@BarrettChase (cc:hbh1)

In some cities, artists willing to put up with "Quality of Life" problems can get the benefits of city life - cultural heterogeneity, avant-garde perspectives, etc. - they otherwise would not.  When those "Quality of Life" problems go away, the rents go up... and often low-income artists - who may have been recruited there in the first place to increase property values - cannot afford to live there anymore.  

So, "quality of life" improvements lead to those who have been able to make a positive life within a city of broken windows not able even to live there anymore.  In such cases, if the artists want to remain in the city, ***they do not want quality of life improvements.***  They also might want *quality of life* problems to endure because such those "problems" are interesting.  Or further, as an acquaintance once put it, someone might realize that they themselves are "quality of life violations" from the perspective of city planners and landowners, and frankly said people don't want to force themselves out of their community.  It's easy to see how racial, ethnic, and class heterogeneity can be framed as quality of life issues.

Use of the term "broken window" is on purpose; "Broken Window" theory refers to a policy endorsed by the "Manhattan Institute" (you can Wikipedia both of these), which guided Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg's urban policies in New York City -- reaction to which will likely culminate in Bill DeBlasio's pending election there.  Duluth officials have *specifically* cited "Broken Window" theory (http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/s2849304.shtml); the term "Quality of Life" also appears from time to time, but since that's a general term, it's a little more difficult to specifically associate such use with Manhattan Institute ideas.  But I would be surprised if Manhattan Institute publications aren't drawn from in city planner, landowner, and politician conversations.  

These policies have led to the ongoing decimation of a heterogeneous cultural life in, for example, New York City and Paris.  These policies have also led to much lower crime rates and higher property values.  If you're a landowner, your net worth suggests this is great news.  If you're interested in avant-garde theater, say, or cultural diversity -- you might feel differently.  You might be a little more accepting, and even fond, of broken windows.

It's easy to project such terms onto Duluth.  Clearly some city officials have done so.  And, from the other side, as a reaction against and to defend something - for example in HBH1's comments above - some civilians have done likewise.  Me too, generally as a civilian and non-participant in such debates -- I have thought in those terms, too.  

But, ultimately, the New York City civil arguments against Broken Windows theory to defend an interesting, affordable culture don't translate well to Duluth.  Why?  Property values.  Ownership of homes is possible to the middle- and lower-classes in Duluth in a way that does not exist in New York City, or Paris, or other places culturally decimated by Broken Window theory.  Additionally, the "gentrification" at hand has brought with it a commitment to the arts that is probably unprecedented in Duluth history.  Has that commitment been particularly to a sort of soft, civic, tourist-courting bourgeois art that uses artists as cheap labor and tourist courting?  Well... yeah.  But, you know, all those venues need to be filled with something regularly, and a lot of interesting things that don't fit the civic agenda but are a little more unorthodox and interesting can and do sneak in.  The overhead to get a venue like Sacred Heart in New York City would start in the thousands of dollars.  In Duluth? I think it's a few hundred bucks for an evening.   

However--- the racial, ethnic, class, and I dare say religious overtones in Duluth's "clean up" language, whether as discussed above on Facebook, or elsewhere in relation to Carlson's clientele, are horrifying.  I jotted down some comments from another Carlson-related Facebook post a few months ago, because of how horrifying and frankly reminiscent of lynchmobs and medieval witch-burnings they were:


"Away with him and all his poisons!"

"go old school burn the buissnes [sic] down"

"I am disgusted by this pox upon our city!"

"Prohibition doesn't work." . . . "Bullet might..."

"He is a waste that breathes oxygen that he does not deserve."

"We should be able to drive him out of our community! Got my pitchfork!"


That shit is scary.

And while Broken Window and Quality of Life theory don't really carry over very well into Duluth... whatever framework does successfully address the area must also take into consideration the passive acceptance - and sometimes active endorsement - of such a horrific, medieval, lynchmob mentality.

(Prices in the $100ks in other neighborhoods, that is.)