Research Assembly

UPTOWN 5 LABORATORY REPORT

July 1973

DEMONSTRATING THE ECUMENICAL PARISH

Table of Contents A

DOCUMENT

Chart B

FOUNDATIONAL FABRIC 1

OPERATIONAL IMAGES 2

COMMJNITY ENGAGEMENT 5

METHODOLOGICAL INSIGHTS 8

MOVEMENT IMPLICATIONS 11

METHODOLOGICAL APPENDICES

RESEARCH METHODS

Gridding Principles 12

Historical Research 13

Social Agencies Counting 14

Housing Density Model 15

TEMPLE METHODS

Parking Lot Miracle 16

Physical Services Survey 17

Paint Veal's Bar­B­Que 18

People's Plaza 19

Lawrence Art Gallery 20

Car Park Cafe 21

Cabaret of Uptown 5 22

Poster: "Uptown is a Great Place " 23

Billboard 24

Uptown. 5 Tract 25

. In­kind Pitch 26

. GUILD METHODS

Guild Thrust Timeline 28

LENS Recruitment Models 29

LENS Contacts Profile Card 30

LENS Course Practics Model 31

LENS Businessmen's Lunch Model 32

LENS Follow­up Meeting 33

Auxiliary Strategies to Catalyze the Guild 34

GALAXY METHODS

Community Research Model 35

Galaxy Authorization Model 36

Church Categorization Model 37

Local Church Profile Form 38

; Local Church Visitation Screen 40

Clergy Profile Form 42

Clergy Visitation Model 43

Clergy Visitation Report Form 44

Non­grad Clergy Meal 45

Indirect Cultivation Procedure 46

Clergy Analysis and Journey Chart 47

Initial Contact Sheet Form 48

Grad Visitation Model 49

Grad Dinner 50



UPTOWN 5 LABORATORY REPORT: DEMONSTRATING THE ECUMENICAL PARISH



FOUNDATIONAL

FABRIC


OPERATIONAL

IMAGES


COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT


METHODOLOGICAL INSIGHTS


MOVEMENT

IMPLICATIONS



THE



THE

COMPREHENSIVE

IMAGE


THE

PREPARATORY

RESEARCH


THE

PROCEDURAL

CONCEPTS



THE



FOUNDATIONAL



THE

PARISH

TEMPLE


THE

SACRED

SPACE


THE

TEMPLE

INSIGHT



PRACTICAL




FABRIC



THE

PARISH

GUILD



THE

CARING

FORCE



THE

GUILD

INSIGHT



IMPLICATIONS




OF THE



THE

PARISH

GALAZY



THE

CHURCH

AWAKENMENT



THE

GALAXY

INSIGHT




FOR THE




DEMONSTRATION




THE

MOVEMENT

PRESENCE



THE

COMPREHENSIVE

AUTHORIZATION



THE

UNLEASED

SPIRIT




MOVEMENT

FOUNDATIONAL FABRIC .

THE FOUNDATIONAL FABRIC OF THE DEMONSTRATION

The Ecumenical Parish, Uptown 5, is a fact of history. It is an operating, visible entity. Growing out of the human resurgence we are experiencing, Uptown 5 is the manifestation of the social vision built on the revolutionary philosophy exercised across the movement and is the first fruit of the Summer '73 Research Assembly. The resurgent times have required such a creation. By holding man over against the indicative with constant reminders of our global interrelationship, local man's participation in building and caring for the structures of society has been made clear and necessary. Uptown 5 becomes a strategic illustration of this social vision wherein local or primal community rising out of the new secular myth assumes responsibility for the economic, cultural, and political dimensions of its life for the sake of being a sign of possibility to the world. Utilizing the revolutionary philosophy of creating structural change to allow local man global participation in building his community for the sake of all, coupled with the requirement of creating a new stance toward life through the use of symbols Uptown 5 posits itself as a practical model ready for duplication. The Movement's broad experience in building 5th City Experiments, Galaxies, and its research on the New Social Vehicle provided the practical wisdom and training to quickly assemble and move the model to concretion. The Summer '73 Research Assembly provided the significant occasion for launching the practical experiment on the Ecumenical Parish as it was both the culmination of the Movement's research on the Guild and the Ecumenical Parish and symbolically the moment of engaging the world.

OPERATIONAL IMAGES

THE COMPRERENSIVE IMAGE

An overall image showing the relationships of the tactical dynamics enables a group to act. with a unified corporate thrust. The accompanying diagram is an initial image that was used during July, 1973. The movement presence catalyzes galaxy activity through such tactics as clergy visitation and PLC recruitment. A second movement action is the "end run", which involves direct activity to involve the community through a LENS course and the formation of a group or groups that are a preliminary guild. A third activity is initiating signal events that create a sense of sacred space and sacred time. We have termed this the temple dynamic. It generates an atmosphere of possibility which catalyzes both the preliminary guild and the galaxy.

The preliminary guild acts to create the galaxy by presenting the historical church with a concrete demand for responsible action in the community. Thus catalyzing the galaxy dynamic and pressure from preliminary guilds represent a pincer effect on the church which then moves toward the community. The guild which is the direct caring force for the community is created by the swirl activity thus initiated. The strategy of Uptown 5 Laboratory was to do all of these dynamics simultaneously. The Laboratory acted as the movement presence and through its activity was able to get all the dynamics functioning to some extent in the first month of community engagement. This swirl of activity intensified each dynamic thus shortening the time required to initiate the Ecumenical Parish.


THE PARISH TEMPLE

The temple dynamic within the Ecumenical Parish channels resurgence into the creation of new civilization by impacting the community with miracles, releasing awe, creating a sense of the sacredness of the community geography and imparting a story of the greatness of their destiny. A miracle is an imaginally impossible change that occurs instantly. Rapid sequence timing of miracles as when impossible changes happen every four days in a place where no one can remember anything unusual, creates a sense of awe about the places where the changes occur. The rapid sequence should hit every section of the grid to comprehensively impact the community. The miracles should be done incognito so the emphasis is on the miracle and not on the group that did it.

Miracles capture the imagination of the community so people begin to sense that a new time has arrived where there was just continual sameness before. This newness catalyzes motivity. As when passers­by see the impossible happening, they feel drawn to get involved. Miracles impact people at a level deeper than liberal idealism and demonstrate seriousness far beyond do­good­ism.

As the community begins to sense that it lives on sacred space through the miracles, this sacred space can be given definition through association with a community symbol such as the shape of Uptown 5 grid. This defining of sacred space with a symbol focuses community identity. When this spatially identified community s impacted with a story of past, present, and future greatness the citizens are called to a meaningful destiny that enables significant engagement in primal community. The symbol of community identity and the story of community destiny are disseminated through tracts' murals' poster art, cabarets, festivals, and conversation. m is awakening of the possibility of primal community prepares the way for the work of the galaxy and the guild.

THE PARISH GUILD

The guild dynamic within the Ecumenical Parish releases the motivity of the community for destinal service by calling into being a self-conscious body of people who care comprehensively for the parish. In order to make a deep but Widespread impact on the community it is necessary to establish a broadly­based authorization from important symbolic and actual leaders in civil and ecclesiastical positions. This is best done by conveying a sense of authentic care for the community by embodying the servant role. Identifying and meeting latent guildsmen is accomplished by capturing the imagination and releasing the spirit power present in the community. A new style of visitation which honors the diversity of the community and entices the person with a destinal vision of sharing the greatness of the community with the whole world. The LENS course and its follow-up awaken and solidify a decision of responsibility for the community. Another way of intentionalizing the guildsmen is the catalyzing of auxiliary groups formed around felt needs and concerns. Through these efforts the parish guild emerges as a self-conscious body of people who have decided to be responsible for their geographical area. They understand their function as providing comprehensive care for that community. Central to the guild's ongoing life is the creation of stories end symbols about its representational task and its continued rehearsal as a life-giving dynamic.

OPERATIONAL IMAGES

THE PARISH GALAXY

The galaxy dynamic within the Ecumenical Parish is that historica1 key without which the guild dynamic has no grounding and the temple dynamic has no depth. To initiate the galactic dynamic in Uptown data on all fifty­four churches within the parish boundaries had to be gathered. The embodiment of the servant role was decided as the key in the contacting of all churchmen. Openness to receive all data and refraining from bracketing any church without due consideration must be maintained from the beginning. Participation is sought in every conceivable way in the life of any local congregation. You are out to gather together churchmen for initial impact both with one another, presence and with the presence of the Movemental church. Every event, visit, or gathering with churchmen is a pre­PLC contexting, with an eye on the future involvement of every possible shred of greatness that lies within the bounds of the parish.

THE MOVEMENT PRESENCE

In order to create movemental presence in establishing the ecumenical parish there are four roles to fill. These roles are as follows: 1) Catalytic stance, 2) Global vision, 3) Implemental wisdom, and 4) Intentional style.

A catalyst is an invisible presence which creates visible signs that enable a community to decide to become engaged in the life around it. One of the visible signs was the creation of the Uptown Park on the corner of Lawrence and Sheridan. The gathering of the community to participate verba11y and physically in that event gave permission for them to share in the delight and mystery of seeing green grass spring up on a rocky parking lot. The catalyst disappears but the sign remains. The implementation of specific tactics to bring off these specific tasks and to break loose the power of creativity within the community itself is a step toward forming the ecumenical parish. The catalytic stance is always that which holds up the global vision. Global vision points to the possibility of creating a global society by cutting over­against the narrowed view of parochialism. This is evidenced in the style of the disciplined , corporate body who manifests the role of intentional style in several ways. For example, when people gathered for the Car Park Cafe they were greeted by a body of people who engaged in intentional conversation with those who attended. The style of dress was intentional so that community people recognized that style. Comments like "I know where you're from", and "I looked out of my window fifteen minutes after I left the car park café and everything was gone!" are witness to the power of intentional style.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

THE PREPARATORY RESEARCH

Previous to the initiating of the ecumenical parish the Chicago Region had gridded the area down to the micro level. The laboratory began at that point and developed additional grids and created a new category to deal with the ambiguity of parish population scope. Ideally, a parish is between fifteen and thirty thousand persons. To deal with a parish of a size in excess of sixty thousand people calls for another category of gridding which is called the proto­parish.

The history of Uptown was researched thoroughly to discover the landmarks and symbols of its previous history. This was done concurrently with a full scale social analysis, covering age, sex, race, community, leadership, rents, types of housing, churches, and social agencies.

Rather than initiating the Ecumenical Parish with a comprehensive problemat, it was decided to proceed in the creation of demonstration signs that quickly catalyze a caring force, that released the institutional church to a new urgency and commonness in its mission and provided signs of possibility for the community at large. The strategy was to unblock the paralysis of the community by a series of deeds that called forth the total dynamic of the Ecumenical Parish, which allows local man to significantly engage in the alleviation of innocent suffering and the creation of the primal community.

SACRED SPACE

The deeds in which the community engaged that began to redefine the sacredness of time and space were: the cleaning and painting of our own parking lot, and its continued maintenance; a survey of the physical condition of a portion of the 46th ward of Chicago; the painting of a Bar­B­Que shack which serves as a community node; the creation of a window art gallery in the E.I. Kemper Building; the transformation of a 30 x 30 foot vacant lot into a plaza with trees, shrubs, and grass; the initiation of the Uptown Car Park Cafe on our parking lot at which community merchants sold food and community residents provided the entertainment; the performance of 3 cabarets, 2 in elders' hotels and one at an historic public lounge; the distribution of posters throughout the proto­parish which proclaimed "Uptown is a great place to be alive"; the erection of two outdoor billboards, one similar to the posters distributed, the other portraying the Guild Symbol with the words "a time of resurgence"; and finally the distribution of a tract giving the community the possibility of living out of a new Uptown mythology.

The stance of the staff in performing these tasks was one of low profile, calling attention to the community rather than to the Institute. "Do­the­job and­disappear" was the method used to enable the awe to show through the deeds. The "miracles" were patterned to occur every Wednesday and every Saturday through the month of July. Care of property other than our own demonstrated concern for the face of the total community. In­kind contributions and minimal expenditures for all events was emphasized to demonstrate the feasibility of all such events. The Cabaret methodology of comedy, satire, music and dance and the recreation of the community's story, with our own identification as residents of Uptown, were basic.

The noted results of this work initiated the call to the community to stand self-consciously before the sacredness of all space. Through the physical transformation of property, the community began to recover a sense of awe. Through the impacting events and the call to engagement through the Cabaret dynamic the community began to experience the sacredness of time. And, finally, through our own demonstration of responsibility for the community through billboards, posters and the care for personal property, the community began to glimpse indicative care.

As the Uptown 5 community began to respond to these happenings its cynicism began to give way to a new openness to the future, and previous no's became yeses. Community members were released to participate in the community events, and in some cases to begin the transformation of their own property. A sense of guardianship began to emerge as some community members vowed to protect the transformed space.

THE CARING FORCE

The guild dynamic was brought to self-consciousness and began to take preliminary form as a caring force by projecting an image of the possibility of participating in the creation of a new society. This was accomplished through a LENS course; the eliciting of authorization for work in the community; catalyzing auxiliary groups and bringing into being a self-conscious body of people who care comprehensively for the parish. The LENS courses involved recruitment, site selection, enablement and a follow-up meeting. Course authorization was achieved through visits with key individuals throughout the 4 weeks, and a businessmen's luncheon. The course itself provided further authorization and with the visits established the legitimacy of the Institute of Cultural Affairs' involvement in the parish. At the same time analysis of the community yield areas of manifest concern or need which were then used as the focus for auxiliary groups formation from which to discover latent guildsmen. Research, visits and other meetings in nine areas, which corresponded with the 9 pressure points, resulted in numerous prospects for a fall LENS course, participants for future activities and a data file on the people and their web of relationships within the community. The LENS follow-up meeting brought into being an ongoing self-conscious body of people who concretized their decision to care for the community by scheduling a fall LENS course and 1orming the initial recruitment machinery, 2 recruits for the fall course stands as a sign. The LENS course gave a practical vision for engagement that released the care already present and initiated the preliminary forms for life expenditure.

THE CHURCH AWAKENMENT

In building the Ecumenical Parish through the galaxy dynamic, the initiating strategy toward church awakenment was creating a climate of trust through visitation of all clerical leaders in the community. Every clergyman was contacted by phone for appointment and visit or a friendly telephone conversation. An interest was shown for each situation and ways to be of service were sought out. All grads were visited in connection with the LENS course. Invitations were extended to all clergy for a dinner or luncheon at which time they were exposed to a larger vision of what the movement is about. Around the meals opportunities were created to offer to be of service ­ speaking engagements, preaching at services, mini­consults with clergy in social agencies, staff meetings, teachers' meetings providing helpful models and information, teaching a Bible course at an elder's home, Wednesday evening church attendance, attendance at Sunday services, arranging for a summer pulpit supply for a vacationing pastor, all combined to reinforce our decision to be servants of the historical church. Data was collected on every occasion and files and profiles of clergy and churches were updated daily. As RS­1 grads from local churches and other churchmen were catalyzed through LENS, and clergy emerged excited and interested on the other side of the lunch and dinners, galactic possibilities began to take shape. The compilation of data and profiles, bar charts, and holding forms clearly indicated the most outstanding galaxy prospects in the whole parish. They were organized in possible galactic configurations and strategy and tactics laid out for target churches ­ four in each proto­parish. Their journey toward galactic participation has been catalyzed.

COMPREHENSIVE AUTHORIZATION

It is critical to obtain authorization from the community before initiating engagement and to deepen and broaden it as one proceeds. All of the successful activities one does in the community serve to extend authorization. That is, each community event provides additional authorization for succeeding events. However, we found an intentional set of authorization tactics was necessary. One key element of authorization is community residency ­ "This is our community." "We would like to know how we can be responsible citizens."

The procedure of authorization used was to analyze the community leadership in terms of the following four categories: symbolic leaders, key leaders, middle leaders and grassroots leaders. We used a means of action appropriate to each category. For symbolic leaders we were out mainly to inform them of our activities through periodic contacts in order to obtain an assenting nod (or lack of opposition). Careful consideration of the order in which they are seen as crucial. Key figures required regular interpretation of our story in order to be able to give open endorsement. Middle leaders are people in secondary positions throughout the community that gave friendly affirmation of the work in response to our support of their concerns. Grassroots leaders are the many people who will actively support the task by being provided with opportunities for significant engagement.

Authorization is dependent on the general goodwill of the total community This is obtained by identification with local man and honoring his concerns. One maintains a stance of affirmation of the community, signaling one's intentions beforehand, and encouraging involvement of every aspect of the community.

METHODOLOGICAL INSIGHTS

PROCEDURAL CONCEPTS

As we reflected on the methodology we employed we found four procedures were most helpful: 1) rehearsing previous movement wisdom, 2) grounding in the parish, 3) using indirect methods, and 4) suspending our tactics within the dynamics of temple, guild, and galaxy. It was crucial to begin by steeping ourselves in the social vision and practical wisdom of the movement as contained in the NSV research, 5th city, Mowanjum, Hong Kong, and the local church experiment. Particularly helpful was articulating the initiating steps that were employed in the previous parish renewal experiments. We found that intensive grounding in the community was key to providing relevant tactics. We used familiar techniques such as intentional walking in the community, observing the people, and doing historical research but we intensified the impact through reflective conversations. Questions such as "What faces do you remember?" or "Why do people live here?" exposed us to the awe and possibility of the parish. The indirect method we employed was to raise an issue, discuss it briefly from one angle, go on to some other subject, and then the next day raise it again from another direction. The resulting, swirling effect not only produced good insights into the tactics needed but also released the spirit of the corporate group. Another valuable procedure was the development of tactics suspended within the three dynamics of temple, guild, and galaxy. We know that there were theoretical unclarities but we moved ahead with a vision of the roles that these three needed to play in the community. Then we found we were able to alter the particular tactics as necessitated by the situation.


THE TEMPLE INSIGHTS

Implementing the Temple dynamics is enabling the recovery of the sense of the sacred within the parish. (1) We discovered you must first awaken awe in people through secular occasions before you can establish a common focus for the sense of the sacred in a particular spot. It is accomplished by occasioning fascination in the face of latent skepticism and defeatism. Thus we created a park on top of a rubble heap rather than trying to pump up local religious institutions ­ though later we know the latter will be the focus of the sacred for the parish. (2) We discovered there were miracles that transformed space and miracles that recreated the community's history. The spatial miracles were signs of possibility that moved men beyond their cynicism, awakening men that something was happening in the community (the plaza, the art gallery, repainting Bar­B­Q shack), while those redefining the community's history (into sacred history) created a new community mythology (the tract, the Uptown posters and billboards, Cabarets, cafe). (3) We discovered there were both focused signs and extensive signs. The focused signs (either in one spot, or for a specific audience such as a local alderman) should be clustered near a symbolic center of the parish, both for authorization and creation of a focus for the re­awakened sense of the sacred. (4) In the initiatory stages, the Temple dynamic uses visible signs as an indirect tactic of awakening potentia1 guildsmen. Later, after a core of leadership is functioning, it will be a direct tactic with community participation in planning and carrying out miracles.

THE GUIID INSIGHTS

In the work of catalyzing the guild the key methodology is the small core of disciplined people that provide a structural form (e.g., LENS/follow-up) to elicit the lucidity, care, and sociological relationships of local men, who already exist in a social web, and, who, for that very reason are the latent guild. The element that captures the imagination of a person for the future is the creation and communication of the story of uniqueness about the gifts of the community, which then release things as one­visit recruitment decisions, immediate authorization for working in the community, and the authentic mythology of the emerging global research network. It is the indicative style in visitation that evokes an eventful happening, touching key pressure point arenas (e.g., basic role; with elders) inviting a person to participate in a demonstration course to test its value for the community, thereby breaking loose an immediate decision. Then the building of corporate momentum within the task force, in relation to the events catalyzed by the Temple and Galaxy, calls for maximum effective sustained expenditure. The power of the LENS course is doubled when the core of those recruited are locally related and focused through an immediate follow-up that grounds their lucidity, care, and expenditure in a viable mode of responsibility for the local community. Finally, reliance on resurgence that is already totally present permits the LENS grads to step into their own imperatives from the discernment of the indicative situation.

THE GALAXY INSIGHTS

The galaxy dimension of the, lab saw that it was important to maintain maximum flexibility relative to the galaxy while moving to establish the galaxy on the most basic level. This meant working generally toward all five galaxies in the parish while emphasizing preparation for a parish galaxy and also a proto­parish galaxy. In this situation, if blocked at either level, a galaxy would still be possible on the other level. The parish galaxy can also be used as a base from which to replicate into the other proto­parishes.

Secondly, the necessity of knowing the entire picture was reaffirmed. Every church or sign of a church must be thoroughly investigated. Full profiles on the clergy - including all inter­relationships must be created. Denominational and national affiliations must be carefully explored as well as the basic theological and social polarities of the community.

We discovered that it was possible to work with every background in the religious spectrum (see page 38). With the "Reduced Fundamentalism" the primary tactic was either careful bracketing or a "good neighbor" stance. The "Social Fundamentalists" were approached through indirect cultivation tactics such as informal dropins, church clergy breakfasts and visits to 5th City. The "Liturgical Liberals" were dealt with LENS, or through direct appeal to their neglected liturgical tradition. The excitement of ecumenical work was the main approach to the "Social liberals."

We saw the necessity of always working on several levels of approach at one time ­ including making friends, social cultivation, affirmation of the clergy in their role as the church and direct activation of the galaxy through the LENS and the guild. These supplement direct PLC and RS­1 recruitment and can be used when direct recruitment is not possible.

THE UNLEASHED SPIRIT

The key methodological insight emerges as we engage in the creation of the Ecumenical Parish. We experienced an unleashing of the Spirit in the face of a many faceted and overwhelming task. The insight is that clarification of the contradictions and the tactics required to unblock that contradiction emerge when approached through the three dynamics of the Ecumenical Parish: the Temple, the Guild, and the galaxy. The tactics began to crystallize for each group working through the particular dynamic and as a total body as we saw the interrelatedness of the total dynamic, thus creating a web of inter­related tactics. The major contradiction became more clearly focused which in turn released each group to move with one thrust. Through lengthy reporting and evaluation sessions and corporate workshops, the rehearsal of happenings broke loose new possibilities, made known key contacts and viable paths of action that enabled very concrete action by each group. This in turn enabled a confident stance that became a powerful presence to the community. Without paralyzing anxiety, priorship to the community was carried out in an enticing style rather than an overpowering demand. The growing confidence in "being on target" enabled the body to risk more and more concrete community engagement as signs of the community's response on the different fronts were rehearsed; i.e. LENS participation, the Car Park Cafe, and three Cabarets. Thus the risks were always related to reality. Like Dr. Lao, when out to transform a community, discern the deep spirit issue and become the means of evoking a depth spirit response, such is the style required to birth an Ecumenical Parish wherever it might be.

MOVEMENT IMPLICATIONS

CONCLUSION

The guild dynamic has been brought into being in Uptown 5 through a break­open LENS course, the Galaxy dynamic through direct contact and nurture of community churches, and the Temple dynamic through the creation of Sacred Space and Signs in the community.

But the task is far from done. Careful analysis of the work of the Research Assembly with the practical experience of Uptown 5 Lab must be made. The question of how to replicate in the Local Church Experiment, the experience gained in Uptown 5, and the implications for the Galaxy, Guild and Temple dynamics as a key to the Ecumenical Parish must be carefully weighed.

Plans for a two week practical lab in a Galaxy or metro must be developed. Local research, field visits, Galaxy development must be programmed to enable the impaction of a community with a LENS course and the generation of the Guild, Galaxy, and Temple dynamics through intensive follow-up. A communication network must be developed to provide exchange of information and data for research.

Uptown 5 with its wide diversity of ethnic groups ­ one bank in the community has staff capability in 27 languages - is a precursor of global cities of the future. It provides the opportunity for a proto­type Ecumenical Parish as a model for the World.

GRIDDING PRINCIPLES

Research

The first principle is that of holding global commonality. At present the movement is working on a rationale of sixes from continents to parishes, and then below that in five parts.

The second principle is that of equal population. We symbolize that our care for all men is on the basis of an objective construct. The basic unit of this primal community is the parish, by dividing at each level into portions of roughly equal population.

The third principle is that of designing a symbolic grid that has a powerful artistic impact. This implies the fewest number of lines with a minimum number of intersections. It also means looking for simple distinctive characteristics, such as a slanting line or a single arc, to give the grid a distinctive character.

The fourth principle is that of honoring existing consciousness. People usually have a name or names for the place in which they live. The movement looks for the most symbolic name, analyzing historical community as well as the present names of nodes, landmarks, institutions and businesses. Existing consciousness is influenced by political divisions, governmental service, neighborhood renewal projects, etc. These can often be identified by telephone company 'neighborhood' directory divisions, census tracts, school districts, etc. Existing consciousness is also honored by maintaining maximum geographical compactness. People usually find it difficult to relate to a long, thin parish. The "feel" of a neighborhood must be considered as well. This includes such things as type, age, and condition of residences, ethnic populations, businesses, and visual impact like hills or tree­shaded streets.

The fifth principle is that of traffic patterns. There are obvious barriers to local traffic such as mountains, lakes, rivers, railroad tracks, and expressways. me traffic flow patterns are also Influenced by arterial streets, expressway exits and street patterns. One can often make local divisions on the basis of whether the houses face the North­South or the East­West streets. The final consideration is the patterns of movement to and from commercial, shopping, and recreational nodes. A community often focuses around a shopping center, so that one makes the larger division around the area it serves, and then makes smaller divisions in quarters or wedges around it. These wedges are united by their common traffic flow and consciousness of their relationship to the node.