This is very well put: “Pratt is a sideshow. Raman is representative of a larger trend.”
Benjamin Schneider (@urbenschneider)
Last week’s @dwallacewells column on the progressive wave in big city mayoral elections was an important corrective. Pratt is a sideshow. Raman is representative of a larger trend.
An important aspect of this trend is that leftwing mayoral candidates in NYC, Boston, Seattle, LA, and DC are running not only as progressives but as urbanists. They’re broadening their appeal by supporting market-rate housing construction, going to bat for bike lanes and bus lanes and congestion pricing, and de-prioritizing cars and parking in the public realm.
It’s a testament to the success of the “left-YIMBY” ideological synthesis — though there’s still a lot of tension in that coalition, with the “left” and “YIMBY” sides often pulling in opposite directions.
I think the common ground that enables this synthesis is a shared love of urban life. One of the side-effects of the pandemic is that it allowed more people to live where they preferred, not where their jobs required them to be. Many of the people who remained in big cities over the past few years, or moved into them, genuinely wanted to live there. The constituency of big city voters who want their city to be quieter, more suburban, more car-friendly has diminished. A lot of them moved away.
— https://nitter.net/urbenschneider/status/2066549583782564336#m