I'm currently engrossed in Whitney Terrell's novel The King of Kings County, an account of the development of the Kansas-side suburbs of Kansas City that thinly veils some real players and some real tactics. The story is a "coming of age" bit about the son of an aspiring developer who becomes involved with Prudential Bowen, who is doubtlessly modeled after prolific KC real estate mogel J.C. Nichols.
The story is powerful, however, in that it makes its point in a story that has the son riding along. It doesn't pontificate directly, but it makes one think. It is an added perk that I recognize many of the areas mentioned in the book.
It is clear that Whitney and I share the same views regarding the responsibility of ones choice of residence. It is implicit in the book. It is expressed in this quotation I found from an interview:
“The idea that just because you don’t know how your neighborhood was formed ... doesn’t mean that you aren’t an active participant in a society or a city that has chosen to divide itself up that way. I guess the argument would be that Kansas Citians and Americans know how segregation works, and in public they’re against it, but in private, in the way that they buy their houses, they still enforce that old system.”
Buy the book. Read the book. Enjoy the book.
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4 comments:
read it. loved it. passed it on to you. YOU should buy the book. :)
"Whitney..."
So you're already on first name terms with the author? Nice.
Pardon my journalistically inept usage there. I did meet him personally, so yeah, we're pals!
I'm inclined to agree with you in regards to the notion that selecting a neighborhood in which to live is a political statement. It's a stake in one's beliefs in integration, multiculturality, sustainability, material culture,a nd more. I live in the uber-unfashionable Lykins district of Kansas City's Old Northeast, a choice made in part due to economics (I can afford to live here) in part due to just generally liking the feel of the very integrated demographic, and in part because it was in reasonable cycling distance from downtown, a criterion which would have had to be met in any house I was willing to look at.
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