The topic of the future someday maybe if-I ever do-it dissertation is an examination of how drug policy intersects with urban planning. In that, I am trying to understand how drugs and softened drug policy in certain city areas can actually act as an attractiveness policy for young professionals. Those young professionals are what cities want in order to improve their tax base, grow the economy and attract high tech companies. In order to attract these young professionals, not only do you have to provide jobs, but also something to do. What do these people do? They drink and do drugs. I'm serious.

Forbes just printed an article about the top cities in the US for young professionals, one of the factors being a solid entertainment industry.
If cities were to soften up on petty drug charges, such as personal possession and dealing, in certain areas, they may be able to also focus police presence with knowledge of certain activity, as well as the application of harm reduction methods. Bourbon Street in New Orleans, is a good example of concentrating drug and alcohol activity into a specific area with concentrated police presence. Although it is not the most successful of these types, there is potential. Dolphin Street in Austin, is probably a better example, but just doesn't hold the same place in my heart.

Certain entertainment drugs often are used by a large percentage of the population only once in a while, on weekends, special events or experimentally, and do not pose any type of addiction or criminal problems. Rather than crack down on something that throughout all history has failed to be supressed, why don't we work together to make people safer and smarter. Along with that, we should shape our cities to make entertainment activity safer and more contained.

"In large numbers democracy is obviously unworkable" -The City in History - Lewis Mumford (the book I am currently reading)

In that I only have 10 more days left before returning to the United States, I have begun to brush up on current Unitedstatians events. More specifically, New Orleans events.

I have been reading some blogs about New Orleans, and realizing that:

A: Oh my god I love that city.

B: I don't think I ever want to live in New Orleans again.

C: People put the most amazing information on their blogs.

I am on mailing list run by Alan Gutierrez of Think New Orleans who connected me to a few New Orleans blogs this morning that were quite fascinating. First, I visited Da' Po Boy's blog who has done GPS murder mapping on his own using yahoo maps. He showed how murders in New Orleans are in specific neighborhoods and even more, how the murders themselves occur in clusters. In my own personal research, I have discovered that deteriorating urban space causes unhealthy activity which degrades the space even more (Hembree et. al.). This is a new line of thought because it was previously thought that poor people destroyed their spaces, not that destroyed spaces caused poverty and dangerous activity. Clearly in New Orleans, we have destroyed spaces.

The second blog I read today is from Ashley Morris, who asks "What Country are You From?", to which she states "New Orleans". I borrowed the title of my blog from her too. The reason I did this is because I am asked where I am from all the time here in Costa Rica since I have an accent. At first I said, "the US", but since the Ticos are pretty savvy about the States, I started saying New Orleans. What country is Dana from? New Orleans (also called Destructo-land)!!

I officially have one month left of school in Costa Rica. While I have been able to endure the daily joys of undergraduate hormones rushing about, I have also managed to learn quite a bit about social movements and Costa Rica. Which for me, the most most poignant moment occurs when pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together and information relates to my experience within society. After all, the study of the social quagmire is impossibly reflexive. In the field of sociology we often study about centers and peripheries. In the most simple sense of this concept, the center is the dominant power, the periphery can be seen as a reflection or a diluted copy of the original. However, this relationship can also be understood as one of control and dominance, in that the discourse of the center is so powerful that it drowns out the voice of the subjugated group. In fact, this is exactly what Patricia Hill Collins was talking about when she looked at male centered forms of knowing through a feminist methodology.

Specifically speaking, looking at ideas using feminist theory forces us to examine the social construction of knowledge, from a male dominated viewpoint. Men have always had the power, they created the discourse, which created the knowledge that we accept as true. Therefore the way we understand the world is through mens eyes.
Hill Collins uses the feminist methodology to understand what she called the matrix of domination, the foundation for Black Feminist thought. Not only are women all over the world oppressed on account of their position on the periphery, but Black women are subjugated twice, because of their oppression as people of color. In Costa Rica, Ticos have, like all countries, their own system for sorting class, race, color, appearance, intelligence etc. However, as a nation, they are peripheral to the dominant cultural and mass media machines of the Western World. This is yet another point within the matrix of domination. However, rather than discussing the personal implications, on a social scale, Costa Rica has adopted cultures and personality that often reflects the mainstream, dominant and current leader in the world race, but in a diluted way. Globalization creates and destroys, but is unavoidable as we all live within the capitalist system (thanks Marx for reminding us). However bulldozing by dominant cultures is dangerous and we should all be aware of the voice coming from the periphery, It may be difficult to hear, but can provide valuable and perhaps better knowledge that has been subjugated from centuries of capitalistic competition.

Do utility companies have best practices? Are Latin American utlity companies simply reflections of the best practices of large North American conglomerates or are they just large North American conglomerates? In Costa Rica we have ICE, our public utility company. In 2000, the government wanted to open up to foreign competition, but the people had large and violent (only for Costa Rica) huelgas y marchas to protest the Combo de Ice.

We had a large gas fire the other day at a gas plant. It was one of 6 in Costa Rica. This may affect the supply of gas within the country. It took quite a bit of water to put out that fire. We are in a drought which has affected out electrical supply on account of the hydroelectric systems. But we had to use extra water to put out the fire. So now we have a water, gas and electricity shortage. Everyday the electricity goes out for some prescribed time. However, it is sometimes according to plan and sometimes not. Ahhh...the pleasures of third world living. And they say that there are more North Americans here per capita then any other country outside North America. Must have been all those fancy tourism brochures, because it sure isn't that safe down here.

I guess people break into cars a lot in Costa Rica. Now, I can't claim to have intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the mind of a tico-car thief, but they don't all wait until 7:00 in the morning to try their luck, or do they? My hypothesis is that Ticos just don't know how to use their alarms. Every morning at about 7, those alarms start to ring. For about 5 minutes they scream into the crisp San Jose morning, until finally are shut down. But why do they go off, do the owners of the car try to open them? Are they actually in danger? Are they so sensitive that children and dogs set them off? Also, why do people from Costa Rica push the alarm button on their car constantly? They just walk around with their finger on the button, clicking away, all day. Are they afraid maybe it didn't lock the last 12 times? For this I have no realistic guess. Of course, Ticos also love construction, which means hammering and yelling and ringing metal noises from roof pieces dropping to the ground, 3 stories below, all day, every day since I have been here.

And the sharp little sound sprinkles of course consist of our very own Roosevelt security agent and his safety whistle. He rides a bike for 12 hours a day through our neighborhood blowing his whistle to let us know we are safe. And our cars...and my ears....good thing he has a stick and a bici....