(the negative impact of urban liberalism on Democrats) Urban Miss

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/opinion/21kotkin.html?oref=login

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September 21, 2005
Urban Miss
By JOEL KOTKIN

<snip>Without a challenge from Mr. Weiner, Mr. Ferrer won't have the chance to prove he's not an unreconstructed liberal from the time before Rudolph Giuliani ruled the city. While Mr. Weiner evoked the centrist politics of Ed Koch, promising to cut taxes and streamline bureaucracy, Mr. Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, is running on ethnic appeals and tax and spending increases.

<snip>
It doesn't help that most liberal cities now aspire to become "cool cities" - playgrounds for the ultrarich, nomadic singles and childless couples. By focusing on Wi-Fi zones and loft conversions while schools crumble, liberal cities are essentially ignoring middle- and working-class strivers, particularly those with children.

And despite their indulgence in often demagogic rhetoric about class and race, Democrats preside over the most unequal parts of America. The widest gaps between rich and poor are to be found in liberal bastions like Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York and Washington.

Worse yet, few Democrats are tackling these issues or their root causes with any success. Some of today's "coolest" Democratic mayors - Baltimore's Martin O'Malley, Philadelphia's John Street, Detroit's Kwame Kilpatrick - have failed to reform bloated bureaucracies and dysfunctional schools, and they haven't made much progress in improving aging ports, roads and sanitation systems.

The flooding in New Orleans has exposed this record of liberal neglect in the starkest terms. New Orleans has had Democratic mayors for decades. While they've created a first-class tourist attraction, they've also produced a city with third-world inequality.
<snip>

MY COMMENT: WHAT BULL...

:-(

[sam sarrha]

1. in order to have those 'Playgrounds'..it takes a lot of poor to support it

because the rich dont want to pay for it..

[hatrack]

6. Ask the poor, oppressed shopkeepers of Aspen, CO

They just can't get reliable part-time help for the tourist McJobs which so desperately need filling.

The ungrateful retail wretches who are lucky to have any job at all (let alone one so rewarding as manning Kokopelli's Hideaway Giftz 'N Gagz) complain that $6 or even $7 an hour to sweep floors, run cash registers, wash dishes and re-rack designer dresses just isn't enough.

Some even go so far as to live an hour's drive away from their jobs, complaining that they just can't afford to live in town! :sarcasm:

[ewagner]

2. Bull indeed!

Unfortunately this sounds like some more "let's be more like Republicans " rhetoric.....

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. He had me

when he was talking about cities becoming too cool...

but he jumped the shark right after that. Too many generalizations. Not enough data.

[Justitia]

4. I agree, it's BULL. This RW'er slams "city living" & Dems often.

I've read his stuff before. He writes regularly for The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, The American Enterprise and The Wall Street Journal, which should tell you a lot.

His particular "niche" is ranting against cities / urban areas, saying crap like all the "real people" live in the much preferred suburbs, and he rails against concepts like new urbanism over and over. He applauds the republicanization of suburbs and exurbs, and he frequently fawns over Bush, and how Bush is an "ordinary guy" just like the suburbanites.

He is a bit late in citing recent trends as moving outward (from the cities). In reality, the trend is back inwards, towards the cities, and in another article of his he uses Houston, Dallas and San Antonio as examples of new suburban-focused republican migrations, which is wrong. I have lived in all three cities (now in Houston), and all three are blue strongholds with people moving back into the cities - families too. He is a bit behind the 8 ball on that supposition, but that doesn't fit his suburban utopia model so he discards it.

He wants to promote the ideas that cities suck, Dems are elitist & clueless, and the RED BURBS are where it's at. His snarky "articles" are all approached from that perspective.

[papau]

5. Thanks for the report on his past spinning the GOP way - I thought

folks liked cities - indeed that is why they live there and why it costs more to live there than it does in the middle of nowhere in the suburbs.

[freestyle]

7. Good point on education. The rest is crap.

I live in Baltimore, and the neglect of the school system has been endemic and systemic for at least 30 years. This is due to successive administrations kissing the ass of big business and focusing on the tourist areas while neglecting the rest of the city.

The rest of the piece was anti-urban garbage. Cities still offer the best opportunity for people to be who they want to be without crippling prejudice. Cities are also far more sustainable than suburbs or exurbs, especially as energy supplies dwindle. I would make a large bet that the same people who deride cities now will be doing all they can to move in (and push current city dwellers out) when the going gets tough.