About

It's easy to think about how things were when you were a kid and fall into pure nostalgia. Nothing wrong with that but that's not where I'm going with my thoughts today. When I was a boy in the early/mid-1970's we knew all our neighbors. We lived in a tight-knit area where most everyone on our block knew each other. Most evenings neighbors would come out at night into their yards and have conversations. We also knew people who lived in surrounding blocks. I don't say that doesn't exist anymore. I do say, it was a lot more common then, than it is today.  We hear about how tribal people have become. This seems to center around politics. Is it the fault of politics? I think you will agree that tribalism has gone beyond everyday people to our elected officials in Washington D.C. and then some. Much the way people in communities don't talk political issues and opposing viewpoints (with the frequency I think they used to) neither do most of the members of Congress. Is that their fault or did we (the citizens) create that result? Of course, this conversation isn't limited to Washington. It shows up in all kinds of ways from local politics to neighborhood gatherings. Or the lack of neighborhood gatherings in many places. This week on the City Voice podcast my conversation is with Marc J. Dunkelman. He is the author of The Vanishing Neighbor, The Transformation Of The American Community. Marc is a Watson Institute fellow in International and Public Affairs at Brown University. His work at Brown focuses on how the evolving architecture of American community has affected the workings of government, the dynamism of the American economy, and the resilience of the American social safety net. During more than a dozen years working in Washington, Dunkelman served as a senior fellow at the Clinton Foundation, on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as legislative director and chief of staff to a member of the House of Representatives, and as the vice president for strategy and communications at the Democratic Leadership Council. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, Daily Beast, and National Affairs, among other publications. Our conversation ranges from our personal neighborhood experiences to the role of the U.S. Constitution and the chicken or the egg community or individual question. Thanks and don’t forget to subscribe to City Voice and share with your friends. SHOW LINKS The book: The Vanishing Neighbor, The Transformation Of The American Community My Guest: Marc J. Dunkelman