Okay, so maybe the title to this blog post is a stretch, but take away the alien invasion and "terra formed" landscapes, and the dramatic science fiction series "Defiance", based in a post-apocalyptic St. Louis, sheds a lot of truth on the St. Louis of 2013.
The premise of "Defiance" is that in the future, after the apocalypse, when aliens share the city with human beings, together they must sort out their differences to find a brighter, shared future. The producers of Defiance chose St. Louis as the setting for the show because of the history of this place as a starting point for new futures, from the heart of the country.
Those challenges set in a science fiction future aren't that different from the challenges we face today. Locals know St. Louis to be a place filled with people from a wide range of communities and backgrounds. We're sort of famous for our fractured nature, and many suggest those divisions are holding us back.
Maybe those future imaginary citizens of Defiance/STL can share some good ideas with the current residents of St. Louis for how we might create a better future starting today?
2 comments:
I grew up in St. Louis, 50's and early 60's. It was vibrant but in retrospect the decline had begun. I recall I-70 slicing through and dividing my neighborhood. In the late 60's likely in response to 65 civil rights act we joined the migration to the suburbs. I detested the suburbs. I returned to the Central West End in the mid-70's to attend college at Washington University. The gentrification of that area had just begun, it was a great time. Loved Forest Park. Later I moved to Soulard, also fantasic if you could adjust to the constant intrusive noise of traffic hurtling down the highway that nearly absorbed Soulard. I am not certain the Urban Core of St louis can return. Any recovery that that occur will likely leave the City looking like a series of suburban subdivisions, like Atlanta. Atlanta has an excuse however, it was burned to the ground in 1865.
This is cool!
Post a Comment