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How cities can drive opportunity for the bulk of their citizens

Corner of Canal and Baxter Streets in NYC

After Coronavirus We Need to Rethink Densely Populated Cities

April 9, 2020

by Joel Kotkin — For the better part of this millennium, the nation’s urban planning punditry has predicted that the future lay with its densest, largest, and most cosmopolitan cities.

Coronavirus and Cities

April 7, 2020

by Schlomo Angel — We have drafted a working paper, titled "The Coronavirus and the Cities: Explaining Variations in U.S. Metropolitan Areas as of 27 March 2020". We plan to revise the paper regularly as new data comes in.

Elderly couple in small town, rural America

Coronavirus, Labor and an Aging World

April 7, 2020

by Ali Modarres — In the last few months, we have gradually realized the dire nature of this global pandemic, and our response has been? Nothing short of the creation of a new world: hopefully not on the ruins of the last. The novel coronavirus is showing us the downside of accelerated mobility, excessive attention to short-term gains, and structural inequities.

The Future of Office Space Real Estate Market

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April 6, 2020

by Marshall Toplansky — Recently, I interviewed 12 CEO’s in California about what aspects of business they expected to change after the coronavirus epidemic passsed. They first cited a coming upheaval in the office space real estate market.

The Coming Age of Dispersion

March 26, 2020

by Joel Kotkin — As of this writing, the long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic remain uncertain. One possible consequence is the end of the megacity era. In its place, we may now witness a new, and necessary, dispersion of population...

Coronavirus and the Future of Living and Working in America

March 24, 2020

by Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky — By late spring, the most severe impacts from coronavirus may fade, but its impact on the rise of dispersed living and working arrangements — were already emerging even before the pandemic emerged.

Studying the Wrong Cities Will Lead to Repeating Their Mistakes

March 4, 2020

by Ross Elliott — The junket factor must be the only logical criteria by which various industry “study tours” overseas are planned. How else to explain how entirely inappropriate the choices are? The list of cities identified for “study” by Australian development and planning industry bodies reads like the pages of a glossy weekend travel magazine

Working class protestors in Paris, France

The Two Middle Classes

March 2, 2020

by Joel Kotkin — Politicians across the Western world like to speak fondly of the “middle class” as if it is one large constituency with common interests and aspirations. But, as Karl Marx observed, the middle class has always been divided by sources of wealth and worldview. Today, it is split into two distinct, and often opposing, middle classes.

Make America’s Housing Affordable Again

February 29, 2020

by Randal O'Toole — Fifty years ago, housing was affordable everywhere in the country. The 1970 census found that the statewide ratio of median home prices to median family incomes was greater than 3.0 only in Hawaii (where it was 3.04). Price-to-income ratios were under 2.5 in every other state, and under 2.2 in California, New York, and other states that today are considered unaffordable.

The Economist cover - and some housing facts

To The Economist: Planning, Not Home Ownership, Caused the Housing Crisis

February 7, 2020

by Wendell Cox — The January 16, 2020 cover story in The Economist magazine trumpeted “The West’s biggest economic policy mistake: It’s obsession with home ownership undermines growth, fairness and public faith in capitalism...”

Red v. Blue

February 7, 2020

by Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox — The political and cultural war between red and blue America may not be settled in our lifetimes, but it’s clear which side is gaining ground in economic and demographic terms. In everything from new jobs—including new technology employment—fertility rates, population growth, and migration, it’s the red states that increasingly hold the advantage.

Demographic Undestiny

January 27, 2020

by Joel Kotkin — Demography becomes destiny, the old adage goes. But many of the most confidently promoted demographic predictions have turned out grossly exaggerated or even dead wrong. In many cases they tend to reflect more the aspirations of pundits and reporters than the actual on-the-ground realities.

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