New Geography

Author: AlexLotz

  • Sao Paulo: Upward Mobility through Music

    In a city notorious for its vast gap between rich and poor and the involvement of children in gang activity and drug trafficking, a music school is providing an opportunity for the young people of the favelas to put their energies to better use in performing for themselves and their communities. The school’s band has now toured the world and received visits from heads of state. This documentary tells the story of Sao Paulo’s Meninos Do Morumbi and how it has affected the lives of its students.

  • NGVideo: East St. Louis (Part III)

    Part III in the video series on East St. Louis explores ideas put forward for (re)development of the city, including cultural tourism based on the city’s African American heritage and use of vacant land for farming to create a local food source for the St. Louis metropolitan area.

    Part II gives views of downtown today, shows how its history can be seen in the city, and explains why the city could still be a good place for new development.

    Part I discusses the origins and development of East St. Louis as an industrial city.


    Michael R. Allen is an architectural historian currently serving as director of the Preservation Research Office, a technical assistance and preservation consulting firm. Allen also serves on the boards of the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation and Preservation Action.

    Alex Lotz is a graduate of the Film Production program of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

  • St. Louis Mental Map

  • NGVideo: Reviving Plotlands

    Everybody knows we urgently need to build more homes in Britain, but how, when and where will this happen? WORLDbytes interviewed Ian Abley, an architect and manager of Audacity at the plotlands in Dunton, Essex where from the 1920s East End working class couples built cheap homes themselves. Could we do this now? Ian Abley argues we should collectively break the Town & Country Planning law of 1947 which made buying and building on redundant farmland, like the plotlands, illegal.

    More information and related resources are available here.

    This video and its description are derived from original content by WORLDbytes.org with the express permission of their authors. To see the original full-length video, visit this page.

  • NGVideo: East St. Louis (Part II)

    The second part in the series on East St. Louis gives views of downtown today, shows how its history can be seen in the city, and explains why the city could still be a good place for new development.

    Part I discusses the origins and development of East St. Louis as an industrial city.

    Part III will explore ideas put forward for (re)development of the city, including cultural tourism based on the city’s African American heritage and use of vacant land for farming to create a local food source for the St. Louis metropolitan area.

    Michael R. Allen is the Assistant Director at Landmarks Association of St. Louis. He edits the blog Ecology of Absence, “a voice for historic preservation and a chronicle of architectural change in St. Louis, Missouri and its region”.

    Alex Lotz is an undergraduate film student in his final year at Chapman University.

  • Alex Lotz

  • NGVideo: East St. Louis (Part I)

    The first in a series of videos about the economic, political, and cultural history and future of East St. Louis, Illinois.

    Part II gives views of downtown today, shows how its history can be seen in the city, and explains why the city could still be a good place for new development.

    Michael R. Allen is the Assistant Director at Landmarks Association of St. Louis. He edits the blog Ecology of Absence, “a voice for historic preservation and a chronicle of architectural change in St. Louis, Missouri and its region”.

    Alex Lotz is an undergraduate film student in his final year at Chapman University.