The allure of a silver-bullet economic development project is like that boat you buy for a low, low down payment. You know, the one that ended up sitting in your driveway under a tarp for years. Just ask Memphis.
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Our collective willingness to maintain infrastructure that has outlived its economic rationale will evaporate in due course. Only the truly productive bits will survive the fullness of time.
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Change may come, but it isn’t going to be planned or voluntary. Instead we’re all going to absorb a variety of unintended consequences.
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One of the reasons Ocean Grove, New Jersey has endured intact is the presence of a religious community that had a higher calling and a longer event horizon than the dominant secular culture. There are lessons to be learned here even by people who may not identify with the church.
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Everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Our current institutions are in the process of failing and are unlikely to be reformed. Once the dust settles, we’ll create new institutions and a fresh cultural consensus that respond to pressing needs on the ground.
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Affordable housing can take many shapes and show up in surprising places. These places aren’t subsidized or government-run, but they house millions of Americans.
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Bozeman is becoming the new frontier for tech workers who don’t want to slog it out in the Bay Area. What does that mean for the city?
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You can put up all the signs you want, but your community will still be vulnerable to a myriad of external shocks.
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Housing options become even more scarce when the value of property is no longer tethered to the local labor market.
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The housing crunch leads families to make hard trade-offs in order to live affordably. A quick chat in an airport lounge reveals some unique examples.
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The rise of technology is slowly emptying out our malls and business parks. They could be put to better use... if we actually wanted to solve the problem.
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Can the co-working model be applied to housing?
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As a nation, we have multiple, profound predicaments that we need to come to grips with. This isn’t going to end well if we don’t pull together.
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Your town isn’t a dress rehearsal. This is it, folks.
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The way we finance new developments in suburban communities is one giant Ponzi Scheme, but no one seems to realize how doomed the whole thing is.
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The key to building a stronger town is cultivating dynamic household economies. Cities across the globe have mastered this. Why can't we?
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A couple years ago, I bought a $15,000 uninhabitable shack in Cincinnati, Ohio, hoping to renovate it into a nice two-story duplex for renters. Here's what went wrong.
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In the wake of the California wildfires, what happens next? Will these communities rebuild or abandon?
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Better transit is badly needed in the Anaheim region but rather than provide that, the regional government spent millions on a shiny, new auto-oriented facility.
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In a California town, Main Street is preserved while everything around it shifts and the conditions that built Main Street are destroyed.
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