North Central Troy, NY

Released: May 5, 2011.

In this enhanced podcast, JHK & Duncan explore North Central Troy, NY with Billie-Jean Greene, a KunstlerCast listener who recently purchased a home in this area. This once wealthy neighborhood on the Hudson River has suffered from urban blight for many years. But a group of neighbors, known as The Uptown Initiative, are committed to helping turn their neighborhood around. Billie-Jean leads this tour and introduces us to some of the neighborhood residents, including a bed & breakfast owner, another homeowner, and some urban chickens named Ruby and June. Also along the route is a Hells Angels clubhouse.

Links

For photographs of this neighborhood by Neil Grabowsky of Through The Lens Studio, visit: http://ttlstudios.com

For information about the Uptown Initiative, visit: http://theuptowninitiative.org/

For information about the Old Judge Mansion Bed & Breakfast, visit: http://oldejudgemansion.com

For information about the Sanctuary for Independent Media, visit: http://www.mediasanctuary.org

Note: A listener has created a YouTube version of this episode:

Sponsor:

This week’s sponsor is The Congress for the New Urbanism, the nation’s leading advocacy organization dedicated to promoting walkable, mixed-use neighborhood development, sustainable communities and healthier living conditions.

Concentrating Poverty

Released: July 8, 2010.

JHK explores a mostly abandoned low-income housing project in Duncan’s neighborhood. Two of the three 9-story brick “vertical slums” are boarded up and abandoned. They come complete with their own “rape-o-matic” tunnel for pedestrians to travel under the bridge ramp that separates them. Kunstler says these “towers in a park” are based on the ideas of Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architect/planner whose “Radiant City” plans envisioned turning the right bank of Paris into a series of high rise towers connected by highways. Corbu’s plans were not implemented in Paris, but his ideas didn’t die. In fact they morphed into what are commonly known as “the projects,” low-income high rise towers all around the U.S. and indeed the world. Taking inspiration by the housing projects in Troy, Kunstler explains the history of this style of low-income housing and its detrimental side effects.

Sponsor:

Support for the KunstlerCast comes from Post Carbon Institute, the world’s leading think tank dedicated to getting society off fossil fuels fast. PCI is proud to have James Howard Kunstler as a valued advisor–joining Richard Heinberg, Bill McKibben, Majora Carter, Rob Hopkins and 25 other Fellows in leading the transition to a more resilient world. Learn more at http://PostCarbon.org.

Strolling Uncle Sam’s Neighborhood

Released: July 3, 2010.

JHK and Duncan celebrate the Fourth of July by touring Uncle Sam’s neighborhood. They stroll down Second Street in Troy NY, admiring the 19th century architecture along the way. Destinations include: Russell Sage College, the county court house and one of only two privately owned and maintained residential green squares in New York state (the other is the famous Gramercy Park in Manhattan). They speak to some workers laying a stone street by hand, and explore the alley in an exclusive neighborhood. You can watch and listen with the player below.

Sponsor:

Support for the KunstlerCast comes from Post Carbon Institute, the world’s leading think tank dedicated to getting society off fossil fuels fast. PCI is proud to have James Howard Kunstler as a valued advisor–joining Richard Heinberg, Bill McKibben, Majora Carter, Rob Hopkins and 25 other Fellows in leading the transition to a more resilient world. Learn more at http://PostCarbon.org.