Category Archives: Sociology

Marijuana dispensaries and the ongoing reputation of suburban communities

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Over a decade ago, numerous Chicago suburbs debated regulations regarding marijuana dispensaries. One line of argument went that such establishments diminished the reputation of communities. Here is an update for one Chicago suburb:

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A second marijuana dispensary quietly has opened in Arlington Heights, years after controversy and debate about whether to allow the first one to do business in town.

Longtime Mayor Tom Hayes was outright opposed to the vice, arguing it would diminish the village’s reputation as a family-oriented community.

But supporters say times have changed, and there was the new mayor, Jim Tinaglia, holding giant scissors at a recent ribbon cutting welcoming the new business and its green — leaves and tax dollars — to town…

But others on the elected panel soon decided revenue estimates from local taxes on pot sales — as much as $500,000 per dispensary, per year — were too good to pass up.

This potential link between the status of the community and the presence of marijuana dispensaries sound like it could involve testable hypotheses.

First, we would need to get at the status of a community. The suburbs overall are considered by Americans as “family-friendly” but the suggestion here is that some suburbs are more about families than others. Could Census data reveal that a suburb is “family-oriented” or would this depend on survey or interview data of local leaders and residents? Or is this more about social class – income, wealth, housing values and types, etc. – and the status that comes with it?

Second, perhaps this is not about status but rather the need for local revenues. How do budgets look before and after considering a marijuana dispensary? Can suburbs afford to keep certain businesses out? Dispensaries may not be the only businesses suburbs do not want; this could range from tattoo shops to warehouses to other land uses considered not in character with the community.

At least from this one story above, it sounds like a change in leadership plus a need for revenue led to different local approaches. And does this come with increased local revenues and any difference in status?

The social process of determining the “worst” music

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How do we know if music is any good or not? We look to the opinions of others. See the recent online discussion of whether the 2009 song “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is the worst of all time.

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Check out the song for yourself.

Perhaps an online crowd can convince people that this song is no good. But there are other social ways of addressing this question. For example, Wikipedia has a page titled “List of music considered the worst.” I have sampled across the albums and songs and there is a wide range of music that could be considered the “worst.” Or a group of friends could debate this among themselves as they play and remember different pieces of music.

This reminds me of a 2006 study in Science titled “Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market.” Put people in listening rooms with a list of songs and their opinion of those songs partly depends on what others in the room think.

How do we know if music (or books or TV shows or art or the product of any culture industry) is any good? We decide this collectively through interactions and over time. What we consider the “worst” music could differ but we have opportunities to be shaped by the opinions of others – including large-scale actors – and to shape the opinions of people around us.

Whether Americans will be happy if/when housing values go down

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If housing prices drop, will Americans be happy? The CEO of Redfin has thoughts:

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I think we’re at an inflection point. So mostly people who have had to sell their home have been able to do so quite easily over the past two or three years. So even in the post-pandemic correction, it was fairly straightforward.

But now home sellers are struggling, especially people who bought a house during the pandemic. We are talking to them about lowering their price and they can’t, because they’ll be short on their mortgage. Now, we’re not going to have anything like the great financial crisis in 2008, where there was a wave of foreclosures. But for a particular population of folks who did buy during the pandemic, it has suddenly gotten very hard to sell their home and pay off their mortgage. And so right now the market is just teetering in a very unhappy equilibrium. I think that prices will come down, and I’m one of the people who views that as good news.

When bread prices come down, when gas prices come down, most Americans view that as cause for celebration. But when home prices go down, about half of us are worried about it and the other half are throwing a party. And really, for the younger generation, we need prices to come down…

So about 75 percent of American homeowners have a mortgage below 5 percent. We’re unlikely to see a rate like that anytime in the foreseeable future, and so those folks create this rate-locked inventory. Many, many people in America—more than half of all Americans—really couldn’t afford to buy their own home at current interest rates. So it’s very common for us to go to a listing consultation with someone who has had another baby or is going through a divorce, had some kind of life event where they need to move, and when they realize what they’re going to be able to afford from the sale of their home, they decide to stay put instead.

If the goal is to have a majority of Americans happy about housing prices, that might be hard at this particular moment. As described above, different actors may want higher or lower prices. Those wanting to rent or buy want lower prices. Those who are looking to sell might want higher prices. And the 0homeownership rate in the United States is a little over 65%.

But one hint above is that more people – a majority – might win if prices come down. If prices are too high and interest rates stay roughly where they are, there is little movement in the housing market. So could Americans be convinced that a drop is good? This would help more people get into the market and others to sell. (I wonder if it also might create more demand that would then raise prices again.)

Perhaps this is not the right topic in the first place. Focusing on this particular issue and moment obscures the larger issue: what is the long-term trajectory for American housing and for the ability of buyers and sellers? Do people perceive they can purchase a residence? What policies further (or hinder) a longstanding American idea that homeownership is a critical element of the American Dream?

Trying to change the name of a canal to match its future uses

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The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal has existed for over 100 years. Some now want to change the name as it refers to the past, not the future of the canal:

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People who live and work near the canal want to see more uses of it, said Margaret Frisbie, executive director for Friends of the Chicago River. A new name, she said, could reflect the canal’s importance beyond shipping and sanitary needs…

The canal, a 28-mile stretch from Chicago’s Lower West Side to just north of Joliet where it joins the Des Plaines River, has a rich history. At the time it opened in 1900 to provide the only way for ships to navigate between the Great Lakes Waterway and the Mississippi River, it was regarded as a win for public health and sanitation and earned the applause of civil engineers…

The coalition has released a survey where people can pitch ideas for names and voice their opinions on how the canal should be cared for and used. The public will later be able to vote on favorite names, Frisbie said, before the group submits a name-change application to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The goal is to submit the application by the end of the year, she said…

“Modernizing the canal’s name will better reflect its role as an economic driver for the region and its potential for recreational development,” a spokesperson for Foster said in a statement.

Is it too direct to call it the “Economic Driver Canal? The “Economic and Recreational Canal”? The “Canal of Success”?

This is a branding issue. The groups behind this suggest the name is not helpful for people today who do not think much about sanitation or may not know much about shipping. A new name could revitalize interest. Perhaps it leads to increased funding, more tax revenues, a new age for the canal.

Yet it is hard to imagine a new name that might capture these new ideas. I would not be surprised if the canal adopts a name related to a historical figure or group that might connect to some of that forward-looking energy.

Once again, my pathway was blocked by a flock of turkeys

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On a recent trip to a nearby state, I was driving on a country two lane road near dusk. The road had some small hills and I was going about 55 mph. In the distance I could see something in the roadway. It looked short. It did not cast much of a shadow. What was it? I slowed down as I neared and then I recognized the unmistakable shape: turkeys!

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This is not my first encounter with turkeys while moving a wheeled vehicle. The first time occurred years ago while bicycling through a local forest preserve in the late afternoon.

The turkeys acted similarly in both situations: they stood there, not making much noise, blocking the way forward. On this road, I honked several times as I neared a stop. The turkeys finally looked up and then scampered off the asphalt and into the tall grass next to the road.

I do not know how much experience wild turkeys have with cars. They did not seem particularly interested in the presence of a vehicle. They were doing their thing and I until I was very near and made some noise, they did not look like they wanted to move.

I am now curious when I will again encounter turkeys in my way. I do not have many vehicle options left; I rarely, if ever, use a scooter or skateboard. I do not skate. Where will I next nearly run into a flock of turkeys?

American Dream past and future about status? Stability?

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What is the American Dream actually about? An editorial in the Chicago Tribune considers how younger Americans see the American Dream:

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Lower marriage rates and lower homeownership among younger adults seems to indicate the increasing elusiveness of what we have long considered the American Dream of owning your own place and building a family.

So what’s going on? Is this a generational shift in values — or the predictable result of a system that’s become too expensive and too precarious for anyone to gain a foothold?…

So is the American Dream disintegrating? Or is it changing shape?

We think the answer is a bit of both. Affordability plays no small role in explaining why fewer young people buy a home or choose to go into debt for a degree…

If Gen Z does bring marriage back into fashion, it won’t be a return to tradition so much as a reinvention of it — one that values stability, yes, but also flexibility and purpose. That’s the American Dream now.

The suggestion above is that the American Dream involved (1) homeownership and (2) having a family. Have these two things and you have made it. The contrast is provided at the end. Younger Americans perceive more instability in the economy and in relationships. The old path of securing a home and family is not as easy. They want something different: “flexibility and purpose” rather than “stability.”

How much of a change is this? The key might be getting at the motivations behind achieving these goals. What was having a home and family about? Reaching a certain middle-class status? Keeping up with the Joneses? The shift toward “flexibility and purpose” is about what exactly: self-sufficiency? Status? A better sense of self?

In other words, I wonder if this is more about changing methods to achieve the American Dream rather than a shift in goals. As noted in the editorial, many younger Americans still want to own a home. Many will pursue relationships. But the means to getting here may have changed. There is a narrative now that this former path was easy: the decades after World War Two provided easy opportunities for many Americans to buy a home and start a family. Perhaps this was a unique time in history with relative prosperity and the conclusion of a major war where the United States emerged as a winner.

Imagine several decades from now when the postwar era is one hundred years ago. Americans may still want the same things – purpose, a sense of achievement, a certain status – but what form that takes may have changed. What marks a middle-class life may look different. Feeling accomplished or stable may take a different form.

Why the CTA could not easily remove “ghost buses”

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The Chicago Transit Authority hopes it has eliminated most “ghost buses” and “ghost trains” in apps that rely on its data. Why did it take a while to get to this point?

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The updated tracker system is an additional step in CTA’s effort to eliminate “ghost buses.” The phenomenon was widespread shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, when the CTA suffered a shortage of operators and was running fewer buses and trains than were scheduled.

At the time, the CTA explained that ghost buses were rampant because CTA had no technical way to remove the scheduled buses that were never expected to run due to short staffing. Those unstaffed buses could only be removed twice a year, when the CTA was allowed by its union contracts to updates its bus timetables.

Now, the CTA says it has mostly resolved the staffing issue, and therefore fixed a lot of the scheduled but canceled buses that show up on online bus trackers. The agency has more bus operators than it did before the pandemic, and the CTA has nearly as many train operators as before, according to the agency’s public data dashboard.

In June, the CTA ran 98.8% of its scheduled buses and 88% of scheduled trains, according to agency’s dashboard…

The CTA says its next step in further eliminating ghost buses is to update its systems to reflect bus detours and reroutes with transit apps.

I would have guessed that the CTA would have tracked trains and buses with GPS trackers. The internal data and apps would then reflect where vehicles were at that current moment. This is what apps like Uber or Lyft offer; you can see vehicles moving around in real time.

It sounds like this system worked with scheduled trips and then could not adjust if the bus or train was not there. Is there not the ability to see CTA routes in real time? Or do they not want to share that data?

It would be interesting to hear more about how this system developed. Decades ago, how did the CTA keep track of all of their routes? Was there some massive command room where a team of people updated maps and then helped make decisions about changes?

How to “win” at civilization (according to Civilization VII)

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What does it look like for a civilization to “win”? The game Civilization VII has five paths to victory (with quoted descriptions from here):

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-Domination: defeat all other civilizations.

-Scientific: “You must complete 3 Space Race Projects. After completing them all, you unlock the First Staffed Space Flight victory condition.”

-Cultural: “You must house 15 Artifacts in your empire. Completing this Legacy Path unlocks the World’s Fair victory condition.”

-Economic: “You must gain 500 Railroad Tycoon Points from manufacturing goods in your Factories. You gain points each turn for each Factory Resource slotted into a Settlement with a Factory and connected to your Rail and Port network. When this is completed, you unlock the World Bank victory condition.”

-Military: “You must gain 20 points from conquering Settlements. However, before you adopt an Ideology, conquered Settlements count as only one point. After adopting an Ideology, conquered Settlements count as two, and if you conquer Settlements from an opponent with a different Ideology from you, they count as 3. When this Legacy Path is completed, you unlock the Operation Ivy victory condition.”

What if people around the world were asked how their civilization or nation or people group might “win.” Would it be peace and collaboration? Would it be mobility and success for individuals? Would it be amassing military victories and territories?

Some of these are captured in the Civ 7 conditions and some are not. And what people across the world want in “winning” (and this language may strike many as strange) could differ quite a bit.

While this is just a new version of a game in a long-running series, this could easily move to a larger and important conversation: what are humans doing through their efforts? Don’t contexts strongly influence our desired goals (and how we regard the goals of other groups or civilizations)?

(Back to the game: across the various iterations over the years, I have spent time pursuing different victory paths. For example, if one wants to win via culture, they need to make numerous choices along the way that limit success along the other paths.)

Does that autonomous semi also make stops at Buc-ee’s?

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Drivers traveling at night between certain American cities have some new company on the roads:

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Autonomous trucks are now driving highways at night, hauling food and dairy between Dallas and Houston…

Aurora’s trucks do have a human behind the wheel, just in case. So do autonomous Kodiak trucks operating on highways from Dallas to Atlanta, Houston and Oklahoma City—some of which drive at night…

Aurora is now testing the system between Phoenix and Fort Worth. The journey takes around 16 hours and typically requires two drivers to complete, with a stop for a handover. Federal law allows long-haul truckers to drive a maximum of 11 hours in a 14-hour period, followed by a mandatory 10-hour break.

There are a lot of potential consequences of this. One I have not seen discussed is what happens to the road trip establishments and culture in the United States. Drive any highway in the United States and they tend to be lined with certain establishments: gas, food, and lodging options, plus tourist sites. Drivers count on these and communities, businesses, and employees benefit from the revenue.

If more vehicles are autonomous, do these roadside features disappear? Or do the people still riding in the vehicles – they may or may not be in trucks, would likely still be in passenger vehicles – still need or want to stop? What if being in a vehicle becomes even more about only what is inside the vehicle; a person enters at the start of the journey, does what they want in the moving room, and only exits at the end? Or perhaps the autonomous vehicle will have to stop to recharge batteries?

“End of Beginning” and Chicago

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One song popular in the last few years, “End of Beginning,” references Chicago in its chorus:

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And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it
Another version of me, I was in it
I wave goodbye to the end of beginning

This song is “End of Beginning” by Djo, an artist name for Joe Keery who went to college in Chicago and then later left for New York City:

In a recent interview, the Newburyport, Massachusetts, native said he’s “excited” to get back to Chicago, where he studied theater at DePaul University.

Besides performing at Lollapalooza, he said he has plans to catch up with old friends and may even hit up Allende Restaurant, just steps away from the Lincoln Park campus. And at the top of his mind is a dip into Lake Michigan at Montrose Beach…

The last time the Sun-Times spoke with Keery, “End of Beginning” was one of the most popular sounds on TikTok. Though the song was released in 2022, fans made edits using the popular verse: “And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it.”

It’s a song about closing the chapter on his life in Chicago before moving to New York City.

On one hand, the song seems to speak of good experiences in Chicago. The artist says he is looking forward to being in Chicago.

On the other hand, Chicago is the place before going to the real place of success: New York City. The singer may like Chicago but he finds fame elsewhere. One of Chicago’s nicknames is “The Second City” and this may have originated in its status behind New York. But now, those in acting or entertainment may need to go to New York or Hollywood/Los Angeles to make it big. Chicago might be a place to be when you are young but these larger coastal cities have a ability to launch you into the stratosphere.

For a number of American places, you could put together interesting playlists that speak to the character and music of a community. Add this song to the list of songs about Chicago and I am always interested in songs that namecheck specific places.