As a kid I used to wonder when they were going to finish building the
highways and buildings -- wasn't for many many years that I realized it was
a more or less never ending ongoing project!
How to study the city -- what a challening question. In a way the
challenge is to clarify the question itself. What is the city, what are
you trying to study -- what is puzzling you -- Don't mean this in a flip
or condescending way. Wouldn't even mention it if I was not struck by the
power of the description of Espoo -- something in it calls out to be
studied (and not the least is the question of what is it that is calling
out. Something is dieing and something is being born -- but that is too
glib. Something there is I think Espoo wants to tell us
I picture a grid -- yes I know (so contrary to process and narrative)
numbers, temperatures, counts of all sorts --lights at night traffic
flows -- where are the churches, schools, mosques, transportation
routes, economic patters, ethnic patters -- times sounds. OK this is
crap -- but mostly just a note of admiration. sports, hospitals and police
precincts.
But in the end -- not for the numbers or even the processes -- but for the
life and the truths. What is universal in the story of Espoo -- a place of
habitation.
Maybe just walk the length and breath of it and record your story --its
story. How long how long and before that?
I look forward to your next installment -- and now I will shut up so as not
to break the spell of the story.
----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Lehmus" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.WVU.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: nowheresville -- everybody's got one
On Fri, 20 Apr 2007, Tom_ Lewis wrote:
There %is% a city center in Espoo?
yeah, isn't there? maybe not -- I kinda thought Tapiola was the "center --
if
you drive in on the highway, aren't there signs indicating a "keskus /
centrum"? not that a sign bestows centrality on a place...
There are three or four centers in Espoo, and Tapiola is one of them, the
oldest one. The adm,inistratice center is the Espoo Centrum which is located
in
the middle part of the area, by the old Cathedral, and virtually
inaccessible
except by commuter train or a few bus lines. The administrative services are
divided between Tapiola and the Centrum, probably because a lot of those
services were already established in Tapiola before the time the Centrum
itself
was built, in the 70s. Some of the main office buildings located within the
Centrum, are slated for demolition with no clear plan of any replacement.
These
include the City Hall designed by some Polish or DDR architects.
I'm fascinated by the constant construction work going on in Espoo, the
feeling
of temporality, thin layers of new culture built upon the earlier strata. I
want to study better the land use in Espoo, but haven't figured out yet how
to
do this.
j.
