City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis

by Keith Gessen (Editor), Stephen Squibb (Editor)

Overview

From its first shock waves in 2008, the Great Recession has been reshaping American cities. Detroit collapsed, and the ongoing national rollback in industry has meant the death of factory towns like Greensboro, North Carolina and Reading, Pennsylvania. But the effects of the crash have been far from uniform. The populations of gentrifying cities such as San Francisco and Brooklyn continue to expand, with rents soaring and neighborhood demographics changing overnight. Providence, Rhode Island is experiencing a civic renaissance that disguises lingering corruption in its political system. The two hundred citizens of Whittier, Alaska, have been approached about starring in a reality TV show. And racial profiling by police in cities like Cincinnati, Palm Coast, and Baltimore has set the stage for protests that have swept the nation.
City by City, edited by Keith Gessen and Stephen Squibb, is a collection of essays from a new generation of writers working to document the places they call home. With the specificity of Studs Terkel and the humor of Hunter S. Thompson, they capture the forces-gentrification, underemployment, politics, culture, and crime-that are changing the lives of their neighborhoods, their neighbors, and themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865478312
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	05/12/2015
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Keith Gessen is a founding editor of n+1 and the author of All the Sad Young Literary Men, as well as the editor of Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager and Kirill Medvedev's It's No Good: Poems, Essays, Manifestoes. Stephen Squibb is a graduate student in English at Harvard University. His writing has appeared in Artforum and e-flux journal.

Table of Contents

Map viii

0 Introduction Keith Gessen Stephen Squibb 3

1 Welcome to San Diego Jordan Kisner 7

2 Los Angeles Plays Itself Dayna Tortorici 16

3 Modern Fresno Michael Thomsen 29

4 Bankrupt in Seattle Jenny Hendrix 41

5 Gold Rush Whittier Erin Sheehy 54

6 The Office and the City Niktl Saval 70

7 The Making of Local Boise Ryann Liebenthal 89

8 My Las Vegas Katy Lederer 102

9 Phoenix Rising Emily Gogolak 112

10 Crossing El Paso Debbie Nathan 115

11 Upstream in Williston Nicky Tiso 134

12 Lessons of the Arkansas Ben Merriman 141

13 Dallas and the Park Cities Annie Julia Wyman 157

14 The Kindness of Strangers in New Orleans Moira Donegan 168

15 M., Northern Kentucky Gary Percesepe 176

16 Six Houses in Hyde Park Sam Biederman 182

17 Milwaukee's Gilded Age and Aftermath Greg Afinogenov 191

18 Saving Detroit Simone Landon 207

19 The Cleveland Model Interview with Gar Alperovitz 217

20 Neighborhoods of Cincinnati James Pogue 231

21 Five Jobs in Reading Chris Reitz 248

22 Late Show Philadelphia, 1999 Chanelle Benz 255

23 The Highway and the City Dan Albert 261

24 Atlanta's Beltline Meets the Voters Alex Sayf Cummings 277

25 Dire Straits Michelle Tea 295

26 Fear and Aggression in Palm Coast Elias Rodriques 309

27 Miami Party Boom Emily Witt 316

28 Lehigh Acres, Designated Place Spencer Fleury 341

29 Disappearing In Duluth Shawn Wen 344

30 White Oak Denim, Greensboro Aaron Lake Smith 357

31 Washington, D.C., Brothel Michael Merriam 370

32 Christmas In Baltimore Lawrence Jackson 380

33 Philly School Reform Jesse Montgomery 391

34 Bed-Stuy Brandon Harris 405

35 Providence, You're Looking Good Ian MacDougall 417

36 Boston Buys Resistance Interview With Steve Meacham 433

37 DestiNY Syracuse, USA Steve Featherstone 445

Contributors 475

Acknowledgments 479

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/27/2015
The spirited, eye-opening examinations of various American cities in this intelligent collection of essays, many republished from n+1 magazine, tell a common story of economic vibrancy and ambitious vision followed by "postindustrial malaise," economic depression, ecological devastation, and rising crime. Some chapters peer revealingly into small pockets of a business or a lifestyle; others analyze structures such as highways, skyscrapers, and schools. The most thoughtful and thought-provoking provide personalized histories of various cities' struggles, illuminating their current economics (a study of denim production in Greensboro, N.C.; another of a brothel in Washington, D.C.), colorful pasts, and attempts at renewal: fracking in Williston, N.D., volunteerism in New Orleans, the DestiNY U.S.A. mall in Syracuse, N.Y., and reality TV in Whittier, Alaska. While the collection paints a depressing picture of the modern American city as home to strangling politics, entrenched racism, and desperate poverty, and subject to ongoing gentrification and exploitation by the very wealthy, several essays sow seeds of hope for a more promising future: one of environmental renewal and new civic institutions that can renegotiate livable, thriving communities out of a present crisis and a blighted past. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Over the course of more than 30 essays (and a few interviews), the writers in this collection observe their cities, or the cities they visit, with an unflagging docu-personal, autodidactic spirit, always with an eye for the unities and disunities of space, history local economy--whatever makes a city. Nearly every piece demonstrates the sensibility that undergirds our best fiction . . . Without writing like this, collected and edited with care over many years, we cannot feel deeply or think clearly enough about the lives of other Americans to pressure against the maniac decisions of state legislatures, for example, or intervene in the tragedy that defines our border with Mexico. As part of n+1's ongoing contribution to our political, intellectual, and literary scene, City by City . . . could be the most substantial and urgent so far." --Jonathan Sturgeon, Flavorwire

"An honest and modern portrait of America, from one coast to the other." --Nicole Jones, Vanity Fair

"The spirited, eye-opening examinations of various American cities in this intelligent collection of essays . . . tell a common story of economic vibrancy and ambitious vision followed by 'postindustrial malaise, ' economic depression, ecological devastation, and rising crime . . . The most thoughtful and thought-provoking provide personalized histories of various cities' struggles . . ." --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Written in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, these probing, often deeply personal essays crisscross the American continent, from San Diego to Syracuse, to reveal how cities, like their diverse inhabitants, grow, change, crash, and burn-and rise from their own ashes." --MORE

"Chronicling the country's post-crash years, City by City collects essays on such subjects as gentrification in Fresno, California, and the shale oil boom in North Dakota, and offers a trenchant analysis on our changing nation." --Travel + Leisure

"The boom-and-bust fortunes of the 21st-century economy come to light in this fascinating chronicle of American cities. In City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis, editors chose 37 colorful journalistic voices and essays to match the mood of our ever-changing nation . . . These are poignant and personal portraits that capture the economic tides of our times and the current mood of the American spirit." --American Way

"These varied essays offer compelling snapshots of how Americans live, move, and work." --Kirkus

"Coeditors Gessen and Squibb have compiled a diverse offering of voices . . . These essays look critically at how economics, politics, and crime affect metropolises today. It's the human element, however, the citizen stories woven throughout this book, that remind us that no city is an empty vessel-it is shaped by those that occupy it." --Angela Forret, Library Journal

From the Publisher

04/15/2015
Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin' " could easily be background music for n+1's collection of essays on the state of contemporary American cities. Coeditors Gessen (All the Sad Young Literary Men) and Squibb (coauthor, Paul Chan: 2000 Words) have compiled a diverse offering of voices addressing the magnitude of the changes cities have experienced since the financial crisis of 2007–08. While large urban centers are represented, it should be noted that the use of the word "city" is misleading as these essays take one beyond the noisy streets of Los Angeles or Washington, DC. Writers explore the frozen landscape of Whittier, AK; the overgrown lots of Lehigh Acres, FL; and the oil patch in Williston, ND. These essays look critically at how economics, politics, and crime affect metropolises today. It's the human element, however, the citizen stories woven throughout this book, that remind us that no city is an empty vessel—it is shaped by those that occupy it. VERDICT Recommended for readers with an interest in urban life, literary nonfiction essays, modern American culture, and socioeconomic issues.—Angela Forret, Clive P.L., IA

Library Journal

2015-02-15
In these 37 singular essays, some reading like research papers, others as personal as memoirs, n+1 editor Gessen (All the Sad Young Literary Men, 2008, etc.) and Harvard graduate student Squibb find in certain American cities the crucible of enormous change since the financial meltdown of 2008.In "Lessons of the Arkansas," Ben Merriman wisely considers the hugely troubling ramifications of diverting rivers such as the mighty Arkansas for the irrigation of arid land. Dan Albert's "The Highway and the City" finds the interstate structure both a product of wrongheaded urban renewal and a "transcendent" step in technological progress. In "The Office and the City," Nikil Saval, author of Cubed: The Secret History of the Workplace (2014), looks at how the once-ubiquitous office towers of New York, San Francisco, and other metropolises face conversion rather than obsolescence. Two of the chapters are interviews: historian Gar Alperovitz explores how Cleveland has become a model for worker-owned, multistakeholder institutions that anchor the community and distribute wealth more equally. City Life/Vida Urbana organizer and activist Steve Meacham shares his methods of helping advocate for tenants' rights in Boston against foreclosures. Some of the more amusing essays are highly quirky reminiscences of living or growing up in certain cities—e.g., Annie Wyman's ferocious "Dallas and the Park Cities," which chronicles her move to this "dark heart of Republican power" as a child and feeling appalled by its racist tones; and Ryann Liebenthal's "The Making of Local Boise," which finds a charm in the "little anthills of aesthetic and cultural kinship" popping up in his hometown. Other contributors include Michelle Tea, Jenny Hendrix, and James Pogue. From Whittier, Alaska, to Williston, North Dakota, to Palm Coast, Florida, these varied essays offer compelling snapshots of how Americans live, move, and work.

Kirkus Reviews