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Urban Archipelago (Lawrence, Kansas made The Nation!)

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atommom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 03:17 PM
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Urban Archipelago (Lawrence, Kansas made The Nation!)
Something's the matter with Kansas: On April 5 Sunflower State voters overwhelmingly endorsed a meanspirited ban on same-sex marriages and packed school boards with more of those folks who want to teach creationism. But on the same day, progressives swept every open post in Lawrence, one of the state's fastest-growing cities, on a platform promising to fight discrimination, protect the environment and develop affordable housing. The new mayor of this city of 80,000, Dennis "Boog" Highberger, took charge with the announcement that "there are not many places...where an ex-hippie, disabled guy with a funny name can become mayor." The next day he opened an online chat with Lawrence residents with the message: "Greetings, citizens! Let the wild rumpus begin!"

Lawrence, a progressive oasis of higher education and high-tech development in what, thanks to Thomas Frank's 2004 book, is the nation's most famously conservative state, hasn't exactly gone wild. Highberger and the other officials elected with the support of Progressive Lawrence--a local group that two years ago wrested power from more conservative, pro-development forces--have focused on the basics of implementing "smart growth" strategies to prevent sprawl, working with local employees to improve delivery of services and promoting tolerance in a state where that can be controversial. "We haven't exactly reversed the whole 'What's the Matter With Kansas?' thing, but we're working on it," jokes Highberger, a lawyer who got Lawrence to officially condemn the USA Patriot Act but who spends most of his time on mundane municipal issues like funding library services and buying new land for park space. "The things that happen in Washington and Topeka are fairly abstract, and usually frustrating. When we make a decision on the city commission--on protecting the environment, on treating people fairly--people see something change in their backyard the next day. Local politics is where progressives should be."

Variations on the Lawrence story are playing out across the country, with local leaders and coalitions shaping a new, more aggressive politics in what has begun to be referred to as an "urban archipelago" of major metropolitan centers, aging industrial cities and college towns that represent progressive blue islands in what appears on electoral maps to be a red sea of conservatism. These are crowded islands, with enough voters to influence politics far beyond their borders, and they remain bastions of American liberalism: Every American city with a population of more than 500,000 voted for John Kerry in 2004, as did about half the cities with populations between 50,000 and 500,000. In virtually every state that backed the Democratic presidential nominee last year--even traditional Democratic strongholds like Illinois, New Jersey and Michigan--it was only thanks to overwhelming majorities in urban areas that Kerry prevailed. At a time when the federal government is dominated by right-wing Republicans, and when liberal state governments are rare, cities are electing a new generation of progressives--a trend highlighted on May 17 when the second-largest city in the country, Los Angeles, replaced a cautious Democratic incumbent mayor with progressive Antonio Villaraigosa.

It is not surprising that urban politics trend left. Cities are more likely than suburbs or rural areas to be home to the people who are least comfortable in George W. Bush's America: racial minorities, gays and lesbians, immigrants, trade unionists, the working poor and the young professionals whose "new urbanist" homesteading has renewed downtowns from Providence to San Diego. Cities also have problems that are not solved by the free market in which conservatives place their blind faith: poverty, violence, decaying schools and NAFTA-battered industries. And at a time when more and more federal spending is being directed toward the military and tax cuts for the rich, old challenges are becoming new crises. Seventy-eight percent of mayors surveyed by the US Conference of Mayors reported increases in the number of requests for emergency shelter in 2004, and more than 80 percent said funding to meet the demand was lacking. The Bush Administration's assaults on funding for community development block grants and transportation and housing initiatives, as well as the additional burdens placed on urban schools by the No Child Left Behind Act, make the prospects for meeting urban needs more daunting than ever.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050620&s=nichols
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kansasblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 03:18 PM
Response to Original message
1. yea! My home town!
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AX10 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 03:26 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Is Lawrence dark blue?
Is there really an oasis of Liberalism/Americanism/Realism in a see of political "blood red"?

More info please?

:dem:
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beyurslf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-10-05 10:28 PM
Response to Reply #2
13. Statewide the marriage ban was 70 yes and Lawrence was 70 no.
I think that is dark blue.
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proud2BlibKansan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 10:40 PM
Response to Reply #1
6. Come to our meetup next week!
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MuseRider Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
3. I LOVE Lawrence.
I hang there every chance I get. I wish I could afford to buy land closer to Lawrence but the West side has gotten pretty pricey so I will stay put and use it as my personal oasis.

It is the saving grace of this back wards running state.
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proud2BlibKansan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 10:42 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. Lawrence is wonderful
Last night, there was a guy playing sax on the corner downtown. Last month when I was there, I saw a guy reciting poetry downtown. You never see that in KC anymore.
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MuseRider Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 10:52 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Noooooo
That was Dan Kozak I'll bet. Topeka's own strange version of Kenny G. Actually he is a very nice guy. He goes to Lawrence because everyone in Topeka quit giving him money.

I should stop, he is a nice guy.
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proud2BlibKansan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 11:39 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. My unemployed kid plays sax
I told him that is what he could be doing. I don't think he appreciated the advice. :)
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roguevalley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 03:47 PM
Response to Original message
4. If you look at the history of Kansas, it was practically the birthplace
of progressive thinking. Go, Kansas. Maybe this will help with all the squarehead publicity you've been suffering with for some time now.
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kansasblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jun-09-05 04:41 PM
Response to Original message
5. Lawrence's county went for Kerry
and voted against the state constitutional ban. The state voted about 70 / 30 for, Lawrence voted about 70 30 against.
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Telly Savalas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-10-05 08:33 AM
Response to Reply #5
10. And even if Lawrence was the reddest place in the country...
it would still kick ass by virtue of being home to KU hoops, Rudy's Pizzeria, Liberty Hall, Yellow Sub, and the quaint gazebo in South Park where I married my wife.

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MuseRider Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-10-05 05:12 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. You got married in that gazebo?
I play there every Wednesday night in the summer in the Lawrence City Band! Beautiful. It must have been hard for her to get up those stairs in a wedding dress. It is a lovely facility.
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BuelahWitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jun-10-05 12:33 PM
Response to Original message
11. Yes we ARE the Blue Oasis!
'nother Lawrencian here :hi:
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