Urban Issues

Are Big Cities Past Their Prime?

New York. Los Angeles. Boston. San Francisco. Call them America's "superstars." With mega populations, these urban hubs have long reigned as the nation's economic, social, and cultural capitals.  read more »

Together NYC

populyst is launching a new initiative, together NYC, to crowd-source and to map sentiment across New York City. It is an invitation to users to mark on a map their sentiment at a given location and point in time.  read more »

125+ Years Savings for House Down Payment in L.A., S.F. and San Jose

A just published report by Knock.com (see note) estimates that, at current prices, the median income household could require between 115 and 167 years to save for a down payment on the median priced new home in some major metropolitan areas.  read more »

WSDOT Secretary Consults with Political Advocates on Response to WPC Study, Has No Real Dispute With Our Data

In 2019, Washington Policy Center asked national transportation expert Wendell Cox to evaluate transportation planning in the Puget Sound region.  read more »

The Future of Remote Work and What it Means for Houston

This week I want to focus on a single CSM story, because it's the most insightful I've seen on what post-pandemic work might look like: Remote work is here to stay – and it’s changing our lives.  read more »

Big City Talent Markets Were Getting Hit Pre-Pandemic

One impact of the coronavirus has been to accelerate some trends that were already present in the marketplace beforehand.  read more »

Zooming Out on LA

There’s no longer any question that Los Angeles has arrived as a global city—if Hollywood’s reach doesn’t make the case then the Asian money behind its new skyline  read more »

Recap of the Post-Pandemic Housing Reality Webinar

Over 200 attendees joined our panelist for a webinar hosted by Urban Reform Institute on December 4. If you missed the event, you can watch the video below:  read more »

COVID Deaths & High Urban Population Densities (August 7 Update)

The Figures below provide an update through August 7, 2020 to the relationship between county urban densities and COVID-19 death rates. The data continues to show a strong association between higher urban densities and death rates.  read more »

Urban Life and Pandemics

Pandemics have always been the enemy of dense, urban life. Cities, where people live in close quarters and mix with people from other places, are ideal breeding grounds for contagions. So far, by contrast, there have been comparatively few coronavirus infections in the vast middle of the United States, particularly in the rural reaches.  read more »