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The High-Speed Rail Program Under Congressional Scrutiny
A combative and clearly agitated Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood defended the Administration’s high-speed rail program at a December 6 oversight hearing of the House Transportation and...
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Let’s Level the Inter-generational Playing Field
With President Obama’s speech in Osawatomie, Kansas decrying the growing economic inequality and lack of upward mobility in America, the issue has finally arrived at the center of this year’s campaign...
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Heavy Metal Is Back: The Best Cities For Industrial Manufacturing
For a generation American manufacturing has been widely seen as a “declining sport.” Yet its demise has been largely overplayed. Despite the many jobs this sector has lost in the past generation,...
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Iowa: Not Just the Elderly Waiting to Die
Stephen Bloom, a journalism professor at the University of Iowa, created quite a stir in Iowa this week with a piece in The Atlantic describing his unique observations on rural Iowa as evidence that it...
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The Robotics Census
Immigration is a concern for countries around the world, not just the U.S. It’s that annoying tendency of humans to gravitate toward an area where they can survive as opposed to staying where they are...
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California: Codes, Corruption And Consensus
We Californians like collaboration. Before we do things here, we consult all of the “stakeholders.” We have hearings, studies, reviews, conferences, charrettes, neighborhood meetings, town halls, and...
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Rethinking College Towns
As a practitioner in both consulting and local government, I have observed that in local communities nothing seems to prompt productive action better than a local crisis or strongly felt threat like a...
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New Census Data Reaffirms Dominance of the South
The 2011 state population estimates released earlier today by the Census Bureau show that the South has retained its dominant position in both population and growth over the last year. Southern states...
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The Sun Belt's Migration Comeback
Along with the oft-pronounced, desperately wished for death of the suburbs, no demographic narrative thrills the mainstream news media more than the decline of the Sun Belt, the country’s southern rim...
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California in 2011: Suburbs Up, Exurbs Down?
I had the fortune recently to stumble on the California Department of Finance’s estimates of population change in California during the period July 1, 2010 – July 1- 2011. This is distinct from the...
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Public Pensions: Reform, Repair, Reboot
Ill-informed chatter continues to dominate the airwaves when it comes to California public pensions. It’s a big, complex and critical issue for government at all levels in the Golden State. What makes...
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Looking at the New Demography
In the last 200 years the population of our planet has grown exponentially, at a rate of 1.9% per year. If it continued at this rate, with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all...
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Suppressing the News: The Real Cost of the Wall Street Bailout
No one really knows what a politician will do once elected. George “No New Taxes” Bush (George I to us commoners) was neither the first nor will he be the last politician to lie to the public in order...
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Central Florida: On the Cusp of Recovery?
Central Florida is poised at the cusp of a major turnaround, and its response to this condition will either propel the region forward, or drag it backward. This cusp condition is brought about by a...
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The Driving Decline: Not a "Sea Change"
The latest figures from the United States Department of Transportation indicate that driving volumes remain depressed. In the 12 months ended in September 2011, driving was 1.1 percent below the same...
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New Geography's Most Popular Stories of 2011
As our third full calendar year at New Geography comes to a close, here’s a look at the ten most popular stories in 2011. It’s been another year of steady growth in readership and reach for the site....
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The U.S. Needs to Look Inward to Solve Its Economy
Over the past months as the global economy heads for another recession, U.S. lawmakers have done their best to deflect blame by focusing on various external forces including the most popular straw-man...
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The Shifting Landscape of Diversity in Metro America
Census 2010 gave the detail behind what we’ve known for some time: America is becoming an increasingly diverse place. Not only has the number of minorities simply grown nationally, but the...
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The U.S. Economy: Regions To Watch In 2012
In an election year, politics dominates the news, but economics continue to shape people’s lives. Looking ahead to 2012 and beyond, it is clear that the United States is essentially made up of many...
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California's Deficit: The Jerry Brown and 'Think Long' Debate
California has three major problems: persistent high unemployment, persistent deficits, and persistently volatile state revenues. Unfortunately, the only one of these that gets any attention is the...
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