Wednesday, May 28

The ridiculous question of the day...

What does the trail pictured, Harvard, and illicit substances being sold in a project in Chicago all have in common????

I stopped my electronic gadget long enough to answer an email while out taking some exercise yesterday... right at this spot.  My mind was still buzzing with all the unbelievable information that Sudhir Venkatesh put out in his book "Gang Leader for a day".

The idea that an Indian kid from Irvine could take his Pony tail and tie dyed shirts, quit following the greatful dead, and wind up hanging out in the projects with a illicit substance selling syndicate in the projects of Chicago is kind of beyond belief.  Not for a day, month, or year... but years.  And record the whole adventure. Wow.

The majority of the tale took place in the Robert Taylor high rise project.  It challenged a lot of my notions about what a community would tolerate, and why.  Eye opening in a lot of ways but every question answered created two.

Why did the projects fail so miserably when they could have been noble?

Will Sudhir create a further piece of work explaining the workings of his comrade Harvard Fellows??? That would be just as interesting and alien to me.