World Capitals Of The Future

Appearing in: Forbes For most of those which were great once are small today; And those that used to be small were great in my own time. Knowing, therefore, that […]

Rome Vs. Gotham

Appearing in: Forbes Urban politicians have widely embraced the current concentration of power in Washington, but they may soon regret the trend they now so actively champion. The great protean […]

The New Radicals

Appearing in: Forbes America’s “kumbaya” moment has come and gone. The nation’s brief feel-good era initiated by Barack Obama’s stirring post-partisan rhetoric–and fortified by John McCain’s classy concession speech–has dissolved […]

California Disease: Oregon at Risk of Economic Malady

Appearing in: The Oregonian California has been exporting people to Oregon for many years, even amid the recession in both states. Indeed, the 2005 American Community Survey report shows that […]

Why The ‘Livable Cities’ Rankings Are Wrong

Appearing in: Forbes Few topics stir more controversy between urbanists and civic boosters than city rankings. What truly makes a city “great,” or even “livable”? The answers, and how these […]

Green Jobs Can’t Save The Economy

Appearing in: Forbes Nothing is perhaps more pathetic than the exertions of economic developers and politicians grasping at straws, particularly during hard times. Over the past decade, we have turned […]

Forget Second Stimulus; We Need Economic Vision

Appearing in: Politico As the American economy slowly heals, the Obama administration will no doubt claim some credit for its $787 billion stimulus — and perhaps even suggest doubling down […]

Salinas, California

Salinas Dispatch: A Silver Lining in the Golden State

Appearing in: Forbes From a distance, a crisis often takes on ideological colorings. This is true in California, where the ongoing fiscal meltdown has devolved into a struggle between anti-tax […]

Moving to Reloville, America’s Cross-Country Careerists

Appearing in: The Wall Street Journal Peter T. Kilborn’s Next Stop, Reloville: Life Inside America’s New Rootless Professional Class documents an important piece of social history: the lives of relocating […]

The Next Culture War

Appearing in: Forbes The culture war over religion and values that dominated much of the last quarter of the 20th century has ended, mostly in a rout of the right-wing […]