Autumn changes everything

At least in Berlin. Nature covers culture,
leaves and chestnuts sheet stones and bricks.
Sunflowers break free - before they die.
Click to see the big ones.

Growing corn on main street in Berlin

It's early September in Berlin and corn is still clearly visible from ground level.
the picture shows a main street of a central district in the city - my neighborhood. Big chunk of migrant businesses from people of turkish origin to be found there. this biggest group of migrants in the city often is perceived as problematic: mucho habits of their young males, no equal rights for their females, low skills, high unemployment, limited integration to main society - however you might define this. but corn in main street reminds me on the disconnect between the city and the countryside, soil, nature. thank you for the corn, fellow neighbors.

Ground Level

(click to get the big one)

Of course I am used to a perception
of the city from a certain height.
Want to change that.
Expect some more pictures
from ground level in time to come.
Change perspective. Learn
about urban life that you usually can't see.
Unlike some urban species that are less
appreciated. Not only animals,
if you think of these.
Once I saw a homeless guy
lying on the sidewalk in a Chicago neighborhood,
absolutely helpless. Knocked out like a boxer.
Overlooked by anybody else.
No eyes on ground
level.

Bloody marketing in Chicago

Click to enlarge

What is home, what was home in Albuquerque, New Mexico

The fancy Stuff

The absence of plants in many American downtowns.
Green spaces are left to small parks, if at all. It's buildings
and cars. And people in them. Some cities value extraordinary
designs. Denver architecture for instance. Fancy.
Still, it's buildings and cars...
I wonder whether one million trees will be planted
in Los Angeles, as its mayor announced.
Please add bicycling.

Collecting Permissions

What is permitted on a retail building
to be rehabbed in Denver, Colorado.
Lucky to have a front window big enough.

Service Economy

Instant service in Denver, Colorado

Family values

Latino coin laundry in Chicago.
Smell of freshness. Perfumes of the perfect family home.
More soap more smell that gets me addicted, almost.
Dryers turning clothes behind round windows like portholes.
Machine of life in operation. Clean floors, orange chairs,
Mini vans parking outside.
Men carrying huge loads of laundry out of their cars,
into woman territory.
Community action, chatting, watching TV, all spanish.
Clean clothes to be folded properly, symbolic restoration of order
after one week of wearing and tearing, dirt and sweat.
Family values. Inner city ones. Latino ones.
Middle class Whities head for suburbia instead.
House debts and sprawl commuting, also cute, but smells worse.
One shoe box a family. White walls, all innocent. Big screens,
windows to the world outside. New car every 2 years. SUV
protect my family, ask Detroit. New home every 5,
bigger and further outside of course, a proof that shows
still to be on the wealth track.
Beauty from far above. Got to fly in order to see.
These suburban paintings, curves and cul de sacs.
Graphic family values.

Watchtower at the coin laundry.
Where page one suburbanists and
working class latino families meet.
A cover story.

Albuquerque, behind main street

Different esthetics behind main streets.
Above: Central Ave, Route 66 back alley.
Underneath the "cool" design of concrete and neon
of Albuquerque's CBD back alleys.

Alleys in arts and hidden businesses

Above: Back alley business in Denver, CO
Below: Back alley art in Albuquerque, NM

America's Back Alleys

Back alleys of American cities for me are one of the most attractive assets of urban structures.

They are the underdog streets. No permission to wear street names. Not intended to show the back sides of buildings so urban design does not exist. A biotope for plants and animals. Rest space for workers during breaks. Spaces without attention developing specific skins. Graffiti can survive here, and things of the past, long forgotten. But at night they are fully illuminated.
Keeps the fear away.

(pictures show some Downtown Denver's back alleys).
I am currently on travel in CO, NM, AZ and Chicago.