Bea V. Larsen . . . .Commentaries

Bea V. Larsen is a Senior Mediator at the Center for Resolution of Disputes in
Cincinnati, Ohio 
Bea V. Larsen

For a number of years Bea V. Larsen, senior mediator at the Center for Resolution of Disputes in Cincinnati, Ohio [www.cfrdmediation.com], presented weekly commentaries on WVXU radio, both on her professional work as a mediator and on more personal or general experiences. These broadcasts reached thousands of listeners in a number of midwestern states and elicited many comments. This new series of online commentaries will continue that tradition, now broadcast to the world via the internet. Comments, which can be posted directly to this blog, are warmly encouraged. More personal background information can be read in the "Introductions" category below.
 

An Experiment

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This entry was posted on 6/11/2006 7:24 AM and is filed under Personally Speaking.

    I've launched an experiment with a sample of one.  And the question is: can one call the streets surrounding one's home a neighborhood when there is a constantly shifting cast of characters?

     Almost a year has passed since I moved into a loft apartment in an old downtown Cincinnati building which over the past 40 years has undergone many incarnations, but which to me will always be Shillitos Department Store. I live in what used to be "Better Woman's Dresses", as is still proudly proclaimed in the large art deco elevator.

     Having given up a front porch and garden six years ago for the ease of apartment living, my most recent move is into what is basically one large room ( 1025 square feet but with a twenty foot high ceiling !) on the third floor, overlooking a busy city street. A new life completely on my own, for the first time ever.

    Now nestled among only my most cherished possessions, feeling expansive in my cavernous but cozy room, new horizons  appear. Downtown is no longer a place to just pass through, bent only on a destination. Now as I walk about, architecture, both old and new, draws my appreciative eye. But most pleasing of all, is the mix of other people walking the streets.

   How different these streeets are from those we walked when my husband and I first moved to Cincinnati after spending five years living in NYC, where Len completed graduate study at Columbia. Our arrival in the urban midwest of 1956 was culture shock. People waited for the walk light even when the roadway was empty. Differences in the garb or speech of someone passing by, which would have gone unnoticed in NYC, evoked a stare, apprehension. People of color were met infrequently, except for those providing service. Even our inner city suburbs were wholly segregated.

    So, here's the experiment: as I walk the few blocks to my office each morning, or stroll to the home of a friend in the early evening, and pass others purposefully walking along, I no longer avert my eyes, as is the habit of most passersby on city sidewalks, but instead try to make eye contact, smile and offer a greeting, "hello" or "good morning". Not infrequently the greeting is returned, especially if my fellow city dweller (or worker) joins me in the complicity of eye contact. I've not yet reached the level of shared nods and smiles I once enjoyed on the tree lined streets of homogeneous suburbia, but I'm working on it. And as summer is hard upon us, I think the count will surely rise, along with my sense of neighborhood. Check back.

 

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    • 6/12/2006 10:39 PM Bruce Rosenblum wrote:
      Interesting.
      I've been doing this "experiment" for years as I walk around the UCSC campus. I've volunteered the advice in classes that students should practice making contact.
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    • 6/27/2006 11:57 AM Anne wrote:
      Cincinnati is my hometown and downtown is one of my favorite parts.

      Good luck with your experiment. What if everybody did it? What if it catches on? What is the opposite of a riot?

      I hope you enjoy living in "Better Women's Dresses" because the alternative is...what, Not-So-Hot Men's Shoes?...but I personally would want to live near the store's Willy Wonka Christmas display, which smelled like chocolate!
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      1. 6/27/2006 8:09 PM Bea Larsen wrote:
        Anne: I share your fantasy of everybody doing it. I am also making a point of speaking to everyone who shares an elevator with me, here, where I live, and when I'm visiting others. And without exception, those who were staring fixedly at the closed elevator door respond with relaxed friendly chatter. The next time we meet, we are old friends. Short of hiring a plane to pull a banner over the city ( "greet the folks passing by"), I'm stumped on how to expand this vision except by word of mouth, but I'm still thinking about it. And, open to all suggestions! Thanks for your comment.  Bea

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        1. 6/28/2006 8:31 AM Anne wrote:
          This reminds me of my aunt. She was quite vocal (to the point where, as children and sometimes as adults, we would shrink into the background) about being friendly. It was not an experiment for her, it was a way of life. She had "old friends" everywhere.

          Keep up the good work!!!
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