ON THE QT
Everything You Always Suspected--
Plus a City So Wicked
Even The Devil Left Town
Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
Publisher and Editor
WELCOME
to On The QT #17. Returning after the previously announced two week vacation. Which wasn't a vacation but a relocation. On The QT now comes to you from the land of
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER.
The "City So Wicked" line is a promo banner on a 1957 paperback called "Hell Strip". Author, Lee Richards. Published by Fawcett Gold Medal, a paperback publishing house which in the fifties specialized in the literary genre known as "Pulp Fiction". Pulp's forerunners included Dashiel Hammet, James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler, who did their major writing before the end of the 1940's. But post WWII America produced a second wave of even more hardboiled writers; ones also writing under the influence of Hemingway, seasoned with a dash of Existentialism.
BRUTALITY & CORRUPTION
are endemic to war and a generation of men who grew up in the Great Depression and who fought and killed on battlefields and who'd had to take what the military dished out, returned to civilian life wanting to read literature as tough as their experience. Post war pulp writers such as Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Chester Himes, Charles Williams, Gil Brewer and a host of others spoke their language with stripped down tales of survival and its opposite in urban jungles. Not all pulp was urban. Some wrote, like Jim Thompson in "POP. 1285", of small towns run by dimestore despots and awash with greed and other
GENERIC SINS.
Despite raging cynicism, event driven storylines and breakneck prose, pulp tended to be morally introspective. A wrong step is taken-- usually theft of money, love or human life-- and the protagonist either extricates himself painfully from the consequences or spirals relentlessly downward. All while observing his personal weaknesses with brutal honesty. Along the way sharp and often poetic and/or blackly funny comments on a corrupt dog-eat-dog society are made. Pulp attention to the gritty details of urban life were not
BOOSTER FRIENDLY.
Hence, pulpsters wouldn't have made good New Urbanists.They wouldn't have worried about "negative perceptions" nor would they have fretted about flower potties or counting cars. Thugs on corners selling drugs would be more their speed. And public money intended to alleviate poverty being used for real estate deals of the politically connected would have caused them to
LAUGH FIT TO DIE.
Picture this: A tree lined street, marking the boundary of a picture postcard urban park. A black drug dealer stands on the corner making a trade with a white customer on a cold, windy day in February. Just as the money changes hands a stiff breeze lifts the bills and whips them away. The lovely green stuff blows down the street and both dealer and druggie scramble after it. A pulp fiction send-up? Naw. Just one of the more benign scenes glimpsed from QT's old window in downtown Albany, New York.
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
Though many pulp writers wrote of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. more placed their stories in smaller cities across the USA. A love of the local (even when warty) shone through and the portrait of such cities at mid century is of enduring interest. The same cities are more interesting than ever. During the 90's major cities tended to morph into vertical shopping centers, aka, The Rise of the McCity. But many smaller cities still have the individual nature people who like city life seek. Plus neighborhoods containing longtime loyal residents. Many of whom deserve better than their local elected reps.
METAL MACHINES
In once industrial Jersey City, New Jersey, old timers used to reflect nostalgically on Mayor Frank "I am the law" Hague. (A mega machine politico of amazing longevity.) Saying "Sure, Hague was a corrupt little dictator, but he kept the streets safe". The same line is heard in other cities with similar pasts. The point being that current little dictators don't live up to their side of the deal. Even money doesn't buy what it once did. Nor does civic responsibility. Businesses and homes that reflect major investment, both financial and emotional, sit cheek by jowl with dumps left to rot by absentee slumlords or by those who took initial "revitalization" funds, then skipped before the heralded
TRANSFORMATION.
Nothing discourages residence in urban neighborhoods more than witnessing the futility of attempting to live by what are called "middle class values". Which are essentially the values of those wanting freedom from a tooth and claw existence. Most people of all races strive like hell to bring those values into their lives, hoping to keep themselves and their families safe. And many residents in urban neighborhoods are old or infirm and living on fixed incomes. Watching their neighborhoods decay makes them feel like they've been discarded. It's the first and foremost responsibility of local governments to protect. All else is gravy. Tasty, but hard to enjoy without the basic
BLUE PLATE SPECIAL.
In the earlier part of this century, an educated, socially conscious urban middle class did much to improve public life in cities by acting on the high minded democratic assumption that public order was beneficial for all. Often their modern equivalents seem unable to speak with conviction about criminal behavior. Particularly drug related criminal behavior. One factor being fear of seeming racist. Which suggests that no matter how often such people say that drugs are not exclusively a black phenomena, they secretly believe the opposite.
TOO ILL TO CHILL
Then there's the "addiction is a disease" factor. With the moral dimension removed from drug addiction, the social tool of judgement becomes useless. The ill can't be judged. Even when they rob with knives or guns, or prey on the handicapped or the elderly, or bring gang connected dealers into neighborhoods. Such acts aren't ones of overwhelming selfishness, but attempts to self medicate. And in a lot of second tier cities, the rehab business has become a major part of the economy. Many of the socially conscious, via social service jobs, or investment in rehab facilities or rental properties that house addicts, make their living off the legal side of drug addiction. For them, admitting the adverse effects on neighborhoods of the rehab biz is real squirm material. Almost as squirmy as it is for those who relax with an occasional recreational drug and who don't rob their neighbors to admit their TGIF drug use still contributes to the growth of massive criminal structures with international connections and the destruction of local neighborhoods.
LEGALIZE, MY LOVELY?
What approach to illegal drugs would prove most beneficial to smaller cities? More War? Legalization? Decriminalization? A big subject QT will continue to explore.
HAPPY WORLD NEWS!
Internet, that is. Narco News, the pro drug legalization website known for its coverage of the larger economic interests at play in the drug biz, was facing an across border libel suit by Mexican bank Banamex (purchased by Citigroup). Narco News has consistently covered the president of Banamex's reported involvement with the drug business.The Supreme Court of New York tossed the libel case, ruling that Narconews.com was a media defendant and entitled to the same First Amendment protections as offline journalists. Crime Prevention Association of Michigan, a site with a very different approach to drug issues, continues to do a great job providing info about innovative and inspiring community responses to drug crime. On the inspiration front, check those fired up Jersey City and Hoboken, New Jersey activists using their local Internet drum boogie most effectively, rallying neighborhoods to fight for parks on a post 9/11 Hudson River waterfront. The one developers would like to see become wall to wall offices for a NYC business diaspora. In NYC cyberspace, drop in on Rent Wars, the cutting edge pro tenant website which is curiously entertaining on the subject of housing carnage. A web simulcast of Rent Wars News, the NYC cable television program, can now be enjoyed by all. The schedule is available at Rentwars.com. When in Amsterdam, The Netherlands give a listen to DJ Bart Plantenga at Radio 100 at 99.3 MHz FM. Or catch his webcast. Or sign up to receive his wild and wooly playlist ruminations via email. Sure to offend but always a pleasure. Bart was recently in Woodstock, NY researching yodelling. Other New York State points of interest include The CyberHood website from Buffalo. With a fresh perspective on urban issues this site also features an online gallery. Now featuring an essay by Cuba expert Jose Buscaglia, regarding the current relationship between the United States and Cuba, and photos of Cuba taken over a three year period by CyberHood founder Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. Want more photos? Darn, you just missed Roz Payne's Burlington, Vermont show of her seminal sixties work. Roz, who manages the Internet "Sixties List" found the photo gracing the show's invitation too seminal for some. Called "Happy 69!", it originally appeared on the cover of an underground NYC newspaper "Rat". This time around it touched off a PC dust up. Weird cause the photo is a lyrical shot of two bodies intertwined in the numerical position with no nasties visible. And neither partner is on top! New Looks Dept: The Tri State Transportation Campaign (a group focused on improving how we get around round round) has redesigned their email newsletter. Crisp and clean. User friendly. Better than ever. Finally, if you want to check out pulp fiction, a good place to start is Gryphon Books, a website based in Brooklyn and a mail order treasure trove for vintage paperback collectors. Grab a handful of the most authentic American authors this side of Mark Twain. Who Jim Thompson occasionally resembles. Through a glass, darkly.
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!
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