New and Old #188

Friday roundup and commentary

The Revolt of the Urban Public?, City of Yes, Ryan Puzycki, November 08, 2024

While the presidential election results have disappointed many city dwellers, the results in our actual, non-metaphorical cities show that the urban electorate also wanted something different—not a wholesale ideological shift, but leaders who actually take the problems of urban governance seriously.

And:

Zooming in on some of the specific races in urban areas, city dwellers appear to have voted for urban abundance and against urban dysfunction, even as they still largely voted for Harris. Coast to coast, voters expressed dissatisfaction with housing scarcity, streets impacted by drug use and visible homelessness, and prosecutors deemed “soft on crime”—and they voted against the politicians and policies who were responsible for it all.

And finally:

As in 2016, I fear there will be a temptation among some local leaders to nationalize local politics in protest of the president-elect. This should be strongly resisted. While I am personally disappointed (though not surprised) by the presidential election’s outcome, I wish the incoming president well and hope, for all our sakes, that he is able to recruit competent patriots to staff his administration—and that time will reveal some of the uglier aspects of his campaign to be rhetoric more than reality. Regardless of how Donald Trump comports himself in office, American cities do not need more posturing and grandstanding on issues that City Hall does not control, and adding ammunition to the urban-rural culture war will surely not help cities. As the red shift signals, voters want results—and leaders who will deliver them.

On how the incoming administration will govern, nobody knows—probably not even the next president himself. But the overall thrust of this piece is that real, on-the-ground issues matter, and that competent urban governance matters. Renaming the public schools you shut down for two years or renaming the dangerous, unwalkable six-lane Confederate General Highway? Yeah, maybe those are not the top priorities.

Windmill Island, Philly Bricks, November 17, 2010

I found this piece saved in my browser, cleaning up all my tabs, from the last time I was in Philly. I like reading about places I’m in, and my browser tabs are like strata of rocks where you can tell where I was and when I opened them based on what they’re about.

This is a brief entry from a neat, old-school local blog about an island—originally one, later two because a canal was cut through the middle—in the Delaware River near Philadelphia.

As a city’s structural evolution spans centuries, it’s easy to forget how much the natural landscape changes as well. City building involves much more than moving trees. Rivers are displaced, streams are eliminated, and mountains are torn down. If Mother Nature had her way, London would be under water. With engineers constantly working in the background, we see her coming up through the cracks in the sidewalk every day.

At the site of a shipwreck sometime prior to the late 1600’s, in the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden, nature began reclaiming its own. As dirt collected around the decaying barge, two islands began to take shape.

The islands were working-class day resorts, basically, and had a bunch of amenities added over the years, but they were removed to improve navigation for shipping/cargo vessels.

What a neat little story you’d never find out just exploring the city! Here’s a little more history of the island(s).

You’re Somebody Special, Does This Sound Simple Enough?, Matt Stokes, November 12, 2024

Of course we left empty-handed before heading to the Pecan Lodge to gorge ourselves on smoked brisket and peach cobbler, but here’s the thing - every single person we encountered in that store was friendly and helpful. The staff took their work and their customers seriously. And there wasn’t anything snobbish about it - my adolescent daughter was welcomed by saleswomen offering dresses that I fear I cannot afford any time soon, and my Auburn friend had me trying on sports coats with no concern for my immediate intentions to make a purchase.

All of that experience reminded me of what customer service could and, in all honesty, should, look like. Take your work seriously. Take yourself and your customers seriously. Even if that person isn’t buying today, you have no idea when they may return. And even if they never do, they are a person who ought to be afforded the same dignity you would offer the man or woman whose purchase might lead to a significant commission….

Part of the problem with running a business these days seems to be that no one - neither owners, nor staff, nor customers - really expects anything of anyone.

Yep. That all checks out for me.

Streams from our Past, Washington, D.C. Department of Energy & Environment

I guess we’re doing old bits of the natural environment in cities today. This is interactive story/GIS map showing all of the streams that were altered/covered/etc. as Washington, D.C. grew. It’s pretty neat, check it out!

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Related Reading:

New and Old #64

New and Old #65

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