Portside

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Robinson was a fierce competitor, an outstanding athlete and a deeply religious man. The aspect of his legacy that often gets glossed over is that he was also a radical with a long involvement with the civil rights movement.

The time appears to be ripe for a new wave of urban reform. Both socialists like Seattle’s Sawant and progressives like New York’s de Blasio have a chance to popularize “left wing of the possible” ideas that seem bold but not preposterous. But as their socialist and progressive counterparts over the past century recognized, good ideas don’t become policy without social movements behind them.