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Children and Cities
Central cities are not likely to regain their former population. However, some of them may have reached an important inflection point—population growth has returned to at least some of the largest (and...
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125 Years of Skyscrapers
Skyscrapers have always intrigued me. Perhaps it began with selling almanacs to subscribers on my Oregon Journalpaper route in Corvallis. I have continued to purchase almanacs each year and until...
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America Hanging in There Better Than Rivals
To paraphrase the great polemicist Thomas Paine, these are times that try the souls of optimists. The country is shuffling through a very weak recovery, and public opinion remains distinctly negative,...
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Root Causes of Detroit’s Decline Should Not Go Ignored
Recently Detroit, under orders from a state-appointed emergency manager, became the largest U.S. city to go bankrupt. This stirred predictable media speculation about why the city, which at 1.8 million...
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Plan Bay Area: Telling People What to Do
The San Francisco area’s recently adopted Plan Bay Area may set a new standard for urban planning excess. Plan Bay Area, which covers nearly all of the San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Vallejo and...
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Cities Don’t Consume Resources, People Do
Urban form or urban consumers?If we want to reduce the environmental impacts of modern society let’s prioritize consumption, not city form. The evidence suggests that large cities (and especially city...
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Rust Belt Chic And The Keys To Reviving The Great Lakes
Over four decades, the Great Lakes states have been the sad sack of American geography. This perception has been reinforced by Detroit’s bankruptcy filing and the descent of Chicago, the region’s...
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South Korea, What Will Limit the World’s Global Underdog?
South Korea is a small country with grit. The shrimp sized peninsula is a national success story that transformed itself from impoverished conditions to industrial riches in a remarkable 68-year...
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Southern California's Road Back
If the prospects for the United States remain relatively bright – despite two failed administrations – how about Southern California? Once a region that epitomized our country's promise, the area still...
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Swedish Lessons for Obama
During his upcoming visit to Sweden, President Barack Obama will surely praise the nation’s combination of high living standard, few social problems, and high level of income equality. But he may be...
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The Emerging Geography of Inequality
Since the 1970s there has been a well-documented and persistent increase in income inequality in the United States. As the country slowly emerges out of a deep recession, it is instructive to seek out...
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A Map Of America's Future: Where Growth Will Be Over The Next Decade
The world’s biggest and most dynamic economy derives its strength and resilience from its geographic diversity. Economically, at least, America is not a single country. It is a collection of seven...
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Suburb Hating is Anti-Child
Sure, suburbs have big problems. Their designs force their inhabitants to drive in cars, instead of walking and bicycling. This diminishes face-to-face interactions, physical health, and the quality of...
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History, Landscape, Beauty on the American Freeway
Freeways, particularly urban freeways, have had a bad press for several decades now. They are accused of despoiling scenery, destroying habitat and causing urban sprawl. Many observers report with...
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Americans' Family Feud
In this bizarrely politicized environment, even the preservation of the most basic institution of society – the family – is morphing into a divisive partisan issue. Increasingly, the two parties are...
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Book Review: 'The End of the Suburbs,' by Leigh Gallagher
Suburbia has been a favorite whipping boy of urbane intellectuals, who have foretold its decline for decades. Leigh Gallagher's "The End of the Suburbs" is the latest addition to this tired but...
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Inequality of the Largest U.S. Metropolitan Areas
We earlier mapped inequality of the US states. Now I show the geography of inequality for metropolitan areas over 1,000,000. These measures of inequality are gini coefficients, calculated by the US...
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What Triggers a Civic Turnaround?
Lots of cities in America are struggling with low population growth and sluggish economies. Poor demographics and economics lead to fiscal problems that result in more people and businesses leaving,...
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The Consequences of Urban Containment
Recently published research by Brian N. Jansen and Edwin S. Mills represents notable addition to the already rich academic literature that associates more stringent land use regulation with higher...
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America's True Power In The NAFTA Century
OK, I get it. Between George W. Bush and Barack Obama we have made complete fools of ourselves on the international stage, outmaneuvered by petty lunatics and crafty kleptocrats like Russia’sVladimir...
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