Tuesday night I was all excited about the Camden Christmas Parade, and wanted to share with you a few of my thoughts with an emphasis on excitement and video. Today, I want to wonk out a bit about one of my favorite topics: the misleading language of being “stuck” in the city. 

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned over the past few years is the positive association many folks have of areas that are widely panned for being violent and negative neighborhoods. That was true in New Orleans, and I’m finding it true in Camden as well. The best example in Nola is public housing projects. While there have been plenty of problem with these projects (crime, drugs, etc) there is also a tremendous amount of good (mostly taking the form of community and culture, especially jazz in New Orleans).

You see the same thing in Camden, where the folks I’ve talked to without cars often praise the access to transit to get into Philadelphia or up the River Line, or the buses that checker the city. 

The point is simple. One of the reasons people get “stuck” in the city is because given limited resources, cities can be the best option. It’s like I said with the parade, for someone who can’t afford a concert at the Susquehanna Bank Center, the possibility of a parade (or a block party, or just a street performer) is an appealing way to have the dignity of a balanced life. 

This also helps explain some of the common complaints in cities, the most famous of which is the lack of grocery stores. If one of the reasons people live in cities is proximity (to transport, cheap entertainment, and community), and groceries are left out of that, it’s a big problem. 

Does that mean people don’t want to “get out?” Of course not. The American Dream of a white picket fence, a yard, and one and a half kids is still strong (although retirees are moving back into cities for many of the proximity reasons cited here). But the important part of that equation is that a situation has changed; moving to the suburbs without a car is an isolating experience that can rip a family away from community. For those with no car, little money for entertainment, and a reliance on public transport, cities are an important way to ensure a decent quality of life. 

This plays out in policy. It is a footnote in the famous “Moving to Opportunity” policy (and studies) that the initiative had a hard time getting people to move out of public housing. That baffles the policy-makers and the study authors. But it shouldn’t. City neighborhoods and public housing aren’t bad places. Folks who live there are making the best of their limited options.

This doesn’t downplay the crime or violence in these areas. That’s still real. But it helps make sense of local voice that asks for help in cleaning up their neighborhoods, not policies that move them away.

Urban neighborhoods aren’t “bad places.” They are often little capsules of dignity where people with limited options do their best to get by, and where folks aren’t asking to be moved away, but to help make their environment safe so they can enjoy their city neighborhood. Is it really being “stuck” there if your goal is to stay?