Often
families and cities find themselves in a catch-22. Say a family has
born within it a child with special needs. Immediately the entire
family is presented a challenge—how to meet the special needs of
the child without making the child feel like a vaguely inferior
handicapped person. Cities can have the same difficulty with
struggling neighborhoods. In Saint Petersburg we have an
economically stressed neighborhood call Midtown. Every election
prospective candidates emphasize how they plan to revitalize Midtown.
The challenge is to assist the neighborhood without making residents there feel
like it is a vaguely inferior handicapped neighborhood precisely because
special attention is being paid. Now a child can be assisted in
feeling normal by participating in all family activities and being
viewed as normal in terms of relationships and love on a daily
intimate interaction basis; such in required also in order to knit
together communities. That is, since I work in the Saint Petersburg
Leisure Services Department, I see on a routine basis first class
investment in all neighborhoods. No one neighborhood is singled out
for more or less investment. They all receive the very best the City
can provide. That is a significant reason why I like to live in
Saint Petersburg, though I can understand why Midtown neighborhood
residents during elections (precisely because it is singled out for
special concern) are inevitably made to feel somewhat like a problem
child—a neighborhood more problematic and somehow less equal than
others.
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