teddy cruz

So i went and saw teddy cruz speak last night who is amazing and inspirational. i think i was particularly interested having just spent time in america and gaining a more tangible understanding of the illegal immigrant situation and how the economy is totally dependent on it, and was interested in someone who looked at actual and social borders and the transgression between the two and how best to work within them. It was a lot to digest - the thing that's stuck in my head is his statement about not being able to get money from urban planning or government groups to develop his 'solutions' to public housing, and instead had to get money from art institutions for 'installations' as it were. It must be frustrating. His work is socially focused and to say well you can do it if it looks good but we're not interested in it for real urban planning R&D purposes must be a double edged sword. And that made me start thinking about why social services don't have the same R&D capital attached as other government responsibilities as health and science, industry etc, and then I remembered that you can't make money off poor people, and that you don't want people in public housing to feel secure or comfortable because then they may not feel so worthless about being poor. Anyway I will stop this before i get waver to the cynical side - a lot of what was discussed last night is also discussed here: http://www.aia.org/cod_lajolla_042404_teddycruz