The failures that beset an editor are of two sorts: those the readers see and those you don’t. The former are typically small, but not always insignificant. They range, to give two examples from the last issue (arcCA 02.1, “Image Mirror”), from mislocating the University of the Pacific in Modesto (whereas you know it is in Stockton) to misspelling Barron Storey’s name. The latter is particularly irksome to me, because a) I do know how to spell his name; and b) Barron Storey’s stories are anything but barren. (To give you an indication of the fertility of his imagination, I might mention that the drawing we published (p. 34) is from Barron’s ninety-somethingth sketchbook, and virtually every page of each of those sketchbooks is just as rich and surprising.)
Other failures you don’t see, and, mainly, I’m glad. I should own up to one, however: there is a profile missing from this issue. It would have focused on Michael Stepner, former San Diego city architect, former dean of the New School of Architecture, who is currently the Director of Land Use and Housing for the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation and the 2002 president of the San Diego AIA. If you stand on any street corner in San Diego and pitch a rock, you will hit an admirer of Mike Stepner. Fortunately for you, this admirer won’t stop to complain of the assault, because he won’t have time. Or so I surmise; I have not actually tried the experiment with the rock, but I have sought at some length someone to write about Mr. Stepner, and many people want to, but everyone is too busy. Perhaps the San Diego Regional EDC has become too effective since he joined the staff.
Actually, however, we arrived at this impasse not because of the prosperity of San Diego, but because we (the editorial board and I) are less familiar with writers in San Diego than we are with those in San Francisco or Los Angeles. And that is the case because, as it happens, we all live in San Francisco or Los Angeles, or thereabouts. When we have a story in Fresno or Ukiah—or San Diego—our resources are limited.
In a previous Comment, I noted that we had been neglecting historic preservation, and I said that we would make up for the deficit. We have begun to do so in this issue, and we’ll continue to do so in the next. I’d like similarly to amend our SF/LA bicentrism, but I’ll need your help. So, citizens of Placerville, arise! Send me your resumes, your writing samples, your story ideas yearning to see print. Let me know how you’d like to contribute to arcCA. Invite me to your chapter meetings . . . . The big city can be a lonesome place.
Author Tim Culvahouse, AIA, is editor of arcCA.
Originally published 2nd quarter 2002, in arcCA 02.2, “Citizen Architects.”
