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Local Govt. Control: The Ignored Campaign Issue
In an election cycle full of spittle and bile, arguably the greatest issue --- the nature of governance and the role of citizens --- has been all but ignored. Neither candidate for president has much...
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Lone Star Quartet
Texas’s spectacular growth is largely a story of its cities—especially of Austin, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. These Big Four metropolitan areas, arranged in a layout known as the...
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The Incompatibility of Forced Density and Housing Affordability
New research supports the conclusion that anti-sprawl policy (urban containment policy) is incompatible with housing affordability. Build-zoom.com economist Issi Romem finds that: “Cities that have...
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Biggest Income Gains In U.S. Accrue To Suburban Cities
After a long period of stagnation, last week’s announcement of the first substantial annual income gains since 2007 was certainly welcome. Predictably, analysts inclined toward a more favorable view...
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Palo Alto and the Tech Shop of Horrors
This piece by Zelda Bronstein (original to 48hills.org) goes behind the story of the Peninsula planning commissioner who made national news by saying she had to leave town to buy a house for her...
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How to Reform the California Legislature and Restore Power to the People
The Western states, and California in particular, have had a long history of spearheading progressive reforms, especially in their electoral and governmental systems. A former Governor of California,...
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Urbanism, Texas-Style
Cities, noted René Descartes, should provide “an inventory of the possible,” a transformative experience—and a better life—for those who migrate to them. This was certainly true of seventeenth-century...
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New York, Two States of Mind
Is New York City helping or holding back Upstate New York?Towards the end of times, when all of mankind congregates in a final purgatory to draw the main lessons of this grand adventure called Life,...
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Is there a future for the GOP?
Whether he loses or, more unlikely, wins, Donald Trump creates an existential crisis for the Republican Party. The New York poseur has effectively undermined the party orthodoxy on defense, trade and...
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Is Peter Thiel Right About Chicago?
Peter Thiel recently made one of his trademark provocative statements by saying, “If you are a very talented person, you have a choice: You either go to New York or you go to Silicon Valley.”The...
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Transit: About Downtown and the Core
Transit best serves commuting destinations that have high concentrations of employment. For the most part, this means downtowns, or central business districts (CBDs). This is where transit lives up to...
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OC Model: A Vision for Orange County's Future
This is the introduction to a new report on Orange County published by the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy titled, "OC Model: A Vision for Orange County's Future."Read the full...
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Solidarity, not Division: Understanding London’s East End
The East End of London has a long history of working-class community. It has been a place of industry, where the river Thames and the river Lea have provided work for many people. The area attracted...
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Urban Containment, Endangered Working Families and Beleaguered Minorities
Working families and the middle class are becoming an increasingly endangered species in many parts of United States. Median household income remains below its 1999 peak (inflation adjusted). But the...
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Carnegie Deli and Other Bad New York Restaurants
When you’re a kid, there are certain cartoons you just love. That love remains over time as your warmly think back on childhood memories. It lasts, that is, until you foolishly go back and watch an...
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California’s Road to Leviathan
At a time when technology and public opinion should be expanding the boundaries of innovation and self-expression, we appear to be entering a new era of ever greater economic and political...
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Honolulu Rail: From $4.6 B to $8.6 B in Eight Years. Now What?
With its official cost now having risen to $8.6 billion and a funding gap of $1.8 billion, both of which are certain to rise, Honolulu’s rail project will run out of money before construction reaches...
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A Better Way
My recent post at Granola Shotgun described how a town in Georgia spent an enormous amount of public money on a new civic center and road expansions, but somehow managed to devalue nearby private...
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How to Make Post-Suburbanism Work
Are you ready to become a “real” city yet, Southern California? Being “truly livable,” our betters suggest, means being “infatuated” with spending more billions of dollars on outdated streetcars...
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Welcome to Rosemont, IL
Millions of people pass through O'Hare, settle into the adjacent hotels, go to conferences and meetings in the nearby convention centers, shop in the nearby stores or drink and eat in the nearby bars...
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