, and you could stay there without worrying. Jean said she felt safe there because it was the Y.

I’m going to break away from the setting now to describe my main character. She popped into my head not long after I decided I was going to set the novel in this building during its days as the Y. Miss Madie is a widowed Irish Catholic who moved to the Y after her husband died. My first and most consistient image of Miss Madie is sitting and praying the rosary. After she prays, her rosary beads are placed under her pillow. At that time there was a Catholic church right across the street at 901 S. Wabash, St. Mary’s Catholic Church (now a parking lot). It was a smaller church for the working class. Miss Madie loves just walking across the street to go to Mass. Miss Madie sees images out of the corner of her eyes and senses other presences. She thinks they are the saints, and she can feel them because she is close to death. But what Miss Madie doesn’t know is that there are more residents at the hotel than the mortal eye can see. The tentative title is Miss Madie’s Lost Lost Saints.

I am just loving learning about the South Loop and my building, and I can’t wait to find out more about Miss Madie. She’s being a little tight lipped with her past right now, but she’ll tell it. And I’ll be there when she does.

I have 1,712 words. Yes, I know I have some catching up to do. Here’s to writing 48,000 more words in the next 25 days!

I am ShawnaAtteberry at the NaNo site if you want buddy up.

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Halloween Magical Happenings Around Chicago

I wanted to let you know about a couple of Halloween magic shows that are happening this week by two very good friends of ours.

Photo from Magic Chicago

First up Eugene Burger making an appearance at Magic Chicago on October 30 and 31 in Fear and Fate: A Special Halloween Celebration with Eugene Burger. Eugene promises it will be scary, and I said that’s fine as long as people don’t jump out and yell at me. He promised me there would be no yelling. (Haunted Houses take note: people jumping out at you and yelling isn’t scary; it’s just annoying, especially after 30 minutes of it.) Tickets are $25.

Photo from DavidParr.com

Next up is David Parr. David will be at The Dawes House in Evanston Thursday, Friday, and Saturday doing three shows a night in Haunting History. The magic takes place throughout the house with vignettes being performed in each room. Again should be scary with nothing jumping out and yelling at you. Tickets are $20.

Tracy and I will be at Eugene’s performance on Friday night and at David’s on Saturday. Come join us for some magical, scary Halloween fun.

RevGals Friday Five: Celebrating the Seasons of Life

Sally writes: It is the first of May, or as I have been concentrating on dialogue with folk interested in the new spirituality movement this last week, it is Beltane, a time to celebrate the beginning of summer. The BBC web-site tells us that:

Beltane is a Celtic word which means ‘fires of Bel’ (Bel was a Celtic deity). It is a fire festival that celebrates of the coming of summer and the fertility of the coming year.
Celtic festivals often tied in with the needs of the community. In spring time, at the beginning of the farming calendar, everybody would be hoping for a fruitful year for their families and fields.
Beltane rituals would often include courting: for example, young men and women collecting blossoms in the woods and lighting fires in the evening. These rituals would often lead to matches and marriages, either immediately in the coming summer or autumn.

Another advert for a TV programme that has caught my eye on the UK’s Channel 4 this weekend is called Love, Life and leaving; and is a look at the importance of celebrating the seasons of life through ritual and in the public eye, hence marriages, baptisms and funerals.

I believe that we live in a ritually impoverished culture, where we have few reasons for real celebration, and marking the passages of life;

So

1. Are ritual markings of birth, marriage, and death important to you?

Yes, they are.

2. Share a favourite liturgy/ practice.

The Renewal of the Baptismal Covenant.

3. If you could invent (or have invented) a ritual what is it for?

I have invented rituals. I have my own Samhain/All Saints ritual, and a couple of years ago I created a ritual for casting out fear.

4. What do you think of making connections with neo-pagan / ancient festivals? Have you done this and how?

I like making those connections, especially with the ancient feasts. I love the Celtic calendar and like how they cycle through the year.

5. Celebrating is important, what and where would your ideal celebration be?

I love all the outdoor music Chicago has in the summer. There are free concerts and free dancing at Millennium Park. I love listening to music and dancing in the park as the sun goes down and the lake is right there.

Holy Week Happenings at Chicago Grace Episcopal Church

If you’re in the South Loop area and need a place to celebrate the events of Holy Week, consider yourself invited to Grace Episcopal Church at 637 S. Dearborn St (Bus lines 22 and 62 Polk/Dearborn, Red Line Harrison/Polk exit, LaSalle Blue Line, LaSalle Metra Station).

Wednesday, April 8

Sandwich, Scriptures, and Sacrament, 12:15 p.m. Every week we bring a lunch and discuss a Scripture passage from the liturgy on Sunday. We will be discussing one of the Easter passages this week.

Our church helps out The Night Ministry. The Night Ministry ministers to the homeless at Humboldt Park through medical care, food and other necessities. At 5:00 p.m. will be making sandwiches and bag lunches for Thursday night. At 6:00 p.m. there is a centering prayer practice.

Thursday, April 9

Our Maundy Thursday service will be held at Humboldt Park (California and Division). If you would like to help hand out the lunches, we will be meeting at the church at 5:45 p.m. We will load up the van then head out. After we feed everyone, we will begin the liturgy for Maundy Thursday with whomever would like to join us. The liturgy will begin at 7:30 p.m. Our minister of music, Wayne Maas, will be leading the service. After we return to the church, we will strip the sanctuary for the observance of Good Friday.

Friday, April 10

There will be two liturgies on Good Friday: 12:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Our seminary intern, Elizabeth Molitors, will be preaching at both services and leading us through a modern version of the Stations of the Cross. A special offering will be taken up for The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Saturday, April 11

We will be going to St. James Cathedral (Red Line Grand exit) at Wabash and Huron to observe the Great Vigil, 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 12

There will be two Feasts of the Resurrection, 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Our parish priest, Rev. Ted Curtis will be presiding.  After the 10:00 a.m. service, we will be enjoying an Eastern luncheon. There will be a special offering taken up for the Night Ministry on Easter and the following Sunday.

Magical Happenings in Chicago

My husband is an amateur magician, and therefore, we have magician friends. In fact, we have magician friends doing shows and having movies made about them. Here are some of the magical happenings happening around town this fall.

First up, is The Magic Cabaret, the macabre and wonderfully sinister brainchild of David Parr and P. T. Murphy. Although many people don’t know it, Chicago has a rich history of magicians, and was the premiere city for magic in the late 19th to early 20th century. Last year, Patrick (P. T.) gave a wonderful history of magic in Chicago along with a few of the tricks that Chicago magicians invented and made popular, and I’m hoping that gets worked in again. There will be a lot of storytelling and up close and personal magic in the show. Tracy and I are meeting up with Lainie and going tonight. The show runs through October 18 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. at the Greenhouse Theater Center at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. The tickets are $25.

Next up is Magic Chicago. Magicians Benjamin Barnes and Robert Charles host and perform in this monthly magic show on the first Wednesdays of the month. They also invite other magicians to perform. On October 1 psychic entertainer, Russ Johnson will be joining them. Also appearing is the first female magician from South America to appear at the Magic Castle, Alba (she rocks!). Magic Chicago performs at City Lit Theater at 1020 W. Bryn Mawr in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church. Tickets are $20.

Magic Chicago will also be having a special second gathering this month. Michael Caplon of Montrose Pictures (he also teaches at Columbia College in the Film and Video Department) has made a documentary about Eugene Burger who is considered to be one of the best teachers of the magical arts. A Magical Vision not only covers Eugene’s career as a magician and teacher, but explores both the the history of magic in general and in Chicago. Eugene will perform after the movie. The Hubby and I will be going to this as well. Tickets to the movie and show are $25.

Does she ever get out of the burbs?

In an op-ed in last week’s New York Times, Paul Krugman describes the “Me Caveman, you be scared” tactics of the Republican party, and how the GOP wants to make anyone who doesn’t agree with them look weak and not able to lead the country. He quoted Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann saying that Democrats

want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.

Dear Rep. Bachmann,

First I’m an Independent and not a Democrat. Second I’m a middle class white woman who lives in the urban core of Chicago. I do not live in a tenement, but in a condo with a great lake view. I do not have a government job. I am self-employed, and I take Chicago’s L and busses all over the city to research and work. I don’t have a car. I don’t need a car. And I don’t want a car.

I think you need to get out of your cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood (and off Capitol Hill) and take a look at what urban cores actually look like.

Sincerely,
Shawna R. B. Atteberry

P. S. Since you haven’t seem to notice: D. C.’s public transit rocks. I loved taking it when I visited earlier this year.

Hattip to Rachel Frey.