Lunch II

It's dinner time, but I m still thinking about lunch. My appetite is searching for a satisfactory model that successfully blends structures and people at extreme ends of the income line. Certainly, Bridgeport, Conneticut's Father Panik housing project, with its 46 buildings and the purpose to "lift poor people from dirt and filth and place them into sunshine," had its southern parallel in the lowcountry, at the Ben Tillman homes, the largest housing project in the state. Both Father Panik and Ben Tillman have been torn down and vanquished, not only demolished, but their history and community memory destroyed, leaving a legacy of fear, blight, and lawlessness. This model of urbn chance is being repeated: in New York, along Lenox Avenue, the very well-heeled building, "The Lennox," occupies an entire city block along Harlem's famed Lenox Avenue. Edgewood Terrace in Washington, DC was demolished  for smaller units. "Destroy, Dislocate, Rebuild" seems to be the accepted model in Eastern and Southern cities for redeveloping neighborhood communities that include poort people. Can this model be challenged? More thoughts from lunch, after a tea break.