Blogger Candidate Forum: Donald Trump's Contradictory Urbanism

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/7/cities-mayors-trump/493211/


 

Donald Trump (R-NY)
nbcnews,com

Hello Everyone:

It is Wednesday and time for another edition of the Blogger Candidate Forum.  Today we are going to talk about the Republican nominee Donald Trump.  Specifically, we are going to look at Mr. Trump's heated rhetoric on inclusivity and diversity as it relates to cities.  Did you think that Blogger was going to address his latest bon mots?  Yours truly has declared a moratorium on commenting every controversy inducing utterance.  Instead, with the help of Vann R. Newkirk's CityLab article, "Mayors vs. Trump," we are going to look how his party's appeal to the blue collar profession and specific concepts of race and Americanness, stress "...rural Americana as rightness and uses cities as a foil."

If anything, Mr. Trump is urbanite through and through.  He was born in Queens an is now a commercial real-estate mogul who was the subject of late night talk show fodder long before he made his political aspirations known.  Donald Trump is a grandiose cartoon of New Yorkness.  The city is in every fiber of being.  This blatant sense of "metropolitanism" seems an anathema to the current state of the party of which he the standard bearer.  We know that cities are more inclusive and typically more liberal than rural communities and are the punching bag for people like Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who snark about New York values.  He is never going live that one down, is he?  Mr. Trump is not above using fear about urban crime to motivate voters because cities stand for the the very thing that Republicans despise the most.

Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu
nola.gov

Mr. Newkirk reported that on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, "...a group of mayors from many of those big cities coordinated an attack on the anti-city rhetoric of Trump and the Republican Party in an endorsement of Hillary Clinton."  At  press conference, New Orleans Mayor  and vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors Mitch Landrieu joined a group of his colleagues from others cities and challenged Mr. Trump on his vision of "...violence and decline in America and its cities" saying that he was just flat-out wrong.

Mayor Landrieu took particular exception to the manner in which Mr. Trump incorporated a recent jump in homicides in his acceptance speech.  Just to refresh all our memories, Mr. Trump said,

...decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed by this Administration's rollback of criminal enforcement...

To put it proper context, the city of New Orleans "...had a 30-year low in homicides last year after having been known for years as a hotbed for murder."

Snapshots of New Orleans, Louisiana
en.wikipedia.org

Mayor Landrieu told Mr. Newkirk,

What they're missing is the truth...From 1996 until today, crime has decreased in major American cities all across America...You can cherry-pick statistics and not show certain cities-for example my city, murder is to the lowest it's been since 1970.  And so if you pick small trends and you just look at it over a week or two two weeks or three week, it belies the whole truth.

 In Vann Newkirk's assessment, Mayor Landrieu's "...rebuttal was a fair reading of facts-a one year spike in murders does not constitute an alarming trend-but Trump seems to have public opinion on his side."  Concerns about crime was at a 15-year high before the recent killings in Baton Rouge and Dallas.  Fear of crime operates independently of the actual act, and it is likely the Mr. Trump will continue to successfully use this line of attack as a weapon against cities.  Even if the crime rate decreases next year, most Americans will perceive that cities are violent and dangerous place.

"Diversity: the art of thinking together independently"
Malcolm Forbes
urbanplushproject.wordpress.com

Some of Mr. Trump's rationale may have to with the second party of his anti-urban rantings: demographics.  Vann Newkirk observes, "Trump's anti-immigrant remarks and routine bigotry are also implicit attacks on big cities, which are common destinations for immigrants and more diverse than rural areas."  It is those very destinations that resemble what the United States is transforming into.  At the same Mayor Landrieu-led press conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio remarked that,

...when they talk about cities, they about places that represent our future...

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti picked up the thread, saying

...we look like the future of this country.

Urban diversity and belonging
politico.eu

These demographic shifts have already taken root in many American cites.  The majority of the cities represented by the Conference of Mayors are majority-minority including: Los Angeles, New York City, and New Orleans with more heading in this direction.  Immigration is remaking cities and increasingly promulgating ideas such as multilingualism, which rub against the very notion of Americanness.  However, as someone who grew up in a bilingual home and studied French and Japanese in school, multilingualism always was the norm not the exception.  Yours truly grew up in Los Angles, hearing Spanish, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Yiddish, and a multitude of languages spoke all the time.  To Blogger, this is Americanness, not the homogenous concept that Donald Trump and his cohorts are trying to push onto the American voter.  

Yours truly understands that fear of the "other."  The "other" being immigrants.  New people come in from countries that do not live according to the same customs and rule of law that we do, speak a language that we do not understand, cluster together in urban areas.  For a person living in rural America, an immigrant from a non-English speaking country can seem scary.  However, Blogger chooses not to give into the fear of the "other."  Blogger chooses not to participate in the "...proxy war for what Americans want the country to look like..."  A proxy war that is backed up by real rural and urban voting trends.  Rather, Blogger chooses to embrace change, use it as a way to learn and grow.  Knowledge is power and can overcome fear.  The November General Election will go a long way in determining whether or not the United States will embrace urban.  

 

Should The Olympics Be Held In Place?

http://www.citylab.com/desing.2016/08/what-if-the-olympics-stayed-put/494792/?utm_surce=nl_link2_080816

Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) at the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony
dailymail.co.uk

Hello Everyone:

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games are off to a good start.  Good start if you count two horrific spill and a story about a submerged sofa capsizing a kayaker.  This and other diversions aside, things in Rio de Janeiro seem to be humming along quite nicely.  Allow Blogger to offer up another diversion, what if the Olympic Games were held in place every four years?

Uri Friedman's CityLab article, "What if the Olympics Stayed Put?" asks us to consider this question.  Winter and Summer Olympic Games are a status symbol for the host country, especially an emerging nation like Brazil.  Mr. Friedman writes, "In the age of fear and loathing, the Parade of Nations and spectacle of countries competing peacefully is most welcome."  Like Mr. Friedman, yours truly is happy to see a South American city get the opportunity to host this two week sports spectacular.  However, given the nation's political and economic turmoil, was hosting an Olympic Games such a wise idea?

Favela Painting Santa Marta
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
unurth.com

Uri Friedman asks, "...do such benefits justify the Brazilian government and private investors spending somewhere between $12 billion and $20 billion-roughly the gross domestic product of Iceland-to host the Summer Olympics?"  Was it worth it to Brazil to lavishly outbid other countries for the right to host the games in 2007-2008, when its leaders could not imagine this competition would take place against the backdrop of economic recession, Zika, corruption, and impeachment proceedings agains the president?  It sounds insane, right?

Further, how does the Brazilian government justify spending all that money on an event that, by some     estimates, will generate only $4 to $5 billion in revenue?  How will the bankrupt Rio municiple government pay for security and other essential services, and "...when Olympic funds have largely gone toward the construction of stadiums, housing, and subways lines that will benefit the rich more than the poor?

L.A. 84
experiencingla.com

These challenges are unique to Brazil.  With the exception of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1992 games in Barcelona, economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson concluded in their 2016 paper Going for the Gold: The Economics of the Olympics (aeaweb.org),

...in most cases the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for the host cities.

In recent Olympic history, the host cities have had to contend with corruption, growing costs, underinvestment in public services in the lead up to the games, and projects that are less than helpful to most of the population.  If that was not enough, once all the excitement dies down, cities are often left with a mountain of debt and a collection of useless megastructures.  It is little wonder that, "...according to one recent poll, 63 percent of Brazilians believe hosting the Olympics will hurt their country."

Messrs. Baade and Matheson have proposed a number of solutions to the challenges of hosting an Olympic games, including one revolutionary change: "Why not designate a permanent home for the Olympic Games?"

Barcelona 92
en.wikipedia.org

Robert Baade and Victor Matheson's proposal is newly popular but hardly novel.  Mr. Friedman writes, "In fact, it's as old as the Olympics."  The ancient Olympic Games were held in Olympia, and only Olympia for centuries.  Journalist Christina Larson observes,

This set-up seemed to work fine.

Well fine if you do not count the bribery, brawls, black magic, and the occasional performance enhancing animal heart.  No one ever said the ancient Olympic Games were pure.  Maybe "pure as the driven slush."

In the 19th-century, the Olympic Games were revived by French intellectual Baron Pierre de Coubertin, after Roman Emperor Theodosius banned them in the fourth century.  Baron de Coubertin's intention was to rotate the competition between European and American cites as a way to foster "peace" and an "international" spirit.

Athens 1896
en.wikipedia.org

In the beginning, things did not go quite as Baron de Coubertin planned.  As the first modern Olympiad came to a close in Athens in 1896, King George of Greece gave a speech, calling for the games to be held permanently held in his country.  He said Athens, "...could become the 'peaceful meeting place of all nations.'"  The American delegation supported the idea.  The athletes wrote,

The existence of the stadium as a structure so uniquely adapted to its purpose; the proved ability of Greece to competency administer the games; and above all, the fact that Greece is the original home of the Olympic Games; all these considerations force upon us the conviction that these games should never be removed from their native soil.

Baron de Coubertin was not persuaded.  He recalled in his memoirs,

I decided to act as if I were stupid, pretending not to understand the king's speech...The Greeks were overcome by "nationalistic fervour" and not being practical...No on could seriously believe for a moment that Athens would be able to go on indefinitely every four years making the supreme effort requires for the periodic renewal of the organisation and financing.

He sent the King of Greece a letter indicating that the second Olympics would be held in Greece.

Paris 1900
en.wikipedia.org

The Greeks responded by holding parallel games to the rotating Olympic Games for several years.  However, they were distracted by a number of wars and Baron de Coubertin's vision won the day.  He wrote in 1896,

The ancient games had an exclusively Hellenic character; they were always held in the same place, and Greek blood was a necessary condition of admission to them...

The modern game would be different:

[E]very country should celebrate the Olympic games in turn.

The idea of Athens permanently housing the Olympic games resurfaced in 1980 amid the Cold War and the United States planned boycott of the Moscow Summer Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  By that point, it could be argued that the Games had become politicized.  Olympic historian John Lucas suggested "establishing a fixed 'Olympics Games Center' for the summer contes-a United Nations of sport, housed in a neutral country like Switzerland or Finland-and a limited rotation of locations for the smaller winter event."  The International Olympic Committee, founded by the Baron in the 1890 to run the competition, looked at the feasibility of establishing a fixed site for the Summer Games on the Peloponnesian Peninsula, where the ancient games were held.  The location would be given neutral status, the Greek government would supply the territory and infrastructure, and the IOC and member states would fund the construction.  Nice idea but it never happened.

St. Louis 1904
en.wikipedia.org

The idea of ending the very costly quadrennial rotation continues to have traction.  Some, like John Rennie Short, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has suggested establishing an Summer Olympic city, year-round convention, and training facility on a sparsely in habited Greek Island.  Greece could ease its debt crisis by selling the land and the IOC could pa for the initial construction and operating cost with a bonds or loans staked to future media revenues.  There are those that think that Los Angeles, which showed a profit on the 1984 Games, should be the permanent host city or a Swiss city hosting both the Summer and Winter Games.  Los Angeles as a permanent host city?  Blogger thinks not.

As far fetched as it may sound, it really is not as impractical as it sounds,  Christina Larson argues:

With every change of venue, millions of staff-hours of know-how are lost.  That's not how most other major sporting events are organized.  Professional golf tournaments return to the same courses year after year, allowing he staffs there to learn form their mistakes.  Same with tennis:  The groundskeepers at Wimbledon have had decades to practice pulling out the rain tarps and emptying out the parking lots.  Yet the Olympics tries to reinvent the wheel every time, technicians, security personnel, and volunteers every four years, and expecting time to execute myriad complex logistical task perfectly the first time out.

London 1908
en.wikipedia.org

Uri Friedman poses this question, "But wouldn't installing the Olympics in one country tarnish the global nature of the games?"  Writer Roger Howard has one possible solution: "What if the IOC granted long-term hosting rights to one city, which in turn could sell rights to host each Olympic Games to a different country?"  Essentially, the city with the long-term hosting rights would rent out its Olympic infrastructure.  Nigeria could organize the opening and ceremonies in Tokyo (hosting the Summer Games in 2020).  Mr. Howard adds:

Of course the choice of a permanent home for the Games would be highly contentious.  But such a responsibility could be exercised imaginatively, and even used as a form of developmental aid.  so the IOC could offer this exclusive right to a developing country that desperately needs foreign investment...

Alternatively, the Games could be based on Western soil but the hosting right perhaps sold to a developing country at heavily subsidized price.

Stockholm 1912
en.wikipedia.org

Other proposals include: rotating the Games among several cities that have hosted the event-perhaps selecting five to symbolize the five interlocking rings of Olympic symbol or rotating them through one permanent venue on each of the continents.

Dartmouth classics professor Paul Christesen floated a more ambition scheme: use modern technology to stage a "decentered" Olympic Games-i.e. different cities simultaneously hosting the different events.  The athletes could travel to a neutral site (Lausanne or Olympia) for the opening and closing ceremonies.  This strategy could open up the possibility of hosts and cities  bidding to host sports that they are locally famous for.  A lot has changed since Baron de Coubertin's day.  Prof. Christesen argues that the games do not need to literally travel from one place to another to be international.  He said,

For example, Louisville, Kentucky-the site of the World Equestrian Championships in 2010-would be an ideal host for the equestrian events.  Likewise, Manchester, England, which boasts a world-class velodrome, would be a great place to hold the track-cycling events...

Rather than being an occasion for nationalistic displays by a single, powerful host country, the Olympics would become a celebration of humans diversity.  Television audience could tune into a tea-and-field competition in Nairobi, a badminton nation in Bangkok or a triathlon in Santiago.

Antwerp 1920
en.wikipedia.org

Sportswriter David Goldblatt added a more contemporary twist on the World Cup Soccer Tournament.  Distribute the hosting duties either within a "network of cities," within a specific country or among cities in the same region.  He writes,

While no city in Africa outside of Cape Town has been able to make a serious bid for the games recently, perhaps a cooperative bid spirit between urban centers-such as across Abidjan, Accra, Lago, and Douala-could succeed where other have failed.

All of these alternatives sound great and possibly feasible but they are far from perfect.  Regardless of the costs defrayed costs by the IOC and others, can any one city truly bear the burden of hosting a mega-event like the Olympic every four years?  Can we reasonably expect one city to serve as a permanent site, "...but then relinquish the right to host it and get all the glory."  Would "decentering" the Olympic Games make the competition more global by spreading out the host countries and less global by not gathering the athletes in a single location.

Paris 1924
britannica.com

Be that as it may, the serious issues facing Rio de Janeiro attest to the dangers of staying with the status quo.  One opponent of Boston's effort to host the 2024 Olympic Game describe it "...fundamental problem with the with the current Olympic model is that cities are being asked to host the world's most elaborate and complex event-and to do it only once."

Still, the status quo remains.  As promising as all of these proposals are, they are not likely to get any serious consideration from the IOC, which is profiting nicely from the current arrangement, even if most of the host city's residents are not.  In 2014, the International Olympic Committee working groups offered 40 ways to reform the Olympics.  Among the vague police are "reduce the cost of bidding for the games and 'maximise synergies with Olympic Movement stakeholder," but not a dramatic reconsideration of the way hosting works.  One hundred twenty years after Baron Pierre de Coubertin "played dumb" with King George of Greece, this act is still reaping benefits for a select few.   

Which Mega-Event Is Beneficial For Cities?

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/07/mega-events-plympics-world-cup-superbowl/493127//?utm_source=nl_link1_072916

Fireworks from the 2016 Olympic Opening Ceremonies
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
olympicssports.com

Olá todos (Hello Everyone):

With the conventions behind us and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro front in center, yours truly decided that today would a great time to take a look at the benefits of mega-events and road test Blogger's two-word Portuguese vocabulary.  Laura Bliss's CityLab article, "When Mega-Events Make Sense," is a thorough look at which mega i.e.-events-political conventions, super bowls, olympics, world cups, world's fairs,  music and other occasions are good for cities.  The planning and execution of these events require military precision.  They hold out the promise of increased revenue for the host city.  For example, the Republican National Committee, held in Cleveland, Ohio, projected $200 million in increased spending for its host.  The Democratic National Committee Convention, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, estimated that it would provide economic benefits of over $350 million.  Sounds wonderful, right?  Not so fast.  As good as the promise of increased economic benefits sounds, it is frequently a case of promises undelivered.  Ms. Bliss looks at the pros and cons of the different mega-events and rates them on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best).

One of the men's swimming events
2016 Olympic Games
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
olympicssports.com

The Olympics

Pros: Being selected to host an Olympic Games gives a city an enormous sense of pride.  After all, The Olympics are not just any ordinary sports event, they represent the very pinnacle of athletic competition.  Anne-Marie Broudehoux, a scholar at the University of Québec who specializes in city branding, told Ms. Bliss,

Lots of people agree that civic pride is boosted by these events, and that's hard to build, so that's a positive.

A mega-event, like this ultimate athletic competition, has tremendous practical potential: if done correctly, smart cities can add incorporate appropriate infrastructure and attract outside investment while captivating the world. (The 1992 Summer Games helped power Barcelona's post-Franco revitalization).  Laura Bliss notes, "...the city had a redevelopment plan in place before it placed its IOC bid.  If a city, like Los Angeles, already has stellar sports facilities (slight bias here) and the political strength to host an Olympics, without spending a lot on new construction, so much the better.

Cons: Unfortunately, Barcelona and Los Angeles are the exceptions to recent Olympic history.  The world got a glimpse at the many challenges Rio de Janeiro is facing when it hosted the World Cup Soccer tournament two years ago.  The city has been plagued by: shoddy and useless construction, debt, wide-scale displacement of citizens, deadly disease, pollution, and political chaos.  In short, Rio joins the long list of cities that dropped the ball on their hosting duties.  In short, Los Angeles you might want to seriously think about hosting another Olympic Games.

Laura Bliss gives it 1/5 and Blogger concurs

Milan Expo
Milan, Italy
usapavilion2015.net

World's Fairs

Pros: World's fairs are another source of tremendous civic and national pride.  They share some of the same benefits of Olympic games, with the bonus of a long duration and more flexible infrastructure i.e.-Paris's Eiffel Tower, Montreal's Habitat 67, and the Golden Gate Bridge.  However, if you live in the United States, chances are you have never heard of these national branding festivals since the Vancouver Expo in 1986, the last world's fair held in North America.  This is because the United States Congress banned the use of federal funds to support these mega-events in 1999.  According to Mark Wilson, the head of the Mega-Event Planning Group at Michigan State University, "For many cities, particularly in Asia, holding a fair is a way of emerging onto the world stage.

Cons: Mr. Wilson added,

The pitfalls for world's fair aren't the wasteful white elephants of infrastructures , though they do happen....It's distorting your city to host it.

Like Olympics, cities planning for this type of mega-events go about it as an end in themselves, adjusting investment to support it instead of using the fair as a way to benefit the host city in the long term, as Montreal did successfully in 1967.  Also, there is the specter of political and economic  crisis as well as the potential for violent protests.  In short, plan and execute with extreme military precision.

Laura Bliss gives it 2/5.  Blogger gives it 2.5/5

Balloon drop from the DNC Convention
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
lattices.com

Politcal Conventions

Pros: Aside from spending time in the white hot glare of the media spotlight, this election cycle's dramatics in Cleveland and Philadelphia brought in a working week's worth of increased tourism dollar to urban core hotels, ride sharing companies, restaurants.  Most that increased revenue came from out-of-town visitors.  To the wide-eyed civic leaders, it was "free" tax revenues.

Cons: No such thing as "free" anything.  Laura Bliss writes, "While a sliver of the service industry might be running fat and happy, work-week road closures and traffic disrupt commutes and productivity, which has real dollar impacts..."  Then there are the security costs.  in 1968, the City of Chicago learned first-hand just how volatile these events can be.  Matthew Burbank, a University of Utah political science professor with expertise in sports economics, said "...cities can underestimate just how much extra police they'll need to rope off street, create protest areas, block parking, and guard politicos."  For example, in 2012 Charlotte and Atlanta spend $50 million in federal funds to provide convention security, with additional spending by cities reaching in the tens of millions.  Those optimistic "direct spending" cost projections issued by the party committees frequently fail to account for these costs.  According to Prof,. Burbank as the need for security grows,

It's become harder and harder for smaller cities to compete for these conventions, even though they might want them more.

In essence, as we have seen this chaotic election cycle, political conventions are high risk mega-events.  Perhaps there is a safer way to stage a political mega-event

Laura Bliss gives it 3/5 however, Blogger disagrees and gives it 2/5

Duran Duran at Outside Lands 2016
San Francisco, California
grimygoods.com

Music Festivals

Pros: Most music festivals are held out in the rural areas, to accommodate the huge crows and the high volume.  However, the vast number of people crowding into Golden Gate Park for this year's Outside Lands Festival is a testament to the potential tax revenue boost for the city of San Francisco.  Ms. Bliss cites the example of this year's Lollapalooza Festival, held in Grant Park in the city of Chicago.  In 2014, the mega-event brought "roughly 300,000 people and a reported $82 million in direct spending in the city."  The Chicago Parks Department receives $3 million of the annual ticket sales.  Bob O'Neil, the president of the Grant Park Conversancy told NBC Chicago in 2015,

Grant Park is dependent on Lollapalooza now...Thousands of trees planted, different gardens renovated, and new gardens created.

Cons: aside from drunken and disorderly behavior, property damage, and other assorted dubious behavior, festivals can dampen non-event-related spending at nearby businesses as non-concert goes and local clear out.  Thus Ms. Bliss concludes, "Also, no surprise here, but Chicago's been striking pretty corporate-friendly, tax-cutting deals with Lollapalooza's organizers, so the city isn't likely benefiting as much as it could."  She suggests that cities should host their own music festival in a park, in conjunction with a non-profit organizer and book less corrosive acts.

Laura Bliss gives it 3.5/5.  Blogger concurs.

Super Bowl 50 logo.svg
en.wikipedia.org

Super Bowls

Pros: very little, if any, new infrastructure construction because the host city typically have a stadium to support the big game.  The chances of any major blips on the screen, like the lack of seats at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in 2011, are fairly low.  Also, the blimp shots of your city's skyline are a pretty nice way to advertise yourself.

Cons: unlike political conventions or prolonged events like Olympics and world's fair, Super Bowl only bring one or two nights of additional tourist dollars.  Most of the media spotlight is trained inside the stadium.  The biggest risk is the weather-the reason why the NFL prefer indoor arenas or warm weather locales as host cities-and bad pregame press like San Francisco's homeless sweep.  In short, go ahead and host a Super Bowl, just do not do anything foolish.

Laura Bliss give it a 4/5 and Blogger, not being much of a sports fan, gives it 3.5/5.

The Vatican
Rome, Italy
veltra.com 

Cannes, Sundance, South by Southwest, Bayreuth, Ciclavia, Vatican Jubilee, Hajj, et cetera

Pros: Here is a questions, "...what does a Bavarian opera festival have in common with a sacred papal pilgrimage?"  According to University of Birmingham senior research fellow Martin Müller, "To city events planners, they're both money for the same basic reason." Mr. Müller said,

For World Cups and the Olympic Games, you don't own the rights-they're franchises...As a city, you want to own then event you're hosting.

These multi-week occasions are synonymous with their locations, which allows Park City or Mecca to create an international identity.  Also, because they continue to draw people year-in-year-out, infrastructure is re-used, the media attention is mostly positive, and people have jobs that depend on these events.  Further, having multiple venues throughout the host city, pilgrimage-type events spread the tourist money around more evenly than conventions, concerts, or athletic events.  Anne-Marie Broudehoux cites Montreal, which has branded itself as the "city of festivals," playing host to series of events over the summer to draw more manageable numbers of tourists to venues around the city.

Cons: next to none-at least until the mega-event gets so successful that it starts bringing new residents to the area, who eventually push out long-term resident.  Always, always invest in crowd control: mind the lesson of Mecca during Hajj 2015 when thousands died in a stampede.  In short, create an affordable housing plan, invest in expert crowd managements, and invent a place specific religion to draw adherents every year.

Laura Bliss gives it a 5/5 and Blogger concurs.

Blogger Candidate Forum: The Urbanist VPOTUS-In-Waiting

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/07/tim-kaine-urbanist/492830/?utm_source=nl-link1_072516

Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine
bbc.com

Hello Everyone:

It is Wednesday and time for Blogger Candidate Forum.  Before we get going on today's subject, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA)'s urban bona fides, yours truly must declare this space a Trump gaffe-free zone.  Blogger was losing her mind and lunch responding to every utterance coming out of Mr. Trump's mouth.  Therefore, if we talk about Mr. Trump, it will be in the context of specific issues not who he has recently insulted or latest tweet.  That out of the way, shall we move on to the Gentleman from Virginia?

Senator Tim Kaine
en.wikipedia.org

Senator Tim Kaine made his big debut last Wednesday, with his address before the assembled Democratic National Committee Convention delegates at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia.  Senator Kaine spoke of his life experiences and how it formed the man he is today.  As the campaign progresses, the national audience will get to know the Gentleman from Virginia very well-i.e. where he stands on the issues of: gun control, abortion, and global trade. He will be scrutinized and analyzed to see where he fits into the political landscape like his appeal to blue collar voters in crucial swing states.  However, Anthony Flint recently pointed out in his CityLab article, "Tim Kaine's Urbanist Bona Fides," the Gentleman from Virginia was chosen for something that not many people (including Blogger) were aware of, the Senator is an urbanist.

Then-Mayor Tim Kaine
richmond.com

Like Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, also vetted for vice president, Sen. Kaine was a mayor, and learned all the urban mechanics he need for the job.  Sen. Kaine came into the office of Mayor of Richmond, Virginia as a Harvard Law School graduate with a focus on fair housing, winning a jury verdict against Nationwide Insurance for discriminatory practices.

Laudable as this is, Mr. Flint points out, "...it was in statewide office that he built a record that should pique the interest of anyone who cares about cities."  Virginia is a state best know for traditional suburban development-sprawling subdivisions and corporate office pass.  As governor, he became a sort of anti-sprawl crusader.  Then-Governor Kaine became a handful of governors that shouldered the mantle of smart growth at the beginning of the 21st-century along with former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), Janet Napolitano (D-AZ). Christine Todd Whitman (R-NJ), Angus Kings (I-ME), Mitt Romney (R-Mass), and Parris Glendening (D-MD).

Tyson's Corner, Virginia
tyson-corner-va-nvacondos.com

Slowly but surely, the Gentleman from Virginia began to move away from the idea of building new highways and toward new transportation strategies that more integrated with sustainable land use: "increasing options to include transit, bicycles, and pedestrians."  Not happy about the disappearing Virginia farmland and countryside, the-Governor Kaine pushed forward a "$100 million open-space acquisition initiative."

Prior to becoming a United States Senator, Gov. Kaine was instrumental in bringing about the transformation of Tysons Corner, once a "soulless edge-city poster child to transit-oriented development hub."  As governor, he supported a tunnel for the D.C. Metro extension, making this former soulless edge city more vital.  In an aside, Anthony Flint writes, "Although he apparently joked about the fierce advocacy of 'mole people' during the debate over surface versus underground."

SGA logo
smartgrowthamerica.org

The advocacy group Smart Growth America (http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org) was quick to note that when the Gentleman from Virginia was appointed DNC chairperson, he demonstrated an appreciation for urban design.  As chairperson, the Gentleman from Virginia invited the Governor's Institute on Community Design to his home state for one of the first closed-door planning and policy sessions with a governor and his staff, according to the SGA.

Anthony Flint recalled his own experience meeting the Gentleman from Virginia shortly after the publication of his book This Land: The Battle Over Sprawl and the Future of America and moved from the Boston Globe Governor Romney's smart-growth bureau in Massachusetts.  Virginia was interested in then-Gov. Romney's organization strategy for coordinating state agencies involved in growth and development-transportation, housing, the environment, economic development-which was eventually adopted in partnership with federal agencies under President Barack Obama.

The cover of Anthony Flint's book
amazon.com

 Anthony Flint observes, "He was aware of my book and dove right into some policy-wonk banter.  Here was a guy whose eyes lit up at the mention of land-use regulation..."  Mr. Flint goes on to mention that then-Governor Mitt Romney was a nice unpretentious person, which Blogger had no doubt about but that still did not compel her to vote for him in the previous election cycle.

In the rough and tumble world of land policy, there is a possibility that the Gentleman from Virginia's predilection for smart growth could be turned against by the Trump-Pence campaign or surrogates.  Over the past several years, the anti-density sentiment has been growing around the country, manifesting in TEA Party protests during local planning meetings.  The pitched battle for property rights and the attending resistance to planning, the aftermath of the United States Supreme Court case Kelso vs. New London (http://www.oyez.com), is another result of this rebellion.

Like his former counterparts in Maryland and Massachusetts, then-Governor Kaine did not stress urban growth boundaries as much as incentives for growth and development options.  Generally speaking, supporting sustainable development is part of a post-carbon environmental position: mitigating climate change, reduce emissions though transportation options made possible by more efficient land-use patterns, and supporting renewable energy resources (wind and solar).  These are not positions that would be supported by a Republican ticket insisting on dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency.

Anthony Flint has the final word. "It's notable that both parties are holding their conventions in struggling cities but thus far haven't made much in the way of reference to urban policy.  In Tim Kaine, there is now a figure on the national stage who is eminently conversant."  

What Happens To Cultural Heritage Sites Caught in Conflict

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/world/middleeast/palmyra-russia-ancient-ruins.html?mwrsm=Email&r=0

The remains of Palmyra
news.nationalgeographic.com

Hello Everyone:

Before we begin, yours truly would like to acknowledge the fact that we have reached 80,000 page views.  This is quite an accomplishment in over 3-1/2 years.  Yours truly is genuinely touched by your continued readership.  Thank you.

Today we are going talk about cultural heritage.  Specifically, we are going to discuss what happens when a cultural heritage site gets caught in the cross hairs of military action.  Andrew E. Kramer and Sewell Chan's recent article for the New York Times, "When Cultural Heritage is Caught in the Cross Hairs," looks at examples sites of cultural heritage affected by combat.  Palmyra and other sites around Syria have a history of being trapped in the middle of combat.  There are other sites, around the world, that have been affected by military action

Proposed Palmyra reconstruction
architectural record.com

After assisting Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad drive the Islamic State from Palmyra, the Russians quietly expanded its military presence in Palmyra.  Although the Russians ended IS's 10-month occupation, IS left a trail of destruction in its wake including several archeological treasures such as ancient temples and a Roman-era arch.

The site presently is well fortified.  However, according to the Cultural Initiative of the American Schools of Oriental Research has warned that the continued Russian presence is in close proximity to the site and could endangered the remaining treasure.  In an aside Messrs. Kramer and Chan write, "The Associated Press quoted Russian officials as saying that the base was only temporary, to house experts removing explosives.

Church of St. Simeon Stylites
Aleppo, Syria
sacred-destination.com

There is a fresh stretch of asphalt covering the area, although experts believe that the debris of old stones around the destroyed city is mostly unexcavated.  Sand berms form the perimeter and the site is defended with a variety of defenses including antiaircraft missiles stand at the ready.  Messrs Kramer and Chan ask, "If the Russian site is a potential target that requires antiaircraft defenses, what does that make the ruins?"  Good question.

Other sites around Syria continue to suffer damage.  One example is the Church of St. Simeon Stylites.  The monastery in northwest Aleppo, dedicated to the fifth century monk who spent decades in solitary contemplation, was damage by missiles.  The authors report, "The Syrian Army used a medieval cited overlooking ancient Palmyra as a military base, and numerous Syrian sites-including the Great Mosque of Aleppo and the Crac des Chavaliers...have been damaged during the five-year civil war..."

The 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulation for the Execution of the Convention (portal.unesco.org) requires nations to refrain from destroying "cultural property" during conflict but that has not stopped the destruction.  Sites in Palmyra and Aleppo are not the only places of destruction of cultural heritage sites.

The Parthenon
Athens, Greece
en.wikipedia.org

The Parthenon, Athens

During the 17th-century, the Ottoman Empire, authorities used this fifth century B.C.E. temple to store ammunition, shelter women and children from Venetian forces.  The Venetians fired on the temple and about 700 cannonballs hit the western elevation.  The gunpowder inside the building ignited, blowing  up 28 columns, wrecking interior rooms, and killing up to 300 people.

In the early 19th-century, British diplomat Lord Elgin paid the Ottoman authorities for the cache of sculptures and reliefs, moving the treasure to Great Britain, where they are on exhibit in the British Museum.  The Greek government has fought unsuccessfully for decades to re-patriot the Parthenon treasures.

Old Summer Palace (recreation)
Beijing, China
oktrips.com

Old Summer Palace, Beijing

In October 1860, Lord Elgin, son of the Lord Elgin who carted off the Parthenon reliefs, ordered the destruction of the Old Summer Palace, the 18th-century architectural gem build outside the Forbidden City.  It was at the close of the Second Opium War, which Britain and France allied themselves against the Qing Dynasty army.  Lord Elgin fils ordered the destruction of the palace in retaliation for the imprisonment and torture of British and French negotiators.  The massive scale of the destruction has become an enduring symbol of national humiliation.  There have been occasional calls for the palace to be rebuilt.

Leuven, Belgium late 19th-century
en.wikipedia.org

Leuven, Belgium

In August 1914, close to the start of World War I, German military forces set fire to the university library in Leuven.  The fire killed over 200 residents and forced thousands of others to flee the city as part of what Allied propaganda called "the Rape of Belgium."  The writers own newspaper, the New York Times, called this act an unforgivable injury to the entire world.  Approximately 200,000 works, included irreplaceable medieval and Renaissance volumes were incinerated.

Montecassino Abbey
Monte Cassino, Italy
sacred-destination.com

Monte Cassino, Italy

This mountaintop Benedictine monastery was built in the sixth century and destroyed by Allied bombers in February 1944.  The Allies mistakenly bombed the Abbey, believing that German troops were inside.  However, the over 200 Italian civilians that took refuge in the monastery were killed.  In a side note, Messrs Kramer and Chan write, "German paratroopers did later occupy the ruins and used the bombed-out abbey as an observation post."  One account describes the bombing as a the result of translation error.  Winston Churchill defended the abbey's destruction, writing,

The monastery did not contain German troops, but the enemy fortifications were hard separate from the building itself.

Hue, Vietnam
villalouisehue.com

Hue, Vietnam

Hue was established as the capital of unified Vietnam in 1802.  It was the political, cultural religious center of Nguyen dynasty, which reigned untiled the end of World War II.  Most of its great edifices were destroyed by the Vietcong in the beginning of 1968, during the Tet Offensive.  This prompted a ferocious counterattack by the South Vietnamese Army, supported by the United States.  The ensuing siege ended with the Vietcong being ousted from the ancient citadel.  Further nearly half of Hue's homes were destroyed and thousands of people were killed.

What these examples teach us is that sites of cultural heritage are not immune to destruction from military conflict.  They are valuable documents of a time and people in history.  They are reminders of how people lived and worshipped.  When they are destroyed, they are erased from history.  Computer models and 3-D printers can help use visualize what they looked like but not the experience of place.  Cultural heritage sites are part of our history and must be protected.

Reports Of An Inner City Demise Are Premature

http://www.citylab.com/work/2016/05/the-comeback-and-competition-of-the-inner-city/480720/

Modular apartments
sbenortheast.com

Hello Everyone:

It is a brand new week and we are back to our regularly scheduled blogs.  Yours truly is rested and ready to go.  Today we are going to talk about the comeback of the inner cities.

Cities are organic creatures.  They expand and contract for one reason or another.  In the fifties and sixties, American inner cities experienced sharp contractions as people and businesses left for the suburbs.  By the early seventies, one of Richard Florida's urban planning professors at Rutgers University went as far as to refer to the inner cities as "'a sandbox' with federal transfers being used to essentially placate disadvantaged residents."  However, over the past decade, give or take, reports of inner cities's demise have been premature as people and jobs made their way back to and near downtowns,  resulting in a"great inversion-" i.e.poverty and disadvantage increasingly relocated to the suburbs.

Construction worker on scaffolding
Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS
sbeinc.com

In his recent CityLab article "The Comeback and Competition of the Inner City" Mr Florida writes, "Still, a debate has emerged among urban scholars as to what kinds of cities have really made a comeback and how much growth continues to centered in the suburbs."  Economist Jed Kolko ran the numbers from the latest Census data, finding that "...urban revival to be limited to the young, skilled, and affluent (who can afford and are contributing to escalating housing prices), while the suburbs continue to account for more growth."

Two recent studies published in Economic Development Quarterly (edq.sagepub.com) add to this very necessary debate by closely analyzing the extent of employment growth in the inner city an the business clusters that are fueling it.  The studies are informed by the studies of Harvard business professor Michael Porter, whose own work is centered on the function of businesses clusters, among other determinants, forming the competitiveness of inner cities.

Former Bayview Correctional Facility
New York City, New York
nye.epeak.in

Competition and employment growth

The first study, published by Daniel Hartley of the Chicago Federal Reserve Ban, Nikhil Kaza and T. William Lester of the University of North Carolina, Chapel (Ibid), employed Census Bureau information to follow employment growth in inner cities in 281 metropolitans between 2002 and 2011.  Mr. Florida writes, 

The study defines the 'inner city' in two ways. The first, broad definition defines the inner city as all neighborhoods or Census tracts outside the Central Business District in the principal city of a metro area.  The second, narrower definition is more in line with Porter's original definition of the distressed inner city, which is limited to neighborhoods or tracts of the distressed inner city with median household incomes or tracts with median household incomes below 80 percent of the metro median and unemployment rates more than 25 percent higher than in 2000.

To understand this, the first study used a particular Census dataset, which includes data on where laborers live and work.  it identifies competitiveness in those inner cities as ones that benefitted form job gains throughout the metropolitan and saw an uptick in the number of jobs in the inner city.

"Employment Growth (2002-2011)"
citylab.com

The study revealed substantial proof of an inner city revival.  Specifically, inner cities gained more than "...1.8 million new jobs from 2002-2011-a growth rate of 6.1 percent, just slightly less than the suburban rate of 6.9 percent."  Job growth in the inner city also overtook that of the suburbs-3.6 percent versus 3 percent-between 2009 and 2011, following the economic crisis.  Mr. Kolko's analysis of demographic growth, instead employment growth for more recent years, imply a slowdown of the urban renaissance.

The growth in inner city employment is not restricted to one part of the nation, rather it extend through nearly all regions.  To wit, inner city employment grew in eight out of nine Census regions (except the East, North Central, or Rustbelt region) between 2002 and 2011, see chart above left.

"Census Divisions"
citylab.com

Richard Florida writes, "This effect was again even more pronounced during the immediate post-crisis period (2009-2011), when six out of nine regions saw faster employment growth in their inner cities compared to their suburbs." See chart on the left.

The map below left, identifies competitive inner cities throughout the United States.  In general, the study concluded that "inner cities in 144 out of 281 metro saw jobs gains according the broad definitions (shown in purple on the map)."  Eighty-five metropolitans witnessed gains based on the narrow definition, based on the more distressed parts of the inner city (in yellow)

"Regions with competitive inner cities"
citylab.com

Larger and denser metropolitans like New York and San Francisco experienced greater employment growth in their inner cities while more sprawling metropolitans such as Dallas and Houston experienced a similar trend in their suburbs.  However, Los Angeles and San Antonio-historically ruled by suburbs- saw a measurable increased in inner city employment from 2002 and 2011. In general, "...metros that have experienced an inner-city revival tend to be geographically diverse with above-average high-wage job growth, lower levels of racial segregation, and less job sprawl than other metros."

The study also revealed that the inner city revival is powered by the increased of high-wage sectors of the economy.  This squares with other research which concluded that inner cities have greater concentrations of high-skilled jobs in finance, media, entertainments, and in some cases, technology.  Specifically, inner cities have benefited from a serious expansion of teaching and medical jobs-i.e. "eds and meds-" which added over 1.7 million inner city jobs between 2002 and 2011.  Mr. Florida's own research suggests that while the eds and meds have increased employment, "...they are not necessarily important drivers of metro economies compared to tech or creative sectors."  On the opposite side of the coin, the food service industry added 323,000 low-wage jobs in inner cities, a signifier of the division of high- and low-skill economies, or the the g-word: gentrification.

43-06 102nd Street
North Corona, New York
nye.epeak.in

Further according to the study, inner cities continued to deindustrialize-losing 782,000 fairly well-paying manufacturing jobs between 2002 and 2011.  However, higher-wage inner city job growth, usually connected to universities and medical centers; low-wage employment in restaurant and retail establishment may indicate movement of affluent households back to the city.

Overall, the study concluded that "...inner-city employment growth was faster in neighborhoods in the most central, functional, and desirable areas of cities-those that are close to downtown, have the best access to nearby transit, and are adjacent to areas with lots of population growth."  This implies that the urban renaissance may be increasingly focused to the more advantaged parts of the city, while poverty stricken neighborhoods face continued limitations o economic upward mobility.

Outdoor cafe
sustainablecitiescollective.com

Business clusters in the inner city

A second study, Clusters and Regional Performance (Ibid) by Mercedes Delgado of the MIT Sloan School of Management and Kimberly Zeuli of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, looked at the clusters of businesses and industries in the inner city.  The authors used data from the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project to analyze the link between clusters and job growth in more than 300 inner cities from 2003 and 2011.  In this study, "inner cities" were defined as "...economically distressed areas with high concentrations of poverty and unemployment."  The study narrowed its focused on clusters of "...higher-value-added, higher-wage industries that trade goods and services with others places."

West Baltimore row houses
Baltimore, Maryland
comebackcity.us

Like Michael Porter, the Delgado and Zeuli study observes that "...inner cities start off at a significant economic disadvantage compared to both their surrounding central cities and metro areas."  Case in point, "...the average inner city suffers from a 30 percent poverty, compared to 17 percent for the average central city and 14 percent for the average metro."  Inner cities also present lower incomes per capita, lower education rates, lower employment rates than central cities or metropolitans.

Regardless of these economics stressors, inner cities do have a considerable competitive edge.  Essentially, the study concluded that cities that specialize in the five key clusters: business services, electronic commerce, education, financial service, hospitality and tourism account for more than 200,000 jobs across over 300 inner cities in the study.  Richard Florida writes, "The stronger-or more concentrated-these industry clusters are, the higher an inner the higher an inner city's employment growth is likely to be."  Nationally, the industries that presented greater shares of employment in inner cities include the performing arts and apparel.  Employment increases in inner city clusters is also higher with the greater city and metropolitan ares have strong clusters.

Signs of an inner-city revival

What did we learn from these studies?  We learned that their substantial proof of an ongoing inner city revival, which goes beyond the influx of young educated talent.  This renaissance is also being powered by large anchor institution: traded industry and high-wage, high-skill jobs.  Although the economic revival of the inner cities spans across a variety of places, it is most noticeable in larger, denser, more educated cities-specifically in the more functional, accessible, and desirable parts to the these cities.  Distressed cities and communities, most affected by deindustrialization continue to skipped over by the urban revival.  That aside, these cities are also experiencing a significant urban revitalization have serious economic and spatial divides that separate places of concentrated advantage and disadvantage.