Newgeography.com - Economic, demographic, and political commentary about places

As if proliferating spy balloons and insidious TikTok feeds weren’t enough, America’s economic relationship with China also is going to get more complicated. And as usual when things are really important, Flyover Country will be right in the middle of it.  read more »

Los Angeles has been restored to the position of densest major urban area (over 1,000,000 population) in the nation, according to Census Bureau data (complete file).  read more »

“From the Beginning, California promised much. While yet barely a name on the map, it entered American awareness as a symbol of renewal. It was a final frontier: of geography and of expectation.”
— Kevin Starr, “Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915” (1973)  read more »

The urban future in the coming decades will be largely an African one. The continent is now home to 12 of the world's largest cities and four megacities  read more »

One of the enduring mysteries of contemporary society centers on the seeming disassociation of so much of the labor force from the economy.  read more »

The current deceleration of globalism can herald either a greater period of nationalism, with its tendency towards authoritarianism and xenophobia, or we could return to a more decentralized political system that comports with both American and Canadian traditions and popular preferences.  read more »

I was disappointed to read in the South China Morning Post that the legendary Kowloon-Canton Railway train from Hung Hom Station in Kowloon (Hong Kong) to Guangzhou East Station would not be restored following its pandemic suspension. The train made the 130 kilometer (80 mile) trip in about 1:40.  read more »

Last Tuesday during his State of The Union speech, President Joe Biden repeated a claim he has made many times over the past few years about renewable energy. Biden declared that the Inflation Reduction Act is “the most significant investment ever in climate change, ever. Lowering utility bills, creating American jobs, leading the world to a clean energy future.”  read more »

In the wake of liberal globalism’s failings, a nationalist tide is rising today, not only in China and Russia but also throughout the West. It is a dynamic eerily similar to 100 years ago  read more »

China represents the cutting edge of 21st century urbanism. Its successes and failures will shape global perceptions of city life, not only in that country but around the world.  read more »