City Invincible

Two things from Engadget today. First, is the robotic parking garage (Pictured above). While there have been problems in the past with automated parking garages, including 300 cars being trapped for over 24 hours in Hoboken, NJ, this system looks safe and efficient. Check out the Popular Mechanics video on the Engadget post.

Microsoft will start selling its software, including Windows and Office, in developing nations for $3. But what seems like a philanthropic effort is questioned by Engadget which claims it “is in reality a shrewd business move to both compete with pirates and get kids hooked on Windows.” Microsoft’s Orlando Ayala supported Engadget’s argument by telling Reuters, “This is not a philanthropic effort: this is a business.”

Instead of Microsoft, let’s support OLPC XO which uses open-source software.

A book by Jason Hackworth called “The Neoliberal City” was recently released. I have to buy a copy.

Hackworth overviews the outcomes neoliberal, or “free-market,” policies have had on American cities. Neoliberal policies, like the ones the IMF and World Bank impose on developing nations, encourage “free” trade and individual freedoms while they discourage state regulation and social spending. The results, Hackworth argues, is gentrification, privatization, corporate invasion, and public-private revitalization projects that cater to wealthy residents–or non-resident investors–while leaving long-time and lower-income residents to fend for themselves.

I’ve witnessed this neoliberal trend first hand when the New Jersey government literally took over all functions of city government in Camden, NJ. The takeover resulted in massive social spending cuts, privatization, and the disenfranchisement of an entire city.

If you’re interested, David Harvey studies neoliberalism and cities as well. His recent book, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, “traces the rise of neoliberal principles based on the theory of free markets and unfettered international capital flows from an obscure economic theory to dominance on the world stage.” A recording of Harvey’s talk at UPenn in November, 2006, where he highlights neoliberal and gentrification issues in NYC, is available.

I’m looking forward to reading Hackworth’s work and writing a full review.

NPR broadcast a piece about proposed welfare cuts for children whose parents aren’t working titled “California to Cut Welfare Safety Net for Parents.”

It’s not entirely California’s fault. The federal government is forcing states to cut pack welfare rolls, and so far California hasn’t been making its required benchmarks. If they don’t do something, they’re liable to lose federal welfare funding.

The NPR piece also brings up the debate about allowing parents to attend school, or college, while on welfare. They highlight a women who was forced to quit college and take a $7 an hour job so she could keep herself, and her kids, out of homeless shelters. Seems some don’t want welfare to be a college “scholarship.”