Urban Issues

The Future of Cities: A New Path for Black Urban Voters?

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For decades, a large majority of black Americans have aligned with the Democratic Party, but the modern-day Democratics Party's leftward shift may cause a reevaluation of that relationship.  read more »

Restaurant Revolution

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Nokmaniphone Sayavong started her business, Nok’s Kitchen, during the worst of times—the Covid pandemic—and in a state that often treats small businesses with the delicacy of a cat torturing a mouse. Yet she has found a way to thrive.  read more »

The Future of Cities: False Dawn – The Future of Work and Cities After the Illusions of Globalization

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“The future ain’t what it used to be,” Yogi Berra famously observed. Nowhere is that truer than regarding the future of work, particularly in cities.  read more »

Calgary City Council: Reimagining the CBD

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In a previous post, I commented on the difficulties faced by the Calgary CBD (downtown), with its huge office vacancies resulting from the mid-decade oil bust  read more »

The Housing Plot

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Oregon’s new governor, Tina Kotek, has made housing her top priority and has proposed a number of unrealistic and idiotic remedies to high housing costs and homelessness.  read more »

The Future of Cities: Housing Unaffordability – How We Got There and What to Do About It

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From the end of World War II until 1970, owner-occupied housing was broadly affordable across the entire country. The standard measure for measuring affordability —the price-to-income ratio— was at about 2.8 in 1950, 2.5 in 1960, 2.6 in 1970, 3.4 in 1980, and 4.2 in 2020.  read more »

Beyond Housing First

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If there is one thing Californians agree on, it is that we have to do something about the inhumane drug addiction and mental health crisis proliferating across our cities and towns.  read more »

Is Dowtown LA High on Own Parking Supply?

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The immutable law of supply and demand is nevertheless pulling off a mutation in Downtown Los Angeles when it comes to one of the least glamorous and most interesting asset classes of commercial real estate in the area: parking lots.  read more »

The Future of Cities: California's Inland Empire

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Ryan Atwood was the juvenile delinquent from the slums of Chino, just east of the county line, as depicted in the popular show The O.C. However, Chino was not a crime-ridden pocket in the Golden State  read more »

Ex-Urbia

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"Town and country must be married and out of this joyous union will spring a new hope, a new life, a new civilization.”
— Ebenezer Howard, 1898"

All cities must evolve over time. Those that fail to do so end up, at best, like Venice, Vienna, or Florence: lifestyle and tourist hubs. This fate now awaits our greatest urban cores if they cannot address the demographic, social, and economic forces transforming the metropolitan landscape.  read more »