Urban Politics and Economic Development

A blog exploring different aspects of cities--what makes them successful, and what leads to their declines. RUTGERS UNIVERSITY CAMDEN// PHILADELPHIA.

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Hi professor! I hope you like my blog! You can place your cursor to the left of the screen for more options.

I put in an index so it’s a bit easier for you to see everything-- I’m not sure how familiar you are with Tumblr! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Thanks, Chelsea

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Graphics five: Green Jobs

In class, we read an article about green jobs, and how cities are making an effort to make more green jobs. Green jobs help communities save energy, produce alternative energy, and try and help the environment. However, a lot of green jobs are high-end technology-- for engineers, scientists, and other jobs for highly skilled people.

However, more of an effort is being made to move away from just those high tech, high paying jobs, to those that are more suited for low-skill workers. When good jobs like green jobs come into a community, one can only hope that they would take those unemployed from that community. With this movement toward more low-skill jobs, this may become more of a reality. The article above discusses the steps in order to integrate more low-skill workers into the green job sector. Their steps are:

Curricular reforms Strong partnerships between employers and training providers Career paths Financial assistance Recruitment efforts and support services for non-traditional workers

The above graphic shows statistics from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, in support of green jobs. It shows that there are more jobs available in the green sector, or jobs that are considered green, rather than those that may harm the environment, such as coal and natural gas.

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At the Paris climate summit, panic over global warming finally collided with reality

Face the facts: there is no way the world as a whole is going to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions

In class, we spoke about the need for green jobs on a local community level. Providing jobs for low-skill workers helps not only themselves, but also builds the community from the bottom up, which in turn helps the economy and everyone else. It provides low-skill people with employment and higher paying jobs, all while helping the environment. This is something that the United States has to be particularly conscience about. The United States is one of the leading producers in carbon emissions.

Very recently, many countries from around the world met in Paris to discuss climate change. Developed nations, like the United States, are held mostly responsible for causing a large portion of global warming, and the climate summit hopes to hold them responsible by making them help developing countries financially. “...“developed nations” would also donate $100 billion a year to all those countries still “developing”, to enable them to rely only on “clean” energy, and to adapt to the problems created by climate change.”

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Interests five: FDR and the New Deal

During the 1930′s, on top of and because of the Dust Bowl, the United States suffered a great economic depression. Unemployment was at an all time high, people lined up for blocks just to get soup for the day, and people were living in slums right underneath the towering skyline of New York City. In order to get rid of this, FDR proposed his New Deal, which contained a myriad of programs in order to revitalize the American economy.

I chose this photo and topic because in another class we learned about FDR and his New Deal, and it provided a bit of background to America’s financial history, and how to avoid these potential problems in the future. The New Deal was implemented during a time of economic crisis, and attempted to provide jobs to people. Most of the jobs were relating to the infrastructure of the government including building dams, helping environmental conservation, etc. In a way, today America is somewhat moving towards this same pattern, trying to re-stimulate the economy and trying to do that by providing green jobs at the same time.

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Slavery worked for slave-owners but for very few others

Interests four: Economic History of Slavery

I suppose we didn’t discuss anything like this is class, per se, but slavery was a huge economic factor for the United States from before Independence until even after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery drove business and labor in the south, and the north also reaped the benefits. It shaped part of our Constitution, and many other pieces of legislation to be added to the document. It is one of the many points of the creation of the horrible system of racism we have in our country today, something of which we definitely discussed in class.

This article takes a bit of a different turn. Slavery was supposed to be very profitable for the south. It was supposed to yield plantation owners product which they could sell for full profit, with virtually no cost to them. They didn’t have to pay for labor. However, this article states that slavery may have stifled productivity in the south. For one, they say that rather than go to the store and buy something, that most people could just produce it themselves, which made for a bad market. If no one is buying, then people can’t sell. Another argument they propose is that because the south was mainly a producer, it had difficulty starting up in the manufacturing industry. This is one of the main reasons they lost the Civil War. Additionally, the author states, “In fact, slavery was not even meant to be profitable. Slaveowners were keener on flaunting their vast plantations and huge reserves of slaves than they were about profits and investment. Rational economic decisions were sacrificed for pomp and circumstance.” All that human suffering is bad enough to try and stomach without having to imagine that is was not even for profit, for starting a new nation, but instead only for show. This article provides an interesting take on an old subject.

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As a global leader in the marketplace, the U.S. state of Georgia stands out as an ideal location for Japanese…

In Ehrenhalt’s book, one of the chapters discussed a case study in which an influx of Hispanic workers moved into the suburbs around Atlanta. They were recruited to work on building a stadium for the 1996 Olympics. However, once the job was done, most of the community decided to stay in the area. Before that, the Hispanic community was only about 7 percent. After, it rose to about 41%.

Reflective of that, and actually in the same state, this article discusses how areas are trying to make their businesses, etc., more culturally sensitive and attractive to Japanese businesses. “Today, there are more than 400 Japanese facilities within the state, employing more than 24,500 Georgians, and we have at least 42 companies with operations in Japan. Our relationship with Japan is strong in part because we understand the importance of creating an environment that helps companies to make their employees feel at home. This is particularly true when those employees are uprooting their families from halfway across the world.” Unlike in 1996 however, they seem a bit more welcoming to this community than they did to Hispanics for the Olympics.

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Week Fifteen Picture: Skyscrapers

This picture is from the top floor of the Guinness Factory in Dublin, Ireland. As you can see, there are no tall buildings, no sky scrapers, nothing. I recently read an article that was pushing for skyscrapers, because if they do not, unemployment will rise. Cities need to expand in order for businesses to move in. Cities need to expand in order for people to move in. Without expanding the city upwards, they run the risk of unemployment and very, very high costs of living.

I went to Ireland in June, and one of the most impressive things about the country is just that--the country feel. There are no sky scrapers anywhere-- not just in Dublin, and I suppose that’s part of it’s charm. But we discussed the importance of skyscrapers as per Glaeser’s Chapter 6: What’s So Great About Skyscrapers. Not having large cities also cuts out pollution, which enables Ireland to be as green as it is. However, unemployment in Ireland was at ten percent in the beginning of the year. Not having large buildings doesn’t allow for investment in the city, which ultimately hurts it. 

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Week Thirteen Picture: Food Desert

For class, we read an article that talked about food deserts. Right now in Baltimore, they’re facing that crisis. A food desert is an area where there is little to no access to a grocery store. Access to fresh produce and a large variety of good food products is essential to quality of life. This problem reflects one that is currently happening in Camden as well. Especially for poorer communities, where it may be harder to get to areas out of the city, it’s essential to have grocery stores in walking distance.

This is a picture of the inside of my work. It’s a grocery store called Thriftway located in Westmont, New Jersey. Though there is another grocery store not even a mile away, this store reflects food desertification on a smaller scale. My store used to be located in a different area, down the hill a ways. Across from our old store is a community of lower income housing, and directly next to that, a largely senior living complex. Our store was directly across the street from those buildings. So close that even the oldest of people could walk across the street and get a decent amount of groceries. It was easy, convenient, and relatively cheap. However, a few years ago, we moved from that location. We only moved less than a mile from that location, but for the elderly, and the less mobile people from the lower income complex, it was much, much farther. We essentially created a small food desert for those people, because the only thing left in that area now is a CVS-- reminiscent of the corner stores in poorer neighborhoods where people are forced to buy their ‘groceries’ often.

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Subaru breaks ground for Camden headquarters

Subaru of America on Wednesday broke ground on the site of the company's future Camden headquarters, a project that will transform a vacant plot of land off the Admiral Wilson Boulevard into a sprawling office park.

In class, we discussed the decline of Detroit, and we talked about reasons why that may have happened. One of the reasons was that they relied on only one industry-- the car industry. And when that industry started to decline, the entire city lost it’s means of income. Even local shops were catering to the car industry, by way of supplying parts, etc. They had no one to supply to once the big companies left, and thus they too failed or had to relocate. The take away lesson was that cities need a variety of businesses in order to thrive.

One of Camden’s big industries was shipbuilding. Since there’s not as high a demand for that anymore, especially because of the lack of war [at least in relation to WWII, etc], the city requires a bit of a boost in employment. This might be a solution. Subaru, the car company, is planning to put their head quarters in Camden. The article even discusses how Subaru will become an anchor entity in the city, something we learned is very important for revitalization in an area.

"Today not only signifies a long-term commitment by Subaru to the region, but now to our city and, yes, to our residents," Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd said. "To say this is an incredible investment to our city and region is an understatement." They hope to be finished the project by the end of 2017, and it is said that it will potentially create 250 jobs.

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Interests three: Alexander Hamilton

Perhaps one of the most important events in America for economic development was from one of our most important founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton. He took our nation of states from independent financial systems to one that would assume state debt and establish a national bank. It would give the United States a new line of credit as well as a stronger centralized government. This was also the start of something else-- political parties, because Thomas Jefferson and others disagreed so fiercely against this new plan. In the end, Hamilton won out, and the bank was the result.

Above is a picture that I took of the First National Bank in Philadelphia. It is right down the street from Independence Hall and from Hamilton’s office in Philadelphia as Secretary of the Treasury, under George Washington. I took this photo because not only is this building gorgeous, but it is steeped in history, and it stands for a large change in American history. One can only imagine what our financial situation would look like today if the states were separated financial as it was. 

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Graphic four: City Pollution v. Country Pollution

In Glaeser’s book Triump of the City, he discusses the problem of pollution. More specifically, he talks about nature, and country living, and how he believes that living in a more rural setting is actually more perpetually contributing to pollution than living in a city. It sounds a bit counter intuitive, considering how often we see Chinese cities engulfed in smog. But are cities the true enemy? Glaeser thinks not. And I have to agree. The two main arguments that he makes are that in cities, many people don’t use cars-- they walk or use public transportation. In rural living, that’s virtually impossible, and most people use cars and trucks to get around or transport things. Additionally, he says that there’s a lot less energy used in cities. It takes a lot less energy and heat to warm up a top floor apartment than it does to heat up a drafty country home on a hill.

This graphic shows that those that produce the most pollution by far are light trucks and SUVs. Who uses those the most? Those in the suburbs and the country. The second highest is a passenger bus. However, one bus full of more than ten people produces less pollution than someone commuting three houses a day to work five days a week.

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Graphic three: Rent in Cities

Cities have only grown in their popularity in more recent years, and with that comes an increase in costs of living, namely rent. While renters have historically spent about a quarter of their income on housing costs on average, they can now expect to spend about 30%, says Zillow, a real estate website. Higher demand to live in cities, and as we discussed in class, lower supply leads to higher demand.

Younger generations are currently moving out of their parents houses and out on their own. A vast majority of them are moving into cities. This decreases the availability of apartments. With decreased availability, rent increases. A case study we discussed resides in Washington, Seattle, and it’s ever-growing popularity, especially amongst young people. The demand is driving up the price of average houses. They can go from something like $200,000 in worth to $500,000, just because of the demand.

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Week Eleven Picture: City v. Suburbs

This is a sign outside my house-- we are trying to move. Currently we live in the suburbs. Ideally, we’d live to move a bit closer to the city--about five minutes away. My parents are getting a bit older, and so it’s hard to maintain a three bedroom house with a pool and two stories, and it’s too expensive. Our property taxes are about the same as if we were paying a second mortgage, which doesn’t really allow for my self-employed dad and our family to save money in the long run.

Erhenhalt’s Chapter 9 talks about the shift in Generation Y, and how their ideals are moving into the city. I myself don’t particularly want to move into the city, but between the cost of houses and property taxes, as we’ve discussed in class before, it’s certainly changed my views and outlooks as to how I will approach choosing the next place I live. Cities, on top of generally being cheaper, offer so many walkable amenities. Having a car is a huge cost, and something that will add more money at the end of the month if I do not have one. It is definitely something to consider, and I already have several friends living in cities now [mostly Philly], and they love it and are able to get around the city with public transportation with no problem.

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Week Nine Picture: Not In My Backyard

In class, we watched a movie about how a community, which is poorer and made up of a largely minority community, had to battle against racism, pollution, and a number of other issues. It tells the story of a Delaware community in which several large facilities had been built ranging from medical waste supplies dump to trash incineration services. In not so many words, it’s disgusting. Citizens report issues of smells, business owners, especially food services, are virtually unable to sell their products because bad smells are not very conducive to eating good food. Additionally, they reported health issues as a result from fumes, and not properly disposed of medical waste. One worker recalled being poked by a discarded medical needle while he was working, and he suffered multiple health problems following because of it.

These businesses have to go somewhere, absolutely. But the issue is that no one wants this type of thing in their community. And the bigger issue is that because this is a poor community, they do not have the access, money, or pull in order to fight against these things in their community, and they ultimately lose. It raises a problem of classism and racism.

I chose this as my picture because this is a sewage waste facility in an area near my grandparents. I remember taking trips there with my parents when I was younger, and I remember saying ‘it smells like crab poop’ because of the bay-ish odor the facility would emit. There is a community behind the sewage plant. However, unlike the community in Delaware, they don’t experience things quite as bad. The odor from the plant ranges maybe one block, and often times, no bad odors can be smelt at all. The community behind the plant is of a wealthier demographic. I believe the plant is kept so clean and unimposing because if it were anything else, the community has the money and the pull to stop it immediately, something that is awarded to few.

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The east side of Market Street has been getting all the buzz lately, with new residential buildings, a sophisticated mixed-used development at 12th Street, and the renovation of the tired Gallery...

This Wall Street-esque district in Philadelphia is home to a ton of business offices, but not much else. The author talks about how business people have to travel in order to get food for lunch because of the lack of anything BUT business office sky scrapers. However, new developers are trying to re-invigorate their own sidewalk spaces and uses by adding interesting things to draw people in to their buildings, such as arcades in their new and improved lobbies. In addition, a new building housing three different restaurants plans to be installed, which will help keep business in the district, giving business people more of a reason to stay. "It's something we've been advocating for as a company, and not simply to create revenue" for the new owners, he told me. Adding restaurants and retail variety, he says, "will make Market Street a better place."

In the first few chapters of Jane Jacob’s book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she discusses the idea of mixed use building structures, as well as the importance of the use of sidewalks. This article talks about exactly that. Adding a mixed use element to the district will add not only more business, but add an element of safety. The article discusses how the area is a ghost town after business hours, which potentially leaves it open for theft and vandalism. Having restaurants and other attractions in the area that would most likely stay open a bit after offices close for the day ensures that there are more eyes on the street.

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Interests two: California

This is a song by the Indie Rock band, Death Cab for Cutie. They’re my favorite band. They sing a lot of songs about California, and this one in particular is about living in the city of Los Angeles. In it, the singer talks more generally about city living, but also touches on some of the problems that go along with that. Pollution, smells, overcrowding, skylines, public transportation.

We spoke a lot about pollution in cities, and one of the lines goes as follows:

And I can't see why you'd want to live here. I'm in Los Angeles today... Asked a gas station employee if he ever had trouble breathing And he said "It varies from season to season, kid."

Songs often talk about how everything happens in the city, how it’s the place to be, the place to get ahead, etc., but I like this song because it plays on the not so nice areas of so called beautiful big cities, such as Los Angeles. It’s not just palm tree lined streets. There are real problems that these cities face, and this is a first hand account in a mass media setting.

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Week Eight Picture: NOH8.

A few years ago, a few friends and I ventured to New York to get this professional picture taken. It was with an organization called NOH8 (No Hate). NOH8 advocates on behalf of LGBT rights, and travels all over the world taking pictures of people in support of the cause. Many celebrities and respectable public figures have had their pictures taken by Adam Bouska in order to pledge their support. 

This picture relates to our Florida readings about the three T’s: Technology, Tolerance, and Talent, as well as several others about diversity. We read that studies have shown that cities are some of the most tolerant areas, as well as diverse, and it’s one of the reasons people tend to live in them. New York is known, at least theorectically, as a safe haven for LGBT people, as well as a place to build a life where they can flourish and act without the scrutiny they may receive in other areas of the country, like the south, for example. The American South is notorious for their mistreatment of anyone ‘other’, namely minorities and LGBT folks.