On 29 January 2009 PewResearchCenter (sic) published a social and demographic trends report “Denver Tops List of Favorite Cities (sic): For Nearly Half of America, Grass Is Greener Somewhere Else.”
The report was picked up by CNN and other media outlets. EMR downloaded it and read it with interest and disbelief.
In Chapter 32 – The Land Resource concerning the problems with “best places” listings EMR said:
“A recent survey by the Pew Research Center finds that nearly half of the citizens of the US of A believe that the grass is greener somewhere else and would like to move there if they could. See End Note Six
6. The January 2009 report by the Pew Research Center titled “For nearly half of America, Grass Is Greener Somewhere Else” is at once an important land mark and an encyclopedia of bad Vocabulary with extensive use of Core Confusing Words and aggregation of data that obscures the importance of the work.”
THE FIRST DISAPPOINTMENT is that a lot of money was wasted asking important questions using a Vocabulary that was not defined. This Vocabulary was guaranteed to generate a wide array of conflicting Neural Linguistic Frameworks – a topic discussed in Columns #s 71, 72, 73 and 75 and in TRILO-G Chapter 26. – Gibberish: The Vocabulary of Babel.
For starters, the title is deceptive. The study focused on the 30 largest MSA’s, not “cities.” Boston (pop 590,000) is included by Charlotte (pop 611,000) is not. That makes a huge difference when one gets to DISAPPOINTMENT SQUARED. David Brooks, demonstrating typical journalistic Geographic Illiteracy, missed this point completely.
Beyond the fact that nearly half of the citizens polled see the grass greener where they are not now living (See TRILO-G Chapter 1. – Wild Abandonment) most of the data is corrupted by poor Vocabulary and superficial analysis. One has to read the questions and the data aggregated to plumb the depth of the silliness but here is a peek:
What do “city,” “suburb,” “small town” and “rural” mean to each of the participants?
Lets take some examples from the northern part of Virginia:
Is Clifton, VA (a Town under Virginia law) that exists in the middle of Fairfax County one of the largest municipalities in the US of A (Fairfax County CONTROLS most of the municipal level services and governance provided to citizens of the Town of Clifton and each of the “local” County Supervisors represents over 100,000 citizens) a “small town”?
How about the Town of Vienna that is one of the Village-scale components of Greater Tysons Corner, the 8th largest commercial center in the US of A?
Is the City of Fairfax City a “city” a “suburb” or a “small town?”
Some who live in each of these three locations would give all four answers as to where they are and what they prefer, given their personal experience.
Similar examples are endless, especially in the R=20 Miles to R=70 Miles Radius band from the Centroid of the National Capital Subregion.
The study reinforced what has been said about Creative Class preferences and provided work for former WaPo staff (some of whom did similarly flawed work when working for the paper) but other than that, the study is largely a waste of time and a waste of a wonderful opportunity.
DISAPPOINTMENT SQUARED
On 16 February, David Brooks wrote an Op Ed for the NY Times. (Posted as a comment by an “Anon 8:15 AM” in BACK TO “BELTWAY BURDEN.”
David Brooks, like many “journalists” likes to think of himself as a free thinker and is sometime viewed as an iconoclast. He is a “story teller” as defined in The Shape of The Future. Brooks gets paid because he is an entertaining writer. Most important to The New York Times, they can sell Autonomobile advertisements because Brooks along with John Tierney, Joel Kotkin and others appear in the paper. See THE ESTATES MATRIX.
There is not much in the Brooks Op Ed that is “wrong” but it leaves a profoundly distorted impression with anyone who does not understand more that Brooks about Amsterdam and Denver and far more about human settlement patterns than Brooks.
Is Brooks talking about the Zentrum of Amsterdam or the Amsterdam New Urban Region? They are different places and in fact some settlement patterns in the later would appeal to a wide spectrum of those seeking greener pastures.
The places Brooks says people are attracted to are places where “the boundary between “suburb” and “city” is hard to detect.” Like that is not the case elsewhere? The BIG difference is most of the places Brooks lists – and not just Portland – have a Clear Edge around the Core of the New Urban Region unlike the Washington-Baltimore and Houston New Urban Regions.
Brooks does not mention that ALL the places he lists as being attractive have had a explosion of share-vehicle system construction over the last two decades. And an explosion of transit related development. They are LESS auto dependent than many places in the National Capital Subregion – for example Dale City and Bristow.
Denver is known for its Light Rail system and station area development and the BRT system in the Zentrum. There is the Lower Downtown / Coors Field, Invesco at Mile High, redevelopment of Stapleton and other urbane living and working environments. Some are approaching Balance.
Sure there are critics of non-autocentric settlement patterns. Many paid directly or indirectly by Autonomobile Enterprises. The market makes clear that those who believe what the pro-Autonomobile shills spout make up about 20 percent of the population. Those who actually put their money where their mouth is and buy urban dwellings is the pattern and density that Wendell Cox, Joel Kotkin, John Tierney, the American Dream Foundation, Reason et. al. – and relish the David Brooks snarkyness – make up about 12.5 percent of the population.
You would think from their writing that they are standing up for the oppressed masses who are being deprived of the American Dream by demon socialist forces.
But go ahead and write this fun stuff. It sells papers and makes for “balanced journalism” just like Peanut Corp of America represents good old American competition.
DISAPPOINTMENT CUBED
Rather than try to use the Brooks Op Ed to understand how to change the unsustainable trajectory of civilization, the Brooks item is used by Bloggers to club EMR. They have not bothered to read the Pew report or consider what Brooks is really saying.
NMM why are you so ready to abandon the market? Why are you so delighted to hop on yet another ideological hobby horse?
The responses to ANATOMY OF A BAD COMMUTE and to BACK TO “BELTWAY BURDEN” show again how ineffective the Blog format is to help citizens understand how to evolve away from dysfunctional human settlement patterns.
If citizens want challenging work, the most interesting companions and access to a sustainable Countryside they need to figure out how to evolve functional Urban settlement patterns. The alternative is places like Dale City and Bristow and in the end, Collapse.
Ok, there are will be places where one can make a living by “taking in one another’s laundry,” over winter by eating root vegetables and driving to 20 year old cars – Cuba in the Heartland.
A sustainable trajectory for civilization that is anything like the current level of amenity depends on real research and real journalism, not story telling.
EMR
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