Sometimes the culture can move quicker than that. I think gay rights was an example of culture moving faster than the law and the hard politics, but this is just intuition and I don't know the history. In any case, slow or fast, attempting soft influence such as persuasion is always part of the equation. And it's not easy! People are annoyed when you try to change their mind, especially at the level of values.
It felt rapid to me, growing up as a 1990s teenager scared to come out and then seeing marriage equality sweep the land in a matter of years. But the fight for gay rights began decades before any of that, building up "cultural critical mass." When it reached that tipping point, the political change felt rapid, but the long, slow work had been well before that.
In the case of urban culture, I'm not entirely sure what timeline we're on—is today's urbanism a continuation of the Jacobsean/1960s-era backlash to urban renewal, or is it the beginning of something new that departs from (and critiques) that? Modern YIMBY success is building on decades of bad policy accumulating in places like San Francisco and Austin, but it's responding to more recent challenges in other places. And that's just one leg of urbanism...I'm not sure if we're on the cusp of change or only at the beginning of a long slog.
I agree that people don't like to have their minds changed by other people—facts on the ground do a better job of that!
I suspect that different social changes have different syntheses of factors. I use gay rights because that's the only example I can think of in which cultural and popular change progressed much faster than political and legal change.
I am completely out of my element on political history and social change over the last two to three generations, so I am hoping that someone will pick up and run with it. The general questions being:
* What are the conditions of brute force political change having lasting, beneficial effects?
* How much culture change is needed to make lasting beneficial political change?
Laws that worked: mandatory seatbelt laws, CAFE standards worked for awhile, catalytic converters, 1964 Civil Rights Act, open streets in Manhattan
Laws that backfired: interlock seatbelt systems, NEPA, bike lanes in Houston
Hello ~ I enjoyed a chuckle after reading your post dated OCT 17, 2025 about Flying cars, glass domes, and self-cleaning SIDEWALKS—the City of Tomorrow was not only coming but already under construction.
What sidewalks ? ?
I just returned from Spain where there are wide, safe, clean and accessible sidewalks everywhere, funded by a gasoline tax. Why can't the USA have ADA compliant sidewalks everywhere also ? Sidewalks are the key component to livable / viable / thriving urban progress. Without ADA compliant sidewalks, how can people safely access public transportation, schools and businesses?
We have the resources. What is lacking is the resolve of elected officials.
We should not tear down beautiful old buildings to put up ugly modern ones, such as what is happening with Columbia University on the Upper West Side around 125 Street and the No. ! train.
We often understate how much cultural change it will take to move the needle on all these other factors. The cultural defaults can be very stubborn.
It's the hardest part and the work of generations, in my mind!
Sometimes the culture can move quicker than that. I think gay rights was an example of culture moving faster than the law and the hard politics, but this is just intuition and I don't know the history. In any case, slow or fast, attempting soft influence such as persuasion is always part of the equation. And it's not easy! People are annoyed when you try to change their mind, especially at the level of values.
It felt rapid to me, growing up as a 1990s teenager scared to come out and then seeing marriage equality sweep the land in a matter of years. But the fight for gay rights began decades before any of that, building up "cultural critical mass." When it reached that tipping point, the political change felt rapid, but the long, slow work had been well before that.
In the case of urban culture, I'm not entirely sure what timeline we're on—is today's urbanism a continuation of the Jacobsean/1960s-era backlash to urban renewal, or is it the beginning of something new that departs from (and critiques) that? Modern YIMBY success is building on decades of bad policy accumulating in places like San Francisco and Austin, but it's responding to more recent challenges in other places. And that's just one leg of urbanism...I'm not sure if we're on the cusp of change or only at the beginning of a long slog.
I agree that people don't like to have their minds changed by other people—facts on the ground do a better job of that!
I suspect that different social changes have different syntheses of factors. I use gay rights because that's the only example I can think of in which cultural and popular change progressed much faster than political and legal change.
I am completely out of my element on political history and social change over the last two to three generations, so I am hoping that someone will pick up and run with it. The general questions being:
* What are the conditions of brute force political change having lasting, beneficial effects?
* How much culture change is needed to make lasting beneficial political change?
Laws that worked: mandatory seatbelt laws, CAFE standards worked for awhile, catalytic converters, 1964 Civil Rights Act, open streets in Manhattan
Laws that backfired: interlock seatbelt systems, NEPA, bike lanes in Houston
Amen to all of this!
Hello ~ I enjoyed a chuckle after reading your post dated OCT 17, 2025 about Flying cars, glass domes, and self-cleaning SIDEWALKS—the City of Tomorrow was not only coming but already under construction.
What sidewalks ? ?
I just returned from Spain where there are wide, safe, clean and accessible sidewalks everywhere, funded by a gasoline tax. Why can't the USA have ADA compliant sidewalks everywhere also ? Sidewalks are the key component to livable / viable / thriving urban progress. Without ADA compliant sidewalks, how can people safely access public transportation, schools and businesses?
We have the resources. What is lacking is the resolve of elected officials.
Yes, that's right: this is not a technological problem. It's a political one.
We should not tear down beautiful old buildings to put up ugly modern ones, such as what is happening with Columbia University on the Upper West Side around 125 Street and the No. ! train.