In my mind the term “creative class” here in fishtown means artists, internet people, skilled craftsmen and women–as opposed to more conventional union laborers, and entrepreneurs that cater to hipsters and gentrifiers.

These people are certainly voters, and they form the backbone of opposition to things like casinos. They are politically involved and they tend to work on issues to fix the neighborhood like tree planting, clean up, getting trash cans, etc.

To claim that they are only voting/registering now because “they found a trendy candidate” is pretty insulting and indicates ignorance on the part of the writer.

People like them were instrumental in getting philly’s mayor–Mike Nutter– elected. The white ethnics of fishtown supported machine boss bob brady or voted for other rich white guy Tom Knox (because many of them would never, ever, vote for a black man.)

During the mayoral election I had the surreal experience of listening to a sound truck drive down the street playing a tape that said “vote for tom knox!” as it drove past some of the local scamps added their own analysis/encouragement “’cause he’s not a nigger!”

the longtime residents–
“urban ethnics” (but don’t we call them “optimistic and joyful non-bitter voters” now?) are pretty much registered already, and they support the machine. fishtown provides the votes that kill the candidacies of local reformers.

They tend to pull the lever for whomever the union tells them to vote for…

That is why if you were smart you would NOT run a registration drive here.

As I said, fishtown will go for Hillary I am sure.

But the biggest bellylaugh of all was your characterization of Fishtown. Next you’ll tell me that Olney is Clinton territory.

My grandparents were Polish immigrants, and in my family it was assumed that you’d register to vote as soon as you hit legal age, because that’s what conscientious Americans did. Maybe it was too much trouble for the “creative class” to do the same until they found a trendy candidate.

That’s even assuming the term “creative class” is anything more than a bunch of trendy BS.

if you call a new homeowner in fishtown a hipster they will most likely get pretty offended.

nobody in their right mind would have run a general voter registration drive here if their goal was to elect a progressive reform-style candidate.

this neighborhood is where such candidates go to die.

“nigger” and “spic” are still in the general lexicon deployed by the optimistic and joyful residents of my ‘hood, so I suspect obama will not do well here.

the fishtown local dem committee is totally part of the machine and runs on old school back scratching and patronage.

of course, they endorsed hillary.

I suspect, therefore, that hrc will do quite well here.

but we’ll do what we can to prevent that from happening