More than 50 Asian restaurants line the sidewalks between Vine and Race streets and 8th and 11th streets. Attracting more than thousands of visits per year, Philly’s Chinatown has become a popular destination spot for tourists and Philadelphia’s own residents. With rising fuel costs and import taxes, Philly may be hit with another blow, possibly resulting in a decrease of visits and thus a decrease in business profits for these small business owners.  The New York Times reports the trade deficit edged up in January, and the amount of money being paid for imports is rising at a double-digit rate for the first time since the fall of 2006.

Small businesses like Chung May Food Market has already felt the economic blow. “I used to buy a bag of exotic rice, like jasmine, for about $15, but the price has more than doubled, even for flour,” says Chung May, the store’s owner. Flurrying to grocery stores and markets, shoppers are stocking up on bags of rice. The short-term demand has skyrocketed the prices despite the decrease in production.

Like many small grocers, Chung May Food Market has eliminated the middleman. Sitting and waiting by the docks and receiving the first-handed shipment from distributors has decreased the tax and miscellaneous fees on imported goods for May. “A lot of us [small business owners] have been waiting at the docks to get the first shipment so there’s no extra tax for us.”

Another backlash for many Asian business owners have been the recent recalls on items made in China. “Luckily we don’t sell any of the ones that have been recalled but I’ve noticed many customers, including a lot of Asians who normally don’t read the labels on the back, reading and checking the labels,” says May. The pressure continues to grow for Asian store owners with a stressed economic relationship with China.

With increases on fuel and fertilizer prices, NPR has reported the cost of rice intensified up to 30%. Heavily dependent on imported goods, small owners in Chinatown are having a difficult time meeting the well-known cheap prices Asian markets are infamous for. “A majority of the items in my store are about 50% from China and the rest from other Asian countries like Taiwan and Japan,” says Anthony Lew of New World Laundromat and Food Market.

Tucked among a long line of stores and restaurants, the unassuming storefront can be easily overlooked by visitors and travelers. A small market with an entire backroom filled with several washers and dryers, customers are mainly local consumers. Purchasing snacks and other miscellaneous grocery items while waiting for the spinning cycles to finish, Lew has noticed a gradual slow in traffic to the market.

Seeping into the restaurant business, the pressure of the rice economy has also steamed restaurateurs. The rising import taxes on flour alone have set back many restaurants, leading to an increase on meal prices.  “The regular food price increased by a lot, some by 100%. That really hurt the restaurant business. A lot of the restaurants are going to adjust the menu price,” says Michael Chow, Executive Chef and Owner of Sang Kee Peking Duck, Sang Kee Asian Bistro, Peking Noodle House, and Sang Kee at the Reading Terminal Market. Much of Sang Kee’s menus specialize in noodles served with over 200 listed choices to eat with the noodles. Without rice, many Asian restaurants would be in abyss. Dishes are served along with a bowl of rice or noodles to complement the salty, sweet, and spicy flavors of the East. Diners, who are accustomed to the reasonable prices that many Asian restaurants offer, are sure to notice the difference.

The struggle to keep prices low in Chinatown will be at test, more so now than ever before. Competition is steep and the hunger for rice isn’t about to decline. Will Chinatown be able to keep up with the community’s demands to preserve the soul of this neighborhood?

A riot of wildflowers on our street in Civano.  Worthy of two “weed cards,” so far.  Photo by Simmons Buntin.

There has been another kind of flash this season, too — the mailing of nearly 200 “weed cards,” postcards noting that a troupe of CC&R committee members found the homeowner’s yard to be in violation.  The general culprit: weeds.  Another possibility: a shabby yard.  The bottom line: though Civano’s landscape guidelines provide for a wide variety of native flowers, the legally-binding covenants, codes, and restrictions reign in the less manicured yards.

And that has people up in arms, as anyone privy to Civano’s online forum or the HOA Board meetings can attest.  I’m as guilty as anyone, receiving two cards this season — which means four distinct times CC&R committee members have noted my yard’s non-compliance, for each card is sent only after the second site tour finds a continuing problem.  The first card was legitimate; the second seemed wrong, pointing to the source of most of the community’s subsequent outcry: the CC&R committee calling something a weed when in fact it is not.  Some residents are so miffed that they have commissioned the creation of a wildflower brochure and checklist for those who gauge violations.

Civano is the first neighborhood in which I’ve owned a home that has a homeowners association.  Previously, I lived in a clapboard bungalow in Denver’s Berkeley Park neighborhood.  Our house was built in 1903, the house next door in 1929, and the brick ranch across the street in 1950.  It was an eclectic neighborhood with lovely tree-lined streets, flagstone sidewalks, and alleys behind homes.  We had no HOA, let alone CC&Rs.  Yards were a mix: some were lavishly landscaped, fronting large Denver Squares or Victorians — a clear source of pride for homeowners and neighbors alike.  Some were basic lawns with little ornamentation.  And a good many were in various states of repair.  I remember the grand plans my wife and I had for our yard, before expending our allowances on other, more essential items such as upstairs plumbing. 

A corner lot in Civano warranted special notation from Civano’s CC&R Committee, which asked: Is it too shabby?  Photo by Simmons Buntin.

I don’t once recall wishing there was a quasi-governmental, neighborhood-based organization that defined how ragged our yards could or could not be.  I’m sure, though, that I wasn’t fond of some of the yards, or the occasional car up on blocks, or the tarp-covered cord of firewood.  Yet I must admit that even these eyesores were a part of the neighborhood’s charm — the rich mix, the occasional surprise, of the urban yard.

In suburbia, however, the yard equation appears to be something akin to C + SL = HPV:

Conformity + Sterile Landscaping = Higher Property Values

And that, apparently, equals happy homeowners.  Never mind that many neighbors moved to Civano and communities across the West not so much for property value as for community — the ability to interact with neighbors in a neighborhood of lush native landscaping and regional architecture.  Officially, Civano is the Community of Civano, after all.

Landscaping battles such as these have prompted garden writer and Civano resident Scott Calhoun to promote his Desert Gardener’s Bill of Rights for Homeowners Associations.  It will appear in his forthcoming book, The Hot Garden, but certainly isn’t limited to desert communities.  According to Calhoun’s Bill of Rights, homeowners shall have the right to grow annual and perennial wildflowers in their yard and let the seed on the plants mature before cleaning them up; harvest rainwater to water their garden; grow any native plants found within the wild within 50 miles and at an elevation of 1,000 feet above or below their lot; maintain their plants in natural forms that are not pruned into balls and boxes; and have a yard that is dormant during cold and dry spells, among others.

Even the weeds can be beautiful, as this desert dandelion seed head proves.  Still, it must go.  Photo by Simmons Buntin.

This Gardener’s Bill of Rights gets to the heart of preserving natural landscapes and features within the city.  It seems to me that the only way for cities to remain healthy for generations is to grow in concert with the natural environment.  Naturally landscaped yards are not only beautiful; they also promote natural drainage, provide wildlife habitat, assist in cleaning air and water, and help establish that increasingly elusive “sense of place.”

Yet wildflower wars like ours are being waged across the West, and it’s not just yards that are at stake.  It gets to the very seed of our flowery souls.

Among current efforts that should interest Next American City readers is the Living Cities Census Series that examines key demographic, social, and housing data to document the changing reality of the nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas. The Metro website also hosts an interactive data site that places the top American cities and metropolitan areas in a national context and provides comparative rankings on key indicators from the Census. The Metropolitan Economy Initiative seeks to better understand the effects of globalization, technological change, and other forces on U.S. metropolitan areas, and to offer policy solutions that respond to those changes.

Running parallel is the Restoring Prosperity Project that aims to catalyze the economic revival of struggling older industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest, looking at successful efforts in Western Europe. Brookings is conducting tailored research in collaboration with a growing network of leaders from industrial cities and working to stimulate market generating policy reforms in seven states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

This just skips across the surface of what Brookings has to offer. The upcoming Summit for American Prosperity: Washington and Metro Areas Working Together will offer a much more detailed sample of what they are about and it’s free to register. The Summit is planned for the evening of June 11, 2008 through Thursday, June 12, 2008 at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC. 

This Summit will launch the policy phase of the Metro Project’s Blueprint for American Prosperity ("Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation, an ambitious, multi-year initiative to build long-term U.S. prosperity by reinvigorating the federal role in promoting the health and vitality of America’s metropolitan areas.") If it sounds like journalism, consider that the President of Brookings is Strobe Talbott, erstwhile journalist for Time and Asst. Secretary for State under Clinton. Brookings, in case it was not obvious, is to Democrats as Heritage is to Republicans. 

Brookings writes: “The Summit program is based on a simple premise: The United States is now fully a metropolitan nation. The largest 100 Metropolitan areas are home to 65 percent of the U.S. population, 68 percent of the nation’s jobs and account for 75 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. These metro areas are our hubs of research and innovation, our centers of human capital, and our gateways of trade and immigration. American competitiveness depends on the health and vitality of our metropolitan areas. The Summit will introduce a new perspective on how to engage the Federal government in a true partnership in support of our MetroNation.”

Here are the big hitters for the soire:

Michael Porter, Professor, Harvard Business School
Henry Cisneros, Chairman, CityView, former HUD Secretary
Strobe Talbott, President, Brookings
James Johnson, Vice Chairman, Perseus LLC, former Chairman and CEO, Fannie Mae
Dale E. Bonner, Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, State of California
Michael Mandel, Chief Economist, Business Week
James Traub, Contributing Writer, New York Times Magazine
Michael Crow, President, Arizona State University
Hilary Pennington, Director of Special Initiatives, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Ron Sims, County Executive, King County, WA (Seattle)
Rob Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Bruce Katz, Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, will unveil the proposed framework for improving the federal partnership with states, localities, universities, other non profit leaders and the private sector – a “Blueprint for American Prosperity.”

Alan Berube, Howard Wial, Rob Puentes and Bruce Katz will introduce policy recommendations and specific, federal “legislatable” ideas to build this new partnership, in such key areas as: infrastructure, workforce housing, education, energy and innovation.

-image courtesy of SimonSays.com

Seniors can’t afford to drive anymore (hold the applause). They’re moving closer to cities and closer to forms of mass transit. They’re turning in their single-family suburban homes for new multi-use condominium developments. In Chicago, the city is flanked by multi-million dollar condo-communities and “senior hotels.” With a little help from our lackluster national economy and other factors, seniors are reliving the big city dreams that Rothman tried so desperately to escape from.

An interesting question to consider- If baby-boomers, our largest population group on the verge of seniority, flock back to cities because of economics, how does this change the dynamics of places like Chicago? Let’s speculate for a moment.

Social Security liberated seniors. It allowed them to choose where they would retire rather than settling in the spare bedrooms of their children’s households. As Early Bird observed, Florida became the Mecca for retirees due to the invention of bug spray, a massive swamp-draining project that created new communities after World War II, and smart city planning. It was marketed to an age group. Cities have always been marketed to the youth (see Richard Florida), but what we fail to realize is that baby-boomers will not live comfortably as their parents did in retirement. The average Social Security payment for an elderly couple is $19,776 per year. Expenses for elders who need some kind of long-term care can add $7,320 in annual expenses to a senior’s budget, and more aggressive care, with or without adult day health services, can add more than $40,000 in annual costs, according to a report by the University of Massachusetts Gerontology Institute in Boston.

Developers in Chicago are doing what their elders did in Florida 50 years ago. They’re selling cities as the new liberation. Chicago boasts the most senior citizens on the internet. Seniors in the Windy City recently got what they want in mass transit free rides through successful debate with Chicago’s city council. Newspapers called it an “unexpected win.” They’re obviously not reading the other newspapers. Read this article which provides testimonials from seniors in Chicago, claiming that they’re having “the time of their lives.”

A transformation is definitely happening but the young have nothing to fear. Seniors are a little more hip these days than in generations past - at least to pop-culture standards. The kids you saw at Woodstock, knee deep in mud and quality marijuana, are now in their sixties. They vote for Clinton, which maybe isn’t as “rock star” as Obama, but at least it’s not as Everly Brothers as John McCain (to be fair to the Arizona senator, his daughter confirms he listens to Lauryn Hill). They’re more connected and less secluded than the generation who moved south to “get away from it all.” What’s the worst that could happen? A sound curfew? Chicago is one of those cities that actually goes to sleep - at 10pm, you won’t find anything open.

Three years ago, MSNBC reported that: “The city [Chicago] is their oyster,” says Mark Muro, a senior policy analyst with the Brookings Institution. “They’re the ones that can really enjoy the full range of nightlife and cultural offers.” During the next decade the number of Americans over the age of 50 — today an estimated 84 million — is expected to triple, leaving many urban areas with new, thriving populations of people in their golden years.”

The projected growth of retiree populations in metropolitan areas in the next ten years?

Minneapolis: 94 percent
Austin, Texas: 92 percent
Atlanta: 80 percent
Denver: 78 percent

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In other Chicago news, prepare to gasp - there’s a foreclosure bus tour, carting around gawkers and homebuyers in an effort to unload. This is for real.

“Foreclosure Home Bus Tour: View foreclosures on the market in Sandwich, Somonauk, Sheridan and Plano. Light lunch provided after tour.”

“To the realtors and mortgage company sponsoring this tour on Saturday and Sunday, it’s another marketing tool, a way to survive in an industry hit hard by the struggling economy. Banks need to get rid of homes. Buyers and investors are looking for the best deals. realtors and mortgage brokers need to pay their bills, just like the rest of us ... Problem is, for some people the ad is a slap in the face—and for all of us a bitter reminder that someone’s financial opportunity is another’s personal tragedy.”

When: Saturday, May 10th, 2008 7PM-11PM
Where: Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19106 www.paintedbride.org

Ticket Information: Admission to the SustainaBall includes complimentary beer and wine, refreshments and live entertainment. Tickets are priced on a sliding scale, from $30 to $50, where guests pay what they can afford.  Tickets are available online at http://www.sbnphiladelphia.org, or by calling 215-922-7400. Tickets will also be available at the door with cash or check.

All proceeds for the event will benefit the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, a nonprofit network of local triple-bottom-line businesses and social entrepreneurs committed to building a more socially, environmentally, and financially sustainable local economy.

We have a spring theme, and guests are encouraged to wear something that reminds them of the budding season, but it is really a “come as you are” type of event. We welcome all kinds!

It is only in the last five to ten seconds of this television spot that the subject comes into full view. Only seen by the ad makers themselves, and perhaps a few General Motor CEOs, this ad’s futuristic representation of GM’s EV1 was never aired.

During the 1990s, the goal to thrust General Motor’s revolutionary electric car into obscurity was on the minds of oil, auto and federal lobbyists alike. A goal easily accomplished in an atmosphere clouded with doubts of fuel economy regulation’s place in a free market economy.

In the 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? Director Chris Paine leads his audience through the events leading to the non-publicized eradication of the extremely efficient electric car. Though many criticize the actual efficiency of the electric car – including questions of battery disposal and infrastructural costs – Paine’s analysis of the federal government’s role in this “murderous” act is spot on. Now with the release of the newly White House-sanctioned regulations set to raise the fleetwide Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars by more than 8 miles per gallon by 2015, the conflict of state versus government regulations on the auto industry has once again reared its ugly head.

On the 39th year of Earth Day, the Transportation Department debuted a new set of gas mileage targets that were green around the edges. Overshooting the benchmarks placed by the Democratic Congress, According to a Congressional Quarterly report, the new CAFE standards would raise “standards for cars to 35.7 mpg” and set the target for vans, sports utility vehicles and smaller pickup trucks at 28.6 mpg. Currently at 27.5 mpg and 22.7 mpg respectively, standards set by this recommendation would pave the way to meet Congress’ ambitious goal of a 35 mpg fleetwide average by 2020.

While these actions come to the pleasant surprise of environmentalists across the country, a controversy that was chiseled on the epitaph of the EV1 has dimmed the lights on any celebrations. With the release of new CAFE standards, The Transportation Department has stood by its position that regulating fuel economy is the federal government’s role, not the concern of individual state governments.

Throughout their history, California has been known to institute tougher emissions standards to thwart smog and pollutants in heavily populated cities such as Los Angeles. In fact, continuing pressure from the State of California helped give birth to the EV1. As many states follow the Golden State’s leading effort to protect the health of city residents, most hope to avoid a federalist smack down from the EPA and Bush administration as they pursue aggressive measures to stymie the ever-growing issue of poor urban air-quality.

In the previously mentioned Congressional Quarterly report, automakers say following California’s emission standards would push a fleetwide average of 36 mpg in just 8 years, rather than the Congressional objective of 1 mpg less in 4 more years. Undoubtedly, the Transportation Department hopes that advocating higher federal standards will discourage states from instituting their own progressive regulations, a hope that will be challenged by lobbyists and lawmakers around the clock.

As Paine’s film points out, the Zero-emissions vehicle mandate in 1990 requiring the production of “zero-emission” vehicles fell at the hands of lobbyists and an uncooperative administration. Being first approved by the California Air Resource Board, and subsequently rejected by the same board after receiving flack from oil and auto lobbies, the beginning of serious energy revolution perhaps could have began decades before Al Gore’s kick of truthful inconvenience, and stricter CAFE standards may have appeared during the 30th Earth Day, rather than the 39th. But unlike the short lived EV1, city and state battles against this current form of federalism will continue until what many science fiction writers actually had in mind does exist: a safe and functioning environment for the cities of the future.

- Evan Miller
The New Argument

The night kicked off with a presentation by Rebar on their COMMONSpace project, a series of innovative events geared toward creatively using public spaces. After better understanding what POPOS are, SPUR Policy Director Sarah Karlinsky led the panelists into a conversation about the physical characteristics of public spaces, the role of the city to incorporate these spaces as part of an open space network, the transition of San Francisco as a commuter city into a residential city and finally, the exchange of civil rights for safety and security. Panelists John Bela, Margie O’Driscoll and Josh Switzky discussed ways to draw awareness to the existing POPOS and to build a constituency to guarantee the continued use of these spaces.

Thank you to all who came out for the symposium. It was great to meet everybody; we can’t wait to plan our next trip to San Francisco! Special thanks to Julie Kim, Vickie Bell and everybody at SPUR for all of their help in putting the symposium together.

-Pooja Shah

Haiku for Next American City’s San Francisco Subscriber Party

Next American
San Francisco? We think so
Delightful party

Thanks to all who came out on Thursday, April 24th for our San Francisco subscriber party at Swig. It was great to meet new and longtime subscribers alike. Special thanks to Kristy Wang and Annie Decker for pulling all the details together.

-Michelle Kuly

Meanwhile, the original sin – a landlord requesting ID on a discriminatory basis – was buried.

Bruning’s refusal to take up Hispanic tenants’ housing complaints has already cost the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission a threatened loss of funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Lawyers from both fair housing and immigrant advocacy groups are considering suing Bruning for abusing fair housing policy. Immigration cases have historically been the sole domain of federal government, but lately some federal courts have been affording state governments their own sway over immigration control. 

Last year, Bruning and Nebraska Governor David Heineman, both Republicans, tried to push legislation that would deny social service benefits to immigrants, but were denied by a committee from the unicameral legislature. Opposing immigrants collecting welfare benefits is one thing, but leaving families without housing would seem to come back and financially bite the state anyway if health, crime or other social costs are the consequences.

Navigating the legality of Bruning’s stance is mystifying. Immigrants are certainly covered by the 5th amendment (right of persons; no person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law) and the 14th amendment (equal protection; no State shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws) even if undocumented. But the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on this as pertaining to the Fair Housing act.

Bruning argues that the 1996 welfare reform law prohibits states from providing any kind of social benefits or assistance to non-citizens. Since Bruning is refusing legal service, not actual housing – the landlord’s violation – he believes that he falls within the law. There’s still the argument that as state attorney general, he has a duty to protect based off the 14th amendment. After all, if every state attorney general applied the same logic, employers, landlords, hospitals and school administrators could discriminate against anyone who even appeared to be an immigrant (namely people who speak Spanish, have a Spanish accent or who were seen at last week’s immigration protests). 

Federal courts are reluctant to intervene in matters like these, due to state prosecutorial discretion. However, there are clauses in the Fair Housing Act that say one can’t make “unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin … or discriminate … in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith.” But it’s unknown how these clauses would be applied to a situation like this, according to fair housing lawyers.

The broader implications of this remain to be seen. There are bi-racial American citizens who will suffer as they may be mistaken for illegal immigrants. Those of low income—your typical renter—won’t be able to afford private lawyers in these cases. In states where immigration inflow is much greater, such as in the southeast, fair housing law organizations may not be able to handle an avalanche of immigration cases.

With protected discrimination comes increased house crowding and homelessness. The social costs would lead to what Bruning supposedly wants to prevent - tax payer dollars used for “illegal aliens”—even though this assumes that undocumented workers aren’t taxpayers themselves.

It would be unfair to label Bruning a racist. He’s against a court decision that allowed reinstatement for former state trooper Robert Henderson who was found to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Bruning argued, “A man who embraces racism and white supremacy shouldn’t be allowed to carry a gun and a badge.”

If Henderson doesn’t get his police job back, hopefully he won’t become a landlord.

“We’re classified as illegal aliens,” says Lee. “The term itself - ‘aliens’ - is ridiculous. How are we supposed to feel like a part of this country when we’re told we’re aliens? We’re always trying to prove we’re residents here with our green cards.” Kevin believes studying in the U.S. education system helped instill the idea that as a citizen, you are given much more than residency in the nation, but a freedom of choice. Lee used to be a car salesman but has decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in business.

In 2004, the U.S. Census reported that about 7 out of 10 Asians were U.S. citizens, whether by birth or naturalization. NBC’s 2008 Exit Polls of the recent democratic primaries reported about 1% of Asian Americans in Pennsylvania’s population voted.  In comparison to California’s strong Asian American presence in the state (14% as stated in the 2006 U.S. Census), NBC reported a total of 8% who voted in the primaries. The 2004 U.S. Census reported that 37% of Asians living in the country are foreign-born and 31% of Asians could not register to vote. Pennsylvania alone reamed a percentage of 70% of foreign-born Asians.

The Asian-American community is composed of various ethnicities and subgroups, each pending from eclectic governments, political stratospheres, and by and large cultural stigmas. Many of them come from undemocratic nations, unaccustomed to American politics. But there are other cultural elements that Asian-Americans bring with them.

Reverend Paul Bang, a leader at Jubilee Presbyterian Church in Conshohocken, PA, believes all religions play a great role in Asian culture and Asian-American communities. Thus, one’s religious perspective will influence how they engage and act in society. “Pastors like me need to do their job to offer a more balanced approach to this issue instead of avoiding political talk altogether…people need to put pressure on schools so that they’re simply not indoctrinating students into adopting a liberal mindset. I believe that when people are exposed to the clear differences between conservatism and liberalism, they will become more interested in the real issues.”

Although the issues at stake in the current election affect all Americans, there are no real issues that are pointed at Asian Americans. Education is a major issue for Asian-American households as well as foreign policy. Speaking more about the political situation in Tibet, addressing North Korea’s government beyond its nuclear program, and generating more empathy for the democratic South Korea are issues that could spark an interest to Asian-Americans, hitting closer to home. A large handful of Asians own small businesses, a form of economy lost in modern politics. According to Rev. Bang, “issues like taxation, and government spending would matter the most.”

Additionally, candidates are often negligent in translating campaign materials. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund reports a case in Philadelphia from the 2004 elections: In Philadelphia’s Chinatown, one limited English proficient voter went to two different poll sites and struggled for nearly three hours before she was finally able to vote by provisional ballot.

The Census Bureau projects that the Asian American population will grow to 37.6 million, or 9.3 percent of the population, by the year 2050. In the future, candidates will have to reach out to Asian American voters. Getting the Asian vote means understanding their culture first.

Bisbee overlook. Photo by Simmons Buntin.

Across America, there are hundreds of reportedly haunted urban locations.  Sets of books have been written about the hauntings of Chicago, for instance, and the 2008 Haunted America Conference (June 20-21; there’s still time to register) takes place in Decatur, Illinois — billed as “the most haunted small city in the Midwest.”

The most haunted town in the Southwest may be Bisbee, which was founded in 1880 after a tracker discovered mineral deposits while seeking out “renegade” Apaches in the Mule Mountains.  One claim begat another, and by 1902 when the “Queen of the Copper Camps” was officially incorporated, and then by 1910 when the downtown was rebuilt after a devastating fire, it was the largest urban area between St. Louis and San Francisco.

The city became one of the most cultured in the Southwest, housing the territory’s first community library, ball fields, and golf course, as well as a popular opera house and as many as fifty saloons in the notorious Brewery Gulch area. 

The Lavendar Pit at Copper Queen Mine. The mine is no longer operational, but mine tours are. Photo by Simmons Buntin.

Its success and wealth until the 1970s are directly correlated to mining.  Eight billion pounds of copper, 102 million ounces of silver, 2.8 million ounces of gold, and millions of pounds of zinc, lead, and manganese were extracted from the massive Copper Queen Mine in that time.  But by 1974 ore reserves were depleted; Phelps Dodge shut down the mine a year later.

Almost overnight hundreds of homes went up for sale and the economy collapsed.  Bisbee was on the brink of becoming a literal ghost town.  But inexpensive real estate and “the most perfect year round climate” drew retirees, “hippies,” artists, and land speculators.  In the three decades since, Bisbee has undergone a resurgence that makes it one of America’s most unique and authentic small towns.

Given its wild history, mountain geography, and distinct architecture, it’s no wonder that people would want to haunt the town.  But what do ghosts tell us about the livability of this place?  What kind of urban indicator can spirits be?

Bisbee’s Copper Queen Hotel.  Photo by Simmons Buntin.

My daughter and I stayed at the Copper Queen Hotel, the area’s grand dame and host to the dignitaries and most flamboyant cowboys and miners of the time.  The spirit of Julia Lowell — a prostitute who fell in love with one of her clients and killed herself when he rejected her — is the hotel’s most famous ghost.  She roams throughout the Copper Queen, regularly visiting the café and room 318.  Other apparitions include a young boy crying on the 4th floor, and “Billy” the long-nosed ghost, an older gentleman in a top hat, in room 312.  Rooms with reported paranormal activity include 412 (windows open and close), 308 (bathroom door opens and closes at night), 304 (doorknob jiggles and locks itself), and 303 (cigar smells and chairs moved against the door).

And then there’s room 210, where my daughter and I slept.  We didn’t know that particular room was haunted; we just got lucky.  Ghostly activities here have included the sounds of stomping feet, the voice of a woman singing, flickering lights, and toothpaste shooting across the room of its own accord.

I must report that, on the evening we stayed in room 210, all was quiet.  Well, the room is above the outdoor patio and this was a Saturday evening so there was plenty of noise outside.  But my daughter and I slept soundly, and upon packing up to leave I don’t recall a toothpaste stain above the headboard or the nightly voices of a woman singing, though my daughter talks in her sleep on occasion.

City park, block, and Copper Queen Mine, with the author’s daughter. Photo by Simmons Buntin.

We didn’t really expect to meet a ghost, but the excitement lies in the possibility, nonetheless.  And isn’t that what great urban places are about — the opportunity for random encounters, the evocative in the unknown, an authentic place that tantalizes beyond the merely physical?

In the end I’m not certain how ghosts would be quantified as urban indicators (revenues from tourists seeking paranormal experiences may be the easiest to report).  That’s only part of the equation, however.  Even if the numbers can’t be documented — just as the spirits themselves may never be truly documented — the authentic nature of the place is no phantasm.  That’s what keeps people in this life (and perhaps the next) coming back.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was the first of the three remaining presidential candidates to put forth a plan advocating for the temporary lift of the 18.4-cent federal gas tax. McCain’s proposal also includes a vacation from the 24.4-cent gas tax on diesel fuel. The proposed holiday would be enacted during this summer’s peak driving season, which spans from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

While this “Christmas in July” is hoped to spread some much needed holiday cheer in the face of an economic recession, Democratic leaders have mixed feelings about the potential infrastructural sacrifices that would have to be made.

A New York Times article references a report from state highway officials that estimates a $9 billion revenue loss, and a “cost of 300,000 construction jobs” if McCain’s plan is implemented. The current gas tax directly finances the highway trust fund, seen by most as necessary assistance to a fractured infrastructure on the brink of collapse.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) supports the notion of a gas tax holiday, but because of the potential negative impact to highway and bridge projects throughout the country, has proposed an alternative plan. Her proposal would make up for lost tax revenue by instituting a tax on the profits of oil companies. According to a CNN report, this “windfall profits tax” would subject oil companies to a 50 percent tax on profits above a certain point. This plan would also reportedly close $7.5 billion in loophole opportunities for oil companies and “monitor prices for manipulation.”

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) however, does not support either proposal, calling the very idea a “political scheme.” Obama contends that the average driver would only save between $25 and $28 over the entire summer and that such plans would merely offer a short-term solution to a much deeper issue.

Obama continues to support his own plan to use money procured by raising taxes on the profits of oil companies to lower energy costs of American households.

Clinton has received considerable criticism for a rumored contradictory position she took in 2000 when she opposed a similar gas tax holiday. Although she did oppose such proposition, it was due to the plan’s failure to account for the lost tax revenue. It is for this reason again that Clinton opposes McCain’s plan, and has proposed her own in response.

Although many Americans like the idea of paying less at the pump, the cost of a gas tax holiday has divided lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. While McCain’s plan does not account for the lost income, Obama argues that Clinton’s use of tax increases on oil companies can be better used to alleviate the burden of Americans’ increasingly hefty energy bills.

Whether or not approved as a holiday, with BP and Shell continuing to report record profits, this “‘tis the season” proposal makes one thing clear – oil companies should expect coal in their stockings in the coming year.

-Evan Miller
The New Argument

Most of the victims are household names to New Yorkers of color. Amadou Diallo. Malcolm Ferguson. Patrick Dorismond. Georgy Louisgene. Timothy Stansbury. Sean Bell. All killed by police after the Louima case. Each death, and the deaths of countless unknown others needlessly gunned down by police served as a reminder to people of color in NYC that their lives were virtually worthless in the eyes of those charged with keeping them safe.

Recent history has many New Yorkers saying ‘here we go again.’ In 2004, after 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury was killed by a startled police officer on the roof of his own building, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly immediately called the case “unjustifiable”—until protests from within the department caused him to distance himself from his initial assessment. A trial judge would later recommend only 30 days of lost vacation time and one year’s probation for the accused officer. One year after the shooting, that officer, Richard Neri, was elected to a paid post in the policemen’s union. Brooklyn activist Djibril Toure told The Village Voice at the time, “It’s indicative of the lack of respect they have for communities of color. The NYPD is not interested in gaining our respect—they are out of control.” Toure would know – he was one of three activists arrested in 2005 for observing and videotaping an arrest in Brooklyn.

There are dangerous racial issues at play, but other important factors are being overlooked at the administrative level. Can Bell’s death and others like it be attributed to the fact that NYPD officers and patrolmen are underpaid and insufficiently trained?

Under current New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, several factors have come into play to add even more to the tension to the situation. Three years ago, an arbitration panel slashed the annual starting salaries of city police cadets to $25,100, and rookie officers to $32,800 because the city and police union failed to come to an agreement. By comparison, officers in Washington D.C. start out at nearly $49,000, and cops in San Jose start out at over $70,000.

Not only are people choosing to skip the test over the low pay, other police departments are poaching NYPD officers. In the two weeks after the New York Daily News ran an article about the recruitment efforts of the Seattle Police Department—where officers start out at around $47,000 – officials reported getting more than 500 applications from the New York area. More than 200 people came out to take the SPD test at NYU last week, the “vast majority” of which were NYPD officers, according to the Daily News. The Seattle PD also joined more than eighty other law enforcement agencies at a job fair held at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice earlier this month.

The situation has gotten to the point where officials in other cities are feeling sympathy for the NYPD. A Seattle official reportedly asked a Daily News reporter, “Why does the NYPD pay so little?” The official went on to say she had “heard stories coming out here of officers who can’t even afford to get married because they have to have a roommate.” The mass exodus threatened (and continues to threaten) the city’s Operation Impact program, in which high-crime areas are flooded with rookie officers. The program had been credited with the drop in crime in many of the city’s most violent neighborhoods but has faced scrutiny from the public as well as internal investigations for mismanagement and lack of organization.

The Gothamist reported that “the city announced that 914 new police recruits will join Operation Impact, essentially doubling the number of officers. There was suggestion that Operation Impact might be “stripped down” because of a lack of resources (recruiting problems, stemming from low pay)…” Does New York expect productivity out of a program that sends armies of new recruits into the most dangerous neighborhoods on foot? This scenario seems incapable of anything but disaster.

In the Bell case and the many others that preceded it, the police – understaffed and underpaid – have had to contend with a constituency that has felt oppressed for quite some time. City Hall has had many opportunities to provide a bridge between the two, but instead created more tension. Only time will tell if the Bell case will provide the necessary catalyst for reconciliation. 

Just two? Try one of these cities that have about six or seven identities: the black one, the white one, the Mexican one, the gay one, the Goth one, and so on. Of course, the point with Montgomery was that the black version also happened to be the poor, or low- to no-income version, while the white version of the city was the opposite. This is the case in many cities across America – and even if you factor in, say, the Latino versions, poverty will be in the genes as well. But for Montgomery’s case, the point was that this is the city of Rev. Martin Luther King, whose murder led to Congress’ passing of the Fair Housing Act a week after his assassination.

For Central Alabama Fair Housing Center’s (CAFHC) panel discussion on housing segregation, they produced the correct lineup: Rev. Thomas Jordan, a progeny of Montgomery’s civil rights era, and pastor of the Lilly Baptist Church that hosted the event; Brad Moody, an Auburn University professor who specializes in southern politics; David Barley, a local realtor; city councilwoman Martha Roby – a rare city delegate who didn’t seem confused about who benefited from city growth projects and who didn’t – and the grand architect himself, Ken Groves, head of the city’s Department of Planning and Development.

The question was simple: Is residential segregation having a negative impact on Montgomery? The answer was obvious, as exhibited on a city map CAFHC displayed highlighting areas where over 80 percent of the homes are occupied by African Americans, and areas where homes are over 80 percent white occupied. The black sections – relegated to historically impoverished west and south Montgomery—were colored in blue, while the white sections were colored yellow. Perhaps just shading them in the obvious colors would have made the segregation issue seem too black and white, which some panel members argued it wasn’t.

David Barley, an African-American real estate agent, made the argument that many of the new suburban subdivisions built in east Montgomery (or yellow Montgomery) included homes that by minimum standard were at least 2,000 square feet and $200,000 starting price. Since those standards exclude “certain segments of the population,” argued Barley, “there are [segregation] cases that are purely economic and have nothing to do with race.”

Even if that was allowed as logical, economic inequality cannot be safely separated from race, said Moody … I think. His voice was often muffled; as was the very sentiment he expressed.

To head city planner Groves, looking at fair housing failures was a glass-half-segregated approach. The city did an impediment to integration analysis five years ago, he explained, and from that, the city put together a number of programs to help educate low-income and minority home buyers on what discrimination is.

That kind of education is valuable, make no mistake. A working-class, unmarried African-American family should know the clues of when they’re being steered to “blue” Montgomery, as opposed to the more “yellow” parts. But Groves got his own education out of it saying, “It was amazing to me to see how people don’t know the ways discrimination occurs.”

Right, it seems the onus should not be on the buyer, rather, on the government to protect from that kind of abuse, no? It was almost like hearing an NBA referee say, “Geez, maybe I wouldn’t have to call so many fouls, if only those guys knew they were being fouled in the first place.” And the award for this education? $1.5 million from HUD, “exclusively dedicated to affordable housing,” said Groves. With that kind of endowment the city could help about two whole families – three if one was a household of undocumented immigrants.

City councilwoman Martha Roby, while a bit coy, if not reserved, wasn’t moved by the planning department’s gospels. There is no equitable distribution of funds among the city’s districts she noted plainly, but kindly, suggesting she understood the political consequences of raging too much about that very fact. Her District 7, with just over 50 percent African Americans, is one of the more racially and economically diverse. Any new housing and development going on in Montgomery that Groves was sure to plug, was not happening in her district – mostly instead taking place in the yellow suburbs.

Curiously, it wasn’t until an hour and thirty minutes in, that the discussion invoked the name of Martin Luther King, without whom they’d not be seriously discussing segregation, racial nor economic. The bipartisan and bipolar commemorations of the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination earlier this month, showed America continuing to skirt around the radical ideas King pushed in the days leading to his death – the very radical ideas of reparations for African Americans and a push for democratic socialism that may very well have played a role in his murder.

In a 1967 address to Stanford University, King said, “It’s much easier to guarantee the right to vote than it is to guarantee the right to live in sanitary, decent housing conditions.” – it was a mantra he subsequently repeated and expanded upon. His enemies must have agreed. Knowing King wouldn’t let up on these demands, someone figured killing him was a less expensive, one-time cost to cancel his increasing advocacy for wealth redistribution. The U.S.’s failure to redress the problems facing Negro slaves as they attempted integration into free society led to the kinds of structural inequalities existing today, which still can not be explained away in pure economic terms.

Black ex-slaves weren’t denied housing in the late 19th and early 20th century because of low Equifax credit scores. Sharecroppers weren’t victims of sub-prime lending. These people were denied because they were black, end of history.

When CAFHC attorney John Pollock finally inserted this into the discussion – that entrenched racist attitudes remain an untreated illness – it was as if a chorus of angels had chimed in. Actually, it was the Lilly Baptist Church choir – Rev. Jordan apparently forgot to mention the forum to his choir director, so a gospel soundtrack filled in just after Pollock punched up the long overdue race card. The panel at this point must have felt they were literally preaching to the choir. And given none of them could actually answer the question of “white flight,” except to say it was a reality, suggested that they were used to this kind of preaching. Councilwoman Roby did her best pledging huge investments in public schools and the re-writing of current hamstringing zoning and infrastructure policies. Groves was more resigned – more fuck-it about it: “Wealth takes care of itself. It’s a typical human phenomenon.”

What’s typically human, though, all depends on perspective.

Integration, like the United States of America itself, is an experiment. Segregation is just a theory, kinda like intelligent design, but if accepted as fact, it would grant the U.S. no unique identity – since separation by belief, ethnicity, sex, etc. is the domain of too many other countries across the globe – hence, America: a failed experiment. And here Montgomery was still debating about racial and economic segregation. It’s been 40 years and they’re just getting to this? God forbid the low-income Goths have a town hall about this. 

Under the shadow of the presidential primary, Amendment 1 not only passed but passed overwhelmingly, 64%-36%. Only 14 of Florida’s 67 counties voted against it: Duval Gadsden, Hamilton, Hardee, Jackson, Jefferson, LaFayette, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Putnam, Suwannee, Taylor and Wakulla. Collectively, these counties account for less than 10% of the state’s population. Duval (pop. 897,597) and Leon (pop. 272,896), the state’s fifth and 20th largest counties, were the only ones with populations above five figures to vote against Amendment 1. On average, the savings presumably work out to about $240 per homeowner, but services lost have already canceled that out.

Florida is one of two dozen states currently facing shortfalls in their FY2008-09 budgets, with at least $3 billion projected at the moment. That is roughly 10% of its General Fund, notwithstanding pensions and emergency funds. With the recent upswing in violent crime still raw in the hearts of many voters, cities are trying hard not to cut into their police and fire departments, which show signs of falling behind the criminal trend. One method that had some success last year was to offer early retirement at full benefits to city and state employees, but given the precarious nature of the state’s finances, it is unclear if they can afford to make such deals this time around. (There is a lingering taint of scandal around the state pension plan, among other things.)

Florida’s school districts appear poised to absorb most of the shortfalls, which effectively means a halt to whatever progress was being made in student achievement. Most of the coming cuts there will be concentrated among familiar scapegoats: the arts, music and physical education. Duval is looking to eliminate its highly successful but chronically underappreciated Academic Challenge program (aka “Brain Brawl”) to save $50,000; this amounts to punishing children for their success. Lee County, whose population has grown 40% in this decade, cut $20 million from its 2006-07 school budget and is facing another $30 million cut for 2008-09.

It remains to be seen how well, or how poorly, municipalities adjust to their new reality, and what the long-term effects on Florida will be. But even now, with shortfalls looking to be the major story out of Florida this year, state lawmakers are not only unrepentant, but they persist with the same attitudes that brought them to this point. Crist has come out against the dollar-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax, and the legislature is currently considering legislation that would cuts property taxes still further. 

Now that we’ve provided you will the links you’ll need to get properly pissed (works with both the American and British version of the word), here’s a quick summary:

“The bill, dubbed the Fair Pay Restoration Act, is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that ruled a person who claims pay discrimination must file a complaint within 180 days of that discrimination taking place.” -CNN

“The bill that stalled Wednesday would have reset the clock with every paycheck, with supporters arguing that each paycheck was a discriminatory act. But Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican, said the bill would allow retirees drawing pensions to sue their old companies over allegations of discrimination that happened decades ago.” -Also CNN

Let’s rewind to 2003. Remember the whole Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal? It was the Republicans who were fighting to do away with limitations to criminal filings - read this: Victims Want Limitations Lifted on Abuse Lawsuits. And the Republicans are accusing the Dems of political positioning? Obama and Clinton took time off of their campaign schedules to vote, McCain did not but said he was against the bill.

What baffles me even more is that the Republicans’ reasoning behind the bill’s defeat stems from the belief that a flood of lawsuits would be filed against corporations. So what? Isn’t that the point? Isn’t that the job of our state courts to decide these cases themselves? Do they think that discrimination is free or that workers forget about the horrible wrongs they’ve endured years later? Are they taking certain economic situations into consideration?

An example: If I have a job during the recession, I’m going to look at that job as a luxury. Even though I may be discriminated against for my race or gender, I may just shut my mouth to keep my job because I can’t afford a lawyer and my kids need to eat now. Let’s say the recession ends and my company ends up profiting in better times off the screwing they issued me year after year. Now that I’ve worked hard for this horrible, evil company and can afford a lawyer, I should have the right to fight for what’s owed to me, even if it’s 180 days after the screwing took place.

This is just plain wrong. It’s unbelievable that a government body can be this stupid. Republicans aren’t even trying to hide political divisions and alliances (well, at least FoxNews is), they’re making it an election issue. And thank heavens for that. If it’s in play, I say Obama or Clinton run one campaign ad from here to November:
A full-screen photo of John McCain with the words “I voted YES to block a discrimination bill,” underneath. I bet that will do wonders for the black vote he’s been trying to nuzzle up to in the last couple of weeks.

After brief opening statements, the conversation turned to questions on a variety of topics: affordable housing, homeownership, economic development, and transit. As has been pointed out so many times in this campaign, one would be hard pressed to see much daylight between the policies of these two candidates. On affordable housing, both believe that the Section 8 and Hope 6 programs must be better funded, and that HUD must be revitalized.  Considering the current corruption scandals at HUD, this may actually provide a campaign talking point in the fall. Though one wonders if the talking point will be made about the need for enhanced federal funding for housing programs, or for a more general “anti-Bush-corruption” renewal.

On homeownership, both candidates stressed that working people should be enabled to enter the housing market.  Andrew Lamas argued that “if we want poor working people to have assets, those assets are in their homes.” Eisenhower pointed out that Clinton wants to increase federal mortgage funding, and that the federal government must be aggressive in sorting out the current foreclosure crisis. Again, no real disagreements there.

When the topic turned to economic development we finally saw a slight variation in policy prescriptions.  Obama is pushing a regional planning model, granting as much autonomy as possible to the different constituencies in the region, down to the neighborhood level. Allowing for individual neighborhoods to tailor their own solutions, or “customized intervention,” grows from Obama’s much-heralded experience as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago. Growing “human capital” was touted as Obama’s true strategy to revitalize urban economies, which will of course involve funding education, entrepreneurship training, and small business loans.  While Clinton’s policy solutions here—block grants, the COPS program to reduce crime, green investment—were many, there was no overall vision of how neighborhoods might tackle their problems from the ground up, rather than waiting for the hand down from Washington.

Both candidates are eager to fund regional rail networks, but again Obama seems to have at least attended a couple of planning seminars—as Weissbourd emphasized his intention to demand “smart growth” principles be worked into regional transportation planning. Seemingly, this means that environmental justice and sustainable land-use would be checked off before an Obama transportation bill would be signed. 

Minimum wage, education, eminent domain, and gentrification were also discussed, with no great differences between Clinton and Obama, and nothing surprising or particularly innovative presented, though to be fair the clock was ticking down by this point in the session.

A compelling question about how the candidates will “fill the gap between the city and the state” was raised from the floor. Eisenhower, for Clinton, suggested that we need to convince people that the problems of smaller cities and those of the metropolis aren’t really that different. Reaching out to the young mayors in the state might be a way to build a common urban agenda in the state.  Whether or not such an assertion is true, it strikes me that this is a canny political strategy—what a President can do to foster it, though, is a mystery to me. Weissbourd, for Obama, rehearsed what he sees as Obama’s unique approach: a regional view that will integrate the urban and suburban policy process.  He went on to suggest an administrative unit would be created under Obama, an “Urban Policy Office,” intended apparently to negotiate the difficulties of urban/suburban/rural policy coordination.  Issues of environmental justice and crime prevention were also raised from the floor, but by this point the crowd had grown restless and the session was clearly winding down.

I was left wondering where Philadelphia, specifically, might fit into this conversation. What about getting guns off the street, brownfield remediation, disaster and emergency management in a post-industrial city?  What about funding for the arts, medical research, and higher education—the growing sectors of the local economy?  These issues were left unquestioned—waiting for the return of the nominee. Considering the importance of Pennsylvania on the electoral map, we will no-doubt enjoy the chance to follow up on these questions in October.

We now conduct public debates without a base of verified, agreed-upon facts. While Manjoo uses sweeping national issues like global warming and the war in Iraq to demonstrate this, the lack of fact-based debate also shows up in questions of local infrastructure and services, where the public is called upon to decide how to invest public dollars to solve public problems.

It’s the dirty little secret of every city built on water that poo sometimes ends up in the water. Even in those places blessed with modern sewerage treatment, ie, the developed world, poo still ends up in the water when it rains a lot. In old cities, where the storm and sanitary sewers run through the same lines, heavy rains can overwhelm the system, requiring the release of untreated wastewaters into the waterways. It’s a problem that continues to plague cities throughout the developed world.

Modern engineering has hit upon an ingenious, though expensive, solution to this nagging problem: massive underground tanks that hold overflow wastewater until it can be treated, thus preventing its release into the waterways.

Milwaukee is one of the first large Great Lakes cities to adopt this technology. In the 1980s the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) embarked on a multi-billon dollar project, dubbed the Deep Tunnel, which essentially resulted in a series of massive tunnels bored deep beneath the city. These tunnels hold excess rainwater during heavy rains, wastewater that would have previously ended up in our rivers and Lake Michigan. 

So how has the system performed? Here are some facts: untreated wastewater overflows have declined from an average of 60 per year before the Deep Tunnel to 1.5 per year today. The volume of untreated wastewater dumped into the waterways has declined 80% since the Deep Tunnel went online. With the Deep Tunnel, Milwaukee today dumps a fraction of what other large Great Lakes cities do.

But these facts don’t matter. In a public sphere heavily influenced by talk radio and other media outlets, such as local blogs, where there is no clear line between fact and opinion, where outright falsehoods are presented as legitimate opinions, (often in the form of ”regular joe” commentary) the billons of dollars in investment in the Deep Tunnel are now deemed a massive waste.

The debate is not over whether the Deep Tunnel was worth the investment, whether its benefits have outweighed its costs. No, the rub is with whether or not the Deep Tunnel has been a public benefit. The fact that it does largely function as it was designed to is irrelevant. A large swath of the public believes it doesn’t work, and that MMSD has made the problem worse.

Back before the Deep Tunnel, sewerage overflows were a common occurrence and were rarely reported in the media when they happened. Now they are a rare occurrence, and so are widely reported when they happen. The public’s perception therefore, is that that sewerage overflows are a worse problem today than they were before the Deep Tunnel. Ironically, the project’s success has led to the perception that it’s been a failure. And since the public is predisposed to think that regional government agencies like MMSD are cash-eating monsters that not accountable to the taxpayers, in the public mind, MMSD has wasted our money on a boondoggle.

Add to that the periodic (and odoriferous) algae plumes that wash up on the shoreline, and beach closings that have been caused by unsafe levels of bird droppings in the water, and there’s little doubt in the public mind: MMSD not only wastes our money but also made the water dirtier.

Water pollution is a highly emotional issue, and the engineering behind the Deep Tunnel and wastewater treatment in general is highly complex. Public education is problematic on an icky topic that would take five minutes of tedious airtime to explain to the average TV viewer. How does MMSD explain the facts behind the Deep Tunnel when a much simpler and more sensational message resonates through the echo chamber of local media: “There’s poo in the water”? 

The massive public investment in the Deep Tunnel has resulted in a public benefit: the water is noticeably cleaner. Fish species that haven’t been seen in the Milwaukee River in generations are repopulating, and bird species, such as blue heron, are returning. The urban Milwaukee River has seen over one billion dollars in residential development along its shores over the last ten years.

Indeed, Milwaukee’s system is often cited as a national model, and it’s not yet complete. When the final leg of the system is completed, the Deep Tunnel may very well make Milwaukee the first big city in human history to have essentially made the problem of poo in the water go away. 

A public investment that nets public results: this is how it’s supposed to work, right? If only we could recognize the fact that the Deep Tunnel works, and finish job.

One candidate has called on Congress to pay attention to its backyard and make Washington a model city. George Phillies, a Libertarian candidate, stresses education and unemployment as priorities in this effort. Although he laments the state of the schools, and complains that Congress simply throws money at them, he offers no solutions. As for unemployment, he calls for a loosening of regulation for small businesses. “There’s no sensible reason to harass people who want to drive a jitney, braid a neighbor’s hair, or watch a neighbor’s children during the day,” Phillies says.

The green collar jobs banner is flown by Green Party hopeful Kent Mesplay. Like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Mesplay has announced a goal of creating 5 million of these jobs. He would redirect fossil fuel subsidies towards “training and providing jobs for inner city youth and veterans, to retrofit the nation’s homes and buildings and conserve 20 percent of our energy use by 2015, if not sooner.”

National trends toward a crack down on quality of life offenses and the endangerment of civil liberties are a couple of the major concerns within America’s cities, according to former Congressman Bob Barr. Barr, who also seeks the Libertarian nod, sees a worrisome state of affairs resulting from the increasingly tough stance on relatively minor quality of life infringements. “More and more, local officials are turning to the police to handle problems rather than working to resolve the problems themselves,” he says. “These moves appear based on the notion that quality of life can best or most easily be enhanced at the point of a gun. Police forces in our country were never intended to serve as society’s enforcers of ‘quality of life.’” He also raises concerns about the level of surveillance in cities.

Independent candidate Blake Ashby places the nation’s housing woes squarely on the back of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. “People with lots of money suddenly had found money, unexpected money to find a place for,” he says, which led them to take risks they wouldn’t normally take, like funding speculation on subprime mortgages.

Granted, this is just a snapshot of this overlooked portion of the race. But in a field where people campaign drabbed in anything from a cartoon style cowboy hat to full drag, one can only do so much in a small piece format.

Down and out, frustrated, annoyed, quiet, irritated - Philadelphia moves on past a primary that meant little-to-nothing in deciding who will face John McCain in November. Barack Obama, who trounced Clinton in the City of Brotherly Love by 130,000 votes, lost in the statewide contest by twice that number.

Philadelphia received non-stop media focus for six weeks. One couldn’t walk two blocks in this town without being asked to pledge an allegiance. In front of City Hall, Clinton and Obama supporters waved signs at cars, peacefully coexisting and almost ignoring each other in their drive for honks and cheers from taxi drivers and police officers. For a moment, it seemed like history was going to be made here. And then, as the results doomed this primary like the groundhog predicting weeks of bitter winter, a faint flicker of hope blinked from the Wachovia Center: The Philadelphia Flyers, ignorant of the political fervor around them, sent the Washington Capitals home on a bus, back to the city that created this mess.

Call it trivial and excuse my language, but ‘fuck yeah.’

And that’s all I have to say.

During the announcement of his resignation, Jackson referenced his desire to spend more time with his family as the reason for his steeping down from office. However, given the precursory letter from Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) requesting Jackson’s removal from office, citing allegations of political bullying and corruption, the timing was beyond suspicious. Now, urged by cities throughout the nation to appoint a responsible and competent individual to lead the HUD, the Bush administration has a chance to show America that it is determined to turn around the flailing housing sector in their last year of office. Unfortunately, many suspect that the president’s nominee, Steve Preston, is not the man for the job.

Preston’s ties to the Bush administration go back to 2006 when he was appointed to head the Small Business Administration (SBA). Before this position, Preston was executive vice-president of ServiceMaster – a multibillion-dollar housekeeping and lawn care corporation bringing American families Merry Maids, Terminix, and TruGreen ChemLawn. Lacking entrepreneurial experience, and bearing connections to a corporation that had been known to bully small business, Preston was repeatedly criticized for inexperience in the field of small businesses. With his most recent promotion to HUD, many are again asking if he has the experience necessary to turn around a housing crisis at the forefront of an economic slump.

According to an April 18 report by The Hill, a statement released by the office of Senator Dodd raised concerns of Preston having “no apparent housing background.” The statement went on to warn that the current housing crisis “calls for a leader with expertise in housing issues.”

Faced with increasing charges of inexperience, reminiscent of Preston’s 2006 SBA confirmation, the White House has released a fact sheet detailing Preston’s credentials, attempting to deter arguments that he is not qualified for an administrative position at HUD. Speaking on behalf of their nominee, the Bush administration has argued that “During his tenure, Administrator Preston managed loan guarantee programs similar in structure to those run by the HUD, and he has made those programs run more effectively.”

The administration’s release also presented a potential aim of a Preston lead HUD. “If confirmed, Administrator Preston will lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development in its mission to support homeownership and community development and increase access to affordable housing free from discrimination.”

Many democratic lawmakers, although hesitant to confirm a potentially under qualified candidate to such a sensitive position, are just waiting to hear one promise of Preston – that the solution to the current housing crisis is increased government involvement.

If approved by the Senate, this position will be new territory for Steve Preston. Originally helping families maintain their homes at ServiceMaster, as the head of HUD, Preston will have to put families in a home before he can sell them a greener lawn.

-Evan Miller
The New Argument