The first three images represent ethnic diversity. I have noticed an increase in diversity over the past two decades. According to an article appearing in the Tuesday’s March 20^th edition of The Post-Standard entitled "City’s ‘White Flight’ Continues"- Syracuse fits the pattern of other Upstate New York cities. Syracuse’s white population according to U.S. Census Bureau dropped by 28,204 during the 1990s, while other race ethnic groups have grown in numbers. Syracuse’s children, ages 17 and younger, show an even greater diversity and suggest a decline of whites in the future. Many of these people will grow up, start their own families and have a voice in the political and social future of their communities. I view the growth in diversity optimistically-as an opportunity to strengthen relationships while working together to improve housing, economics, education and employment opportunities.

Situated in close proximity to the "Taj Mahal" (Carousel Center), is the relatively new transportation center. To document a galaxy of outstanding advances and to provide a historical perspective, I visited the ruins of the New York Central Rail depot along with the original bus station on Erie Boulevard (images 4 – 11). Part of the attraction to the New York Central Rail were the ghost-like statues waiting patiently on the platform for the arrival of the iron horse. This sight is viewable from NY Interstate 690. The two people that I encountered while seeking directions seemed stoked and responded by saying "why yes we just passed it and the people are adorned with red scarves."

The next leg of our journey brought us to the west side, specifically the street adjacent to the complex owned and operated by the Rescue Mission (images 12-16). This organization provides comprehensive services in the areas of emergency assistance (food and shelter); addiction recovery; mental illness; youth outreach; adult education; job skills and counseling; and re-integration into the community.

The New Life Center is where most people first seek services at the Mission (image 16). It is a drop-in center open to the community, but is funded and designed as a mental health outreach program to identify and establish contact and rapport with individuals who are chronically mentally ill. The center is open to anyone in the community with or without mental health problems and the staff provides supportive counseling, advocacy and referrals. They work closely with the other mental health agencies in the community to coordinate services and resources. The Rescue Mission is considered an essential part of the mental health services system in Syracuse. The new life center has been referred to as an extension of the local psychiatric emergency room (safety net) serving those who are struggling or deteriorating.

I will use the Mission and it surroundings as segue into the images 23 and 24. Both are of the greenhouse (those who live in glass houses should not) at the Hutchings Psychiatric Center. I am grateful for the good news from our state Senate representatives that Hutchings will not be closed. There needs to be an infusion of funding for existing community mental health services as well as funding to create new services. This will result in more responsibly transitioning psychiatric patients from state institutions to successful community living.

The building (images 17-18) were taken near the campus of Syracuse University to provide a sense of history. Syracuse University, like most academic institutions, is a school strongly rooted in tradition. Although I do not know the specifics of the building, its architectural style and period is similar to buildings dating back to the late 1800s. For example, the Yates Castle-former home to the schools of pedagogy and journalism, was built for private use in 1852 (image 17a). It reportedly served as a pre-Civil War stop on the Underground Railroad by which thousands of slaves escaped from the South to Canada.

The last leg of our journey brought us down Westcott Street to E. Genesee-full circle to the where the first image was taken. The detail from one mural (image 20) was taken from the side of a meta-physical bookstore. The area is host to a variety of shops and off campus housing. There is a stark contrast between the student population and the periphery. It was encouraging to see the building in (image 19) being renovated by an organization that will positively impact everyone in the community. When I tried to reach a representative, the message on the answering machine gave the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company as the contact.

For his steadfast commitment to his social conscience, Paul Robeson - activist, scholar, artist, athlete - was shunted from the center of America's cultural stage to its wings. A robust political intellectual, Robeson shaped the leftist critique of fascism, championed the rights of works and oppressed minorities on his travels around the world, and became on of America's most outspoken critics of racism after World War II. During the Cold War his steadfast defense of the Soviet Union was seized upon by the media, the United States government, and McCarthyites, unfortunately tarnishing his name and achievements. He also criticized racism in films, corruption in the American labor movement. According to Paul Robeson, Jr., the controversy about multiculturalism is in fact a profound ideological struggle over the values of our national culture. More than a question of the politics of race and gender, the debate is about whether melting-pot culture, the foundation of American life, should be replaced by a mosaic culture incorporating the values of the diverse groups that make up America's population. Robeson contends that the melting pot image has not worked for Blacks, who are excluded by definition from the blended culture of the ethnic American dream. Basing his argument in part on a rejection of the idea of radical individualism, the author suggests that the absence of a concept of group rights in American history places Blacks at a disadvantage. Radical individualism, as a philosophy, rejects the premise of civil rights for groups, which in modern parlance is termed "group tyranny." Robeson attacks mainstream American culture itself in a series of interrelated essays on his father (Paul Robeson), Clarence Thomas, liberals and conservatives, cultural diversity in the workplace, gender and minorities, Blacks and Jews, the Black middle class, and the university. What is needed, Robeson contends, is a new understanding of the nature of a culture of diversity - one that also celebrates Blacks, women, and other presently marginalized groups as visible and distinct actors. (http://www.uenet.com/robesontheatre/books.html)

I can only assume that there are similarities related to the ideology of the organization ENACT. ENACT (Educational Network of Artists in Creative Theater) is dedicated to designing a creative cross-disciplinary approach to learning (drama, education & therapy). Founded in 1987 as a not-for-profit arts in education company, ENACT has reached thousands of young people with their innovative drama programs tailored to meet the growing needs of individuals in schools, hospitals, day treatment centers and other organizations.

At risk of exceeding the specified number of pages and before moving on to my documentation of Ottawa, I will conclude the first stage with image number 25. This represents a distinct barrier between public and private that are part of every urban community. On the other side of the wall is a large public space (Ononadaga Park). From my perspective this extends beyond the public/private to the upper/lower (social stratification).

Lets begin the second phase of the odyssey with images of the Parliament Buildings in City Centre Block of Ottawa (images mnt _1-mnt_6 & mnt_8-mnt13). I will also provide an encapsulated version of what they represent.

Skilled carvers decorated the Parliament buildings with symbolic elements like gargoyles making faces at passers-by, birds and animals that come to life in sculpture, and events from history that are played out in stone. The Peace Tower was originally intended as a monument to the service and sacrifice of Canadians during the First World War. Over the years, it has come to symbolize Canada's general commitment to peace amongst nations. Neo-Gothic architecture incorporates a delight for the fantastic and accounts for the frequent appearance of grotesques on the Peace Tower and other parts of the Centre Block. One of my favorite Grotesques is the distorted human and animal form that appears in image mnt_9.

In 1841, Lower Canada (now Quebec) and Upper Canada (now Ontario) joined to form the Province of Canada. Its seat of government alternated for many years. In 1857, Queen Victoria was asked to select a permanent capital. Surprisingly, the Queen chose the rough-hewn lumber town of Ottawa over the established cities of Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and Quebec. Not only was Ottawa a political compromise but it also lay a more secure distance from the American border. Canada is a democracy, a constitutional monarchy. The head of state is the Queen of Canada, who is also Queen of Britain, Australia and New Zealand, and a host of other countries scattered around the world. Every act of government is done in the name of the Queen, but the authority for every act flows from the Canadian people. All of the powers of the Queen are now exercised by her representative, the Governor General, except when she is in Canada. Canada is not only an independent sovereign democracy, but is also a federal state, with 10 largely self-governing provinces and two territories controlled by the central government.

Canada and the United States are both democracies. They are also both federal states. But there are important differences in the way Canadians and Americans govern themselves. One fundamental difference is that the United States is a country of one basic language and culture. It has just one main language for its federal government and for every state. Canada is a country of two basic languages. The Fathers of Confederation deliberately chose to make it so. Their official recognition of bilingualism is limited, but expanding. A second basic difference between the Canadian constitution and the American is that Canada is a constitutional monarchy. America is a republic. This may look like only a formal difference but it is very much more, Canada has a parliamentary-cabinet government, while America has presidential-congressional.

Historically, Canada is a nation founded by the British and the French. Yet it is now a great amalgam of many peoples (image div_1). They all have common rights and needs, and our own particular requirements within the general frame of the law. As a country Canada has grown richer and like many others has paid a price in terms of environmental pollution. As we all become increasingly more computerized, industrialized, urbanized, and multicultural, we face the difficulties of adapting ourselves and our institutions (images div_1, opel_6 – opel_9).

The Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec, with a view across the river of Canada's Parliament Buildings (image mnt_7 &civl_1) is a nice segue into one of many issues I uncovered while doing research: the construction of another bridge across the Ottawa River. The construction of additional bridges would obviously have an impact on local traffic patterns as well as the region's blueprint for urban development. In the short term, a west-end bridge would inevitably dump more traffic on major arteries. The long-term consequences would probably involve significant changes in the nature and scope of the urbanization process in the Ottawa area.

Invariably, these new bridges would soon come to serve as psychological borders for defining the limits of the region's urban area. Unfortunately, this would include all of the Ottawa River, the only true expanse of open water in the Ottawa region. Such a situation suggests that this body of water would increasingly be viewed as an obstacle to be overcome in terms of west-end urban development plans. Conversely, it would also mean the Ottawa River would be viewed less and less as a valuable resource. Or to put it another way, the construction of a west-end bridge means that a decision will have been taken to include the Ottawa River as part of the urban landscape.

Like Toronto, Ottawa is planning for the future (images sg_10-sg_13). While the thriving economy has developers salivating, many residents and planners fear the regional government is sowing the seeds for a future of car-centered sprawl. There have been proposals to extend Ottawa-Carleton's urban boundary to accommodate high-tech growth. According to tech market analysts, the quality of life a city offers is almost as important to high-tech entrepreneurs as a good airport. The Citizen asked leading North American urban planning visionaries for their ideas on how Ottawa can grow -- smartly. Their blank canvas was the land around the Corel Centre. In order to discover how to make a civilized community, they asked to go beyond the practical considerations of sprawl and the planning of adequate housing and parks. They wanted to know if it's possible to create, from scratch, a place so interesting that Ottawa will have a competitive advantage in attracting the discerning, mobile knowledge worker.

There are select examples of New Urbanist design around Ottawa but the movement hasn't spread like wildfire. New Urbanist communities are too expensive and precious to be wildly popular, says Joel Garreau, author of Edge City: Life on the New Frontier and a staff writer at the Washington Post. "And not everyone wants to live in SoHo," he adds. Mr. Garreau says the urban village and its core, the old-fashioned downtown, are "relics of the past," and don't reflect what North Americans want. "They like their freedom, and their space, and their cars," he says. Cities are shaped by advances in transportation technology not the fantasies of urban planners and architects, says Mr. Garreau. "People can now figure out where they want to live, play, work and shop in unlimited combinations," he says. As a result, North Americans are heading into the most rapid expansion of dispersed living since the rise of the automobile. "If you want to cast that as sprawl, hold on to your hat, because you ain't seen nothing yet" (images opel_1 – opel_5).

Moshe Safdie wrote The City After the Automobile -- where he sets out ways to reduce sprawl and connect the disjointed suburban landscape -- in response to what he viewed as Mr. Garreau's shocking celebration of sprawl in Edge City. "Access to resources will force limits on consuming land. We will be forced into more efficient patterns of living," said Mr. Safdie, the architect of Ottawa's City Hall and the National Gallery in an interview from his office in Toronto. "There is a big difference between a sprawling city of one million, which Ottawa is now, and a sprawling city of two million, which is what it will be like in 20 years."

Mr. Garreau also misunderstands the nature of urbanism and its connection to culture, says Mr. Safdie. "We need cities in some form because we crave the capacity to interact. And the suburbs don't allow people to do that." Mr. Safdie dismisses the New Urbanist solution of transforming everything into a charming village as a "joke." People are going to continue to use their cars and cities will have enormous malls as a result, he says. "These are big-scale issues. We have to try to connect the random pieces in today's city and design them more humanely."

A region like Ottawa-Carleton should grow around compact, pedestrian scale neighborhoods where people can live, work and play without commuting, says Bill Mitchell, the author of E-topia, a book on the future of cities in the information age. Both Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Safdie envision a future where new communities have thriving, densely populated centers -- spread across the region like a necklace -- connected with nature trails and high-speed telecommunications and transportation links (images sg_2-sg_3).

"The most potent urban planning tool available is greenspace. You just make the decision, right away, that 25 per cent of the land that you are going to develop will be green forever," says Moshe Safdie. Mr. Safdie's concept incorporates the ideas Jane Jacobs sets out in her seminal work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. According to Ms. Jacobs, a successful street or district needs: a unique attraction to draw people from all over; many types of businesses open at all hours of the day so the street is consistently lively and safe; and enough housing to support its economy. But Mr. Safdie's vision is on a very large scale. If designed badly, grand-scale shopping centers and high-rises can make cityscapes inhuman and unsightly, rather than adding diversity and activity.

If New Urbanist consultant and author James Howard Kunstler designed his ideal community, it would be devoid of large-scale, expensive mega-projects. Mr. Kunstler cautioned Ottawa planners to pay attention to the "fine grain," while developing the land around the Corel Centre. "Fine-grain" is the term architects use to describe small-scale design interventions. (http://www.ottawacitizen.com/boomtown/000926/4581339.html) I found the debate between Jane Jacobs, Mr. Safdie, Mr. Kunstler, and Mr. Mitchell very helpful with understanding some of the issues urban visionaries are confronted with.

Ottawa University is a small Christian liberal arts college has an intimate student body of approximately 575 students. Countless trees grow among the buildings and they give the place a timeless air. The people in (images opel_15 & opel_16) were taken on the campus and they appeared to enroute to the auditorium with props for a theatrical production.

Canada’s first pedestrian mall contains many summer activities and unique three-block outdoor market. Only one block south of Parliament Hill, Sparks Street is within seconds of other prime tourist destinations. Fresh air and live music all make Sparks Street a great place to shop. Here you will see the Capital Info Centre located at Metcalfe and Sparks, as well as the National Arts Center (images spk1-spk2).

The historic Byward Market is a colorful mosaic of farmers' market stalls, shops, galleries, cafes and clubs just east of Parliament Hill. It's a popular place during the day for strolling and shopping, or at night for an evening's entertainment. We found a bustling center with restaurants serving food from around the world, shops specializing in arts, crafts and other unique products, fresh produce, and nightclubs (image opel_10-opel_14).

To conclude, the remaining set of images (sg_4-sg_9 & sg15-sg_19) are arbitrary and correspond to my psychological experience.