We Expect Too Much of New Buildings
“We expect too much of new buildings, and too little of ourselves.”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
It’s been a whirlwind of a week between Jimmy Dorrell’s article, The Invisible Homeless are Losing Again, and the Waco Trib’s headline, Oak Lodge to Be Demolished. Dorrell implored us, especially the churches, to consider the plight of housing for the homeless. The acquisition of Oak Lodge for demolition invited us to celebrate redevelopment. The cynics among us will recognize a pattern of gentrification and displacement. The pragmatists will recognize the benefit in removing a subpar and neglected building structure from an increasingly beautiful Waco cityscape.
While there will, surely, be ample ways to measure gains, as the church closest to Oak Lodge, I must confess the loss this change represents to our current neighborhood. As is true in any area of Waco, it is not always easy to be neighbors. But neighbors at their best, inform us about another experience and worldview. Oak Lodge and First Presbyterian have not cured nor fixed one another toward being more perfect human beings, but we have existed alongside each other gently affecting one another. I can really only speak to how these residents have educated and informed our congregation and perhaps also the individuals within it.
Oak Lodge residents have reminded us, each day, of the challenges that Jimmy Dorrell implores us to understand. Housing and a livable wage are increasingly difficult in our culture. We have witnessed individuals lose their room at Oak Lodge for inability to pay. We have witnessed residents helping one another. They have, again and again, taken each other in amid a great scarcity of resource. They have, in appropriate ways (meaning ways that worked for them and us), camped out on our premises. As they camped, they engaged intellect and strategy to find their way back into shelter. Whether working with agencies or waiting for their next check to come in, they exercised diplomacy and sought to communicate past issues of job loss, compromised mental health, substance addiction. Though I don’t like to confess it, they have, at times, arrived to our congregational events as obvious outsiders. Though I don’t relish lauding it, they have also arrived as guests and co-celebrants to share in a Thanksgiving bounty or Easter morning tacos. As we have arrived to one another, we at First Presbyterian have learned about vulnerability and strength and we have sometimes been surprised who carried the strength or vulnerability on any given day.
I will never forget one Easter morning, while eating Tacos in the Oak Lodge parking lot, a member of our congregation was visiting with a resident on the second story. I saw them from the ground as they each stood on the 2nd floor walkway. Our member was sharing pictures of his grandchildren on his cell phone. The resident of Oak Lodge said, “Oh yea! Wait a minute, let me show you! I’ve got grands too.” Then, in my mind and now my memory, they held a sacred space and communed as they shared pictures and swapped stories. The world wasn’t perfect but it was a grand moment for this pastor when two people moved past cultural obstacles to recognize one another as human beings.
Our citizenry is losing when public space is devoid of stratified experiences. Our understanding of progress can become anemic likened to a person who puts makeup upon the face in order to hide the pallor caused by a heart condition that needs loving and consistent attention. While there will surely be gain, aesthetically and economically, in the acquisition, demolition and redevelopment of Oak Lodge’s space, there will also be loss. We will be another city that trades, upon a city block, important complexity for a more ordered, albeit expensive, simplicity. In the trade, we will have to work harder to understand the human condition, its vulnerability and its possibility.
As the buildings go up on the city block of 11th and Austin, I am hopeful that we, at First Presbyterian, can take the collection of experiences with Oak Lodge residents and allow them to affect our decisions and behavior. May we expect a lot of ourselves. May we expect more of ourselves than we expect of any new building. May we be engineers and architects in profound ways. May we be hosts and guests, learning from our neighbors. May we be vulnerable and strong as the City of Waco continues to discovery what it means to be a city of hope in Central Texas.
