Read this post.

If a completely unjustified exhortation isn’t enough, here’s three choice quotes:

“I respect that it’s one of the few urban planning blogs to talk about black people and their roles in the community.”

“Race has arguably been the most powerful force shaping our cities… race is a subtext in almost any discussion of urban issues, from transportation, to crime, to education, to neighborhood redevelopment, to regional governance.”

“Why not look there to find not just a group that needs help, but rather a potential growth engine for the community?”

As they say, read the whole thing.

The only thing that I would add is that while that region is the Urbanophile’s beat, it’s odd to limit this to Midwestern cities. I’ve always found the richness of D.C.’s African-American history and present (there’s an interesting show at the Museum of American History on one facet of that right now) to be one of the city’s best features. This holds true up through Maryland to Baltimore as well.

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