Losing the Cities

 

shutterstock_363188468I live in Chicago. It’s a very progressive town. Most of my friends and acquaintances are progressive. I work with a graying pony-tailed and bearded fellow who assertively wears his Bernie Sanders t-shirt at least once a week. I myself read The New Yorker, go to theater as much as possible, and even had a play recently produced by a local theater group. I am a devoted fan of WFMT which is simply the greatest classical music radio station in the world and a bastion of tasteful urban liberalism. When finances permit I go to orchestra concerts and even the opera.

I don’t own a car — I get around by bike or take public transportation. I get depressed whenever I have to journey to vast exurban wasteland that surrounds my city. In other words, though I live 700 miles to the west of Gotham, I live in accord with New York values, at least as far as lifestyle and culture is concerned.

Thus, I relished this article by Kevin D. Williamson, a stern bit of wisdom which has been alluded to by several Ricochet posters.

My city is dying. It is one-third San Francisco surrounded by two-thirds Detroit. Nightly, children are inadvertently shot by children as they take aim at other children. On warm weekends the body count often surpasses the death toll of your average high-profile mass murder.

Chicago is beyond broke. The public school system alone is hundreds of millions in debt and the teachers’ union is readying itself for another wage grab. And it will prevail because no one, not even the once-formidable Rahm Emanuel, has the political heft to hold the line.

The side streets are mottled with pot holes but the funds that could be used for repairs are going increasingly towards feeding the pensions of retired city workers, a sizable group in a city that epitomizes political patronage.

To stave off the inevitable, the city is ratcheting up taxes inducing more and more people and business to head for the exits. Chicago has seen the exodus of more than 300,000 people since 1980. If Emanuel is forced from office due to his attempt to cover up a police shooting the trickle of disaffected will turn into a torrent since it is likely his replacement will be a left-wing populist ready and willing to make free with the public purse.

Sooner, rather than later, the failure of progressive Democratic policies will reach a crisis point and perhaps then my gray-haired Bernie Sanders-loving friend and his like-minded compadres will look around and take notice. They are good people. Really. They are intelligent, cultured, and well-meaning. After the second or third glass of Barolo (okay, fourth) you can even get them to confess a grudging respect for George Will or William F. Buckley. They can be reached! But sneering at them with vague, lazy insults will only make the task harder. Let’s hope Mr. Williamson’s article gets a wide reading in conservative circles.

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    “Let that Midnight Special shine down on me…” Yeah, WFMT.

    • #1
  2. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    Hear, hear.  How can we, on the one hand, criticize President Obama for dividing the country (“bitter clingers”) while lauding Senator Cruz for doing the same thing?  The fact that Cruz was aiming at “them” and not “us” does not make him any better than someone who was targeting “us” not “them.”  All of the “them-s” and “us-es” are Americans.

    • #2
  3. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    I’ll nominate WBJC in Baltimore.  Other than perhaps the public radio voicings of the announcers and the occasional requests for cash, there’s nothing overtly progressive about it.  And it’s playlists are second to none.  Is Studs Terkel still getting airtime on WFMT from beyond the grave?

    And is enjoying “culture,” theatre, classical music, etc. really a New York (or progressive) value?

    • #3
  4. Mate De Inactive
    Mate De
    @MateDe

    Wow this New York Values thing really had hit a nerve, with city folk. Turn on any TV show, watch most Hollywood movies and you find distain for those folks who live outside of the city. Rednecks, hayseeds, bitter clingers, GASP, Pro- Lifers. Governor Cuomo did say “extreme conservatives who oppose abortion and support gun rights have no place in his state”. I know that made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside that I would not be welcome in my home state.

    Just funny to see the reaction when the shoe is on the other foot, and what Ted Cruz said isn’t even that bad. All he said was that Trump embodies New York Values, and since his name is emblazoned on quite a few buildings in the city and he does know how to maneuver the muck of NYC corruption, maybe New Yorkers should consider it a compliment. Trump does embody New York Values. I don’t know, I guess the truth hurts.

    • #4
  5. Franz Drumlin Inactive
    Franz Drumlin
    @FranzDrumlin

    Hoyacon:I’ll nominate WBJC in Baltimore. Other than perhaps the public radio voicings of the announcers and the occasional requests for cash, there’s nothing overtly progressive about it. And it’s playlists are second to none. Is Studs Terkel still getting airtime on WFMT from beyond the grave?

    Ah, good ol’ Studs! He was more socialist-y than even Bernie Sanders but a thoroughly charming and lovable chap. I think ‘FMT has possession of the tapes of his interviews going back decades. When I get to heaven he will be one of the first people I will look around for, and if he isn’t there I will ask where they sent him then head off in that direction.

    • #5
  6. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Hoyacon:

    And is enjoying “culture,” theatre, classical music, etc. really a New York (or progressive) value?

    Well sure.  Don’t you know the rest of us just sit around watching NASCAR and polishing our guns?

    • #6
  7. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Ever see the movie Nine Men Out? Studs and John Sayles play sportswriters. At one point, they show Studs as he types up an article. He types at a furious speed using only his index fingers. That’s the way he really did it, too. That’s how he wrote all of those tomes, two index fingers on fire.

    • #7
  8. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Miffed White Male:

    Hoyacon:

    And is enjoying “culture,” theatre, classical music, etc. really a New York (or progressive) value?

    Well sure. Don’t you know the rest of us just sit around watching NASCAR and polishing our guns?

    What–no punkin chunkin?  Commie.

    • #8
  9. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Arahant:

    Ever see the movie Nine Men Out? Studs and John Sayles play sportswriters. At one point, they show Studs as he types up an article. He types at a furious speed using only his index fingers. That’s the way he really did it, too. That’s how he wrote all of those tomes, two index fingers on fire.

    That’s how I type too.  I clocked it once I was somewhere around 45 WPM.  Had a typing class in high school that didn’t quite take.

    That’s about all I have in common with him.  Although I did enjoy The Good War.

    • #9
  10. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    You could move to Evanston.  The area between Dempster and Main is mighty progressive without being overwhelmed by the Northwestern professors who live further north. You won’t have to ask your alderman for anything, just open your mouth. It only takes one person with a grievance to get the wheels turning in Evanston.

    I sure wish I could recall the name of the host on WQXR (when they were at 96.9 and their signal was broadcast from the Empire State Building) who used to torture listeners with perfectly just-enough-off-key singing to be completely dreadful during fundraising drives. He once said that he wanted to take every copy of the score for Pachebel Cannon and whip it off the top of the Empire State Building.  Those were the days. I also believe that was when the station was owned by the NYTimes…when that was still suitable to wrap fish and line bird cages.

    • #10
  11. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Studs is at about the 1:00 mark in this clip: Eight Men Out

    • #11
  12. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    9thDistrictNeighbor:I sure wish I could recall the name of the host on WQXR (when they were at 96.9 and their signal was broadcast from the Empire State Building) who used to torture listeners with perfectly just-enough-off-key singing to be completely dreadful during fundraising drives.

    George Jellinek ran the station and had his own show(s) for a lot of years.

    • #12
  13. Amy Schley Coolidge
    Amy Schley
    @AmySchley

    9thDistrictNeighbor: He once said that he wanted to take every copy of the score for Pachebel Cannon and whip it off the top of the Empire State Building.

    This could only be for the betterment of human society. Just be sure to get *all* of them, because it’s not just on classical stations anymore:

    • #13
  14. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Hoyacon:

    9thDistrictNeighbor:I sure wish I could recall the name of the host on WQXR (when they were at 96.9 and their signal was broadcast from the Empire State Building) who used to torture listeners with perfectly just-enough-off-key singing to be completely dreadful during fundraising drives.

    George Jellinek ran the station and had his own show(s) for a lot of years.

    I guess it’s been too many years since I lived in the NY area. I was thinking of Steve Post on a different station…when a city could support multiple classical stations on both AM and FM.

    • #14
  15. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    9thDistrictNeighbor: You could move to Evanston.

    Um, if you’re gonna move to a near suburb, isn’t Evanston one of the more expensive ones? I mean, it’s cheaper than some, but I hear it’s still pretty up there (for example, more expensive than its neighbor, Skokie).

    Hoyacon: Is Studs Terkel still getting airtime on WFMT from beyond the grave?

    I hope not. He was the stuff of childhood nightmares, back when I couldn’t understand why the beautiful music had been interrupted by his squeaky voice. The worst was to fall asleep to heavenly music only to wake up, unexpectedly, to Studs.

    • #15
  16. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Arahant: I

    What, John Fogerty is now classical?

    • #16
  17. Terry Mott Member
    Terry Mott
    @TerryMott

    Franz Drumlin:…They can be reached! But sneering at them with vague, lazy insults will only make the task harder. Let’s hope Mr. Williamson’s article gets a wide reading in conservative circles.

    Maybe you should suggest to your compatriots that they should also stop sneering at people like me with vague, lazy insults.  The poor dears.

    I’ve been insulted and sneered at by my self-proclaimed betters in the big cities my entire life.  It has precisely zero effect on me other than to make me completely unsympathetic when the favor is returned.

    I don’t want to reach them.  I want to defeat them.  Just as they want to defeat me, a desire they’ve made abundantly clear for decades.

    • #17
  18. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    There is one cultural event in Chicago that should appeal to the high-brow and low-brow alike.  That’s the Ricochet Meetup on February 21st.  Just look at the fun we had last year.

    • #18
  19. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Terry Mott: I’ve been insulted and sneered at by my self-proclaimed betters in the big cities my entire life.

    This, I think, is probably the most ironic part. People in flyover country (Southerners in particular) get little else but ridicule and condescension from people who live in cities and have for at least my entire life. This extends to movies, tv shows, music, etc…  But dear Lord in heaven don’t say anything about city folk generally being rude or liberal, that’s insulting.

    • #19
  20. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    I should note that Kevin Williamson is not a born and raised big city guy, he grew up in a fairly small town in Texas. I usually love his work and his podcast, however, he does seem to have developed a semi-distaste for people who live in more rural areas (not that they should be immune from criticism, meth labs and welfare trailer parks are real for sure). As much as can be enjoyed in the city I do often remind my city dwelling friends when they’re being particularly snobby about this subject, that if the world fell apart tomorrow the people living in farming communities who are used to hunting, fishing, farming, and fending for themselves will probably survive. City dwellers will end up eating each other, figuratively or not.

    • #20
  21. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Amy Schley:

    9thDistrictNeighbor: He once said that he wanted to take every copy of the score for Pachebel Cannon and whip it off the top of the Empire State Building.

    This could only be for the betterment of human society. Just be sure to get *all* of them, because it’s not just on classical stations anymore:

    PDQ Bach (Peter Schickele) did an album some years back, WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk radio  (Slogan:  All Pachabel, all the time) that does quite a bit of riffing on this.  Not his best effort, but worth listening to.

    • #21
  22. Terry Mott Member
    Terry Mott
    @TerryMott

    I’m reminded of a couple that we used to know.  They lived in Dallas proper, and were VERY proud liberals.  We lived in the suburbs.

    I couldn’t have cared less that they lived in the city.  But they made it clear that they felt superior to suburbanites, specifically because they lived in the city.  Their housing choice was driven by their moral compass. The city was where the “good” (i.e. liberal) people lived, though I’m not sure how they squared that with the fact that the husband was mugged and beaten in front of his own house one night.

    They ended up moving to the Seattle area a couple of years after G. W. Bush’s election because they couldn’t stand to live in deep-red Texas, where the evil Bush hailed from, anymore.  The woman actually told me that, in so many words.

    I didn’t tell her not to let the Red River splash her on the behind on the way out — that would have been rude — but I wanted to.

    • #22
  23. Judithann Campbell Member
    Judithann Campbell
    @

    Terry Mott: I don’t want to reach them. I want to defeat them. Just as they want to defeat me, a desire they’ve made abundantly clear for decades.

    But they haven’t defeated you, have they?And you won’t defeat them.

    This whole topic has me wondering if I live on a different planet. I live in a working class, semi rural part of Massachusetts. I don’t see much or any disdain for southerners among the people I know, but then again, most of the people I know are pro-life, relatively conservative, and not necessarily typical of Massachusetts. I don’t know anyone from NYC, and I only know a handful of people in Boston. So, basically, I don’t know if Northeast city dwellers are as bad as some people say, but let’s assume that they are: what would Jesus do?

    • #23
  24. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    LesserSon of Barsham:I should note that Kevin Williamson is not a born and raised big city guy, he grew up in a fairly small town in Texas. I usually love his work and his podcast, however, he does seem to have developed a semi-distaste for people who live in more rural areas (not that they should be immune from criticism, meth labs and welfare trailer parks are real for sure).

    This makes sense to me.

    I’ve noticed that decent people living in higher-crime areas tend to me more law-and-order than decent people living in very low-crime areas. And it seems like the most anti-drug people I’ve met are those who’ve lost a loved one to addiction. Likewise, being familiar with small-town life can leave you more acutely aware of its vices – and when you know firsthand that real people suffer because of these vices…

    I think KDW picks on rural vices because he feels for rural suffering.

    • #24
  25. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Judithann Campbell:

    My experience is from living in the Seattle area for almost four years and mingling there with other people who grew up in larger cities (or wished they had). We had moved there for my wife’s job and not mine so I often found myself at gatherings with people who didn’t know me. She and I don’t have strong southern accents and if you say very little (and avoid the word y’all) you’ll hear all kinds of pretty nasty things said about the redneck, hillbilly, Bible thumping, inbred, uneducated, ignorant, etc…etc…etc…   Often this was from liberals but you would hear it from conservatives too on occasion. They all seemed very convinced of their own urban superiority and sophistication regardless of the fact that here, we two country bumpkins sat among them accepted as one of the crowd simply because they didn’t know where we were from. I grew up in a small town, have lived in small and large cities and spent time living in Europe. I would rather live near the kinds of kind hearted, down to earth “simpletons” these people derided than I would among many of the smug snobs I met there. Yes, there were people there that I came to love, and some were pretty liberal, but it would take a large sum of money to get me to move back into a city.

    • #25
  26. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    LesserSon of Barsham: My experience is from living in the Seattle area for almost four years and mingling there with other people who grew up in larger cities (or wished they had). We had moved there for my wife’s job and not mine so I often found myself at gatherings with people who didn’t know me. She and I don’t have strong southern accents and if you say very little (and avoid the word y’all) you’ll hear all kinds of pretty nasty things said about the redneck, hillbilly, Bible thumping, inbred, uneducated, ignorant, etc…etc…etc… Often this was from liberals but you would hear it from conservatives too on occasion. They all seemed very convinced of their own urban superiority and sophistication regardless of the fact that here we two country bumpkins sat among them accepted as one of the crowd simply because they didn’t know where we were from.

    Did you ever let the cat out of the bag and tell them you were one of those hillbillies, etc.?

    • #26
  27. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Randy Weivoda:

    LesserSon of Barsham: My experience is from living in the Seattle area for almost four years and mingling there with other people who grew up in larger cities (or wished they had). We had moved there for my wife’s job and not mine so I often found myself at gatherings with people who didn’t know me. She and I don’t have strong southern accents and if you say very little (and avoid the word y’all) you’ll hear all kinds of pretty nasty things said about the redneck, hillbilly, Bible thumping, inbred, uneducated, ignorant, etc…etc…etc… Often this was from liberals but you would hear it from conservatives too on occasion. They all seemed very convinced of their own urban superiority and sophistication regardless of the fact that here we two country bumpkins sat among them accepted as one of the crowd simply because they didn’t know where we were from.

    Did you ever let the cat out of the bag and tell them you were one of those hillbillies, etc.?

    It happened once or twice. It was a lot easier to hold my tongue at the time. This was at the start of her career too so it behooved me to be nice to people she worked with. Any time I said something about it they would do the equivalent of “Oh, I don’t mean you…” We were one of the “good” ones, you know, cause we escaped the sticks…

    • #27
  28. TG Thatcher
    TG
    @TG

    I did not see the beginning of this kerfuffle.  I did not watch the debate.  So I do not know precisely what words were used, in what context.  nor do I know the tone of the face-to-face communication (which, we all know, can be much different from what the bare words look like when read).  I did read Kevin Williamson’s piece.  I also read this: http://patterico.com/2016/01/15/donald-trump-the-very-embodiment-of-ted-cruzs-observation-about-new-york-city-values/#comments.   Apparently, Ted Cruz ‘s campaign “apologized” (really, expanded his previous remarks) on the 15th.  This apology says, in part:  “I apologize to the hard working men and women of the state of New York who’ve been denied jobs because Gov. Cuomo won’t allow fracking”  (follow links to get more)

    It appears to me that KJW did not view or read about this apology/expansion before he wrote the item that was published  in NR (on the 17th). 

    Does the Cruz apology/expansion change any thoughts on the matter?

    • #28
  29. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    Mate De:Wow this New York Values thing really had hit a nerve, with city folk. Turn on any TV show, watch most Hollywood movies and you find distain for those folks who live outside of the city. Rednecks, hayseeds, bitter clingers, GASP, Pro- Lifers. Governor Cuomo did say “extreme conservatives who oppose abortion and support gun rights have no place in his state”. I know that made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside that I would not be welcome in my home state.

    Just funny to see the reaction when the shoe is on the other foot, and what Ted Cruz said isn’t even that bad. All he said was that Trump embodies New York Values, and since his name is emblazoned on quite a few buildings in the city and he does know how to maneuver the muck of NYC corruption, maybe New Yorkers should consider it a compliment. Trump does embody New York Values. I don’t know, I guess the truth hurts.

    No worries. Stereotypes thrown around by people who have never visited NYC, yet alone lived there don’t merit hurt feelings, just a mild annoyance.

    • #29
  30. Aelreth Member
    Aelreth
    @

    The way these people reach me is a gun in my face.

    This gun enforces their values on a territory far beyond their locale that they look down upon in disdain.

    If they refuse to put down the gun, they aren’t worth having as friends.

    • #30
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