What the Delayed Coronavirus School Shutdown Reveals about New York City

By: Zachary Evans
Appearing In: National Review

When coronavirus cases began popping up in the New York City area in early March, city and state officials continued to resist shutting down businesses and schools until late in the spread of the disease. City Department of Education (DOE) chancellor Richard Carranza said repeatedly that closing schools would be a “last resort” in the fight against coronavirus because the public schools act essentially as a support system for students living in poverty. Read more

Kotkin Talks with Dan Proft About His Upcoming Neo-Feudalism Book

By: Dan Proft
On: Dan Proft Show

Joel Kotkin talks with Dan Proft about his recent piece Oligarchy and Pestilence and also his book The Coming of Neo Feudalism. Read more

Could the Coronavirus Be a ‘Turning Point’ For New Yorkers To Leave En Masse?

By: Miriam Hall
Appearing in: Biznow

At first, Campbell Will and his wife, Claire, were planning to stay in New York as the coronavirus pandemic raged through the city. But within days, the Manhattan café where he was working shut down. His nascent corporate wellness business, needing yoga studios and gyms and live customers, could go nowhere. Read more

Kotkin Talks About Cities After the Coronavirus Pandemic with Ben Domenech

With: Ben Domenech

On: The Federalist

Joel Kotkin joins Ben Domenech on The Federalist Radio Hour to discuss how cities will be transformed after the coronavirus pandemic ends. Kotkin is the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, California and executive director of the Houston-based Urban Reform Institute. Read the related piece by Joel, on rethinking densely populated cities, that is referenced during this interview.

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Joel Kotkin is the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and Executive Director for Urban Reform Institute — formerly the Center for Opportunity Urbanism. His last book was The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us (Agate, 2017). His next book, The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class, is now available to preorder. You can follow him on Twitter @joelkotkin.

Urban Life and Pandemics

By: Joel Kotkin

Appearing in: The Washington Post

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

Kotkin Talks About the Two Middle Classes with Amanda Vanstone

With: Amanda Vanstone

On: Counterpoint on Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Joel Kotkin talks about the two distinct middle classes with Amanda Vanstone. The middle class is often broadly described as those who fall into the middle group of workers, compared to the bottom 20% and top 20%; and it’s been widely assumed that those in the middle class have shared interest and aspirations — but Kotkin explains that their interests increasingly diverge. Read the related piece by Joel, on the Two Middle Classes, that is referenced during this interview.

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Kotkin Talks with Dan Proft on The Two Middle Classes

By: Dan Proft
On: Dan Proft Show

Joel Kotkin talks with Dan Proft about how the two middle classes are distinct from each other, and are — or are not — being addressed by our political leaders. Read more

Democrats Have Found Their Own Autocrat

By: Conor Lynch
Appearing In: truthdig

Since Donald Trump captured the Republican nomination four years ago, mainstream media across the political spectrum have warned us about the rise of “populism.” The standard narrative goes something like this: those on the political extremes — especially the far-right but also the far-left—are rapidly gaining ground and subverting liberal democracy across the globe, ushering in a new age of authoritarianism.

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California’s Startup Economy: an Abundance of Attractions and Drawbacks

By: Leigh Buchanan
Appearing In: Inc

California is a land of contradictions. It is at once notorious for business-unfriendliness and the most entrepreneurial state in the nation; a place talented people swarm for the good life and flee because a good life is unaffordable. Read more

Will the Nuclear Family Die Out?

By: Carly Stern
Appearing in: Ozy | The Daily Dose

The nuclear family — where a father, mother and child live in one household — was crowned the mainstream gold standard since the post World War II boom. American sitcoms like I Love Lucy and Leave It to Beaver showed the viewing public what an idealized American family should look like. Fast forward to the 2000s, and the sitcom Modern Family is probably closer to a millennial’s reality.

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