RETRO (and then some)

"The Gardener," a life-sized fiberglass and cement sculpture at Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, Artists:  John Ahearn and Rigaberto Torres

A famous-architect-designed house in Brazil showcased in DESIGN MILK last week illustrated the very latest in “Vaporwave Genre” design. 

Huh?

In case you (like me) missed that reference — invented last Thursday — Vaporwave Genre is design influenced by trends of the 1980’s and 1990’s when electric music, surreal art and consumer culture reigned. (A few clues? Sharp graphic black and white patterns juxtaposed against pastels or sometimes primary colors, sleek chrome paired with organic shapes updated from the 1940’s, glittering glass accessories…) 

To state it differently, what you and I may consider “modern” is now “retro.” (And before you ask, yes, art can be “trendy.”)

My oldest grandson showed up a year or two ago wearing new khaki Bermuda shorts embroidered over-all with little pineapples straight out of the 1960s. I asked if he’d been vintage store shopping.  Meanwhile, the youngest grandson (seventeen) ricocheted within a single month from tight-legged jeans with rolled cuffs that showed off his white socks (1950s) to Monday’s fashion statement: a printed Hawaiian sloppy shirt and high topped sneakers from the 1990s. (The 1980s got skipped: acid washed denim, bandannas and flannel shirts. I think they came and went with the other two g-kids at college — along with logo t-shirts and tracksuits.)

CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) was the exciting new crime-fighting tool talked about in the 1980s/1990s. It seemed so …right!…especially to those of us looking for ways to increase city living and investment among a generation raised to fear “them” — the minorities who became increasingly imprisoned in city neighborhoods. And the high crime that always accompanies concentrated poverty. 

CPTED offered an even more seductive charm to architects and city planners: it was based on design — the principals studied by the art literate and pooh-poohed for generations by more prosaic influencers. 

Design streets and sidewalks to increase pedestrian use.

Build-in windows that overlook sidewalks to increase “eyes on the street.”

Address clues such as broken windows and graffiti  that announce labels of high-crime areas

Increase proper lighting and trim away “hiding places” among shrubbery.

So far — so good. But like most things, design has a Dark Side. Gatherings of young people, the homeless, the poor…city investors still didn’t want these groups visible in their “improved environments.”  Enter metal studs used as anti-skate boarding/anti-sleeping/anti-loitering devices. High pitched sound to prevent gatherings particularly of young people. Sanitized public spaces that no-one wanted to linger in and curiously, no-one felt safe entering. 

Black Lives Matter brings into focus another CPTED criticism rarely stated. Minorities consider most of these efforts as direct condemnation of their existence….in cities and in the very neighborhoods where they have been ghettoized into living. 

It’s hard for some of us to escape the feeling that we live on a boomerang…as quickly as we learn about and accept new ideas, those same ideas come back to bite us in the behind! As city influencers, we thought we were doing the right things to insist on low crime but perhaps forgot one or two important facts: crime situations are rarely simple nor can prevention be neat and tidy solutions. Sure, good design helps — but adequate health care, exemplary education opportunities, livable housing and equal opportunities for work come first.

 Always, quality of life for everybody is at the heart of crime prevention.

``````````````````````````````````````

Grandma Clark lived next door where I grew up. She sat in a rocking chair on her front porch most days and would call out “Mz. Mac, the kids are into trouble!” Or “Mz. Mac, they’re crossing the road again!” Not much happened in those few hundred feet of frontage that Grandma Clark didn’t know about. That’s what is known as “eyes on the street.”