Gladys We sends along a link to an ambitious project in n+1: City by City

“Thank God,” we say, gazing upon the rural natives, “that we live in New York [Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Boston] and not in America.”

This needs to end. Today we inaugurate the City by City project, during which we hope to gather reports from as many American cities as possible, to see how things are going and what can be done.

Unique perspectives – like this one:

Milwaukee’s Gilded Age and Aftermath

With government ranged against labor, austerity budgeting chopping off huge public services, and official venality a basic assumption of political life, 1900 does not seem so far away anymore. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that it is one thing to turn back the clock and quite another to make it stop there.

The crowds that surged into the state capitol in what now looks to have been a futile gesture of protest are not just the soggy remnants of the Obama coalition. They are also the heirs of the Socialist bundle brigades that eventually drove Milwaukee’s bought-and-paid-for politicians out of office.