Protest in Public and Private Space

I thought an article about the Occupy Wall Street movement by architecture critic Michael Kimmelman in this week's NYTimes "Review" was relevant to our class. It talks about the role of public space in protest. Visually, the accompanying images are a reminder of some iconic spaces in the history of protest, from public universities to public squares.

Kent State University

Tiananmen Square

Ironically, the park where the Occupy Wall Street protesters have been gathering is privately owned. This is perhaps symbolic of the fact that much public space in cities has become privatizes. But while the space is not technically public, it is being used as a public space for a certain group of citizens to express their opinions about the current state of affairs.

The article reminded me of a number of posts here: Julia's post on ancient Greek ideas of the polis; Payton and Connor's podcast on the public and private aspects of Chase Tower in Austin (within the context if a protest); and Noah and Michael's podcast on alternative, perhaps even resistant, uses of public space at Wooldridge Square.

The Pennybacker Bridge

"Pennybacker Bridge" is the official name of the structure we Austinites refer to as the "360 Bridge". The structure was named after Percy Pennybacker, a former designer for the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT). It was designed by Clearwater Constructers out of Colorado and opened to traffic on December 3, 1982. Although it spans 1,150 feet, the bridge does not touch the comfortable waters of Lake Austin. It was designed as such in order to allow boat traffic to move freely under it. The bridge is upheld by 72 steel cables, each of which is connected to the arched support beams grounded in either side. It was the second bridge of it's kind built in the world.

The Pennybacker Bridge serves as more than just as a medium for crossing this dammed section of the Colorado River. It additionally serves as a connector for two very different pieces of the city as well as a hub for recreation of all types. This bridge is truly host to a 'boatload' of activity. It sits perpendicular to the Austin Country Club Golf Course as well as the lake which runs under it. Each every warm day of the year, boats cruise just 100 feet below it. People visit the areas near this bridge in order to escape from the high entropy of the city they work in. The bridge is witness to a host of emotions from the dwellers of the city pass over it each and every day. By morning, parents are driving children to school and adults are hastily headed to work, most distracted by thoughts of the day ahead. By afternoon, people have lost the stress they carried by morning, their minds flow as freely as the boats which skim atop the water. People use the urban space in a variety of ways, utilizing each and every square inch of this urban oasis of grass and water. The bridge however, is a constant, always standing as a symbol of the versatility of the city of Austin as shown by those who pass over and under it each and every day. It's not in every city that you can go to work by morning and be on the lake in the afternoon.

Below is a neat 3-D Model of the Pennybacker Bridge:

Here is a link to a 360 degree panorama taken from a position adjacent to the bridge.

Brazil: Where hearts were entertaining June

“Brazil,” by Terry Gilliam, is a 1985 science fiction noir film about the dystopian society of the future. The film follows the story of Sam Lowry, a government employee working at the Department of Records, a massive government bureaucratic organization that keeps records and track of all individuals in the "Brazil" society. The story revolves around the character Archibald Harry Buttle, who is mistaken as the terrorist engineer Archibald Harry Tuttle (played by Robert De Niro) and killed in custody. Jill Layton, a neighbor of Mr. Tuttle, tries to report this mistake to the Office of Information Retrieval (which is highly reminiscent of the Gestapo from both their uniform and tactics), but is instead marked as a terrorist herself for insisting the government made a mistake. Sam Lowry becomes obsessed about this woman because he keeps seeing her in his dreams, and as such he finally accepts a promotion to “The Department of Information Retrieval ” in order to get her classified information as well as clear the charges against her. However, Sam Lowry gets detained due to abusing his power, and is tortured at the end of the movie. The movie ends with him going crazy during torture and imagining that he escaped and lived a happier and simpler life in the countryside.

Although this film is primarily a critique of bureaucracy, the film also gives us a unique perspective on how the physical features of city actually reflect both the levels of corruption and inefficiency within a society. Near the beginning of the story, Sam Lowry goes to a fancy restaurant with his mother, and one of the noticeable features in the restaurant is the number of unsightly ventilation tubes snaking above the tables (as seen below).

Later in the movie, Tuttle explains that only the Central Services are allowed to work on ventilating systems, and as such the sloppy ventilating system visible in the restaurant is the work of Central Service Employees. This brings up an important idea that looking at a the physical characteristics of a city, especially the parts that the government runs, one can actually tell the efficiency of the government and the society as a whole. Thus, Just looking at the restaurant, one can already see the visible levels of bureaucratic and inefficient that plague the government. Another example of how the physical features of a city reflect its efficiency is shown when Sam goes to Jill’s apartment building. The camera first shows a propaganda poster, and the camera pans out after this shot to show a dirty and impoverished community, a reflection of the government’s inefficiency and the inequality rampant in the society(something which the masses are visibly displeased about, as shown in the pictures below).

Notice what is written over the H in Happiness on the picture below:

Notice the change as the camera shot above pans to the shot below:

The idea of using physical features to understand city works not only with the cities of “Brazil” but also with actual cities. For example when you look at a street in Austin, you can tell the presence the local government has in an area by observing subtle features like trash bins or street cleanliness (aka does the city of Austin Garbage Department regularly come by?) to more overt features like the nearness of police stations. Terry Gilliam uses these same techniques and features in his movie “Brazil,” albeit on grander scale than one would find in the real world.

The Biggest Parking Lot

Its 5:30. I’m trapped on I-35, known at the “worlds’ largest parking lot”. I have been stuck in traffic for over 30 minutes and I have to be downtown in less than 10 minutes with 3 miles left until I can exit…FML!

Traffic is part of our lives for those that live in Austin. Heavy traffic stimulates anger and frustration from many impatient drivers with a busy schedule. Traffic congestion is very heavy during the time of rush hour, from 6- 9am and 4-7pm on weekdays, as people are driving to and from work. Even though traffic in Austin is not as bad as other major populated cities like New York City, sitting in traffic is still very annoying.

In modern society, time is money. People are constantly running around: getting to work, getting home, going to school, picking someone up, having a meeting somewhere, going to the movies, etc. Therefore, speeding has significantly increased because people are always in a rush to get to where they need to be.

Interstate 35 is the most annoying place to be when there is traffic. There is no room to breathe. Joe Taylor a traffic reporter for News 8 Austin describes that I-35 is "designed for a small town, and [Austin] has grown into a very large city." Since 2000, Austin's population growth has increased 15.4 percent in 2008.

As the city of Austin continues to grow, the roadways become smaller and tighter during rush hour as more people are driving on the road. According to Katherine Gregor, a journalist for The Chronicles, "the metric used to document congestion is a road's volume-to-capacity ratio, which compares the existing volume of traffic (flow rate) to a street's real capacity." A capacity of .8 or lower means that there is less traffic. However, downtown I-35 is said to have a capacity of over 1.0! I-35 is not the only roadway in Austin with high traffic congestion: Loop 360, Mopac, and Lamar.

Austin's traffic continues to get worse because of the lack of an alternative form of transportation. Capital Metro is one form of an alternative form of transportation that helps to ease traffic in the city; however, this form of transportation is not very popular to the public. In addition, businesses and shops in Austin are often very far apart and it is only convenient to drive, rather then riding a bike or walk.

So what is The Austin Department of Transportation doing in response to driver's frustration to the increase traffic?

The Austin Department of Transportation is constantly readjusting the route of city buses to make it more convenient to the public. The city has also built a Capital MetroRail that runs from downtown Austin to the norther part of Austin. According to Robert Spillar, director of The Austin Department of Transportation, they are trying to build "new sidewalk and bicycle improvements and advocating that people simply drive less, both regionally and in town."

How does traffic affect Austinites?

Some of the obvious reasons are that traffic causes people to be late to their activities and makes people anger. However, traffic also plays a role in car accident. Many people become reckless drivers when they are angry and frustrated in traffic: changing to the faster lane or using the shoulder to cut through traffic. Traffic accidents are heard almost everyday on the radio (KLBJ) and Joe Taylor also updates his Facebook about the incidents. In addition, businesses are also affected by the traffic. High traffic in an area can cause businesses to lose valuable customers because people tend to avoid the cluster of cars.