The Call Up

June 28, 2012 11:07 pm

Holy mother…

June 24, 2012 9:56 am

Of course, Chocolate Cities aren’t perfect. I do not accept responsibility for Mr. Thomas, who represented me on the City Council and went to jail for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from youth programs. He does not represent black people any more than the disgraced Illinois governor Rod R. Blagojevich represents white people.

But that’s what segregation does. It allows problems like corruption, dysfunction and poverty that are really historic, social and economic (and just plain old individual bad behavior) to be cast as a “black thing.” Segregated communities effectively quarantine all the American hurt, all the pain, all the history, and give it a “chocolate” label. Today, as the quality of life improves, there is a subtext to change, that in order to make progress, black people must be pushed out of the way.

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This is a supremely well balanced piece. The pace of change in DC is truly unparalleled—whole neighborhoods have essentially been overtaken by entirely new and oblivious demographic groups in under five years time.

Here’s the thing, DC housing is in limited supply and the population is growing. The people looking for a place to live aren’t interested in the color of the people they’re pushing out or the overall racial makeup of the city. But the people getting pushed can’t help but notice that they’re overwhelming being displaced by white folks.

So here’s the thing…is the problem that black people in this country don’t largely belong to the same economic class as white people and are therefore displaced by them, or that the prosperity that comes to a city comes at the expense of its black residents and in spite of them, rather than carrying them along? Or both…

(Source: The New York Times)

February 5, 2012 8:00 am

Extremely cool infograph showing where people are moving to (and from). It’s clickable and amazing and you can see where New Yorkers are moving on to and where they’re coming from or Chicagoans or Angelenos etc. Trulia outdid themselves on this one.

January 24, 2012 4:22 pm

Thus confirming that the regular city-wide shutdowns in Washington DC are purely the result of people who would rather have a snow day. But also, pretty interesting look at public works in cities across the nation…

June 20, 2011 1:20 pm

"As time passed, our collective secret became clear. It wasn’t just good public schools and one bedroom per child that kept us in Pelham. We actually liked it—liked the houses, the slower pace, the regular unplanned access to each other. And, given the kids, we couldn’t have done all the wondrous things you can do only in cities anyway. This raises a second unresolved question about cities: is there really a huge pent-up demand to move from the suburbs to the city, just waiting to be released by wiser government policies?…Can this great tide really be reversed just by raising gas taxes and easing urban building codes, or should we figure that sprawl is here to stay, and focus on managing it better?"

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An exhaustive review of the latest theory and thinking on cities and suburbs and the people who inhabit (or flee) them in the New Yorker. Pretty amazing. The idea that the miscreants and artists who flock to and litter urban streets are the same forces giving way to start ups and innovation and creative breakthroughs is tempting, but I don’t know if I’m buying yet.

(Source: newyorker.com)