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12 Ways to Map the Midwest
What is the Midwest? There’s been a lot of debate about this question among folks passionate about such thing. But it defies easy definition. Here are eleven ways various people have taken a crack at...
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Berlin: The Imperial Impulse in City Planning
"He who controls Berlin, controls Germany, and who controls Germany, controls Europe." V.I. Lenin (but also attributed to Karl Marx, and sometimes to Otto von Bismarck)About the time that Syrian...
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Too Many Places Will Have too Few People
The adage “demographics are destiny” is increasingly being replaced by a notion that population trends should actually shape policy. As the power of projection grows, governments around the world find...
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China’s Demographics at a Turning Point
For decades, the decline in China’s birth rate was a big boost for the economy. What now?This week, schadenfreude could have been a word invented for China experts if you judge by some of the...
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When Detroit Stood Tall and Shaped the World
My recent post about how urban planning decisions helped lead to the Motown sound in Detroit was inspired by David Maraniss’ new book Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story.The book takes a deep dive...
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The Cities Where Your Salary Will Stretch The Furthest 2015
Average pay varies widely among U.S. cities, but those chasing work opportunities would do well to keep an eye on costs as well. Salaries may be higher on the East and West coasts, but for the most...
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Cherry Hill: The Winners
This is Cherry Hill. It is by far the most desirable suburb in this part of southern New Jersey as measured by all the usual metrics. Property values are high. Public schools are great. The municipal...
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2014 Journey to Work Data: More of the Same
The major metropolitan area journey to work data is out, reported in the American Community Survey ‘s 2014 one year edition. The news is that there is not much news. Little has changed since 2010...
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Tech Titans Want to be Masters of All Media We Survey
The rising tech oligarchy, having disrupted everything from hotels and taxis to banking, music and travel, is also taking over the content side of the media business. In the process, we might see the...
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The Detached iHome of the Future
Will new American housing growth continue to reflect old methods, or will the land development, home building, and consulting industry retool, re-educate, and collaborate to create a new era of more...
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How Portland Is a Lot Like Texas
One theme I always hammer is that you have to look at proposed policy solutions in the context of the area where you want to apply them.A great example of this is Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary...
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Jerry Brown’s Insufferable Green Piety
At the site of real and immediate tragedy, an old man comes, wielding not a sword to protect civilization from ghastly present threats but to preach the sanctity of California’s green religion. The...
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White House Economist Links Land Use Regulations: Housing Affordability and...
There is a growing body of research on the consequences of excessive land use regulation. The connection between excessive land use regulation and losses in housing affordability, has been linked to...
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Fostering a Climate of Intolerance
The Paris Climate Conference, convening this week, takes place in the very place where, arguably, the most dangerous exemplar of hysteria, the Islamic jihadi movement, has left its bloody mark. Yet the...
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Deindustrialization, Depopulation, and the Refugee Crisis
The refugee crisis facing Western nations has begun to peak both demographically and politically. The United Nations has reported that more than 6.5 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries...
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How Many People Will Live in Africa in 2050 and 2100?
Large declines in fertility will depend on raising female literacy above 80%.Every few years, the United Nations Population Division releases demographic projections for the entire world and for every...
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Traffic: Rome's Not-So-Smart Car Squeeze
Who would have thought that city planners in Oklahoma City would be more bike and pedestrian friendly, and better at taming car traffic, than those in Rome? In Oklahoma City, Mayor Mick Cornett has...
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Paris and the Politics of Climate
To some, particularly in the green movement, this month’s Paris climate change summit represents something like the great synods of the early Christian era, where truth and policy, for example, on...
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How Oklahoma City Decided to Change Its Image
I was in Oklahoma City for the first time earlier this year. I got to see a lot of the things I’d heard about, such as the in-progress Project 180, a $175 million plan to rethink and rebuild every...
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Los Angeles: City Of Losers?
When I arrived in Los Angeles four decades ago, it was clearly a city on the rise, practicing its lines on the way to becoming the dominant metropolis in North America. Today, the City of Angels and...
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