Metropolitics

An Unexpected Victory in the Fight to Save Philadelphia Chinatown

Andrew Lee — 2025-10-14T05:00:00Z

Grassroots efforts to counter gentrification-inducing megaprojects often fail as elected officials negotiate various interests. Using the case of 76 Place in Philadelphia, Andrew Lee examines the nuanced interplay of forces that spared Chinatown from a new arena.
“When they raze these streets, I'll no longer know which way my toes are pointed.” — Dylan Tran, “My Soul Travels Between Three Cities”
On December 19th, 2024, Philadelphia City Council voted 12–5 to approve 76 Place, a

- From the Field / Chinatown, Philadelphia, gentrification, Pennsylvania, United States, mobilization

The Spectacle of Reuse: Recirculating Urban Salvage at Pittsburgh's Construction Junction

Susan M. Ross — 2022-04-29T05:05:00Z

Susan M. Ross examines a building-materials reuse center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, arguing that it is an important space for encouraging the reuse of materials, revealing material flows that are usually hidden, and promoting local social good.
---- Series: Urban Wastes, Present and Future Urban salvage yards play an important role in recirculating materials by encouraging building-materials recovery, repair, and reuse (Ghyoot et al. 2018). This article examines Construction Junction, a

- From the Field / waste, waste management, building materials, reuse, repair, salvage, deconstruction, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Post-Election Dispatches from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania

Jamie Longazel — 2020-12-22T06:00:00Z

Jamie Longazel reflects on organizing for the 2020 general election in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. A longtime Democratic stronghold, the County voted for Trump in the 2016 election. Longazel discusses the role deindustrialization, job loss, and immigration have played in election politics.
On a warm August evening in 2018, I gave a speech outside of a Trump rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The stage was the top of a grassy hill that sloped downward from a shopping-center parking lot.

- From the Field / community organizing, civic organizing, mobilization, US election, presidential election, elections, vote, Donald Trump, immigration, Latinx, protest, United States, Pennsylvania, Wilkes-Barre

The Ongoing Housing Crisis and the Rust Belt Revolt for the GOP

Elora Lee Raymond — 2017-01-13T06:10:00Z

In response to a tense post-election moment in the US, the Metropolitics editorial committee has initiated Rapid-Response Peer Review, with a commitment to quickly reviewing and publishing articles that examine organizing and activism around crucial urban issues. Our second call was for papers related to housing policy. Here, Elora Raymond deploys unique research on the location of underwater mortgages to suggest that housing, not jobs, may hold the key to reigniting progressive politics in the

- From the Field / housing, Rust Belt, crisis, housing crisis, Donald Trump, negative equity, underwater mortgage, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan