This was a piece written by SOTRU Radio Producer, Tina Antolini, about her time in the human-occupied tunnels running under Las Vegas. It’s an incredibly fascinating concept if you were to think of it as a diorama; tourists from all over the world in and out of the monstrous casinos and other celebrated spots that you associate with The Strip directly above people making their homes in the dark, wet, flash flood tunnels that run under the city. It feels more like something from a movie. The episode is fascinating and explores this underground world. You can listen here. Tina’s piece below, originally appeared on our website December 23rd, 2010.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about tunnels.

Entrances to an underground world, a place far away from sunlight, and, therefore, in our imaginations, they’re places that must incubate things that love the dark. Fearful things.

Culturally, we’re fascinated with the prospect of a subterranean world. Be it the hiding place of Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” (“…Paris has another Paris under herself; a Paris of sewers; which has its streets, its crossings, its squares, its blind alleys, its arteries, and its circulation, which is slime, minus the human form.”) or the home of monsters in “C.H.U.D.” (that would be for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller), a cult film about flesh-eating underground creatures who prey on the homeless, or, on the opposite end of the cinematic spectrum, the grain-hoarding raincoat-wearing vegans of “Delicatessen.”

The truth is less glamorous and/or frightening… but equally fascinating. Among the stories SOTRU is reporting on in Las Vegas is one of the underground world beneath the casinos, the miles of flood channels that lace their way under the Strip. These are home to hundreds of people.

Many of whom have surprisingly home-like homes.

But most of these tunnel residents are forced down here because of a variety of misfortunes, economic and otherwise. Usually, one does not choose to live 30+ feet underground for the heck of it.

We’ll tell you a lot more about life in the tunnels in our upcoming Las Vegas episode… But in the meantime, I wanted to know: what’s your favorite tunnel story, real or imagined?

Operation New Hope is such an incredible organization and has even become a national model for solving recidivism challenges. It was originally explored in our episode, Jacksonville – The Bold New City of the South? – and SOTRU guest contributor, Alina Kodatt, caught up with the organization’s founder, Kevin Gay, last December to see what had changed for them since the episode. We want to be sure that you didn’t miss it! Additionally, we will soon be starting a new feature on our website called Radio Re:Visit. It will highlight some of the people and organizations that were part of our radio episodes, so that we can get a sense for where they are now and if anything has changed since we last spoke.

Below is Alina’s conversation with Kevin that we originally published on 12.06.10:

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In State of the Re:Union’s third pilot episode, Al Letson explored his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. In that episode Al introduced readers to Operation New Hope (ONH), an organization located in the historic downtown neighborhood of Springfield. Focused on bringing hope to ex-offenders through employment and rebuilding dilapidated homes in the community, ONH has received national attention for their model of bringing help and hope to their community. We were so inspired by their story the first time around that we recently caught up with ONH director Kevin Gay to get an update on their efforts. (more…)

We are excited to announce that Al and Tina are wrapping things up in warm Miami (Al has been working hard and deserved a balmy climate for our final spring stop), the last city on our 2011 Spring Season itinerary. Al and our all-star team of radio producers have collected incredible stories of community and the resiliency and devotion of people meeting challenges head on . . . and creating solutions. Come along this Spring as we visit:

• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Birmingham, Alabama
• Utica, New York
• Oakland, California
• Miami, Florida

Watch our newest short documentaries shot in Birmingham about the incredible stories of Red Mountain and Scrollworks and read the breakdown of all five upcoming Spring Season episodes on our Season 2 Preview page!

Go ahead, we know you’re a leader, get the conversation started! SOTRU would love to get your thoughts on the episodes when they are made available, our newest documentaries and all things SOTRU and community related.

Use your imagination.

When it comes to playtime, nothing beats a good, old-fashioned cardboard box. As little kids, I bet many of us spent our fair share of time inside one – imagining ourselves as spaceship drivers heading toward outer space, or treasure hunters exploring a deep dark cave. As we’ve grown older and the real world has catapulted us forward, that cardboard box has probably lost its appeal – becoming just another storage container, or a reminder that moving day is on the horizon. But imagine if we could maintain that childhood imagination a little longer. How might we apply it to the benefit of our communities?

In New Orleans, a writer named Rob Walker is answering these questions – not with cardboard boxes, but with vacant, dilapidated buildings. Like many towns, New Orleans has several neglected edifices, and they struck a chord in Walker’s imagination. What could these buildings become, he wondered, in some limitless, hypothetical future? How could they be renovated and used by the community? He had a few ideas up his own sleeves, so he decided to play them out artistically – producing architectural renderings of imagined, fictional and exciting new spaces – and posting them outside the current, neglected ones. In this vein, he founded the Hypothetical Development Organization in 2010.

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“In our view, plausibility is a creative dead end.”

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Much like children and their cardboard boxes, The Hypothetical Development Organization isn’t bound by convention as it invents future uses for New Orleans’ buildings. Its designers don’t think about commercial potential, practical materials or physics as they come up with their ideas, and their renderings don’t look realistic. Indeed, as the organization’s website states, “In our view, plausibility is a creative dead end.” With this freedom, past ideas have included, “The Museum of the Self” and “The Loitering Centre.” Although some critics wonder whether the signs will confuse local residents – Are they really turning this old ugly building into a “Museum of the Self”? – Walker says his signs aren’t intended to confuse anyone. Instead, The Hypothetical Development Organization is simply trying to get communities thinking and talking about otherwise overlooked spaces, engaging in a new kind of urban storytelling that could even spark community activism. Might the architectural renderings inspire local residents to take action and transform a dilapidated space into something new?

The Hypothetical Development Organization in New Orleans really got me thinking about communities and the evolution of neighborhood spaces. Like New Orleans, many cities are home to neglected real estate, and people tend to walk by without a second thought.  The empty buildings have history, and they might remind us of what used to be there. The question is, how can we inspire our neighbors to start discussing their futures?

We want to know:

• Does your community have any old vacant buildings? Have you ever imagined a future use for them?
• What do you think about The Hypothetical Development Project?
• If we consider renovations, should we focus on preserving the history of vacant properties? Or should we try to imagine a modern use, even if it’s totally different?

These thoughts were inspired by two September and December articles in Good Magazine.

Start the discussion below!

Water permeates every aspect of life. The chemical substance is essential for survival, covers more than 70% of our planet’s surface, composes anywhere from 55% to 78% of our bodies and epitomizes Bruce Lee’s philosophy on life. It is even a direct connection to the stars, as much of the universe’s water is produced as a byproduct of star formation. It’s amazing that a substance so abundant carries vastly different meanings from community to community.

Some places build their economy around a body of water while for others, the disbursement of water is an ancient, sacred and challenging practice. The needs, uses, esteem . . . all present a vast range. Can you imagine explaining to someone twenty-five years ago what a huge industry bottled water would become? Anecdotes surrounding water are endless.

While it has been a source of division in some cases, it generally is something that brings people together. Think about the times you have spent at your local watering hole swimming, plunging in from a rope swing, fishing or time spent at the seemingly endless ocean just taking in the view, surfing, walking, thinking, bonding.

We Want to Know:

• Besides being a necessity of your survival, what role does water play in your life?
• How important is water or a body of water in your community? Please explain.

Start the conversation by commenting below!

Pictory, a website that captures user’s stories in incredilbe, high-quality photos, did this piece about water called In Deep. We’re looking forward to hearing what you to say. Get the discussion started!

Featured image on home page by Serrah Russell for Pictory.

Utica is not a city that makes many outsize claims these days. There’s a pervasive sense that a lot of the city’s glory days are in the past, that the time when people boasted about Utica with words like “best” and “biggest” are long gone. Except… when it comes to food. Economic hard times or not, this is a city that takes its eating seriously. Maybe that’s because it was home to so many Italians… (more…)