Saturday May 2 saw Jane’s Walk come to Phoenix. No, this wasn’t a charity fundraiser, but a simple Saturday-morning stroll along a pre-determined route through the heart of downtown Phoenix.

Jane is (was) Jane Jacobs, an American-born Canadian urbanist, writer and activist, best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States that led to the vast unnatural sprawl and isolation that plagues our cities today.

Equally well known for her grass-roots organizing and interventions into poorly thought out urban renewal projects that threatened to destroy neighborhoods, her great strength was not simply critiqueing urban sprawl and blinkered urban planning, but offering solutions and proposing radically new principles for rebuilding American cities.

Jane’s Walk is a series of neighbourhood walking tours that helps put people in touch with their environment and with each other, by bridging social and geographic gaps and creating a space for cities to discover themselves. (www.janeswalk.net)

Jane’s Walk Phoenix joined Anchorage, Boston, Cambridge, Dayton (Ohio), Jackson (Mississippi), Moscow (Idaho), New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Spanish Harlem (New York City), Starkville (Mississippi) and St. Louis on the 2009 list. It drew a healthy and mixed crowd. Organizer Yuri Artibise smartly selected a few locations along the way to stop and talk about related issues or the location’s history, which allowed laggers to catch up.

Mainly, though, the issues, histories and anecdotes flowed naturally through the group’s social interaction, as it snaked its way through downtown. This was no ‘tour’ but rather a series of ambulatory conversations intersecting at the point where people and city merge.

Jane’s Walk Phoenix 2009 descends on Roosevelt Historic Park

Differing opinions, different perspectives. Frustrations, experiences, hopes. Personal observations; who used to live here; where the best coffee can be had. It was also a great reminder of how much fun an ad-hoc community can be, and how easily and quickly one can be created.

And having worked in the heart of downtown for 6 years, exploring it freely, it was personally pleasing - and suprising - to find new interesting places. This city continues to reveal itself, repaying
but a minimal investment: a little shoe leather. Thanks, Jane - see you next year!

Pictures:
Jane’s Walk 2009 (all cities)

Jane’s Walk 2009 Phoenix - I

Jane’s Walk 2009 Phoenix - II

As per Laura’s request, here is Clint Eastwood driving an armor-rigged bus through 1970’s downtown Phoenix, as the massed forces of law and order try to blow him to kingdom come, somehow miraculously avoiding gunning each other down in the turkey shoot that follows.

For trainspotters out there, here are a few of the locations we’ve identified:

Parking Garage, NE Corner of Van Buren & 2nd Ave

Central Ave & Monroe, looking west

Central Ave, Luhrs Tower in the background

Monroe between 2nd and 1st Ave, looking east

US Bank, SE corner of 1st Ave & Monroe

Central Ave & Monroe, looking south, Luhrs Tower in background

Washington, looking towards Central

Wells Fargo, SE corner of Adams & 2nd Ave

SE corner of Washington & 9th St, Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in background

And here is video of the whole sorry thing:

Guantanamo Bay speech By Tara Alatorre

Mark P. Denbaux

Breaking all the typical lawyer stereotypes, this habeas corpus trial lawyer not only works for free, he also buys his clients a fruit basket.

Mark Denbeaux buys an interpreter at 900 dollars a day, and travels all the way to Cuba to see the two Guantanamo Bay detainees he represents. He enters the detainee camp armed with fruit and hopes he will actually get to see his clients.

The Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp expert spoke about his research and experiences two weeks ago at the Sandra Day O’ Connor School of Law. In front of only a dozen people, he spoke and answered questions about his study on the Department of Defense’s charges and evidence held against the detainees.
“The whole thing is a complete and colossal screw-up,” Denbeaux said. “One big problem is the cultural misunderstanding between us. Names have posed a huge problem. Many people share the same name, but it is not truly an identifier of these individuals. People are being picked up and imprisoned because a name that is shared with so many others is listed on a document.”
“It’s like saying the guy in the shirt did it,” he said.
His client, who was an assistant cook, was arrested and shared the same name with at least four other people at Guantanamo, Denbeaux said.
“I’ve never believed that the government had the right guys,” he said.
Once he made the decision to represent Guantanamo prisoners, he received clearance from the Department of Defense, and was approved for top secret information on a need-to-know basis. Then he and his students at Seton Hall University School of Law began to do some serious research.

Their report revealed that 55 percent of the detainees have not committed any hostile acts against the United States or its allies. Only eight percent of the detainees have been characterized as Al Qaeda fighters. The remaining prisoners have no definitive association with Al Qaeda at all.
In fact, 86 percent of the detainees were captured by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance when large bounties were being offered by the United States for capturing suspected enemies. Their violent acts were surrendering to the Northern Alliance. He found only one person out of 516 that was captured on the battlefield by the United States Armed Forces, said Denbeaux at his speech.
“It was kind of shocking that the whole picture didn’t add up,” said Denbeaux.
Joe Panvini, a 23-year-old law student at ASU, thought the speech and numbers presented were interesting. He also recognized that Denbeaux has his own point-of-view, he said in an interview.
“The ideas of our country shouldn’t be compromised though, give them a fair trial,” said Panvini.
Denbeaux is convinced that the Department of Defense made up the numbers to disguise the “falsity and cruelty of Guantanamo.” The government’s latest justification of Guantanamo is their claim of released detainees “returning to the battlefield.” Denbeaux claims, that for detainees to return to the battlefield, they had to be there first.
In July of 2007, a government press release admitted to not keeping track of released detainees. Yet they claimed 30 were recaptured or died on the battlefield, he said.
“They needed a dramatic example to show that they were successful,” said Denbeaux.
His research revealed the recidivists had not returned to the battlefield at all. He concluded that only one of 30 detainees accused of returning actually did.
“The incompetence is so overpowering that it’s hard to deal with,” said Denbeaux.
One released detainee did become a suicide bomber in Iraq, but was never captured on the battlefield prior to his release. While in Guantanamo, the angered detainee stated that if he was ever released he would kill Americans. Someone in the Department of Defense released him. “These people are so angered about being imprisoned they become our enemies,” he said.
Stephen Scheufler, an employee of ASU’s Health and Safety Department, came to watch the speech on his day off. He was impressed by the speech and the research, he said, although Scheufler thinks that some key historical points were missed related to the topic. We have an example of the Japanese internment camps right here in Arizona. These were American citizens imprisoned in camps during World War II, he said.
“Why wouldn’t we react by collecting everyone?” Scheufler said.
This is a part of war, and you do what you have to. Detainee camps are a better option than killing prisoners of war that might become martyrs, he said.
Denbeaux’s advice to the new Obama administration, “divide it up, this cess-pool that is Guantanamo.”