Quite frankly Ray, I thought some of the same things after reading it. No photos, examples of the stickers in question or photos of the "Welcome to University City" bridge etc.
The writer didn't interview members of the community to get opinions. more etc. S -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 8:03 AM To: University City List Subject: Re: [UC] Schemers on the Schuylkill - and other undocumented Penn Staffers [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> The first hint of something specious is this guy is writing commentary about >> neocolonial UCD on a word processor for an old world journalism rag, instead >> of secluded in a design studio reading spatial news listservs, playing urban >> simulator/junior policy analyst games, or evaluating high value urban >> systems integration scenarios for big bucks clients. > Nothing like Penn justifying its branding efforts using its own hack, > without full disclosure. And, much shame on this local rag, City Paper, for failing > to perform due diligence, when publishing commentary. what struck me odd about the article was how it seemed so 'second hand' -- as if the author didn't actually encounter any of the stickers himself, and was only retelling a selection of opinions that had already been aired here. for one thing, he gets the words of the stickers wrong (they don't say "university city is just a marketing scheme", they say "university city is a marketing scheme"). and we've all read how similar his speculations were to ones made here a while ago. and where does one even see these stickers anymore? they all seem to be gone. the article reads like belated 'damage control' or post spin, as though it was placed, for the record, rather than written as a spontaneous timely reaction to something actually ongoing and visible, and which readers could respond to. it feels more like an old skool, top-down pr approach to community engagement, not like any of our current interactive/online horizontal models of exchange. in the absense of any local gazebo [ROSS!], we'd do well to look more closely into our available public squares -- where they're located, whose participation means sharing, whose participation means controlling. meanwhile, we'll be dealing with stickers and big painted bridges, with listservs and pr machines, with public parks and not-so-public park groups... .................. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN [aka laserbeamR] [aka ray] SERIAL LIAR. CALL FOR RATES. does anyone know who actually painted the bridge? who asked for it? who designed it? who approved it? who paid for it? until we do, it's just as anonymous as the stickers. and after all, it's our identity that's at stake. ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>. ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
