The New Disorder: Urban Dysfunction Returns
City Journal Audio
Manhattan Institute
4.7 • 657 Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2019
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Steven Malanga and Rafael Mangual join Seth Barron to discuss concerns that lawlessness is returning to American cities, a theme that Malanga and Mangual explore in separate feature stories in the Summer 2019 Issue of City Journal.
Memories of the urban chaos and disorder of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s have faded, and many local leaders today have forgotten the lessons of that bygone era. Malanga's story, "The Cost of Bad Intentions" (available soon online), shows how a new generation of politicians are bringing back some of the terrible policies that got American cities into trouble in the first place. On crime and incarceration, Mangual argues that the new disorder will grow worse if progressives manage to overhaul the American criminal-justice system.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the 10 Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal. |
| 0:05.0 | Coming up on today's show, Seth Barron, will talk with Steve Malanga and Ralph Manguel |
| 0:10.1 | about their cover stories for the summer 2019 issue, which we packaged under the larger section |
| 0:16.7 | in the magazine called The New Disorder. |
| 0:23.4 | In the 1960s, as city journal readers know, |
| 0:26.1 | the American city entered a downward spiral, |
| 0:29.0 | one leading to decades of violent crime, |
| 0:32.4 | widespread disorder, and bad economic policies. |
| 0:35.9 | As progressive mayors embraced ill-advised ideas, |
| 0:40.3 | they only chased away more residents and businesses to the suburbs. By the 90s, though, cities began to retake control of their streets, with smarter policing that focused on crime and quality of life concerns. |
| 0:49.3 | Those reforms allowed cities like New York to enjoy a new era of prosperity. Now, unfortunately, all this is at risk. |
| 0:58.0 | A new generation of progressive leaders have emerged who are reverting to the very ideas that once led to urban decline. |
| 1:07.0 | Last week, we released Ralph's essay from the issue, and it's already received a lot of attention. |
| 1:13.3 | You can check it out on the City Journal website, and we'll link to it in the description. |
| 1:17.9 | Steve's essay will be available online soon. |
| 1:21.4 | That's it for me. |
| 1:22.5 | The conversation between Seth Barron, Steve Malanga, and Ralph Manguel begins after this. |
| 1:41.2 | Welcome back to Ten Blocks, the podcast of City Journal. |
| 1:47.9 | This is your host for today, Seth Barron, associate editor of City Journal. |
| 1:55.6 | I am joined by two colleagues, Steve Melanga and Rafael Mangual, to discuss articles they've written for the summer issue of City Journal. |
| 2:02.3 | Steve, is a senior fellow at Manhattan Institute and senior editor of City Journal, wrote an item called The Cost of Bad Intentions. Ralph, a fellow at Manhattan Institute, wrote, everything you don't know |
| 2:09.6 | about mass incarceration. Both pieces are included under a larger heading in this issue, |
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