Austin, Texas downtown

The Cities Americans Are Thronging To And Fleeing

Appearing in: Forbes Cities get ranked in numerous ways — by income, hipness, tech-savviness and livability — but there may be nothing more revealing about the shifting fortunes of our […]

China’s Planned City Bubble Is About to Pop—and Even You’ll Feel It

Appearing in: The Daily Beast Seven years after the last housing debacle devastated the world economy, we may be on the verge of another, albeit different, bubble. If the last […]

Becoming America the Not-So-Beautiful

Appearing in: Orange County Register “They don’t know history, but they are making it. But what are they making?” – Victor Serge, “The Conquered City,” 1932 In contrast to the […]

Detroit Downtown View

The Comeback Of The Great Lakes States

Appearing in: Forbes For generations the broad swath of America along the Great Lakes has been regarded as something of a backwater. Educated workers and sophisticated industries have tended to […]

Mike Brown protest in Oakland, CA

Economic Progress is More Effective Than Protests

Appearing in: The Daily Beast The election of Barack Obama promised to inaugurate the dawn of a post-racial America. Instead we seem to be stepping ever deeper into a racial […]

Tech Oligarchs Tightening Their Grip on Democrats

Appearing in: Orange County Register The current state of the Republican Party may seem like a demolition derby, but there’s an equally fascinating, if less well-understood, conflict within the Democratic […]

An Improbable And Fragile Comeback: New Orleans 10 Years After Katrina

Appearing in: Forbes In the fall of 2005, many saw in postdiluvial New Orleans another example of failed urbanization, a formerly great city that was broken beyond repair.Yet 10 years after a […]

What Jane Jacobs Got Wrong About Cities

Appearing in: The Daily Beast Few people have had more influence on thinking about cities than the late Jane Jacobs. The onetime New Yorker turned Torontonian, Jacobs, who died in […]

Brush Park, Detroit

The Cities Leading A U.S. Manufacturing Revival

Appearing in: Forbes Manufacturing may no longer drive the U.S. economy, but industrial growth remains a powerful force in many regions of the country. Industrial employment has surged over the […]

Climate Policy Affecting Job Opportunities

Latino Politicians Putting Climate Change Ahead of Constituents

Appearing in: Orange County Register Racial and economic inequality may be key issues facing America today, but the steps often pushed by progressives, including minority politicians, seem more likely to […]