I thought I would make a new thread for this article (which I just read) and book (which I just ordered). While I do not entirely agree with all the premises, this author captures an essence I have long observed and wondered about: the fact that the most progressive neighborhoods who romanticize certain ideas of urbanism are, in their very way of being, extraordinarily reactionary, and have led to the housing crisis we have now.
At one of many community meetings I attended in JP when I lived there, which was over 2 post-WW2 tiny one-floor homes that were proposed to be rebuilt as a much larger apartment building, I had quite a confrontation. I didnt even like the building being proposed, but I watched the community representatives and after they all spoke against it, I observed that nearly every one of them had moved to JP when it was cheap to buy property, and every one of them now owned homes worth over a million dollars, whereas I and my wife, with good salaries, would never even consider buying a home in JP. And how despite believing they were defenders of the community, they were actually part of the problem. Well, they griped, then at the end of the meeting, Weezy, whom you can look up and who is quite the progressive activist in local housing, screamed at me with a "how dare you" tirade as the meeting ended. This is a woman who has a single family home right on the SWC park, with an enormous yard, living there since the 70s, yet goes around suppressing any change in the interest of keeping the neighborhood the quirky hippie haven that it was when she moved there... despite the fact that the more you try to preserve these elements, the more impossible they become to maintain. Her idea of JP is almost totally vanished, and that's precisely because of the politics that this article talks about.
I think this is a genuine and deep issue for humanity: how can we preserve things that are good without them losing the living elements that make them so great? Because turning every funky neighborhood into a heavily development-restricted zone inevitably turns it into a museum.
Anyway, here's the article, and I'll let you all know how the book is when I read it.
www.theatlantic.com
At one of many community meetings I attended in JP when I lived there, which was over 2 post-WW2 tiny one-floor homes that were proposed to be rebuilt as a much larger apartment building, I had quite a confrontation. I didnt even like the building being proposed, but I watched the community representatives and after they all spoke against it, I observed that nearly every one of them had moved to JP when it was cheap to buy property, and every one of them now owned homes worth over a million dollars, whereas I and my wife, with good salaries, would never even consider buying a home in JP. And how despite believing they were defenders of the community, they were actually part of the problem. Well, they griped, then at the end of the meeting, Weezy, whom you can look up and who is quite the progressive activist in local housing, screamed at me with a "how dare you" tirade as the meeting ended. This is a woman who has a single family home right on the SWC park, with an enormous yard, living there since the 70s, yet goes around suppressing any change in the interest of keeping the neighborhood the quirky hippie haven that it was when she moved there... despite the fact that the more you try to preserve these elements, the more impossible they become to maintain. Her idea of JP is almost totally vanished, and that's precisely because of the politics that this article talks about.
I think this is a genuine and deep issue for humanity: how can we preserve things that are good without them losing the living elements that make them so great? Because turning every funky neighborhood into a heavily development-restricted zone inevitably turns it into a museum.
Anyway, here's the article, and I'll let you all know how the book is when I read it.
How Progressives Froze the American Dream
The U.S. was once the world’s most geographically mobile society. Now we’re stuck in place—and that’s a very big problem.
www.theatlantic.com
