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^#1

Race in America: 'Progressive' cities

The 'progressive' towns constantly listed as our best role models also lack racial diversity, finds Aaron Renn. Why has no one called them on it?

Among the media and academia and within planning circles, there's a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and midsize 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 "cool" urban places.

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 – places no one expects the average U.S. city to be able to imitate – you will find that the "progressive" cities aren't red or blue, but another color entirely: white.

In fact, not one of these "progressive" cities even reaches the national average for percentage of African-Americans in its core county. Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic of the group.

The progressive paragon of Portland is the whitest on the list, with an African-American population less than half the national average. It is America's ultimate White City. The contrast with other, supposedly less advanced cities is stark.

It is not just a regional thing, either. Even look just within the state of Texas, where Austin is held up as a bastion of right thinking urbanism next to sprawlvilles like Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.

While Austin is far more diverse than a place like Portland, it is still much whiter than other major Texas cities, comparable only to Fort Worth. And while its African-American population lags the national average, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston both exceed it.

This raises troubling questions about these cities.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-renn_22edi.State.Edition1.1691580.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bd/AustinTexasCongressView.jpgThe 'progressive' towns constantly listed as our best role models also lack racial diversity, finds Aaron Renn. Why has... more

remanns
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16 comments

11 hours ago

^#2

Support for legalizing marijuana grows rapidly around U.S.

Approval for medical use expands alongside criticism of prohibition - The same day they rejected a gay marriage ballot measure,... more

copperdragon
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7 comments

16 hours ago

^#3

By Happy Accident, Chemists Produce a New Blue

"Blue pigments of the past have often been expensive (ultramarine blue was made from the gemstone lapis lazuli, ground up),... more

DeliaTheArtist
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10 comments

15 hours ago

^#4

Man happy with simple life in Utah cave

A 48-year-old man who has not used money in nine years and resides in a desert cave in Moab, Utah, said he loves his simple existence.

Vierotchka
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15 comments

16 hours ago

^#5

Cop Driving 94 MPH kills 2 teens.

AP reports "Police have released a videotape of a June police cruiser crash that killed two Connecticut teens. The officer... more

KSirys
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42 comments

14 hours ago

^#6

Fox News Threatens Pink Slips For On-Screen Errors | TPM LiveWire

Fair and balanced my ass. Looks to me they 100% errors against anybody else's agenda.

kennymotown
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12 comments

17 hours ago

^#7

Collider smashes its first atoms (photo)

Two circulating beams have produced the first particle collisions in the Large Hadron Collider, three days after it was restarted.

current_news_bot
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3 comments

13 hours ago

^#8

Beating Allegations at Amusement Park

Visitors to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo are coming forward with allegations that they were beaten by park security... more

ras_menelik
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5 comments

10 hours ago

^#9

New reactor uses sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into fuel

Talk about a Eureka moment. Scientists at Sandia National Labs, seeking a means to create cheap and abundant hydrogen to power a hydrogen economy, realized they could use the same technology to "reverse-combust" CO2 back into fuel. Researchers still have to improve the efficiency of the system, but they recently demonstrated a working prototype of their "Sunshine to Petrol" machine that converts waste CO2 to carbon monoxide, and then syngas, consuming nothing but solar energy.

The device, boasting the simple title Counter-Rotating-Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (we'll go with "CR5") sets off a thermo-chemical reaction by exposing an iron-rich composite to concentrated solar heat. The composite sheds an oxygen molecule when heated and gets one back as it cools, and therein lies the eureka.

The cylindrical metal CR5 is divided into hot and cold chambers. Solar energy heats the hot chamber to a scorching 2,700 degrees, hot enough to force the iron oxide composite to lose oxygen atoms. The composite is then thrust into the cool chamber, which is filled with carbon dioxide. As it cools, the iron oxide snatches back its lost oxygen atoms, leaving behind carbon monoxide.

The same process can also produce raw hydrogen by pumping water rather than CO2 into the cool chamber. Hydrogen and carbon monoxide can then be blended into syngas, a replacement for current hydrocarbon-based combustibles like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. While it's not a total solution for carbon emissions -- syngas, after all, burns right back into CO2 -- it is an alternative to sequestering carbon underground, where it benefits no one.

CO2 recycling could be used to trap waste carbon from factories and power plants and return that energy to productive use, rather than releasing it into the air, where it can cause problems science doesn't even yet fully understand. The next step for the team is to increase the process's efficiency to twice that of natural photosynthesis. A market-ready CR5 device is still more than a decade away, but the idea of taking our waste carbon and turning it directly back into fuel using nothing but abundant solar rays is tantalizing, to say the least.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-11/co2-recycler-uses-sunlight-turn-waste-carbon-back-fuelTalk about a Eureka moment. Scientists at Sandia National Labs, seeking a means to create cheap and abundant hydrogen to power a... more

pjacobs51
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26 comments

20 hours ago

^#10

Mom: Marijuana Helps My Son's Autism

California Woman Says Medical Marijuana Brownies Helped Emaciated Boy's Appetite, and He Began Making Noise for First Time... more

JackHerer
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4 comments

12 hours ago

^#11

Shelter the Homeless go to jail

A San Luis Obispo rancher who for years has illegally housed homeless people was ordered today to serve 90 days in jail. A... more

d4rk0ne88
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7 comments

13 hours ago

^#12

U.S. to Propose Emissions Cuts Before Copenhagen

WASHINGTON — The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, a senior administration official said Monday. President Obama, the official said, will announce the specific target “in coming days.”

The announcement of a target will take the current legislative stalemate over a climate bill into account, the senior official said, and thus might present a range of possible reductions rather than a single figure.

The lack of consensus in Congress puts Mr. Obama in a tricky domestic and diplomatic bind. He cannot promise more than Congress may eventually deliver when it takes up climate change legislation next year. But if he does not offer some concrete pledge, the United States will bear the brunt of the blame for the lack of an international agreement.

The official also said the president would decide shortly whether and for how long he might attend the December climate meeting, which runs from Dec. 7 to Dec. 18. He repeated the president’s assertion that he would consider attending if his presence could be a useful impetus to a deal.

Paul Bledsoe of the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy said the president’s hands were tied by Congressional inaction. “The U.S. cannot negotiate at Copenhagen above the targets in domestic legislation without risking support for that legislation in the Senate,” Mr. Bledsoe said. “If European demands continue above the U.S. domestic targets, they set up an impossible dynamic for the administration.”

Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said Mr. Obama could credibly tell delegates to the climate conference that the United States intended to reduce its emissions by 17 percent to 20 percent, based on the legislation that has been approved by the House and the Senate environment committee.

“It’s important for the president to exert that leadership with consultation with Congress,” Mr. Kerry said in an interview late last week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/science/earth/24climate.html?hpWASHINGTON — The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before the United... more

current89
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4 comments

18 hours ago

^#13

A Brief History of Socialist Plots to End the American Way of Life.

Just a brief history for the na sayers.

kennymotown
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18 comments

17 hours ago

^#14

FBI spied on Studs Terkel for 45 years

Studs Terkel, as everybody know, was a man of the people, a champion of the working class, whose every great book, such as his... more

SleepDirt
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5 comments

10 hours ago

^#15

Radiation leak investigated at Three Mile Island

LINK: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5AM05B20091123 Federal officials are investigating a radiation leak at... more

HowdyDo
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9 comments

22 hours ago

^#16

US ARMY/BLACKWATER GONE ROGUE !

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan Revealed By Jeremy Scahill, The Nation. Posted November 24, 2009.... more

WhiteNoise
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6 comments

1 hour ago

^#17

G.O.P. Considers ‘Purity’ Pact for Candidates

The battle among Republicans over what the party should stand for — and how much it should accommodate dissenting views on important issues — is probably going to move from the states to the Republican National Committee when it holds its winter meeting this January in Honolulu.

Republican leaders are circulating a resolution listing 10 positions Republican candidates should support to demonstrate that they “espouse conservative principles and public policies” that are in opposition to “Obama’s socialist agenda.” According to the resolution, any Republican candidate who broke with the party on three or more of these issues– in votes cast, public statements made or answering a questionnaire – would be penalized by being denied party funds or the party endorsement.

The proposed resolution was signed by 10 Republican national committee members and was distributed on Monday morning. They are asking for the resolution to be debated when Republicans gather for their winter meeting.

The resolution invokes Ronald Reagan, and noted that Mr. Reagan had said the Republican Party should be devoted to conservative principles but also be open to diverse views. President Reagan believed, the resolution notes, “that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent.”

Hence the provision calling for cutting off Republicans who agree with the party on seven of 10 items. The resolution demands that Republicans support “smaller government, smaller national deficits and lower taxes,” denial of government funding for abortion, and “victory in Iraq and Afghanistan.” It calls on candidates to oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants and repealing of the Defense of Marriage Act.

The development is going to put pressure on Michael Steele, the party chairman, as he tries to maintain a balance between those in his party who have been saying the road to victory is to include divergent views, and those who say the party needs to embrace conservative principles that have been at its core.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/gop-considers-purity-resolution-for-candidates/?hpThe battle among Republicans over what the party should stand for — and how much it should accommodate dissenting views on... more