Once the American Dream
The Curmudgeon, if you haven’t guessed, is a suburban kind of guy. This may go a long way in explaining his rather curmudgeon and cranky mentality. The suburbs in general have not fared well in academic literature. They are constantly under attack for one reason or another and this no doubt makes the suburbs as cranky as is the Curmudgeon. Nevertheless, the Curmudgeon heard good things about Bernadette Hanlon’s Once the American Dream: Inner-Ring Suburbs of the Metropolitan United States, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2010, he scooped up a copy and set himself a’reading. He was not disappointed; Once the American Dream is an excellent updating of the condition and the transformation of the suburbs during the last decade.
The suburbs are subject to a lot of sterotypes and misconceptions. Rich, white, boring, conservative, sprawl-car obsessed battleground of smart growth wars, and a paragon of unsustainable anti-planet practices, the suburbs needed a serious updating in light of the recent census reports. Frankly, it was refreshing to hear that the (1) suburbs were in crisis, (2) were in decline, (3) suffered from aging housing stock, foreclosures, severe fiscal problems, slow population growth, increasing poverty and (4) needed saving (comments lifted from the American Dream’s book jacket). OMG! That’s a transformation the Curmudgeon can sink his false teeth into.
Sadly, all this good stuff (decline and poverty et al), once the exclusive perogative of the saintly central cities, is not true of all suburbs. It seems, according to Hanlon, to be characteristic of a subset of suburbs–the Inner-Ring suburbs, those immediately adjacent to the central city.
Articles in 'Clusters and Regionalism'
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Silicon Valley and Route 128: The Camelots of Economic DevelopmentSilicon Valley and the Route 128 Massachusetts Miracle are a bit of reality and myth tossed together like a Caesar salad. In recent years, the Silicon Valley, in particular, has become a Camelot of sorts for economic developers–a place where the mythical king of technology, innovation and creativity ruled over the dominion of the knowledge-based economy. These magical geographies have personified the holy grail of economic development. What are the realities behind these legends? What lessons can we learn? |
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The New Geography of Jobs (Enrico Moretti)Enrico Moretti’s, The New Geography of Jobs (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2012). has been exceptionally well received by many of the economic development literari. Some commentators have described New Geography as the best economic development book of 2012. And if you don’t read New Geography, you would also miss reading the best, most readable explanation and defense of innovation, knowledge-based economics and their effects on the location of jobs in the United States. There is a lot going on in New Geography. You should read on because what lies below the thematic visible tip of New Geography and innovation economics is its frank and realistic understanding of what innovation economics can do and not do, and, perhaps more important, the linkage of innovation economics with American culture and society. |
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The American DreamWHO STOLE MY LILY WHITE RICH SUBURBS??? |
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The Path Less TraveledRather than choose any one book or article in which the Curmudgeon will dutifully at least attempt to summarize– before burying it in skepticism if not outright hostility, the Curmudgeon will drop all pretenses of objectivity and offer what he can best describe as an essay. |
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CalypsoThrow a rock out of any window these days and you’ll hit something written about regionalism, clusters, knowledge-based economy or innovation. Choosing to review any of these topics is an invitation to have your eyes burst from the strain of having to review the literature in order to choose an appropriate work to discuss. McGahey’s Regional Economic Development in Theory and Practice is in the Curmudgeon’s opinion one of the better discussions on regionalism that has been published in recent years. McGahey’s article offers important insights into current regional thinking. But it also forces the Curmudgeon to backfill the reader on a wide variety of past regionalist movements which have occurred over the last fifty-sixty years. Each movement or set of initiatives was distinctively inspired by a then in vogue perspective of why regionalism was desirable and necessary. The tale has evolved over the years, but in many ways seems to have remained in its essentials, rather constant. How current regionalism may have evolved from our historical past should shed some light into its essential message. |
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Collaborate, Collaborate: Dance to the Music!The awareness of regionalism has prospered greatly from its linkage and relationship to the clusters approach and cluster’s derivative approaches (innovation, knowledge-based economic development, and entrepreneur or start up). |
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Clusters: Sexy but Mysterious and ElusiveRichard Dreyfuss looks out the window of his ascending airplane and sees the girl of his dreams, the girl he had spent a weekend chasing and never finding, driving off into the proverbial sunrise-never ever to be seen again. So ends American Graffiti. The frustration and disappointment which ends that story is the beginning of […] |
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