Urban Politics and Economic Development

I put in an index so it’s a bit easier for you to see everything-- I’m not sure how familiar you are with Tumblr! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Graphics five: Green Jobs

In class, we read an article about green jobs, and how cities are making an effort to make more green jobs. Green jobs help communities save energy, produce alternative energy, and try and help the environment. However, a lot of green jobs are high-end technology-- for engineers, scientists, and other jobs for highly skilled people.

However, more of an effort is being made to move away from just those high tech, high paying jobs, to those that are more suited for low-skill workers. When good jobs like green jobs come into a community, one can only hope that they would take those unemployed from that community. With this movement toward more low-skill jobs, this may become more of a reality. The article above discusses the steps in order to integrate more low-skill workers into the green job sector. Their steps are:

Curricular reforms Strong partnerships between employers and training providers Career paths Financial assistance Recruitment efforts and support services for non-traditional workers

In class, we spoke about the need for green jobs on a local community level. Providing jobs for low-skill workers helps not only themselves, but also builds the community from the bottom up, which in turn helps the economy and everyone else. It provides low-skill people with employment and higher paying jobs, all while helping the environment. This is something that the United States has to be particularly conscience about. The United States is one of the leading producers in carbon emissions.

Interests five: FDR and the New Deal

During the 1930′s, on top of and because of the Dust Bowl, the United States suffered a great economic depression. Unemployment was at an all time high, people lined up for blocks just to get soup for the day, and people were living in slums right underneath the towering skyline of New York City. In order to get rid of this, FDR proposed his New Deal, which contained a myriad of programs in order to revitalize the American economy.

Interests four: Economic History of Slavery

I suppose we didn’t discuss anything like this is class, per se, but slavery was a huge economic factor for the United States from before Independence until even after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery drove business and labor in the south, and the north also reaped the benefits. It shaped part of our Constitution, and many other pieces of legislation to be added to the document. It is one of the many points of the creation of the horrible system of racism we have in our country today, something of which we definitely discussed in class.

In Ehrenhalt’s book, one of the chapters discussed a case study in which an influx of Hispanic workers moved into the suburbs around Atlanta. They were recruited to work on building a stadium for the 1996 Olympics. However, once the job was done, most of the community decided to stay in the area. Before that, the Hispanic community was only about 7 percent. After, it rose to about 41%.

Week Fifteen Picture: Skyscrapers

This picture is from the top floor of the Guinness Factory in Dublin, Ireland. As you can see, there are no tall buildings, no sky scrapers, nothing. I recently read an article that was pushing for skyscrapers, because if they do not, unemployment will rise. Cities need to expand in order for businesses to move in. Cities need to expand in order for people to move in. Without expanding the city upwards, they run the risk of unemployment and very, very high costs of living.

Week Thirteen Picture: Food Desert

For class, we read an article that talked about food deserts. Right now in Baltimore, they’re facing that crisis. A food desert is an area where there is little to no access to a grocery store. Access to fresh produce and a large variety of good food products is essential to quality of life. This problem reflects one that is currently happening in Camden as well. Especially for poorer communities, where it may be harder to get to areas out of the city, it’s essential to have grocery stores in walking distance.

In class, we discussed the decline of Detroit, and we talked about reasons why that may have happened. One of the reasons was that they relied on only one industry-- the car industry. And when that industry started to decline, the entire city lost it’s means of income. Even local shops were catering to the car industry, by way of supplying parts, etc. They had no one to supply to once the big companies left, and thus they too failed or had to relocate. The take away lesson was that cities need a variety of businesses in order to thrive.

One of Camden’s big industries was shipbuilding. Since there’s not as high a demand for that anymore, especially because of the lack of war [at least in relation to WWII, etc], the city requires a bit of a boost in employment. This might be a solution. Subaru, the car company, is planning to put their head quarters in Camden. The article even discusses how Subaru will become an anchor entity in the city, something we learned is very important for revitalization in an area.

Interests three: Alexander Hamilton

Perhaps one of the most important events in America for economic development was from one of our most important founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton. He took our nation of states from independent financial systems to one that would assume state debt and establish a national bank. It would give the United States a new line of credit as well as a stronger centralized government. This was also the start of something else-- political parties, because Thomas Jefferson and others disagreed so fiercely against this new plan. In the end, Hamilton won out, and the bank was the result.

Graphic four: City Pollution v. Country Pollution

In Glaeser’s book Triump of the City, he discusses the problem of pollution. More specifically, he talks about nature, and country living, and how he believes that living in a more rural setting is actually more perpetually contributing to pollution than living in a city. It sounds a bit counter intuitive, considering how often we see Chinese cities engulfed in smog. But are cities the true enemy? Glaeser thinks not. And I have to agree. The two main arguments that he makes are that in cities, many people don’t use cars-- they walk or use public transportation. In rural living, that’s virtually impossible, and most people use cars and trucks to get around or transport things. Additionally, he says that there’s a lot less energy used in cities. It takes a lot less energy and heat to warm up a top floor apartment than it does to heat up a drafty country home on a hill.

Graphic three: Rent in Cities

Cities have only grown in their popularity in more recent years, and with that comes an increase in costs of living, namely rent. While renters have historically spent about a quarter of their income on housing costs on average, they can now expect to spend about 30%, says Zillow, a real estate website. Higher demand to live in cities, and as we discussed in class, lower supply leads to higher demand.

Week Eleven Picture: City v. Suburbs

This is a sign outside my house-- we are trying to move. Currently we live in the suburbs. Ideally, we’d live to move a bit closer to the city--about five minutes away. My parents are getting a bit older, and so it’s hard to maintain a three bedroom house with a pool and two stories, and it’s too expensive. Our property taxes are about the same as if we were paying a second mortgage, which doesn’t really allow for my self-employed dad and our family to save money in the long run.

Week Nine Picture: Not In My Backyard

In class, we watched a movie about how a community, which is poorer and made up of a largely minority community, had to battle against racism, pollution, and a number of other issues. It tells the story of a Delaware community in which several large facilities had been built ranging from medical waste supplies dump to trash incineration services. In not so many words, it’s disgusting. Citizens report issues of smells, business owners, especially food services, are virtually unable to sell their products because bad smells are not very conducive to eating good food. Additionally, they reported health issues as a result from fumes, and not properly disposed of medical waste. One worker recalled being poked by a discarded medical needle while he was working, and he suffered multiple health problems following because of it.

These businesses have to go somewhere, absolutely. But the issue is that no one wants this type of thing in their community. And the bigger issue is that because this is a poor community, they do not have the access, money, or pull in order to fight against these things in their community, and they ultimately lose. It raises a problem of classism and racism.

This Wall Street-esque district in Philadelphia is home to a ton of business offices, but not much else. The author talks about how business people have to travel in order to get food for lunch because of the lack of anything BUT business office sky scrapers. However, new developers are trying to re-invigorate their own sidewalk spaces and uses by adding interesting things to draw people in to their buildings, such as arcades in their new and improved lobbies. In addition, a new building housing three different restaurants plans to be installed, which will help keep business in the district, giving business people more of a reason to stay. "It's something we've been advocating for as a company, and not simply to create revenue" for the new owners, he told me. Adding restaurants and retail variety, he says, "will make Market Street a better place."

Interests two: California

This is a song by the Indie Rock band, Death Cab for Cutie. They’re my favorite band. They sing a lot of songs about California, and this one in particular is about living in the city of Los Angeles. In it, the singer talks more generally about city living, but also touches on some of the problems that go along with that. Pollution, smells, overcrowding, skylines, public transportation.

We spoke a lot about pollution in cities, and one of the lines goes as follows:

And I can't see why you'd want to live here. I'm in Los Angeles today... Asked a gas station employee if he ever had trouble breathing And he said "It varies from season to season, kid."

Week Eight Picture: NOH8.

A few years ago, a few friends and I ventured to New York to get this professional picture taken. It was with an organization called NOH8 (No Hate). NOH8 advocates on behalf of LGBT rights, and travels all over the world taking pictures of people in support of the cause. Many celebrities and respectable public figures have had their pictures taken by Adam Bouska in order to pledge their support.