Consider as an example of infused attitude the mental maps of people who never visited Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The city’s once deserved image of smoke and soot from coke ovens and steel mills still finds its way into the mental maps of out-of-towners. In their imagination, it is the city of potbellied beer-drinking football fans that wave yellow towels at Steelers while they inhale thick, sulfur-rich smog.
In the heyday of steel and coal prior to the establishment of environmental laws, Pittsburgh was indeed the city beneath a shroud of smoke. Just up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh lies the small river community of Donora, the site of a tragic and infamous smog event caused by an atmospheric inversion in 1948 that killed 20 people and sickened thousands. Word was out: Avoid the steel mill cities and towns like Pittsburgh and Donora. Breathing is an important life process.
In the 1950s smoggy Pittsburgh undertook its own renaissance. Federal and state environmental laws and regulations then reduced the visible smoke in the 1970s and 1980s. Eventually, many of the aging steel mills closed or downsized. All three events changed the place. Its population of laborers declined, and its number of white-collar workers increased. Its universities have flourished, and successive city leaders have initiated additional phases of renaissance, including the reclamation of “brown fields” (the dilapidated industrial sites). In 1985 and again in 2007 the Places Rated Almanac ranked Pittsburgh first among most livable American cities. That ranking does not make it paradise, but it would surprise those with negative mental maps of the city. Now “green fields” with high-tech companies in new buildings have replaced the old steel mills. Yet, the image of smoke and rust remains. The city’s tallest building is made from Core-10 steel, an alloy that is designed to protect itself by rusting, but uninformed visitors could easily mistake the building’s exterior as an example of decay.
Travel through Palm Beach, Florida. It is neat. The ocean is right there. The mansions lie behind gates, hedges, and walls. The streets are 99.99% litter free. Very few signs clutter the community. Many expensive cars line Worth Avenue. Think about the cars for a moment: Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus, and various limos. Think about cars when cost is irrelevant. Most communities are identifiable by their parked cars. Drive through any area and carry away no image other than that of parked cars, and you carry away all the stuff you think you need to know for an economic mental map.
We are often minimalists and caricaturists. Give us a few details, and we’ll map the world. Unfortunately, we accept our minimalist maps as full-blown realities because, in recall, in retrieval from the mental map library, we add details we never surveyed. We add our current attitude to our past maps. We impose the bias of caricature on people and places. So, Palm Beach to the casual observer and the outsider can be represented by a mental map with favorable emotions attached to it.
Neither Pittsburgh nor Palm Beach is, itself, a necessary model for the point here. Numerous cities can serve as examples. When we have little information, we impose details that reveal personal bias and generalization. Often, to the detriment of others we impose those details on the basis of an innate need for reductionism and pattern identification.
Lets use Pittsburgh and Palm Beach figuratively in the knowledge that caricatures are exaggerations that inhibit understanding and limit openness to opportunity. Want a job? Want to find new friends? Want to find nice neighbors? Want to find great universities? What if all these are better served in the area around a “Pittsburgh” than in a “Palm Beach” area? Yes, a “Palm Beach” might be a great place, but is it a great place for you?
In the heyday of steel and coal prior to the establishment of environmental laws, Pittsburgh was indeed the city beneath a shroud of smoke. Just up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh lies the small river community of Donora, the site of a tragic and infamous smog event caused by an atmospheric inversion in 1948 that killed 20 people and sickened thousands. Word was out: Avoid the steel mill cities and towns like Pittsburgh and Donora. Breathing is an important life process.
In the 1950s smoggy Pittsburgh undertook its own renaissance. Federal and state environmental laws and regulations then reduced the visible smoke in the 1970s and 1980s. Eventually, many of the aging steel mills closed or downsized. All three events changed the place. Its population of laborers declined, and its number of white-collar workers increased. Its universities have flourished, and successive city leaders have initiated additional phases of renaissance, including the reclamation of “brown fields” (the dilapidated industrial sites). In 1985 and again in 2007 the Places Rated Almanac ranked Pittsburgh first among most livable American cities. That ranking does not make it paradise, but it would surprise those with negative mental maps of the city. Now “green fields” with high-tech companies in new buildings have replaced the old steel mills. Yet, the image of smoke and rust remains. The city’s tallest building is made from Core-10 steel, an alloy that is designed to protect itself by rusting, but uninformed visitors could easily mistake the building’s exterior as an example of decay.
Travel through Palm Beach, Florida. It is neat. The ocean is right there. The mansions lie behind gates, hedges, and walls. The streets are 99.99% litter free. Very few signs clutter the community. Many expensive cars line Worth Avenue. Think about the cars for a moment: Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus, and various limos. Think about cars when cost is irrelevant. Most communities are identifiable by their parked cars. Drive through any area and carry away no image other than that of parked cars, and you carry away all the stuff you think you need to know for an economic mental map.
We are often minimalists and caricaturists. Give us a few details, and we’ll map the world. Unfortunately, we accept our minimalist maps as full-blown realities because, in recall, in retrieval from the mental map library, we add details we never surveyed. We add our current attitude to our past maps. We impose the bias of caricature on people and places. So, Palm Beach to the casual observer and the outsider can be represented by a mental map with favorable emotions attached to it.
Neither Pittsburgh nor Palm Beach is, itself, a necessary model for the point here. Numerous cities can serve as examples. When we have little information, we impose details that reveal personal bias and generalization. Often, to the detriment of others we impose those details on the basis of an innate need for reductionism and pattern identification.
Lets use Pittsburgh and Palm Beach figuratively in the knowledge that caricatures are exaggerations that inhibit understanding and limit openness to opportunity. Want a job? Want to find new friends? Want to find nice neighbors? Want to find great universities? What if all these are better served in the area around a “Pittsburgh” than in a “Palm Beach” area? Yes, a “Palm Beach” might be a great place, but is it a great place for you?
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