Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

What should a domestic Marshall Plan/21st Century New Deal look like?

A number of Midwestern mayors wrote an op-ed published in the Washington Post, "Eight mayors: We need a Marshall Plan for Middle America," about the need for an economic revitalization program for their section of the Midwest, the Ohio River Valley.  

(After WWII, the Marshall Plan was launched as an economic revitalization program for the war torn nations of Europe.)

Making the point that the region is forecasted to lose 100,000 jobs in response to the decline of the fossil fuel industry--oil was first discovered in the US in Pennsylvania, and the region is a leading producer of coal and oil and natural gas by fracking.

From the article: 
According to our research, taking advantage of our community assets, geographic positioning and the strengths of our regional markets can help create over 400,000 jobs across the region by investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades to buildings, energy infrastructure and transportation assets.

Then again, there is a similar piece from 2009, by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, but more broadly focused on the Midwest.   

But as far as cities go, the issues of Midwestern cities like Youngstown or Pittsburgh aren't different from those of Baltimore or St. Louis, Stockton, California or Tacoma, Washington. 

In short, a domestic Marshall Plan/New Deal needs to be applied nationwide.

To me, the much derided "Green New Deal" should be one leg of such a program ("What Is the Green New Deal? A Climate Proposal, Explained," New York Times).  From the article: 

Introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, the proposal calls on the federal government to wean the United States from fossil fuels and curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. It also aims to guarantee new high-paying jobs in clean energy industries.

Hoover Dam, Nevada, constructed between 1931 and 1936.

Speaking of the New Deal, it's a much better example and perhaps more relatable than the Marshall Plan, because it was a US-centric program.

Certainly New Deal programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps, WPA, PWA, the Tennessee Valley Authority and rural electrification initiatives--not just creating the ability to deliver electricity to individual homes and businesses, but the building of hydroelectric facilities in the west like Hoover Dam and the creation of the Bonneville Power Authority demonstrate that the nation has been able to act in the face of great need.

Note that the categories below are not mutually exclusive. 

Reorganizing the federal government's approach to both cities and rural areas.  After the Obama election in 2008, I wrote about reorganizing HUD and related programs, recommending the transformation of the agency into a Department of Cities and Regions as a better way to focus on the needs of cities, and about reorganizing USDA and related agencies in a similar fashion as a better way to focus on rural needs beyond "growing more food."

-- "Metropolitan Revolution (book review)," 2013
-- "Resurging cities, resurging metros, the impoverished and the Metropolitan Revolution," 2013

Poverty, the precariat, neoliberalism and globalization. Neoliberalism--the idea that the market is always more successful than government action--might have been an okay paradigm if it hadn't been accompanied by a reduction in government supports simultaneous with an increase in economic and social vulnerability.   

Instead of developing new supports in order to help people succeed in a neoliberal economic environment marked by Social Darwinism--survival of the fittest, we reduced the availability overall, and didn't develop new approaches to match different and more difficult circumstances ("The dangers of a 'winner take all' economy," Maize Magazine).

In short, when people needed more help, we provided less.

Globalization has limited intra-national labor market protections, pushing down the value of labor in high wage countries like the US reset towards the prevailing wage in low cost countries--India, China, Mexico, etc.

Manufacturers either moved their operations overseas, to lower cost or non union areas within a nation,  and/or have significantly reduced wages, like how Caterpillar bought a locomotive manufacturing company from GM, closed the higher wage Canadian plant, relocated all production to a plant in Illinois, reduced wages across the board, and later threatened to relocate the plant to a Southern non union state ("Electro Motive Diesel considering leaving La Grange facility," West Cook News).  Boeing's been doing the same thing, moving production from high wage Metropolitan Seattle to nonunion states in the south and midwest ("Boeing to move 787 production to South Carolina in 2021," Reuters).

Outsourcing is a related phenomenon.  Companies reduced the number of direct jobs by contracting out various functions and the labor necessary to perform those functions.

Replacing labor with capital.  Plus replacing workers with capital--machines, equipment, computers, software applications, etc.--also reduces employment more generally and depending on the business sector, can reduce wage income for many, while improving outcomes for some.

For example, microcomputers have eliminated secretaries, spreadsheet software has eliminated bookkeepers and accountants, and a typical automobile manufacturing plant has one quarter of the number of employees compared to 1970.

It bugs me to no end when Republicans lambaste cities and Democrats for failure, when those failures have been produced by economic dislocation having zero to do with the decisions of locally elected officials.  (Book review, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor by William Julius Wilson, New York Times, 1996).

What to do?  To assist labor in such conditions, we should have done two things.  First, create a national health care system independent of employment.  Second, invest in education at all levels.  Not just traditional "book learning" but trades too (our plumber in DC makes as much money as good lawyers).  Retraining.  Self-improvement, etc.  All types.  And less expensive access to education too.  I don't know if that should mean "free."  (More about "free" education in another proposal.)

Components of a New New Deal/Domestic Marshall Plan

1.  Real national health care and a public health system.  The pandemic is further proof that the way we organize and deliver health care is flawed.  Tying health care to employment fails in recessions, when unemployment rises catastrophically.  

It's even worse when government makes decisions based on ideology and politics rather than on science, evidence, and need ("Blaming the victim vs. blaming the system: Federal officials blame pandemic deaths on poor health practices of individuals").

2.  Responding to urban poverty.  I've written a bunch about equity planning, social urbanism, and new and integrated approaches to addressing multi-generational poverty in cities.  

Social urbanism is an approach, pioneered in Medellin, Colombia that invests in community infrastructure such as libraries, schools, parks, and transportation access as a way to (re)build social inclusion, public safety, and economic opportunity.


Co-location of programs and services should be a priority.

Slide from a presentation by David Barth and Carlos Perez.

3.  Investing in rural social infrastructure.  It happens that the field of community development is in part derived from the rural economic development function of agricultural extension programming ("Community development in America: A history," Sociological Practice).  I recognized in college that the work in community development is equally applicable to either rural and urban settings in most cases.

-- Downtown and Business District Market Analysis, University of Wisconsin Extension

Social "urbanism" isn't about urbanism so much as it is about investing in what sociologist Eric Klinenberg, in Palaces for the People, calls "social infrastructure," which are civic institutions like schools, libraries, parks, and other assets, complemented by programming.  This approach to community investment and reinvestment is equally relevant to rural areas.  

Although too often attitudes in rural areas, focused on "individualism" and fatalism when it comes to community and collective action can make this quite difficult ("In the land of self-defeat," New York Times).

4.  Urban and rural economic development.  Needs to focus on  entrepreneurship and business development, harvesting existing knowledge and material resources and transportation systems.  

A key element is leveragng higher education.  Spokane and Greensboro, North Carolina are great examples of how to do this ("Better leveraging higher education institutions in cities and counties: Greensboro; Spokane; Mesa; Phoenix; Montgomery County, Maryland; Washington, DC," 2016).

But it's not just any kind of education institution that has economic development potential ("Can a coal town reinvent itself?," New York Times, "Lessons from the CNN story on Allentown, Pennsylvania," 2020).  They have to be focused on productive outputs--engineering and technical colleges, scientific research, business development, etc.

And different forms of business including cooperatives and other forms of business organization that focus on keeping revenues and profits circulating locally.

For example, cooperative business ventures are a way to keep retail operating ("Economic development for small towns needs to include the development of cooperative stores," 2014; "The need for a new rural community cooperative movement," 2017) as populations shrink or in communities that have been abandoned by chain retail.

The multi-business Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland and the Push Buffalo and Green Worker Cooperatives in the Bronx energy conservation business cooperative are examples of business forms where the workers are owners.   The Mondragon Corporation group of over 250 worker cooperatives in the Basque Country of Spain is Spain's 10th largest corporation.  The National Co-operative Bank helps to fund cooperative enterprises.

But there needs to be a recognition that smaller communities in rural areas can be harder to help when it comes to economic development in the face of a more integrated world economy ("Small cities struggle," 2017).  

The Massachusetts approach to revitalizing "gateway cities," the once booming smaller cities across the state that had once been thriving manufacturing and business centers, which declined as industry consolidated and moved away, needs to be further developed and applied more widely. 

And there needs to be a change in business recruiting, which is often a race to the bottom in terms of tax incentives and competition between states and cities to land firms ("Tax incentives to attract businesses: Wisconsin's Foxconn debacle," 2020).  

5.  Investment in "Infrastructure."  The Trump Administration said it wanted to build infrastructure, although mostly it proposed loans, the sale of existing assets, and focusing on infrastructure with positive revenue streams ("Trump Administration Infrastructure Program Priority List," 2017). 

But even if the Trump Administration were serious (" How 'Infrastructure Week' Became a Long-Running Joke," New York Times), the anti-government, anti-investment philosophy of the Republican Party made such a program a long shot, because they completely uninterested in the government being a player in infrastructure investment..

But infrastructure shouldn't be seen as either a Republican or Democratic issue.  It just is.  And it's fundamental and foundational for economic success and growth.

While Oklahoma City is a "big city," it is in "flyover country," not coastal.  

Former Republican Mayor Mick Cornett's book, The Next American City: The Big Promise of Our Mid-Sized Metros, outlines a world class approach to a community social and economic infrastructure development program aimed at making the community better and more attractive for business and residential recruitment.  It demonstrates that urban success can happen anywhere and isn't limited to the East and West Coasts.

A domestic infrastructure program should address energy, roads, bridges, transit including ferries, ports, parks ("National Park Service delayed $11 billion in maintenance last year because of budget challenges," Washington Post) etc.

And unlike the Obama era ARRA ("Roads vs. transit and the stimulus package" and ""Chance" continues to favor the prepared road builders"), transportation projects should be multi-modal, whereas too often in the US, road projects fail to include transit, unlike in European countries like Denmark 

6.  Energy and climate change infrastructure. 
The proposed Green New Deal is a way to position an infrastructure agenda for energy and climate change.  

The challenge is the investment in legacy fossil fuel production and consumption systems (including sprawl), and the (un)/willingness of legacy companies and governments to shift to new paradigms ("Petrostate vs. electrostate," Economist).
  • Renewables are key.  
  • Improving the resilience and capacity of the electricity grid.  
  • Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency.  
  • There's a lot of discussion about the opportunity of "green hydrogen."  
  • Transportation remains a ripe opportunity
  • Dams and hydropower (last summer's collapse of dams in Mid-Michigan, leading to the flooding of Midland, is an example of under-investment and failed regulation)
  • shifting from gasoline to electric and hydrogen powered vehicles ("California’s Ban on Gas Cars Could Go Nationwide — But Still Doesn’t Go Far Enough," New York Magazine/Curbed)
I am particularly intrigued by offshore wind power as a way to make electrification work.  For example, offshore wind off Maine is capable of generating 36x the state's current energy needs ("After Scotland Tour, Maine Hatches Offshore Floating Wind Turbines Plot," CleanTechnica).  Puerto Rico shouldn't be burning oil for electricity, but reaping renewable energy opportunities from the sea.  There are 20+ states with significant seacoast access.

(Better than e-vehicles are a shift to transit and other sustainable modes.)

7. Transit and transportation. There are so many opportunities. 
  • Expanding urban transit systems, especially strengthening and extending connections between stations, major trip generators (like airports), bus system improvements including busways, etc.
  • Expanding state and multi-state railroad and bus networks (Colorado's growing Bustang network is a model), with a focus on electrification of railroad passenger systems, powered by electricity generated from offshore wind.  (More on this later.  I've been strongly influenced by how railroad services are organized and delivered in Japan, and of course cities like London and Paris.)
  • Shifting shorter range airplane travel to railroads.  
  • Development of high speed rail passenger services.
  • Freight railroad system improvements, especially as a way to "expand" capacity on Interstate freeways by shifting trips from trucks, and to support rural economic development
  • Hydrogen fuel networks for long distance trucking.  
  • Expansion of ferry and water taxi systems.  
  • Opportunities at ports and inter-modal connections with railroads.  
  • Canals and barges.
  • Metropolitan scale bikeway networks, bicycle parking systems, payroll deduction and loan programs to buy bicycles, and active programming to shift people from the car to the bike
  • promotion of e-bikes as a way to support longer distance bike commuting
  • Implementing Signature Street urban design programs ("Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces""), low traffic neighborhoods, and pedestrianized districts ("Why doesn't every big city in North America have its own Las Ramblas?" and "Diversity Plaza, Queens, a pedestrian exclusive block") in cities
8.  Water and sewerage system improvements
. Many rural and urban water systems face massive upgrade costs to improve water quality and reduce stormwater and sewage discharges into rivers and lakes.  The GAO estimates more than $600 billion in needs over the next 20 years, while the American Society of Civil Engineers says over $1 Trillion over 25 years.

9.  TOD and affordable housing.  Transit oriented development builds higher density mixed use housing and other uses at transit stations.  This encourages transit use and reduces car trips.

Not only is there tremendous demand for new social housing as population continues to grow, as well as a greater diversity of housing types, including Single Room Occupancy, housing the homeless, etc., there is a tremendous backlog of maintenance needs for existing public housing, over $30 billion ("Fixing Public Housing: A Day Inside a $32 Billion Problem," New York Times).

In return for funding, communities should be required to agree to higher density.

Maybe a national program to help finance a wider scale creation of accessory dwelling units in cities.

10.  Broadband/Community broadband.  The pandemic and shift to online schooling has made very clear the existence of a digital divide in both urban ("What the coronavirus reveals about the digital divide between schools and communities," Brookings, "“The cruel irony of the digital divide” in Colorado: Urban poor are left behind even as access, technology improves," Colorado Sun) and rural ("No signal: Internet ‘dead zones’ cut rural students off from virtual classes.," NYT) areas.  

Plus rural areas need faster Internet access to support economic development.

It's possible to create community broadband networks to make signal more widely available, usually involving a mix of public and private resources ("The Dos and Don'ts of Community Broadband Network Planning," Government Technology,).

Relatedly, this Wall Street Journal article,  "Private 5G Networks Are Bringing Bandwidth Where Carriers Aren’t," discusses how businesses are creating their own private 5G networks to cover facilities at a cost as low as $5,000.

It's can be harder to do in rural areas, but still eminently possible, through electricity providers, municipalities, states ("Internet network set to beam into Md.’s rural areas won’t help students this fall," Washington Post), and other entities.  

Cities and nonprofits can seed such systems in lower income communities in urban areas ("Building the People’s Internet," Urban Omnibus).

-- Community Broadband Networks, Institute for Local Self Reliance

Labels: , , , , ,

70 Comments:

At 7:15 PM, Anonymous charlie said...

I've been reading a history of the "gold default" during the 1st term of FDR; one of the highly specialized histories that makes you understand things differently.

(Likewise, been reading Fear City on NYC austerity, but absolutely did not change my views).

What you see from "gold default'" is how much FDR was concentrated on rural poverty and commodity prices -- trying to increase them, in particular cotton. he looked at it every morning.


Don't know if you saw this:

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/revenge-of-the-yankees

But after reading the FDR book it has a lot more traction.

Likeswise, the modern democratic party would rather burn the Ohio Valley down and depopulate it rather than your more constructive approaches.*

Likewise, if you view the new deal as Democrats going around NYC capital to bring money to new areas it was a fantastic successs -- albeit Texas, California, AZ and what turned turned republican.

Adam Tooze has a good idea - have the GSE explicitly set up funds for "green mortages" where you can get funded. Or rather remove the 30 year from non-green properties.

* Biden doesn't share those views, but he is old.

I have a bad feeling its going to be to a five year fight just to keep capital from fleeing cities, let alone places like Youngstown.

 
At 11:57 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

I haven't read Robert Caro's books on LBJ. But I read his recent "memoir" like book and there is an amazing chapter on LBJ.

One of the things he mentions is how much people in his district loved him/forgave a lot, because of bringing about rural electrification, and what a difference it made in their lives.

Sure we've read Grapes of Wrath etc., but these days it's impossible for people like us to understand that level of poverty. (Haven't read _Hillbilly Elegy_ but I do think that multigenerational deep poverty beats you down in significant ways that the author doesn't fully appreciate.)

A couple months back there was an amazing windstorm. It lasted for at least half a day. Consistent winds of 50mph and higher. Our power went out, but only for about half a day. It was reasonably miserable. Many other people lost power for days.

... I have a couple pieces about the reasons to have farmers markets, and how the reasons you pick shape what you offer and how you operate (e.g., is it producer only like FreshFarm, etc.). One of the reasons is to build rural income and economies. (If one element is rural income, then you allow for seller consolidation--selling items from multiple farms, to multiple coverage and income, rather than requiring farmers only sell what they grow.)

... While preparing for the Eastern Market thing, I read a book called _Civic Agriculture_ and the author (who died relatively young) was very much into local economies. He cited some obscure work by C. Wright Mills, a report and testimony to a House Committee in the late 1940s, about a bottom up vs. a top down economy and a focus on strengthening regional economies and the multiplier effect. Of course that isn't the direction the country took.

The funny thing in JJ's Economy of Cities is she ascribes improvement in rural areas to innovations in cities, which some argue against.

I think the critics might be right, as adversity helps spawn innovation (hard to till fields helps bring about the reaper, and urban people like me aren't likely to invent a reaper, etc.).

But it is true that urban surpluses help fund rural improvements.

 
At 12:03 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

That point you made about capital and the New Deal is subtle and very important.

Ways to get capital back in the "flyover country" is really important.

I didn't want to go on and on and on, the entry is long enough.

But one of the things I thought about including in the infrastructure section was about capital, but I was thinking about the Bank of North Dakota. And I guess Rahm Emanuel created such a bank for Chicago.

(There is also the Farm Credit Administration as an example.)

As you know a big problem with this kind of financing is crony capitalism.

There are CDFIs. Here, probably because of the Mormons, there are scads of credit unions.

BUT WHAT I AM THINKING, based on your point is that there should be a whole other category on "Capital flows to the interior."

The thing is that I don't know much about this. What the issues are. Whether or not there is money out there.

Obviously there is. Is lack of access to capital what is keeping rural areas down?

If you have some suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

=====
WRT the Democrats and the Ohio River Valley, you're probably right.

And frankly, even though I have a bunch of ideas, there is still gonna be a bunch of depopulation required. I mean, not all of those areas can recover in significant ways. Or can they?

 
At 12:07 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Didn't see the Tablet article. Thank you.

Did you see this?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/24/brexit-capitalism

Some really provocative points about the war within capitalism, and a point he calls the "pollution paradox," about toxic companies/wealth being more motivated to fund politicians to protect their businesses, in turn reshaping capitalism.

 
At 8:13 AM, Anonymous charlie said...

In terms of "re-directing capital":

1) If you go with the FDR look, you've got the raise agricultural commodity prices. A lot.

2) Likewise, the EU model which is massive rural subsidies which increase the price of rural land and and prevent suburbanization. Green belts and what not also work.

3) Again coming back to rural/urban -- well as I keep saying this is a very old fight about easy money/hard money. What has happened is despite what the fed is doing we're in a hard money period -- loans are not out there and money is not flowing. Trump understood this. Pre-corona the place with the highest growing wage was Kenosha, WI.

4) again I see zero interest by the modern democratic party in addressing this as they now represent the people who are benefiting from the current system.

5) https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2020/11/how-reconnect-rural-and-urban-america/617187/


6)RE your "pollution paradox" you clearly see that in the Koch (refinery, paper product) takeover of the R party. TX and OK now are the largest wind producers and if you want traction you've got the sell this differently that protecting the "climate".

 
At 8:37 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you're going to depopulate someplace, best to depopulate places that repeatedly spontaneously combust or flood.

 
At 1:16 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

In college I had this idea about "extensive" (more) or "intensive" (better) use of resources.

Using resources more efficiently and cheaply -- renewables -- is the argument, even if climate change is not.

OTOH, if your economy is dependent on resource extraction, in this case fossil fuels, it's hard to win even that argument.

The thing in capitalism is that you have firms with different goals that aren't always congruent. A utility company, as long as it doesn't have coal plants as stranded assets, just wants to be able to deliver electricity, so they'll be open to wind.

In Europe you have utility companies like Iberdrola and E.On that have moved to the renewable paradigm. In the US, Southern Company is a lot more towards that perspective, although they still have plenty invested in traditional production systems.

But even so utility companies are like "big iron" in computing, they want "extensive" generation assets -- plants and their equivalent, rather than distributed assets like individual households wired for solar, and their having to pay a big fee per kwh back to the household.

In other words big iron or big production vs. microcomputers, tablets, Raspberry Pi, and smartphones. (Although the latter are backed up by massive cloud computing resources.)

If there were carbon taxes, this would facilitate and accelerate changes to more efficient production.

OTOH/2, it's going to massively dislocate those economies in Texas and Oklahoma, even if there are other winners.

Iberdrola is shifting, but can Exxon, Shell, BP etc. really shift to being "energy companies" (in a thought experiment along the lines of Ted Levitt's book _Marketing Imagination_ where he said GM should think of themselves as a transportation company, not a car company).

 
At 1:20 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

re flooding and fires. YES.

At least with flooding, if and as FEMA changes its flooding maps and policies about rebuilding, you slowly move people away from flood-able areas.

Canada does this. And Tulsa, over the past 30 years too has eliminated housing in its flood plains after a massive flood and deaths there.

The coasts are much harder, because there is so much property wealth tied up in coastal views, plus how big cities developed around rivers and ports.

2. Fires. Yes too. How you can rebuild a community like Paradise doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

The urban/wild interface in many western states seems nonsensical from a environmental stewardship point of view.

The kind of galaxian approach to stewardship of planets as discussed in the various David Brin science fiction books is far from where we are.

 
At 1:28 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

wrt rural/urban and hard money/soft money, it's not just about commodity prices. The fact is you don't need a lot of people to run a farm. Although we should make it a lot less risky for them financially, for the "privilege" of growing our food.

So the problem is lack of work. Access to capital is an element.

2. WRT access to capital, it's an issue in cities too, as you know.

Interesting with the PPP loans, that it was community-like banks, rather than the big banks, that sourced significant numbers of loans.

It's like we need a parallel financial system, one focused on loans, but building the entrepreneurship support system (like CDFIs and others) to constantly support and monitor the business so that it has a greater likelihood of success.

Like the Korean Kyes, the Grameen microcredit model, etc.

I say parallel because the money center banks only lend money to people with superb credit.

One really bad thing about the pandemic is that it is wiping out the capital accumulation of small business that is oriented to hospitality.

Housing values remain high, and that is a source of small business capital. But without customers it doesn't matter. Especially if you run a current business that is forced to not operate.

E.g., I guess most of the businesses on the 800 block of Upshur St. NW have closed or will close. Not Timber--that guy has a well connected investor, Jeff Zients. The typical small investor lacks access to that kind of potentially patient and well heeled capital.

And all of the "community" and business district creation capital contributed by the business owners, in particular the woman who created the no longer extant Domku, the owner of Willow, the people who created the other businesses and contributed to community events and initiatives like the farmers market, community festival, and the holiday craft fair, has been destroyed.

 
At 1:31 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

In Salt Lake, obviously the hospitality business has been crushed. Many restaurants have closed permanently. Small groups are hunkering down, closing all but the most successful of their individual businesses.

-----
one of the next pieces in "this series" will be about foreclosure and rental support programs for housing.

Haven't figured it out for commercial property.

 
At 1:35 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/30/the-heavy-toll-of-the-black-belts-wastewater-crisis

both as an example of rural issues and poverty, and the opportunity in funding water-related infrastructure as a New New Deal initiative.

 
At 3:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I read an article somewhere, I think it was Mecklenburg County/Charlotte NC had a pretty effective program of acquiring properties that repeatedly flooded and adding them to the parkland stock along streams.

If I was tsar I would have some kind of once-in-a-lifetime resettlement incentive, whether it be a grant, tax incentive, etc. Move away from hazards, or move to opportunity whatever the case.

 
At 7:40 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Might have to add this point to the "agenda" as a follow up post. Thanks.

 
At 10:28 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Letter to the editor in the WSJ. Misguided out of a belief that Republicans in the Senate (or House) want to invest in infrastructure.

Biden and McConnell Can Agree on Infrastructure
11/18/20

Regarding William Galston’s “Where Biden and McConnell Can Agree” (Politics & Ideas, Nov. 11): I would add agreement on infrastructure funding. Manufacturers, chambers of commerce and labor all agree we desperately need to physically fix our crumbling country. Heck, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s spouse, Elaine Chao, is President Trump’s secretary of transportation and Joe Biden was a longtime regular Amtrak rider. Even President Trump agreed on Speaker Pelosi’s call for a nearly $2 trillion infrastructure package last year.

The rate of return on infrastructure investment is enormous, for example, generally 4 to 1 on mass transit. During the past decade in Illinois, over 50% of all new jobs and 85% of new commercial construction were within a half-mile of transit after Chicagoland began to revitalize our system, but we must do more and desperately need new federal capital investment. Many state governments, including often dysfunctional Illinois, have recently stepped up and done their part on infrastructure investment. These improvements help rural, agricultural, suburban and urban areas.

Infrastructure is ripe for agreement between America’s polarized political parties in Washington. Start now.

Kirk Dillard
Chairman, Regional Transportation Authority
Chicago

 
At 1:50 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

This 1987 essay by Stuart Hall after Margaret Thatcher's third election victory is super relevant to our situation.

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4854-blue-election-election-blues

Makes points about how for the electorate politics is more about the personality, and images, and that policies need to be converted into images-messages in order to resonate and convince.

 
At 2:01 PM, Anonymous charlie said...

On CRE/support -there has been a huge push in the last six months for fed backstop. Hasn't happened. I am curious to know where developers are getting loans b/c you'd be insane to finance a new project in DC.


I've mentioned her before, your thinking often is on similar lines:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/us/economist-covid-recovery-mariana-mazzucato.html

Not a great interview, some better ones in the FT.

https://www.ft.com/content/c48f74e0-2296-38c6-add8-bd58f11ea79f

RE: commodity prices; yes, absolutely, it just ins't about the low commodity prices or that the "us famers" has been reduced to basically soybeans/wheat/corn. But my point is just historical (FDR) and cross-cultural (EU does a lot more for ag price support than the US).

Also, lots of talk of Cleveland area congresswoman Marcia Fudge for Agricultural Secretary. Dear Ohio Valley : just go die.

 
At 10:32 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

There was an article about Marcia Fudge in the Times. I thought it was very interesting, because her focus (being urban) is on USDA's role in social service food programs. Opponents say that USDA should be focused on rural interest.

While her focus to me indicates she doesn't have a broad enough approach, I did think it could be an interesting nexus for a way to rearticulate common interests between rural and urban sections of the country.

I mean it should be "obvious" that people need to eat, and most of us in the cities get our food from the rural-based food production system.

====
Speaking of agriculture, did you see the article that adding a bit of seaweed to cow diets could significantly decrease their methane releases?

Obviously there are many potential nexus points.

There was a letter to the editor in the Post saying yes, helping the Appalachian region is a good idea.

I thought that was kind of funny since LBJ created such an effort, spurred by the Appalachian Regional Commission, decades ago.

I didn't really make the point vis a vis the op ed, that at least the mayors are thinking forward, about how the decline in production of fossil fuels within the region will further impact the economy in negative ways, and that rather than wait, they'd prefer to deal with it proactively.

 
At 10:39 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

I guess I missed the Mazzucato interview. Thanks for calling it to my attention.

But yes, she's not the first to make this point. Although I do want to look into her work. (Suzanne got a Utah drivers license and once they open up the library again, "she'll" be able to check out books from the U of Utah library...)

For example, the government as a customer having such large needs (for the Census, Social Security) helped seed the computer industry both for big iron and services.

For all of H. Ross Perot's talk about the primacy of business, his EDS had as much as half its business from big IT contracts for state governments, running the computers for social and health services programs.

Of course, both the IT sectors in Boston and the Silicon Valley were seeded by Government (Saxenian).

Telecommunications by the demands of DOD.

The growth in the Sunbelt from military related bases and manufacturing/contracting (The book "Gunbelt").

Etc.

 
At 1:40 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

The Guardian: The Conservatives are hollowing the state and consolidating power: democracy is at stake.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/30/tories-thatcher-democracy-michael-gove-marxist-theorists

About the UK, but analogous.

 
At 1:47 PM, Anonymous charlie said...

Yeah, she's been saying what for years you have been making the point.

Very easy to forgot the point of urbanization isn't real estate development. I mentioned to you I'm reading 'Fear City" on the NYC fiscal collapse and what you see as differences is the existence of an actual chamber of commerce - and that in NYC in particular the public sector unions bailed out the city.

the post-thatcher article is pretty strong stuff, can't drink it at once, but like an overly strong drink leaves me with a headache. But always useful to remind ourselves that this has all happened before.

RE: utah, don't know if you've read cadillac desert and/or Four corners -- all make the good point the west as we understand it should be uninhabitable. Pretty amazing that LA is stealing water from the other side of the Wasatch Range (green river).

 
At 5:15 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Yes re the west generally although snowmelt fed rivers make small portions "naturally" habitable for small populations. Will try to check out those books.

Eg, years ago went to Sedona. There's a river there and back in the day there were spple orchards! Not what I expected.

2. Wrt the Hall article, yes, the same.

BUT, I haven't read much history about Reagan. This weekend Comcast has been doing open viewing of the pay channels and we've been watching The Reagan docuseries.

Wow in so many way

His campaign for California governor laid out the foundations of neoliberal approaches long before Thatcher. Of course, he was a tool of those very same business interests.

Although probably by the early 1980s he was on the downward slope if declune.

 
At 9:54 AM, Anonymous charlie said...

You might enjoy this


https://resources.ohiohistory.org/ohj/browse/displaypages.php?display[]=0111&display[]=7&display[]=24


Again you might remember I brought up the Bruce Sterling book "Distraction" a number of years ago.

Life is just a remix of the past.

 
At 1:34 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

I think about Distraction a lot. Ironically I had just read it before you mentioned it. My FIL had it (they got rid of all those books before moving here).

 
At 2:48 PM, Anonymous charlie said...

Also this:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/04/rancher-colorado-river-climate-west-water-crisis-341705


America, where we only can do microchips and pizza delivery.

 
At 1:40 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

wrt the journal article, THANK YOU. There is so much interesting and important academic work out there waiting to be mined, that can shed light on current issues.

E.g., don't know if you saw the American Experience PBS (produced independently) on "Milwaukee's Socialist Experiment."

1. Our system isn't set up for more than 2 parties.

2. As leaders age they become curmudgeons and don't flex when they need to.

3. the traditional parties "co-opt" third party ideas (this has always been so as we learn in American history even at the high school level).

But lately I've been touting Oklahoma City under Republicans. It's not a lot different than the Milwaukee socialists.

https://www.wuwm.com/post/how-did-socialist-mayors-impact-milwaukee#stream/0

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-13/who-were-milwaukee-s-sewer-socialist-mayors

 
At 4:34 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Should internet be treated as a public utility:

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/12/6/22150163/covid-19-broadband-internet-service-open-access-public-utility-infrastructure-remote-work-learning

Mention of the rural electrification program said it took 25 years of subsidy before it could function well without subsidy.


Susan Crawford, Harvard

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2020/12/9/22166146/internet-online-school-public-utility-utopia-government

SL Deseret News editorial says public private partnerships are the best, denigrates to some extent government.

 
At 9:11 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Maryland needs better broadband everywhere

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/maryland-needs-better-broadband--everywhere/2020/12/10/03cd6b20-35bd-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html

 
At 2:12 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Los Angeles repositioned their Sustainability Plan as the "LA Green New Deal"

https://plan.lamayor.org/

MacArthur Fellow addressing poor sewage system issues in the rural south as an environmental justice issue.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/12/17/climate-solutions-sewag

 
At 2:04 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

"Broadband Promises Left Unfulfilled in Rural Areas"

WSJ, R6, 10/23/2020

 
At 6:07 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

While this shouldn't be a surprise, rural and urban areas have similar health issues, in addition to medical deserts, it's an element of a rural agenda.

"Beyond covid-19, rural areas face growing threat from chronic heart and lung diseases"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/chronic-diseases-rural-areas/2021/01/08/7e327ee4-357e-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html

 
At 8:03 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Ground up fiber internet service in outcounty Washtenaw County Michigan

Ars Technica: Jared Mauch didn’t have good broadband—so he built his own fiber ISP.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/01/jared-mauch-didnt-have-good-broadband-so-he-built-his-own-fiber-isp/

 
At 10:02 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

The Guardian: Biden cannot govern from the center – ending Trumpism means radical action.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/16/joe-biden-govern-center-inauguration-trump-robert-reich

 
At 7:14 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Bridging the Rural Divide, The Hill

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/536665-bridging-the-rural-divide

mentions a bunch of things I did. Infrastructure, waste water treatment. Also mentions cell phone reception issues.

 
At 10:57 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

The Hill: The care economy as an infrastructure investment | TheHill.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/536924-the-care-economy-as-an-infrastructure-investment

 
At 2:36 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

an element of the rural side of the MP, and health care/rural health care is pharmacy deserts.

https://khn.org/news/article/rural-america-pharmacy-deserts-hurting-for-covid-vaccine-access/

Separately, the Institute for Local Self Reliance wrote about the success of small independent pharmacies as delivery points for the vaccine in places like WV.

But I think that works because they are serving small places.

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2021/3/4/22313540/covid-19-vaccine-west-virginia

Salt Lake County has 1.6 million residents. All of WV has 1.792 million residents.

In Salt Lake County Utah, granted there aren't that many independent pharmacies, but there are Walgreens, CVS, and those affiliated with Walmart, Target and the supermarkets.

In a large population place, the thing about pharmacies is that they have limited capacity to deliver large scale vaccinations.

Once pharmacies had the vaccine here, we tried to schedule a visit, starting in early March. But they were all scheduled through into April.

We got an appointment at (one of many) a county public health vaccination center. For first doses, they had 20 stations, each with two people administering shots. Obviously, each station didn't run all the time, but the procedure takes less than 5 minutes. So they had the capacity to deliver 480 doses/hour and more than 5,000 total doses per day.

A grocery store pharmacy or a regular pharmacy only has the capacity to do a couple people per 5 minutes.

 
At 2:33 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

How to pay for it:

The Wall Street Journal: High-Income Tax Avoidance Far Larger Than Thought, New Paper Estimates.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/high-income-tax-avoidance-far-larger-than-thought-new-paper-estimates-11616364001?mod=flipboard

Relatedly, this article indicates that the uber wealthy have "too much money."

Here’s How Bored Rich People Are Spending Their Extra Cash
The value of collectibles — like coffee tables, whiskey, Air Jordans and Pokémon cards — has soared.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/style/spending-rich-people.html

 
At 7:01 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Hospital closure in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Times: Closure of L.A. hospital is latest in troubling trend, some say.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-28/l-a-is-united-against-the-closure-of-olympia-medical-center-so-why-is-it-still-happening

 
At 10:46 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Chicago Tribune: A century ago, a New Deal program left a lasting mark on Illinois and the country. Now, a Civilian Climate Corps could tackle joblessness and global warming..
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/environment/ct-prem-civilian-climate-corps-illinois-tt-20210419-mjl7xsp2kbdc3d5xr6vycql5zi-story.html

 
At 1:14 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Definition of urban or rural affects access to federal programs.

"Is your town urban or rural? A lot of money rides on the government’s answer — which may soon change"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/19/is-your-town-urban-or-rural-lot-money-rides-governments-answer-which-may-soon-change

 
At 2:27 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2021/05/19/changing-lives-by-connecting-all-americans-to-broadband-internet/

 
At 10:19 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Rural hospitals acquired by private equity in Wyoming. Companies begin merging and downgrading of hospital services for two hospitals located about 30 miles apart. The Riverton community "fights back" by planning to build its own separate nonprofit hospital.

PE is lobbying the USDA to not give them a loan.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-citys-only-hospital-cut-services-how-locals-fought-back-11618133400

A City’s Only Hospital Cut Services. How Locals Fought Back

 
At 6:02 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

WRT rural health and the addiction crisis, in this case opioids, this article, focusing on health professional Nikki King, from Rural Kentucky is quite interesting in discussing the lengths to which someone went to create a drug treatment program in Ripley County (Batesville), Indiana at her hospital, working with the court system, how opioids repattern the brain and so require "medically assisted treatment" but there are many barriers to providing such, etc.

When the state medicaid program said they wouldn't pay for the drug treatment program, because it was located not at the hospital, but at the county courthouse, she got the idea to "buy" (in this case rent) the space from the Courthouse, so that they could say it was part of the hospital.

Fighting the Opioid Crisis in Indiana and Appalachia

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/05/nikki-king-opioid-treatment-program/609085/

They also did a video.

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/609679/small-town-plague/

It's relevant, I think, to urban settings as well.

 
At 6:44 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

The Guardian: A deadly parasite that burrows into the body through bare feet could be multiplying in this US community.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/04/texas-sanitation-sewage-deadly-parasite

 
At 8:52 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Impact of the closure of an obstetrics department at a rural hospital. The thing is that you have to balance "access" versus quality of care. The fewer the number of deliveries, the greater likelihood of problems.

A rural hospital closed its obstetrics unit. Here's what happened afterward.

https://news.yahoo.com/rural-hospital-closed-obstetrics-unit-093043459.html

NBC News, 11/21/2021

====
My next door neighborhood happens to be a specialist in maternal care. She works for a practice that contracts with a for profit hospital chain in the Utah/Idaho.

Her practice has to cover hospitals in the group in Pocatello and Idaho Falls. There aren't enough patients to justify hiring full time maternal health people in those hospitals, so the Salt Lake based practice sends doctors up there each week to cover one day in Pocatello and two days in Idaho Falls.

I wonder if that kind of way to provide high quality care in places that have a hard time having full time specialty physicians needs to become standard practice/or at least more widespread.

 
At 12:36 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Biden to tout $1 billion in funding for Great Lakes restoration during trip to Ohio

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/17/biden-touts-billion-great-lakes-funding/

 
At 8:19 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Who’s to blame for the rural crime wave?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/10/blame-rural-crime-wave/

 
At 6:05 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Puerto Rico needs a Marshall Plan of its own.

https://www.inquirer.com/business/puerto-rico-mayrim-ramos-salinas-junta-fomb-skeel-20220611.html

"Puerto Rico’s debt deal didn’t go far enough, a labor leader says. But a new political order may be emerging "

The complaint is that the debt recovery plan has no parallel economic development plan.

 
At 9:01 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/books/review/waste-catherine-coleman-flowers.html

"How the Problem of ‘Waste’ Affects the Rural Poor"

WASTE
One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret
By Catherine Coleman Flowers

n Lowndes County, a swath of rural land between Selma and Montgomery, as many as 90 percent of households have failing or inadequate systems for managing wastewater. This is structural poverty, Flowers writes, and it’s hardly a localized problem. From rural Appalachia to the suburbs of St. Louis to Allensworth, the California town that was the state’s first to be founded by African-Americans, “Waste” follows Flowers as she discovers that the failure to invest in infrastructure is pervasive nationwide. The consequences are life-threatening, but often invisible to those who live and work in communities with more political clout. Such conditions appear to have reintroduced hookworm to the United States, a tropical parasite thought to be eradicated from the country with the advent of modern plumbing. A study by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, catalyzed by Flowers after she developed a mysterious rash, found evidence of hookworm in 34.5 percent of 55 people tested.

 
At 10:26 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/us/kentucky-flooding-coal-industry.html

"How Coal Mining and Years of Neglect Left Kentucky Towns at the Mercy of Flooding"

For much of the last century, the country was powered by the labor of coal miners underneath the hills and mountains of southeastern Kentucky. But the landscape that was built to serve this work was fragile, leaving the people here extraordinarily vulnerable, especially after the coal industry shuttered so many of the mines and moved on. What remained were modest, unprotected homes and decaying infrastructure, and a land that itself, in many places, had been shorn of its natural defenses. ...

“When you have a century of billions of dollars and resources leaving, very little of it staying to create the infrastructure necessary for people to live lives, and it’s neglected as long as it has been,” said Wes Addington, a lawyer with the Appalachian Citizens Law Center in nearby Whitesburg, whose law office is now a flooded wreck, “when that’s combined with a really insane flood, it’s a catastrophe.” ...

The departure of coal companies left a population dispersed in small communities throughout the mountains, stretching water lines, roads and other vital infrastructure delicately thin. With the gradual disappearance of coal came a dramatic reduction in tax revenue, leaving much of this infrastructure crumbling long before the flood. For a population that is older, poorer and in worse health than much of the country, and thus heavily reliant on social and health services, this had already been a crisis. ...

The land itself has changed over the decades, too, as coal companies stripped away hillsides or blew the tops off mountains to get at the riches underneath. Researchers have found that the treeless land that is left behind, if not carefully restored, can increase the speed and volume of rain runoff, worsening floods in the mountains.

 
At 3:57 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

WRT public health.

Mississippi has underinvested in public health for so long, that now that they have more money because of federal programs, they lack the capacity to spend and invest it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/us/politics/covid-public-health-departments.html

Why Mississippi, a Covid Hot Spot, Left Millions in Pandemic Aid Unspent

Stop-and-go federal funding floods public health agencies with cash during crises but starves them of funds afterward. The coronavirus pandemic shows the pitfalls of that approach.

Mississippi’s woes are an acute example of a larger public health failure that is reprised nearly every time a major health threat grabs headlines. The problem, experts say, is that Congress starves state and local health agencies of cash for even basic needs in quiet times. Then, when a crisis hits, it floods them with millions or even billions of dollars earmarked to battle the disease of the moment. And the sluggish machinery of Capitol Hill often ensures that most of the aid arrives only after the worst of the crisis has passed. ...

It is impossible to measure how much the staffing shortages worsened the pandemic’s toll, said Dr. Judith Monroe, who leads the C.D.C. Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization that tried to plug Covid staffing gaps.

But “at the end of the day,” she said, “it cost Americans their loved ones.”

At the root of chronic underfunding of public health, experts say, is a fundamental lack of understanding of its mission.

orkers at state and local health departments monitor and strive to limit a host of threats, including preventable injuries, infectious diseases and chronic ailments like diabetes. Those duties come atop a drumbeat of other more routine but essential tasks, such as restaurant inspections.

Success produces no headlines. And in lean times, health departments are easy targets for government cutbacks.

“Public health at its finest is prevention — it’s invisible to the public,” Dr. Monroe said, adding, “Nobody wakes in the morning saying, ‘I feel so grateful today I don’t have smallpox.’”

Public health is so overlooked that no one knows exactly how much money the nation’s roughly 2,800 state and local health departments spend or how many people they employ. Some states like Mississippi centralize their operations, while in others, counties exercise more control.

The result is a giant patchwork of services and systems. But experts generally agree on one point: In the run-up to the pandemic, public health agencies took a hit.

One study by academic researchers found that state public health spending either stagnated or declined from 2008 to 2018. The de Beaumont Foundation, a nonprofit health advocacy group, estimated that state and local health departments shed about 40,000 jobs between 2008 and 2019. ...

But experts say state and local agencies need far more — $4.5 billion more per year just to meet basic public health needs, the Trust for America’s Health says. The de Beaumont Foundation estimates that those agencies need to hire 80,000 more workers.

 
At 4:42 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2023/05/22/broadband-expansion-penn-state-university-federal-communications-commission-bead-grants/stories/202305190068

Resource-starved smaller Pennsylvania counties are losing out on federal broadband aid

At least $26 million is needed to bring internet access to every corner of rural Fayette County — equivalent to 60% of the county’s annual budget — after the discovery that far more places are without broadband connections than the federal government has identified.

“It’s hard for people, hard for kids who need it at school,” said Michael T. Olexa, a supervisor in tiny Jefferson Township in northwest Fayette County, where not even the municipal building is online.

“Throughout our country roads, there’s no internet,” he said. “We’re at everybody’s mercy.”

 
At 9:30 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/tech-news/2023/06/24/washington-county-broadband-expansion-bead-grant-computer-reach-pittsburgh-internet-laptops/stories/202306190007

'Quietly left behind': Escaping a go-nowhere job in rural Washington County starts with speedy internet

The need for laptops in poor areas far outstrips availability

Finding a new career for Ms. Hose became a little easier in the spring when high-speed internet came to Amity Township, where she lives in rural Washington County with boyfriend Robert McFall, 44.

At the same time, Ms. Hose also received her first computer, a laptop, which came with a year of technical support, courtesy of Computer Reach, a Homewood-based nonprofit.

Computer Reach, which employs 24 full and part-time employees and has an annual budget of $580,000, provides refurbished laptops and computer literacy training to people “most in need,” according to the company. Richard King Mellon Foundation, PNC Foundation, Eden Hall Foundation, EQT Foundation and Pittsburgh Foundation are among Computer Reach’s supporters.

The hookup boosted her internet speed at her home by nearly eight times to 250 megabits per second, opening the door to online job searches and bill paying for the first time.

 
At 12:52 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

wrt urban and rural economic development

https://www.ft.com/content/1c6be863-e147-4799-a650-fe3569549295

"The new era of big government: Biden rewrites the rules of economic policy"

7/11/23

Eric Stein, formerly head of JPMorgan’s investment banking and now Viridi’s chief financial officer, says the company aims by 2027 to churn out about 4 gigawatt-hours of battery capacity each year — more than the entire current storage capacity in the UK. For now, the lithium-ion cells packing the batteries are shipped in from Asia. But that will change when South Korea’s LG Energy opens a new battery plant in Arizona.

It is the kind of project that the White House wants to see sprout across the US, especially in the industrial areas that were ravaged during the globalisation era of the past four decades — a process which was facilitated by policies put in place by both Republican and Democratic presidents. ...

The new approach is spearheaded by two laws passed within days of each other last August — the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act — along with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in late 2021.

Combined, they offer hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies, grants and loans to spur new investment in broadband networks, semiconductors, electric vehicles and batteries.

Since the bills were passed, there has been a growing realisation that their significance goes well beyond their immediate impact on specific industries. They also represent a profound shift in economic thinking in America.

Four decades after Ronald Reagan rejected large-scale US government intervention in the economy, Biden is embracing it wholeheartedly with a raft of subsidies for domestic producers in strategic sectors, in the hope of creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

 
At 10:58 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

This article is about the NHS in the UK, which is severely underinvested. It uses the term "capital shallowing" about the impact of underinvestment on productivity and support of workers to do their jobs.

https://www.ft.com/content/eff98439-44ba-43a3-b9af-3ce796002c24?desktop=true&segmentId=0e5502c2-a654-17b7-29eb-3bb1c22ff1ba

NHS capital investment cuts leave England’s hospitals crumbling

 
At 5:30 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/10/2/23900457/internet-access-cook-county-plan-equity-underserved-communities

Cook County releases plan to improve digital access in marginalized communities

About 73% of households in Cook County have access to fast, high-quality internet, but marginalized communities are more likely to have lower connectivity, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

“I often say we have one map in Cook County because when you pull up a map comparing almost any outcome, whether it’s educational attainment, economic status, life expectancy, you invariably see the same picture,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said at a news conference Monday. “Your ZIP code should not determine how well you fare.”

The plan looks at four key problems — accessibility, confidence, safety and infrastructure — and offers possible solutions to for each. They include expanding public Wi-Fi, increasing subsidized internet plans, providing more public technology use assistance, increasing internet safety training and identifying areas with weak or unreliable infrastructure.

 
At 6:32 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

red states are no longer laboratories of democracy, they are laboratories of autocracy.

What the DeSantis and Newsom Debate Really Revealed

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/12/what-desantis-and-newsom-debate-revealed/676223/

What the debate did reveal was how wide a chasm has opened between red and blue states.
The governors spent the session wrangling over the relative merits of two utterly divergent
models for organizing government and society. It was something like watching an argument
over whether the liberal government in France or the conservative government in England
produces better outcomes for its people.

As Podhorzer and other analysts have noted, this accelerating separation marks a
fundamental reversal from the generally centralizing trends in American life through the late
20th century. Beginning with the New Deal investments under Franklin D. Roosevelt (such as
agricultural price supports, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Social Security), and
continuing with massive expenditures on defense, infrastructure, and the social safety net
after World War II (including Medicare, Medicaid, and federal aid for K–12 and higher
education), federal spending for decades tended to narrow the income gaps between the
southern states at the core of red America and the rest of the country.
After World War II, in a dynamic that legal scholars call the rights revolution, the federal
government nationalized more civil rights and liberties and limited the ability of states to
constrain those rights. Through Supreme Court and congressional actions that unfolded over
more than half a century, Washington struck down state-sponsored segregation and racial
barriers to voting across the South, and invalidated a procession of state restrictions on
abortion, contraception, interracial marriage, and same-sex relationships, among other
things.
But both big unifying trends reshaping the economy and the rules of social life have stalled
and are moving in the opposite direction. Podhorzer has calculated that the convergence in
per capita income between the South and other regions plateaued in 1980 and then started
widening again around 2008. And, as I’ve written, the axis of Republican-controlled state
governments, the GOP-appointed majority on the Supreme Court, and Republican senators
wielding the filibuster are actively reversing the rights revolution that raised the floor of
personal freedoms guaranteed in all 50 states.

On issues including voting, LGBTQ rights, classroom censorship, book bans, public protest,
and, most prominent, access to abortion, red states are imposing restrictions that are
universally rejected in blue states.

... Podhorzer’s data show that on many key measures, blue states as a group are producing far
better outcomes than the red states.
In new results provided exclusively to The Atlantic, Podhorzer calculates that the economic
output per capita and the median family income are both now 27 percent higher in the blue
section than in the red, while the share of children in poverty is 27 percent higher in the red
states. The share of people without health insurance is more than 80 percent higher in the
red states than in the blue, as are the rates of teen pregnancy and maternal death in
childbirth. The homicide rate across the red states is more than one-third higher than in the
blue, and the rate of death from firearms is nearly double in the red. Average life expectancy
at birth is now about two and a half years higher in the blue states. On most of these
measures, the purple states fall between red and blue.

======
America Is Growing Apart, Possibly for Good

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/red-and-blue-state-divide-is-growing-michael-podhorzer-newsletter/661377/

6/24/2022

 
At 10:50 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Serious shrinkage of academic programs at West Virginia University.

What Happens When a Poor State Guts Its Public University

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/class-war-west-virignia-university/676152

 
At 2:34 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

The model for private equity acquisition of rural hospitals doesn't work.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/the-current-model-doesnt-work-illinois-hospital-ceo-on-private-equity-hospital-acquisition.html

1/4/2024

 
At 2:35 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-01-15-left-behind-urban-rural-divide/

The Left Behind
The cultural rifts between urban and rural America are a constant of our history. When they also become economic, they become dangerous.

 
At 10:55 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Biden can banish lead pipes in America — but only if he gets tougher

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/17/biden-lead-pipes-epa-rule/


President Biden’s goal to eliminate the scourge of lead pipes in the United States is within his grasp, and if he succeeds, it could be one of his greatest legacies. He secured in the infrastructure law more than $15 billion to address the problem, and the Environmental Protection Agency under his administration unveiled a proposal in November to compel cities to get the work done.

The problem is that the EPA’s mandate is littered with loopholes. Failing to close them could thwart the president’s efforts to fix this pressing health threat.

The potential impact here is no exaggeration. A 2018 Lancet study estimated that, every year, more than 400,000 people in the United States die prematurely of cardiovascular and heart disease because of lead exposure. That’s on par with the health outcomes of cigarette smoking.

... But as Erik Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council points out, the rule would grant extensions of the mandate to a handful of large cities with large amounts of lead pipes. Chicago, for example, which has among the worst lead-pipe problems, could have 40 to 50 years. Hundreds of smaller cities with high percentages of lead pipes in their systems could also get years of extensions

 
At 2:24 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Biden Travels to Minnesota to Highlight Rural Investments

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/us/politics/biden-minnesota-rural-investments.html

 
At 5:51 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

The High Cost of High-Speed Internet for Everyone

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/the-53-000-connection-the-high-cost-of-high-speed-internet-for-everyone-c903163f

9/5/2023

Nebraska’s Winnebago Tribe has long been stuck with sluggish internet service. The federal government plans to fix that by crisscrossing the reservation with fiber-optic cable—at an average cost of $53,000 for each household and workplace connected.

That amount exceeds the assessed value of some of the homes getting hookups, property records show. While most connections will cost far less, the expense to reach some remote communities has triggered concerns over the ultimate price tag for ensuring every rural home, business, school and workplace in America has the same internet that city dwellers enjoy.

... In Montana, laying fiber-optic cable to some remote locations could cost more than $300,000 per connection, said Misty Ann Giles, director of Montana’s Department of Administration. Building to those places would empty the state’s coffers, she said: “That’s when we might not reach everyone.”

Defenders of the broadband programs say a simple per-location cost doesn’t capture their benefits. Once built, rural fiber lines can be used to upgrade cell service or to add more connections to nearby towns.

“Ultimately, there is a lot of good that will come from the infrastructure that we are building,” said Alan Davidson, an assistant secretary of commerce in charge of broadband programs.

... “Why wouldn’t we as a tribe deserve the same internet service that you guys have in the cities?” said Sunshine Thomas-Bear, the [Winnebago] tribe’s historic preservation officer. “We are reliant on internet service just as much as anyone else.”

 
At 11:13 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Reviving fishing.

Lessons for New England from Iceland's Silicon Valley of Cod

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/01/magazine/lessons-from-icelands-silicon-valley-of-cod

These scenes have a common backdrop: the decline of our fisheries, and the question of
what can be done to help them survive. The version of the story that winds up in the
Supreme Court is one we in the Northeast are too familiar with: Overfishing, habitat
degradation, and climate change threaten to kill off a species, and the quotas, regulations,
and expenses of protecting that species threaten to kill the livelihoods of coastal
communities. Cue the conflict and rancor.

But in the version that leads to Marin Skincare, decline spurs not panic, but innovation.
Enterprising people pool skills and knowledge with the common goal of creating more value
from the same amount of catch. After all, a shocking amount of what’s caught ends up
wasted: not just the 35 percent or more of all harvested fish that end up completely unused,
but the skin, shells, bones, intestines, and other parts that don’t translate directly into food.

Case in point are Breeding and Boutiette, who, after that early stage of moonlit lab work, took
their ideas to the New England Ocean Cluster, on the Maine Wharf in downtown Portland.
There, they found advice, guidance, a network through which they could access lawyers and marketing specialists — all the things that nurture a startup business. They also found neighbors such as Luke’s Lobster, the environmentally-conscious seafood company that now helps supply Marin Skincare with the lobster byproduct it needs.

[wrt Iceland]

Sigfusson, the cluster’s founder, is a former CEO in the insurance industry who reinvented his career after the country’s banking system collapsed during the global 2008 financial recession. Inspired by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter’s insights into the competitive advantages of industries congregating near each other (think Silicon Valley with IT, or Boston with biotech and life sciences), Sigfusson began reimagining the local fishing industry, a key driver of Iceland’s economy.

Emphasizing relationships and shared knowledge, Sigfusson began connecting the pieces
that would become the Iceland Ocean Cluster. He connected fishing companies with biotech
startups, University of Iceland researchers with venture capitalists. Physical proximity
mattered — research shows you can vastly increase collaboration among engineers, for example, by simply placing them next to each other. With his wife, an architect and designer, he fashioned the interior with glass walls and shared meeting spaces and artwork that underlined the mission of a “blue economy,” from murals depicting “The Incredible Fish Value Machine” to lamps made of cod. He put in small kitchens and forbid individual companies from owning their own coffee machines; he wanted people from different sectors talking to each other throughout the day.

===
'Great Lakes Fish Pledge' pushes companies to grow revenue, reduce waste

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/consumer-products/great-lakes-fish-positioned-grow-revenue-and-cut-waste

https://archive.is/s7IdY

1/23/2024

====
amazing story of aquaculture development in Japan.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2042123/

In recent years, growth in the global aquaculture market has seen yields overtake traditional fisheries. But conventional aquaculture techniques are a source of pollution, and also susceptible to weather events. Professor Yamamoto Toshimasa of Okayama University of Science has solved these problems and increased yields through a sustainable new approach that enables faster growth at higher stocking densities, also providing a promising solution for poverty and food security in developing nations.

 
At 8:28 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/us-has-named-100-counties-as-physician-shortage-areas-for-40-years.html

US has named 100+ counties as physician shortage areas for 40+ years

2/1/24

The finding underlines the quality of physician and provider workforce data in the U.S., which is astoundingly inadequate. Even basic figures or estimates, such as national estimates of physician turnover, are not rigorously and systematically captured. It is unlikely for federal policy to realize its full potential in addressing physician or provider shortages without data showing where deficits are most critical.

Auburn Gresham on Chicago's far South Side has been designated as a shortage area since 1978. Livingston Parish, part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan area in Louisiana, has been named a shortage area since 1979, most recently with 22 full-time primary care physicians for nearly 140,000 people. In the heartland of Florida, Glades County has one full-time primary care physician for more than 12,000 people; it's been recognized as a shortage area since 1979. Some areas, like Indian Springs, Nev., or Slope County, N.D., have zero primary care physicians with shortage designations also dating back to the late 1970s.

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/primary-care-health-professional-shortage-areas/

 
At 2:33 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Older Americans are struggling to afford food at an alarming rate — and it’s expected to get worse

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/older-americans-struggling-afford-food-100900236.html

3/16/24

According to a new study featured in the Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA), food insecurity has greatly increased over the past 20 years for American families with adults over the age of 60.

The researchers discovered that 1 in 8 families with older adults (12.5%) struggled with food insecurity between 1999 and 2003. However, this number now sits at 1 in 4 families (23.1%) between 2015 and 2019.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2815747

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/mar/1/study-finds-more-older-americans-struggling-to-aff/

“Greater efforts should be made to ensure older adults who need food assistance can access these programs,” Ms. Leung told The Washington Times.

She said the factors contributing to rising food insecurity among older adults include “higher medical costs, high food prices and greater economic hardship.”

The study noted the importance of the social safety net, including the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for the growing number of older adults who have struggled to feed themselves.

“Across both time periods, higher rates of food insecurity persisted among Black and Hispanic families, with lower socioeconomic status, and participating in SNAP,” the study noted.

Although the study highlighted families with an older member in the household, the problem was not limited to them: “All categories of food insecurity increased between the two time periods across all racial and ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups,” the researchers noted.

The findings come as questions of hunger has sharpened further in the wake of rising grocery prices since 2022 as U.S. inflation soared and the end of pandemic-related emergency SNAP benefits last March.

 
At 2:39 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Taking Stock of Rural America’s ‘Hidden’ Homeless

https://barnraisingmedia.com/taking-stock-rural-homelessness-affordable-housing

3/18/24

A recent report by the Housing Assistance Council, a nonprofit that supports affordable housing efforts throughout rural America, found that rural America is losing affordable housing at an alarming rate, fueling a growing housing crisis.

A homeless man stands outside of a tent in Missouri.
Terry, a homeless man who only gave his first name, stands outside the door of his tent at a homeless encampment in Missouri. (Jeff Roberson, AP Photo)
“There’s a lack of affordable housing stock nationally,” says Lance George, director of Research and Information at the Housing Assistance Council. “But it’s even further exacerbated in rural areas [because] there’s a dearth of good quality rental housing or even rental housing of any type in many rural communities.” Over 1.4 million homes fail to meet basic standards of shelter, safety or essential services like water, sanitation and electricity, according to the report.

The report also found that rural homeowners and renters are becoming increasingly cost-burdened, as housing prices continue to rise in rural communities.

One reason there’s less affordable housing stock in rural America is due to the rise of “vacation homes,” or homes unoccupied for seasonal or recreational use.

Approximately 6 million homes, or 20%, are unoccupied in rural America, lower than the nationwide average of 11%. According, to the report, about 53% of all vacant seasonal or recreational homes nationwide are in rural areas, which account for nearly half of all rural home vacancies.

Homelessness in rural America is also prevalent, although experts and housing advocates say it’s less visible compared to urban parts of the country.

“I think there are three types of issues regarding housing in Iowa: cost, availability and quality,” he says. “The housing shortage is real in Iowa. There are not enough apartments or homes, especially for low- or extremely low-income families. The quality of housing stock in many places is under attack by corporate entities that see these homes as line-item investments on a spreadsheet. And in some cases, population and job growth is hard to sustain or encourage due to the lack of availability.”

He says one major issue in Iowa and across the country is mobile home investment groups that buy up trailer parks and hike rents while doing less than adequate maintenance and improvement practices.

https://ruralhome.org/information-center/taking-stock-rural/

https://takingstockrural.org/

 
At 3:01 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/26/expanding-food-banks-is-no-substitute-for-tackling-poverty-charities-warn

Expanding food banks is no substitute for tackling poverty, charities warn

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/09/food-banks-are-taking-over-from-the-welfare-state-warns-gordon-brown

Food banks are taking over from the welfare state, warns Gordon Brown

 
At 3:07 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

How dollar stores exacerbated American food deserts — and what it means when they leave them

https://www.salon.com/2024/03/17/how-dollar-stores-exacerbated-american-deserts--and-what-it-means-when-they-leave-them/

Food Empowerment Project, food deserts
https://foodispower.org/access-health/food-deserts/

https://medicine.tufts.edu/news-events/news/dollar-stores-are-growing-food-retailers-us

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307193

https://www.cspinet.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/Dollar%20Store%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

Along those lines, the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that when dollar stores stores saturate a community’s grocery market, full-service food stores are deterred from opening, and existing grocers are pushed out, reporting that “sales in local grocery stores are known to drop by 30% following the opening of a nearby dollar store.”

For these reasons, Cleveland isn’t the only city to take or consider measures to curb the growth of discount stores. In December 2019, DeKalb County, which is included in the Metro Atlanta statistical area, issued a 45-day moratorium on the construction or expansion of “small box discount retailers.”

The measure was then extended 11 times until, three years later, the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners “unanimously passed comprehensive text amendments to the DeKalb Zoning Ordinance to set distance requirements” for small box discount retail stores.

 
At 8:46 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/education/article286970790.html

How a North Texas nonprofit makes the college dream a reality in rural communities

Opportunity Resource Services. The Cleburne-based nonprofit started 2010 with the goal of alleviating poverty in rural communities by providing more access to educational services and support for first-generation college students and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In other words, they believe everyone deserves a college education — and they are there to help make it happen. Basically, they work to make sure folks know what they’re applying for, how to do it and where to go to get the right funding. They work with school counselors and other administrators. There’s money out there, but many people just don’t know where to go.

 
At 11:29 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/opinion/bidenomics-working-class.html

The Political Failure of Bidenomics

Joe Biden won the White House and immediately pursued an ambitious agenda to support the working class.

The economic results have been fantastic. During Biden’s term, the U.S. economy has created 10.8 million production and nonsupervisory jobs, including nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs and 774,000 construction jobs. Wages are rising faster for people at the lower end of the wage scale than for people at the higher end.

A study by the economist Robert Pollin and others estimated that 61 percent of the jobs created by the infrastructure law Biden championed wouldn’t require a college degree; the same applied for 58 percent of the jobs created by the Inflation Reduction Act and 44 percent of those created by the CHIPS act.

A study from the Brookings Institution found that since 2021, the new laws have directed almost $82 billion in strategic sector investment to the nation’s employment-distressed counties. As a result of the private investment set in motion by Biden policies, we are in the middle of an employment, manufacturing and productivity boom in many of the places that had been left behind, benefiting the sorts of workers who had been hit hard by deindustrialization.

But what have been the political effects? Have these huge spending programs increased working-class support for the Democratic Party? Are the Democrats reclaiming their mantle as the party of the working class?

The answer so far is unfortunately a resounding no. Biden’s economic policies have done little to help the Democratic Party politically. In fact, the party continues to lose working-class support. In a recent NBC poll, voters said they trusted Donald Trump more than Biden to handle the economy — by a 22-point margin, the largest advantage any candidate has had on this issue in the history of NBC polling going back to 1992.

Matthew Goodwin, a political scientist who writes about the diploma divide in Britain, titled his recent book “Values, Voice and Virtue.” He argues the educated and less educated have different values. The former are cosmopolitan progressive, while the latter are traditionalist — faith, family, flag. He continues that educated voices drown out less-educated voices, thanks to their dominance at universities and in the media, the arts, nonprofits and bureaucracies. Less-educated voters feel unheard and unseen. Goodwin writes that across the Western world, “workers and nongraduates are consistently the most likely to endorse statements such as ‘the government does not care what people like me think.’”

Finally, less-educated voters feel morally judged for being socially backward. An analysis of more than 65,000 people across 36 countries by the Dutch scholar Jochem van Noord found that people who do not belong to the new elite are united not only by economic insecurity but also by “feelings of misrecognition, that is, the extent to which people have the feeling that they do not play a meaningful role in society, that they possess a (stigmatized) identity that is looked down upon.”

The British writer David Goodhart gets to the nub: “In the last two decades it sometimes feels as if an enormous social vacuum cleaner has sucked up status from manual occupations, even skilled ones, and reallocated it to the middling and higher cognitive professions and the prosperous metropolitan centers and university towns.”

Joe Biden has done a masterly job of holding together the diverse Democratic coalition. But in order to win working-class votes, you probably have to show some degree of independence from the educated elites who lead it.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home