America’s urban leaders seem to prepare for the post-pandemic future with delusions that everything will go back to the way before the COVID-19 pandemic set in. Nothing can be more dangerous to the prospects for cities; the pandemic and recent rise in crime have created a vastly different prospect for cities, necessitating serious reconfiguration. read more »
Urban Issues
Despite Wishful Thinking, Cities Won't Come Back Without Major Reform
Environmentalism is the New War on the Working Class
"There should be a real liberal party in this country, and I don't mean a crackpot professional one." – Harry Truman.
John Kerry, President Joe Biden's new climate czar, took a private jet to accept an environmental award in Iceland in 2019. read more »
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Strong Communities Need Public Spaces — and Private Enterprise
We need parks and libraries and town squares for gathering. We also need shops, restaurants, and other commercial amenities. read more »
High-Speed Rail: An Evaluation
Note: This article is adapted from the recently published Reason Foundation report Assessing the Results of the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program, by Wendell Cox read more »
New York Again Seeks a Handle Up
One aspect of New York City’s clean-up in the 1990s was the closing of many dingy Off-Track Betting parlors. Some tidier operations lived on for a few years but ultimately Gotham said good riddance to the public gambling-on-horses corporation. read more »
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Work Trips in the CSAs with the Largest CBDs
This article describes the reduction in work visits, by counties within the six combined statistical areas (CSAs), also called commuting zones, that include the nation’s six largest downtown areas (central business districts, or CBDs) by employment. CSAs are combinations of adjacent metropolitan and micropolitan areas that have strong work trip commuting connections, but not as strong as within metropolitan areas (MSAs). read more »
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Quality Of Life, Or Quantity Of Lives?
Anyone who's been in the urbanism game as long as I have (or longer) is probably familiar with the annual Places Rated Almanac, the annual metro area ranking reference produced by David Savageau. First published in 1981, I remember seeing each year's edition in bookstores while I was in high school and college, and it was the first attempt I could remember at evaluating the positives and negatives of place, and ranking them accordingly. read more »
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Can We Save the Planet, Live Comfortably, and Have Children Too?
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about what Zillow calls “the great re-shuffling,” as more people head out of major metropolitan areas to work, often remotely, in less dense, even rural areas. read more »
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Time to Deliver: How Biden Should Respond to the Insurrection
“The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches – with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone – was once at the core of the American Dream.” –Robert Reich, economist and former U.S. Secretary of Labor
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” –Dante Alighieri, inscription on the gates of Hell, The Divine Comedy, circa 1321 read more »
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Progressives Must Stop Celebrating Urban Flight
As the nation enters 2021 with hopes of healing divisions, Vox published a story with the drop headline, “Young families and wealthy people are decamping for the suburbs — which might make cities more pleasant for everyone else.” This is exactly the continued nonsense from the left that continues to polarize our discourse, and it needs to stop. read more »
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