“The long-term utility of the megaregion as a distinct planning scale is still unproven. Does the megaregional approach confront or evade the core planning issues of equity, democracy, livability, economic vitality, and design excellence? If Jane Jacobs old quip about a region being ‘an area safely larger than the last [...]
“Transformation comes from entering new markets and leaving old ones. Companies rarely transform themselves through cost cutting or improved operational effectiveness. Operational effectiveness is necessary to compete, and world-class operators can create competitive advantage, but in almost all cases, operational effectiveness is insufficient to stave off disruption and drive long-term [...]
There’s a sort of genre of urbanist creativity out there of fantasy transit maps. These are maps of transit systems that don’t exist and usually aren’t even proposed yet, but rather just express some dream of the creator, often quite epic in scope.
What I find interesting is how much better [...]
Gay Talese releaesd his masterwork on the history, culture, and inner workings of the New York Times, The Kingdom and the Power, in 1969. It’s the story of a bygone era in journalism, but also more than that. I found this passage particularly curious.
And so what worked in Mississippi [...]
I have received some reports of badly distorted fonts with Firefox on Windows XP. If the font on this site is rendering horribly for you, I’d appreciate you sending me a screen shot, along with your browser and OS version. I’m investigating. In the meantime, you can see a cleaner [...]
I’ve long said that people with big dream and ambitions for themselves want to live in a city where the civic aspiration matches their personal aspiration. Of course, this isn’t always true. Many of us have a reservoir of affection for our home towns, our alma mater, etc. that transcends [...]
We just got back from spending a week in Barcelona. It’s a great city, the weather was perfect, and the crowds weren’t too bad. A very enjoyable trip all around. As usual, I have a few observations that struck me while there.
Urban CultureI used to have a team I [...]
My latest post is up over at New Geography. It is called “Geographies in Conflict“. I examine the curious case of why there is so much net domestic out-migration from supposedly booming “world cities”. Some attribute this to high taxes driving people out. I have a different take. Yes, [...]
[ For those who don't already read him, Ryan Avent is an editor at The Economist magazine who also writes for Streetsblog Capitol Hill and at his own blog The Bellows. Ryan is also an honest to goodness real economist too. He's great for getting a more progressivist' [...]
[ This post inaugurates a three part series on "megaregions" and the applicability of this concept to the Midwest. It is a repeat of something I wrote on the subject a bit over a year ago. That should lay the ground work. Part two of the series will be a [...]
I’ll conclude my series on privatization with a series of guidelines for action or best practices you should look at to determine if privatization is right. I take a pragmatic view on this. The private sector and government are always going to work together. We just need to make sure [...]
My latest post is online over at New Geography. It is called “Reducing Carbon Should Not Distort Regional Economies“.
Here is a map of proposed compliance costs by quintile for the pending cap and trade bill in Congress put together by the Brookings Institution:
As you can see, [...]
[ If you are looking for something related to Gabe Jordan, scroll down to the bottom of this post ]
Until recently I had an apartment in the Fountain Square neighborhood of Indianapolis. Fountain Square is a small commercial node surrounded by houses on the near southeast side of the city [...]
The Urbanophile has been in the news a lot lately and I haven’t had time to link it all, so I put together this media roundup of my latest coverage. Back to more original content tomorrow.
My piece on Detroit as the new American frontier was featured by the New [...]
“The real question is what these expensive, publicly bankrolled behemoths add to their local economies. The consensus across every, single serious study ever done of the economic impact of sports stadia is ‘absolutely nothing.” As the old song goes, ’say it again.’” – Richard Florida
Over at Columbus Underground they [...]
Continuing my look at privatization transactions, this installment focuses on appropriate uses of funds.
Some types of privatization involve paying a third party to deliver an outsourced service. If, by outsourcing, you are able to save money and get better service, great. If you are able to realize recurring savings from [...]
I was in Boston last week for part of Rail~Volution 2009, America’s premier transit conference. I was part of a panel on the use of social media for transit advocacy. It’s clear this is a topic a lot of people are trying to figure out. I don’t want [...]
As a followup to my “What’s Killing California” piece, here are a couple of other takes in the media of late.
Time Magazine staked out an optimistic position on the state in a major cover story called, “Golden State is Thriving, Despite Its Woes“.
John B. Judis takes a [...]
“I have often heard great English property owners congratulate themselves on the fact that in our day they get more money from their domains than their fathers did. Perhaps they are right to rejoice; but surely they do not know what they are rejoicing about. They believe they are making [...]
Lewis Mumford’s The City in History is one of the all time great books on cities. Published in 1961, it is contemporary with Jane Jacob’s “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”. Both of these are landmark works, and are also rhetorically magnificent. It makes me think back [...]
Continuing with my series on privatization of government services, today I look at the question of how privatization creates value. You can also read part one on the types of transactions.
While a few people just don’t like the government doing things on principle, most of the time privatization – [...]
[ Welcome to my new readers finding me via the Daily Dish and many, many other sites. I hope you enjoy and thanks for checking me out. I was going to publish the second installment of my series on privatization today, but thought instead I would ease you into it [...]
I previously wrote about how the Parable of the Talents can be viewed as purely descriptive, not normative. It does seem that the people who are already at the top of the heap are able to keep getting more good stuff. While in a dynamic society fortunes rise and [...]
It’s a brand new day here at The Urbanophile. A new site design, a new URL, a new technical platform, and a new hosting provider – but still the same mission, helping America’s cities find ways to thrive and find sustainable success in the 21st century.
For those reading through subscriptions, [...]
First, a quick head's up. The Congress for New Urbanism is hosting a Transportation Summit in Portland, November 4-6. Check out the conference web site.
Ryan Avent pointed me at newly released BEA figures for metropolitan area GDP. Here's a national map of how the nation's metro areas fared in terms of GDP growth or decline in 2008:
High Speed Rail and Transit Roundup "The fine arts of traffic management should be studied no less than the fine arts of parks and boulevards; for unless Chicago keeps ahead of her rivals in commercial matters, the parks will become pastures, and the boulevards will be deserted."
"Michigan Avenue is probably destined to carry the" [...]
