As the nation’s trade fights linger on — and the 2020 presidential campaign moves onto the runway — there are three sets of counties to keep an eye on in the American Communities Project: the ag-based Aging Farmlands, small-town Rural Middle America, and the blue-collar Middle Suburbs. The tariffs and […] Read more »
Drivers behave worse than cyclists, walkers, and even scooter riders, Washingtonians say in new poll
Nearly 6 in 10 Washington-area residents say drivers frequently violate traffic laws in the region, more than say the same about pedestrians, bicyclists or electric scooter riders, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll. Perhaps surprisingly, drivers are more likely to fault other drivers as scofflaws than they are […] Read more »
How the Rural-Urban Divide Became America’s Political Fault Line
It’s true across many industrialized democracies that rural areas lean conservative while cities tend to be more liberal, a pattern partly rooted in the history of workers’ parties that grew up where urban factories did. But urban-rural polarization has become particularly acute in America: particularly entrenched, particularly hostile, particularly lopsided […] Read more »
Washington-area residents widely oppose paying a toll to drive into downtown D.C.
A clear majority of Washington-area residents oppose congestion pricing — charging drivers a toll to enter the District during high-traffic times to ease congestion — according to a recent Washington Post-Schar School poll. The survey finds that 63 percent of residents oppose the idea, nearly double the 34 percent who […] Read more »
In Pennsylvania, Joe Biden Finds Support Where He Most Needs It
The case for Joseph R. Biden Jr. has always come down to Pennsylvania. … Mr. Biden’s entry was met, particularly on social media, by a chorus of doubts at times bordering on derision from critics and progressive activists who questioned his age, his status as a white man and his […] Read more »
Trump’s battle with sanctuary cities is the next phase of his confrontation with urban America
President Donald Trump’s threats to relocate undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers to “sanctuary cities” capture his determination to constantly press the boundaries of law and morality with hardline immigration policies. But it may reveal even more about his political posture toward the nation’s biggest population centers. … Trump’s confrontational relationship […] Read more »