A blue future, but there’s a big if

I’ve written little in recent days, mainly because I spent the Christmas holiday plus in San Antonio Texas, where my younger son, his wife, and their daughter live. It’s difficult to focus on the Russian threat to Ukraine while enjoying your only grand daughter in a city far not just from the maddening crowd but from the even more maddening international policy community.

Some readers will think I might have been politically uncomfortable in Texas, whose state leadership is leading the extremist right on voting rights, abortion, and lots of other issues. But that would be wrong. San Antonio, while not as blue as DC (slmost nowhere is), is still cerulean. At least in Alamo Heights, a mostly privileged part of town, lawn signs declare black lives matter more often than they tout Donald Trump. In the 2020 election, Biden beat Trump in San Antonio 58/40. The city is majority minority, with a 64% LatinX population, more often still referred to there as Hispanic. Even among the inhabitants of the mansions of Terrell Hills, Biden won 2/1.

Atlanta, Georgia, where I spent Thanksgiving, is likewise blue, though to my surprise its population is only 1/3 black. I’m surprised because the inner city districts I frequent, though gentrifying apace, seem heavily populated by young, up-and-coming black professionals, in addition to some older long-time black residents. As in San Antonio, outlying areas are more white, and red, but the recent in-migrants are mostly white. Biden won in the center city (Fulton County) by an astounding 83/16, but he also won in surrounding counties by lesser margins.

Both cities have a good vibe. The commercial districts I witnessed were thriving, if not always bustling. The contrast with downtown and Chevy Chase DC is striking. Both of these former upscale shopping districts are now a wasteland of empty storefronts. It will take the better part of a decade to recover, if not longer. In Atlanta, the commercial areas adjacent to the Beltline are hopping. In San Antonio, the Lincoln Heights and Quarry shopping centers are not quite as hip, but their parking lots are full.

I can’t say much about the people in Atlanta and San Antonio, as epidemic conditions kept older people like us mostly isolated. In San Antonio, it is striking how many people walking on the street greet you with “how are you doing,” without expecting an answer. In Atlanta, a wave is all you usually get, which is true in DC too. In Atlanta and San Antonio, the driving is respectful of pedestrians on the side streets, but on the main drags pedestrians are not much better than stray dogs. In DC, the driving on side streets is a bit less respectful but on the main drags isn’t quite as fast and careless.

City infrastructure in Atlanta and San Antonio leaves a lot to be desired compared to DC, where the city has used the two years of epidemic to repave and re-sidewalk a good part of at least the affluent Northwest. I got a pot hole filled within a few days in front of my house just by reporting it on line. Atlanta and San Antonio have sidewalks, where they exist, that are often decrepit and streets that are worse. I don’t know about San Antonio, but local taxes in DC and Atlanta are comparable–perhaps even a bit higher in Atlanta. There and in San Antonio high school football stadiums seem preferred to decent cityscape.

The cars available in these three cities are the same, but the local preferences are different. In San Antonio, the availability of hybrids and all-electric cars seems to have encouraged the purchase of upscale behemoths. There are also many more large pickup trucks and SUVs in Texas, where size really does seem to matter. Or perhaps vehicle size compensates for the anatomical. Size seems to matter less in DC and Atlanta, though the latter sports a striking number of people who believe driving without a muffler is manly.

I can’t say anything about culture in these three cities, as it has now been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a major performance or museum. DC has a pair of fabulous small opera companies–the In Series and Bel Cantanti–that I’m pretty sure aren’t matched in San Antonio or Atlanta. San Antonio is hosting a road version of Hamilton, which has also been seen in Atlanta and DC. It’s a good thing they called it a rap musical. Had it been labelled what it is–an opera–I doubt many would have seen it. I look forward to the day it appears at the Met.

We are all worried these days about Omicron, even if Atlanta and San Antonio are noticeably less masked than DC. Masked, I got chastised for getting too close to someone (also masked) on the check-out line at Walgreens in San Antonio. But the virus is in its last, less sickening but more contagious, phase. This makes sense, as evolution favors contagion, not deadliness. There is a lot of doom and gloom among those who worry about hospital capacity, anti-vaxxers, flight cancellations, and people who try to get on aircraft unmasked.

I’m preferring to think that we can look forward to increasingly blue cities that get the less deadly Omicron under control and can hope for economic revival as well as declining political strife. The only real question is whether urban votes will be allowed to count equally with those in less populated areas. The future is blue, if everyone’s vote counts equally. That’s a big if.