Posted February 23, 201510 yr http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/minneapoliss-white-lie/385702/#disqus_thread Interesting piece on something we've discussed in the past regarding certain pedestal cities that are described as models for all other cities to follow.
February 23, 201510 yr http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/minneapoliss-white-lie/385702/#disqus_thread Interesting piece on something we've discussed in the past regarding certain pedestal cities that are described as models for all other cities to follow. Thanks for posting this. I just finished reading "The Miracle of Minneapolis" a couple minutes ago (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/the-miracle-of-minneapolis/384975/). As I was reading Thompson's article, I kept thinking how a lot of these things are great, but that I wondered how successful they'd be in less homogeneous regions.
February 23, 201510 yr I had almost the same criticisms the follow up piece made while reading the original piece. Minneapolis's cultural and migratory history closer follows a Canadian city of similar size closer than it does any other American city. I've long made the general claim that much larger cultural, location-based, and macroeconomic forces have exponentially more culpability regarding the outcome of any city than local public policy does. Local policy may smooth or coarsen some edges but its affect can rarely contend with larger trends.
February 23, 201510 yr I thought most of the policy discussion the original piece was pretty dumb, but the overall stylized fact still remains true: the Twin Cities is a pretty unique confluence of prosperity, opportunity, and affordability. It's not an uninteresting observation, even if it doesn't serve as some kind of model for other types of cities. And the follow up piece was pretty weak, IMHO. The racial gaps in outcomes is sensitive to the prosperity of white residents (which is high in MN). Would have been much more convincing to look at the social outcomes of black residents in MN relative to other cities.
February 23, 201510 yr I think it is hard to compare a lot of cities to Minneapolis. Maybe the Twin Cities are better compared side to side to Denver, Portland or Seattle. I think the article received enough backlash for the variables it left out and I think people are right to say it doesn't compare to most US large metro areas because of the small minority population. I think the question should be, is this the best policy that works for the Twin Cities? It is hard to go back and say, if we didn't do this said policy in 1960 then today we would look like .... But, did Cleveland, or Cincinnati, etc. have this type of policy? If not, what do you think the difference would be? Pretty much impossible to compare.
February 23, 201510 yr Even though I agree with everyone that the original piece excluded discussion of some important factors, I do think the overall theme of regional cooperation is valuable. Doing something like that in Ohio's cities would still yield positive results, it's just that the barriers to doing so would be higher.
February 23, 201510 yr http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/minneapoliss-white-lie/385702/#disqus_thread Interesting piece on something we've discussed in the past regarding certain pedestal cities that are described as models for all other cities to follow. I didn't think it was that great of an article. It points out that Minneapolis has a higher than average white majority of residents but doesn't point out what that actual average is for other major midwest cities. (I'm guessing around 50%). Instead it jumps to the opposite spectrum and uses Detroit as a basis of comparision. For actual comparison, there are plenty of policy and leadership decisions that Detroit did wrong (I lived there for many years & studied the history and urban planning) that led to it's failure as much as it's racial makeup. On the same note, there are plenty of things that Minneapolis has done in terms of urban planning and economic development that have led to it's success, as much as it's racial makeup. So while racial makeup affects the outcome, it's not the only thing affecting the outcome, as the article seems to indicate. Honestly, if Minneapolis has a 10-15% higher portion of whites than other midwest cities, all other things being equal, is that somehow enough to mean that city is more inclined to be prosperous?
February 23, 201510 yr If the article wanted to be actually informative it would have compared some metrics for Minneapolis and Detroit's white population and black populations so that we could get some real data to underlie the arguments he's making. I have the feeling that the basic point is at least somewhat valid, but all I know from the article is that this journalist thinks so, too.
February 23, 201510 yr I've been to Minneapolis once, for a job interview. The firm was opening a local office so they'd had people here for a while setting things up. My interviewer commented that wow, there sure are a lot of black people in Cleveland... like he'd honestly never encountered that situation in his life, and never expected to.
February 23, 201510 yr From Wikipedia: Minneapolis City - 2010 Census (382,578) White: 63.8% Black or African American: 18.6% American Indian: 2.0% Asian: 5.6% (1.9% Hmong, 0.9% Chinese, 0.7% Indian, 0.6% Korean, 0.4% Vietnamese, 0.3% Thai, 0.3% Laotian, 0.2% Filipino, 0.1% Japanese, 0.2% Other Asian) Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.1% Other: 5.6% Multiracial: 4.4% Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 10.5%[52] (7.0% Mexican, 1.3% Ecuadorian, 0.4% Puerto Rican, 0.3% Guatemalan, 0.2% Salvadoran, 1.3% Other Latino) St. Paul City - 2010 Census (285,068) 60.1% white 15.7% African American 1.1% Native American 15.0% Asian 0.1% Pacific Islander 3.9% from other races 4.2% from two or more races Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.6% of the population. From http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/segregation2010/msa.aspx?metroid=33460 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA - 2010 Census (3,279,833) 78.6% White 8.4% Non-hispanic Black 5.4% Hispanic 6.4% Asian 1.2% Other races From Wikipedia Detroit City - 2010 Census (713,777) 82.7% Black or African American; 10.6% White (7.8% non-Hispanic whites, 2.8% Hispanic whites); 3% from other races; 1.1% Asian; 2.2% from two or more races; 0.4% American Indian; 0.02% Pacific Islander. Detroit MSA - 2010 Census (4,296,250) 70.1% White 22.8% African American 0.3% Native American 3.3% Asian 0.02% Pacific Islander 1.2% from other races 2.2% from two or more races Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.2% of the population Arab Americans were at least 4.7% of the region's population (considered white in the US Census).
February 24, 201510 yr "The only black people in Minnesota are Prince and Kirby Puckett" -Chris Rock It's downright criminal that Morris Day gets overlooked.
February 24, 201510 yr ^and the Time! I've been to Minneapolis once, for a job interview. The firm was opening a local office so they'd had people here for a while setting things up. My interviewer commented that wow, there sure are a lot of black people in Cleveland... like he'd honestly never encountered that situation in his life, and never expected to. Reminds me of a time when a friend who lived in Lakewood came over to play at my house when we were probably about 8 or 9. He was shocked to see so many black kids playing outside on the street and I was genuinely shocked that it shocked him. One of those childhood memories which imprinted on me.
March 7, 201510 yr My best friend in black and grew up in Minneapolis. He moved to Milwaukee for college, then we moved to Chicago and then Cincinnati together. Of all those places, he felt most welcome and comfortable in Minneapolis. Milwaukee was the worst for black people, closely followed by Chicago. Cincinnati he's actually pretty fond of.
March 8, 201510 yr "The only black people in Minnesota are Prince and Kirby Puckett" -Chris Rock It's downright criminal that Morris Day gets overlooked. morris day overlooked? how do you think minneapolis pop music's only tongan mormon hit makers feel (the jets)?
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