Eleven Signs A City Will Succeed -- March 5, 2016

Updates

March 9, 2016:  see the original post below and the "eleven signs a city will succeed." When I saw the article and posted the "eleven signs" you have no idea how much I wanted to add a twelve sign: city residents have kept city leadership away from the Democrats. But I didn't want to be "catty" nor did I want to wander into the political arena. But I didn't have to wait long for a reader to send me the "twelve sign." Investor's Business Daily is reporting:

But let’s backtrack to Moore’s tweet. Flint is indeed a Democratic Party bastion. Don’t its decades of Democratic dominance deserve some of the blame? It’s the city’s “Democratic rulers,” Reason magazine’s Robby Soave reminds us, who have “robbed city residents blind to pad the pockets of public sector unions.” They’ve also been in charge as Flint has become one the country’s poorest cities (the second poorest, says the Census Bureau, for a city of its size), and a haven for criminals — it’s the most dangerous city in America, according to Business Insider.
Flint is not alone, though. America is awash with troubled, dysfunctional cities that have been electing Democratic mayors for decades.

• Detroit last elected a Republican mayor in 1957.  
• Chicago’s last GOP mayor was elected in 1927. 
• St. Louis has been electing Democratic mayors since 1949.  
• The last GOP mayor of Philadelphia left office in 1952. 
• Both Baltimore and Oakland had Republican mayors as late as the 1960s.
• Newark, N.J., hasn’t had a GOP mayor in more than a century. It was ranked as the fifth-worst city to live in in 2015. Detroit, of course, was first.

Original Post

 

From this month's issue of The Atlantic: James Fallows on "How America Is Putting Itself Back Together."

It's generally been my experience I like anything James Fallows writes. There have been exceptions. Rarely.

I haven't read the entire article yet, but the crawler at the bottom of the pages is very, very interesting. Apply the parameters (below the break) to your own city or town. I'm applying them to Williston (but not blogging my thoughts) as I write the summary:

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Eleven Signs A City Will Succeed

1. Divisive national politics seem a distant concern.

2. You can pick out the local "patriots." Patriots: "Who makes this town go?"

3. "Public-private partnerships" are real.

4. People know the civic history.

5. They have a downtown.

6. They are near a research center.

7. They have, and care about, a community.

8. They have unusual schools.

9. They make themselves open.

10. They have big plans.

11. They have craft breweries.