Louisiana Environmental Action Network and the community members of Reserve LA/St John the Baptist Parish
A digital collection of material for field activities with LEAN and the community members of Reserve LA/St John the Baptist Parish.
A digital collection of material for field activities with LEAN and the community members of Reserve LA/St John the Baptist Parish.
I am interested in the Macro scale and the macro effects evident at a city-scale level. I remember visiting New Orleans in 2016 and vividly remember seeing several signs with a large 'No' symbol drawn and the text "neighbors not tourists" printed on the sign. Recently, as part of my research into New Orleans, I stumbled on this piece by the Guardian on how short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb are leading to gentrification in New Orleans. Highlighted in the article is how several Airbnb hosts do not reside on the listed premises. I remember the place we stayed, as we were a large party, having a 617 prefix number. The prefix stood out as I knew the code 617 represented Boston and was curious what someone with ties to Boston doing in New Orleans as a host. In a similar vein, the article also highlights the problem of absentee hosts, hosts who acquire property for the sole purpose of setting up the property as an Airbnb site.
To tackle the problem, one councilwoman passed a law that required any Airbnb hosts in residential zones to have a homestead exemption verifying they live on site. In this case, a city-wide measure was taken and passed into law affecting the micro. It is common to have one host having several properties in different residential areas in New Orleans. From a technical standpoint, it could be viewed that Airbnb as technology is developed and presented as a scalable product. With no limits to reproducibility. Meanwhile, real-life discontinuities exist in the form of such homestead laws. It is impossible to live in more than one homestead at the same time. In other words, the concept of the human is not scalable.
Likewise, neither is cultural heritage. The city of New Orleans positions its self as a city with great cultural heritage. It is through this heritage that they seek to draw more and more tourists. How do cities think of scaling up successful initiatives and how do they navigate the political, social, ecological, or economic entanglements. At what point is downscaling necessary? Is culture scalable?
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/13/new-orleans-airbnb-trem…
I am currently a Ph.D. student interested in exploring the entanglements of scale, especially in the context of environmental sensing. My primary research seeks to engage in discourse around the value of scalability that is presented as inherent in computation. While the term scale-up is almost synonymous with computation, sustainability; on the other hand, is known as a problem of scale. Take for example, the discourse on climate change where the actions required to combat climate change requires interventions at different scales. In this context, demanding changes at individual scales while no corresponding changes happen at larger scales would not yield much.
In looking at New Orleans, I came across a video on IoT cameras developed by Cisco, the networking giant. What struck me other than the apparent rise of surveillance capitalism was the narrative of one of the police officers highlighted in the video. The officer mentions that it is not feasible for the city to place police officers on every corner. In the context of scale, the police officer is implying that cameras are useful as they extend the police officer's ability to surveil the city. In other words, cameras and the networks help scale up the police officer, making it possible for them to cover a larger scale than before.
One of the police officers, in the video, also mentions that New Orleans is a tourist and hospitable town. Which brings up the question at any given period, what scale of visitors can New Orleans support without stretching the city's resources? Several other cities in the world have made efforts to limit visitors, in order not stretch city resources. The recent crisis at Mount Everest is an excellent example of what happens when resources are stretched to accommodate the increasing number of local visitors. How could something of this nature similarly impact New Orleans?
At the communication center where the video feed is analyzed, the IT manager provides reasons as to why they chose Cisco as their vendor. One of the reasons he gives was that the system is easily expandable, allowing the ability to scale out/up the network.
" The dangers under which health workers try to function appear to be heightening, as frightening locals continue to blame the doctors for prepetuating the violence"
"We don't accept their prescence at all. They ae the transporters of the virus in these communities"
The argument is made and sustained by filming various types of patients in the hospital: a diabetic women who was given a sandwich after waiting for hours, a man who did not want to recieve dialysis because of the ordeal of waiting he had to endure each time he was at the hospital, a boy who got shot and died inside the trauma room, a man who had bone spurs on his spine, to name a few. The narrative is also sustained through the view of the patients, the doctors, the nurses and the financial staff all views of the healthcare system are shown and maintained. The film does have emotional appeal because it follows patients from when they first enter the ER to when they leave: for example a little girl who had a severe case of strep throat and could not talk, to her getting treatment, a doctor's appointment and then being discharged. The film portrays each patient in a way that allows the viewer to want to see more of their story.
The report's bibliography indicates thorough research. The sources listed are credible and valid indicating validity and accuracy to the conclusions drawn in the article.
The article’s bibliography explains the extensive research that was put into the article. The resources used were not only online references, so they took time to gather.
" the incorportation of health status in the provisions of the law, initially as a block to deportation and subsequently as grounds for granting residence, marked as a watershed."
"The logic of state soverignty in the control of migration clearly prevailed over the universality of the principle of the right to life."
"His body is finally the only social resource capable of causing a comparison that has been translated into law and would prehaps allow him to be granted permission to remain."
The actors that were behind the report was the government. It was a governent ordered report by the second session of the 109th congress,.
While I cannot find a direct link between Cloud 9 and other software platforms, other online services and apps have similar features that offer counseling, but none that are readily available that link providers and patients directly.