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Watch Out! Here Come the ‘Woke’ Tech Oligarchs
Once the rich protected themselves by aligning with Republicans who would protect their property from high taxes and their firms from regulation. Some still do—notably the Koch brothers—but this breed...
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Welcome To Ashburn (via WBEZ)
Some recent piecesI wroteabout segregation in the past few weeks got me thinking of how to express how a particular feature of segregation I've witnessed in the Rust Belt, what one might call...
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Iowa’s Next Election: Bridging the Urban-Rural and Class Divide
My home state of Iowa famously gave Barack Obama a convincing victory in the Democratic caucuses in 2008, the first triumph that launched a young U.S. senator from Illinois to become the first...
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Across the Gobi Desert by Train
In recent years, China has substantially increased the size of its railway system and has overtaken long-standing leader India in total passenger travel. As a result, it has become far more convenient...
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The West Is In The Midst Of A Migration And Identity Crisis
As the economy has improved, popular concern, both here and abroad, has shifted to issues of migration and identity. Just last year, immigration, according to Gallup, was seen as the most important...
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The Once and Future Lagos
City Journal just ran a very interesting piece on Lagos by Armin Rosen. Lagos is by some estimates Africa’s largest city and is well known as a creative capital. I don’t know anything personally about...
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A Corporate Wealth Tax: Making the Oligarchs Pay
It may be en vogue among a certain group to express concern about the influence of Russian oligarchs within our political system, but perhaps we should all be a bit more concerned about the home-grown...
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EU Auditor High-Speed Rail Criticisms: Lessons for North America and Australia
The European Court of Auditors issued a report in late June critical of Europe’s development of high-speed rail. The European Court of Auditors is described on its website as: “the EU's independent...
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Urban planners predicted that Millennials would prefer renting apartments in dense cities over owning homes in low-density suburbs. So they told regional governments to restrict low-density development...
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Little Experiments on the Cheap
Part of my ongoing plan to create a more resilient and adaptable life includes finding alternative ways to satisfy daily needs with simple affordable work-arounds. I want electric lights at night and I...
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Democrats Are Helping Trump to Win Re-Election
Donald Trump and the Republican Party, increasingly his subsidiary, should be headed to a reckoning of historic proportions. But, despite his own often unforced errors, Trump may have found an...
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Millennials Reinvent Localism in Their Search for Community
It’s common knowledge that millennials long for "community." What’s less understood is the concrete expression of that longing in cities and suburbs across America, especially now that the older tier...
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The Buffalo Billion Reconsidered
You may recall my City Journal feature on Buffalo from 2015. This was written about the time New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion program – a pledge to spend $1 billion in state funds to bring...
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Whatever Happened to Civility in America?
The “us vs. them” tone of American politics, most visibly emanating from the White House, but infecting all the country’s political rhetoric, has now spread to daily life. The polarization leads some...
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The Hollowing-Out of the California Dream
Progressives praise California as the harbinger of the political future, the home of a new, enlightened, multicultural America. Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill has identified California Senator...
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Urumqi: World’s Remotest Large City (The Evolving Urban Form)
Urumqi (alternate spelling “Wulumuqi”) is the most remote large city in the world from a seacoast. Urumqi is approximately 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the Bay of Bengal, in the Indian Ocean,...
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Jonathan Gold’s Los Angeles
The passing this week of Jonathan Gold, Los Angeles’s Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic, reminded us of why we have lived in Southern California for more than four decades. When we arrived in...
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Self-Styled Futurist Looks At California Governor’s Mansion
When he takes office this January, as seems inevitable, Gavin Newsom, a self-styled futurist, will inherit an economic legacy that could be turning sour. After a rapid expansion that seemed to make all...
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Columbus, Ohio’s Structural Advantages
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is hiring a research associate for their global cities program. If interested, check out the listing.In 2009 I posted an article that proclaimed Columbus, Ohio...
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A Personal Segregation Story
I've written quite a bit about segregation and its impact on cities lately, and more specifically on its impact on people of color. I won't link to everything I've done recently but encourage you to...
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