Urban Issues

What a difference the remote work revolution has made. The University of Minnesota Accessibility Observation auto and transit access data for 2021  read more »

In 1971, after a lifetime researching and explaining the Central Business District, American geographer Raymond Murphy gathered his knowledge together in The Central Business District: A Study in Urban Geography.  read more »

In this era of heightened racial and ethnic tension, few academic concepts have enjoyed as much success as “settler colonialism.”  read more »

Last weekend there was a debate taking place on a very small corner of the Internet. It was about the Midwest’s culture and its impact on growth and development prospects.  read more »

Transit ridership dropped sharply with the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020. The slow rebound in the years that followed has prompted discussion, sometimes in hushed tones, as to whether transit had entered a “death spiral.” That ominous description refers to a situation where a decrease in ridership leads to lower farebox revenue, which in turn leads to service cuts, which further reduces ridership, and so on in a vicious downward cycle.  read more »

Delayed decision-making, bureaucratic dithering, and the stubborn resistance of NIMBYs have all been frequently cited as planning-related barriers to the development of much-needed housing.  read more »

This article describes work access in the Los Angeles combined statistical area (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties) from 1980 to 2022, using US Census Bureau data.  read more »

In a post-7 October world, many have finally woken up to the reality that the locus of anti-Semitic sentiment now resides on the left.  read more »

Joseph Lawler’s learned essay on induced demand, looking at the case of highway expansion in Austin, Texas, is fair-minded, but somehow seems more about theory than actual reality. He talks about downtown as if it really mattered all that much. It doesn’t.  read more »

Age is a big deal. We saw just how big a deal it is from the deterioration of President Biden evident during the recent debate with Donald Trump. There’s a growing sense that the world is being run by a gerontocracy  read more »