In our recent issue on justice, we published an article by Aníse Meccouri, “The Hotbed of Bed-Stuy,” which covered the topic of gentrification in the Brooklyn neighborhood, and offered a small window onto the experience of its residents.

One thing Aníse mentioned to me is that, when presenting the ideas in his piece to a college class he was taking at the time, he had suggested that if white people were looking to relocate, maybe they could avoid considering Bed-Stuy. His reasoning, as I understood it, was that the community there was under a lot of pressure, and it is all too easy for whites to move in as though they have the right, once a place becomes “attractive” to them. As Aníse told the story, the idea was not necessarily well-received among his classmates.

For this reason, I’ve been tracking with interest the Internet searches that bring people to the “Hotbed” article. A sampling below, from February 2006:

“how safe is it for white people to live in bedford stuyvesant” x 2
“stuyvesant heights” x 2
“bed stuy crime” x 2
“bed stuy organic” x 2
“bed stuy best areas”
“whites in bed-stuy?” x 2
“stuyvesant heights parents group”
“bed-stuy brooklyn crime”
“bed-stuy safe real estate”
“bedstuy brooklyns gangs”
“stuyvesant heights crime”

I think the first search item listed really says it all about the question on some people’s minds. And, for me, it makes Aníse’s article that much more timely. As part of the research, he also produced a video, documenting interviews with some of the residents of Bed-Stuy. I haven’t yet viewed it, but my sense from talking with Aníse is that the interviews provide a very precise idea of how protective some residents feel about their neighborhood, and just sampling these search strings, we can get a sense for why. It’s uncomfortable being under the microscope, and being targeted as somehow still suspect as a neighborhood, yet deemed “desirable.”

The identity issue launched today. Take a look and come back here to give feedback if you like. The color palette of this new issue offers up plenty of red to brighten your February and March (should they need brightening).

Today’s the deadline for draft contributions to our upcoming issue on sacred spaces. While we’ve had a few suggestions for feature articles bouncing around, little seems to have taken hold. This must be one of those times when we incorporate fervent prayer to try to find enough content to make an issue reality. It’s an appropriate theme for it.

In all seriousness, the doors are wide open for any interested writers. Here is what features editor Tara wrote a few weeks back:

This theme can potentially go in many different directions, from articles dealing with traditional sacred spaces to more unconventional approaches.

Think about what spaces you consider sacred. Is it even a concrete or physical place? What makes this space sacred? Why do we create sacred places? How do we create these places? Is it important that we have places that are considered sacred? How have sacred spaces changed over time? Do spaces ever lose their sacred quality?

Sometimes life just isn’t interesting enough on its own. Sometimes I prefer to offer myself little challenges, like not working on stuff until the last possible minute, just to see how quickly I can throw things together.

I do this with meals all the time. Added bonus points: successfully fending off hungry children asking, “Can I have a snack?” while my stomach grumbles away, blood sugar plummeting, filtering through whatever food supplies are in the home and wondering what to make, minutes ticking away. This used to be much harder when I had toddlers who would express their displeasure (both through hunger and exhaustion) by promptly collapsing into a fit of cries and flailing limbs. Without toddlers or babies in the home, sometimes people can be reasoned with: “No, you may not have a snack. It is almost dinner.” When it’s my husband collapsing into tears, I know I’m in trouble.

With One magazine this kind of thing doesn’t really happen, but in a way, I wish it would. I wish that anyone hoping to read the next issue would appear at my doorstep, or call me on my cell phone, asking the questions, “Is the issue ready yet? When will it be ready?”

This would provide me with some of the necessary motivation to get the thing out there. So much else about it is fuzzy and indeterminate.

That said, I’m daring myself with the identity issue to see how fast I can put the thing together, hopefully without blood-sugar-plummeting problems. Instead, I have internet-access problems. All week, my cable modem and router have been acting up, inconsistent, fizzing out. This has interfered a bit with some of the work I do, but in all I am grateful because it enables me to put the computer aside and take a walk instead… and try to shake my reliance on a computer. The challenges with the technology end up becoming an obstacle to overcome: for instance, if I reset the modem, and it works for 60-second intervals upon each reset, how much of the magazine can I finish over the course of 12 hours? This is also a great way to get exercise, because I find myself running from the modem back to my laptop. Anything for a challenge.

If anyone out there has been pondering contributing to the identity issue, you still have a chance to slide something on in before the doors close. Especially if you have on hand a review of a good place to hang out, a book to read, a movie to watch, music to hear, and so on… the easiest kind of thing to drum up quickly, perhaps?

Email me if you would like to write for this issue or send in some art.

Badi Meccouri, a featured musician back in the food issue of One, has a fresh-spankin’-new Web site up promoting his “first official release ever,” Super Vision. He says just to email him to request a copy. Take a listen at his Myspace page. You can also check him out performing with Monkey Gone Mad, on February 17, at the Stamford, Connecticut 2006 NEBYFest.