A week ago Carmen and I were invited by our friend, architect Federico Vidargas, to attend a conference in SMA. Federico, who is from San Miguel but has lived and raised family here in Chicago for many years, was concerned about how the city is growing, some poor developments have been allowed in recent years, growing traffic, and water quality, affordability and availability. The conference he put together, called SMASH, was an intriguing model for a convening meant to target specific issues and produce concrete suggestions and action steps. Federico secured funding, convened a great group of people (majority from SMA, a number from the U.S. and other countries) and set up an itinerary meant to shed light on critical issues and to address them. Along the way, we got to meet (in addition to numerous other outstanding people) his brother, sister and mother - all very committed to the city. We'll write more here when the conference web site is loaded with photos and video.
To see an audio slideshow on the conference, click here: http://smash2009.webng.com/
