History

Amy and I had a wonderful evening out earlier this week with another
couple from our church. We dined at the Water Works Restaurant, a
beautifully converted water treatment facility that at its peak was
actually the second most popular tourist destination in the US,
trailing only Niagara Falls. Philadelphia was the first big city to
consider the delivery of safe drinking water to households a municipal
function, and to this day its water department enjoys a solid
reputation internationally.

And we had an elegant dinner on that very site.

And that's why Philadelphia is so cool. It is emerging as a hot young
city with new amenities and trendy spots, but all of that is layered
upon a rich tapestry of historical sites and meaningful places. It
provides our city depth and character, and contrasts with newer
cities, which while they may not have to deal with the challenges of
crumbling infrastructure and ingrained ways, seem shallow and
soulless.

History matters. And I just have to imagine that one's quality of
life is enhanced and deepened when you get to rub shoulders with it on
a daily basis. So you can take your McMansions and your 32-screen
movie theaters and your mega-churches. Give me Liberty (Bell) or give
me death.

MLB Predictions

Ah, spring is in the air. Going to a Phillies game next week, and if
the weather cooperates, I and 30,000 others will partake in one of the
most enjoyable and American ways to spend an evening outside.

So it's time for some predictions. If you're keeping score at home -
OK, only I'm nerdy enough to do that - I've actually gotten about 2/3
of my playoff teams right over the last four years. Although I've
only gotten one World Series winner right - the 2004 Red Sox, of all
teams.

AL - Red Sox, Angels, Tigers, WC Indians
NL - Dodgers, Mets, Cards, WC Phils
ALDS - Red Sox over Indians, Angels over Tigers
NLDS - Dodgers over Phils, Mets over Cards
World Series - Angels over Dodgers

So there you go. Here's to a great 2007!

Location, Location, Location

Seven years ago this week, Amy and I closed on our house. We
celebrated by going out to lunch, and then we moved her stuff in - I
would move in three weeks later, after we got married. I recall being
excited to become a homeowner, but nervous that now that the house
belonged to us, any major problems became our problems.

Indeed, in seven years we've had pipes burst and small fires break out
and even a burglary. We've done renovations, bought new windows, and
weatherized leaky areas. And I went from being a worried and
incompetent homeowner to a resigned and incompetent homeowner.

And in seven years, my how the local real estate market has changed.
I remember when anything over $100K seemed exorbitant for our
neighborhood; now anything under $400K is considered a steal. So our
timing was good, and so was our God.

I asked Amy the other day, "If you could pick any intersection
anywhere in the world to live, where would it be?" She mulled it over
for about two seconds and decided that right where we are was her best
answer. I had to agree.

Some days aspects of the suburbs beckon to us. We harbor a growing
itch to spend our empty nester days in a tiny apartment downtown. I
still dream of retiring in a ballpark village near where my beloved
Oakland A's play.

But I'm pretty darn happy right now with where we're located. We're
within the lines of a new public school Penn supports, which our kids
will be able to walk two blocks to get to from the time they're in
kindergarten until the 8th grade. That school, our local park, and
the Penn campus are all within a ten-minute walk, all great places to
bring little kids. Also within ten minutes are two sets of transit
lines, our church, and probably three dozen restaurants.

And so as we celebrate our seventh anniversary as homeowners, I feel
quite fortunate that we bought what we did, where we did, and when we
did. Now if I can just figure out how to add a layer of insulation in
our attic and get around to buying a dining room table, we'll really
be cooking.

Renaissance Man

For my day job, I try to keep on top of things related to urban
Philadelphia and to economic development. Believe me, I put in the
effort, squeezing the most out of what little discretionary time I
have to go to events, keep my network fresh, and devour the paper and
websites. And yet, I probably get 1% of all the stuff that's out
there.

Today, I got to take a one-day break from the sharpening. I had to go
to New York for some adoption-related paperwork, which ended up
meaning two two-hour train rides, plus a one-hour wait at the agency
while they were processing my requests.

What that meant was I got to diversify my information consumption from
work-related things to broader topics. I pored over two issues of
National Geographic and learned about elephants and Walt Disney and
Nigeria. I started a Bill Bryson book in which he visits countless
small towns in America.

Even my one free hour in New York fed my "Renaissance Man"
curiosities. The agency was a block from the main location of the New
York Public Library, an absolutely breathtaking building on the inside
and the outside.

What a wonderful place to kill an hour. I walked every hallway, just
to take in the quietness and scholarship. There were exhibits on 19th
century Russia, men's fashion through the years, and the colonies
before the Revolutionary War. Even the gift shop was a learning
experience.

So if I bust my tail and still don't touch 99% of the info out there
on issues pertaining to economic development in Philadelphia, today
was a nice change of pace: a leisurely grazing on a variety of topics,
reminding me that there's about another 99.9999% more to see and
learn. But that 0.0001% I did digest today made for a pleasant day
off.

True Worship

Many young Asian American churches have a reputation for kickin'
worship. In fact, probably the most worshipful jam I've participated
in over the last five years was at an Asian American Christian
leadership conference - the worship team was just embarrassment of
musical riches.

What I'm learning is a struggle for those who work with and in such
churches is that that devotion does not always translate equally to
various parts of Christian discipleship. Too often, the young Asian
American congregation is known for spirited worship, singular devotion
to God, upright moral living . . . and no discernible change in the
career track congregants choose to pursue.

As I blogged a few months ago, worship isn't singing songs, no matter
how raucously. It's giving the biggest and best parts of ourselves to
God. And all too often, we young and educated Asian Americans are
unwilling to consider vocational trajectories that fall outside of
what constitutes success in our sphere: doctor, engineer,
businessperson, lawyer. Those who do consider other jobs like teacher
or nurse or social worker or journalist are consider to not be as
smart and so had to "settle."

Don't get me wrong: you can be a faithful Christian regardless of
where you spend your 9-to-5. I just believe that with higher
education comes a responsibility and an opportunity for the follower
of Jesus to more fully redeem those 40 hours every week. And while
you can be a Christian regardless of where you hang your shingle,
certain professional roles would seem to lend themselves more easily
and fully to pursuing God's Kingdom.

As a young and educated Asian American, I know the implicit or
explicit message that is communicated to us about what are the
appropriate directions to go with our careers. But I also know what
incredible impact, for the here and now as well as for eternity, this
generation could make if so mobilized and equipped and motivated.

And so I pray that more young Asian American Christians would consider
jobs that represent a nexus between their skills and interests and
Kingdom principles, instead of pursuing, however vigorously, Christian
discipleship in every facet of their lives except where they spend the
majority of their waking hours. Because true worship isn't jamming to
electric guitar and harmonized voices; it's giving the biggest and
best parts of ourselves to God's purposes and plans.

Small Schools

There's a movement underfoot to break up the local high school into
three or four smaller schools within the same building. Without
knowing the details, I buy this strategy. For one, they're going to
build a new building, which will make a huge difference over their
existing physical plant, which was constructed in 1912 and has never
been renovated.

For another, having a student body of 400-500 is a huge difference
over having one of 1800-2000. The best analogy I can think of is my
summer in Taiwan on what people affectionately refer to as "the Love
Boat." It's officially known as "Study Tour," but the rep it got over
the years was for anything but studying. More to the point, it was
known for major hooking up.

The year I went, there were two campuses, one with 250 and one with
1000+. I was at the smaller campus, and while there was certainly a
fair amount of hooking up, by and large there was a sense that we were
all one big happy family. Deeper friendships formed, cliques were
loose and not impenetrable, and a handful of us Christians were
actually able to make a memorable impact on the campus as a whole.

Contrast that with the other campus, whose sheer numbers precluded
anything but making a few friends. There you'd find a lot more
hooking up, a lot less friendly inter-mingling, and (subjectively
speaking, of course) a lot less enjoyable of a time.

So back to our local high school. I buy the hope that if you're in a
school of 400-500, you'll be more likely to know everyone, less likely
to commit random acts of mayhem and unkindness. In a school of
1800-2000, that glue just isn't there. Let's hope that if our local
high school goes the way of the small school movement, we'll see the
sort of social order that allows for students to concentrate on
learning things and having fun, not on who's going to punch who or
who's going to set what on fire.

Price Inelastic

I had just come from a meeting on the very subject of SEPTA's possible
impending service cuts and fare increases when I got stuck at a
downtown station for over twenty minutes during rush hour waiting for
a trolley. The few well-dressed, mostly white folks who came down to
the underground platform either looked impatient and pissed, or simply
walked back above surface after deciding they weren't going to wait
more than five minutes for the luxury of jamming their bodies into a
crowded car. Meanwhile, the majority of people around me, who were
black, simply waited: some cursing at SEPTA, others cracking jokes,
and still others just waiting.

This is exactly why SEPTA having to cut service and increases fares is
bad. Because public transit is more price inelastic for the poor than
for the rich. Meaning a fare hike and a longer wait time is more
likely to cause upper-income folks to decide to stay above ground,
where they can hail a cab or use their cars. Lower-income folks, who
don't have the same options, have to swallow those same fare hikes and
longer wait times.

You can say SEPTA needs to fix this mess on its own because it's so
inefficient, but you'd be wrong, because an audit conducted late last
year to prove that point actually found SEPTA to be quite efficient.
And you can say that transit users should just have to pay their way,
since drivers pay for their own cars and gas, except that drivers
don't pay for the construction and maintenance of roads. And all
residents - both transit users and car drivers - benefit in their
pockets from public transit, which has been shown to have a strong
influence on our property values, on the availability of our jobs, and
on the income-generating capability of our region.

So ride public transit sometime this week. At the very least, you can
read about SEPTA's budget crisis, as notices of upcoming public
hearings are plastered on every window. And at the very most, you can
get more connected to an issue that has profound implications for the
plight of both the poorer among us as well as all of us who own
property, work jobs, make money, and care about the vitality of our
region.

Being Asian, Period

In the last few months, pop culture has heard from both Yul Kwon and Paul Lee about how they wanted to represent an Asianness that diverged from the usual nerdy or "FOB"-by stereotypes. And while I appreciated the sentiment, and felt they both conducted themselves admirably in terms of representing Asian America, I'm a little nervous about how reactionary we've become as Asian Americans insofar as our desire to distance ourselves from long-engrained stereotypes.

In other words, instead of having to be defined by what we're not, why not also seek to define ourselves by what we are as well? I'm not necessarily saying this is where Yul and Paul could've done better, but in general it's not much better to let mainstream America go from thinking all Asians are nerds or "FOBs" to thinking that some are actually hunky and smooth. It needs to be seen that the Asian presence in America is far, far richer, that people can recognize that Asians can and do excel in sports and politics and business and art, that we care about issues of race and religion and poverty and education, even that some of us are in fact on the nerdier side or speak with an accent but that makes us no less Asian or American.

Please don't misunderstand these words as hating on two guys who are upstanding and who made the most of their moment in the spotlight. And if you want to read into my words an insecurity that they're just too sexy for me, you'd probably be right. I'm just saying that while it's good to be aware of negative labels that get slapped on us and to seek to broaden peoples' perspectives past those labels, it's even better for us as Asian Americans as a whole to keep on being ourselves, in all the complexity and diversity that entails.

What Asians Owe Blacks

A lot has been said in the blogosphere about Kenneth Eng's racist and
inane comments in Asian Week last month, but Ron Takaki's letter to
the publication in response was the most profound:
http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=341cc911a9433b949069222fa1c64c51&this_category_id=172.

Without the ground-breaking work done by Dr. King and other
African-Americans, it is possible that I and many of my Asian-American
friends, whose parents came to the US in the 1960's and 1970's, would
not be in this country. If you are like me in that regard, consider
for a moment what debt we owe to those civil rights advocates, and how
we might respond in our generation.

Chaos at West

West Philadelphia High School has been in the paper a lot lately, what
with a spate of violent acts by students towards teachers, the
replacing of the principal, and general chaos. I am saddened by the
state of affairs there, as it was the school I visited most often when
I used to run a youth entrepreneurship program.

I spent many a morning in the hallways and classrooms of that school,
which was built in the 1910's and has never been renovated, and which
has 1800+ students. My partner at the time joked that I once started
a riot there, but that was patently untrue, although it always gave me
a chuckle. In all seriousness, I had high hopes for the school, that
it could turn into the kind of place where students who wanted to
learned were given a supportive environment and committed people to
help them do that learning.

I am reminded of our own evolution in our summer business camp at the
non-profit where I used to work and where I am now on the board. We
had times when we lost control of the group and it was impossible for
anyone to focus on learning. And we had other times when we kept
control and youth were able to listen and participate and grow.

At many schools in many parts of this country, that sort of conducive
learning environment is taken as the norm. Not at West Philadelphia
High School. Although I still pray for the day that will be the case.

Unplug

For professional development purposes and for Kingdom purposes, I
believe it is important for urban Christians to be informed and to be
connected. Cities are complex, interwoven systems of people and
organizations, and urban Christians do themselves a disservice if they
are ignorant about how those systems work, disconnected from the
people who make those systems work.

I'm fortunate that in my day job, I do a lot of learning about
important urban issues, and rubbing elbows with important urban
people. But I find I have to make time outside of work to stay
informed and stay connected. So where possible, I read up on the
issues, or attend public events, or reach out to colleagues - ever
mining for information, ever seeking to bring this complex and
interwoven network called the city into clearer focus as to how it
works, how it should work, and how we can get there.

It can be easy, in an attempt to ever stay sharp in terms of knowledge
and networks, to neglect another important exercise in staying sharp:
unplugging. Stephen Covey would call it "sharpening the saw." Urban
Christians know it as "rest," a command from a God who Himself rested
after working.

There are two ways I view rest. One is to say that it makes you
sharper - laying fallow, whether your work involves physical labor or
mental straining, makes the other days you to strive more productive.
The other is to say that it is an act of faith to choose not to work
for a spell - in forgoing that time to be productive, you are trusting
that God will do just fine absent your striving.

Either way, I am learning I must temper my striving - for information,
for knowledge, for connections - with an equal devotion to rest. I
must find my ways to unplug, and put them into motion. Whether it is
to make myself sharper for the other times I'm plugged in, or to
accept my limits as a human and leave the remainder to God, it is good
to rest.

What Are You Working On, Part Two

You can tell a lot about a person by the things he is working on.
Perhaps this is no more true than when it comes to the things he
engages in outside of his day job. So in between the day-to-day
responsibilities of being a husband, father, and homeowner, here are
some other things I'm working on:

* Adoption paperwork for two more kids - one from Taiwan who we'll
hopefully meet within the next 2-3 months, and one from China who
we'll probably meet in late 2008

* Figuring out with the rest of the leadership team what's next for
our church in terms of senior leadership - our co-pastors left late
last year

* Campaigning for a City Council At-Large candidate named David Oh -
we were 14,000 votes away from a spot in 2003, so we're hoping to get
him over the top this time around

* Serving on the board of the non-profit where I used to work -
focusing on supporting the development staff in putting us board
members to work on fundraising action items

So again I ask, what are you working on?

What Are You Working On

I met up with a colleague this week for coffee and the first question
we asked each other was, "What are you working on?" I love that
question, because it's cool to hear what people are doing, and the
exchanges that ensue make for some of the most stimulating
conversation I know - sharing info, finding out the back story,
learning a thing or two.

So let me start that conversation in this space by giving you a
sampling of what I'm working on. Please excuse any vagueness, as many
of my work projects have varying levels of sensitivity to them.

* Calculating the difference between what the region will bring in for
transportation and what it will need to spend, and figuring out the
financial and legislative mechanisms that will need to be put into
motion to make up that difference

* Determining where, when, and why neighborhoods improve or decline
over time, and trying to isolate some key drivers to that change so
that future change can be predicted and beneficially remedied

* Producing a strategic framework by which potential interventions for
commercial corridors can be tested to determine their effect on
individual corridors and on the system of corridors in a city

* Quantifying the tax revenues that will be generated by one
recommended density and use for a particular downtown site versus
other, alternative uses

* Recommending a revitalization strategy for an older urban area that
has a transit-accessible downtown and a usable waterfront but that has
image issues

So what are you working on?

Racial Stereotypes

In my family blog, "Huang Kid Khronicles," I recently posted about how
adding a second child exponentially increases the number of
combinations I have to worry about. In other words, when it was just
me and my wife, our relationship with each other was the only
immediate family relationship we had to worry about. Adding our
daughter meant I had to now concern myself with my connection to her
and my wife's connection to her. And now adding our son blows the
whole thing up even more.

I think this is why people gravitate so easily to racial stereotypes.
Let me explain. For most people, life is complicated enough in their
own little world. As a result, any effort to understand the
perspectives of others whose racial worldview is different from theirs
is going to be minimal. Many majority folks, for example, pat
themselves on the back if they can feel as if they're in the know when
it comes to the black experience in America.

But race in America is much, much more complex than black-white.
Let's keep things relatively simple and throw in just the Asian and
Latino populations, setting to the side other, smaller ethnic groups
whose experiences, while not as widespread, are equally distinct and
equally important to the flavor of our country. Just adding two more
ethnic groupings to the mix increases our linkages from one
(black-white) to six: black-white, black-Asian, black-Latino,
white-Asian, white-Latino, and Asian-Latino.

Let's further mix it up by stating the obvious: there is no homogenous
white, black, Asian, or Latino experience. I mean that in two ways.
First, there are marriages, families, and communities that include two
or more of those groupings. Second, even within those groupings,
there are a myriad of experiences and perspectives, separated by
length of time in this country, languages, and education and income
level.

This mash-up of perspectives is one of the things - some might argue
"the" thing - that makes America great. Only most people don't want
to take the time to understand and appreciate the nuances. Life's
complicated enough - why introduce such complexity? So we stereotype.
We simplify race in America to a level that is palatable to us. We
ignore or discount the opinions of some, marginalize others, and label
still others. And in doing so, we smooth over the intricate
variations in our experiences, the very variations that make life in
America so potentially interesting.

It's a crying shame that if you walk into any sort of ethnic studies
classroom on any college campus in America, it is likely that you will
find that the high majority of the students in that classroom will be
of the same ethnicity as the subject matter of the class. And it's a
crying shame that that same disinterest in the historical and cultural
experiences of others different from us is generally true of the
American populace.

Of course my wife and I are going to make every effort to be on top of
every permutation in our family, because together those one-on-one
linkages form the context for the health of our family as a whole.
Would that we all have that perspective about our American family:
300 million strong, wildly diverse, and waiting to be explored in all
its flavorfulness.

Road Trip

If you live in this country long enough, you really ought to take a
road trip at some point. I was lucky to have the time, money, and
friends to pull off a three-week, 9000-mile adventure with my friends
R and V about nine years ago.

We three pulled out of Philly about 6am on Day 1 and had crossed four
states by noon. We ended up hooking up with our friends E and L at a
summer camp in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains, and after spending
the afternoon and evening with them, headed out again and checked into
nearby hotel not far after.

By Day 2, we had blitzed through Atlanta (our friend P wasn't there at
the time, so we saw the sights and then bolted) and made it to New
Orleans by evening, taking in the scene on Bourbon Street before
taking off and checking into a nearby hotel. Two nights, two hotel
stays. . . and for the next nineteen days, we'd only need a hotel one
more time.

We arrived in Austin by noon on Day 3 and spent three days there with
our friends C, F, and G. On Day 6, we drove 1000+ miles from Austin
to Phoenix. We gained an hour crossing time zones but spent two hours
stopping by a spa and an observatory, so we were in the car a long,
long time.

At Phoenix, we met up with our friends A, N, and T. We spent three
days at A's place in Phoenix, including an overnighter in Sedona - I
think someone's family friend comped us a two-room suite. Then A, N,
and T joined us as we headed for LA on Day 9.

Too my friends and sights to mention in LA - three days there was far
too few, especially since A and N would be heading back to Phoenix.
But on Day 12, per our itinerary, we headed off to the Bay Area, where
we stayed at my parents' place for three days and did a day trip to
Yosemite.

On day 15, we were off to Seattle and T's place. Fun to see K and N
there, and of course having been born in Seattle, I have my loyalties
there. We were sad to leave on Day 18 after three fun-filled days,
especially since we were leaving T behind and returning to our
original threesome.

Day 18 was another long, long day of driving, compounded by getting a
speeding ticket in Montana and getting shook down for $85 in cash
(yes, the state that has no speed limits apparently has speed limits
that the cops decide on their own). We finally decided to stop just
outside of Mount Rushmore, about 1000 miles from Seattle.

Mount Rushmore was surprisingly enjoyable, but soon it was back to the
car so we could be in Chicago by nightfall. At that point, I split
off with R and V and hung out with my friend H, while they spent a
couple of nights at C's place.

Day 21 had us on the road again, to Pittsburgh, where we crashed at
J's place. The next day, we drove the final five hours home to
Philadelphia.

The descriptions above don't do justice to the fun I had, the
hospitality I enjoyed, and the nuances you pick up when you physically
drive across the country instead of flying. I've spent about half of
my life on the West Coast and half on the East Coast, but obviously
there's a lot of terrain in the middle.

It's good, if you're going to live in this country for some time, to
get to know the whole of the country, to appreciate the vastness of
the land and the diversity of the flora and fauna (and people), and to
be able to have an anecdote ready when you meet someone new and they
throw out a random city they've just been / were born in / went to
school at. So if you get the chance, hit the road.