New Geography in the News

Some Americans have problems with the content of The Pledge of Allegiance, and I'm among them, though I won't admit to any lack of commitment to my country or its founding principles. The Pledge always made me feel conflicted, for reasons I could never articulate well. Now there are some interesting ideas circulating about this, one of which can be summarized by the question: "Shouldn't the government pledge allegiance to the people rather than the other way around?"

Michael on Humanaturalism

"'Detroit has become ground zero for North America's local food movement. Last year there were roughly 550 gardens in the city's urban farming network. This year there are more than 850. Driving around the city, you can see everything that will make up your dinner—chickens, goats, mushrooms, plum trees, honeybee hives.... Here, a locavore doesn't eat food that's traveled 100 kilometres. She eats food that's travelled 10.'"

Aaron on The Pasture Gate

Is a Jackson revival under way? I'm referring not to the late King of Pop but to the 19th century populist president whom his opponents called “King Andrew.” According to Michael Barone, in the 2010 elections Republicans have a chance to knock Democrats out of as many as three dozen insecure congressional seats in “Jacksonian districts.”By itself, this would merely reinforce the identification of the Party Formerly Known as Lincoln's with the white South.

Michale on The Hollywood Liberal

“A conservative estimate is that $9 worth of CDS “insurance” has been sold for every $1 in mortgage bond. Therefore, someone stands to gain $9 if the homeowner defaults, but only $1 if they pay. The economic incentives favor foreclosure, not mortgage work-outs or Main Street bailouts.”

Susanne on Ea O Ka Aina

"Old-style Democrat Michael Lind asks a timely question in a Salon essay entitled Can populism be liberal?"

Michael on Far Outliers

That was certainly one of the strongest messages to emerge from the residents of Indianapolis's Smart Growth Redevelopment District. They know better than anyone whether their community is safe enough to flourish. And then on Friday I ran across a thoughtful but troubling blog post from Indianapolis resident and Urbanophile Aaron Renn, about all sorts of things, but concluding with some notes about a shooting in a revitalized section of his city (not the redevelopment district I visited).

Aaron on The Huffington Post

Less than two years ago, Sunbelt-and-sprawl advocate Joel Kotkin wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the future of American urbanism wasn’t in the “elite cities,” such as New York, Boston and San Francisco, but in “younger, more affordable and less self-regarding places.” His examples included Las Vegas.

Joel on The Providence Journal

In an Oct. 19 Newsweek article, Joel Kotkin refers to the concept as "new localism". Kotkin, a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., wrote "The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050," which will be published in 2010. Kotkin said "an aging population, suburbanization," the Internet and an increased focus on family life contribute to new localism.

Joel on The Times Daily

"New Geography, the online magazine created by Joel Kotkin and others with a special focus on demographics and trends, has been tracking the implosion of California in an interesting way: by comparing it to Texas."

Joel on The American

In a lengthy comparison of government efficiency between the states of California and Texas in a City Journal article, Voegeli shows California’s government model fails to deliver for its citizens and overcharges dearly for that failure. Quoting the New Geography’s (and occasional Fox and Hounds contributor) Joel Kotkin, to make the point: “Twenty years ago, you could go to Texas, where they had very low taxes, and you would see the difference between there and California. Today, you go to Texas, the roads are no worse, the public schools are not great but are better than or equal to ours, and their universities are good.”

"Those decades are certainly making a difference in the political scene, report authors Morley Winograd and Michael Hais in the book, "Millennial Makeover; MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American Politics" (2008, Rutgers University Press, $24.95). They write that today's youth are taking more tolerant attitudes to the voting booth, and giving modern-day pollsters a completely different set of numbers on some interesting political issues, compared to their parents."

Morley and Mike in Jackson Free Press

“Copenhagen was always doomed by the opposition from China, India and Russia. It was always a rich man’s club — E.U., U.S. and Japan — and can only succeed by weakening those economies vis-à-vis the developing countries. In the U.S., U.K. and parts of Europe, the cap-and-trade system is being seen ... as a rigged game that hurts the middle and working classes, benefits Wall Street, expands the bureaucracy and may well do very little to clean up the environment. A new approach is needed that does not disadvantage the middle-income, private-sector constituencies that the administration seems ready to throw to the wolves.”

Joel on POLITICO

"Indeed by some accounts, most embarrassingly in a recent Time magazine cover, the shift to green technologies has already created a “thriving” economy."

Joel on Reuters Blog

First, yes, Michael Lind is spot on. We should be pledging to other people, not the government.

Michael on The Socratic Gadfly

A piece (also reflecting on the “zillions of pictures to illustrate the vast emptiness of Detroit) in the Urbanophile blog by Aaron Renn on “Detroit as the New American Frontier” was resurrected in the New York Times and Time magazine. “One thing this massive failure has made possible is ability to come up with radical ideas for the city, and potentially to even implement some of them. Places like Flint and Youngstown might be attracting new ideas and moving forward, but it is big cities that inspire the big, audacious dreams. And that is Detroit.”

Aaron on Archizoo