I don't understand Civic Strategies' Urban Journalism Awards

Douglas Stewart of Fairfax, Va., reads a paper Thursday under a sign that warns of heightened security at the Metro Center subway station in Washington, D.C. (Baltimore Sun photo by David Hobby) Jul 7, 2005.

I've never understood the methodology of the Urban Journalism Awards from Civic Strategies. I've e-discussed this with Otis White in the past, and just wasn't satisfied, but I didn't pursue it any further. Some of the best writing on urban issues doesn't seem to register in his methodology. (That being said I find Mr. White's writings and e-newsletter to always be of interest.)

For example, how could the Baltimore Sun be picked as one of the worst newspapers for urban issues writing in 2005, with only 57 articles about "urban" issues, when I figure that the paper runs as many as 20 articles/week that I would term work on "urban issues."

The "Maryland" section of the paper has as many as 5 articles/day on such issues (plus the A, Business, and Today sections...). I do think that it has hurt the paper that Tom Horton, the environmental writer, took a buyout, because his excellent writing helped me begin to think more broadly about regional issues. Were he still there, I would have linked him in my urban design writers section. Ed Gunts' architecture column alone probably generates about 45 pieces. Gregory Kane's column runs twice/week. There is the "Urban Chronicle" column, which I clipped yesterday for example. Editorials throughout the week. Many front page articles. Etc.

Even the Denver Post, which comes in last, generates more articles than the 39 attributed to it, if you count transit, real estate, arts, creative class type issues, etc. (All right, I will disclose my secret. At least once/week, I scan the Lexis-Nexis planning newsfeed on the APA website. That's why I seem like I know everything. I don't really.)

Clearly, there is something wrong with the methodology that I can't figure out.

I guess because I am too close to events in DC, the two-part series in the Washington Post on the changes and gentrification at 14th and T Streets NW, said very little to me, and I would likely have not even commented on it had I not been queried about it by a colleague from California, yet it was picked by Civic Strategies as the best urban journalist effort for 2005. (I discussed the articles in this blog entry, "Community Preservation and Gentrification.")

14th and T Streets NW. Washington Post photo by Michael Williamson. (A panorama view is available online.)

From the Civic Strategies e-letter:

The best article or series was Crossroads: The Price of Change at 14th and T, a pair of articles by Anne Hull that ran in the Washington Post in November.

In my opinion, Lori Montgomery of the Post has been kicking absolute butt on urban issues (although technically her beat is "Mayor Williams"). She might be my pick right now as the best Post writer on urban issues these days (Petula Dvorak you're up there too, and Steven Ginsburg and Lyndsay Layton on transit issues, Colbert King's once/week Saturday column underserves us only because I wish we could get more, etc. ...) and yes, I recognize who I'm not mentioning... The District Extra section is good, and the other Extra sections are worth scanning every week to track events in the neighboring jurisdictions. Of course, one gripe with the Post is that while their syndicate distributes Neal Peirce's column, they don't run it in the paper.

While I can't think of, off-hand, what writing I would have picked myself, even the series about changes in Louisville and the Louisville housing market that ran in August in the Louisville Courier-Journal was better. (The series is accessible through this link: "City hopes to replicate downtown housing success across Jefferson.") Inga Saffron, Blair Kamin, and Christopher Hawthorne all wrote great pieces on New Orleans and the value of shotgun housing (vernacular housing) that were better than the Hull pieces. The Cleveland Free Times cover story on urban church impacts on the city ("More about churches") was better. Etc.

That being said, I do really like the Washington Post, but I am a throwback--I am a big fan of newspapers and I fear the chilling effect of the decline of newspapers on civic engagement.

My apologies to Anne Hull...

Index Keywords: civic-engagement