With less than two months left before the next U.S. president is elected, ScienceBlogs wanted to dedicate a space to campaign politics. A Vote For Science is a group blog that will focus on the candidates' science policies. It is 
By way of intro, you may not have noticed that ScienceBlogs has a number of special projects blogs, including this one, A Vote For Science. A good idea with meh execution and mixed outcome from what I can tell so far. I did like the Next Generation of Energy effort. One of the biggest strengths of ScienceBlogs is the audience...but it apparently takes individual shepherding to actually maintain and grow that audience.... Whatevs, DM, whatevs.
Well, there is a new-ish group / special projects blog called Revolutionary Minds Think Tank that has been operating for about a month to little fanfare. The point seems to be....well, hell I don't exactly know. You can draw your own impression.
I was struck by this entry from one Edward Einhorn in response to where the scientific lens might best be directed to improve life.
The specific application I have in mind is on the issue of arts funding. I have been struck many times by the attitude in American society towards the arts as a sort of social leech, sucking underserved money from the unwilling government (or what little funding the arts gets, that is). The recent stimulus package, which miraculously gave a pittance ($50 million) to the arts, was an example: Consistently, that $50 million was referred to more than almost any other single element of the $700 billion bill as wasteful spending.
A social leech indeed. And not just a social leech but one that benefits a rarified class of Americans, my friend.
Living in New York City, as I do,
Uh-oh. Out-of-touch alert!!111!!!
One interesting study would be to analyze the development of a neighborhood once the artists move in. More than once I have seen a neighborhood transform, thanks in good part to artists who do not have the money to live elsewhere but are able to use their creativity to find a way to start reviving the neighborhood piece by piece. What usually happens is that the neighborhood develops (as say, Soho did) into an area so popular that most of the artists are then forced to move out. But these experiences are anecdotal more than codified.
Hmm, very interesting proposal indeed. Gentrification is often a painful socioeconomic process as the low-cost housing available in an urban area becomes too pricey for the original inhabitants. This affects, I will note to the author, not just the starving arteests but also the poor people that just happen to live there in the first place. Where are they to go? Where do they go?
Back to the apparent hypothesis that this is a fiscal stimulus route- is it? Isn't the effect here just to re-direct the recreation dollars of those who can afford it? Is there anything new created with the arts? Does a new arts district get the mattress stuffing consumer to spend again?
Okay, he has me curious.
Politics
