Urban Issues

We will soon be leaving the first quarter of the 21st century behind us. But in the minds of our transportation planners, the punditry, and some real estate interests, the way forward is actually to step back  read more »

California continues to lose population, according to the latest State Department of Finance estimates for the year ended July 2022.  read more »

This chapter describes general urbanization trends in the United States and around the world, from 1950 to the present. Cities can be glamorous or exciting, but what matters most is how they facilitate higher incomes and standards of living.  read more »

When I heard that the World Economic Forum proposed to ban car ownership, I dismissed it as left-wing nonsense  read more »

The 2020 Census reveals California to have both the highest urban population density and the highest urbanization share of total population among the states.  read more »

For Americans, California once looked like the future. It was a state defined by risk-taking and utopian dreaming. Yet for most Californians today, the upward mobility so central to the state’s ethos is rapidly disappearing.  read more »

Too many urbanists start their analysis of cities too late. They look at booming urban areas and see the amenities and jobs as the essential building blocks of urban dynamism. But before those amenities and jobs existed, these were places of aspirations with ambitious founders.  read more »

Last week, I complained that, under the Census Bureau’s new definition of “urban,” Bandon, Oregon is rural.  read more »

The newly released Census Bureau urban area reveals all 10 or the densest urban areas are in California, as well as 39 of the densest 50, and 70 of the 100.  read more »

Whatever the future holds for humanity, it is likely to take place in an urban context. Yet, as this book will demonstrate, there are many, and sometimes divergent, urban futures.  read more »