https://cumawards.com Congress for Urban Malfeasance Thu, 17 Nov 2022 23:36:39 +0000 https://cumawards.com en https://cumawards.com/HOME Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:37:55 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/HOME 2022 CUM AWARDS https://cumawards.com/WINNERS Thu, 17 Nov 2022 20:24:07 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/WINNERS The CUM awards were created to honor the most outstanding examples of financial promiscuity in the architectural and urban realm. Each year CUM honors a work of public architecture with a trophy that speaks to the profligate misuse of funds in the name of the public good. This year we honor three stadia for their outstanding achievement meet Stadia Majora. <img width="3052" height="1576" width_o="3052" height_o="1576" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f9040512f8c623e4cf68f6a6b5aee8e968b6e3d176b991697fd3ec0134064b2/Podium-Render-crop-1-short.png" data-mid="159418958" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f9040512f8c623e4cf68f6a6b5aee8e968b6e3d176b991697fd3ec0134064b2/Podium-Render-crop-1-short.png" /> https://cumawards.com/BUFFALO-HANDS Thu, 17 Nov 2022 22:43:38 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/BUFFALO-HANDS &nbsp; &nbsp;STADIA&nbsp; &nbsp;MAJORA&nbsp; &nbsp;BUFFALO &nbsp;︎SS2022 <img width="1292" height="1079" width_o="1292" height_o="1079" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/566d1263e0fa8b6af3b7bcd5dad34c23c33fe5aff1af4249740d95bd23ae4918/TRANSPARENT-HANDS-TEST-short.png" data-mid="159422174" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/566d1263e0fa8b6af3b7bcd5dad34c23c33fe5aff1af4249740d95bd23ae4918/TRANSPARENT-HANDS-TEST-short.png" /> https://cumawards.com/BUFFALO-GIF Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:37:56 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/BUFFALO-GIF Buffalo, New York is the third-poorest city in the country, with the nation’s second-highest child poverty rate. Earlier this year, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she was spending $1 billion in public money to the region—so the billionaire owners of the Buffalo Bills could build a brand new football stadium. It’s the largest all-cash public subsidy for an NFL team in history. https://cumawards.com/BUFFALO Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:37:57 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/BUFFALO Governor Hochul, who is from Buffalo and assumed office after her predecessor left in a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations, announced the giveaway without holding a single public hearing on the matter, and without consulting the state legislature. As governor, she chose to wedge the historic public expenditure into the state budget, days before it was due to be finalized, daring the legislature to either annihilate the state’s entire spending plan or pass it with the stadium deal intact. It was too late to pull out. The budget passed, and so did the stadium giveaway. To justify her decision, Hochul alluded to the threats that the owners of the Bills made to potentially leave the area if they didn’t get their money. She claimed that the stadium would create&nbsp; 10,000 construction jobs, and essentially pay for itself. Those jobs, however, are temporary, and the idea that a football stadium is value-neutral is based on bogus math.&nbsp; The owners of the team, Terry and Kim Pegula, also own Buffalo’s professional hockey squad, and are worth some $7 billion.Terry earned his fortunes in natural gas and fracking, and the Pegula are prolific donors to Republicans and Democrats. The Pegulas didn’t give any money to governor Hochul’s campaign this year—it just wouldn’t be proper. (They did give Hochul and her then-running mate Andrew Cuomo $25,000 back in 2014.) One final point that needs to be nailed down before the deal is completely finished: how much money will the community itself receive? Given that the practice of giving obscenely rich owners of sports teams gobs of public money is unseemly, it’s customary to toss a few crumbs to the people who live in the shadows of these atrocities. A community group called Play Fair is asking for $500 million over the 30-year period to be spent on children, affordable housing, and healthcare. For some odd reason, this appears to be a sticking point. Renderings for the stadium reveal a glass-walled receptacle with “stacked seating” and “extensive radiant heating” for those frigid Buffalo winters. The stadium will be a nice, warm refuge to thrust all that cold, hard cash—an ideal candidate for CUM’s recognition. We honor Buffalo Bills Stadium, and Governor Kathy Hochul, with this award. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img width="886" height="1984" width_o="886" height_o="1984" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc188240d7a9a11b7ad9a5c4e68973bce781b1200f98e23fd21e9c03c26b46ff/SECTION-BUFFALO-CROP.png" data-mid="159292961" border="0" data-scale="76" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/886/i/dc188240d7a9a11b7ad9a5c4e68973bce781b1200f98e23fd21e9c03c26b46ff/SECTION-BUFFALO-CROP.png" /> https://cumawards.com/LA-hands Sun, 13 Nov 2022 05:22:32 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/LA-hands STADIA MAJORA LOS ANGELES&nbsp;︎SS2022 Of the three municipalities recognized by this year’s CUM award, none seem worthier than Los Angeles, a city that practically vibrates with pleasure. From wet-n-wild watersports along the sun-dappled coast, to high-powered roleplaying in glamorous Hollywood, the people of Tinseltown just love to fool around—with themselves, with each other, and with pretty much anyone who comes along. But if there’s one thing Angelinos love best, it’s a ballgame: basket or base, amateur or pro, LA’s big-name teams are where the real action is, and everyone cheers as the hometown heroes hustle, slide and score. <img width="1600" height="2000" width_o="1600" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/756db300822339ec9f81847a410595f1538b23c458ac01c5b623bda6da6641ac/sofi-hole.png" data-mid="159428186" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/756db300822339ec9f81847a410595f1538b23c458ac01c5b623bda6da6641ac/sofi-hole.png" /> https://cumawards.com/LOS-ANGELES Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:37:56 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/LOS-ANGELES Little wonder then that the city is now home to the single most expensive sports facility in the history of humankind, the $5 billion SoFi Stadium. Unlike our honoree in the Rust Belt, which will utilize gobs of public money, SoFi’s mammoth tab was generously picked up by Rams owner and billionaire real estate investor Stan Kroenke, whose other philanthropic endeavors include a $1 million donation to Donald Trump’s 2016 inaugural committee. Sure, SoFi is also getting up to $100 million in tax breaks, but that’s a mere grace note in this symphony of pleasure. And yes, five people have died on SoFi’s grounds since 2020. Three were construction-related deaths involving a crane collapse, a fall, and cocaine and heat exhaustion. Another two involved a stabbing and a drowning. In any case, the costs were certainly worth it for the result: looming hugely over a vast, unpeopled landscape, complete with a scenic lake, the building greets arriving fans with a graceful ovoid slit (or is that a wink?). A giant overhanging hood, supported by thrusting vertical piers, shapes the structure into an elegant planar delta, so elegant that it’s easy to forget someone fell to their death from it. In a city experiencing a desperate housing crunch, where land use issues grow more contentious by the day, Angelinos can rejoice in the 300-acre entertainment complex surrounding the stadium, complete with ample surface-level parking and even a brand-new public transit station a convenient 25 minute walk away. Landlords can be happy that rents have skyrocketed since SoFi came to town. <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c7d60cca274ff463a7d7e6c0deb62f373803c3365bb6edbe899354a91c00376/fingering-2.png" data-mid="159778591" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2c7d60cca274ff463a7d7e6c0deb62f373803c3365bb6edbe899354a91c00376/fingering-2.png" /> And for a people who so dearly love fun and games, nothing could be better than the name: SoFi, the San Francisco-based personal finance company that parted ways with its CEO five years ago following allegations that a “frat-house atmosphere” prevailed at corporate headquarters, including accounts of employees having sex in their cars. A truly outstanding instance of civic and architectural malfeasance SoFi Stadium embodies all the qualities that the CUM was created for, We honor it with this award. https://cumawards.com/DOHA-HANDS-1 Thu, 17 Nov 2022 23:36:39 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/DOHA-HANDS-1 Every four years, the world comes together to celebrate humanity’s most beloved game, football. The World Cup is an event for rich and poor, where all languages can be heard experiencing the thrills of victories, the agonies of defeats, and the moments of pride for hometown heroes making it to the biggest stage for one month. Except this year, that stage is built on modern slave labor and the deaths of thousands of migrants, by a repressive petrostate hellbent on sportswashing its reputation while the planet burns. Qatar has spent over $200 billion (some of it on bribes) in putting together the event over eight arenas, seven of which are brand new. The crown jewel is Al Janoub Stadium, designed by Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born, first female winner of the Pritzker Prize, who died unexpectedly in 2016. Hadid said that the design was meant to invoke the sails of a Qatari fishing boat, and called the comparisons to female genitalia “ridiculous” (anyone shoving their members into CUM’s award can judge for them Most galling are the human rights abuses suffered by tens of thousands of workers who built all this infrastructure, many of who came from South Asia and East Africa, and were greeted with substandard living conditions, wage theft, injury, and death.&nbsp; Some 6,500 laborers have reportedly died since Qatar won their bid in 2012, and that’s a conservative estimate. When asked if soccer’s governing body was planning on compensating the families of the dead with some of the billions in profit it expects to make from the World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that these people could take pride in their work. “And of course FIFA is not the police of the world or responsible for everything that happens around the world,” he added. Gooooooooooaaaaaaal! Human rights violations aren’t limited to workers: Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, which leaves uncertainty for LGBTQ+ fans. This also prohibits players and teams from being open, or acting as an ally to the community. Women will be forced to abide by cultural standards and values in Qatar by dressing modestly at the events covering them from shoulders to knees. https://cumawards.com/DOHA Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:37:56 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/DOHA STADIA MAJORA DOHA&nbsp;︎SS2022 That one stadium will seat 40,000 and features a retractable roof to blot out the sun. Even after moving the World Cup to November to accommodate Qatar’s scorching climate, temperatures are expected to range between 75 and 85 degrees, and the stadiums will have an outdoor air-conditioned system to cool temperatures on the pitch. Qatar has claimed that the event will be “carbon-neutral,” and has invested in solar technology and planted 1 million trees. But the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere from the construction of the stadiums alone makes this promise a fantasy. There’s really not a better candidate for CUM’s honor than the 2022 World Cup, a climax for the worst of humanity. We honor you with this award. https://cumawards.com/LEARN-MORE Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:37:57 +0000 Congress for Urban Malfeasance https://cumawards.com/LEARN-MORE ︎SS2019 AWARDS︎