The Top 5: Baltimore's overdose crisis, school buses, drunk driving, liberalism, urban planning's 'induced demand'
Welcome to the latest edition of the Top 5 articles we’ve read this week. Each week, we read dozens of articles in the hope we find essays and reporting that speak to big ideas, trends, future looks, and incredible human stories. We hope you enjoy our list, and do always let us know if you have a suggestion or a recommendation!
Michael was included in two great interviews this week — one for the Christian Science Monitor on Michael’s vision for public service, and the other in Sam Pressler’s about a number of topics covered in The Spirit of Our Politics and the Center for Christianity and Public Life.
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The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life is available now! If you already own the book, access CCPL’s discussion guide here. Would you also consider writing a review on Amazon? Thank you for your support!
The Top 5 articles for your week:
“Almost 6,000 Dead in 6 Years: How Baltimore Became the U.S. Overdose Capital” (NYT)
Because Baltimore has the worst overdose rate of any city, and it’s where Michael and I call home. Several reporters at the Times and The Baltimore Banner did a three-part series on the crisis. The first part is above, and the second can be found here, and the final part here.
“The Uncertain Future of the Yellow School Bus” (The Atlantic)
Because Lora Kelley reveals that coupled with driver shortages, “The bus is a tool that touches millions of kids’ lives every day, but on the whole, these vehicles have hardly improved over decades—even as the education system flocks to other, new technologies. Its stagnation has come about in part because administrators tend to focus on interventions that improve test scores ‘rather than a dusty old bus,’ Garcia said. He also noted that ‘there’s an assumption that school buses are for working-class kids, largely kids of color.’”
“How the war on drunk driving was won” (Works in Progress)
Because Nick Cowen looks at the norms —i.e. the “moral costs” — that helped cut down on the amount of drunk driving and how this process could be replicated for curbing other crimes.
Two underappreciated ideas stick out from this experience. First, deterrence works: incentives matter to offenders much more than many scholars found initially plausible. Second, the long-run impact that successful criminal justice interventions have is not primarily in rehabilitation, incapacitation, or even deterrence, but in altering the social norms around acceptable behavior.
“Why Liberals Struggle to Defend Liberalism” (New Yorker)
Because Adam Gopnik takes us through the confusing labyrinth of definitions, meaning, and arguments around the word “liberals” and “liberalism,” thus making it difficult to find common ground and understanding when talking about these ideas.
“If You Build It, Will They Come?” (The New Atlantis)
Because Joseph Lawler examines a highway proposal in Austin, Texas and the fundamental question around “how cities should form and grow” not just in Austin, but in other cities that are looking to solve traffic problems while also “inducing demand” to induce city growth.
ICYMI on the podcast:
The Morning Five: May 20, 2024
The Morning Five: May 21, 2024
The Morning Five: May 22, 2024