Conversations over the last couple of weeks have focused my attention on a troubling aspect of political life that has been receiving less attention recently, due to the Trump/Musk hourly assaults on America’s government and constitution– the social and political divides between urban, suburban and rural Americans.
I recently ran into an old acquaintance who used to live near me, in the heart of the city. She’d subsequently moved to the very edge of suburbia, to an area one might characterize as “rural adjacent,” and in our catch-up conversation, she noted that several of her neighbors were afraid to go downtown (in one case, admitting to a fear of traveling south of 56th Street). Her new neighbors seemed amazed that she’d survived her years as an urban resident, and seemed unwilling to believe her description of urban life as safe.
Paul Krugman recently addressed that mindset. He began by describing a recent “evening out” in New York.
I had a civilized evening Tuesday. I did a public event at the CUNY Graduate Center, interviewing Zach Carter, author of The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy and the Life of John Maynard Keynes. Video of the event, which seemed to go well, should be available in a few days.
Then some of us took Zach out for dinner near the GC, which is just across the street from the Empire State Building. The conversation was great, and we lingered until almost 11, after which several of us walked over to the subway and took it home. And you know what happened?
Nothing. There were plenty of people out on the streets, which felt perfectly safe; so did the subway, which efficiently delivered us to our destinations.
Krugman documented the safety of his city, but he recognized that offering such evidence has become political, because trash talking about cities and urban life has become a constant theme in MAGA rhetoric.
According to Donald Trump, people in New York are afraid to go outside, because they can’t cross the street without getting mugged or raped. Just last Friday Sean Duffy, Trump’s transportation secretary, called the NYC subway a “shithole,” which nobody wants to ride. Spoiler: It isn’t.
The data confirms Krugman’s point, which raises the question, why has trash-talking about urban life become a MAGA theme?Krugman says that Trump’s hostility to immigrants impels him to portray urban areas with large numbers of immigrants as crime-ridden dystopias. While that is undoubtedly part of it, it would be a mistake to ignore a more obvious motive: Trump’s constant efforts to restore White males to dominance over other Americans.
Black people, immigrants and various other “Others” tend to live in cities. Suburban developments and gated communities are slowly becoming more diverse racially, but not economically. Some small towns in Indiana have seen an influx of immigrants, mostly Hispanic, but they are the exception. When someone says they are “afraid” to come into an urban core, they are really communicating a belief that “those people” are dangerous. They might make an exception for the Black doctor who can afford the mini-mansion down the street, but they’re sure that their neighbor is unrepresentative.
There’s a reason that virtually every city in the U.S. with a population of 500,000 and above is Blue on political maps, and virtually every rural precinct is Red. Those of us who live with that dread word–diversity–are comfortable with the varied fabric of life produced by a diverse demography. Most of us celebrate it. We find that our daily lives are enriched, not threatened, by encounters with interesting people who don’t look or pray (or eat) like us. We are less likely than our rural relatives to believe that difference translates to threat, and more likely to enjoy the expanded foods, perspectives and entertainments that those differences offer.
We’re also more likely to accept the necessity of government. I still recall an observation I once read to the effect that when you live down an unpaved road a mile or so from your nearest neighbor, and throw your dinner scraps out the back door for the dogs and other critters, you tend to discount the importance of a government that provides services like roads and garbage collection.
Obviously, not every rural resident is fearful or racist, and plenty of urban dwellers are both–but the Blue and Red of that political map is instructive. MAGA is essentially a rural phenomenon.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the full effect of Trump’s insane economic policies hit the rural folks who have been voting their racial animosities rather than their economic interests.
Rural MAGA will defend Trump to the end, no matter what. They will blame the previous administration and us “lefties”.
The phenomena that is most baffling to me is how “personally offended” MAGA becomes at any insult toward Trump. They are ready to jump in and physically defend his honor.
The local news only provides the shooting reports inside and outside of downtown bars and lounges. Downtown Indianapolis has changed so much It was unrecognizable to me riding through last year to Eskenazi Hospital to be with my daughter. Buildings crowded to the edge of sidewalks and towering over streets with bumper to bumper traffic was intimidating. It also didn’t appear to have streets maintained and didn’t look clean. Your personal urban life area in the downtown area isn’t on the news to give us reason to believe it is a safe place to live and walk to shop and entertainment.
Rather than a political map, perhaps a map of where in the downtown area where these preferred, safe residential areas are located. I loved downtown Indianapolis before the Circle Centre Mall implosions and demolitions began turning Indianapolis into being known as “the city of holes” and walking from the City-County Building to a food mall or to shop was on trash strewn sidewalks. Progress does not always mean improvement, Goldsmith inherited Mayor Bill Hudnut’s progress and let the city stagnate; now the anchor for Circle Centre Mall is the Indianapolis Star factory location. Just the memories of one old Indianapolis woman, born and raised here who worked in Indianapolis City Government for over 20 years, what I have seen on my few trips through downtown doesn’t appear inviting as a residential area.
I have lived in Indy for 50 years. I lived on the North and NW Side for the first ten years. The last 40 years I have been on the NE Side (Glendale Mall / Kessler Blvd Area)
The only time I go downtown is for doctor visits at IU Hospital. The traffic and parking are too much for me. It is too stressful. There is nothing that I want or need down there.
Mary, it’s called attachment. Cult members tend to attach their egos and identify with ‘dear leader.’ An attack on the leader is an attack on them. It’s why most followers have a hard time leaving the cult.
As a motorcycle traveler, I intentionally avoid big cities due to the traffic. It has nothing to do with personal safety. That said, I still carry a concealed weapon primarily for riding through rural Indiana. Some of the small towns I’ve gone through have scared the shit out of me, especially off the beaten path and in Southern Indiana.
There is a meme floating around with “interchangeable hats” that MAGA cult members can wear, and one of them is a Confederate Rebel hat. It’s a perfect representation of their movement. I doubt the Libertarians sought to resurrect the Confederacy during their anti-government push, but that’s exactly what they’ve done.
As I’ve mentioned before, the PayPal Mafia, Tech Bros, are accused of being Libertarians as well, but I don’t think that captures them at all. Their guru, Curtis Yarvin, calls for the destruction of the government and then rebuild by a CEO-like leader. Of course, the CEO would be from a Tech-centered company like Musk, Thiel, or Vance. This is why they got Trump to pass his ten Freedom Cities EO. They want to create a new model of government with AI and tech at the center.
While racism in the inner city is one issue, I think the other one causing significant problems is homelessness. Even our small Eastern Indiana city has had to remove numerous encampments along the river and in the woods. Downtown Asheville is overwhelmed with a homeless population that begs off of you the moment you park your car in a lot. The nonprofit community even feeds them, provides them with healthcare, and allows them to sleep in the parks. The videos of Los Angeles and the miles of homeless people and trash are passed around on social media, and “shithole” is the common adjective used.
Politicians don’t address the real issues causing these issues because it doesn’t impact them since they walk around with security details. By the time Trump and his ignorant minions are done, everything plaguing our country will only get worse. The haves and have-nots will be even more divided.
ever drive thru rural texas? the many skeletons of once prosphoras towns of
the prairies and hill country. walk among the ruins and find, the locals look at ya like your tresspassin on their world view of heaven. seems like your a threat to be present there. but they drove many off because of their need to control everything,and did not want change.. hense ,they bought their own demise. far fetched? walk among those ruins and find a local sheriff asking why your there..not if your having a good day.moral,spend your money where its wanted..
i once was hauling a wide heavy load thru a town that was just hit a week earlier by a tornado.(my semi truck was in plain view) this musta been a locals(only) were invited were taking donations and having a donated stake fry. the open jar with 5s and 10s were met with my 100. and a nice smiling face of a senior lady who thanked me like the others. as i went thru that line with plate in hand smiling and mindin my own buisness, joe flatop who was servin the stakes gave me a grim look, and asked my what the hell im doin,lookin for a free meal? the kind lady reminded him of his place and said my donation paid for the whole pot. tough town and a tough steak. welcome to texas. enjoy where you live and make it a better place.
Crime has definitely gone down in New York since January 2017, when Orange Jesus, a well known criminal, moved to DC.
I worked in downtown Indianapolis for a number of years and visited a number of bars after work. I never felt threatened. What really put an end to my visits to downtown was the loss of free parking. When I moved here in 1981, downtown was begging for people. As the new downtown was created more people came. Then, under the Republicans, the mayor signed a put-or-pay contract with a Australian company that is probably still costing the city and eliminated free parking in general.
Having lived in downtown Indianapolis since 1989, we like it so much we moved right into the downtown on the edge of the mile square, a little more than two years ago. We have 5 restaurants in a 3 minute walk. We live in a Condo now with no yard and I walk my dog multiple times a day. Our favorite time is just after sunrise when we do a 30-45 minute walk. We walk past churches, grocery stores, apartments, and even public housing. Late at night (10:30) we walk around the block for one last out. From my experience, and backed up by police reports, it is the safest district in the city.
In the 80’s urban Indy areas that were really bad are great now. With the recent closure of a downtown YMCA, we have been going to the “Meadows” YMCA. The Meadows was a neighborhood that used to be known for gang and drug violence and is now transformed. If the MAGA crowd is looking backward 50 years, I can see where some of their ideas might have come from, but the reality is so different today.
I live less than a mile from the state capitol of Colorado. My wife and I ride the bus downtown to hear our marvelous symphony, broadway shows and watch the Rockies try to play baseball. We’ve done that for 8 straight years without a single incident happening to us or to anyone else. Sure, there are homeless and down-trodden folks around, but no assaults have we seen.
The last two summers we took baseball park tours with a Wisconsin-based company to Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Toronto, Canada. None of the ballparks are close to urban limits. We saw exactly ZERO incidents of the idiocy that MAGA is compelled to yell about.
As Todd suggests, cult members lack the intellectual agility to think for themselves and process actual events and numbers. It won’t change in what’s left of my lifetime.
Jack, Texas is filled with hate, suspicion and inferiority complexes. Having lived and taught there for 15 years in semi-rural areas, I can attest first-hand to the boiling ignorance that permeates so many there. I was a young adult during the wave of urban riots in our cities in the 60s, and I hadn’t heard that language since then until I moved to Texas. How tragically sad.
Two things can be true – cities are basically safe (statistically, safer than many rural areas) also, it’s wildly unlikely that Paul Krugman would experience any of the dangers that exist anywhere. I tend to assume, as a pretty famous guy, he’s wealthy and connected. I’ll bet any amount of money you’d care to wager that the restaurant he talked about is 4 stars and the meal cost 2-3x my mortgage payment.
So, yeah. He’s probably not exposed to much danger anywhere and is probably not the best standard bearer for the “cities are actually safe” argument. It’s a true argument. But… wealthy, easy street guy who never hears a shot fired in anger (rural or urban) may not be the person to convince anyone.
Let’s focus more on “fear of the Other”—that seems so common in small towns and rural areas. How do we counter the lack of diversity—when diverse people are also afraid to live in those areas (and what kind of jobs could they find, compared to the urban areas)? Public education, where classes include all students, could help—but there already aren’t charter schools, private schools, or religious schools in the majority of Indiana counties—so what is next? I think we need more opportunities for kids to spend TIME together…perhaps more programs on the college and university campuses that are all around the state—on weekends (like Pursue Super Saturdays) and school breaks; and on farms, to introduce more city kids to crops, cows, and pigs. Exchange programs within the state?
As a child I was so envious of what I knew of the schools in Indianapolis—there seemed to be a wider variety of classes available, to say nothing of the museums, zoo, theater; and I always felt intimidated by the people my age I met who were “from the city” —because they knew so many things I did not.
I have lived on the northern part of Marion County for over 50 years in an area that had farms within walking distance. Those farms are long gone, with subdivisions and high-rise office buildings dominating the landscape. The population of the county in 1967 was about 765,000. Today, the population is closer to 1 million.
When you consider that mental health facilities were closed with the promise of supported integration into the community (never happened), the rise in drug use, the proliferation of guns, the serious decline of law enforcement personnel, the concentration of more and more wealth/power in the hand of fewer and fewer, the continued usurpation of local control by the GOP legislature, and you have a recipe for conflict. That being said, I can truly say that the area were I live is just as safe as those who live in burbs, maybe more so.
Decades ago, a “friend” who lived out in Hamilton County thought it was amusing to greet us with the question of how things were going in the ghetto (Marion County). That sentiment still exists in much of the Metro area counties. It is not a surprise that it is still prevalent when you consider that this was the heart of the KKK a century ago. 250,000 white male members of that vile organization ran the state from bottom to top. There were separate organizations of like minded women and even one for children. “A Fever in the Heartland” by Timothy Egan tells the documented tale of those seeds planted and nourished around the kitchen tables to this day.
I seldom go downtown anymore, especially since parking became monetized. I have ridden the Red Line on several occasions. It was clean, fast and safe. Mobility issues make it difficult to navigate the busy streets but I have never felt unsafe anywhere. In fact, because there are always so many people around, it feels fine. We have a beautiful city.
Those who flee to the burbs may think they are safer but that denies the need of so many residents to arm themselves and hide behind locked gates.
I will continue the step-by-step guide to making a real difference in the November, 2025 local elections when a day’s blog subject is appropriate…
We were the safest, most comfortable humans ever to have lived on the planet under Biden. Trump lowered our score immediately, especially if you are an immigrant, which of course we all are, so I guess that factor is really if you are some immigrants, I imagine those with darker skin.
We white folk are safe and comfortable enough unless you live economically close to the bone, in which case the specter of rising prices has to be terrifying, so there goes comfortably for them.
Of course, many of us old folks live on Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, so another cohort is not so safe and comfortable anymore. (By the way, at the Hands Off rally this last weekend, that cohort was well represented among the 50% more of the population than carried MTV over the goal line.)
However, I also noticed those who had spent $1,000,000.00 to meet and greet Trump at Mar-a-Lago the same weekend as the rally still looked pretty safe and comfortable.
I remember back when the meek shall inherit the earth.
By the way, my granddaughter lives in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which is a very ethnic spot, and reports the same about safety in NYC.
No, es problema.
I had never watched “Law and Order” until about a year ago when my wife talked me into watching the episodes from the beginning. As cognitive scientists have shown, watching visual/audio images depicting real life can be very convincing that what you are seeing is reality. This program and many others likely have creating the urban image discussed here today. And, even more reason to teach visual/media literacy in schools.
I lived in NYC for my first 41 years, until I moved to N.J. when i married for the 2nd time. We used to often visit the city for the museums, to stroll through SoHo (South of Houston St.) and have dinner in Chinatown. Desert was taken across Canal St., in Little Italy. There were other points of interest, including McSorley’s Old Ale House, with its original liquor license, signed by Abraham Lincoln.
We are looking forward to visiting NYC this summer, on vacation from suburban Florida. Here, I’m afraid to wear my “Evolution” tee shirt, not there.
The “Manhattan Transfer” had a song called “Walking in New York,” which was nothing if not joyous!
Trump’s whole thing about cities is part of what used to be called, in his 1st admin. “Alternate facts,” aka BS.
I was born and raised on the south side of Indy in the 60’s-early 80’s. Going to Garfield Park to eat at our favorite restaurant meant that mom wouldn’t take her purse, “because someone might snatch it.” She never said who that someone was, it was always just “someone.” And the only time we went downtown was to drive around the monument to see the Christmas lights. It was “safe,” according to my parents, because so many others were doing the same. I was told never to drive or ride with friends north of Raymond St. Of course, we did, all the time, stopping at the Teepee for cokes and fries, then driving downtown to hang out on Monument Circle with all the other kids who were told not to go there. “Someone might hurt us.” When I moved to the NE side of Indy with my fiancé , that’s when my parents, their neighbors, and some of my friends really threw a fit! My mom was convinced I’d be a victim of a crime within the month. And many of my friends were afraid to drive north to come and visit. I knew this would be their mindset and was prepared for it. What I wasn’t prepared for was the ribbing I got from many of my “sophisticated northsider” coworkers, when they found out where I moved from. I was asked questions, “jokingly, of course,” about where my gun rack was, how it felt to have to wear shoes all day, and if I had a confederate flag in the apartment. If I ate pork rinds (?), or drank Wild Turkey. I was made fun of when I pronounced the word cement like “seement.” It is sadly a fact of life that we are often fearful of The Other, even when The Other is us, just living at a different address.
I rarely watch local TV news. Last night, I did and it was almost all about gun violence, complete with maps showing where the shootings had occurred. That is why I stopped watching local TV news a few years ago. It is all they seem to care about covering besides weather and sports. I guess that is what most viewers want to see, along with crime dramas, the more gory the better. If we saturate our brains with that stuff… draw your own conclusions.
Rural Hoosiers have exhibited animosity toward Indianapolis for as long as I can remember. They send their legislators to the Statehouse to “get” Indianapolis, the economic generator of the state, by enacting legislation that harms our city. As he does with so many quirks of American culture, Trump exploits and exacerbates this divide for his own political ends.
The media, especially TV, propels the fear of downtown Indianapolis with their constant, extended concentration on crime coverage. “If it bleeds, it leads” is still the news mantra, and it’s lazy reporting that’s a turn-off to both the news and the city. I now record the local news and speed through the crime, fire, and car accident reports to what little other news is part of the telecast. The weather reports have become the highlight of most newscasts.
The newspaper has become less of a problem as it’s become less of a newspaper. Nevertheless, I was chagrined a few years back when it’s front page, top of the fold headline on RACE DAY – when we have more visitors than any other day – was a local crime story. With everything else going on in Indianapolis that week-end, Indy Star editors decided to put that story as number one. I had to wonder what planet they were on and refused to read it. I went directly to the Race Day scorecard. page – which sometimes these editors have omitted – stupidly – from the Race Day edition. Once again, what planet were they on?
Local media have gotten only a little better at who they portray as accused criminals. Formerly suspected whites were not pictured in crime stories, but suspected blacks always were. And most of the crime stories to this day cover the Indianapolis police beat and to a far lesser extent, suburban crime. It’s little wonder that people became fearful of black people and downtown.
News outlets also need police radios tuned to the suburbs, but better yet, spend more reporter time on other news like helping the public learn about their local government so they become more informed and more engaged in this democracy. Alert us to public hearings coming up at which the public can make their views known. While they’re at it, publicize scientific and other findings to help us care for ourselves, our families, our property and community; promote ways to help each other to make our community more caring and friendly; share the good news of what’s going right in our community.
And yes, do investigative reporting. That takes more time and careful research than listening to the police radio and jumping in the car to ride to the scene, but investigative reporting that’s beyond what individual citizens can do on their own is one of journalism’s highest obligations.
Investigative reporting has come to mean reporting of scandals. I so wish that kind of reporting would spend more time on news we can use to improve our own lives and communities. Hope springs eternal.
Senate Bill 197 in Indianapolis is charging homeless people a 500 fine and up to 60 days in jail for sleeping on public property. How dumb is that?
So much for having kindness and empathy for the homeless. Guess that’s just one example of how we treat the “others”.
Supposedly the law is supposed to help police officers get the homeless person help to go to a shelter.
Interesting post, as always. Hearing Trump talk about carnage in our cities, I was wondering what decade he was living in. Since then, northing has improved my opinion of Trump’s reality.
I never had trouble in Indianapolis. I can recall being at the Circle Theater in the late Seventies for a concert and walking down to The Porch at Merchant’s Bank (Yes, I am that old) without seeing another human being other than my friends and date. Then about thirty years ago, I was coming back to Anderson with a different date and driving north on College Avenue south of 38th Street, and the date being frightened that we would be carjacked, even though there was no one out and about. She was from Evansville.
I was out in New Jersey from 2011 to 2021, then I came back to Indianapolis to live for a few months. I was surprised by the number of gun deaths, but that seems to have been widespread and to have had been some COVID-inspired craziness. However, I was far more surprised by the homeless. This was a new experience for me in Indianapolis. That is not a problem of general danger but a lack of humanity.
I have long thought that Indiana’s Democrats would do well to bring Lake County to Switzerland County, and vice versa. If people meet the others they are supposed to fear, they will find how little they have to fear. So, says the optimistic part of me. There is a profound ignorance, IMHO, between the different parts of Indiana. My mother’s family is from Ripley County, and from that experience I expected a similar type of people living in Evansville. That was not so. And not all of Indiana’s rural counties are so friendly towards the Klan. Wide swathes of Southern and Southeastern Indiana have large populations of Roman Catholics. Those living in our rural counties are not necessarily rednecks to be scared of; they do live on thin margins and are susceptible to those who only spew fear.
Thank you for letting me ramble on.