Category Archives: Sociology

The number of vehicles required to maintain a suburban county’s roads

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The suburbs are known for driving and therefore have a lot of roads. How many vehicles does it take to maintain the county’s share of roads? Here is the number from DuPage County, Illinois:

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She noted the county’s division of transportation takes care of 220 miles of county highways and 92 miles of multiuse trails. It also maintains 650 vehicles in the countywide fleet and is responsible for snow removal on county roads.

This sounds like a lot of vehicles and I do not know if it is a lot or a little compared to similar-sized counties. At least in this story, the county is looking for a bigger transportation facility to meet all its need for space.

So in one suburban county, there are multiple actors responsible for the roads: the state for interstates and other highways, townships for some roads, municipalities for some roads, and the county for some roads. Is this the best way to approach things? Does each government body have similar vehicles? How close are each other’s roads to each other? If starting suburbia from scratch from this point on, would it be better to have one body address all the roads?

Roads are near sacred in the United States so I understand the attention paid to them. Yet the resources and energy required to maintain them, let alone expand them, is large.

Chicago suburb Oak Park named in list of global places to visit in 2025

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On the Travel Lemming list of “Our 50 Best Places to Travel in 2025,” one suburb makes the list of global destinations:

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At first glance, you may think that Oak Park is nothing more than an affluent suburb of Chicago. But it’s so much more.

Stunningly beautiful, Oak Park is the birthplace of American author Ernest Hemingway. Meanwhile, prominent architect Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked here. A casual stroll around the suburb will take you past numerous examples of his work.

Come in the fall to watch or run in the Frank Lloyd Wright races. These 5K, 10K, and youth mile races weave through some of the suburb’s most notable architecture.

Even among this global range of destinations – cities, natural spots, beaches, mountains, etc. – this one suburb stands out. It may be the only suburb on the list. Oak Park is unique in several ways. As noted above, it does have some unique architecture and the ability to learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright. Hemingway was born there. It is also a suburb that has pursued racial and ethnic diversity for decades.

At the same time, is one reason an American suburb could make such a list is that visitors get to experience a suburban lifestyle? If they went to Oak Park, beyond some of the unique features discussed above, would they have a sense of what American suburban communities are like?

What other American suburbs might make a global list of top travel destinations?

Food deserts and unenforced federal policies regarding suppliers and deals

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I am familiar with the concept of food deserts but I do not recall reading anything about their emergence over time. Could they be the result of not enforcing existing federal regulations regarding suppliers?

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Food deserts are not an inevitable consequence of poverty or low population density, and they didn’t materialize around the country for no reason. Something happened. That something was a specific federal policy change in the 1980s. It was supposed to reward the biggest retail chains for their efficiency. Instead, it devastated poor and rural communities by pushing out grocery stores and inflating the cost of food. Food deserts will not go away until that mistake is reversed…

Congress responded in 1936 by passing the Robinson-Patman Act. The law essentially bans price discrimination, making it illegal for suppliers to offer preferential deals and for retailers to demand them. It does, however, allow businesses to pass along legitimate savings. If it truly costs less to sell a product by the truckload rather than by the case, for example, then suppliers can adjust their prices accordingly—just so long as every retailer who buys by the truckload gets the same discount…

Then it was abandoned. In the 1980s, convinced that tough antitrust enforcement was holding back American business, the Reagan administration set about dismantling it. The Robinson-Patman Act remained on the books, but the new regime saw it as an economically illiterate handout to inefficient small businesses. And so the government simply stopped enforcing it.

That move tipped the retail market in favor of the largest chains, who could once again wield their leverage over suppliers, just as A&P had done in the 1930s. Walmart was the first to fully grasp the implications of the new legal terrain. It soon became notorious for aggressively strong-arming suppliers, a strategy that fueled its rapid expansion. By 2001, it had become the nation’s largest grocery retailer. Kroger, Safeway, and other supermarket chains followed suit. They began with a program of “self-consolidation”—centralizing their purchasing, which had previously been handled by regional divisions, to fully exploit their power as major national buyers. Then, in the 1990s, they embarked on a merger spree. In just two years, Safeway acquired Vons and Dominick’s, while Fred Meyer absorbed Ralphs, Smith’s, and Quality Food Centers, before being swallowed by Kroger. The suspension of the Robinson-Patman Act had created an imperative to scale up.

In this explanation, Walmart came to be such a big player in groceries because their size meant they could get better prices from suppliers. Smaller grocery stores could not keep up. The big chains set up locations in certain places offered lower prices.

If the Act was enforced again, would grocery stores quickly emerge in food deserts and other areas? Would consumers get more options soon or would it take some time to rebalance the grocery landscape? How would the big players – Walmart, Albertsons, Safeway, etc. – adjust? Would food options change in wealthier communities as well?

The article also cites a statistic that suggests independent stores had prices only 1% higher in 1965. Would that be a big enough difference in groceries today for shoppers to stay with places that offer low prices all the time (particularly considering recent concerns about inflation in food prices)?

The wealthiest US counties in 1972 versus today

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Considering median household income at the county level, I did a little research regarding past patterns compared to today. In 1972, the New York Times reported on the wealthiest counties in the United States:

As the article notes, all these counties are suburban counties.

According to Wikipedia, here are the wealthiest counties today:

Almost all of these top 30 are suburban. But the wealthiest counties have shifted toward more counties in the South and West. Some of the same counties are at the top of the list but there are also new counties there as well. What might have happened in 50+ years? Some guesses:

  1. Some of the wealthier counties in the 1970 Census matured, now have slower growth, and have more diverse populations. In contrast, the rapidly growing counties today are more in the South and West.
  2. Shifts in industry. Manufacturing jobs declined in many places and growing sectors, such as tech and the federal government, generated wealth elsewhere.
  3. Measuring at the county level might obscure patterns at the municipality level and at the regional level. For example, this may be less about individual counties and more about a region – say like the Washington, D.C region – growing.

I would be interested to hear how many companies and residents think at the county level these days. If someone were going to move, would they think in terms of Westchester or Nassau Counties outside of New York City like they might have in 1970 or would they think instead of specific communities and suburbs they have heard about?

“Trump won the suburbs”

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One media source recently declared “Trump won the suburbs”:

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The suburbs have become increasingly diverse and populous. More than half of voters in 2024 were in suburban areas, according to exit polls. They have become swing areas, home to some of the most closely targeted House seats, and a good barometer of who will win the presidential election.

The winner in the suburbs has won 11 of the last 12 presidential elections, dating back to 1980. And this year that was Trump, 51%-47%, according to exit polls.

Vice President Harris was hoping she could turn out women in the suburbs in key swing states to get her across the finish line. But that didn’t happen. Trump, for example, won white suburban women by 7 points, as well as white suburban men — by 27. So there were some split kitchen tables, but not enough to help Harris win.

In multiple swing states, there were significant shifts in Trump’s direction in the suburbs, based on nearly final vote totals. That includes a net swing of almost 60,000 votes in the four counties that make up the Philadelphia suburbs and the two major ones north of Detroit, more than 10,000 in the “WOW” counties around Milwaukee (Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington) and in the counties touching Fulton County, Ga., where Atlanta is.

This is the strongest declaration I have seen thus far about suburban voters in the 2024 election.

Two graphics in the story add to the text above:

  1. A national map of counties shows many suburban counties shifted toward more raw votes for Trump between 2020 and 2024. Relatively few suburban counties shifted toward Harris.
  2. There is an interactive graphic that shows shifts in suburban counties from 2016 to 2020 to 2024 and some suburban counties did move toward Harris in that span. This graphic shows there is significant variation in voting patterns across suburban counties.

On the whole, one candidate garnered more votes from the suburbs. Did that determine the election? This analysis does not say; it suggests suburban voters contributed to the outcome.

Cooking a turkey, carving a turkey as individual or communal events

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When many people in the United States prepare a turkey today, do they get the turkey ready to cook alone or with other people? How about when carving the turkey?

How many people gather around the turkey preparing it to go into the oven or onto the grill or into a fryer? Or is this more commonly a solo activity?

It might be different for the carving. Does this take place at the table or off in the kitchen? Does just one person get to wield the tools to carve the turkey?

Gathering for the meal is more communal. Thanksgiving is pitched as a family holiday. Does that familial interaction extend to the food preparation? Is it different for the turkey compared to other food items on the Thanksgiving table?

The number of Chicago residents who might apply to a second guaranteed income trial

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The Chicago Housing Authority has a long waiting wait for housing; the first guaranteed housing pilot also had a lot of applicants:

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The YWCA Metropolitan Chicago was the lead contractor for the pilot program, according to the report. In total, there were more than 700 in-person events while the application window was open. About 176,000 people applied for 5,000 slots. Participants were chosen through a lottery system, according to the report.

How many might apply for a second program?

A second city pilot, rebranded as the Chicago Empowerment Fund, is expected to launch sometime in 2025, according to the city’s proposed budget. The program will again serve 5,000 “low-income families and returning Chicago residents,” and provide $500 for 12 months, but more details about the qualifications weren’t available.

I would guess more people will apply than the 176,000 who applied the first time. I am basing this on the presence of the first program and the economic uncertainty many people feel.

If the number applying is indeed higher, the odds of any individual getting into the program decreases. The situation reminds me of the documentary Waiting for Superman which effectively uses video of a lottery for a school – some students benefit, many do not – as a sign that the education system is not working as it should. At what point does Chicago or other organizations go for a larger and longer-lasting guaranteed income program?

Thanksgiving travel to set records this year – because there are more people in the first place?

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At Thanksgiving each year come the stories about how many millions of Americans are going to travel for the holiday. But is this partly because there are more people in the country? From the story first:

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Just as sure as the turkey will taste dry, airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to end in another record day for air travel in the United States…

Auto club and insurance company AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday. Most of them will travel by car…

The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 18.3 million people at U.S. airports during the same seven-day stretch. That would be 6% more than during the corresponding days last year but fit a pattern set throughout 2024.

The TSA predicts that 3 million people will pass through airport security checkpoints on Sunday; more than that could break the record of 3.01 million set on the Sunday after the July Fourth holiday. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be the next-busiest air travel days of Thanksgiving week.

What could be other possible reasons for increased travel? Some options:

  1. Cheaper prices to travel and/or more money travelers are putting toward it. Are flights cheaper this year than in the past?
  2. The timing of Thanksgiving. The article hints that it might be different this year because Thanksgiving is so late. Does this happen every time Thanksgiving is later?
  3. An increased emphasis on or interest in visiting family.

If the media is going to report that more people are traveling, how do we know it is not just because there are more people? The US Census Bureau population clock says there are more than 337 million people in the United States now and there were more than 331 million in 2020.

The line between good and evil in individual hearts – and across society

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I was recently rereading an abridged version of The Gulag Archipelago and came across one of the most famous lines:

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But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

This line gets at the nature of human beings and the fate of every individual. But as I read the sentences around this quote, I picked some sociological leanings. Here is more of the passage:

So let the reader who expects this book to be a political expose slam its covers shut right now.

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good an evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn’t change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil.

An individualistic reading may not be the only one. Solzhenitsyn argues this issue faces every person. Individuals did make choices for evil and good but a these do not take place in a vacuum. At the same time, we can be swayed toward evil. He mentions “various circumstances.” Those might be our reactions to situations but it could also be about the people and norms around us. How much harder is to choose good when the people and institutions around us are pushing a different direction? The archipelago described in the book is not solely the result of one person; it was a system developed over time that involved millions. By the time Solzhenitsyn encountered the gulag, it had been operating for decades and would continue to do so.

South Alabama, Ohio University, and others have become the lower minor leagues for the big time college football teams who then feed into the NFL

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Watching several big college football games yesterday, I tried to focus on the number of transfers playing for Power 5 teams. Sometimes these transfers come from other big programs but they also now come from small schools were players have proven themselves. And then when they do well, they get the call-up to the 10-20 teams that might challenge for a national championship. And then they might get the call-up to the NFL.

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To some degree, this has always been true in college football. But with the ease of transfers and NIL money, it seems like a new era is underway. The player who might never get recruited at a top team at the end of high school could be a hot commodity after several successful in the lower minor leagues. This might be especially true of quarterbacks; instead of going through years of developing someone, big programs can pluck a veteran transfer who can step right in.

How much more like the minor leagues can college football get? Will this help prompt separating the football from the education side? The number of transfers from smaller programs to bigger ones might play a role.