Building the New America: Report on trends shaping the migration of people and jobs

Report: Building the New America

How do we build a new urban model for America — one that is better aligned with the aspirations of most Americans? This newly released report examines the housing trends that are driving today's migration of people and jobs.
I-45N junction with the 10Dhanix, used under CC 3.0 License

The City of Houston’s Problematic Requests for the I-45N Project

by Erik Slotboom — Within weeks or months of a record of decision on this 10 year plan — the I-45N project, CoH is abruptly changing its position and is requesting drastic changes that are harmful to mobility, safety, and aesthetics.
Houston Metro Transit Bus

More on How Density and Transit Relate to the Pandemic

by Tory Gattis — The last week has been crazy, with many new items coming over the wire, related to last week's post on how density and transit relate to the pandemic.
New York CIty Subway

How Density and Transit Relate to the Pandemic

by Tory Gattis — Our main theme this week is the relationship between density, transit, and the pandemic: it's now clear that the exposure density from how we live, work and get around fueled the pandemic.
Manhattan, a high density urban area

The Coronavirus Means You May Have Seen Your Last Skyscraper, New York

Despite the warnings of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others, the COVID-19 death rate in the United States appears to be more than twice as high in large urban counties as in high-density suburbs, and nearly twice as high in high-density suburbs than in lower-density ones.
Macy's display window, from 1933

Letter from Los Angeles: The Death of Small Business is a Tragedy for Jewish Community and Democracy

by Joel Kotkin — A great connoisseur as well as sworn enemy of the free market, Vladimir Lenin might smile a bit if he witnessed what is now happening to small businesses in the current Covid-19 pandemic.
View of NYC midtown and Queens, a densely populated area

Subways Seeded the NYC Epidemic: MIT Economist

by Wendell Cox — According to an MIT economist, continued high ridership on MTA subways and the rapid surge in infections during the first two weeks of March at best supports the hypothesis that the subways played a role.
The "Darth Vader" house in West University

Our Double Black Swan, Density vs. Pandemic, and More

Houston has been reeling from oil-market chaos and a coronavirus shutdown. Houston CFO Chris Brown has taken to calling the city's situation a “double black swan.”
Urban high rise housing in Singapore

A Look At Demographia’s Latest Housing Affordability Survey

by Prakash Loungani — In this interview, Wendell Cox talks about Demographia’s latest housing affordability survey. Wendell Cox is an American urban policy analyst and academic. He is the principal of Demographia (Wendell Cox Consultancy). The survey is co-authored with Hugh Pavletich of Performance Urban Planning.
Declining new coronavirus cases in Houston area

Virus declining, future of cities, a gathering place park for Houston, and more

by Tory Gattis — Hope everyone is staying safe - things are starting to look pretty good here in Houston, let's hope the trend of virus cases declining holds
New Jersey suburbs of NYC

“Exposure Density” and the Pandemic

by Wendell Cox — My article last week, Early Observations on the Pandemic and Population Density, suggested that the risk of infection is a function of being close to people who are infected. The most fundamental issue is thus, how close people are to one-another in their daily lives.