Chicago

(Note: Last week I was fortunate enough to have an opinion piece written by Ed Zotti and myself published in Crain's Chicago Business. It's on the continuing loss of Chicago's Black middle class, at least as defined by its ability to attract Black college graduates. The article is behind a paywall, but as a co-author I took the liberty of posting it here.  read more »

Back in 2018, I attended and participated in an event called “Tools Toward Market Restoration”, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.  read more »

Does the Chicago White Sox brass read the Corner Side Yard? Don’t know if they do, but they sure seem to be familiar with my work.  read more »

Too often, people interpret population numbers at face value and make a determination of a place’s success or failure based on absolute numbers.  read more »

In 2020, U.S. cities experienced a 30% increase in homicides relative to 2019, with firearms becoming the leading cause of death for children, adolescents and young adults  read more »

Rentcafe.com has just published a list of the 51 ZIP Codes in the United States that have had the most apartment construction over the last five years (2018-2022).  read more »

We’re 13 months away from the 2024 presidential election, and just 3 months away from the primaries. The dominant themes of the election are forming. The Republicans have let it be known that one theme will be the crime, drugs, homelessness, and the general lawlessness of “Democrat-run” cities is a disqualifying factor for Dems, and a point in their favor.  read more »

Let’s talk about the “urban doom loop”.

There were quite a few pundits who believed that the Covid pandemic would be the catalyst for a profound transformation of cities.  read more »

Here’s a followup to some of the points made in my last post, and a response to readers and Twitter (X) commenters.

First, a quick refresh on my earlier post.  read more »

Canada and the United States are among a minority of national governments that formally designate metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas are labor and housing markets which include a core urban area (built up or developed area) as well as rural territory  read more »