UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR GOVERNMENT THINKS

Posted on November 6, 2022 by tgilbertson06

Have you ever wondered what is the Modus Operandi or M.O. of your local municipality government. This post examines four conceptions of the proper role of local government as conceived by various communities. The four typologies explored here are the ones constructed by Oliver P. Williams in his research on local governments across the State of Michigan during the 1950s. As we’ll see, these four different ideas on the role of local government appear to stem from varying conceptions of the “public good.” Accordingly, one potential application of this discussion may be to establish an analytical basis to predict the actions of local governments both presently and as circumstances change over time. More casually, this discussion might provide clarity to help understand how your local government thinks.

TO Understand How Your Government Thinks, YOU MUST PIN ITS PERCEIVED ROLE

The nature of peoples’ attachment to the city influences their conception of the public’s interest and thus also their view of the proper role of government. Oliver P. Williams, an economist and professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, studied the political dynamics between local government jurisdictions. One of his main works titled, Four Cities – A Study in Comparative Policy Making, that he coauthored along with Charles R. Adrian, attempted to compare the political process in four middle-sized American cities over the decade from 1948 through 1957. Holding constant the state system of governance and population size, Williams attempted to isolate the affect differences in local opinion had on the role of government. A key conclusion from Williams and Adrian’s study in Four Cities was the identification of four distinct governing dispositions for municipalities. These typologies include:

The instrument of community growth (also referred to as “the producer”);
The provider of life’s amenities;
A “caretaker;” and
The arbitrator of conflicting interests.

Oliver Williams recognized that the role of municipal government may be conceptualized under two different interpretations. One comprises the image of what the public believes to be the proper role of government. A second can be based off the actual role of the government as derived from its activities. Therefore, Williams was careful to note that the four roles he identified are analytical constructs rather than true typologies diagnosed from an examination of data.

A sketch depicting the municipality in the role of "the producer." The mayor is shown behind a desk holding development plans with a positive growth trend chart and smoke stacks in the background. Series: Understanding How Your Government Thinks. — The municipality as “the producer.”

THE INSTRUMENT OF COMMUNITY GROWTH

The instrument of community growth or “the producer” principally harnesses the apparatus of the local government to support the continuation of growth and development in a manner that suits the interests of those who influence its politics. To understand how this government thinks, a breakdown of this typology including its top objective, primary assumption, use of local politics, supporters, and common actions is outlined as follows:

Top Objective – The most important ends to be served are population expansion, industrial development, commercial activities, increasing net worth, and similar.

Founding Assumption – The good community is the one that continues to grow. This is based on the idea that “people vote with their feet” and are choosing our community because it is good.

How Politics is Used – Local politics serves to boost production. The municipal government is viewed as a municipal corporation that must operate in a business-like manner to serve the producers (industries).

Common Boosters – Industrialists, city planners, local merchants, business clubs, bankers, and large property owners. Supporters are driven by their economic interest but many also harbor a sense of civic pride based on a pursuit of progress and prosperity that has historically been an essential ingredient in our national aspirations. In general, growth symbolizes economic, social, and cultural opportunity.

Examples of Characteristic Actions – Common activities include enacting zoning variations, reducing tax assessments, providing subsidies to businesses, developing industrial parks, installing utilities, and other actions to keep labor cost down while promoting production. The producer view of government often expresses itself in negative terms – nothing should be done which might hinder the community’s growth, and an “open for business” reputation is a must.

THE PROVIDER OF LIFE’S AMENITIES

The provider of life’s amenities focuses the resources of the municipality to promote and preserve a valued quality of life. Doing so is not limited to actions aimed at improving the living environment but also includes activities that may reduce those factors that might detract from the quality of life. To understand how this government thinks, a breakdown of this typology including its top objective, primary assumption, use of local politics, supporters, and common actions is outlined as follows:

Top Objective – The general expectation of the city is to preserve a valued “way of life” by safeguarding it while improving upon the advantages of the city as a place to live. The pursuit of amenities is the top goal of local government.

Founding Assumptions – Amenities means comforts and necessities. Pursuing these will create a quiet and peaceful environment for the home. The citizen is viewed as a consumer rather than as a producer.

How Politics is Used – To support efforts that stress consumption at the expense of production. Improvements are provided because of the local “willingness-to-pay.” Policies accent the home environment rather than the working environment.

Common Boosters – Communities comprised of largely upper-middle-class families, including wealthy elderly retired people and young couples who are anxious for the “right kind of town for their children.” What companies do exist can often supply, either directly or through their tax base, great additional amenities.

Examples of Characteristic Actions – The application of rigid zoning laws, building codes, open space is jealously guarded, noise and smoke are curtailed, and traffic is re-routed or calmed, outsiders or transients are excluded, and the supply of labor is kept low. Growth is often objectionable and what growth is permitted must be controlled and directed both in terms of who is being permitted and the nature of physical change. Efforts to promote homogeneity and a common style of living. Favors pedestrians and children over commerce. Public welfare is an unwanted diversion of resources because those asking for it are seeking a necessity that other citizens provide privately.

THE CARETAKER

The caretaker mentality is entirely focused on keeping taxes low by limiting the role of government. Additionally, a caretaker serves its citizens by attempting to “protect” them from the actions of higher levels of government. To understand how this government thinks, a breakdown of this typology including its top objective, primary assumption, use of local politics, supporters, and common actions is outlined as follows:

Top Objective – To keep down the cost of government.

Founding Assumption – Local government can effectively realize extreme conservative views. The top values stressed are freedom and self-reliance of the individual. The private allocation of resources is favored over government or public allocation. This typology emphasizes a pluralistic conception of the public good.

How Politics is Used – Matters (local problems) are passed onto higher levels of government, given over to private groups, or otherwise ignored. Doing so presents the appearance of resisting the expansion of government. A tax increase can only be justified if doing so is to maintain the traditional nature of government.

Common Boosters – Fixed income senior citizens, working class families, homesteaders, and farmers. People are expected to work out their own problems and to pay on a fee-for-service basis for what they get. Retired middle-class persons who are home owners on a fixed income. Marginal home owners who can barely afford their home will also find this view attractive.

Examples of Characteristic Actions – The functions of government are very limited. Common government functions are transferred to the private market. Even facilities that everyone wants are supplied parsimoniously. Nothing new is tried. Strong opposition to zoning, planning, and property regulations.

THE ARBITRATOR OF CONFLICTING INTEREST

The arbitrator mentality focuses resources and efforts on the management of conflict between different constituent groups. In doing so, the municipality mediates conflict through the public process. However, outcomes are rarely decided on logical grounds. To understand how this government thinks, a breakdown of this typology including its top objective, primary assumption, use of local politics, supporters, and common actions is outlined to as follows:

Top Objective – To arbitrate and manage conflict for the purpose of finding the lowest common denominator or “modus vivend” on which a settlement between competing interest can be reached. Emphasizes the process rather than the substance of government action.

Founding Assumption – What is good for someone must be bad for someone else. This removes public policy from being considered as a final equilibrium.

How Politics is Used – This type can be similar to “the caretaker” but cannot be as passive because the heterogeneity of its population gives rise to conflicts that can’t be ignored. Politics is used to settle disputes through an emphasis on process. Even decisions that might not be the most productive for or safeguarding of the community on the whole are made through settlement and agreement so long as the interest of varying constituencies are considered. That is to say that the possibility of a “community good” may be recognized but in practice all such claims are reduced to the level of interests. The structure of government must not be subordinate to an interest but instead structured such that most interest are at least considered by decision makers. The government does not function as a neutral agency to balance matters on a fixed standard of equity or political weighing.

Common Boosters – This government type is more likely to occur where diversity is great and political power depends on building coalitions (special interest groups fail to hold complete control). However, the majority group in the arbitrator city tends to lean away from the arbitrator view of government. Commonly, arbitrator type governments form around ethnic groups, patronage-fed organizations or stakeholders, political machines, and similar benefactors.

Examples of Characteristic Actions – Providing some level of control over a department or institution to the minority political party within a jurisdiction. Spatially distributing the allocation of funds within the city’s jurisdiction to favor the most dominant interest among constituents. Granting recognition for a particular group through the memorialization of a leader from their people even those the majority of constituents do not affiliate with such individual.

DIFFERENT CONCEPTIONS OF THE PUBLIC GOOD TO UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR GOVERNMENT THINKS

The Unitary Conception – the public good can be stated in substantial terms. Consistent with:

“promoting economic growth;” and
“providing or securing life’s amenities.”

The unitary conception of the public good lends itself to efforts to centralize and professionalize the bureaucracy of local government because doing so is attractive to those seeking to achieve substantive goals.

The Pluralistic Conception – stresses a procedural role for government (leaves the determination of the public good up to the people). Consistent with:

“to arbitrate among interest groups;” and
“maintaining traditional services” (the caretaker) when considering the ultimate effect.

The type “maintaining traditional services” may seem unitary in that it aims to limit the role of government as a substantive objective. However, the intent for limiting government’s role is to retain a greater range of choices for private individuals – an aim that is essentially pluralistic.

Governments with a pluralistic conception of the public good tend to favor decentralizing devices such as a plural executive, ward elections for council, and the distribution of services among committees. Doing so provides a high level of access to political leaders and makes programmatic political action more difficult.

CLOSING CONSIDERATIONS AND QUESTIONS

Planners must be politically astute in order to operate successfully within their jurisdiction. Understanding the nature of your municipality’s governing mentality is crucial for figuring out how to successfully work within the politics of your community. Hopefully, the four different typologies discussed within this post can help planners understand how their government thinks and advise their expectations for work as a result. Some closing questions include:

Which of the four governing dispositions discussed above best describes your municipality?

Do you think that we’ve seen the emergence of other types of governing dispositions held by local governments?

SOURCES: Understanding How Your Government Thinks

Banfield C. Edward and James Q Wilson. City Politics. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Random House, Inc, 1963.

Williams, Oliver. P. (1961). A Typology for Comparative Local Government. Midwest Journal of Political Science, 5(2), 150–164. https://doi.org/10.2307/2109267

WILL WHAT BRINGS CITIES TOGETHER KEEP THEM TOGETHER?

Posted on October 15, 2022 by tgilbertson06

This article will begin by examining the basic dynamics that contribute to the centralization of activity within inhabited places as well as the forces that discourage such concentration. After discussing the integrative forces that form cities our focus will pivot to consider the social and cultural conditions that either bind a city together or tear it apart. After the forces of centralization are explored in both economic and social terms, a third type of integration formed around the concept of the natural area will be discussed. We’ll begin with a bold statement about the planner’s role as it relates to the forces of centralization.

YOUR FOUNDAMENTAL JOB

As a planner, it is your job to promote centralization through incremental efforts to foster opportunities for integrative forces to manifest within communities. This is true regardless of whether you work in an urban environment (the city planner) or a rural landscape (the county planner). Within the city, your job is to gradually work towards cultivating an environment where urban interactions and exchanges create the value that keeps people, businesses, and institutions within the city. If you are not doing this you are failing at your job – plain and simple. Across the countryside, your job is to preserve the ecosystems and opportunities for resource extraction that make production profitable and worthwhile. Part of this task is to promote mobility to distant markets and ensure that opportunities for agriculture support businesses and operations are well protected. If this is not happening, there is a chance that you are failing.

THE FORCES OF CENTRALIZATION

Forces that encourage the geographic concentration of human activity are integrative forces. That is to say that integrative forces can consist of any factor that encourages centralization. Traditionally, such forces have been viewed as those born between actors that rely upon each other to varying extents. One example might be the connections established between a business and its suppliers, servicers, and customers. Another traditional example may include the relationship created between the businessman and the politician who may need to engage in bargaining and negotiations. Beyond this traditional understanding, I argue that integrative forces can include a great variety of circumstances that relate solely to the individual and their interaction with the built environment of their community rather than its other inhabitants. One’s enjoyment of their town’s parks, landscapes, amenities, culture, sense of safety, or general livability may in fact be one of the most important centralizing forces within the modern city. Such individual forces of integration are important and should not be ignored. However, individual preferences are subject to fluctuations over time, and cities working to respond to such preferences should also not lose track of creating a system of incentives that effectively bring large interest together. In this manner, communities seeking to centralize and develop should simultaneously respond to both the individual and collective incentives that effectively bring people together.

SOME GENERAL EXAMPLES OF INTEGRATIVE FORCES

The Bond Between a Business and its Key Customers and Suppliers – I encountered an example of this dynamic in Salem, Oregon whereby an alternative arts and culture focused newspaper was heavily dependent upon the support of local businesses within the walkable portions of the community. Unfortunately, in that case, the newspaper ceased operations after fourteen years in business as local advertisers shifted their marketing toward online mediums (see article in the Stateman’s Journal). We’ll briefly discuss how the internet might impact traditional forces of centralization below.

The Industry and Its Workers – Another traditional example of an integrative force might be that of the large employer and its need to locate in close proximity to a healthy pool of workers. This particular dynamic helps explain the great urban development and high levels of historic density experienced within America’s powerhouse manufacturing cities. Places like New York, Chicago, and Detroit grew to great size and high density in part because the manufacturing that took place in those cities required many thousands of workers in close proximity. Cities such as Phoenix on the other hand were not originally propelled by a heavy manufacturing base, and lacking a comparable integrative force, never centralized the same level of urban density. The result for the latter group of cities has been more dispersion.

EXAMPLES OF INTEGRATIVE FORCES AT WORK IN MY LIFE

Public & Active Transportation – One integrative force that has influenced my attachment to various communities has been the presence of low cost transportation options. In general, the places where I lived that offered a very low commute cost have been highly attractive for their increased affordability. Conversely, places where I lived with a high commute cost have usually resulted in unstable living circumstances. Essentially, the ability to live near my job has been a source of financial efficiency, and I strongly believe that cities would be wise to enable their citizens to live near their jobs.

Mixed Use Neighborhoods – Because I have heavily relied on a combination of active and public transit modes throughout my life, close access to services and amenities has been a major integrative force. For most of my life, I have relied either on my own feet, my bike, or public transit in order to get around. Therefore, the ability to access useful services and amenities within my neighborhood or nearby has been so beneficial that I’m specifically attracted to seek residence in areas that offer this convenience. Nearby access to social opportunities and entertainment options has, to a lesser degree, produced a similar effect.

Local Politics – The desire or concern to live within the “correct” councilmanic district has served as an attractive force bonding me to a particular neighborhood. In some communities where councilmanic privilege plays a key role in shaping city life and services, the ability to be well protected by your local leadership is critical when the need arises to work with city government. Most Americans likely haven’t experienced this type of situation. However, within certain cities, where multiethnic coalitions exist and diversity is high, getting caught with a specific need for public support when your type reflects the wrong constituency for your local district can be a horrible experience. Therefore, the concern for living on the right side of a particular street can serve as an integrative force for belonging to a neighborhood. Conversely, the dynamics of councilmanic privilege can also be a dispersive force.

THE FORCES OF DISPERSION

Forces that discourage the geographic concentration of cities are those of dispersion. That is to say that forces of dispersion are non-integrative for cities. Among these are conflicts and struggles present within the urban environment that tear a city apart and decrease urbanization as a result. Traditionally, forces of dispersion may come in the form of high taxes, rampant crime, poorly performing schools or other public services, and traffic congestion among others. Essentially, non-integrative forces of dispersion can take of the form of anything that encumbers economic prosperity or general livability. However, the limits on what can be considered a non-integrative force that discourages one from dwelling in a certain community are often a matter of individual preference. Community planners should work to carefully document, ideally on a scientific level, the top forces of dispersion weighing on the population(s) within their jurisdiction.

SOME GENERAL EXAMPLES OF NON-INTEGRATIVE FORCES

High Taxes – Prohibitively high taxes might be one of the most commonly cited forces of dispersion. People look for bargains and ways to save money, and high taxes at the local level are not a part of that equation. Whether a jurisdiction’s taxes are actually high or merely perceived to be high does not appear to make a difference much of the time. I have found that some people would never consider life in a larger city based heavily on their perception of the taxes. Having lived within a wide array of communities myself, ranging from rural areas to small towns to mid and large sized cities, I can suggest that the emphasis on local taxes is largely overblown. However, prohibitively high taxes will disperse people and families, and even whole developments, across jurisdictional lines. Similarly, tax rate differentials between municipalities may discourage consolidation even when their residents consider themselves to belong to the same community.

Failing Public Services – When public services fail to provide for people, people disperse. Unfortunately, school districts in large cities have displayed a clear example of the dispersion caused when public services fall short of expectations. Within America, it is the exception to find a well performing urban school district rather than the rule. The failing performance of urban schools has played a major role in decentralizing cities by motivating middle class families to relocate into the suburbs and neighboring small towns. Finding solutions to improve urban education for children would be transformative for larger American cities.

Traffic Congestion – Congested streets are not only a hinderance for all activities in life, they are an economic burden on cities and regions. The economic burden imposed by congestion, whether it be on streets, rail lines, water ways, dock facilities, airport runways, or somewhere else, stems from its impact on limiting the reach of consumer markets and labor markets. Essentially, congestion is a supply chain issue of the logistical type. Since most people interact with congestion in the form of roadway traffic, I’ll provide two short examples based on vehicular congestion. For workers driving to their jobs, routine traffic congestion increases the amount of time lost during their commute. Since the typical worker can only allocate so much time within their day to their commute, the more congested the roadways the slower the average speed of travel and the less distance that can be covered during a routine commute. The question is, of course, how far can workers travel within their livable allowance for commute time? For myself, I struggle to maintain any commute longer than 45 minutes. A second example of the negative impact or non-integrative force imposed by congested roadways concerns their impact on the market reach of product suppliers and businesses. Heavy roadway congestion either increases the lag time or outright reduces the distance that businesses and suppliers can deliver their goods into surrounding marketplaces – thus reducing their overall reach, profits, and competitiveness.

Crime – High crime directly impacts one’s sense of safety and livability within a community. If crime is too consistent or high, people will seek a safer environment. Most of the time, this means moving to a different community – hence, a non-integrative force.

EXAMPLES OF NON-INTEGRATIVE FORCES AT WORK IN MY LIFE

Crime – The inability to safely live within certain neighborhoods has cut down on the range of housing options that have been available to me in the past. This issue particularly arose while living in Philadelphia where it was difficult to find a “middle of the road” neighborhood that was also safe for outsiders.

Transportation – Access to good public transportation along with the ability to walk to select amenities has been crucial in my living situations. However, when these systems break down, a dispersive force emerges. In Philadelphia, failed negotiations led to a transit strike that made commuting very difficult, if not even almost impossible, because of the traffic congestion that resulted. Otherwise, Philadelphia was excellent in terms of public transit and walking. The real non-integrative force that limits my association with many opportunities across America is the poor investment in good public transit options and the lack of walkable communities.

Housing Stock – Much of the housing built today has a tendency to support only certain kinds of consumers. Fancy downtown condos for the rich, big suburban mansions for the somewhat less rich, single family homes for the upper realms of the middle class, urban apartments for new money, and so forth. When it comes to the working class, affordable options in prosperous cities are very often limited to perimeter trailer parks, rundown suburban apartments, residual urban slums where crime has stayed gentrification, and a select few units set aside for those making below a certain percentage of area medium income – should you be so lucky on the waiting list. Unfortunately, good affordable housing within a nice city is a hard find for the 21st century worker.

A diagram displaying the basic forces of my attachment to life in the city.

Planners would be wise to understand the most basic and dominant forces of integration and dispersion present within the communities where they operate. Doing so should be considered as a necessary workplace assignment.

PEOPLE DO NOT ALWAYS MAKE RATIONAL DECISIONS

In conversation, I often hear people who express high taxes as their top reason for not wanting to live within the city. I understand that certain lifestyles might be easier to achieve in suburban or rural-residential communities, but I always find the high taxes reason to be puzzling. I feel people do not account for higher transportation costs and lost time that often come attached to living further out from the city core. One living within the core of the city and subject to higher taxes is ideally relieved by shorter commute times, the greater flexibility that comes with transportation options, and less auto-dependency. In other words, the difference between being a two-car household and a single-car household can easily account for the differential tax burden on property owners in the city versus the suburbs and outlying areas. In fact, even a two car household within the city may see a substantial reduction in their transportation cost resulting merely from the fact that they are likely to drive shorter distances between home, work, amenities, and errands. Nevertheless, the tradeoff between transportation costs and lost time to the municipal tax differential between central cities and surrounding areas seems to be lost on many consumers.

BEYOND ECONOMICS, A LOOK AT NATURAL AREAS & CREATING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY:

When it comes to the attachments people form with their community, not all decisions are based on economic factors. Social characteristics and the relationships formed between individuals often play a critical role. Edward C. Banfield’s and James Q Wilson’s excellent 1963 book on the political forces at play within cities, “City Politics,” provides a concise and articulate description of what makes a community:

“The city is among other things a set of values, habits, sentiments, myths, and understandings which are (more or less) shared by the people who live in it, and the sharing of which constitutes (again, more or less) a social bond attaching the people of the city to one another and – if the bond is sufficiently strong (it may not be) – making themselves to be, and therefore to be in fact, a community.”

Robert Park, urban sociologist, among others, introduced the concept of “natural areas” in the social tapestry of cities. Each natural area within a city exists as a sub-community because it satisfies the fundamental human needs of inhabitants through its own order of social organization and ethos (Banfield & Wilson, 49). Natural areas can function to reduce, for their members, the sense of alienation and anomie that often come with city life. With varying degrees of cohesion, some examples of natural areas include those formed along ethnic, racial, and religious lines. However, Banfield and Wilson also suggest that natural areas can form around institutions like a university or types of communities based on their lifestyle characteristics and appeal such as suburbs. Another type of natural area suggested is the one that forms around business establishments and the type of people they attract – some examples may include gamblers, artists, wealthy individuals, and others.

Banfield and Wilson highlight three socio-economic types of natural areas that may exist within a city. The following passages describe these three types of natural areas in detail and where taken directly from their book, City Politics (52-53):

[LOW INCOME AREAS] Some are tenement districts in which low-income migrants live, where family life is disrupted, church membership low and social life limited to a few friends or to a “gang.” In such areas, political preferences are unstable, people care little about the area or about the city as a whole, and they vote (and, more rarely, participate in politics in other ways) mainly when prompted to do so by organizations that offer material inducements or that appeal to particular, often personal loyalties.

[MIDDLE INCOME AREAS] Another type of natural area consists of small houses in which live semiskilled and clerical workers. In these areas, family activities are of the greatest importance, there is much “neighborliness,” many people attend church regularly, and there is a sense of obligation to the “community” and to neighbors. Few people have much leisure, however, and the educational level is rather low. Membership in voluntary associations (other than churches and unions) is also low. Although the sense of community is fairly strong, few people participate in local affairs and few take much interest in the government of the larger city or have much confidence in their ability to influence it. Such areas tend to exert a stabilizing, “balancing wheel” effect in city politics, but they seldom take a leading active role in it.

[HIGH INCOME AREAS] In the third type of natural area, where incomes and educational levels are high, neighborliness may not be very marked; this is especially the case where there are high-rise apartments. Membership in voluntary associations is high, however; both husbands and wives belong with varying degrees of enthusiasm to organizations having civic, educational, or fraternal purposes. Many people participate in civic projects and cultural affairs that transcend neighborhood lines, and the sense of obligation to the “community,” by which is generally meant the city (or even the metropolitan area) “as a whole,” is particularly strong.

MY THOUGHTS ON NATURAL AREAS

I like the aforementioned quote concerning how the values, habits, sentiments, and other factors can create a social bond between individuals that may in turn create a sense of community. It is possible that this sense of community could be tested during occasions of one’s out of town travel. Let’s say that you are travelling somewhere else within your state and happen to strike up conversation with a stranger whom you learn is from your same municipality. If you find that each of you feel somewhat more relatable to each other simply because you come from the same municipality, then such circumstance may be a sign that your municipality has a strong sense of community. However, if the coincidence of being from the same city is merely a minor fact or afterthought, because just being from the same municipality does not encourage further conversation, all else equal, it is possible that your municipality has a weaker sense of community.

In many ways, the formation of natural areas as sub-communities in cities is reassuring. It makes me optimistic to think that our large cities are bonded together by natural affiliations that form along a diverse array of linages rather than purely through a system of economic incentives that act as integrative forces. Communities that form along racial lines may provide comfort to those who feel or actually are marginalized within the city. Those forming along ethnic lines may strengthen our cities by setting the stage for welcoming new immigrants. Neighborhoods that attract individuals with specific interests such as in the sciences, technology, or arts may create a fertile environment for the growth of cultural movements or large, economically-disruptive enterprises. Without these natural areas a city might not be able to exist, and a city without them is hardly a city at all.

I’m uncertain whether the three natural areas highlighted along socio-economic lines by Banfield and Wilson can actually be classified as natural areas but rather as cleavages dividing the population within the larger city. It is likely the case that low, middle, and high income families will concentrate in select places, but it will often be the case that such concentrations will occur multiple times throughout even a mid-sized city. In many cities, there are multiple low income neighborhoods and a few high and middle income ones as well. I may then ask, can there by more than one location of the same type of natural area within the city? Or are such duplicative areas always distinct?

Regardless of how such questions might be resolved, one observation highlighted in City Politics that I find particularly interesting is the reference to the “stabilizing” or “balancing wheel” effect of the middle income neighborhoods in the political life of cities. In times of heated political exchange, I have felt that there is no crime greater than the politized action that ends up harming the ordinary people who seldom, if ever, get involved in political affairs. An example of this might be the politician, who, out of political retaliation, closes down a facility in a manner that harms people or causes social damage. If cities are commonly driven by conflicts between their wealthier and poorer residents, then a stable base of relatively non-engaged middle class families might be vital for preventing things from becoming unhinged. Unfortunately, as many American cities have lost their middle class populations, the effect of this “balancing wheel” may have become minimized.

HOW MIGHT TECHNOLOGY INFLUENCE CENTRALIZATION & OUR COMMUNITY ATTACHMENTS?

The rise of high speed internet and related technologies may be reducing the forces that contribute to the centralization of populations. Edward Glaeser has said, in his book, Triumph of the City, that “distance is dead.” The death of distance may have major implications for cities and city life as we know it. In fact, in the wake of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic, many companies are entertaining situations where their employees entirely work remotely. In some other cases, firms employ workers who work mostly from home and only convene in the office for the most important meetings, trainings, or events. Taking this trend to the extreme, our once prized downtown’s filled with corporate offices might have to be remodeled into conference spaces that are perhaps shared by more than one firm. It is possible that many of these spaces could also be located in the suburbs. Numerous articles published over recent years have lauded the rise of small towns and satellite cities, sometimes located far away from large metropolitan areas, for exhibiting robust growth both in terms of population and jobs. Such places have risen as dispersive forces in large cities such as housing affordability, crime, transportation cost, and others have left consumers questioning their existence in the big city or even its traditional suburbs. These trends suggest that cities will continue to hollow out as the traditional office core becomes irrelevant and consumers look to smaller towns located further from the heart of the metropolitan area to seek a better quality of life.

I agree with Edward Glaeser in that we are witnessing the slow death of distance. This death will deemphasize the need to keep transportation cost within the city low, modify what we know as the typical home, and alter what many recognize as the primary function of the downtown office core. However, with the gradual death of distance we are also witnessing a pent up and long overdue rebirth of place. The desire to establish the human’s sense of place has been documented in a steady and growing stream of articles over recent years, and common realizations made during the COVID-19 safety measures have led many people to reconnect with the physical activities offered by the outdoors and nature. Although the advances propelled by the internet will come to represent a new transportation technology along with new habits for how space is consumed, the desire to belong to a place or natural area will remain. If people are to be defined as more than their jobs, then cities should be defined by more than just collections of jobs and sites for economic exchanges. Over the coming years, our cities should focus on what they did well prior to the massive office space booms that begun in the 1960s. Downtowns should work to be the “face” of their region. This includes being a place of central assembly, a neighborhood, the seat of local governments, a cultural center, a business hub, a historic showcase, a center for institutions, an intellectual community, a place for the exchange of ideas, and a desirable choice for interactions between people. The gradual death of distance paired with new technologies might drive workers towards remote locations but humanity’s innate desire to connect with a sense of place will bring people back to the city.

SOME CLOSING QUESTIONS

How can we document the forces of integration and non-integration at play in our jurisdictions?

What are some ways that we can strengthen the attachments people feel with their cities or communities?

To what extent will advances in technology encourage people to move away from cities or metropolitan areas?

With the rise of the internet, will natural areas continue to play an important role in communities?

How can cities create places in which people feel attached?

SOURCES:

Banfield C. Edward and James Q Wilson. City Politics. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Random House, Inc, 1963.

Glaeser, Edward. Triumph of the City. New York, Penguin Group Inc, 2012.

HITTING THE ROAD – SUMMER 2022 GREAT LAKES ROAD TRIP

Posted on September 4, 2022 by tgilbertson06

Every year, millions of Americans vacation at resorts, theme parks, casinos, various tourist traps, or National Parks. There is nothing wrong with such choices, but personally, my adventures involve hitting the road to visit all the places in America that I’ve heard about yet haven’t seen. Therefore, I would be amiss to let my time in Appalachia slip past without venturing over to the Northern Midwest to see firsthand many of the places I’ve only heard about from time to time on news reports. Thus, I packed up my Honda Civic with a week’s supply of food, clothes, and accessories, and then started my casual saunter around the Great Lakes.

**Photo Credit: Thomas Gilbertson (2017 Honda Civic) – Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.**

Although I took time to stop at random towns and points of interest along the way, the general itinerary included:

Cleveland, Ohio;
Detroit, Michigan;
Michigan’s Lower & Upper Peninsulas;
Green Bay, Wisconsin;
Chicago, Illinois; and
Toledo, Ohio

As I traveled across the Northern Midwest, I collected data points on various observations. I discuss many of these observations within this post. You can explore my observations on your own through an ArcGIS Instant Application at the link below.

Click Here to Explore A Map Showing my Overall Travel Observations

Photo Credit: Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79074811
Photo Credit: Derek Gauci, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49610281
Photo Credit: Yinan Chen – www.goodfreephotos.com, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33636064
Photo Credit: Peter K Burian, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80139945
Photo Credit: Chris Rand, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34696968
Photo Credit: quinntheislander, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65976595
Photo Credit: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120812977

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the Northern Midwest. Many areas throughout the region appeal greatly to outdoor recreation, and numerous small towns have achieved a tourist orientation and seem to be doing well economically. From my observations, I assume that the real decline across the Northern Midwest is mostly limited to the inner city neighborhoods of large regions and rural towns whose economies never diversified beyond farming or agricultural products. Based on this assumption and the other signs of new life that emerged along my journey, I could envision an economic rebirth of this Rust Belt region one day. Meanwhile, as I drove from place to place, I noticed a potential indicator of economic wellbeing. It appeared that the condition of the highway I was on aligned with my perception of the prosperity of the surrounding region.

Cleveland, Ohio

My stay in Cleveland, Ohio was probably the most limited among the places I visited. I limited my stay for two reasons. First, I was attempting to beat a growing system of thunderstorms that were chasing me back into Pennsylvania. Second, I already live not too far from Cleveland and actually have the ability to visit the city easily as a day trip over the weekend. However, despite limiting my stay in Cleveland, I managed to check out the historic Terminal Tower (Tower City) which I have not been around to visit before.

The front entrance lobby inside Terminal Tower.
Looking up through the grand skylight at Terminal Tower within the atrium of the Tower City Mall.

Terminal Tower is one of the grandest buildings I’ve ever seen. It must have been a sight during its heyday. However, that heyday is long gone. Just outside the mall, I was greeted by a horrific fight between two grown persons concerning the custody of a child. The interior shopping mall was very undercapitalized. To be quite honest, this is the only shopping mall that I’ve entered where I felt unsafe (even though I entered mid-day). The kiosk merchants who approached me to sell their wares came off more like street hustlers than retail employees. I was saddened by this experience and decided to limit the amount of time I spent there as a result. This atmosphere mixed negatively with another issue in that the site appears to attract many people struggling with drug addiction as well as those experiencing homelessness. Many of the storefronts were not leased out and the remaining tenant mixture was disjointed. Even the food court hosting a Chick-Fil-A was almost entirely empty. Sections of the mall felt so deserted that they appeared ripe for criminal activity.

The shopping mall’s connection to the adjacent casino seemed to contribute to a less welcoming environment, and could potentially limit Terminal Tower’s revitalization or redevelopment potential going forward. I thought about the casino somewhat as I walked around the interior atrium of the mall. To me, the inclusion of the casino illustrates some of the tradeoffs that exist between redevelopment strategies in struggling communities. I could imagine that the casino proposal may have come with the promise of delivering much-needed private investment and tax revenue into Cleveland – but at what cost? This attempt at redevelopment differs from the approach employed in Chicago, Illinois where large-scale works of infrastructure and buildings are activated with the arts. In that city, a given space might not have much going on from day to day but the introduction of public art displays can begin to attract at least casual visitors to the area. Needless to say, there was not much art on display at Terminal Tower, and the grand hallways that once likely teemed with travelers and shoppers were so deserted that it felt like I shouldn’t be there either.

As a final thought on Terminal Tower, I noticed that there was formerly a Brooks Brothers retailer in the mall. From research conducted after my visit, it appears that the upscale men’s fashion retailer closed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. However, what seemed telling, as I looked at the retailer’s former entry doors within the mall was how small and tucked away they were. Brooks Brother’s front entry was not saying, “we’re here come on in!” Instead, it appears that it may have once said, “great, you’ve found us, now enter quickly before others outside of our target demographic notice that we’re here.”

The Motor City

The second day of my road trip, I fired up my car and began motoring on to the Motor City. Wait, let’s pause for a moment. Motor City. Detroit is best known as being a center of automobile manufacturing in the United States. What could be the significance of nicknaming a place after one particular type of industry? What can we infer about a city that is nicknamed after only a specific type of economic activity? Can anyone identify any major cities nicknamed in a similar manner? The company of cities nicknamed in a similar fashion is not too encouraging. These include the following.

Flint, Michigan – “The Birthplace of General Motors” & “Vehicle City”
Grand Rapids, Michigan – “Furniture City”
Hartford, Connecticut – “Insurance City”
Lexington, Kentucky – “Horse Capital of the World”
Lincoln, Nebraska – “Hartford of the West”
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – “Brew City”
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – “The Steel City”
Stamford, Connecticut – “Lock City”
Wilmington, Delaware – “Chemical Capital of the World”

With some exceptions, this is not exactly an all-star team of economic success stories. Back to Detroit.

Taken overall, the very center of downtown Detroit was nicer than I had anticipated. I had anticipated a central core that would feel much more dangerous even during the middle of the day than the one I happened upon. A central food pod and relatively open-air bar provided a great deal of foot traffic within the vicinity of Campus Martius Park. This area was nice and could be improved upon to make an excellent community space. As I walked a few blocks away from Campus Martius Park, I noticed that foot traffic dropped off sharply to levels not above that of any typical American neighborhood. My sense of safety dropped as the level of foot traffic declined.

“In essence, Detroit could easily widen its sidewalks, narrow its crosswalks, and otherwise reduce the width of its streets all throughout the city beginning with downtown.”

I got a sense of Detroit’s truly amazing industrial legacy while I drove into the city. Some neighborhoods or areas were so dedicated to industrial production and natural resource extraction that they are completely unlike anything that I’ve experienced within a large city. These vast areas of production facilities lying within the formation of a neighborhood street grid were unique in my opinion.

As I drove into Detroit from its southwestern side, I got a feel for just how oriented the city’s transportation infrastructure is towards the private automobile. I found the presumed age of the automobile-oriented infrastructure to be unique. Many of the roadways as well as the automobile-oriented developments that lined them appear to have been intentionally created for vehicle use and access despite looking as though they were built before WWII. This observation suggests that Detroit and its surrounding suburbs may have adapted their land use patterns and infrastructure for automobile usage before other cities in America followed suit.

A Lack of Businesses

As soon as I entered the city limits there were no more businesses. Unfortunately, it appears that conditions within the City of Detroit are interpreted by businesses such that they do not want to operate within its limits. This could be caused by higher taxes, specific regulations, perceived cultural differences, safety concerns, not wishing to be subject to the political environment offered within the city limits, or some combination of these factors or possibly something else. The land use pattern created by businesses only locating outside the city limits may set up a series of problematic conditions for Detroit including:

less tax revenue;
longer commutes for residents;
inconsistency between land use patterns and how the public transportation system was designed to facilitate mobility and access to jobs and services;
the challenges of cooperation between different jurisdictions over areas that are important to city residents;
the consumption of more space for human habitation than is otherwise necessary to sustain the urbanized region; and
continued disinvestment in neighborhoods within the city limits.

Wider Streets Aren’t Safer

Even within the city, suburbanization was the trend. Detroit should be turning away from the automobile industry – entirely. The activity within the city that made me feel safe and welcome was not cars driving too fast along streets, roads, and “stroads” that were too wide but instead from my fellow pedestrians on the sidewalk. Even when driving around downtown the extra wide streets actually created more hazardous and confusing driving conditions than what one might expect. Despite visiting many unfamiliar cities during my road trip, Detroit was the only place where I incorrectly navigated an intersection and ended up driving in the wrong direction for a short distance before righting the course. I argue that the only reason I misread the intersection was due to it being too wide and having poorly maintained street markings and signage. This minor slip-up would have been a big problem during rush hour. However, I’m willing to guess that Detroit has become so hollowed out that there may not be a “rush hour” anymore. From my observations, I did not observe a line of cars at any one red light. In fact, the lines of cars at nearly every red light were only one or two cars deep and either two or three cars wide.

The Opportunities Created by Overly Wide Streets

In essence, Detroit could easily widen its sidewalks, narrow its crosswalks, and otherwise reduce the width of its streets all throughout the city beginning with downtown. If this were to be undertaken, it might also be a great opportunity to introduce street trees into what was otherwise the most concrete grey city I’ve visited. The one blessing of streets that are too wide is that they offer great opportunities for the use of the extra space. Reducing the width of the streets through a variety of measures could also give off more of a sense of safety in that streets appearing to have more car traffic on them (that is to say deeper but manageable lines of cars at well-coordinated red lights) appear to be more active and therefore safer than completely or almost empty streets. Of course, wider sidewalks will have to be activated with foot traffic in order to improve one’s sense of safety.

Click Here to Explore my Detroit Observations on a Web Map

Some of my takeaway thoughts on Detroit’s urban form include:

The Detroit region appears to be extremely sprawling with many office activities located outside the central city. This decentralized region may benefit from a new approach to public transit and a recognition that the central core is not and may never again be a strong core.
Downtown Detroit could do without the entirety of its downtown interstate highway loop as well as the two suburban cloverleaf exchanges and spurs of Highway 10 and Interstate 75 that would still extend toward the downtown after the removal of the downtown highway loop.
Arbitrary municipal boundaries appear to separate areas that ought to be Detroit neighborhoods from the city itself. This circumstance is likely not rooted in any practical effort to allocate municipal services but probably in the aims of various political cleavages.

Michigan’s Peninsulas

After spending time in Detroit, I made my way to another city that I’ve only heard things about but have never seen for myself – Flint, Michigan. My remarks on Flint will be brief because I did not spend too much time there as I had to travel a great distance on the day of my visit. Flint was clearly a hard up town. However, there were some emerging signs of improvement or energy within the downtown area. I came across one of these signs in the form of a very interesting alleyway adjacent to the Capitol Theater (see below). The space included a mural, drinking areas, overhead lights, and other inviting features. This particular observation provided yet another demonstration of how communities can use the arts to bring positive attention back into struggling areas.

**Photograph of a mural in Flint, Michigan taken in the alleyway next to the Capitol Theater.**

Mackinaw City, Michigan

Beyond Flint, I enjoyed spending my time traveling through the rural and wilderness areas of Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. On the second day of my road trip, I drove all the way from Detroit’s southernmost suburbs to Mackinaw City at the very northern tip of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Once I arrived in Mackinaw City, I strolled around the town to explore its offerings. I was impressed by how well this community has been able to orient its main street towards tourism. The main street was structured similar to the streets of downtown Detroit in that it was very wide. However, the wide expanse of space comprising the main street was used very differently. In addition to having angle parking on both sides of the street, the center of the street contained angle parking that was even large enough to fit recreational vehicles (RVs) or trucks hauling campers (or two cars). Additionally, traffic islands placed in the center of the street and at pedestrian crossings allowed for lighting and tree cover. Although I don’t normally advocate for car parking, the abundance of car parking already present within the area of the main street appears to have minimized the demand for privately held or public surface parking lots that could break up the continuity of the pedestrian-oriented commercial district. The surface parking lots that did exist within this area either applied to the large outdoor stores or the Mackinaw City Hall and were located behind the commercial buildings on the main street. The overall effect of the site development and parking configurations within the main street area appeared to be the formation of a better pedestrian environment.

The extra wide main street in Mackinaw City is well configured to support parking and pedestrian use. Public restrooms flank both sides of the commercial district and a pedestrian only shopping area contributes to the street life.

The main street of Mackinaw City not only made relatively wise use of its expansive street area to promote ease of use and a nice pedestrian environment, the addition of key public service amenities made for an even better experience. Two public restrooms were made available and open for use and roughly located at each end of the main street area. One of the public restrooms was actually carved out from the back portion of the city hall building. This last configuration potentially represents a great example of the efficiency that can be achieved from dual-use public facilities. To be blunt, every forward thinking community with its city hall already located on the main street should consider incorporating a convenient public restroom into its facilities for the benefit of the main street. I’ll note that “convenient” in this contexts means accessible from the outside of the city hall without having to pass through metal detectors and security.

Sandy Beaches & Alpine Forests

As I ventured across the Mackinac Bridge, I immediately noticed a major change in the vegetative cover of the landscape. I was hoping to spot a moose as I made my way further into the upper peninsula of Michigan. That didn’t happen. However, I did manage to find a few excellent beaches located off the shores of Lake Superior before spending the night at a small lodge in Ontonagon, Michigan. The temperature in northern Michigan was easily about ten or fifteen degrees cooler than what it was in Detroit on the same day. It was also far less humid. If this observation is typical, then the northern reaches of the Great Lakes region could become more desirable if the weather warms substantially. The next day, I went for numerous walks in the Porcupine Mountains. Once I had enough of the great outdoors, I slowly headed south towards the Land O Lakes.

A very inviting beach off the shores of Lake Huron in Mackinaw City.
A beautiful and probably historic lighthouse in Mackinaw City.
A hotdog place that I visited in Mackinaw City.
Sunset over Lake Superior taken from a public beach in Ontonagon, Michigan.
Bonanza Falls in the Porcupine Mountains wilderness in Michigan.
Pinkerton Creek in the Porcupine Mountains wilderness in Michigan.
A view from above; looking down on the Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains wilderness in Michigan.

Green Bay, Wisconsin

I never realized that the northern portion of Wisconsin is so wild. People were few and far between and much of the land was either fallow or natural. As I began to make my way down into the farmland of the state, I noticed just how nicely kept the dairy farms were and the artistic pride taken in the displays on their silos and barns. I looked into these artworks afterwards and realize that they were a part of an agricultural tourism promotion. The displays within the short clip below don’t quite do the artworks I saw justice, but the clip does explain the program. The quilt board artworks were clearly visible from the roads and highways and they gave a storybook feel to the farmland of Wisconsin.

Green Bay was a very nice and quaint town with a small-to-mid-sized appeal. In a number of ways it felt like Eugene, Oregon but instead of hosting a large university a similar commotion comes from the Green Bay Packers. The town was low key but still had many things to explore over the course of a day or week even. I particularly liked making my way around on their Bird Scooters. The scooters could travel up to 15 miles per hour for easily twenty or so miles per charge. They made getting around easy and fun, and also a little dangerous.

The riverwalk in Green Bay was the best one I’ve seen for a relatively small town. Its amenities and design offered a little something for everyone, and I noticed a real diversity of people enjoying it. My experience on the riverwalk was heightened by great weather that simply could not have been better during my visit. From a urban planning perspective, the riverwalk could be accessed from the downtown and nearby neighborhoods through walkways, easements, and paths linking to dead end streets on every block. The walkways, greenspaces, docks, and other spaces themselves were seamlessly integrated with the mixed-use development of downtown waterfront and adjacent neighborhoods.

I noticed that Green Bay appeared to have more manufacturing employment than I had expected. It was relieving to see that the city does not revolve entirely around the National Football League franchise despite its presence playing a substantial role. This observation seems to reinforce my earlier assumption about the impact of professional sports teams within their cities. Although such teams provide a nice entertainment option along with good marketing and usually a community service outlet, they are not major economic drivers. I assume that this is largely because professional sports teams do not bring in many “traded sector” jobs even though they do provide useful opportunities in “non-traded” sector occupations. Based on this assumption and my prior observations that stack against viewing sports stadiums as ways to improve neighborhoods in most cases, I was pleased to see that the Green Bay Packers were not located downtown but instead within a nearby neighborhood. Overall, my impression of Green Bay was very positive. From its appearance alone, that town seems like a nice place to live and work.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Unfortunately, the morning that I woke up in Green Bay I wasn’t feeling one-hundred percent. I wasn’t sick but may have been feeling a bit under the weather. Despite feeling a little off, I forged ahead towards Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Milwaukee was a beautiful old city with much of its industrial legacy seemingly intact. I found the layout of the city to be somewhat confusing. But that is not a problem at all. In my opinion, a little bit of confusion is a proper ingredient in a well designed city. It is this minor element of chaos in the urban form that makes a place more interesting. This chaos also contributes to a city appearing more vast. From past conversations with individuals who are not too accustomed to visiting or spending time in cities, it seems that their top concerns are often centered on their worries about navigation, odd rules or right-of-way restrictions, getting lost, and the possibility of crime. I’ve also felt that if we can somehow get people to be more comfortable with urban exploration that such a cultural shift would help struggling cities attract more visitors. This idea deviates from the most common tactics used by American cities whereby cookie-cutter attractions are plopped over former neighborhoods rendering cities merely as old places to get-in and then get-out.

**This clever piece of street art in Milwaukee turns gum stains into fish food.**

Milwaukee’s dense urban core was paired with some streets radiating out from the center of town or bending to the contours of the river. The resulting form gave off the impression of an urban jungle that did not reveal itself all at once. Some of this effect could have been that this was my first time back in a sizable city after spending time on Michigan’s northern peninsula. Despite some of the unique elements of Milwaukee’s urban form that I feel contribute to its appeal, the city still appeared to struggle with some of the problems that result when downtown is divided from adjacent neighborhoods by highways.

I had only stopped in Milwaukee for about an hour-and-a-half for lunch because I found out the time zone differential played against my plans for traveling into Chicago that evening. After spending some time walking about, I came to the conclusion that seeing Milwaukee requires at least a few days of exploration. It would have been nice to spend more time there. Perhaps, I’ll come back again for a visit.

Just a view of some buildings in Milwaukee.
It was nice to see that many cities are embracing the use of street cars after Portland, Oregon reintroduced the technology back in 1999.
The atrium of an old fashion arcade shopping mall in Milwaukee.
A view of the Warner Theater’s marque in Milwaukee.
The beautiful and ornate Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce Building
Detail of the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce Building’s upper floors.

The Windy City

Chicago is a great city. To me, Chicago feels more magnificent or impressive than any other city in the United States. One caveat being that I’ve never visited San Francisco or Los Angeles being the only two cities that I think could rival Chicago. New York is certainly larger as well as more interesting and influential. But New York was built more to the human scale and just doesn’t carry the sense of grandeur or triumph that I find in Chicago. However, New York’s human scale feel and easily walkable neighborhoods give it a major advantage over Chicago whose urban form could either be the majesty of a thriving city or the curse of a dying one. I remember that walking around Manhattan sort of felt like walking around downtown Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington just with more street life and boisterous people. Regardless, Chicago is the greatest city ever founded and built by Americans and was informally intended to be the economic and cultural capitol of the United States. Today, Chicago still takes pride in its grandeur without apology. If this demeaner continues and larger economic trends begin to tilt back towards the nation’s heartland, then it is possible that Chicago could rise again. Hopefully, the city that does such a great job showcasing its strength is humble enough to tackle the problems that seem present throughout its region.

Comprehensive Public Transit

Chicago’s issues were evident as I entered the city from its northern side. The traffic attempting to circulate through the neighborhoods of Chicago’s far northside was ridiculous. Those neighborhoods could clearly benefit from increased urbanization to promote a more walkable or transit friendly environment. Potentially, the construction of a series of circulator streetcars could conveniently link the residential portions of the city’s outer neighborhoods to the numerous regional train stations that run into The Loop (downtown). I did not see any streetcars in the city or its neighborhoods during my visit. Providing these circulator streetcars could potentially increase the reach and effectiveness of Chicagoland’s regional rail lines. Given the abundance of Chicago’s existing regional train stations, it is possible that “circulator” streetcar lines might not even need to circulate at all. A potential configuration could comprise a streetcar running in a perpendicular line to the trajectory of each regional rail line for about a mile on each side of a commuter station. This method of circulation could make transit use more convenient for people residing within the interstitial areas between regional rail lines.

My impression of Chicago was that the city is teeter-tottering between the natural push of American consumers towards an irrational automobile oriented lifestyle and the type of urbanization that we typically only see in central Philadelphia, Boston, or throughout most of New York City. I believe that efforts to move the city’s urban form towards a more transit and pedestrian orientation could not only improve the local quality of life but result in better economic prospects.

Residential Downtowns will be key to success

I was pleasantly surprised by how Chicago has been working to accommodate a greater residential population within and near its downtown core. The presence of these residents added a consistent flow of street life throughout the central portions of the city. It was amazing to be reminded of just how much more street activity Chicago has over Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh among others. However, the foot traffic declined considerably on Sunday morning – I assumed that this was resulted from lower tourism on that day paired with the onset of rain.

Based on casual observations during my travels, I’ll rank the level of foot traffic and street life in each of the cities I visited as follows:

Chicago (very high on most blocks within central areas, some steady crowds)
Milwaukee (high throughout the central core)
Green Bay (moderate on the main street but high along the riverfront)
Detroit (moderate within a block or two of the core and dropping off almost completely beyond)
Mackinac City (high on main street and moderate at points of interest)
Toledo (low throughout with some areas approaching moderate)
Cleveland (low throughout downtown, but moderate with the “down and out” crowd)
Ontonagon (low but steady along main street)
Flint (low along main street)
Antigo (low)

The Chicago Board of Trade abuts the end of this street.
A beautiful streetscape of old buildings in Chicago.
Even the churches are vertical in Chicago.
The Chicago Riverwalk in the evening.
What a place for a selfie.
The great Chicago Watertower – only building to survive the Chicago Fire.
Chicago is the headquarters of this all-American favorite.
The light show displayed on the side of this building is a must see.
Chicago City Hall has seen some powerful politicians in its days.
These futuristic towers are always a favorite. Just don’t build any more.
An old building tries to fit into a new skyline.
The outdoor arcades and skybridges of the Wrigley Building are some of the nicest in the country.
More of that awesome skybridge (Wrigley Building).
Trump International Hotel & Tower seen from under the Wrigley Buildings skybridge.
Trump strikes again. This time in Chicago.
Trump’s Chicago tower.
One of many grand buildings in Chicago.
The Chicago Theater from underneath the L Train.
North Shore Beach was such a nice place to cool off.
A new pharmacy in an old drugstore building.
Buckingham Fountain is simply impressive.

Chicago highlights the importance of bringing people to live within the central urban core of cities. A key problem often standing in the way of building residential downtowns is the challenge of providing sufficient educational opportunities for students. Since the issue of fixing urban schools has been an ongoing challenge with little results, maybe it is time to rethink the concept of a school. Perhaps kids can attend a mostly online education but socialize with their peers in neighborhood groups or some other similar arrangement instead.

The role of public art

While spending time in Chicago, I was consistently confronted by unique works of creative public art. A diverse mixture of artworks are employed throughout the city’s public realm including modern, classical, abstract, poppy, avant garde, digital, historical, and more. Some of these artworks were used to tell great stories of individuals who have made important contributions to society while others shared tales of civic pride. The most impressive public artworks were successfully able to bring people to areas of the city that would otherwise sit dormant based on their surrounding land uses. A particular stand out was Art on the Mart. I enjoyed watching this digital light and music show on the façade of the Mercantile Exchange Building. The video below is a short clip showcasing the unveiling of Art on the Mart provided curtesy of the Chicago Sun Times in 2018. You can also check out their website to learn more – https://artonthemart.com/

Even though Chicago has soo much going for it already, a continued focus on quality of life improvements and crime reduction could serve the city greatly in the future.

Click Here to Explore my Chicago Observations on a Web Map

Toledo, Ohio

Toledo appeared to have nice bones (buildings, infrastructure, public facilities) left over from its days as a larger manufacturing center. Although the town appeared fairly hollowed out during my visit, the downtown shows signs of sprouting some interesting businesses and the years of population decline made parking easy. In general, the lack of street activity on the day of my visit made me feel less safe, and I didn’t want to spend too much time there as a result. I did manage to find a very nice coffee shop and enjoy walking around a few of the more attractive parts of the downtown before heading back to Pennsylvania. If the Midwest starts to turn around in terms of economy and population, then Toledo might be a city to watch.