1/Here's a thread demonstrating exactly why I love @CityLab so much.
This article about Chicago is a perfect example of how to weave together lots of important threads in a coherent, succinct, smart way: citylab.com/equity/2018/03…
This article about Chicago is a perfect example of how to weave together lots of important threads in a coherent, succinct, smart way: citylab.com/equity/2018/03…
2/The article's message - Chicago is failing its working class black population - is the same as this post I wrote: bloomberg.com/view/articles/…
But the CityLab post goes into much more depth and has more interesting data.
But the CityLab post goes into much more depth and has more interesting data.
3/The article combines data, economic research, anecdote, and a variety of sources to paint a coherent picture of Chicago as a city of contradictions, inequality, and segregation. 
5/The article draws a historical chain of causation from the Great Migration to residential segregation to post-industrial decay. Poor city planning, industrial change, and racist attitudes combine to keep opportunity out of vast swathes of Chicago.
6/It clearly explains why the standard economist solution - "Just move to somewhere with more opportunity" - creates negative externalities, as middle-class people abandon poor neighborhoods to their fate.
7/Chicago boosters tend to act like the plight of black Chicagoans is just the same thing that's happening to black people all across the country.
This article pretty much crushes that canard.
This article pretty much crushes that canard.
8/The article explains how historical patterns of segregation reinforce racist attitudes within a city, which then reinforce segregation, creating a vicious cycle.
9/It also shows how the alternative to gentrification is destructive, ruinous segregation.
That's a point that anti-gentrification activists would do well to mull over.
That's a point that anti-gentrification activists would do well to mull over.
10/The one thing I'd have liked the article to expand on is the importance of transit.
It mentions how working-class black Chicagoans have extreme difficulty getting to where jobs are, but doesn't connect this to Chicago's transit policy.
It mentions how working-class black Chicagoans have extreme difficulty getting to where jobs are, but doesn't connect this to Chicago's transit policy.
11/In fact, when read together with this other excellent CityLab post: citylab.com/life/2018/03/w… the article suggests that Chicago could really benefit from more density and better transit in working-class neighborhoods.
12/In any case, read the article (citylab.com/equity/2018/03…), read more CityLab, and think about the interplay between segregation, racism, density, transit, urban planning, and the rise of the knowledge/service economy.
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