This was publication week for my book, Fortress Power. It's about hostile built environments from the bastion fortress to contemporary cities and borders. It examines how the desire to fortify is thwarted by a turbulent world and the damage that defensive architecture does along the way.
"‘Defund,’ if it were properly talked about in the mainstream media, would be referred to as an evidence-based public safety program.”
40 years ago today, Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on Black residents of the city. It killed eleven people and started a fire that destroyed the block. The Logan Center at Temple and The Inquirer have put together an amazing podcast on the bombing of MOVE to mark the dark day in Philly history.
Federal prison & detention expansion is not just about Alcatraz but also FCI-Dublin (CA), North Lake (MI), Delaney Hall (NJ), and Leavenworth (KS), and family detention facilities in Texas.
Justice Department cuts are having devastating effects on community violence intervention programs and other alternatives to policing and incarceration in Philadelphia.
From @templeunivpress.bsky.social: "'Building ghosts' are the idiosyncratic remnants or imprints of demolished buildings, left behind on the sides of neighboring structures ... They can be ... unveiled and never re-covered in a neighborhood that has not seen new construction in a long time."