1. SEPTA’s upgrade
There is really no news bigger in this city than the fact that we will soon be saying goodbye to our beloved tokens. In lieu of upgrading to current standard technology, SEPTA is taking a big leap forward, adopting debit cards and pay-by-cellphone technology. In short, we’ll be going from worst to first when it comes to public transit tech.
2. Waterfront programming continues to grow
This year, installations and events along the Delaware River were a smash — from Spruce Street Harbor Park to the unveiling of Washington Avenue Green to an expanded Winterfest at Penn’s Landing. That trend should continue in the coming year, drawing more and more Philadelphians to our historically underutilized waterfront. All that energy is in the service of a grand plan for the area, a wholesale rethinking that would better connect Center City with the banks of the river.
3. The Philadelphia Land Bank takes effect
Thanks to exciting legislation passed this year, by the beginning of 2015, the Philadelphia Land Bank should be up and running. The goal is to make is easier to develop and beautify the city’s 40,000 vacant properties, and the results could be transformative.
4. Re-striping of Washington Avenue
Washington Avenue, that bustling commercial thoroughfare cutting through South Philadelphia, is getting a major makeover next year. According toPlanPhilly, Washington Avenue will soon have three lanes — one auto lane in each direction and a center turning lane — except for in a few places. The street’s underused bike lanes will be unified into a continuous route. There will also be improved visibility and longer crossing signals for pedestrians; angled parking will replace parallel parking. All these changes should help calm and improve the corridor, improving life for residents and businesses alike.
5. Food co-ops land in up-and-coming neighborhoods
Both South Philly and East Kensington have plans in the works for community-owned grocery stores. While the Kensington Community Food Co-op already has a location and renderings, the South Philly Food Co-op is still keeping mum. Both neighborhood hubs should move closer to reality in 2015, bringing with them increased access to fresh, local food.
6. PHS’s pop-up dominance continues
I am already waiting with bated breath for the announcement of next year’s PHS Pop-up Garden. No placemaking project better exhibits the power of cold drinks and creative design to enliven vacant land and bring citizens together. 2014’s incarnation on South Street was a huge hit — next year should be even better.
7. The zoning remapping continues.
Quietly, all across the city, our zoning maps are being rewritten. This might sound like boring bureaucracy, but it has a huge impact on the look, feel and functionality of our neighborhoods. The process always involves public meetings, so head out to the one in your area and root for your favorite CMX-2 or RMX-1.
8. The end of construction at 8th and Carpenter
On a personal note, I can’t wait for 2015 to bring the end of a huge construction project in my neighborhood. It’s loud. Trucks do a lot of backing up early in the morning. Next year, when it’s finally done, this whole corner of Bella Vista will once again sleep soundly — and gain back a couple street parking spaces.
“Whether someone comes from India or Indianapolis, we want to keep them here,” he says, “but we treat I-75 like the Berlin Wall, and the Ohio River is the Ohio Ocean,” Cornejo says. “If we are not opening our arms to the east side or the west side or northern Kentucky, how are we going to open our hearts to someone from Kuala Lumpur or Thailand?”
Although various groups have worked for years to pave the way for immigrants, most recently, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley has taken up the charge, inviting 92 community leaders to join his Taskforce on Immigration. The Taskforce will focus on five areas: economic development, community resources & welcoming, education & talent retention, rights & safety, and international attractiveness.
In January 2015, members of the Taskforce, including University of CincinnatiPresident Santa Ono and Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO Brian Carley, will present the mayor with a full list of recommendations for attracting more foreign-born residents.
Why should Cincinnati attract more immigrants?
Mayor Cranley says that welcoming more immigrants to Cincinnati makes the region more competitive. It draws new sources of capital, innovation and cultural richness to the city, which in turn attracts more residents and businesses. For example, nearby Dayton’s immigrant population is now on the upswing thanks to immigration reform efforts led by of Dayton City Manager Tim Riordan. Welcome Dayton, an initiative passed in 2011, called for policy changes and better communication to attract and retain foreign-born residents.
State Representative Wes Retherford (R-Hamilton) agrees, but with a caveat. “If we are bringing well-educated, hardworking, legal immigrants, that is always going to benefit any community,” Retherford says. However, he worries that the mayor’s plan includes attracting illegal immigrants, which he says creates a burden on law enforcement and drains resources from tax-payers.
“We are promoting legal immigration,” Cranley says. “I want Cincinnati to succeed. Cities that have seen the most economic growth over the last 30 years are cities with immigrant communities that have thrived. Growing our economy is good for people who are seeking the American dream as well as for people who are already here.”
Creating more opportunity for international residents is an issue that hits close to home for Cranley, whose wife’s family emigrated from Jordon before starting Gold Star Chili—a company that now employs hundreds of Cincinnatians. Along with Gold Star, several other local corporations were started by immigrants or first-generation Americans, including Procter & Gamble, Kroger and Graeter’s.
University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono wants local residents to know that a larger immigrant population will have a positive impact on their quality of life. “A bustling, diverse community is typically more affluent and has more cultural offerings available that make it a fun place to live,” he says.
Currently, immigrants make up only 4.6 percent of the city’s population—less than all other major cities in our region, according to the 2013 U.S. Census. This is a troubling statistic, considering that immigrants are responsible for 25 percent of the total new business creation and related job growth.
Additionally, according to Mary Stagamen, executive director of Agenda 360, becoming more immigrant friendly could help Cincinnati retain and attract more Fortune 500 companies like GE and Procter & Gamble that seek international candidates to fill positions in science and technology—areas where the U.S. lags behind, ranking 52nd globally. “I would love to see us produce more engineers and physicians and the like,” says Stagaman, “but in the meantime there’s a pool of ready (international) labor available to us. … We’re turning them out every year at the University of Cincinnati, but we’re not keeping them here.”
How can Cincinnati meet the challenge?
“I’d like to see UC take a lead role in making the mayor’s vision a reality, creating a real magnet for talent acquisition,” UC’s Ono says. “Talent is a global commodity.”
He suggests that one key to making the city more immigrant friendly is helping people navigate the system. “It is not a straightforward process to become a landed immigrant/resident. I can say that first-hand,” says Ono, who was born and raised in Canada.
The Chamber’s Brian Carley suggests that another way Cincinnati can attract more immigrants is by promoting itself more effectively—especially emphasizing its nine Fortune 500 companies and thriving arts and education sectors. “There are things that people don’t think we are doing well that we actually are doing well,” Carley says. “Things that Agenda 360 is doing, the progress the airport is making in getting additional international flights, things that REDI and our economic development initiatives are doing. Now there’s still progress to be made, and that’s why we have the Taskforce.”
“Once people get here and see the opportunities that exist, they fall in love with us,” Stagaman adds. “Because we’re lovable!”
What does it mean to be immigrant friendly?
Cornejo suggests that every person in the region can play a role in attracting more immigrants, and thus boosting Cincinnati’s growth. “If you hear a foreign accent, ask them where they are from and offer to connect them to resources they may need. That will make our community stand out,” he says, speaking from first-hand experience. “Additionally, we need to celebrate our differences. Not just respect them—celebrate them.”
Mayor Cranley agrees: “If people see someone they haven’t met before and go out of their way to be welcoming, it could make a huge impact.”
You can find more information on how to get involved or voice your opinion on theMayor’s Taskforce on Immigration website. Also The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Agenda 360, Vision 2015 and Fifth Third Bank will host the annualDiverse by Design Leadership Symposium this Friday, Nov. 7, from 7:30-11:30 a.m. The event is open to the public and highlights the ongoing work of diversity and inclusion in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. To register, click here.
Somos Posible is a Venezuelan NGO born in 2005 with the idea of promoting a peace culture and sustainable human development among the city of Caracas. This organisation is mostly known for its project called “Échale Color”, inspired by the international initiative Let’s Colour Projectwhich seeks transforming public spaces through paint.
At the moment, Somos Posible runs 3 main programs: VAMOS, Paz con Todo and Échale Color, all of them involving vulnerable communities in the process.
VAMOS is an educational program which helps high school and university students to achieve their goals through conversations with different ambassadors such as Maickel Melamed (a long distance runner), Norelys Rodriguez (a Venezuelan model), Antonio Diaz (a Venezuelan karate practitioner), amongst others.
Paz con Todo is inspired by the global initiative called Peace One Day, promoting every September 21st the day of Peace as it was declared bythe United Nations. Members of this program are convinced that peace is the minimum condition to reach human development and it can be achievable if each and every citizen is willing to make peaceful actions starting from one’s self. This program consists of creating awareness among Venezuelan citizens, forming values that empower cohesion and coexistence. As the organization assures on its website, it doesn’t belong to any government institution, and is not linked to any political ideology or religion.
Échale Color is a community engagement program dedicated to promote integration and local development among different communities through design. Paint is used to modify the physical look of neighbourhoods empowering people to care more about their surroundings. Each intervention takes place in the barrios of the city thanks to the active participation of families, volunteers and neighbours.
The first stage of the program is meeting the community; together with the community leaders, organisers set up some days where everyone gets the chance to know each other and start deciding where, when and which would be the design and colours for the intervention.
A series of workshops are conducted among the neighbourhood, all based in conflict resolution, emotion management, effective communication skills and cohabitation. It is important to understand why artistic interventions are the key to reducing social problems so this helps participants to have a clearer idea.
During a whole weekend, local residents and hundreds of volunteers go up the hills and cover all façades with the colourful and artistic proposals chosen by the local community. Geometric shapes, intense colours and playful activities help all residents gather together for a good cause.
After two months, volunteers visit the neighbourhood again to evaluate the status of the intervention and the impact of the program.
So far, they have done 5 interventions in Caracas. The first Échale Color took place in 2011, in the area called 24 de Marzo in Petare and the second intervention was in Zona 7 of José Félix Ribas, also in Petare. By 2013, the team expanded and two more Échale Color interventions were developed: the first in the Carabobo estate in Colegio Madre Misionera and the second in the area of San Miguel I, in la Cota 905 within the Libertador municipality.
Thanks to all the volunteers, the involvement of local residents, the voluntary support of VODO Arquitectos and the contribution of sponsors like Edicom and Pinturas Montana, who provide paint, brushes, rollers and other materials, these interventions were a success.
Earlier this October, a new intervention took place in Las Minas de Baruta in Caracas. With this latest Échale Color, Somos Posible undertook five interventions in three municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas and a municipality of Carabobo estate.
As well as Venezuela, Jamaica has also joined the paint movement. Paint Jamaica is an initiative which has has an extremely positive impact on the local community of Parade Gardens. This program started in July 2014 when Jamaican artists together with a French traveller decided to bring some art into the streets of Kingston with the idea of revolutionising the streets through art and local talent.
Paint Jamaica is also a social cause willing to promote peace round Kingston’s inner cities. Thanks to social media and other crowdfunding campaigns, they have received support from hundreds of volunteers, the music label Tuff Gong Worlwide and Ziggy Marley.
Interventions like the ones described above help by transferring new skills and inspiring individuals to express themselves. Furthermore, the mere act of changing the visual landscape helps in reducing crime and littering.
As one member of Paint Jamaica states, “people have told us that when you beautify a street, locals are more likely to want to protect and preserve it… hence keeping unlawful possibilities”.
In places like Venezuela or Jamaica, where society is so polarized, creativity works as a positive magnet that brings in influx of people (including newcomers) who have never walked on their impoverished neighbourhoods.
Artistic interventions also boost a sense of pride among residents, the sense of community is strengthened, new opportunities arise for local residents, and public spaces become hubs for local artists to display their work.
The street becomes the future of art. It is the ideal spot where everyone, with no distinction, can contemplate and be directly linked with the message behind the piece.
Tawnee McCluskey was arrested for distributing meth in Michigan City, Indiana when she was 22 years old. A struggling addict with a five-month-old son, she’d become caught up in a 40-person drug ring to feed her habit. She was charged with a felony and spent three years in prison.
When she got out of prison, she struggled to find a job and pay the bills. “It was overwhelming, and I had a lot of anxiety [when I was first applying for jobs],” says McCluskey. “The first time you’re walking out, it’s like you’re saying [to employers], ‘Hi, I’m a felon.’”
Things began to turn around, however, when she found out about Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC), a nonprofit that offers job training and workforce development programs.
McCluskey enrolled in classes at JARC, honing her welding skills, working on job readiness and developing her resume. JARC provided income support so she could afford to buy bus passes and move into an apartment. Financial coaches cleaned up her tainted credit score.
Today, the 27-year-old is a welding supervisor at Dudek and Bock, a Chicago spring manufacturer. “My success shows that there are people out there who make mistakes, but they can come back from them and do well in the community,” says McCluskey.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljXthH5c24E[/youtube]
Of course, McCluskey is far from alone. There are 20 million Americans out of work or underemployed, and many lack the basic skills needed for a career. Although economists debate how much the skills gap contributes to unemployment, there’s little doubt that it’s a factor. A recent Congressional Budget Office report says skill mismatches and erosion of skills among the long-term unemployed contribute a percentage point to unemployment.
President Obama recently signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, an amendment and reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act of 1988. The goal is to streamline the $18 billion spent each year on workforce development; right now, only a small percentage of people who graduate from these programs end up with the skills they need to get jobs. When it comes to closing the skills gap, however, there are successful models.
JARC is effective because it helps people develop basic skill sets, graduate from training programs and find good jobs. About 97 percent of its graduates find full-time jobs with employee benefits, a starting wage of $13 per hour and opportunities for advancement.
“For low-income workers, a job alone tends not to be enough,” says Seung Kim, Program Officer for Family Income and Wealth Building with Local Initiatives and Support Corporation (LISC), a national group that funds bridge programs at financial opportunity centers. LISC’s mission is to help community residents transform distressed neighborhoods. “Even if they’re getting full-time employment, it’s often not enough to sustain their household. By integrating financial coaching with work support, we’re building an integrated services platform.”
Creating a career ladder
To be successful, low-income workers need a career pathway: skill building, training programs and a good job with opportunities for advancement. Those jobs are out there – right now, there are about four million unfilled jobs across the U.S. Employers often express frustration about how hard it is to find qualified workers.
LISC’s bridge programs are operated by Financial Opportunity Centers (FOCs) across the country. Center staff are closely connected with local employers and understand which jobs are in demand and the skills that are required. They work with skills training course providers to learn what trainees need to do to prepare for these programs.
It’s neither simple nor easy. “The reality is that many of our clients don’t actually qualify for these programs,” explains Kim. “We have clients testing at 4th-6th grade reading and math levels despite having a high school diploma or GED. Beyond academic readiness, there are financial instabilities, family and social issues, and stresses related to poverty.”
Bridge programs are very intensive, but they tend to get results. Classes run for 3-4 months, and many are held in the evenings so that participants can work during the day. Students may be required to attend class for four hours a night, five days a week, learning basic Math and English and, for immigrant groups, English as a Second Language (ESL).
Yet success rates are northward of 85 percent, says Kim. The cohorts are relatively small – an FOC bridge program may only serve 50 people a year. That’s because the programs require a lot of staffing, with one student being aided by up to 15 services. Coaches help with everything from financial planning to interview prep to resume writing.
Although there are no official numbers, evidence from JARC and other centers suggests that the prevalence of bridge programs may be growing, in part due to the success of these existing models in helping low-income workers find family-supporting jobs.
Building basic skills first
Bridge programs tend to focus on the things that many employees take for granted: What should I do if my child care falls through? What if I need to take a day off? What if my car breaks down? If I have a problem at work, who should I ask for help?
Beyond work readiness, these programs also advance basic math and reading skills. This is essential, because even though there are openings in advanced manufacturing, many low-skill workers don’t qualify because they don’t know how to read blueprints and use basic measuring tools. Bridge programs train people in these areas so they can apply.
According to Regan Brewer, Associate Director of Programs for JARC, one reason that bridge programs are so successful is because the learning is contextualized. “You’re actually teaching some of the basic manufacturing skills alongside math and reading,” she says. “When it comes to measuring, you’re sitting down and using micrometer gauges, instead of having them do problems adding and subtracting decimals.”
“You know all this math you thought you were never going to use? Actually, in manufacturing, there is a use for trigonometry, fractions and decimals,” she adds.
The long-term goal of bridge programs is to help workers find family-supporting jobs. Ricardo Estrada, Vice President for Education and Programs with Instituto Del Progreso Latino in Chicago, says his organization does not stop with basic skill building. Instead, it strives to help workers finish college and even graduate school and land a good job. For instance, workers who become registered nurses can earn from $33-36 per hour.
Such programs are really only successful if they hold trainees accountable. If workers come into a JARC program late, they receive a verbal warning. If it happens again, they get a written warning, and consequences escalate from there. “It’s like showing up to a job,” says Brewer, noting that there’s a “whole village” making sure participants stay on track.
Can success be replicated?
Although intensive bridge programs only enroll a small number of people each year, they’re an important component of our country’s workforce development strategy, says Fred Dedrick, President of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, a nonprofit organization.
“We find that a lot of folks we work with don’t have preparation to succeed at advanced training,” he says. “Bridge programs like these help to make sure that people who get into training programs are more likely to be successful.”
Unfortunately, with limited training dollars available, bridge programs are hard to develop and sustain. “It’s very hard to get funding for a program that puts people on a longer journey,” Dedrick explains. “There’s almost no funding for these programs in the Workforce Investment Act. There’s only training for putting people into jobs.”
In fact, most bridge programs are funded by foundations or other philanthropic efforts, not government funding. For example, LISC’s work in this area has been funded by the Kellogg Foundation, the Eleanor Network at the Chicago Foundation for Women, Accenture and Walmart. There are still relatively few bridge programs around the country – in Chicago, for example, there are only a handful of programs like JARC.
Bridge programs are expensive, Dedrick says. However impressive the success stories, politicians would prefer to spend tax dollars getting faster results by training skilled workers. “There’s not enough money for these programs, and money for workforce development has continued to decline,” he says, citing the lack of champions in Congress as one reason.
Kevin Jordan, Senior Vice President for Programs at LISC, says that bridge programs do offer a replicable model, however. They offer hope that forgotten workers who are being left behind can climb out of poverty, no matter how low their skill levels or how dire their circumstances.
“What we realized is that we needed to help people get into better jobs by getting better skills, that you can become a good money manager, but $9 an hour only goes so far,” says Jordan. “Programs like this are hard to implement in terms of cost, but they definitely have the biggest impact on wages. That’s a gap that has been missing for a long time.”
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The survey also identified several individual factors strongly linked to transit use. Residents of dense, transit-friendly environment, people with jobs or enrolled in school, people of color, low-income Americans, and people with access to high-quality transit are all more likely to ride transit, echoing previous survey findings.
The TransitCenter survey goes beyond prior research by trying to understand personal characteristics that might motivate transit use. Transit users are likely to have grown up in neighborhoods with convenient transit, to be open to new things and experiences, and to want to remain productive while traveling. These motivations are almost as strong as more basic motivations, like relying on transit because no other options are available.
The survey also reinforces prior research into the kinds of neighborhoods Americans want, finding that Americans generally want a blend of space and walkability, and that there are significant mismatches between the types of places people would like to live, and the places they actually call home. Only 37 percent of respondents who live in suburban residential areas preferred that type of neighborhood, for instance, and only 28 percent of them wanted to live in such a neighborhood as children. Almost half of all respondents (48 percent) wanted to live in mixed-use suburban or small town areas, and more than half of people who live in those areas are satisfied with their locations.
Generations differed sharply in their responses, with 62 percent of people under 30 preferring urban or walkable suburban environments compared to 44 percent of people over 30 who said the same. Interestingly, this is even though millennials were raised in comparatively un-walkable settings: Just 52 percent of respondents under 30 said they could walk or bike to retail shops as children, compared to 69 percent of respondents over 60.
A cluster analysis found that while some metropolitan residents are “Devoted Drivers,” the “Bohemian Boomers,” “Willing and Waiting,” and “Metro Moms and Dads” exhibit attitudes towards the environment and sociability that indicate they might be amenable to riding transit more frequently.
The survey digs deeper than previous research to unearth the attitudes that underlie differences in travel behavior. While some “clusters” of suburban residents show little interest in using transit, the survey also identified segments of urban and suburban residents, comprising 43 percent of all respondents, whose attitudes indicate that they might try transit more frequently. The demographic clusters TransitCenter identifies as ”Bohemian Boomers,” “Willing and Waiting,” and “Metro Moms and Dads” display attitudes consistent with a greater propensity to ride transit.
Groups of factors explain much of why some people ride transit more often.
Notably, the survey found that where people live and why they chose to live there have a greater impact on transit ridership than people’s attitudes toward transit or driving. In other words, it’s how people view the urban environment, more than the transportation mode itself, that leads them to ride transit or drive cars.
Understanding these sorts of variables isn’t just important for understanding the people with you on the train. They’re also important for targeting voters for transit ballot measures, understanding the types of neighborhoods that will embrace transit, and helping transit systems better market their services.
The survey aimed to include statistically valid sample sizes for different regions of the country, three age groups (under 30, 30 to 60, and over 60), and across 46 metropolitan areas which have transit systems that are either extensive (e.g., Charlotte, Madison, Portland, Salt Lake City) or limited (e.g., Albuquerque, Fresno, Indianapolis, Richmond). All told, it included 11,846 responses.
]]>The global news media loved it, of course. The Guardian cleverly headlined the transcript with click-worthy hyperbole: “My country is a horror show.” It went viral. You could almost hear the collective glee around the world at such a wounding stab to American hubris from a decorated son. (Watch Simon’s talk at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas here.)
Simon isn’t a MacArthur “genius” grant recipient for no reason. Six years later, The Wire remains the undisputed best dramatic series of all time. His storytelling about life in West Baltimore and New Orleans captured the imagination of the urban-curious everywhere, revealing stark truths about what happens to people and places left behind.
Like many Detroiters (and surely many Model D readers), I am an avid fan of Simon. I revisit his words often — especially now, as I sit in Tremé, the oldest black neighborhood in America, thinking about Detroit.
Recently, I went back to re-watch this controversial talk and discovered something I missed before: a blunt but beautiful passage about the “glorious potential” of cities, embedded in his post-talk Q&A.
It blew me away.
In one unscripted monologue, he captures so much of how I feel about Detroit these days — and what I wish more Americans understood about the power of cities and the great opportunity and responsibility of our interconnectivity.
In his own words:
David Simon
“I was astonished when people started writing about The Wire and said, ‘Man, Baltimore is messed up. Why don’t they move? Why don’t they leave?’
First of all, we thought we were being allegorical for America, as an urban people, and where we were headed. We thought what we were writing had relevance to other cities.
But more than that: We need to figure out the city. Or we die.
I enjoy nothing more than listening to the speeches at a Republican political convention, as you might guess. I find them enormously entertaining. And a couple cycles ago we were treated to a lot of talk about the ‘real Americans’ and representing the ‘real Americans’ and small town values.
If you think about that for a moment, and you move past the code — the racial code — that is offered there, it is an astonishingly absurd notion. Small town values are not going to get humanity out of the fix of the 21st century. They’re not.
Karachi had 400,000 people at the end of World War II; it’s got something like 25 million now. Mexico City….I can give you numbers. We’re becoming increasingly compacted, increasingly urban, in areas that are multi-cultural, that are multi-religious — where the smell coming down the hall from somebody else’s dinner is from something your family never cooked, and the music coming down the hall the other way is something you never heard.
And we’re either going to triumph in that context, or we’re going to fail in that context. And America is no exception.
So to me, the city is something that has to be embraced and accepted as a given. And I was astonished at the reaction to The Wire — there was almost this divorced-from-reality [response], like: “Wow, Baltimore’s finished. Glad I live on the outskirts of Cleveland.”
And so one of the things we wanted to say with Treme was not only is the city essential, but the American city — the potential, the human potential there — is glorious.
And nothing says that visually and aurally [better] than New Orleans. The party’s in the street. And it’s every day. And it’s at the drop of a hat. New Orleans is a factory of skilled labor that manufactures moments. It’s an astonishing place. It’s very different from the rest of America, but at the same time very American.
So we wanted to talk about that place after the storm, and it was a place where all the institutional problems were the same as we depicted in Baltimore. It’s one of the worst-run cities in America, one of the most corrupt cities, one of the most violent cities. But it has also given the world such gifts…African-American music…
If America disappears tomorrow, and people are arguing over its legacy, the thing that will win out, for sure, is African-American music. For sure. Something that couldn’t have happened anywhere else in the world. It had to happen, as an accident of history, in my country. It’s our greatest export, wherever you go in the world. It’s on the jukebox — from blues to jazz to hip-hop. It’s gone the whole world round and it keeps regenerating itself. It’s astonishing. And it happened in eight square blocks of New Orleans. It’s where it’s from.
So we wanted to deliver that [in Treme], and basically say: ‘What are you talking about they gotta go somewhere else?'”
Detroit isn’t mentioned by name, but you recognize her in this, yes?
As we all know (and the world is awakening to), Detroit, like New Orleans, is an astonishing place. It’s very different from the rest of America, but at the same time quintessentially — sometimes painfully, sometimes gloriously — American.
And as many Detroiters know well, there is no “somewhere else.” There is only here. We gotta figure it out. So that’s exactly what we’re doing — we’re figuring it out.
I can’t wait for the rest of America to figure this out, too.
The city is essential. The potential is glorious. And eight square blocks can change the world.
The honeybee is not something we commonly associate with our food, but rather a pesky insect often mistaken for a wasp, hornet, or yellow jacket. The honeybee is non-threatening, and although swatting them away may seem innocent, it puts their entire colony at risk. There are many other factors that can cause colony collapse, including the destruction of strong pollinators, and the production of chemical compounds. To help ensure the survival of the honeybees, planting trees and flowers can help the bees pollinate, thus allowing them to bring food back to their hives to initiate honey production. Depending on the trees and plants bees pollinate from, it affects the flavor of the honey. For instance, harvesting honey on the east side of town, may taste entirely different than the honey harvest on the west side of town, and it has nothing to do the bees themselves, but rather the greenery of the neighborhood.
Pro honeybee street art propaganda in the UK. Photo courtesy of stealmag.com
Farmers consider bees their flagship pollinators, in order to produce sustainable agriculture. Without their pollination, many fruits and vegetables would not survive. Pumpkins, oranges, cherries, among others are simply dependent on honeybee pollination. Pesticides are often used by non-organic farmers, which help keep insects away from crops. By purchasing and using these products, the bee community not only suffers but the health of our bodies becomes at risk as well. Pesticides are usually sprayed onto crops, which then become pollinated by the bees. As a result, the chemicals compromise the honey, often killing the hive entirely. By boycotting these pesticide companies, we disrupt the economy (if the boycott has any effect at all). Even the wind can blow these chemicals onto the crops. A simple solution would be finding less harmful ways of ridding insects without destroying our environment, and our food source. The honeybees supply our food source, and if there is colony collapse, what about human collapse without food? Surely we could continue to ingest chemical composed foods, but it’s not worth the risk of our health. Unfortunately, practical solutions are not always so simply.
Most honey in major grocery stores is non-local, and non-organic. Often times, honey that is mass-produced is heated to a high temperature, thus removing all of the nutritional ingredients that make honey beneficial to our bodies. It’s also been suggested that eating local honey can help reduce allergies. Consider that bees pollinate locally, and the plants that they frequent get molded into the fabric of the honey. In addition, studies show that honey isn’t just a sweetener, but it may also aid depression and it a great source for reducing soreness of your throat and vocal chords.
Wesley has created a local apiary in Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood, where many community members have become curious as to what’s behind the closed gates. Most residents are just excited to see a new development happening. Wesley has plans for future endeavors, including opening new bee yards, purchasing local real estate, and looking to create a partnership with a local restaurant, helping to sustain the Akron economy. Wesley has also considered creating honey by products such as soaps and lip balms, which he plans to sell at a community block party in front of the apiary. His mantra is not that different from that of the hive: “Weave yourself into the fabric of the community”. His plans for the apiary have included teaching locals about the nature and science of the honeybee. Wesley values education, and is in talks with Akron Public Schools to teach seminars on the honeybees and the nature of their obedience, and selflessness.
Urban Beekeeping. Photo by @marsdd on Flickr
The order of nature states that a queen bee rules the hive, while there are two classes of bees, drones (boys) and workers (girls). The bees know that they’re going to die, but work until they can no longer for the greater good of the hive. They often forgo their own life for their hive.
Raising honeybees serve their own purpose. They are able to sustain themselves in an environment, which they thrive. The fact that bees pollinate most fruits, vegetables, plants, and trees, help to sustain an agricultural economy and provide curb appeal for neighborhoods that have plenty of organics. Beyond aesthetics, honey provides attractiveness to certain people. By building a bee yard in a defunct neighborhood, Wesley has created a community, and inspired others to create further growth and potential. Akron Honey Company is looking to give Akronites something to be proud of, something to call their own, and a reason to brag. Wesley is hoping his hard work ethic will initiate others into pursing a sustainable local economy. Local merchants and mom and pop shops are vitally important into shaping a neighborhood for revitalization.
In the scope of America, the bee industry is not as prevalent as it is in urban areas. In Mentor Ohio, Urban Honeybee founder, Laura Urban, raises queen bees and sells bee-keeping equipment. Mueller Honeybee Removal safely removes swarms and hives. If ever removing a hive on your own accord, it could destroy the hive if not removed properly. Urban farmers and beekeepers alike work together as team and not in competition. For Akron Honey Company, it’s about the honeybees and the people in tandem, it’s about togetherness. Wesley says “a hive isn’t going to fail because of the bees” it’s a responsibility of the community to keep bee friendly plants, especially those considered weeds, like dandelions. Without having your yard look like Desperate Housewives, it’s important to not take away their food from lawns. Let the flowers grow, keep up with the Joneses and admire the esthetics.
So what does it take to raising bees on your own? Patience. One cannot be greedy when it comes to honey production. Bees create honey for themselves, not for others. Bees eat their honey in the winter. When pulling honey from the hives, we’re taking it away from them, which force them to work harder, but taking too much honey, can kill the hive. Akron Honey Company is considered commercial beekeeping, for their interests in profits, and efficiency. The company only pulls from the hives once a year (mid summer); this provides lots of honey and contains three different seasons.
Wesley remarks, “If the business fails, there’s honey for life”.
Dow said it laughingly — A gas car! At the dawn of the electric age! — and related a story about the engineer’s prototype “pop-pop-popping” along the street in front of the station. But after some discussion about the car’s technology and the engineer’s development of an improved sparked plug, Edison banged the table and said to the engineer: “Young man, that’s the thing. You have it. Keep at it.”
The chief engineer, of course, was Henry Ford, and this story is famous because it’s about following your dreams and pursuing your genius in the face of a doubting world. But hidden inside of this platitudinal story is another more surprising one, a story we take for granted: In pioneering a gas-powered automobile, Ford was out of step with the innovation of his time. We know the story of Ford. We don’t know the story of the step. And the step was epic. On a scale of one to “changed everything,” the world-transforming rise of electricity competes pretty capably with the Model T.
“We like to think that our generation has lived through the greatest technological transformational change,” says Jeff Horner, a lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Wayne State University. But in the late 1800s and early 1900s, “we figured out how to harness electricity as a serious source of power in a very short period of time — 10 or 15 years.”
“It was much bigger than the internet,” he says.
The rise of electricity fueled creativity, drove unprecedented business growth, and gave people a reason to walk around at night. And where and how we get our electricity in the next 10, 20, or 40 years could have an equally transformative impact on our lives, our cities, our economy, and how we live in our environment.
The lights come on
Detroit’s first experiment in lighting its streets was a failure. In 1834, before Michigan was even a state, the city installed twenty whale oil-fueled lamps on Jefferson Avenue between Cass and Randolph streets and hired a lamplighter, James Delaney, to light them. The lamps went out about three months later; so did the plan.
Over a decade later, Detroit’s first gas lighting companies were organized, and the streets at last began to glow. In 1851, the Detroit Free Press reported a happy consequence of the new lights: Shopkeepers began to deck out their storefronts with elaborate window displays, and to light them up magnificently in the evenings.
“One needs not now to visit Broadway … to see a magnificent array of shop windows,” the paper reported. Jefferson and Woodward avenues were bright with light and bustle. “A more brilliant promenade than is now offered on pleasant evenings…can hardly be found in any city in the Union.”
A photograph, possibly taken by the gas company, shows off the light fixtures in a Detroit millinery store.
“Cities without gas lamps weren’t considered civilized,” says Fred Shell, vice president of corporate and government affairs at DTE Energy. “If you wanted a city that would grow and prosper, you needed to have gas lamps.”
The gas lights burned in homes and in street lamps for 30 years, and they burn still in our imagination of old-world urban romance. (Gas-operated lamps were recently re-installed on Agnes St., in West Village.) But the gas light system created dim pools of light and deep shadows, required an army of city-employed lamplighters to operate, and — at least in this city — caused a heap of corporate contention (at one point, sparring gas companies simply split their service territories west-to-east along Woodward Avenue). The gas companies fought viciously, but without victory, to resist the creep of electricity into Detroit’s utility sector.
Electric arc lights, sizzling bright, came to Detroit in 1879 as part of a traveling circus that boasted as its main attraction 18 electrically-lit chandeliers; in 1880 one local entrepreneur, Wells W. Leggett, powered from the engine of the Free Press building a total of 17 electric lights to a handful of downtown Detroit businesses. In 1883, Detroit had its first glimpse of Edison’s incandescent light bulb. It was turned on in front of a crowd of spectators at Metcalf Bros. dry goods store.
But the landscape really changed in 1884 when the city contracted the Brush Electric Light Company to build 122 electric light towers to illuminate Detroit. These towers were 150 feet high with a ring of electric arc lights at the top. Their lights were bright as the moon; sometimes they are still called “moonlight towers.”
These lights were not perfect. Some people complained of the glare; it was speculated that the day’s fashion of large women’s hats may have been a practical fad thanks to the light-blocking properties of those wide brims. People had a hard time sleeping. The efficacy of the lights was questionable. In the densest parts of the city, the light struck tall buildings and cast long shadows. In Detroit’s heavily wooded residential areas, the lights were so tall that they mostly illuminated the treetops.
But Detroit’s system of tower lights was one of the nation’s most ambitious, and by the late 1880s, Detroit was widely considered one of the best-lighted cities in the world.
A light tower on Woodward Avenue in Campus Martius. Via Library of Congress.
Perhaps most significantly, the tower lights started a conversation about who really owned public lighting and electrical utilities. Almost as soon as he took office in 1890, progressive Mayor Hazen S. Pingree started to agitate the Common Council to build a municipally owned and operated power plant.
“Lighting the streets is as much a public matter as street paving and cleaning, sewer building, maintaining and improving the parks and boulevards, supplying water or providing protection against fire,” Pingree said in an address to the Common Council in 1890. By 1893, construction of Detroit’s city-owned power plant was underway. The resulting power station at Atwater and Randolph on the riverfront and its successor, the Mistersky Power Plant (opened in 1927), would bring light to the streets of Detroit until 2010 when Mistersky was decommissioned and the city decided to source all of its electricity from DTE.
Not-insignificant historical footnote: Detroit appointed as the first chief engineer of the city’s power plant a Scottish immigrant named Alex Dow.
The rise of Detroit Edison
“Detroit’s decision to build and maintain the Public Lighting Commission’s plant, as an alternative to contracting with an arc light company, was well nigh fatal to the two surviving arc light companies, for there was hardly enough private arc business for one,” wrote Raymond C. Miller in “The Force of Energy: A Business History of the Detroit Edison Company.”
In 1903, as the old arc light companies began to falter and competing electrical service companies began to consume one another, Detroit Edison was incorporated to help bring order to the mismatched power plants, voltages, and equipment that were the legacy of the failed or consolidated electric companies. (Edison Illuminating Company and its rival Peninsular Electric Light Company, purchased by Detroit Edison, were operated as independent subsidiaries for some time.)
That year the population of Detroit was about 300,000. Detroit Edison’s companies supplied less than 10 percent of the population with power. When the company made plans for its first power plant at Delray in 1903, it predicted that the plant, with its 6,000 kilowatt generating capacity, would supply all of the power Detroit would need for the next 20 years.
But the rise of electricity begat the rise of more electricity. In 1896, Detroit had begun to retire the horses that drew its streetcars and convert its mass transit system to electric power.
“To me, the biggest impact on harnessing electricity wasn’t street lights — that was the easy part,” says Jeff Horner. “Where it really transformed cities was in electric streetcars. You could live far away from your job and still get to work for a nickel.”
Henry Ford’s wacky idea, the gas-powered automobile, began to drive that change, too. As it became a more common sight on the streets of Detroit, Detroiters began to realize the need for better-lit intersections and traffic lights. What if you were to step off your pokey horse-drawn carriage and not see a horseless carriage barreling your way? (Ford Motor Company, by the way, was also incorporated in 1903.) Meanwhile, the growing city of Detroit, with a population that had ballooned to nearly half a million people by the year 1910, annexed farmlands and independent villages and townships, which — surprise! — needed electricity, too.
An era of innovation
Clever humans started to invent electrified versions of previously human-, steam-, or gas-powered technologies. An inventor in Flint, Lloyd Copeman, founded the Copeman Electric Stove company, manufacturer of “the fireless cooker,” in 1912. People who had been carriage makers (William Durant, founder of General Motors, and the Fisher brothers) and bicycle makers (John and Horace Dodge) and plumbers (David Dunbar Buick) turned their attention to the emerging automotive industry and the increased manufacturing capacity that electricity could provide. Clunky steam-powered elevators gave way to more reliable and efficient electric elevators, which spurred the construction of new and taller skyscrapers; in Detroit, the Wright-Kay Building, constructed in 1891, was one of the first Detroit buildings to include an electric elevator.
“Innovation in Detroit required innovation in the energy industry,” says Fred Shell. “Institutions like Detroit Edison had to be innovative and successful for the rest of the economy to be innovative and successful.”
The more electrical appliances we invented; the more electric street lights we switched on in our growing neighborhoods; the more factories we powered with electricity, the more demand for more electricity skyrocketed.
In 1906, when Detroit Edison built its second power plant in Delray, executives were concerned that the growing demand for electricity could be a passing phase. What if supply outpaced demand? The new plant had a generating capacity of 14,000 kilowatts, more than double Delray 1. To plan for the contingency, the company came up with a creative solution: If the market for electrical power bottomed out, they would sell exhaust steam, a byproduct of electricity generation, to the nearby salt mines.
By 1914, the population of the city was approaching 700,000 and had more than doubled in 10 years. In the same period of time, its use of electricity had increased twenty-fold. 64,000 residences and 24,000 stores and factories were powered by electricity and illuminated by electric light. Detroit printed its newspapers, brewed its beer, and manufactured its cigars, pharmaceuticals, shoes, and sheet music in electrically-powered factories. And nearly all of that electricity (save for the street lights) was provided by Detroit Edison or the subsidiaries it had purchased in 1903.
And electricity was cheap. In 1913, with a single cent’s worth of electricity, you could bring two quarts of water to a boil, operate a sewing machine motor for three hours, make a Welsh rabbit in an electric chafing dish, make four cups of coffee from Typtop in an electric percolator, or heat an electric curling iron once a day for two weeks, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. It was a far cry from the labor it took for people to make, say, tallow candles, as they had done less than a century earlier. (For more on the labor-to-energy equation and how drastically it has changed over time, check out this episode of NPR’s Planet Money on the history of light.)
Views of the future
We no longer shield our eyes from the glare of artificial light. We do not have reason to fear death by accidental electrocution — for the most part. When we notice our street lights, it is usually because they are out; on a daily basis, we are probably most interested in electricity when our cell phones are about to die. We’ve come a long way since the oil lamp, but we’ve got a lot further to go.
Politicians, pundits and even voters often tend to assume, consciously or unconsciously, that a pure policy path can be taken on a given issue and to interfere with that is “social engineering” which is deemed bad policy for running counter to what nature allegedly intends and attempting to institutionalize a specific worldview.
If you’ve ever heard someone criticize a policy for interfering with the “free market”, for example, you’ve heard this assumption in action. A policy attempts to address something through intervention, say a tax credit to promote home-buying. An opposing group takes issue with the policy, saying it distorts the free market by encouraging a behavior that would not have otherwise occurred. Both sides think they represent the right or “pure” policy and the issue devolves into a fight against undue influence on citizens’ lives. This thought stems from the belief, whether conscious or subconscious, held by each side that their preferred philosophy represents the “right” or “natural” thing to do. Our electorate and consequently our elected officials have become similarly polarized, and the my-way-or-the-highway attitude has created immense pressure to be “pure” in politics and policy. This has made compromise a dirty word, and giving ground against the “wrong” way could cost you support from colleagues, donors, or voters. The derogatory label “RINO” (Republican in Name Only) for GOP members who break rank from the party line to often is an example of the stigma such compromise can bring.
While social engineering is often cast as something to avoid, it has actually shaped the very state of our country. Indeed America today is the aggregated outcome of policy decisions which embraced specific worldviews and encouraged specific behaviors.
The most striking example is that of homeownership. The idyllic and ubiquitous lifestyle of a single-family house on a large plot of land is perhaps the most influential social engineering policy in American history. The Homestead Acts and the Planning and Zoning Enabling Acts began the institutionalization of homeownership as the American Dream, and through financial incentives and land use regulations, such as minimum lot sizes and separation of uses, single-family homeownership was prioritized. Fueled by investments such as the national interstate highway system, this led to the diffusion of job centers, neighborhoods and other nodes of American life into the configuration known today as urban sprawl.
Policies that encouraged homeownership demonstrate social engineering at work. Fueled by such policies and the investments they encouraged, the single-family suburban lifestyle and its characteristic auto-oriented, sprawling pattern has dramatically shaped the American landscape.
While many factors, such as the invention of the automobile and congestion problems created legitimate demand for this new way of living, policies that supported homeownership are all social engineering, having enshrined it into our social fabric. And this can be both good and bad; one look at Detroit can show you the negative consequences this can have over time, but New York or Washington DC can show you the bright side. The different fates of these cities reflect differing social engineering approaches; all three have a sprawling fringe, but New York and DC prioritized and incorporated public transportation into their regional planning, mitigating the tendency of urban sprawl to cause decay in the urban core as it did in Detroit. Detroiters took a less comprehensive approach, fully embracing the automobile-oriented lifestyle and are just now beginning to embrace true public transit, a social engineering decision meant to revive the urban core and restore balance between suburban and urban lifestyles.
Look at any major American policy agenda and you’ll see social engineering at work. The Federal Student Loan Program. The New Deal. The Contract with America. On and on the list could go, each created to advance an ideology, each with its own ideal for society as well as a policy blueprint for building it. When you look at how prevalent social engineering actually is, conflict over policy purity should seem irrelevant. Yet at the heart of most political controversies, this is exactly the conflict we find. To ignore the utility of social engineering is to enslave society to the status quo.
When we can stop fighting the notion of social engineering and start to accept it for what it is – action resulting from negotiating and testing human biases and beliefs – we can move to the real challenge of building the type of society we want. Given the tone of today’s politics that can seem impossible, but Americans in general have a large amount of common ground from which to start. Anecdotally the ideas of hard work, shared sacrifice, inclusiveness and accountability seem to be things that most, if not all Americans, value as desirable tenets of society, and hard polling evidence shows core areas where Americans agree. Based on such polling data and public support throughout history for social engineering policies, it’s pretty safe to assume that Americans are just fine with social engineering. But we all know the devil is still in the details and compromise isn’t automatic, especially when legitimate disagreement exists over those details and often the very role of government itself. So how can we battle gridlock with social engineering?
18th Century philosopher John Stuart Mill offers useful observations in his work On Liberty, a discussion on individual freedom and the role of government. He suggests that the natural tendency of society is to impose its ideas and practices on the rest of us, in effect that social engineering is human nature at work. In that environment, he offers an effective role for government as a repository and diffuser of knowledge. He advocates government facilitation of policy experimentation and the replication of success.
Not a bad idea, until you consider how gun-shy we are with experimentation at the national level. Immigration reform, gun laws and environmental policy – key areas that Americans are demanding progress on – are just a few examples of our inability to craft comprehensive federal policy solutions. In some respects, however, we already sidestep national gridlock by leveraging our 50 states as policy laboratories. On issues where national discourse has stalled, the states should be further empowered to implement solutions with federal support for projects that achieve results. The U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top Program is one example. One might say the cars-only experiment in Detroit performed less successfully than the more balanced cars-and-public-transit approaches in New York or DC. Detroit, learning from those examples, is making investments in public transit with federal support. Race to the Top and Detroit’s evolution are both social engineering at work.
Despite the success of similar experimentation and innovation in the private sector, we often stifle attempts to innovate through policy. Through fear of “social engineering”, we disincentivize public sector experimentation as abnormal or unwise. Mill called this fear, that of “being eccentric”, the chief danger of his time but it could easily be of ours. Mill asserts that the “real morality of public discussion” involves calmness and honesty about our beliefs and any that oppose them, evaluating each on their merits. Our own military employs rigorous simulation techniques to generate and evaluate new ideas, taking action based on results, and it is arguably the best in the world.
Only by abandoning the false notion of pure policies and the fear of social engineering can we elevate our political process and the policies it generates. The falsehood of policy purity is the great stumbling block that prevents the American public sector from innovating like its private sector. The founders understood that “perfect” is unattainable, charging us with the pursuit of a “more perfect Union”. Ultimately, social engineering is about taking action toward progress, whereas the pursuit of the “pure” policy is an excuse to do nothing. Which path do we want for America? Another question of social engineering that we will have to address if we are to tackle the great challenges of our time.
]]>The bus trip from Beirut to the city al-Raqqa is around 12 hours. Three years ago, it barely took half the time. Young Syrian workers are looking forward to seeing their families.
Mohammed Abdullah, who has a degree in economics, works as an accountant in one of Beirut’s suburbs. This is his first visit in two years. He knew about the situation in the area from communicating with family and friends, as well as from the social media.
Mohammed described his trip to his hometown to Al-Akhbar, after being absent for two years: “ISIS elements welcomed us at the first checkpoint. The Saudi dialect was strongly present. They made sure there were no soldiers among the travelers and that women wore the niqab.”
Only a short distance separates the Syrian army and National Defense Forces checkpoint, on one hand, and the former al-Nusra Front position, currently occupied by ISIS. However, all communication is cut off as soon as a person crosses into the governorate’s administrative borders.
“Inside the city, the signs of destruction are obvious on some government buildings and homes,” Mohammed added.
“Revolutionary streets”
Cars in the district run on manually refined crude oil derivatives. Nobody remembers the last time regular fuel arrived from the port at Tartous.
Mohammed said he was worried about telling the taxi driver his home address. “Shall I say, take me to Martyr Bassel al-Assad highway? And if I said take me to Colonel Hussein Harmoush Street, renamed by the Free Syrian Army, would he know it?
The taxi driver noticed the young man’s confusion and asked several questions about Mohammed’s route. “What’s wrong? You could have said you wanted to go to Bassel street. No worries. Get in. I will take you there,” the driver replied.
FSA brigades and civil society activists tried to change street names in Raqqa. Tal Abyad Street, the city’s most popular, was renamed after martyr Ali al-Babinsi. However, people keep using the old name. In any case, very few people know its official name in city records, which is al-Qunaytirah Road.
Martyr Basel al-Assad Street was turned into Colonel Hussein Harmoush Street and al-Jalaa or “Clock” Roundabout became Freedom Square. “Mr. President Square” is now Martyrs’ Square, but people on both sides call it after the nearby fire station.
Civil society activists had also painted some of the city’s statues with the colors of the “revolutionary flag.” However, ISIS removed the “flag of infidels” and raised its banners everywhere.
“Islamic services”
At night, Raqqa’s residents like to walk around the quiet streets or sit at cafes. There is no armed presence or news about thefts or violations. Cigarettes and alcohol are smuggled into the city and sold at double their price.
Alaa Jubran, a resident of Raqqa who was there on a recent visit, told Al-Akhbar, “Street vendors do not occupy the city’s sidewalks anymore. ISIS established a popular market in the city center. It was equipped to include the vendors and traveling salesmen, banning them from using the streets.”
ISIS transferred the busy Friday market next to Raqqa’s old wall, a historical site, and moved moved market day to Thursday so it would not distract people from attending Friday prayers in the mosque.
It also created a consumer protection office and imposed monthly payments on commercial establishments, in return for sanitation, electricity, water, and phone services. At a later stage, this will be extended to civilians to ensure the continuity of services.
Two signs in particular are hanging in shop windows. “Sisters, please do not remove the niqab inside the shop,” said one. The other announced that “work stops 10 minutes before prayers.” Prayer rooms were established in public venues and streets become almost empty before prayer times, save for ISIS’ patrols.
However, Mohammed could not hide his admiration of ISIS’ policies inside the province, although they have been keeping his brother in custody for months. He praised its gunmen, “who returned what they could of items stolen from public buildings by FSA fighters.”
The Islamist Traffic Police is on every street and market, wearing the same uniform, conducting traffic, and issuing tickets. Inside official buildings and facilities, the staff is committed to serving the citizens. Emergency vehicles of the water and electricity departments are rushing to fix problems all the time.
On the other hand, the recently created Islamic Services Authority supervises state institutions. The Accounts Bureau monitors the markets, sales operations, applying sharia, and holding violators accountable.
Civilian dreams
The official weekend is now on Thursday and Friday. Residents of Raqqa are trying to cope with the new realities. “They became weary of the state of instability they passed through in the preceding nine months. They were always afraid of sudden clashes between the brigades. But now there is only one ruler,” Mohammed explained.
“The situation in Raqqa is not perfect, but it is much better today,” Alaa added. “People lost hope in the FSA, whose fighters fled after stealing city property and seizing archaeological artifacts, bank holdings, and cotton and wheat crops.”
“Civilians only want to live in peace, regardless of the ruler, ISIS, the Syrian regime, or al-Nusra Front. People demand to be allowed to return to the quiet life they had in their city,” he concluded.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.