we'll fight for your (dying) cities

my love of urban decay and american ruins has now put me in the position of making a choice. do i support the decay, the forlorn, the crumble of buildings because aesthetically, i think they are beautiful. paint pealing, rusted pipes, exposed bricks wrought with holes. i keep doing all this research, reading interviews with the people that actually live in these desolate and decayed areas, ones that are nostalgic for the past, where streetcars actually worked and movie houses were known as palaces. i am wondering about this nostalgia, in fact i wonder if memories are even a good thing in some places. i'm interested in helping to write a new future, one that acknowledges the past but does not dwell on it. but also one that does not support these downtown rennovations that exist only for guests and visitors. visitors that have moved away to safe havens where decay has not yet reached them and where they can walk along the riverwalk downtown and remember the old days. old days they basically fled from or that they never experienced first hand. my history is for the people that stayed and the people that come back and come for the first time. people seeking to form a place with visions of our forefathers before capitalism turned on us. maybe, these will be new cities, new neighborhoods with neighbors who converse and help each other the way neighbors were known to do. there is nostalgia for that and in which i am in agreeance on. as much as i am starting to despise the word community, i am very much for it. so, i suppose i will live with the pictures of the american ruins and help write a new history.