It’s not that I don’t enjoy my current full-time job at a hoity-toity glossy, but occasionally, I feel like I’m not making good on that promise I made to myself—and all those with high hopes for me—to make the world a better place. I know I’m getting all Miss Rumphius (“go to faraway places, live by the sea, do something to make the world more beautiful,” blah, blah, blah) on you, dear readers, but being the product of a guilt-ridden liberal upbringing and the daughter of an urban planner with a distinctly do-gooder conscience, this doubt is seated deep within me.
Thus, when I came across the website for a new quarterly called The Next American City via an old college friend who is doing some work for it, I immediately melted down into an existential crisis: Must quit fashion magazine right now and invest all nonexistent savings in real magazine that will contribute something worthwhile to cultural dialogue. Alas, that moment passed, and here I am alleviating my guilt by plugging the site—www.americancity.org. Go there. Learn something. Start rethinking this whole American landscape. In the right ways, ya’ll.
Dubbed “a subtle plan to change the world” by The New York Times, the Next American City looks at the state of the American metropolis and asks, “Where do we go from here?” In this rapidly changing landscape, how can businesses and developers thrive? How can cities and suburbs expand their economies? And how can our society successfully address social and environmental challenges?”
If you want the full treatment, then you’ll have to subscribe, but if you want a test drive before buying the hybrid, then the website does the trick with a plethora of articles online tackling the big issues from “Gambling on Philadelphia’s Future: Can Casinos Fit into a Big City Downtown” to “Reviving South Minneapolis: Showdown at South Central Farm.”
Houston, yes, it seems we do indeed have a problem. But it’s not a problem we can’t solve if we start now.