Urban Issues

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 »

YIMBYs Are Useful Idiots of the Development Lobby

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Last month, Katie Roberts-Hull from YIMBY Melbourne posted an article in The Guardian complaining that heritage laws are thwarting housing supply.  read more »

We Can’t Talk About Fixing Loneliness without Talking About Neighborhoods

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After the US Surgeon General Advisory raised the alarm over the “devastating impact of the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the United States,” the Washington Post jumped into the discussion of loneliness with a highly recirculated  read more »

Subjects:

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 »

Entitled Transit Stooges Blackmail for BART

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“We are not asking, we are demanding that Governor Newsom allocate $5 billion to public transit,” said Brett Vertocci, a protestor who was blocking rush-hour traffic  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 »

Slowmadding CDMX

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One of my oldest friends from my youth moved to Mexico City after she finished university. I would visit her and we’d have adventures together. On one trip her mom was also visiting from Spain and we explored all the amazing spots in the region.  read more »

Democracy Does Not Die With Dispersion

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With the COVID-19 pandemic declared over, a significant question for politicians, planners, and pundits alike is what to do with city centers and old urban cores after the pandemic pushed many Americans to move away from dense urban areas.  read more »

Cities of the West: An American Success Story, Part 2

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Part one of this essay showed how the political tradition of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, and Abraham Lincoln gave rise to the successful spread of American civilization  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 »