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Orlando’s Sunrail: Blank Checks Induced by Washington
We are supposedly living in an age of austerity, but many federal programs are leading many states into overspending and potential fiscal insolvency. Transit spending is a case in point, as is...
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California’s Green Jihad
Ideas matter, particularly when colored by religious fanaticism, wreaking havoc even in the most favored of places. Take, for instance, Iran, a country blessed with a rich heritage and enormous...
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USA: A Net Exporter of Natural Gas?
Less than a decade ago, major American energy companies were investing billions in constructing new terminals for importing liquefied natural gas — the cooled, dense state of methane that makes it...
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Education as an Export
A trade deficit is a negative balance between a nation’s imports and its exports, so a country with a trade deficit is spending more on imports than it is receiving for selling its exports. Is there...
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The Other China: Life on the Streets, A Photo Essay
We all know or have heard about the overwhelming development going on in China. Journalists enthuse and analysts throw magnificent statistics of what seems to be a miracle. Yet there is little...
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Why Compact Cities Aren't so Smart
I was interested to read the views of Rick Boven of the New Zealand Institute about central and local government needing to resolve their differences about the future of Auckland. Well, they have...
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The Explosion of Oil and Gas Extraction Jobs
From Appalachia to Alaska, the growth is eye-popping. Thousands of new jobs have sprouted up, most well-paying and all boons to their regions. There’s no denying oil and gas extraction jobs are on the...
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The Rise Of The Third Coast: The Gulf Region’s Ascendancy In U.S.
For most of the nation’s history, the Atlantic region — primarily New York City — has dominated the nation’s trade. In the last few decades of the 20th Century, the Pacific, led by Los Angeles and Long...
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What To Look For In The Next President
As the 2012 election approaches, America is in a state of malaise. Massive debt, unfettered spending, economic decline and partisan divide have served to undermine the great American narrative that is...
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Growing a Productive Urban Economy
Suggestions that we can grow the Auckland, NZ economy by encouraging business into the central business district (CBD) in the interests of innovation do not reflect the weight of experience. Sure,...
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The New State of Coastal California?
In 2009, former California legislator Bill Maze proposed dividing his state, hiving off thirteen counties as Coastal (or Western) California (see map). Maze, a conservative from the agricultural...
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Can Florida Escape the Horse Latitudes?
When it comes to the winds of change, Florida remains in the horse latitudes. This zone of the Atlantic around 30 degrees latitude was so named by ship captains because their ships, becalmed in the...
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Will J.R. Recognize the New Dallas?
In the sixties and seventies, Dallas’s prime tourist attraction was an assassination site. The town seriously needed a new image. It got one in a soap opera that revealed a city besieged by blonds, big...
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The Evolving Urban Area: Seattle
Lunching at Seattle's Space Needle, the casual observer might imagine that one of the nation's most dense urban areas is spread out below. To the immediate south of the Space Needle is one of the...
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Drones on the Prairie
When the Base Realignment and Closure Commission was drawing up its list of military installations to close back in 2005, consultants assured the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota, that its Air Force...
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Living and Working in the 1099 Economy
We used to call it “Free Agent Nation.” Now, it seems like the new term of art will be “The 1099 Economy.” While the names may change, they all point to a phenomenon of rising importance: the...
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Australians Are Getting A Carbon Tax They Don’t Want
Within weeks, the Australian government is expected to announce a package of measures including a carbon tax to stimulate renewable energy sources and abate carbon emissions. Officials, activists and...
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Honolulu: Mega Rail Project in a Micro City
An exorbitantly costly rapid transit heavy rail project has been proposed for the small Hawaiian island of Oahu, where the leading metropolis, Honolulu, ranks 53rd in population among U.S. cities, with...
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The Next Boom Towns In The U.S.
What cities are best positioned to grow and prosper in the coming decade? To determine the next boom towns in the U.S., with the help of Mark Schill at the Praxis Strategy Group, we took the 52 largest...
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The Costs of Smart Growth Revisited: A 40 Year Perspective
"Soaring" land and house prices "certainly represent the biggest single failure" of smart growth, which has contributed to an increase in prices that is unprecedented in history. This finding could...
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