Laurent, South Dakota: Deaf Town

marvmiller said:
Laurent has a master plan developed from a week long planning session with 15 professional architects and planners as well as about 15 deaf and hard of hearing and hearing signers attending.

We are currently waiting for our funding to close. It has been delayed several times rather significantly, and we hope to see the funding close by end of this month.

As for allowing "anyone" to live in Laurent, sure. Keep in mind, "anyone" can not run for public office, run a business or provide service if they do not know or use sign language. This is a PLANNED community -- that fact alone sets us apart from Martha's Vineyard. Yet, we use them as a model showing that it is possible to have a very healthy community based on sign language, regardless of one's hearing skills.

My point about 1 in 25 people being deaf on the island was that everyone seems to expect we must have deaf majority in Laurent in order to have an effective signing community. This is not true. Yet, we have 60% deaf adults on our reservation list. 40% are hearing. This number is reversed for children. We have 158 people on the reservation list.

Assuming the funding is in place by end of this month, we will be able to break ground in spring of 2007. We need about 8 to 12 months for engineering work for infrastructure (sewer, water, roads, electricity, gas and telecommunications). We hope to have the first families be able to move in by spring 2008.

Marvin
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You know what they say about "the best laid plans of........", I still think it is still idealistic, and question, the need for such a town. As everyone in the entire deaf and other loss communities are campaigning day and night for access to the mainstream/hearing world, this just seems a 'protectionist and Isolationist' an approach to access. Greta Garbo would be proud of that attitude, I question deaf people will go for it.

I've read the reservation list (And the UK ones who are keeping BOTH options open by keeping their UK homes too !), oh ye of little faith springs to mind. Deaf people realise their futures are NOT in planned communities but in access to 'out there', to artificially create 'ideal' environments is not going to work, as always these things ignore human nature. Is it NOT for deaf people who cannot cope with mainstream anyway ? We should be helping them cope, not sticking them in the back of beyond in a town somewhere.


The idea is OK to give some sectors priority, but it doesn't in practice work. There are now serious questions over the Validity of Gallaudet, and there are a grouping of cultural deaf there, a semblence of whathappens when you give one sector of deaf people the higher priority, they look down on others !
 
CrazyMomma said:
That's interesting.. but..

Why South Dakota??

Lot of snows! Freezing tempertatures! Icy roads! Brrrrr.. tooo cold for me...

I rather stay in South where the warm weather is...
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then move to far south than West Virginia.
 
If you take a good look at the photo on the Laurent website, you can easily see its in tornado alley. In fact South Dakota ranks #10 on the frequency of tornadoes.

Who wants to live in the tornado alley especially the area where the Spencer tornado outbreak took place?

Looking at the website, the first impression anyone would get from it is that project is in tornado alley and Marvin got this free tip from me today and he spent a considerable amount of money on entities like Nederveld Associates and he still hasnt got a clue yet as to why his project is sinking fast.

Richard Roehm
 

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Another good point to consider for the Laurents.

I know I still wonder as why the hell they chose this location other than their local political advantage and sorts they stated.
 
web730 said:
Another good point to consider for the Laurents.

I know I still wonder as why the hell they chose this location other than their local political advantage and sorts they stated.
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I don't know for sure how much this played into it, but Council Bluffs, Iowa is only about an hour away from McCook County SD (Laurent), and Council Bluffs has a large deaf community (there's a large deaf school system there that many deaf Iowans go to). So, they may be hoping to draw people from Council Bluffs--particularly those graduating from the high school.

--Cal
 
I bump this...

Since i711.com talk about the Laurent, SD. I remember about that issue and then google search the site. It shows alldeaf.com on the screen. So I just bump this and see what happen or are you guy still interesting or how that change from last year the last person who post and never come is similar as Laurent will fade but not too wash away. There is a hope...
 
The idea was scrapped almost a year ago, the only info I could find though was a dead link dated back in February '07

ideafspy said:
Since i711.com talk about the Laurent, SD. I remember about that issue and then google search the site. It shows alldeaf.com on the screen. So I just bump this and see what happen or are you guy still interesting or how that change from last year the last person who post and never come is similar as Laurent will fade but not too wash away. There is a hope...
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There hasn't been a news release in months, and no blogs either. My take on that is:

1) No interest in such a town, or at least people interested in putting their money where their hands are.

2) The location in SD, while not the most popular, at least generated interest in terms of political clout. In Indiana, the town would represent diddly-squat in the state.

3) Therefore, any real interest in the community has dried up, and the designers are making no progress, therefore the town... ain't getting any closer to being built.
 
Hi to all,

I am not really stronger to read full in English, then I am lose when I must read 4 pages...
I want to ask one question : Laurent is one city ready ? Means have people live there or no ?
I want to know if Laurent is a city but actually in building (without home..) or actually live by people, and have job... ?

Thank you for answer :)
 
OrelyFrench said:
Hi to all,

I am not really stronger to read full in English, then I am lose when I must read 4 pages...
I want to ask one question : Laurent is one city ready ? Means have people live there or no ?
I want to know if Laurent is a city but actually in building (without home..) or actually live by people, and have job... ?

Thank you for answer :)
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I'll answer for you....

no.
 
OrelyFrench said:
Ah?? It s a pity...
I hope one day, this city ll be appear..... It must be great to be in city with only sign language... A dream :laugh2:
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Oui, I agree with you. If there is a new town for the deaf in a warmer place, I would move there in a heartbeat.
 
Buffalo said:
Oui, I agree with you. If there is a new town for the deaf in a warmer place, I would move there in a heartbeat.
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:cool: you know word french "oui" :afro:

Yes, you are right, can I know why probably never ? What is the problem ?
good idea to place it in a heartbeat, but physical always respect to hearing because they are many many many people in the world... (then always ask to change... :rl:)
 
To me its like we are being forced out of the rest of society. Its like an indian reservation, but without the indians just deafies.

I feel like its discrimination. We should not have to go an create our own town we should just be accepted regardless.
 
jasin said:
To me its like we are being forced out of the rest of society. Its like an indian reservation, but without the indians just deafies.

I feel like its discrimination. We should not have to go an create our own town we should just be accepted regardless.
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Just correcting to your mistake, that town is not only for the deafies, it's a town which have cultural of sign language, anyone can live there, even those people who don't know sign, they can live there, but the business, governments, etc would require to have knowledge of the sign language. It's like a Deaf School where the hearies adults can work.

Also to everyone else, I have high feelings that this city would NEVER built. I just don't like his (Miller) idea about the town, it's just that the town don't have attractive at all unless if he relocate it to someplace else, especially somewhere warmer.
 
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