{"id":10133,"date":"2009-10-20T08:19:46","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T15:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=10133"},"modified":"2009-10-20T08:19:46","modified_gmt":"2009-10-20T15:19:46","slug":"what-makes-progressive-utopias-like-portland-seem-so-cool-to-the-cognoscenti-could-it-be-a-zoning-enforced-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10133\/what-makes-progressive-utopias-like-portland-seem-so-cool-to-the-cognoscenti-could-it-be-a-zoning-enforced-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes “progressive” utopias like Portland seem so cool to the cognoscenti? Could it be a zoning-enforced racism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

From newgeography.com:<\/a><\/p>\n

Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there\u2019s a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and mid-sized cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver. In particular, Portland is held up as a paradigm, with its urban growth boundary, extensive transit system, excellent cycling culture, and a pro-density policy. These cities are frequently contrasted with those of the Rust Belt and South, which are found wanting, often even by locals, as \u201ccool\u201d urban places.<\/p>\n

But look closely at these exemplars and a curious fact emerges. If you take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles you will find that the \u201cprogressive\u201d cities aren\u2019t red or blue, but another color entirely: white.<\/p>\n

In fact, not one of these \u201cprogressive\u201d cities even reaches the national average for African American percentage population in its core county. Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic of the group.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More:<\/p>\n

This raises troubling questions about these cities. Why is it that progressivism in smaller metros is so often associated with low numbers of African Americans? Can you have a progressive city properly so-called with only a disproportionate handful of African Americans in it? In addition, why has no one called these cities on it?<\/p>\n

As the college educated flock to these progressive El Dorados, many factors are cited as reasons: transit systems, density, bike lanes, walkable communities, robust art and cultural scenes. But another way to look at it is simply as White Flight writ large. Why move to the suburbs of your stodgy Midwest city to escape African Americans and get criticized for it when you can move to Portland and actually be praised as progressive, urban and hip? Many of the policies of Portland are not that dissimilar from those of upscale suburbs in their effects. Urban growth boundaries and other mechanisms raise land prices and render housing less affordable exactly the same as large lot zoning and building codes that mandate brick and other expensive materials do. They both contribute to Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From newgeography.com: Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there\u2019s a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and mid-sized cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver. In particular, Portland is held up as a paradigm, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10674,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10674\/looking-for-the-beacon-of-progress-for-american-cities-forget-portland-forget-houston-the-road-were-on-leads-to-detroit\/","url_meta":{"origin":10133,"position":0},"title":"Looking for the beacon of progress for American cities? Forget Portland. Forget Houston. The road we’re on leads to Detroit.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From PJTV.com, a bone-chilling exposition of how the entitlement mentality killed one of the great American cities: There but for the grace of god? Not quite. Detroit is just the leading edge of a wave of entitlement thinking that is engulfing what was once the beacon of human liberty for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16314,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16314\/kotkin-why-the-next-great-american-cities-arent-what-you-think\/","url_meta":{"origin":10133,"position":1},"title":"Kotkin: “Why the next great American cities aren\u2019t what you think.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Joel Kotkin at The Daily Beast:Once considered backwaters, these Sunbelt cities are quietly achieving a critical mass of well-educated residents. They are also becoming major magnets for immigrants. Over the past decade, the largest percentage growth in foreign-born population has occurred in sunbelt cities, led by Nashville, which has doubled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17852,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17852\/overnight-news-the-price-pressure-is-inflation-but-the-underlying-demand-highly-localized-is-fear\/","url_meta":{"origin":10133,"position":2},"title":"Overnight News: The price pressure is inflation, but the underlying demand \u2013 highly localized \u2013 is\u00a0fear.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Housing prices surged, post-pandemic. Redfin, et al, like to blame that ephemeral flu because it permits them to whitewash (ahem) \u2013 perhaps to redline (bada-bing!) \u2013 all the riot-evacuated neighborhoods. Our recently-massively-inflated money supply might seem to account for the price increases, but \u2013 now more than ever \u2013 all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17091,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17091\/overnight-news-ctrl-f-riot-not-found\/","url_meta":{"origin":10133,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: CTRL-F \u2018riot\u2019; not\u00a0found.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry if I seem to be beating a dead horse, but the refusal of the \u201creal estate industry\u201d to admit the existence of the riots while writing all about their secondary consequences is my kind of fun. Hypocrisy abounds, alas, but hypocrisy on high is especially comical. The scum who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2840,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2840\/urbanologist-joel-kotkin-why-growth-oriented-cities-like-houston-phoenix-and-atlanta-reflect-the-future-of-global-commerce\/","url_meta":{"origin":10133,"position":4},"title":"Urbanologist Joel Kotkin: Why growth-oriented cities like Houston, Phoenix and Atlanta reflect the future of global commerce","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Joel Kotkin is the only American urbanologist who can tolerate actual living human beings. In consequence, he can write about the organic growth of cities as they really are, rather than as he might remake them with enough tax money and firepower. This is a long extract from a much\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18160,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18160\/overnight-news-the-purge\/","url_meta":{"origin":10133,"position":5},"title":"Overnight News: The Purge?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This is Marxism in one gerundive: Ants are to have been devoured by Grasshoppers. If you say, \"Then what?\" \u2013 you're out of the club, but that doesn't really matter: The goal is not their success but your failure. Civilization is created by Ants for Ants. What happens when civil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10136,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions\/10136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}