The World Series Win & Philly’s Future: Yo, My Man! Not So Frickin’ Fast There
Unless you’re one of the people whose car got turned over in the irrational urban exuberance following the Phillies’ World Series win on Wednesday night or stood helplessly on the platform as train after packed train rattled through your suburban station without stopping on Friday morning because of the immense victory parade downtown, you’re probably feeling pretty chuff about the city of Philadelphia right now.
In fact, there is an outpouring of warm-and-fuzzy stories about the City of Disorderly Love and its suddenly bright future in the wake of the first championship by one of its long suffering professional sports team since 1983. This one, written by Alex Schmidt, a transplanted Los Angeles resident, is typical.
Schmidt notes that residents know their letter carriers’ names, talk to each other at the drop of a soft pretzel (wid mustard) and that the newish mayor is impressive. He also is correct that Philly never would be mistaken for L.A., which looks big from the outside and is even bigger inside, while his adopted city looks big on the outside but on the inside is a crazy quilt of neighborhoods that are easy to get around.
While Schmidt gets points for charming naivete, I cannot help but offer this rejoinder to him and the rose-colored glasses crowd:
Yo, my man! Not so frickin’ fast there.
While the Series win feels like a big shot of civic adrenalin, Schmidt would have no way of knowing that the Phillies last (and only) World Championship did not result in a civic renaissance.
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6 Responses to “The World Series Win & Philly’s Future: Yo, My Man! Not So Frickin’ Fast There”
It's awfully naive to expect any kind of renaissance of old Cyanide Nation cities after winning a World Series, or magically to happen after an Obama election, for that matter.
I like that sculpture. Heh. We know Obama can smile and enthrall the kids. Can he sing, too? (Snap fingers on beats 2 and 4.)
And you thought that the silliness depicted on the cover one week of the Economist was “foolish love”…
L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very
[rim shot] extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore can
Love is all that I can give to you
Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart and please dont break it
Love was made for me and you
[Instrumental passage -- can Obama dance, too? Heh]
L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very
[trombone glissando] extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore can
Love is all that I can give to you
Love is more than just a game for two
Two in love can make it
Take my heart and please dont break it
Love was made for me and you [points to audience on left]
Love was made for me and you [points to audience on right]
Love was made for me and you [points to audience at center]
It will be hard to image any city have a renewal given the changing demographics of the U.S.
Even though Shaun would never admit it, it takes upper class and upper middle class whites to cause a city to renewal. And since that portion of the population is shrinking relevative to the overall population, there are just not going to be enough smart, college educated white knowledge workers to go around all of the cities. There are enough for Manhatten, DC, and SF but probably no where else.
Shaun, I hope you don't expect a renaissance in Blue Nation gritty cities, or in the industrial rust belt, much less an instant one.
The naive young dupes believe in insta-magic, but you strike me as someone who knows better, and (despite your current emotional distress associated with the election and with Iraq) you're as well-grounded on some things as is, for example, Lovelock (of Gaia fame) is along with you on nuclear power. I hope so much support for Obama isn't out of a weird or exaggerated form of desperation among many of the non-young-and-naive.
It's being stuck in the Sixties, remarkably stuck in the past, to believe in any kind of rapid, substantial renaissance. (I heard that same word used on a talk show this morning hosted by Jesse Jackson Sr. — along with the naive expectation that Obama will be guaranteed eight years in office, not merely four.)
Also, the “transplanted” resident's account may be too nice, but it reflects what I've seen in numerous Eastern cities I've visited as well as the Eastern metro areas in which I've lived. (One of these provided my most beloved living experience ever, and i want to return there.)
I will say I miss in California the modern _roads_ with generously wide right-hand lanes, paved shoulders, or dedicated bike lanes that make it safe to ride a bicycle, and with sidewalks that make it safe to walk. Much of the East is backward in this sense and if there were some grand make-work project crafted by the Dems to revitalize the Blue Nation suffering lands and masses, hopefully it will include the modernization of eastern roads. (I had to go back to the Bay Area earlier this month when it was flirting with ninety degrees F, many were on their bicycles, and they were able to ride their bicycles, safely. I miss that about living in the Bay Area and in southern California.)
To me it's not the demographics, but the economics and politics associated with culture. Will the culture continue to be one of entitlements, dependency frequently on government (not only federal, but state and local), and opposition to business, industry, and progress? (Real progress, not starry-eyed substitutes in naive progressives' eyes, neglecting facts like development of industries and businesses to provide alternative energy, if it becomes economical, to name one example)
Will new residents of the cities work to advance themselves or will they perpetuate dependence on and expectation of government entitlements? Will governments ever reform in those cities or in Blue states (such as New York) where government is enormously oversized, over-arching, bloated, and already economically crushing with retirement costs for government people largely yet to come? (These benefits will be reduced eventually by any sane public.)
Well, Super D., I suppose Obama, in the name of “change,” could outdo Robert Byrd, and “to make the federal government more in touch with and accountable to the people,” relocate many government agencies and functions from Washington elsewhere in the USA, namely in solidly Blue cities, ideally in Blue states, beginning with Chicago but not neglecting Philadelphia, Newark (New Jersey), Boston, without even demanding first any kind of municipal government reform or the end to stupid self-destructive policies such as city income taxation.
(Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Madison [of course!], even Austin, Texas…and Boulder, Colorado…)
DLS,
I doubt Shaun will ever admit that there is just not enough upper middle class whites who are willing to invest social capital to revivie all cities. That is why everyone has written off such cities as Detroit or Newark.
Of course Shaun will prefer to go on in his PC denial that poor Hispanics and blacks can someone become upper middle class and turn cities around. Of course, it has hot happened anywhere in the U.S. (Atlanta does not count).