The Guardian’s correspondent may or may not have the Chicago situation sussed, but he passes along a handful of astute observations as to cities as a laboratory for progressive change. Not that you’d notice any of it as a resident of the metropolitan Louisville area, which enjoys thinking of itself as something it isn’t. More on that here:
Chart of the Week: The most liberal and conservative big cities, by Drew DeSilver (Pew Research Center)
Spoiler alert: Louisville, Indianapolis and Lexington ain’t San Francisco, folks.
Tales of the cities: the progressive vision of urban America, by Gary Younge (Guardian)
… Public imagination when it comes to political geography is skewed. People think in terms of red and blue states, but the real distinction is between town and country. With just a handful of exceptions, every city of more than 500,000 inhabitants votes Democrat; in all of the 10 largest cities in America white people are a minority. More than two-thirds of Obama’s lead against Mitt Romney in 2012 came from the three largest US cities – New York, LA and Chicago, and their surrounding areas. It’s not difficult to see why. People come to cities to escape isolation and find opportunity. So cities become home to a disproportionately large number of gay and lesbian people, immigrants and religious minorities. To function they demand social tolerance and public investment for everything from transport to parks.
