Urban Issues

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 »

Cities of the West: An American Success Story

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America’s western cities are booming. The major metropolitan areas of the West  read more »

We Can't Address Affordability By Building More Apartments

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One of the (many) furphies that gets aired (frequently) in discussions around housing affordability is that we can build ourselves out of the problem by building a lot more high–density housing  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 »

Fred Siegel's Legacy

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Fred Siegel’s passing this weekend represented a huge loss not just for me personally but, more importantly, for all those concerned with the future of the United States, and particularly its cities.  read more »