Urban Issues

In 1873, as a result of the Homestead Act, my great-great-great grandfather, of French-Canadian descent, was awarded 160 acres of land in Leelanau County, Michigan for military service in the Civil War.  read more »

Many states are beginning to limit the use of cell phones in schools for various reasons ranging from their impact on mental health to being distractions in the classroom.  read more »

Does anyone really think about the relationship a city has to its surrounding metro area? It means a lot more than you might think.  read more »

Academic boycotts targeting ideas, individuals, and institutions deemed problematic are no longer just in vogue for faculty.  read more »

What a difference the remote work revolution has made. The University of Minnesota Accessibility Observation auto and transit access data for 2021  read more »

In 1971, after a lifetime researching and explaining the Central Business District, American geographer Raymond Murphy gathered his knowledge together in The Central Business District: A Study in Urban Geography.  read more »

In this era of heightened racial and ethnic tension, few academic concepts have enjoyed as much success as “settler colonialism.”  read more »

Last weekend there was a debate taking place on a very small corner of the Internet. It was about the Midwest’s culture and its impact on growth and development prospects.  read more »

Transit ridership dropped sharply with the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020. The slow rebound in the years that followed has prompted discussion, sometimes in hushed tones, as to whether transit had entered a “death spiral.” That ominous description refers to a situation where a decrease in ridership leads to lower farebox revenue, which in turn leads to service cuts, which further reduces ridership, and so on in a vicious downward cycle.  read more »

Delayed decision-making, bureaucratic dithering, and the stubborn resistance of NIMBYs have all been frequently cited as planning-related barriers to the development of much-needed housing.  read more »