Redesign announcement
Published May 29th, 2006
Today, we introduce a new design for The View From The Ground, as we enter our sixth year of publication. Throughout the history of The View, we have strived for a web presence that takes its bearings from the content of the site – the world of public housing on the South Side of Chicago.
Our new design rearranges and clarifies the look of the site. It also introduces new features.
We now feature daily photographs drawn from on the work of Patricia Evans and Jason Reblando. As the end of public housing as a physical reality approaches, we seek through these images to keep visible the community that survives demolition—in people's relationships, identities, and memories.
In addition to long-form analytic and investigative journalism, we will publish more short updates, case documents, and so on. The first of these is an update on recent developments with respect to the City’s subpoena demanding Jamie Kalven’s notes and other documents in connection with the Bond case.
The new design of The View reflects the maturation of online customs and tools that were embryonic or non-existent when we began publishing in 2001. Then, our design goal was to avoid the over-hyped web clutter typical of sites at that time. Today, the free software movement and useful new Internet technologies are thriving. Clean, effective web design is far more prominent.
The technology that supports The View is the work of thousands of people who develop, document and test the free software tools we rely on, like the WordPress content management system and the Apache web server.
In the years since we began, the free software movement has grown into a commercial and social force, as people around the world have exercised their freedom to share and work together. They have enjoyed the benefits of collaboration; they have explored and debated its pitfalls, complications, and limitations.
The best of today's online culture is animated by the active exercise of freedom. The same cannot be said of the public discourse on public housing, police misconduct, the war on drugs, and so on. It is the mission of The View to inject that sense of freedom and vigorous inquiry into local human rights debates, even as the last remnants of public housing are removed from view.
David Eads