"The ghosts of old buildings are haunting parking lots" makes me think of a specific parking lot I walk past frequently at the corner of Swan Street and Michigan Ave, where Maria Love's Fitch Creche used to stand. The building next to it is still there and you can see the ghostly outline on the brick where the smaller building used to be. The Fitch Creche was the first daycare in the United States and an important piece of history, but it was torn down in the 90s for a parking lot and now you'd never know what had been there if it weren't for the internet.
And I know what you mean about people on the street. When I first moved here from the suburbs, the sight of homeless people really moved me and I remember seriously considering offering to let them stay at my apartment (but I had roommates who would sensibly object, and I was just plain scared). At this point I've become used to it. It's kind of sad the things we can get used to.
On the 2003 live album "Sacramento," Ani says that she wrote this song about her hometown of Buffalo, NY, and all of the details ring so true for me.
"The Berlin Wall runs down Main Street" - Buffalo is still unfortunately a very segregated city, and Main Street is the dividing line between Black and White/Asian/Latino communities. (Ethnicity map: http://www.buffalorising.com/2010/09/race-and-ethnicity-buffalo.html)
"The ghosts of old buildings are haunting parking lots" makes me think of a specific parking lot I walk past frequently at the corner of Swan Street and Michigan Ave, where Maria Love's Fitch Creche used to stand. The building next to it is still there and you can see the ghostly outline on the brick where the smaller building used to be. The Fitch Creche was the first daycare in the United States and an important piece of history, but it was torn down in the 90s for a parking lot and now you'd never know what had been there if it weren't for the internet.
And I know what you mean about people on the street. When I first moved here from the suburbs, the sight of homeless people really moved me and I remember seriously considering offering to let them stay at my apartment (but I had roommates who would sensibly object, and I was just plain scared). At this point I've become used to it. It's kind of sad the things we can get used to.