The Irreverent Couponer

+ Positively Queer for Coupons +

[theirreverentcouponer]

Only Three Bullet Points

Since June, I’ve been fucking up submitting my annual income-driven-repayment plan reapplication, and I feel bad about it (via doing something that could threaten my tenuous financial stability), but I also feel a burning rage because this is the set of instructions I face, AND they culminate in printing something and mailing it. Fuh?

One, I don’t have a printer anymore. Two, if I had a printer, it would be out of ink. Three, Navient sends me seven text messages at a time (true story, felt very harassed), but they are dependent on me *printing* something and *mailing* it to the *government*? The disjunction between how I’m supposed to communicate with the government, and how the student loan company is then allowed to communicate with me is... stupid.

If I’ve already alienated you, I apologize. My unwillingness to do complete this task also alienates me from myself. 

By “this task” I mean these three items and their sub-tasks a-e, a-c, and a-f. 

This tortuous complaint is my motivation for spending the afternoon completing this set of steps. Here I go!

[theirreverentcouponer]

Krogersphere

Unnecessary backstory aside (I’ve done a lot of work to be able to avoid turning everything into a story (well, maybe not)), I go to Kroger more than Publix these days, and I have to boast about their digital coupons.

I like paper coups, but the Kroger digital coupons are increasingly targeted, so I get coupons for things I buy regularly, e.g. Kroger brand lime tortilla chips (they’re so cheap!). Plus, and I know this sounds like it can’t be real, they offer me digital coupons for free items that I might buy, like, “oh, we see you bought our bread. Here’s a coupon for free bread” and “You like Silk soymilk? Here’s a coupon for free Silk soymilk.” 

Even more ingratiating, they flatter me with the coupons: Best Customer Bonus here, Best Customer Bonus there... I don’t like that kind of ass smoke, but I’ll take the soymilk, geez. 

[theirreverentcouponer]

Not about coupons, but I feel compelled to share a series of screenshots of Urban Outfitters models “wearing” fanny packs, which they insist on naming “belt bags,” but then photograph as though they’re decorative one-pec front pouches. Let’s call them that, then. Petition to rename Urban Outfitters’ belt bags Decorative One-pec Front Pouches. Geez this makes me sound old. 

[atlurbanist]

The potential demolition of Metro Atlanta’s first enclosed mall raises hopes and questions

North DeKalb Center opened in 1965 as the first fully-enclosed shopping mall in metro Atlanta. Here’s an aerial view of it right after it opened, with a ginormous parking lot visible. [Photo source: GSU Digital Collections.]

The owners of the shopping complex are now proposing to tear it down to make way for a new project. Following years of store closings and decline, there’s now a plan for turning what’s currently called North DeKalb Mall into a mixed-use development with retail, housing, and a hotel.

It seems significant: the first enclosed mall in the metro – once a symbol of the region’s embrace of suburban-style land uses that separated retail from homes – is potentially going to become a place where uses are mixed. When it comes to the concept of retrofitting suburbia with some more-urban ideas, this could be considered at least a small step in the right direction.

Why not incorporate the structure into a redevelopment?

As some commenters online have pointed out, a demolition/rebuild plan is a missed opportunity to use the existing building as part of a new development. Wasting the structure is not only environmentally costly (the “greenest” construction is always the reuse of an existing building), it’s also a loss of a potentially lower-rent space that could offset what will undoubtedly be high rent new buildings.

Above: North DeKalb Mall today. Source: Wikimedia.

To make the “numbers work” on incorporation of the current mall infrastructure into a project, there would likely need to be a private-public partnership. That kind of partnership would pay off not just in preventing waste, but also in allowing for some more-affordable spaces in the end product, versus having nothing but high-rent new construction through a purely private, market rate product.

Look to Colony Square for ideas

To help envision what could potentially happen in terms of reuse, take a look at the Colony Square project in Midtown Atlanta. Its enclosed shopping mall is relatively tiny compared to North DeKalb, but perhaps there’s a lesson here nonetheless.

Colony Square opened in 1973 as Atlanta’s first big mixed-use development. With two office towers, a condo building, a hotel, and a shopping mall in between – plus underground parking – it set a standard in the city for vertical, large-scale developments on a small footprint. It’s a standard that didn’t really find an imitator until Atlantic Station came along in 2005.

Above: Colony Square mall in 1986. Source: GSU Digital Collection.

North American Properties purchased Colony Square a few years ago and they have big plans for a major update of the property, including the mall, which will be turned into an open-air plaza.

Above: rendering from the developer of Colony Square redesign. Source.

What about taking at least part of the existing North DeKalb Mall structure and turning it into an open-air mall, while adding taller buildings around it? Basically the owners could create a smaller version of Colony Square, built around the current shopping structure.

Bottom line: good urbanism can happen in the suburbs

To some, it may sound odd to try to apply ideas like adaptive-reuse of buildings  to suburban places. But to expect less of land use in the suburbs is to set the bar too low for what can be achieved outside of cities.

Good urbanism happens at different scales and in various contexts and can be inclusive of suburban areas like the one around North DeKalb Mall. We certainly have many examples of the unfortunate flip side of that in Atlanta, where car-oriented, single-use urban design happens intown.

In fact, some healthy competition in urbanism between cities and suburbs could be beneficial, and it isn’t outrageous to think that the burbs could best city centers in some ways.

While suburban residents crave quasi-ersatz urban experiences, many in the urban areas are living as if they are in the suburbs, in more insular developments that minimize their interactions with the city and other citizens. In the suburbs, on the other hand, there is potential for an increase in mixed-use and mixed-experience living.

From “The American suburbs are the next fertile ground for architectural and urban experimentation,” published at ArchPaper.com last year:

“While suburban residents crave quasi-ersatz urban experiences, many in the urban areas are living as if they are in the suburbs, in more insular developments that minimize their interactions with the city and other citizens. In the suburbs, on the other hand, there is potential for an increase in mixed-use and mixed-experience living.”

[theirreverentcouponer]

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO AMC N DEKALB MALL WHERE I SEE ALL MY MOVIES FOR $4.50-$6.00?!!!!!!!!

[threadatl]

Atlanta City Council passes funding for stadium bridge, claiming it’s for residents

Thanks to all of you who contacted City Council and urged them to vote ‘no’ on the bridge, and thanks to the ones who *did* vote ‘no’ – and who asked tough questions at the meeting yesterday.

Unfortunately, the funding did pass, by the smallest of margins.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing – apart from the lack of transparency and public input on such an expense – is the highly-questionable claim from leaders that this bridge is all about connecting the residents of Vine City to South Downtown.

Take a look at the above image. It comes from the City’s procurement process for the bridge. Read the language in it. How can we seriously interpret this bridge as pedestrian infrastructure for locals when it’s so obviously for “visitors” and their “game day” experience? Residents are arguably being used as a crutch here, to lean this public giveaway to the stadium upon.

Atlanta has spent quite a bit of time focusing on “world-class” attractions for visitors (or world-class offices), while not understanding the value of having a city filled with strong neighborhoods. There was no request for a pedestrian bridge by residents who took part in the community benefits planning for the stadium. Instead of addressing their actual requests, we’re spending millions and millions on a stadium connection that wasn’t requested.

Creating good connections means making sure our streets are shared by a diversity of travel modes. Raising pedestrians off the street on a ped-bridge is not “sharing” — that’s accepting that the main street below is not really public domain: that it’s car domain.

These are the Council Members who voted 'yes’: Carla Smith Ivory Lee Young Natalyn Mosby Archibong Michael Julian Bond Joyce Sheperd Marci Overstreet Andrea Boone Cleta Winslow

[berniesrevolution]

What Happens When Poor Kids Are Taught Society Is Fair

A new study finds that believing in meritocracy can lead disadvantaged adolescents of color to act out and engage in risky behavior.

Brighton Park is a predominantly Latino community on the southwest side of Chicago. It’s a neighborhood threatened by poverty, gang violence, ICE raids, and isolation—in a city where income, race, and zip code can determine access to jobs, schools, healthy food, and essential services. It is against this backdrop that the Chicago teacher Xian Franzinger Barrett arrived at the neighborhood’s elementary school in 2014.

Recognizing the vast economic and racial inequalities his students faced, he chose what some might consider a radical approach for his writing and social-studies classes, weaving in concepts such as racism, classism, oppression, and prejudice. Barrett said it was vital to reject the oft-perpetuated narrative that society is fair and equal to address students’ questions and concerns about their current conditions. And Brighton Elementary’s seventh- and eighth-graders quickly put the lessons to work—confronting the school board over inequitable funding, fighting to install a playground, and creating a classroom library focused on black and Latino authors.

“Students who are told that things are fair implode pretty quickly in middle school as self-doubt hits them,” he said, “and they begin to blame themselves for problems they can’t control.”

Barrett’s personal observation is validated by a newly published study in the peer-reviewed journal Child Development that finds traditionally marginalized youth who grew up believing in the American ideal that hard work and perseverance naturally lead to success show a decline in self-esteem and an increase in risky behaviors during their middle-school years. The research is considered the first evidence linking preteens’ emotional and behavioral outcomes to their belief in meritocracy, the widely held assertion that individual merit is always rewarded.

“If you’re in an advantaged position in society, believing the system is fair and that everyone could just get ahead if they just tried hard enough doesn’t create any conflict for you … [you] can feel good about how [you] made it,” said Erin Godfrey, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School. But for those marginalized by the system—economically, racially, and ethnically—believing the system is fair puts them in conflict with themselves and can have negative consequences.

“If the system is fair, why am I seeing that everybody who has brown skin is in this kind of job? You’re having to think about that … like you’re not as good, or your social group isn’t as good,” Godfrey said. “That’s the piece … that I was trying to really get at [by studying] these kids.”

The findings build upon a body of literature on “system justification”—a social-psychology theory that believes humans tend to defend, bolster, or rationalize the status quo and see overarching social, economic, and political systems as good, fair, and legitimate. System justification is a distinctively American notion, Godfrey said, built on myths used to justify inequities, like “If you just work hard enough you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps … it’s just a matter of motivation and talent and grit.” Yet, as she and her colleagues discovered, these beliefs can be a liability for disadvantaged adolescents once their identity as a member of a marginalized group begins to gel—and once they become keenly aware of how institutional discrimination disadvantages them and their group.

“If you’re [inclined] to believe that … the system is fair, then you’re maybe going to accept stereotypes about you more easily.”

(Continue Reading)

[agingwunderkind-deactivated2022]

oh jesus, this explains a whole fucking lot

[thecringeandwincefactory-deacti]

Always reblog.

[the-afro-elf-deactivated2020072]

One of the biggest lies taught in American schools is that the USA is “meritocracy.” BULLSHIT!! The United States is a plutocracy that masquerades as a republic. Certain people are given advantages depending on their race, wealth, and personal connections. Everyone else are left to fight over what scraps are left over after the white ruling class take their cut of the loot. It’s been that way since this country was still a backwater British colony.

[cryptid-sighting]

This is very good shit, but uhh

“System justification is a distinctively American notion, Godfrey said, built on myths used to justify inequities”

Have they every talked to a British person, or…?

[theirreverentcouponer]

Kroger digital coupons, never a bad idea. Buy my love with your free soymilks! Tell me I’m your best customer!

[theirreverentcouponer]

Inadvertent Shart Joke (Screenshot, 2018)

[theirreverentcouponer]

Verso Exxxtreme Book Sale

It’s happening again. Until January 1, all Verso Books’ e-for-electronic-books are 90% off, and all the p-for-print-books are 50% off.  

How not to go nuts on $1 books? Here’s how: I still haven’t read any of the books from the July sale. To my credit, I smashed the screen of my Kindle shortly after downloading all my new books... also, what’s the harm of hoarding e-books? Everyone should have a copy of The SCUM Manifesto at the e-ready for when you need to get into fights with reasonable people.

[femestella]

a standing ovation for Gina Rodriguez paying off her student loans in the most badass of ways 

[theirreverentcouponer]

One day, I hope to be able to pay off my student loans. This anecdote from Gina Rodriguez is both encouraging (hype!) and unsettling (agh!). The sentiment, “If the star of a hit show can do it sometime after her second Golden Globe nomination, why can’t I?” becomes “If the star of a hit show can’t do it until sometime after her second Golden Globe nomination, when the fuck can I?”

[coocoolah-deactivated20190601]

This is how power often works: you don’t have to stop people from doing something, just make it harder for them to do something.

Sara Ahmed, “Institutional as Usual” (via coocoolah)

[theirreverentcouponer]

I await any reasonable explanation of the image from this Amazon Lightning Deal. Note that reasonable explanations must account not only for the vapor, but for the bubbles. 

[ordurebizarre-deactivated201901]

[theirreverentcouponer]

Enrollment is now open for 2018 coverage (November 1 - December 15). Apply for the first time, or renew/change your 2017 plan.

[niktipolos]

The mental disease of late-stage capitalism is shame, the devastating feeling that we failed ourselves in the Land of Opportunity. This great lie that we whisper to ourselves is how they control us. Our fear that other impoverished people (which is most of us now) will look down on us for being impoverished too. This is how we give them the power to keep humiliating us. I say no more of this emotional racket. If I am going to be responsible for my fate in life, let it be because I chose to stand up and fight — that I helped dismantle the global architecture of wealth extraction that created this systemic corruption of our economic and political systems. […]We cannot begin the work of building new economic systems until we take off the mental shackles of the old ones. So let your shame fall away. Remember your pride in learning and growing as a person, loving life and other people, being with friends, and pursuing your dreams. Then hold tight to these feelings as you set clear intentions about how the future must be different from the past.

The Mental Disease of Late-Stage Capitalism, Joe Brewer. (via kuanios)

[theirreverentcouponer]

The Fall

Last week at Michael’s versus this week at Michael’s: the march of the candy holidays!

The transition was swift. Now all the autumn-loving people are happily gloating about how painfully cold and dark it will be for months. I’m going to fill my house with christmas lights until it feels like the sun is never going down... the full Ilana SAD lamp experience.

[theirreverentcouponer]

Krispy Kreme’s Other Gift to the World

September 29 -- October 1: Free coffee.