The Globalized Neighborhood -

Wonderful news this past week reveals that many residents of Havana are now able to connect with the rest of the world via the Internet using new Wi-Fi hotspots, as reported by Mimi Whitefield and Patricia Mazzei at the Miami Herald.

Are you a flaneur?
Or do you have any interest at all in the activity?

"Walter Benjamin described the flaneur as the essential figure of the modern urban spectator, an amateur detective and investigator of the city."

Fort Lauderdale is not a very walkable city, but more "eyes on the street" promotes better Public Safety, and the Police Chief here wants to re-introduce Community Policing.

Despite a plethora of neighborhoods sprawled out hither and yon, his goal may be very difficult to achieve any time soon.

Locally, police are seeking information about the death this past week of 67-year-old Robert Regan, which has been characterized as a homicide. Reagan was known in his neighborhood as a community activist.

It is believed that he came in contact with drug dealers who have been targeting Fort Lauderdale lately by flooding the city with a dangerous designer drug called Flakka, much of which seems to originate in China.

"Writing about Place
in the Age of the Global City"

was an interesting recent panel discussion featuring
Luc Sante, Vivian Gornick, and the LAT's David Ulin, who talked about the role of cities in an age of globalization.

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