Seattle Mayor Ed Murray used May Day 2014 to announce that business and labor had agreed to a historic plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Seattle’s bold measure is a part of a growing wave of activism and local legislation around the country to help lift the working poor out of poverty. The gridlock in Washington—where Congress has not boosted the federal minimum wage, stuck at $7.25 an hour, since 2009—has catalyzed a growing movement in cities and states.

Within less than a decade, however, Bartley’s vision has become at least a partial reality. People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH)—the group he founded with Eric Walker, another organizer—now has an enviable track record of winning victories that have improved the lives of low-income people on the city’s West Side and built a solid core of grassroots leaders prepared to contest for both political and economic power.

Moreover, the state’s labor movement— anchored by over eight hundred thousand members in Los Angeles County (about 18 percent of the workforce)—waged effective electoral campaigns last November so that every statewide office is now held by a Democrat, including the governorship (now held by Jerry Brown). The L.A. County Federation of Labor has an impressive political mobilization apparatus that puts thousands of working people into the streets during election cycles to support pro-labor candidates.

Research Article| April 01 2010 Did He Ever Return?: The Forgotten Story of Charlie and the M.T.A. PETER DREIER; PETER DREIER Peter Dreier is E. P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and director of the Urban and Environmental Policy program at Occidental College. He is coauthor of several books on urban politics and policy, includingPlace Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century (University Press of Kansas) and The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City (University of California Press). He writes regularly on politics, public policy, popular culture, sports, work and labor, and activism forThe Nation, American Prospect, and the Huffington Post. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google JIM VRABEL JIM VRABEL Jim Vrabel is the author ofWhen in Boston: A Timeline and Almanac, a chronological history of Boston, and coauthor of John Paul II: A Personal Portrait of the Pope and the Man. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Music (2010) 28 (1): 3–43. https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.28.1.0003 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation PETER DREIER, JIM VRABEL; Did He Ever Return?: The Forgotten Story of Charlie and the M.T.A.. American Music 1 January 2010; 28 (1): 3–43. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.28.1.0003 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressAmerican Music Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2010 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2010 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

We, too, were big fans of The Wire and are sorry that it is off the air. It touched a nerve among Americans who are hungry for a society that brings out the best in people—a society that encourages hope rather than fear. In the past few years, we've witnessed a growing concern about poverty and inequality bubbling up from the grassroots, and just now surfacing in our national political life. America today has the biggest concentration of income and wealth since 1928. A growing number of working families are in debt, while the number facing foreclosure has spiraled. American workers face declining job security. The cost of housing, food, health care, and other necessities is rising faster than incomes. Since George W. Bush took office, an additional five million Americans are living in poverty.

The wire, the television drama about Baltimore that ended its fifth and final season this spring, was a huge hit with critics who applauded its gritty depiction of urban life. From the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal, from the liberal American Prospect to the libertarian Reason magazine, plaudits were unanimous for the HBO show, whose large, primarily African American, ensemble cast portrayed cops, teachers, reporters, drug dealers, dockworkers, politicians, and other characters in the real dramas of a major American city.

On a clear, chilly day in November 2004, then-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney stood inside a large white tent set up on the brick plaza outside Boston City Hall. Romney wasn't there to deliver a speech or cut a ribbon. He was there to sing a song—something he did with gusto as he joined the Kingston Trio in a rousing rendition of "M.T.A.," the well-known ballad about a "man named Charlie" doomed to "ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston" and become "the man who never returned." The purpose of this unusual concert was to launch the "Charlie Card," an electronic fare card that has now replaced tokens on the Boston subway system. "I've always wanted to do that, since about the fifth grade," said Romney, after singing the song that has become not only part of American folklore, but a proud part of Boston history.