North of downtown Denver, a block from the Greyhound Station and not far from the federal courthouse, is a small commercial/residential district known as Sakura Square. There’s a Buddhist temple, a pan-Asian grocery, a high-rise apartment complex, an office building, a sushi restaurant and a small Japanese garden.

Every now and then I go out there in search of some Asian food product I can’t find at the local supermarket. I don’t have to go downtown. In fact, there are more Asian groceries per square mile on Federal Boulevard in West Denver. Nor does it have the “best Japanese garden” in Denver. If it’s Japanese Gardens you want, Denver Botanic Gardens is the place to be.

Mostly, I go there because of the history.

Colorado is a study in historical contrasts, especially when it comes to race relations. The Ku Klux Klan was a major power in state and local politics during the 1920s, briefly assuming control of the state assembly. But Colorado is also the home of Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr, the only prominent politician in the country to speak out against the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

A little background for non-history buffs: In the hysteria following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order creating exclusion zones and special curfews for Japanese-Americans on the West Coast. Thousands of Nisei (second generation Japanese immigrants) were rounded up and interned at desolate, windblown camps in the interior West. One of those camps was near the town of Granada in eastern Colorado, not far from the Kansas state line.

Meanwhile, back in Oregon, an attorney named Minoru Yasui refused to comply with the curfews and internment order, arguing that the discriminatory policies violated his constitutional rights. He was arrested, imprisoned and fined $5000. Later he went to one of the camps.

Yasui’s argument was that the Japanese-Americans were being singled not because of disloyalty but strictly because of race. Governor Carr made the same point when he spoke out the internment policy in 1942. “I was brought up in a small town where I knew the shame and dishonor of race hatred,” he said. “I grew to despise it…”

After the war, many of the internees stayed in Colorado, partly because their property had been confiscated back home and there wasn’t much to go home for, but also because of Carr’s support, which explains the small Japanese-American community at Sakura Square.

Min Yasui moved to Denver after being released from a camp in another state.  He practiced law and served as executive director of the city’s Community Relations Commission. His criminal conviction was officially overturned in 1986, shortly before his death.

For his part, Carr served out his term as governor and ran for Senate in 1942, narrowly losing to Senator Edwin C. Johnson. It is widely believed that the unpopularity of his stance on the internees cost him the election.

The governor’s reputation has grown over time, vindicated by changing attitudes about race and civil liberties. Not long ago, a section of Highway 285 near Kenosha Pass was named after him. But the most moving tribute, it seems to me, is the bust of Carr erected by the Japanese-American community in the garden at Sakura Square. If you are ever in Denver, check it out, it’s the one that stands a few yards away from the bust commemorating the courage of Min Yasui.

Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

The New York Times published an article yesterday titled, “As the Mountaintops Fall, a Coal Town Vanishes.” It discusses the devastating effects of mountain top removal mining, in this case, on Lindytown, West Virginia. In our 2010 Fall Season, we visited Lindytown for the Appalachia Rising episode and discussed in great detail the toll that the town, and the surrounding area, had taken and continues to take as a result of mountain top removal mining.

The thing that really stood out to us at SOTRU, was learning of the passing of Lawrence Richmond who so graciously invited us into his home and spoke to us during the recording of the episode. Rest in peace Lawrence and our deepest sympathies to the Richmond family.

Radio Producer Tina Antolini’s post from October of 2010, about her time in Appalachia seemed appropriate to share upon hearing this news:

Abandoned Home in Lindytown, WV

We all know what it’s like to be homesick—that bittersweet pang of longing for a place so familiar it feels part of us. Estranged from it, at certain moments it seems almost as if we are estranged from ourselves. But what’s it like to feel homesick when you’ve never left home? When, instead, your home has changed around you? (more…)

I can’t say that I really even notice billboards anymore. Perhaps it’s because when I’m in a car now, I’m usually driving and giving my full attention to safety, what music is playing, interacting with my daughter and texting . . . I kid, I kid. But when I was young my family took numerous road trips and you simply had to keep yourself entertained. So billboards were welcome visuals, some better than others. They broke up the monotony of the highway and were even the catalyst for different games. Find a billboard with this, make as many words as you can out of the name on this billboard . . . wow, we were so easily entertained.

From here the question is, where do all the old billboards go to die? It seems that for the most part, your local landfill is the only billboard retirement home in existence. While there are far more digital billboards (oh the humanity!), when you think about all of the enormous billboards and posters that cover a city or stretch of highway that become obsolete within days, you realize that’s a significant amount of waste. That is, until clever, innovative people come along to give them renewed meaning.

There are actually two great examples of this, and the first is one that I just learned about. There is a company called ReMakes that creates placemats from reclaimed billboards and movie posters. Each set consists of four placemats that are all cut from the same billboard or poster, resulting in a one-of-a-kind product. And how great are placemats? These unheralded protectors of tables give us another reason to actually sit down together and eat, and I know this is crazy, at the table together. Anything that points us in that direction is a winner in my book. ReMakes operates within a niche, works under a particular ethos and makes a quality, unique product. It may seem small in the scheme of things, but what a fantastic convergence of business and environment. Who knows, maybe this will continue to catch on.

The other aforementioned business that doesn’t like to see any billboard go unused is Burro Bags. This Jacksonville-based business has actually been featured on State of the Re:Union before. Burro Bags uses repurposed highway billboards “satisfying the needs of both durability and affordability with the added benefit of being environmentally-conscious.” Some bags are created with military-grade Cordura. You’ll find messenger bags, hip bags, apparel and other items that have garnered the small business widespread adoration and an international customer base.

Both businesses show that various considerations can be met and can result in a successful formula. It’s not strictly an either/or proposition.

We Want to Know:

• Do you know of any businesses in your community that have created a successful model that offers high-quality, affordable and environmentally conscious products?
• What do you think of ReMakes and Burro Bags?
• Do you see other opportunities for businesses to repurpose something that would otherwise be discarded or demolished?

These thoughts were inspired by a GOOD article titled  ”Re:Makes Old Billboards, Reborn.”

*Featured home page image by Colin from Wikimedia Commons.

How important is art in our culture? In our daily lives? In our respective communities? I think it would be really easy to overstate an answer on either side of the discussion, but I tend to think that’s the point. Successful art is emotive, it starts a conversation and essentially, it creates synthesis. And while there are some fairly fundamental shared thoughts on composition, colors, symmetry and perhaps even at a most axiomatic level, beauty, art is insanely subjective. All you have to do to disrupt an otherwise peaceable lunch at SOTRU headquarters, is bring up Jackson Pollock. Depending on which one of us you’re listening to, he’s either a genius or a hack.

But what part does art play in a broader scope? And this goes beyond the kind of fine art you would enjoy in a museum. Does art have healing, even restorative abilities? I tend to think that it does, that it’s quite possible to work through, or at least face mental and spiritual damage with art. In thinking about other mediums, like music and film, it’s easy to see how crucial art can be because of the incredibly strong associations we have with certain pieces. I’m sure few preachers would argue that the message communicated in the movie, The Passion of the Christ, resonated far more emotionally with viewers than any spoken sermon. I’m sure few teachers would argue the effectiveness music can have in the learning process.

Even if you do narrow the lens back down to strictly featuring fine art, it’s easy to see how essential a part of a community it can be. In Jacksonville there is a really simple park right on the St. Johns River called Memorial Park. And within that park there is a bronze sculpture called ‘Life’ that was created by Charles Adrian Pillars in memory of Jacksonville residents that gave their lives while fighting in World War I. And whether I’m running, walking or driving by, I have to get a look. Although I’ve seen it countless times, it continues to move me and almost have a re-calibrating effect. Though the verdant park is in a great spot, the sculpture is its nucleus, what really sets it apart. Great works of art have captured important victories, tragic events, incredible landscapes, moments of weakness, moments of strength, etc. People are able to infuse their native culture into the greater experience through art.

All this isn’t to say that the artist is an exalted individual that has a greater ability to interpret life, events or people better than anyone else, but more so the ability to capture the emotional essence, to jar something loose inside a viewer and even to bring you somewhere you haven’t been . . . geographically and metaphorically I suppose.

Photo By: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

I read a New York Times article titled, “Culture, Rolling Into Towns on Big Rigs” about painter Eric Fischl and his idea to create a semi-truck based “roving museum and performance space” that will “tour the country for two years to address what he sees as an identity crisis in American culture.” This type of generalized analysis would typically make me roll my eyes. However, in terms of the American identity at this juncture, I think he’s right. Between the ever-growing political polarization and challenging economic circumstances it feels like there is more prevalence in politics and problems than anything else when looking at the country’s identity. And I’m not concerned with our outward-facing identity. Geopolitics will always be fluctuating. It’s more about taking that collective breath, not losing focus on who we are as human beings. It doesn’t mean ignoring the huge issues hovering of us, but merely resetting, remembering that the problems aren’t the whole of things.

Fischl has recruited celebrated painters, musicians and poets for this project that will tour over a two-year span. He assures readers that “Their tour is not about trying to show up anyone else’s idea of art, or to instruct people who live outside the major art centers about the merits of big-city contemporary culture.” The art world can feel so insular, disconnected from every day people. This is a fantastic way to bridge that divide and remind everyone involved of the importance of the resonance of art. Ms. Norman, the playwright, that is participating in the project, said, “As much as we love Brian Williams, I don’t think he can tell us in the same way as a painter or a poet what it really feels like to live in Iowa.”

We Want to Know:

• Do you feel that art is highly valued in your community?
• What are some pieces of art that are important to you and why?

Read the New York Times article “Culture, Rolling Into Towns on Big Rigs” and be sure to listen to our Des Moines episode, Heart of the Heartland, that features Amer Al-Obaidi, the former Director for the National Museum of Contemporary Arts and the Iraqi Arts Council who had to flee the country and eventually relocated to Des Moines, Iowa.

Photo By: David Coates / The Detroit News

You won’t catch Grace Lee Boggs speaking in empty platitudes or trying to recapture a storied past . . . and that would be such an easy place to default to when talking about Detroit. Detroit, once a model of industry, production and success, well, now, is a shell of its former self where residents depart in droves. Boggs is an activist and author. The term activist is an ever-politicized one that often carries a polarizing connotation. But you can be assured, she is not in it for face time or to push a political agenda, she’s doing what needs to be done for her home city, for her neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Al spoke to Grace for our Detroit episode, Motor City Rebound, produced during SOTRU’s research and development year. What really caught my ear and sent the sentiment of, wow, she is different, she’s really in it to better things and she understands human nature was when she said:

“It starts with a few people. Human beings are not like fish, they’re not like a school of fish they don’t all move at the same time. People are not just masses, people have to wake up first before they begin acting.

She speaks in specifics, in solutions, and recognizes that Detroit is simply not going to re-industrialize. Instead she believes that the every day people have to do something to create real change. Where most activists call on government for change, Boggs notes that in Detroit, people are taking matters into their own hands.  She cites resident-driven movements to create real self-sufficiency with products and services that derive from within the community like the urban agricultural movement. “If people can feed themselves, people can free themselves,” Grace cites. She has helped start programs like the Detroit Summer Collective, a training ground for the next generation of citizen activists that explore the most crucial components of a community, like education. Boggs also found the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, a nonprofit community center and think tank.

Grace, who released the book, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century, was recently honored at an event at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Detroit in early April. It was scheduled to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. You can read more about the event here.

We Want to Know:

• Have you seen the type of activism Grace Lee Boggs teaches, that is people taking change in their own hands rather than calling on the government, in your community?
• Do you have solutions on how resident-led efforts can solve a problem in your community? What are they?

You can hear Grace Lee Boggs in our episode Detroit – Motor City Rebound.

*Photos By: David Coates of The Detroit News

A couple of months ago, I read an article in the Observer, by a student newspaper for Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College, pondering the question of how South Bend, Indiana, could appear on Newsweek’s recent list of “dying cities” and also have been an All-America City Award finalist in 2009. (Read the Observer article here.)

Well, one possible answer is that these “best of….worst of” media lists are often misleading. South Bend was apparently flagged by Newsweek because of its loss of population and manufacturing jobs, but the city has a lot of strengths, not the least of which is its relationship to Notre Dame and other nearby colleges and universities.

Another point, which comes up again and again, is that the All-America City Award is not a beauty contest. We ask applicants to list their strengths and weaknesses and to describe three successful of projects to address their most pressing challenges. In these tough economic times, there are very few cities that aren’t facing some kind of crisis or another. What makes them “All-America Cities” is the ability to address those problems with innovative solutions.

We Can! Program

South Bend happened to have some terrific civic projects in 2009. The city’s neighborhood revitalization partnership with the local universities and hospitals was impressive, as was its government innovation task force. Thanks to local anti-childhood obesity efforts, South Bend was selected one of the three cities to pilot the national We Can! campaign in 2007.

Yesterday, the National Civic League released the names of the 26 finalists for the 2011 All-America City Award, and I was very happy to see South Bend on that list again. Once again, South Bend is touting its Northeast Neighborhood Alliance, but it has a couple of new programs, including one that nicely illustrates what I mean by communities having challenges and addressing them.

Back in the 1920s, there was a local swimming pool known as the Engman Public Natatorium. It was located in a racially mixed neighborhood yet was a “whites only” pool. In 1937, African-Americans gained admission for one day a week. The next day the pool would be drained before whites would use the pool again.

The pool closed in 1978, but last year the site was rechristened as the “Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center,” thus transforming a shameful chapter in the city’s history into a “cultural center focusing on the civil rights movement in the northern United States,” a movement that—among other things—successfully desegregated the Engman Natatorium pool in the 1950s.

Infill Housing for the Neighborhood Revitalization Program

In the coming weeks I will be writing most posts about the 26 All-America City finalists and their community projects, everything from tsunami preparedness (Seaside, Oregon) to “green city” initiatives (Philadelphia and Cincinnati) to an effort to improvement mental health care (Forth Worth, Texas), to name a few.

The ten winners of the 2011 All-America City Awards will be announced June 17 after a three day event in Kansas City, Missouri. It won’t be a list of the ten “most livable” cities or the ten best places to raise children.

Just be a list of ten places where people are working hard to make their communities better.

Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.