Urban Planning

No Room at the Inn for Amazon

Such an Enormous Investment Must be Transformative

What Does Conservative Urbanism Mean?

That depends, but the answer determines if it has a future.

A Not-So-Brief Thought on Zoning

I’m skeptical liberalization will boost density.

It is a truism among urbanists that if we remove onerous zoning and land use rules that density will increase; that is, buildings will get taller, parking less…

Who Is the City-Statey-est Of Them All?

Spoiler: It’s Mongolia. But for rich countries, it’s Chile or…

The Urban Inversion Is Over

And It Was Exaggerated to Begin With

Is Detroit Making a Comeback?

It’s All About That Baseline

Is Economic Growth Becoming More Concentrated?

We May Be Seeing a Moderate Amount of Re-Concentration

There’s a basic story you hear a lot in economic punditry: that the richest places are getting all the economic gains of the last…

City Size Does Not Predict City Growth

Agglomeration, Smagglomeration!

There’s a demographics meme out there that is so persistent I don’t need to cite examples of it because, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve almost certainly seen it, and may believe…

Appalachia is Dying. Pikeville is Not.

Deep in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains, a Small City Finds Success

Regular readers of this blog know that I am always skeptical of “city success stories,” and most recently played a bit of…