Planning

To Reduce Costs, California Also Needs to Build New Suburbs

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The three myths that have led to this predicament are the following: Nuclear power and natural gas power causes unacceptable harm to the environment; reservoirs and desalination plants cause unacceptable harm to the environment; and single-family homes nestled in sprawling suburbs cause unacceptable harm to the environment.  read more »

If It’s “Livable,” You Can’t Afford It

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North America’s most livable cities are also among the least affordable. At least, that’s my conclusion from the Economist‘s 2023  read more »

Solving the Global Housing Crisis

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The global housing crisis across the high-income world, particularly in the Anglosphere, represents perhaps the single biggest challenge to the future of the middle class.  read more »

Housing Report: Blame Ourselves, Not Our Stars

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No issue plagues Californians more than the high cost of housing. By almost every metric—from rents to home prices—Golden State residents suffer the highest burden for shelter of any state in the continental U.S.  read more »

The Once Lucky Country: Can It Be Again?

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An introduction to this newly released report on demographics and economic mobility in Australia, prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Public Affairs, is  read more »

By Failing to Promote Safety, America’s Older Cities are Failing to Build Community

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It seems that a day hardly goes by without another incident of violence making the national news. From school shootings to aggressive protests from extreme groups and endless petty crime in general  read more »

Cities Aren't Dying But They Do Face Challenges

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You’ve probably seen photos or videos of huge homeless encampments in America’s cities, like the ones in this Daily Mail article about Portland.  read more »

Observations on U.S. New Towns

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In the middle of the 20th century, there was considerable interest in developing new communities (new towns). The interest was, to some degree, driven by the establishment of new towns in nations like the United Kingdom and France, where a number of projects had been completed by 1970.  read more »

Understanding Neighborhoods and Architecture as Foundation of Understanding Preservation

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Cities evolve by either expanding, deteriorating, tearing down or preserving. Some cities like Dallas have vast vacant land and other cities have little undeveloped land. Whether a city is expanding or declining, preservation is always healthy for a city.  read more »

How Not to Revitalize Downtown

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The city of Portland announced yesterday that it received a $2 million federal grant to get it to ban gasoline (and, presumably, Diesel) delivery vehicles in a sixteen-block area of downtown Portland.  read more »