Stach Pad (Andrew Rice, New York Magazine)
"And so New Yorkers with garden-variety affluence—the kind of buyers who require mortgages—are facing disheartening price wars as they compete for scarce inventory with investors who may seldom even turn on a light switch. The Census Bureau estimates that 30 percent of all apartments in the quadrant from 49th to 70th Streets between Fifth and Park are vacant at least ten months a year."
Friday, July 25, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Homicide Inequality in Chicago - in Maps (Daniel Hertz via The New Republic)
"But Chicago's crime was never distributed evenly across the city, and the decline hasn't been, either. In and around downtown, and on the North Side, neighborhoods with moderate numbers of homicides became some of the safest urban areas in the country. A million people in Chicago, the global poster child for first-world urban violence, now live in neighborhoods that together have the same homicide rate as New York City, the “safest big city in America.”
Meanwhile, much of the rest of Chicago has seen much more modest declines, or stagnation. In the case of two police districts on the South Side, the homicide problem has actually gotten worse. In the early 1990s, the most dangerous third of the city saw about six times more murders than the safest third. Over the last several years, the most dangerous third has seen between twelve and 16 times more homicides."
"But Chicago's crime was never distributed evenly across the city, and the decline hasn't been, either. In and around downtown, and on the North Side, neighborhoods with moderate numbers of homicides became some of the safest urban areas in the country. A million people in Chicago, the global poster child for first-world urban violence, now live in neighborhoods that together have the same homicide rate as New York City, the “safest big city in America.”
Meanwhile, much of the rest of Chicago has seen much more modest declines, or stagnation. In the case of two police districts on the South Side, the homicide problem has actually gotten worse. In the early 1990s, the most dangerous third of the city saw about six times more murders than the safest third. Over the last several years, the most dangerous third has seen between twelve and 16 times more homicides."
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Detroit Urged to Tear down 40,000 Buildings (Monica Davey, New York Times)
"The basic plan, Mayor Mike Duggan said, is to clean up neighborhoods with the fewest blighted structures first to prevent them from falling into more widespread decay. Neighborhoods with numerous dilapidated houses on every block will come later, he said."
"The basic plan, Mayor Mike Duggan said, is to clean up neighborhoods with the fewest blighted structures first to prevent them from falling into more widespread decay. Neighborhoods with numerous dilapidated houses on every block will come later, he said."
The Case for Reparations: Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole (Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic)
"According to the most-recent statistics, North Lawndale is now on the wrong end of virtually every socioeconomic indicator. In 1930 its population was 112,000. Today it is 36,000. The halcyon talk of “interracial living” is dead. The neighborhood is 92 percent black. Its homicide rate is 45 per 100,000—triple the rate of the city as a whole. The infant-mortality rate is 14 per 1,000—more than twice the national average. Forty-three percent of the people in North Lawndale live below the poverty line—double Chicago’s overall rate. Forty-five percent of all households are on food stamps—nearly three times the rate of the city at large. Sears, Roebuck left the neighborhood in 1987, taking 1,800 jobs with it. Kids in North Lawndale need not be confused about their prospects: Cook County’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center sits directly adjacent to the neighborhood."
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Sprawled Out in Atlanta: What happens when poverty spreads to a place that wasn't built for poor people? (Rebecca Burns, Politico Magazine)
"Here’s the most complicated problem with poverty in the suburbs: It’s almost invisible. There are 86,000 people in Cobb County who live below the poverty level. But you could live in Cobb your whole life and never see them, or at least not knowingly. Cobb County covers 339 square miles and is home to 717,000 people. Its poor residents can be lost in the crowd—and lost in all that space.
The sprawling geography means that many commuters obliviously whiz by the entrance to a place like Castle Lake trailer park, or the entrance to a subdivision where families crowd into small 1960s brick ranches. In dense city blocks, outward signs of poverty are more visible—packed apartment buildings or large government-funded complexes."
"Here’s the most complicated problem with poverty in the suburbs: It’s almost invisible. There are 86,000 people in Cobb County who live below the poverty level. But you could live in Cobb your whole life and never see them, or at least not knowingly. Cobb County covers 339 square miles and is home to 717,000 people. Its poor residents can be lost in the crowd—and lost in all that space.
The sprawling geography means that many commuters obliviously whiz by the entrance to a place like Castle Lake trailer park, or the entrance to a subdivision where families crowd into small 1960s brick ranches. In dense city blocks, outward signs of poverty are more visible—packed apartment buildings or large government-funded complexes."
Friday, May 9, 2014
Is Something Wrong with Chicago's Suburbs? Aaron Renn, Urbanophile
"I previously talked about Connecticut becoming a suburban corporate wasteland as well as the rise of the executive headquarters in major global city downtowns. What we see is that high end functions have shown anecdotal signs of re-centralizing, while the more bread and butter – though still often well-paying – jobs are heading to less expensive suburban locales in places like Austin, Charlotte, and Salt Lake City. These leaves expensive and business hostile suburbs around global cities, like most of those in Connecticut, in a tough spot."
"I previously talked about Connecticut becoming a suburban corporate wasteland as well as the rise of the executive headquarters in major global city downtowns. What we see is that high end functions have shown anecdotal signs of re-centralizing, while the more bread and butter – though still often well-paying – jobs are heading to less expensive suburban locales in places like Austin, Charlotte, and Salt Lake City. These leaves expensive and business hostile suburbs around global cities, like most of those in Connecticut, in a tough spot."
Motor City Breakdown (Jerry Herron, Design Intelligence)
Another great artical about Detroit from Jerry Herron:
"Perhaps the most important question posed by Detroit, finally, is the question of access. Because the rest of the country has spent so much time viewing this city, and reading and writing about it, people looking in feel they’ve earned certain rights. The city ought to be transparent — much like so many of the buildings here have become literally transparent, ruins no longer capable of defending their interiors from weather or scrappers or camera crews. It’s easy to snatch off a piece, and think you’ve got the whole of it. But that would be a mistake. When America happens to a place, Detroit is the result, all of it, hard-scrabble urban core and suburban millionaire enclaves and everything in between."
Another great artical about Detroit from Jerry Herron:
"Perhaps the most important question posed by Detroit, finally, is the question of access. Because the rest of the country has spent so much time viewing this city, and reading and writing about it, people looking in feel they’ve earned certain rights. The city ought to be transparent — much like so many of the buildings here have become literally transparent, ruins no longer capable of defending their interiors from weather or scrappers or camera crews. It’s easy to snatch off a piece, and think you’ve got the whole of it. But that would be a mistake. When America happens to a place, Detroit is the result, all of it, hard-scrabble urban core and suburban millionaire enclaves and everything in between."
Post-Card Perfect: The Big Business of City Branding (Sharon Zukin, The Guardian)
"Branding, to be crass, is a means of selling a place –a building, a district or a city. Capitalising on image demands metrics, and metrics imply control – of the image, the message and, ultimately, the men and women who flesh out the image: us. In the end, the most important metrics in city branding are increases in property values and tourist spending. Yet these are not necessarily good for city dwellers, especially rental tenants and people who depend on public services that may be underfunded while municipal budgets are diverted to creating and maintaining tourist attractions."
"Branding, to be crass, is a means of selling a place –a building, a district or a city. Capitalising on image demands metrics, and metrics imply control – of the image, the message and, ultimately, the men and women who flesh out the image: us. In the end, the most important metrics in city branding are increases in property values and tourist spending. Yet these are not necessarily good for city dwellers, especially rental tenants and people who depend on public services that may be underfunded while municipal budgets are diverted to creating and maintaining tourist attractions."
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Companies Say Goodbye to the 'Burbs (Wall Street Journal)
"The showcase headquarters of the past, the beautiful suburban campuses—that's a very obsolete model now," said Patrick Phillips, CEO of the Urban Land Institute, a land-use think tank."
"The showcase headquarters of the past, the beautiful suburban campuses—that's a very obsolete model now," said Patrick Phillips, CEO of the Urban Land Institute, a land-use think tank."
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Reinventing our economy to inspire a new middle class (Richard Longworth, Chicago Tribune)
"But they're no longer alone. Across the nation and especially in the old industrial cities of the Midwest, those "fundamental structural changes" are undercutting whole civilizations, both black and white. The cause is the same: deindustrialization, the collapse of heavy manufacturing, the disappearance of jobs, skilled and unskilled. And the results are the same: generational unemployment, school dropouts, broken homes, drugs, poverty, bad health."
"But they're no longer alone. Across the nation and especially in the old industrial cities of the Midwest, those "fundamental structural changes" are undercutting whole civilizations, both black and white. The cause is the same: deindustrialization, the collapse of heavy manufacturing, the disappearance of jobs, skilled and unskilled. And the results are the same: generational unemployment, school dropouts, broken homes, drugs, poverty, bad health."
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Entrepreneur-in-Chief: The New Model City (Ramsin Canon)
"Chicago is no longer a political community, it is an economic entity that is in competition with other cities in the region, in the state, across the world. In that mental framework, tax is cost, or price. You raise prices, you drive away your clients. In the case of the neoliberal city, the client is the developer, the investor, the employer. The federal government and the state are not going giving the city any real money; they are not investing in infrastructure, or education, or social welfare in any real way, the way they did up through the late 1970s and 1980s. The name of the game is “growth” through enticement of capital."
"Chicago is no longer a political community, it is an economic entity that is in competition with other cities in the region, in the state, across the world. In that mental framework, tax is cost, or price. You raise prices, you drive away your clients. In the case of the neoliberal city, the client is the developer, the investor, the employer. The federal government and the state are not going giving the city any real money; they are not investing in infrastructure, or education, or social welfare in any real way, the way they did up through the late 1970s and 1980s. The name of the game is “growth” through enticement of capital."
Washington: A World Apart (Washington Post)
"Although the wealthiest Americans have always lived in their own islands of privilege, sociologists and demographers say the degree to which today’s professional class resides in a world apart is a departure from earlier generations. People of widely different incomes and professions commonly lived close enough that they mingled at stores, sports arenas and school. In an era in which women had fewer educational and professional opportunities, lawyers married secretaries and doctors married nurses. Now, lawyers and doctors marry each other.
A recent analysis of census data by sociologists Sean Reardon of Stanford and Kendra Bischoff of Cornell highlighted how middle-income neighborhoods have been fading away as more people live in areas that are either poor or affluent."
"Although the wealthiest Americans have always lived in their own islands of privilege, sociologists and demographers say the degree to which today’s professional class resides in a world apart is a departure from earlier generations. People of widely different incomes and professions commonly lived close enough that they mingled at stores, sports arenas and school. In an era in which women had fewer educational and professional opportunities, lawyers married secretaries and doctors married nurses. Now, lawyers and doctors marry each other.
A recent analysis of census data by sociologists Sean Reardon of Stanford and Kendra Bischoff of Cornell highlighted how middle-income neighborhoods have been fading away as more people live in areas that are either poor or affluent."
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Are the Suburbs Where the American Dream Goes to Die? (Matthew O'Brien, The Atlantic)
The suburbs didn't quite kill the American Dream, but a particular type did. That's the low-density and racially-polarized suburbs that have defined places like Atlanta. Indeed, as you can see in the chart below from Paul Krugman, there's a noticeable relationship between a metro area's density and its social mobility.
The suburbs didn't quite kill the American Dream, but a particular type did. That's the low-density and racially-polarized suburbs that have defined places like Atlanta. Indeed, as you can see in the chart below from Paul Krugman, there's a noticeable relationship between a metro area's density and its social mobility.
In Climbing the Income Ladder, Location Matters (David Leonhardt, NY Times)
Sunday, June 2, 2013
National Media Sources Finally Write Intelligently about Chicago
The national media continues to focus on the challenges and changes affecting Chicago, but finally we have a couple of examples of more thoughtful, complex reporting about our city.
“We’re not like Detroit, cordoning off sections of the city,” Benet Haller, Chicago’s principal adviser for planning and design, told me. “But we are like London or Jakarta, with a hyperdense core — a zone of affluence — and something else beyond.” What the housing crisis has revealed, in stark relief, is a Chicago that already looks increasingly like this vision of a ring city, with the moneyed elite residing within the glow of that jewel-like core and the largely ethnic poor and working-class relegated to the peripheries, the banlieues."
Rahm's Kind of Town (David Von Drehle, Time Magazine Feature)
"Revealing the stripes of a pragmatic, pro-business New Democrat, the mayor has lengthened the school day for Chicago's elementary and high school students, reorganized the city's enormous system of community colleges to emphasize job-skills training and established an infrastructure trust to allow private investment in public-works projects. All of these are popular ideas among some Democratic policy mavns, but no other mayor has taken them so far, so fast."
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Growth & Abandonment: Chicago's Population Continues to Shift
Why the Smartest People in the Midwest All Move to Chicago (Edward McClelland, Chicago Mag)
Despite Population Growth, Chicago Still at a Loss (Sun-Times)
The Census estimates came out today. Chicago gained about 10,000 over the last year - which is significant but still half the rate of growth in New York and L.A. Meanwhile, the only two major cities in America to loose population over the last year where Detroit and Cleveland. The trend continues. I suspect that Chicago's far South and West Sides are still loosing population at a steady clip. Most of this, again, is due to African American out-migration (90% of Chicago's population loss during the 2000 - 2010 decade can be attributed to "Black Flight"). I discussed the tragedy of this trend in earlier posts.
If we were to take Detroit as a comparable example to Chicago's South Side (they're very similar in terms of size, demographics and economic history), we might estimate that Chicago lost anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people from these neighborhoods during 2012 (Detroit lost 12,000). This means that the city had to gain a total of 20k - 25k people in the Central Area, North and Northwest Sides to offset the loss on the South and West Sides. 20k - 25k would put Chicago right in line percentage-wise with the growth rates of New York in L.A., which don't have anything close to the poverty, decay and abandonment of the South and West Sides.
I illustrate this only to reinforce the point that Chicago is now two cities: One post-industrial city that is still in a free fall - becoming more and more impoverished and abandoned every year and another "Global" city that is growing as fast (if not faster) than any city in the country. This would explain why apartment occupancy and rents in the Central area and North Side are as high as they've ever been while the South Side continues to bleed.
Despite Population Growth, Chicago Still at a Loss (Sun-Times)
The Census estimates came out today. Chicago gained about 10,000 over the last year - which is significant but still half the rate of growth in New York and L.A. Meanwhile, the only two major cities in America to loose population over the last year where Detroit and Cleveland. The trend continues. I suspect that Chicago's far South and West Sides are still loosing population at a steady clip. Most of this, again, is due to African American out-migration (90% of Chicago's population loss during the 2000 - 2010 decade can be attributed to "Black Flight"). I discussed the tragedy of this trend in earlier posts.
If we were to take Detroit as a comparable example to Chicago's South Side (they're very similar in terms of size, demographics and economic history), we might estimate that Chicago lost anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people from these neighborhoods during 2012 (Detroit lost 12,000). This means that the city had to gain a total of 20k - 25k people in the Central Area, North and Northwest Sides to offset the loss on the South and West Sides. 20k - 25k would put Chicago right in line percentage-wise with the growth rates of New York in L.A., which don't have anything close to the poverty, decay and abandonment of the South and West Sides.
I illustrate this only to reinforce the point that Chicago is now two cities: One post-industrial city that is still in a free fall - becoming more and more impoverished and abandoned every year and another "Global" city that is growing as fast (if not faster) than any city in the country. This would explain why apartment occupancy and rents in the Central area and North Side are as high as they've ever been while the South Side continues to bleed.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Why do so many people think gun violence is getting worse? (Atlantic Cities)
"So why might this be? If gun violence has dramatically declined in America, and many cities are safer today as a result – and plenty of people moving back into them seem to intuitively understand this – why do so many people think gun violence is getting worse?"
The Hidden Geography of America's Surging Suicide Rate (Richard Florida, Atlantic Cities)
"While the economic crisis has clearly been a contributing factor to America's rising suicide rate, perhaps it is not the only, or even the most important factor, behind the surge. In fact, another key factor appears to be at play: guns. Guns are the leading cause of suicide by far, according to the CDC report, accounting for nearly half (48 percent) all suicides among adults ages 35 to 64 in 2010. Slightly less than a quarter of suicides of people in this age group are caused by suffocation, and another 22 percent are poisonings, mainly drug overdoses."
"So why might this be? If gun violence has dramatically declined in America, and many cities are safer today as a result – and plenty of people moving back into them seem to intuitively understand this – why do so many people think gun violence is getting worse?"
The Hidden Geography of America's Surging Suicide Rate (Richard Florida, Atlantic Cities)
"While the economic crisis has clearly been a contributing factor to America's rising suicide rate, perhaps it is not the only, or even the most important factor, behind the surge. In fact, another key factor appears to be at play: guns. Guns are the leading cause of suicide by far, according to the CDC report, accounting for nearly half (48 percent) all suicides among adults ages 35 to 64 in 2010. Slightly less than a quarter of suicides of people in this age group are caused by suffocation, and another 22 percent are poisonings, mainly drug overdoses."
Saturday, May 4, 2013
The Gilded City: Bloomberg's 21st Century New York (The Nation Special Issue)
"New York, of course, has always been a city of striking contrasts, but its wealth gap is growing ever more extreme. The richest 1 percent of New Yorkers claimed almost 39 percent of the city’s income share in 2012—up from 12 percent in 1980. The money pouring in at the top of the income brackets has simply pooled there, without trickling down to the bottom or even the middle. This great pooling has occurred as median wages have fallen, the cost of living has increased, and the poverty rate has risen to 21 percent—as high as it was in 1980. As a result, America’s most iconic city now has the same inequality index as Swaziland."
"New York, of course, has always been a city of striking contrasts, but its wealth gap is growing ever more extreme. The richest 1 percent of New Yorkers claimed almost 39 percent of the city’s income share in 2012—up from 12 percent in 1980. The money pouring in at the top of the income brackets has simply pooled there, without trickling down to the bottom or even the middle. This great pooling has occurred as median wages have fallen, the cost of living has increased, and the poverty rate has risen to 21 percent—as high as it was in 1980. As a result, America’s most iconic city now has the same inequality index as Swaziland."
Monday, April 22, 2013
Chicago Responds to the New York Times & their transplant, Rachel Shteir
It's a periodic tradition for the New York Times to print something completely out of touch about Chicago, Detroit or the Midwest in general. Last year it was a travel piece written by a dim-witted bimbo. This year it was Rachel Shteir's turn. Shteir established her credibility on all maters related to Chicago by declaring in 2010 that Rahm Emanuel would never be mayor because the city wouldn't elect a Jew... yeah.
In the Sunday Book Review Stheir prefaced her limited comments on the three books she supposedly read by bashing Chicago with the great enthusiasm. As you can imagine, Chicago's local media has not taken kindly. Shteir claims to have lived here for 13 years but displays a level of insight about our City that I would expect from someone who's only seen Chicago through a layover at O'hare. Perhaps she spends her weekends in New York.
Not Quite Detroit - Chicago as Described by the New York Times Book Critic (The Reader)
Chicago- based New York Times Book Critic Doesn't Get Chicago (The Chicagoist)
Where Are Chicago's women writers? - Right Here (Claire Zulkey, WBEZ)
Keep Your Head up - you're a Chicagoan (Neil Steinberg, The Sun Times)
Why does Chicago care about New York Times' Dope Slap (Bill Savage, Crain's)
Rahm Dismisses, Disses Rachel Shteir's Caustic New York Times Review (DNA Info)
The Morning Shift (WBEZ)
Everything you need to know about why Chicago is Furious with Rachel Shteir and the New York Times (Atlantic Cities)
In the Sunday Book Review Stheir prefaced her limited comments on the three books she supposedly read by bashing Chicago with the great enthusiasm. As you can imagine, Chicago's local media has not taken kindly. Shteir claims to have lived here for 13 years but displays a level of insight about our City that I would expect from someone who's only seen Chicago through a layover at O'hare. Perhaps she spends her weekends in New York.
Not Quite Detroit - Chicago as Described by the New York Times Book Critic (The Reader)
Chicago- based New York Times Book Critic Doesn't Get Chicago (The Chicagoist)
Where Are Chicago's women writers? - Right Here (Claire Zulkey, WBEZ)
Keep Your Head up - you're a Chicagoan (Neil Steinberg, The Sun Times)
Why does Chicago care about New York Times' Dope Slap (Bill Savage, Crain's)
Rahm Dismisses, Disses Rachel Shteir's Caustic New York Times Review (DNA Info)
The Morning Shift (WBEZ)
Everything you need to know about why Chicago is Furious with Rachel Shteir and the New York Times (Atlantic Cities)
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Why People Perceive Some Cities as Safer than Others (Atlantic Cities)
"...Not surprisingly, feeling unsafe is closely associated with race and poverty. Resident perceptions of safety across metros are negatively correlated with the share of the population that is non-white (-.55), the share of residents below the poverty line (-.53), and the unemployment rate (-.47)."
... Metro Areas that are percieved as the safest in America are also the least diverse among major cities.
"...Not surprisingly, feeling unsafe is closely associated with race and poverty. Resident perceptions of safety across metros are negatively correlated with the share of the population that is non-white (-.55), the share of residents below the poverty line (-.53), and the unemployment rate (-.47)."
... Metro Areas that are percieved as the safest in America are also the least diverse among major cities.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Culture Clash: New history of Chicago taps into our malaise (Chicago Tribune)
"The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream," which comes out this week from Penguin Press, has a gentle title and a sanguine black-and-white cover image of the rotating beacon on the roof of the old Palmolive Building throwing light over Lake Michigan. It also has an elegant, unflinching, non-nostalgic clarity about Chicago that you rarely see in books about Chicago. It gave me a dizzying rush, the impression that I had come across a new touchstone in Chicago literature, an ambitious history lesson no one had written: The story of how, from 1945 to 1960, Chicago created the culture that shaped American culture, delivering, in that brief window, Studs Terkel, McDonald's, Hugh Hefner, the atom bomb, modernist architecture, Chess Records, The Second City, the Chicago School of Television and "Kukla, Fran and Ollie."
"The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream," which comes out this week from Penguin Press, has a gentle title and a sanguine black-and-white cover image of the rotating beacon on the roof of the old Palmolive Building throwing light over Lake Michigan. It also has an elegant, unflinching, non-nostalgic clarity about Chicago that you rarely see in books about Chicago. It gave me a dizzying rush, the impression that I had come across a new touchstone in Chicago literature, an ambitious history lesson no one had written: The story of how, from 1945 to 1960, Chicago created the culture that shaped American culture, delivering, in that brief window, Studs Terkel, McDonald's, Hugh Hefner, the atom bomb, modernist architecture, Chess Records, The Second City, the Chicago School of Television and "Kukla, Fran and Ollie."
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