by Jonathan Hiskes David Brooks writes about the ’60s and ’70s crime wave that scared a generation of Americans–or a generation of white, mobile Americans–away from urban living: [P]eople in all classes lived in fear. “Mugging was nothing unusual. Everybody got mugged,” [John] Podhoretz writes. A serial killer nicknamed Charlie Chop-Off menaced the Upper West Side, emasculating little boys and then killing them, and such was the general disorder that his crimes were barely mentioned in the city’s newspapers. Many of the people living in cities during that era moved to the suburbs and bought cars (or second cars). Crime has since dropped off, but the psychological understanding of cities as hotbeds of crime and decay remains among Baby Boomers. For those who see cities as key testing grounds for sustainable living, the good news is that today’s young adults don’t share the same fear. A recent Brookings study found young whites moving into urban centers in record numbers. Harvard Business Review recently advised businesses to consider moving into cities if they want to attract bright young workers of any race. The challenge is that Boomers still fill the ranks of policymakers and power brokers, and during their formative years, American cities were floundering. How do we make Congress—where the median age is 58—able to see the potential gains of reinvesting in cities?

More on SKCEA.org:

• Life in a World without Oxygen
  The Earth’s oldest fossils have been found in Australia by a team from the University of Western Australia and Oxford University. The microscopic fossils show convincing evidence for cells and bacteria living in an oxygen-free world over 3.4 billion years ago. The earliest identi...
• High Blood Pressure and Dementia
  Blood is obviously important for the body well being. Blood flow through the brain is essential for the delivery of nutrients such as glucose and oxygen that are needed for nerve cells to function. During the early stages of Alzheimer's disease patients can suffer from high blood...
• Air Force Jumpstarts Electric Vehicle Program
  This week, Air Force officials unveiled a plan to establish Los Angeles Air Force Base as the first Federal facility to replace 100% of its general-purpose fleet with Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV’s). This is the start of a broader Department of Defense (DoD) effort toward large...
• Dust storms not sole reason for Phoenix air quality
  Under the Clean Air Act, states must develop State Implementation Plans (SIP) to convince the US EPA that they can meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQAS). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected Arizona's claim that dust storms caused the high po...
• China working on solar yaks
  by Christopher Mims. China is going to increase its solar capacity 10-fold in the next 5 years. Driving this solar great leap forward will be "feed-in tariff" -- Chinese citizens who install solar panels will be paid 15 cents for every kilowatt-hour they produce. Germany uses th...