Dying Cities
I went to visit my friend T-Bone Burnett yesterday and he showed me the lyrics of some of the amazing new songs he is writing and played me some of the songs he is planning for the new Robert Plant, Allison Kraus (the sequel to Raising Sand
I walked out into the cold LA dusk with a Magritte sky above me and got into my car with the sense of catharsis one sometimes gets from a good blues tune. The radio was on to NPR telling a tale of the Detroit Fire Department and their Sisyphean task of keeping much of the city from burning down.
Detroit is shrinking. Once a symbol of American might, its population has dropped to less than half the 2 million it was 50 years ago. It’s estimated that Detroit has more than 70,000 abandoned homes. The city says 1 in 4 homes will be unoccupied next year if the trend continues. Over time, those abandoned homes can erode into empty, dangerous shells — giant tinderboxes dotting Detroit’s neighborhoods.
It is a very good radio documentary of 16 minutes of pure tragedy. It tells you much of the task sitting before us in Rebuilding America. On Barack’s reading list should be The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Even Ms. Jacobs would have said the task will not be easy. But now the distractions of television can’t hide the open sore of 30 years of neglect.
Yep, that’s what Jane Jacobs would have said. Her last book before her death was entitled, “Dark Age Ahead,” published in 2004.
Yep, that’s what Jane Jacobs would have said. Her last book before her death was entitled, “Dark Age Ahead,” published in 2004.
Yep, that’s what Jane Jacobs would have said. Her last book before her death was entitled, “Dark Age Ahead,” published in 2004.
So, if people left “the land” to go to the cities in the last great migration, where are they going now?
Anyone know which areas are absorbing the outflow? Or are the majority simply disappearing into the uncountable homeless?
Post Katrina Texas plays out as a demonstration site for massive in-migration. You folks in the Dallas and Houston areas, what have been the subtle and significant impacts besides the obvious stories the media has run (e.g. “displaced strain schools and healthcare”).
Suddenly my head has Peter, Paul and Mary singing…
Where have all the people gone
Long time passing…. etc. etc.
and it gets to the
They’ve gone to ???
and draws a blank. Given BigAgra it’s unlikely they are going back to the land. Do they just smoosh out into the ‘burbs or are they targeting certain cities. What are the “shining cities on the hill” (which I can’t type without thinking Damn your ghost Reagan) for these disporias?
So, if people left “the land” to go to the cities in the last great migration, where are they going now?
Anyone know which areas are absorbing the outflow? Or are the majority simply disappearing into the uncountable homeless?
Post Katrina Texas plays out as a demonstration site for massive in-migration. You folks in the Dallas and Houston areas, what have been the subtle and significant impacts besides the obvious stories the media has run (e.g. “displaced strain schools and healthcare”).
Suddenly my head has Peter, Paul and Mary singing…
Where have all the people gone
Long time passing…. etc. etc.
and it gets to the
They’ve gone to ???
and draws a blank. Given BigAgra it’s unlikely they are going back to the land. Do they just smoosh out into the ‘burbs or are they targeting certain cities. What are the “shining cities on the hill” (which I can’t type without thinking Damn your ghost Reagan) for these disporias?
So, if people left “the land” to go to the cities in the last great migration, where are they going now?
Anyone know which areas are absorbing the outflow? Or are the majority simply disappearing into the uncountable homeless?
Post Katrina Texas plays out as a demonstration site for massive in-migration. You folks in the Dallas and Houston areas, what have been the subtle and significant impacts besides the obvious stories the media has run (e.g. “displaced strain schools and healthcare”).
Suddenly my head has Peter, Paul and Mary singing…
Where have all the people gone
Long time passing…. etc. etc.
and it gets to the
They’ve gone to ???
and draws a blank. Given BigAgra it’s unlikely they are going back to the land. Do they just smoosh out into the ‘burbs or are they targeting certain cities. What are the “shining cities on the hill” (which I can’t type without thinking Damn your ghost Reagan) for these disporias?
I recently went to a photo site of the Detroit metro area and apparently it isn’t just the old burbs that are shrinking in population.
Where indeed have those people gone?
I recently went to a photo site of the Detroit metro area and apparently it isn’t just the old burbs that are shrinking in population.
Where indeed have those people gone?
I recently went to a photo site of the Detroit metro area and apparently it isn’t just the old burbs that are shrinking in population.
Where indeed have those people gone?
Detroit is a real downer, but there are cities that are thriving right now. Portland, OR and even San Francisco, CA seem to be doing just fine.
Are there other issues?
I can’t imagine lots of folks returning to the farm…
Detroit is a real downer, but there are cities that are thriving right now. Portland, OR and even San Francisco, CA seem to be doing just fine.
Are there other issues?
I can’t imagine lots of folks returning to the farm…
Detroit is a real downer, but there are cities that are thriving right now. Portland, OR and even San Francisco, CA seem to be doing just fine.
Are there other issues?
I can’t imagine lots of folks returning to the farm…
“Where indeed have those people gone?”
Where the weather suits their clothes. It isn’t a joke. The jobs went south where the unions aren’t. Even here, Mercedes Benz is laying off.
When Toyota came to town, they bought acres in the poor side of town to build a plant that they’ve been expanding ever since. Then they gave money to the schools on that side of town. The bad news, they build Tundra engines. And don’t try to fool yourselves that the Japanese pay as well. They don’t. They fire faster too.
Read the HUD maps. The data has been there for years. No one wanted to know. Yes, it’s true the big mega-mansions sucked up the bigger chunks of money, but when one of those empties out, maybe an acre or two go empty and then not for that long. 4.9 people move (making that number up). When an two acres of downtown Detroit goes empty, how many people move? If you go hunting for the bad guys based on the amount they stole, you only make the guys they steal from happy.
Note, the illegal immigrants are heading in the same directions to compete for the same jobs.
It’s not enough to paint pictures of what was or the despair. It isn’t enough to make people sympathetic with the pain. The numbers are irrelevant. You have to finally deal with the functions that create the numbers. You have to finally name the relationships. You can create a big emotional response but unless it takes a direction of positive change, you just burn down your own house.
And if you can’t do it honestly, shut up. It won’t help to find the bad guys if what they did is legal. That makes you the bad guy legally. Do some reading. The ‘broken windows’ theory is flawed. Strong moderating individuals have more effect on crime rates than fixing the infrastructure cosmetically. And that is a clue to the problem of perceptions of the ways that some groups arrange their social lives around their churches, but means that if those organizations then discriminate, you are left with a choice of evils.
And then you have to choose. “The idea of freedom was more endurable than the reality.” – Morgan Freeman
I look forward to the Plant/Kraus album. Let’s see what the truth looks like from LA.
“Where indeed have those people gone?”
Where the weather suits their clothes. It isn’t a joke. The jobs went south where the unions aren’t. Even here, Mercedes Benz is laying off.
When Toyota came to town, they bought acres in the poor side of town to build a plant that they’ve been expanding ever since. Then they gave money to the schools on that side of town. The bad news, they build Tundra engines. And don’t try to fool yourselves that the Japanese pay as well. They don’t. They fire faster too.
Read the HUD maps. The data has been there for years. No one wanted to know. Yes, it’s true the big mega-mansions sucked up the bigger chunks of money, but when one of those empties out, maybe an acre or two go empty and then not for that long. 4.9 people move (making that number up). When an two acres of downtown Detroit goes empty, how many people move? If you go hunting for the bad guys based on the amount they stole, you only make the guys they steal from happy.
Note, the illegal immigrants are heading in the same directions to compete for the same jobs.
It’s not enough to paint pictures of what was or the despair. It isn’t enough to make people sympathetic with the pain. The numbers are irrelevant. You have to finally deal with the functions that create the numbers. You have to finally name the relationships. You can create a big emotional response but unless it takes a direction of positive change, you just burn down your own house.
And if you can’t do it honestly, shut up. It won’t help to find the bad guys if what they did is legal. That makes you the bad guy legally. Do some reading. The ‘broken windows’ theory is flawed. Strong moderating individuals have more effect on crime rates than fixing the infrastructure cosmetically. And that is a clue to the problem of perceptions of the ways that some groups arrange their social lives around their churches, but means that if those organizations then discriminate, you are left with a choice of evils.
And then you have to choose. “The idea of freedom was more endurable than the reality.” – Morgan Freeman
I look forward to the Plant/Kraus album. Let’s see what the truth looks like from LA.
“Where indeed have those people gone?”
Where the weather suits their clothes. It isn’t a joke. The jobs went south where the unions aren’t. Even here, Mercedes Benz is laying off.
When Toyota came to town, they bought acres in the poor side of town to build a plant that they’ve been expanding ever since. Then they gave money to the schools on that side of town. The bad news, they build Tundra engines. And don’t try to fool yourselves that the Japanese pay as well. They don’t. They fire faster too.
Read the HUD maps. The data has been there for years. No one wanted to know. Yes, it’s true the big mega-mansions sucked up the bigger chunks of money, but when one of those empties out, maybe an acre or two go empty and then not for that long. 4.9 people move (making that number up). When an two acres of downtown Detroit goes empty, how many people move? If you go hunting for the bad guys based on the amount they stole, you only make the guys they steal from happy.
Note, the illegal immigrants are heading in the same directions to compete for the same jobs.
It’s not enough to paint pictures of what was or the despair. It isn’t enough to make people sympathetic with the pain. The numbers are irrelevant. You have to finally deal with the functions that create the numbers. You have to finally name the relationships. You can create a big emotional response but unless it takes a direction of positive change, you just burn down your own house.
And if you can’t do it honestly, shut up. It won’t help to find the bad guys if what they did is legal. That makes you the bad guy legally. Do some reading. The ‘broken windows’ theory is flawed. Strong moderating individuals have more effect on crime rates than fixing the infrastructure cosmetically. And that is a clue to the problem of perceptions of the ways that some groups arrange their social lives around their churches, but means that if those organizations then discriminate, you are left with a choice of evils.
And then you have to choose. “The idea of freedom was more endurable than the reality.” – Morgan Freeman
I look forward to the Plant/Kraus album. Let’s see what the truth looks like from LA.
I can’t find the source (Frontline or something similar), but there is a pattern of increased suburban sprawl everywhere. Suburbs have become so autonomous (car culture) as to not need the urban area that was once front and center. I believe Detroit was used as one example.
I clearly remember the statement that it is vastly “cheaper” to develop new outer suburbs from farmland and the like into subdivisions and office parks than redevelop the dying cities.
I can’t find the source (Frontline or something similar), but there is a pattern of increased suburban sprawl everywhere. Suburbs have become so autonomous (car culture) as to not need the urban area that was once front and center. I believe Detroit was used as one example.
I clearly remember the statement that it is vastly “cheaper” to develop new outer suburbs from farmland and the like into subdivisions and office parks than redevelop the dying cities.
I can’t find the source (Frontline or something similar), but there is a pattern of increased suburban sprawl everywhere. Suburbs have become so autonomous (car culture) as to not need the urban area that was once front and center. I believe Detroit was used as one example.
I clearly remember the statement that it is vastly “cheaper” to develop new outer suburbs from farmland and the like into subdivisions and office parks than redevelop the dying cities.
I think the redevelopment issue is the time [which is money] and the various political factions that must be addressed when redeveloping in the cities. They are often deal breakers.
It only took SF about 30 years to redevelop the Yerba Buena area…
I think the redevelopment issue is the time [which is money] and the various political factions that must be addressed when redeveloping in the cities. They are often deal breakers.
It only took SF about 30 years to redevelop the Yerba Buena area…
I think the redevelopment issue is the time [which is money] and the various political factions that must be addressed when redeveloping in the cities. They are often deal breakers.
It only took SF about 30 years to redevelop the Yerba Buena area…
I think the redevelopment issue is the time [which is money] and the various political factions that must be addressed when redeveloping in the cities. They are often deal breakers.
It only took SF about 30 years to redevelop the Yerba Buena area…
Where have all the people gone? Anybody watched “Soylent Green” recently?
And speaking of movie voyages, everybody loves or hates Michael Moore, but you can’t deny he puts a gimlet eye on what’s happenin’ here. “Roger and Me,” “Bowling for Columbine,” “Sicko,” he has pressed a sharp finger on the spots that hurt. However much we think he’s full of s__t and full of himself.
Art imitates life?
As to farmland, the “Land Use” course I took in law school was all about how to use zoning to squeeze farmers off their land by building one high-value residential palace in the area, then dangling the thought of millions in new real estate taxes before the eyes of local governments. Who thereupon would decree that “the highest and best use” of land that feeds people (often inefficiently, things they shouldn’t eat, using up lots of petroleum and polluting waterways, yep all of that too) was feeding land to developers — think a teenager has an insatiable appetite? This is the Gospel of Prosperity as taught in 1974 at BU Law School.
And wow, it breaks my heart that it is so “difficult” to use the same kind of back-door, good-ol’-boy, back-slappin’, seegar-chompin dee-velopment trickery in established, settled urban areas. People there just don’t know what’s good for ‘em. Unlike down here in Flow-ree-da, where the developer knows his little incremental project’s drain on a dying aquifer and increase in traffic and new demand by new residents for all the special services and benefits they know God has entitled them to, because after all He put Bubbles here on earth for them to Get Rich and Have It All!
And they looked at what they had done, and they saw that it was very good. For somebody.
Where have all the people gone? Anybody watched “Soylent Green” recently?
And speaking of movie voyages, everybody loves or hates Michael Moore, but you can’t deny he puts a gimlet eye on what’s happenin’ here. “Roger and Me,” “Bowling for Columbine,” “Sicko,” he has pressed a sharp finger on the spots that hurt. However much we think he’s full of s__t and full of himself.
Art imitates life?
As to farmland, the “Land Use” course I took in law school was all about how to use zoning to squeeze farmers off their land by building one high-value residential palace in the area, then dangling the thought of millions in new real estate taxes before the eyes of local governments. Who thereupon would decree that “the highest and best use” of land that feeds people (often inefficiently, things they shouldn’t eat, using up lots of petroleum and polluting waterways, yep all of that too) was feeding land to developers — think a teenager has an insatiable appetite? This is the Gospel of Prosperity as taught in 1974 at BU Law School.
And wow, it breaks my heart that it is so “difficult” to use the same kind of back-door, good-ol’-boy, back-slappin’, seegar-chompin dee-velopment trickery in established, settled urban areas. People there just don’t know what’s good for ‘em. Unlike down here in Flow-ree-da, where the developer knows his little incremental project’s drain on a dying aquifer and increase in traffic and new demand by new residents for all the special services and benefits they know God has entitled them to, because after all He put Bubbles here on earth for them to Get Rich and Have It All!
And they looked at what they had done, and they saw that it was very good. For somebody.
Where have all the people gone? Anybody watched “Soylent Green” recently?
And speaking of movie voyages, everybody loves or hates Michael Moore, but you can’t deny he puts a gimlet eye on what’s happenin’ here. “Roger and Me,” “Bowling for Columbine,” “Sicko,” he has pressed a sharp finger on the spots that hurt. However much we think he’s full of s__t and full of himself.
Art imitates life?
As to farmland, the “Land Use” course I took in law school was all about how to use zoning to squeeze farmers off their land by building one high-value residential palace in the area, then dangling the thought of millions in new real estate taxes before the eyes of local governments. Who thereupon would decree that “the highest and best use” of land that feeds people (often inefficiently, things they shouldn’t eat, using up lots of petroleum and polluting waterways, yep all of that too) was feeding land to developers — think a teenager has an insatiable appetite? This is the Gospel of Prosperity as taught in 1974 at BU Law School.
And wow, it breaks my heart that it is so “difficult” to use the same kind of back-door, good-ol’-boy, back-slappin’, seegar-chompin dee-velopment trickery in established, settled urban areas. People there just don’t know what’s good for ‘em. Unlike down here in Flow-ree-da, where the developer knows his little incremental project’s drain on a dying aquifer and increase in traffic and new demand by new residents for all the special services and benefits they know God has entitled them to, because after all He put Bubbles here on earth for them to Get Rich and Have It All!
And they looked at what they had done, and they saw that it was very good. For somebody.
Where have all the people gone? Anybody watched “Soylent Green” recently?
And speaking of movie voyages, everybody loves or hates Michael Moore, but you can’t deny he puts a gimlet eye on what’s happenin’ here. “Roger and Me,” “Bowling for Columbine,” “Sicko,” he has pressed a sharp finger on the spots that hurt. However much we think he’s full of s__t and full of himself.
Art imitates life?
As to farmland, the “Land Use” course I took in law school was all about how to use zoning to squeeze farmers off their land by building one high-value residential palace in the area, then dangling the thought of millions in new real estate taxes before the eyes of local governments. Who thereupon would decree that “the highest and best use” of land that feeds people (often inefficiently, things they shouldn’t eat, using up lots of petroleum and polluting waterways, yep all of that too) was feeding land to developers — think a teenager has an insatiable appetite? This is the Gospel of Prosperity as taught in 1974 at BU Law School.
And wow, it breaks my heart that it is so “difficult” to use the same kind of back-door, good-ol’-boy, back-slappin’, seegar-chompin dee-velopment trickery in established, settled urban areas. People there just don’t know what’s good for ‘em. Unlike down here in Flow-ree-da, where the developer knows his little incremental project’s drain on a dying aquifer and increase in traffic and new demand by new residents for all the special services and benefits they know God has entitled them to, because after all He put Bubbles here on earth for them to Get Rich and Have It All!
And they looked at what they had done, and they saw that it was very good. For somebody.
I was in the South Bronx today, so this post has some resonance for me. Detroit fascinates me in the same kind of perverse way that the Salton Sea does. Both, I think, can’t come back from this. The South Bronx has, but only because of its proximity to Manhattan and the enormous waves of immigration that continue to wash over New York generally.
It doesn’t seem likely there will be lots of immigration to Detroit.
Sad though it might be, there’s no point rebuilding a city where there’s no economy to support the population.
But who knows? When the Ogalalla Aquifer runs out, all those folks in Kansas, Texas and Colorado are going to need somewhere with water to go live. If the good folks of Detroit can somehow keep it together for a decade or so, renewal might come.
I was in the South Bronx today, so this post has some resonance for me. Detroit fascinates me in the same kind of perverse way that the Salton Sea does. Both, I think, can’t come back from this. The South Bronx has, but only because of its proximity to Manhattan and the enormous waves of immigration that continue to wash over New York generally.
It doesn’t seem likely there will be lots of immigration to Detroit.
Sad though it might be, there’s no point rebuilding a city where there’s no economy to support the population.
But who knows? When the Ogalalla Aquifer runs out, all those folks in Kansas, Texas and Colorado are going to need somewhere with water to go live. If the good folks of Detroit can somehow keep it together for a decade or so, renewal might come.
I was in the South Bronx today, so this post has some resonance for me. Detroit fascinates me in the same kind of perverse way that the Salton Sea does. Both, I think, can’t come back from this. The South Bronx has, but only because of its proximity to Manhattan and the enormous waves of immigration that continue to wash over New York generally.
It doesn’t seem likely there will be lots of immigration to Detroit.
Sad though it might be, there’s no point rebuilding a city where there’s no economy to support the population.
But who knows? When the Ogalalla Aquifer runs out, all those folks in Kansas, Texas and Colorado are going to need somewhere with water to go live. If the good folks of Detroit can somehow keep it together for a decade or so, renewal might come.
I was in the South Bronx today, so this post has some resonance for me. Detroit fascinates me in the same kind of perverse way that the Salton Sea does. Both, I think, can’t come back from this. The South Bronx has, but only because of its proximity to Manhattan and the enormous waves of immigration that continue to wash over New York generally.
It doesn’t seem likely there will be lots of immigration to Detroit.
Sad though it might be, there’s no point rebuilding a city where there’s no economy to support the population.
But who knows? When the Ogalalla Aquifer runs out, all those folks in Kansas, Texas and Colorado are going to need somewhere with water to go live. If the good folks of Detroit can somehow keep it together for a decade or so, renewal might come.
Rachel — watched the “RoboCop” movies recently? What we need, right here in River City, is Omni Consumer Products to bring us the New City Shining On a Hill.
And last I checked, those parched Western states are angling to pump water out of Lake Superior and such sources to keep filling their swimming pools and watering their lawns until Hell freezes over. In fact, some folks foresee a new age of Water Wars, like the ones that used to break out in Western states over water “rights.”
Rachel — watched the “RoboCop” movies recently? What we need, right here in River City, is Omni Consumer Products to bring us the New City Shining On a Hill.
And last I checked, those parched Western states are angling to pump water out of Lake Superior and such sources to keep filling their swimming pools and watering their lawns until Hell freezes over. In fact, some folks foresee a new age of Water Wars, like the ones that used to break out in Western states over water “rights.”
Rachel — watched the “RoboCop” movies recently? What we need, right here in River City, is Omni Consumer Products to bring us the New City Shining On a Hill.
And last I checked, those parched Western states are angling to pump water out of Lake Superior and such sources to keep filling their swimming pools and watering their lawns until Hell freezes over. In fact, some folks foresee a new age of Water Wars, like the ones that used to break out in Western states over water “rights.”
Rachel — watched the “RoboCop” movies recently? What we need, right here in River City, is Omni Consumer Products to bring us the New City Shining On a Hill.
And last I checked, those parched Western states are angling to pump water out of Lake Superior and such sources to keep filling their swimming pools and watering their lawns until Hell freezes over. In fact, some folks foresee a new age of Water Wars, like the ones that used to break out in Western states over water “rights.”