I feel stupid for reporting this so late in the game (Ecology of Absence posted this last Friday), but maybe other people missed it as well: Pat Quinn is going to push to reopen Illinois' shuttered historic sites. Quinn noted that "nature-based and historic-based" tourism are growing in popularity; that the sites would pay for themselves and more; and that the closings didn't make a lick of sense from an economic perspective: "You squeeze a nickel and lose a half-dollar. That's not smart government."
Lori White, a.k.a. Mississippi Valley Girl, has a great post that's true to her tagline of "thinking beyond the Arch." She invokes the spirit of Jane Jacobs in her post re: a long thread (with many photos) of the St. Louis Riverfront/French Quarter, which was demolished to make room for the Arch. Though one poster points out that this area was prone to flooding and fires, and that the Arch grounds protect us from all of this, it's still really sad to see all the urban fabric that was swept away. Definitely something to reflect on if you are going to go see (or have already seen) the big Saarinen retrospective at the Kemper, just to put it all in perspective. --Stefene Russell
