Some folks asked me to comment on Ferguson, MO. I don't have anything to add to the massive amount that has already been written, but it did get me thinking about my own neighborhood and the racial dynamics that exist in America. I live in a mixed race neighborhood on the North Side of Indianapolis called various names, including South of Broad Ripple (SoBro) and Keystone-Monon. It's a racially diverse area, mostly featuring wood frame 2-3br/1-ba worker cottages built around wartime. It's likely always been working class or starter home … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2014
Indiana Toll Road Lease Vindicated As Win For Hoosiers As Private Operator Goes Bankrupt
The genius of the Indiana Toll Road lease is now on display again as its private operator is declaring bankruptcy. Mitch Daniels once said that it was "the best deal since Manhattan was sold for beads - only this time the natives won." We now have the proof on display. I continue to be mystified that people can still claim this was a bad deal for the state (see former Indiana House Minority Leader Pat Bauer and this Shaw Friedman guy). Hello? If the operator is going bankrupt, it's because they overpaid. The revenue projections they made … [Read more...]
The Challenges Of Talking About Quality of Place In a Small Town
For many of us in the urbanist world, the idea of upgrading physical aspects of our cities with a goal of improving quality of life through improving quality of place is axiomatic. That seems to be a tougher case to make in small towns, except perhaps basic Main St. beautification. One challenge I've noticed is that people who live in small towns have a strong belief that it's already a great place to live. In part this is a self-selection matter: the people who didn't like it are gone. But in part it's also because their belief is … [Read more...]
Beyond Urban Branding
Following on from my Governing piece, here's a video of a similar presentation I gave on city branding at a symposium on the topic at the University of Washington-Tacoma. I normally do not like to pick on smaller cities (bigger cities and ones that profess to be world class should be able to take it), but in this case I wanted to make some direct peer style comparisons to cities the size of Tacoma. Here are links to the videos I reference in the talk. They weren't included in the posted version. Video 1: … [Read more...]
Technology Assimilation and Generational Change
[ This week a guest post from George Mattei on technology and generational change - Aaron. ] I remember clearly the first time I saw the internet. It was circa 1992, I was in my late teens, and my best friend’s uncle had just installed an early version of Prodigy internet service on his computer. He showed it to us - describing how you could look up news, get weather and even send letters all electronically. It was a really neat service, and I immediately saw that it would be popular. However, I’m not sure if I realized how transformative … [Read more...]
The New Donut
Former Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut used to like to say that "you can't be a suburb of nowhere." This is the oft-repeated notion has been a rallying cry for investments to revitalize downtowns in America for three decades or so now. The idea being that you can't have a smoking hole in your region where your downtown is supposed to be. This created a mental based on a donut. You can't let downtown become an empty hole. For reason that will become apparent soon, I call this model "the old donut": Filling in the hole became every city's … [Read more...]
Brooklyn Is Getting Poorer
[ Analyst Daniel Hertz found some interesting maps of Brooklyn back in May that tell a different tale about Brooklyn than the one you've probably heard - Aaron. ] I’m trying to make more of an effort, whenever I write or talk about gentrification, to point out that the real issue is larger: that gentrification is only one aspect of income segregation — specifically, the part where the borders between rich and poor neighborhoods shift — and that the real problem is that we have such sharply defined rich and poor neighborhoods to begin … [Read more...]
When the People Are Corrupted
This is another installment in my series on corruption. The New York Times ran an article last week about Buddy Cianci entering the race for mayor of Providence. Cianci is a larger than life figure in Rhode Island. Dubbed the "Prince of Providence," he served two previous stints as mayor of the city - both times ending up forced from office due to felony convictions. I don't know the details of the first case, in which he pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge over attacking someone with "a lit cigarette, ashtray and fireplace log." … [Read more...]
Reinventing Higher Education
It's no secret that the status quo in higher education is facing a lot of pressure from things like skyrocketing tuition, ballooning student loan debt, people questioning the need for higher education, difficulties graduates are getting established in careers, etc. One organization focused on helping universities navigate the transition to a new future and boost higher educational attainment rates in the US is the Lumina Foundation. Lumina is a $1 billion foundation in Indianapolis - no, they don't give out scholarships! - focused on … [Read more...]
Thoughts On Eliminating Systemic Corruption
This is the third installment of my series on corruption (see part one and part two). Today I'll share a few of my thoughts on the matter, particularly with regards to US cities. Please consider these incomplete and a work in progress. Corruption seems to be incredibly durable where it has taken root. I mentioned before the continued drumbeat of scandal in Illinois, despite a slew of high profile prosecutions there. Chicago is also the homeland of community organizing, but despite all of the tactical successes of Saul Alinksy and his many … [Read more...]