Enjoyed this morning's Post-Gazette feature on Pittsburghers on Broadway. The photographer/videographer Curt Chandler told me there would be some video accompanying the story, but I haven't seen it yet. Some interesting audio clips, including 238 of the congregants singing "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." Many of those singing sound like accountants and set builders rather than tenors and sopranos. But you definitely get the picture that a lot of Pittsburghers make Broadway happen.
Thomas Hylton had a piece in the Post-Gazette about the needs for and the benefits and possibilities of increasing the tree population in Pittsburgh. Everyone can agree on the need for trees, and Hylton's call for more funding of trees, in spite of the city's poor financial condition, is an appealing one. Duquesne Light is all for trees, just so long as they don't damage power lines. Homeowners are all for trees just so long as they don't clog the gutter.
I have to admit I've been a sinner. In the past, I have had large trees in my yard cut down for one reason or another. I also received a street tree of which I have been a poor steward.
Now, however, I want to get religion. I just took a trip to Monroeville yesterday and was overwhelmed by how a mediated environment can drive you crazy. I drove out to the miniature golf course and saw that we have been reduced to creating oases made of wood, plaster, and astroturf. In among the miniature golf course, though, was an ailanthus trees (to paraphrase Malvina Reynolds, "God Bless the ailanthus trees").
I have been thinking that in addition to encouraging efforts by the city to plant trees, some of us can do something on their own. I've been contemplating gathering some acorns and planting them around the city. Then I'll ask a few friends to see if they would be interested in doing the same.
Here are some instructions for planting acorns.
Of course, if any place needs more of a green canopy, I would think it would be Monroeville.
The late Herb Simon used to say most of the news that matters to us usually winds up on page four or five. That is, the trends that most affect us don't make it to the front page. In this case (this may be a short term link that requires registration), though, you can see how the road to a free and open society will be a rocky one.
David Ji, an American citizen, had been kidnapped and has been held by Chinese police for over a year. What I find revolting about Mr. Ji's case is the level of involvement by an American law firm, and their abetting in the persecution of Mr. Ji. According to The New York Times, Mr. Ji's detention puts him in a netherworld of a legal system governed by lines of power and not the rule of law.
The legal ambiguity partly reflects the tight bond between local corporate and government officials.For all I know, Mr. Ji might have committed fraud, but the idea of an American citizen held in detention, put through a series of tortuous circumstances, and then presented a legal contract created by American lawyers, makes my stomach turn.
The full article can also be found here.
Other commentary can be found on The Peking Duck, PVR Blog, and the Wired GC.
