Mitten Envy
Goodspeed’s fellow student on the mayor’s Cool City Task Force, Eugene Chan, shares his ideas for what makes a city cool in a News story that frets about a possible “chilling effect” of the governor’s crusade. First of all, nicknames are key. “Just to say the city has a nickname makes it a somewhat cool city,” he says. A2, Tree Town, Ace Deuce…yep, we’ve got that covered. Also, people talking about their children and businesses in Starbucks, symbolizing a “blending of ages,” fits in somehow.
Is that some mitten envy-inspiring stuff or what?
Apparently approaching sidewalk diners at Gratzi for spare change is Not Cool.
posted by Anna on December 7th, 2003 at 5:44 pmthanks anna for a good link. I don’t particularly like being approached by a panhandler, but it’s not a big deal. Sometimes I’ll give him or her a bit of change but I’ve found that if I don’t have change or just don’t feel like it, a polite “No, I don’t–I’m sorry” is always successful in dissuading the person. In many years of living in Ann Arbor & Ypsi I’ve never experienced an “aggressive” panhandler. Is this really an issue to which police resources should be directed, I wonder? Seems more like a “live with it” situation, to me.
posted by Laura on December 7th, 2003 at 7:54 pmThere used to be plenty of aggressive panhandlers on South University all the way up to the arch. You don’t see them so much anymore. Maybe President Coleman didn’t want them so close to her stately manor house.
posted by Boris on December 7th, 2003 at 9:47 pm“Cool cities means hot jobs,” [Gov. Jennifer] Granholm said at a recent technology conference in Dearborn.
I love this quote. It sounds like the kind of press copy that desperate retailers use to drum up business in the dog days of August: “Hot temperatures mean cool, cool prices all this week at Crazy Louie’s!” What’s next? Is Granholm going to come out wearing sunglasses and chanting the mantra from a 1980s one-hit wonder pop group? Oh wait….
posted by Boris on December 7th, 2003 at 9:50 pmOn a serious note, Granholm really should read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Tipping Point, if she hasn’t already.
posted by Anonymous on December 7th, 2003 at 10:27 pmuh, that was me
posted by Anna on December 7th, 2003 at 10:28 pmI’m with Boris on the cool cities hype. Yeah, it’s a good idea to attract young professionals to cities–but I have yet to see any actual content or battle plan in Granholm’s message…it’s more like a vague abstraction.
posted by Laura on December 7th, 2003 at 10:57 pmI’m pretty sure just about every city has a nickname for itself.
posted by mythago on December 7th, 2003 at 11:35 pmYears ago, I remember the Detroit Free Press did a story titled “Anywhere, Mich.: The City With A Slogan”. They listed the official slogan for each of the many incorporated cities and villages in the tri-county area and beyond.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on December 8th, 2003 at 4:02 amThe agressive panhandlers tend to increase over the summer, when the weather is warmer, and wander away over the winter.
posted by js on December 8th, 2003 at 9:01 amIf Ann Arbor is all that you’ve had to experience, then the panhandlers here can seem aggressive, especially around the State and William corner. But if you spend time in, say, Detroit, where a one-armed man will follow you for six blocks shrieking that he “needs a goddamn dollar” after coming out of the RenCen, things here look pretty mild in comparison.
As far as the cool cities, the problem that I’ve seen so far is that the “adults” like Heitje and Granholm have no idea what is cool, and the “kids”, like Chan don’t have the type of expertise to suggest anything but superficial improvements. That and the fact that making a place cool will certainly involve spending money, something Granholm’s not all that copacetic with right now.
“I think the minute you try to mass market cool and put a label of cool on something, you demystify it and it becomes de-cool. And the people you are trying to attract don’t think it is cool anymore.”
That is one of the strangest quotes I have ever read. Modern media, or rather, modern pop culture is specifically and exactly the mass marketing of cool. That’s all it is.
Granholm has to have Seattle, or even Denver in her head when she put together this “plan”. She sees the huge, huge, population jump in those cities together with the increase in income across the board (taxes, taxes, taxes) for nearly all these cities citizens, and then she ties these increases to the media’s hyped-up sensiblities about Seattle, et. al. It sort of makes sense in a really, really simplistic way. It certainly explains why all States have a Dept. of Tourism.
Ann Arbor is perceived as hip by the vast majority of the country—we know that that is not always the case (or not ever, depending on who you ask), hence this hilarious website.
Of course, if you have seen the movie “Hype”, you know that all of these the-next-big-cities are the result of incredibly exaggerated media-driven stories about how great these places are. Kinda reminds me of how America was invaded and colonized by all of those immigrants who thought that America was the coolest thing going.
If cable tv existed back then, I think all of Europe would have emptied out in the 1900’s…and then promptly filled back up after all those half-assed expatriates who started writing about London, Paris, and Spain.
…now if she could find a way to connect all those London “rebirth of rock is found in Detroit” NME-reading nerds to downtown Detroit for shows using mass-transit, then I think she’d have a winner.
I will say (or is it write?) this though: people seem to equate coolness with a lack of money. While a knee-jerk reaction to rampart consumerism is certainly warranted, I can tell you that there is nothing cool at all about the budget crises in Flint, Detroit, Ypsi, or, speaking from experience, Denver in the 80’s.
While I cringe at the sight of chain after chain that has moved into the Columbine area, I remind myself that it’s a hell of a lot better than the oil-bust days and Reaganomics where people had a hard time scratching out a living out there. It all depends on your perspective, I suppose.
posted by todd on December 8th, 2003 at 12:15 pm…above should read rampant, not rampart….although the thought of a Wall Mart having to defend itself from the Holiday rush using battlements and ramparts is kinda funny.
posted by todd on December 8th, 2003 at 12:24 pmI think that’s exactly the point Jennifer was trying to make. If The Man says it’s cool, it’s over. The one thing people 25-34 have in common is the rejection of the media and big business. Michigan could have the best PR in the world, but young people know they’re a bunch of liars and stopped listening long ago.
Young people *are* like pilgrims in that both desire opportunity and tolerance. I think cool is associated with poor because young people are typically both. We’d like to have money, but we can’t swing A2 prices while we build our empires. Hence the surge in young people moving to Ypsi where breakfast at Abe’s is $4.25 and rent is $535 a month…
posted by Hillary on December 8th, 2003 at 1:09 pmYeah, Jennifer was worried she’d be taken out of context and / or misunderstood after that interview.
Having a Gov. (even a fairly OK one like ours ) call you cool can instantly make you uncool.
“Dude, Billy Joel loves my metal band, we must really really blow!”
posted by Leighton on December 8th, 2003 at 2:03 pmWell-put Todd — I’d also add that part of that demographic (ages 28-34; my demographic, uncool as I may be) is starting to think about money because they’ve started careers, are done with school, are thinking about maybe having kids someday, etc. And moving to poorish towns where they have fairly modest incomes but are the richest folks around is unattractive — it means really high property taxes (somebody has to pay for the roads and schools & etc.). So, if you want young cool people coupled with young professionals (28-34) who will contribute to the tax base, you do also need some of the OFW demographic around or the place could end up like (name your fave place to bash).
posted by Anna on December 8th, 2003 at 3:08 pmLarry, I’d like to get my hands on that story. I bet it’s funny stuff.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on December 8th, 2003 at 3:53 pmThe one thing to remember about “cool cities” is that they’re not easy to make. I worked briefly on Pittsburgh’s Urban Magnet Project (a grassroots thing of young professionals and local grad students trying to enhance the political and cultural climates so as to make Pittsburgh a more attractive place to live). As you can tell from all the great press flooding out about Pittsburgh, it isn’t easy work. But a big part of it involves having a fairly large group of progressively-minded people interested in sticking around for the long term, which AA really doesn’t have. I tend to think that you really can’t just plug an ersatz combination of chain stores and coffee-shops into empty space and expect “cool” to sprout up there. It’s more of an organic process (no marshmallow- or graham-cracker-related puns intended) in which creative people integrated into a community over the long term bring more and more interesting things to it. This is sort of what R. Florida has in mind. The problem AA has here (at least one on the long mental list I have) is that many “creative types” (i.e., artists and musicians) can’t afford to live here, and we have a total black hole as far as local culture is concerned. So, rather than becoming a genuinely cool town, I would expect AA to acquire a Jamba Juice and a Dave & Buster’s sometime soon.
posted by Nick on December 8th, 2003 at 8:52 pmWow, Nick, I did a year in Pittsburgh and found it to be a really pleasant place to live as a mid-20-something. You had a hand in that? Cool.
posted by Anna on December 8th, 2003 at 9:03 pmYeah, in spite of the steel-town image Pittsburgh’s actually a pretty interesting city. The low cost of living seems to have a way of retaining a lot of writers, philosophy students, and musicians (3 very entertaining demographics). I definitely miss its personality and having lots of friends in bands. Glad you liked the stuff the Urban Magnet folks did, though. Very interesting, very committed people.
posted by Nick on December 8th, 2003 at 9:16 pmI paid $100 less a month for an apartment in Pittsburgh (Shadyside) that was literally three times the size of my apt. in Ann Arbor.
www.pittsburghisunderrated.com
posted by Anna on December 8th, 2003 at 11:35 pmSounds familiar. I lived at 5th and Aiken in Shadyside, in a brand-new enormous 1BR (big enough for a married couple w/o kids) with a view of the Cathedral from the living room, free utilities and off-street parking. Cost: $550/mo.
posted by Nick on December 9th, 2003 at 4:18 pmAt the same time that the state is saying it wants to attract more young adults to the state, at least one legislator is moving to punish Universities who are doing their part.
Hoogendyk apparently added a little gem to his proposed legislation about approving university courses. He also wants to reduce funding to universities who enroll out-of-state students. I know as public-funded schools, our universities have an obligation to keep places open for state residents, but they are also an excellent means for recruiting young talent from across the country (and globe). Yes, some of them stay after graduation.
I don’t think his legislation will get serious consideration, but it troubles me to know that he’s also pushing the idea that we only want the sons and daughters of Michiganders in our public universities.
posted by Old and Cranky on December 12th, 2003 at 1:32 pmEvery decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
posted by Martin Nancy on January 21st, 2004 at 7:59 pm