As a follow-up to Monday's post, the two top finishers in the Chicago mayoral election were Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle. They will meet in an April runoff. During the election I was down in Miami speaking at the Knight Foundation's annual Media Forum. I was honored to be invited to participate and was on a panel devoted to smarter cities. Here's the video of our session. If the video player doesn't display for you, click over to watch on You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1_tITUf9wQ … [Read more...]
Don’t Fall in the Branding Trap
My latest piece is online in City Lab. It's another look at urban branding. Here's an excerpt. The problem with the typical approach extends beyond just marketing. It has tangible consequences. A brand is really a city’s conception of itself. By selling itself as a facsimile of something its not, a city ends up turning that into reality. Thus, so many urban places today seem vaguely the same—a blur of Edison-bulbed eateries and mid-rise “one plus five” apartment buildings (in which up to five stories of wood frame construction are built atop a … [Read more...]
Nashville Hot Chicken and the Pork Tenderloin: A Tale of Two Sandwiches
One of the things you're sure to hear about if you read up on Nashville is a local dish called "Nashville hot chicken," a local culinary specialty. To listen to people talk about it, you'd think eating Nashville hot chicken was some kind of ancient local religious rite. In fact, Nashville hot chicken appears to be a dish of fairly recent provenance. According to the Wikipedia entry for it: Anecdotal evidence suggests that spicy fried chicken has been served in Nashville for generations. The current dish may have been introduced as early … [Read more...]
Northern Ambition: Young and Foreign in the Twin Cities Circa 1987
[ When I wrote about there being social factors other than the cold keeping people from moving to Minneapolis, Sami Karam, a Lebanese immigrant who now lives in New York City and posts insightful demographic analysis as his site Populyst, mentioned that he'd had similar experiences trying to fit in there when he lived in Minneapolis in the 1980s. I asked him if he'd write up his experience, and he graciously agreed. While this story is about 30 years old, I believe it still holds relevance today. You can also follow Sami on twitter at … [Read more...]
The Rise and Fall of Cities in Books
Google Books' ngram tool lets you search and compare mentions of various terms in books that they've digitized. I ran some city names through it to see how the relative level of mentions of these places has changed over time. These aren't perfect. Some city names are too generic to really isolate, like Columbus (could refer to Christopher) or Charlotte (a common name). Others I assumed do typically refer to the major city of that name, but have other uses as well (Paris, St. Louis). Also, these are English language city name searches, and I'm … [Read more...]
The Strange Case of Civic Identity in Northeast Ohio
I was recently in Akron presenting a forthcoming paper of mine. One of the interesting things about the Northeast Ohio constellation of cities is that there's a very weak sense of regional identity. In almost any other context, Cleveland and Akron would be considered some type of twin city ecosystem. Consider: Dallas and Ft. Worth are 32 miles apart. Seattle and Tacoma are 34 miles about. Cleveland and Akron are 39 miles apart. Cleveland's Cuyahoga County and Akron's Summit County are also physically contiguous. Yet, Cleveland … [Read more...]
Best “Made In Indiana” Logo Ever
I picked up a bottle of Terra Botanical Gin from Bloomington, Indiana's Cardinal Spirits and noticed this interesting logo on it. Many cites and states are attempting to create pride of place by various "Made in X" logos to indicate the location of origin. Coming up with a great logo is pretty tough, no matter where you are from. Most of the ones I've seen are fairly workaday. Indiana of course has done the same. There are a variety of "Made in Indiana" logos you can browse online at Google. This one is by far the best I've seen. I … [Read more...]
Are Cities Too Conservative?
Political conservatism is all but extinct in cities, but the conservative impulse is alive and well. That is, a desire to prevent change in the name of preserving something that people find of value is still a powerful motivating force. Historic preservation is an example of the conservative impulse. NIMBYism is an example of the conservative impulse. Anti-gentrification advocacy is an example of the conservative impulse. In fact, it strikes me that cities are more conservative now than they were in the past. Previous generations … [Read more...]
The Great Non-Profit Die Off
Marc Lapides wrote an op-ed in Crain's Chicago Business calling for an 1871 accelerator for creating new non-profits. Most cities could actually use the opposite. What they need is an infrastructure for euthanizing non-profits that are past their expiration date. When I look around older cities, I frequently see that they've got a veritable armada of non-profits. Rarely do I see these making a huge difference in the trajectory of the city. The usual complaint about too many non-profits is that they aren't coordinated, and so often … [Read more...]
Seven Ways Life Has Gotten Better in Rural America
Rural America is taking a beating in the news. Part of it is deserved. I grew up in rural Indiana and am shocked at some of what is going on there: severe hard drug problems, HIV outbreaks, serious crime, etc. Things are a long way from when I was a kid there in the 70s and 80s and people not only left their doors unlocked, they left their keys in the car. While I don't want to minimize the challenges facing rural America, there's a lot that has flat out gotten better since I first moved to Harrison County in first grade around … [Read more...]
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