Urban Issues

Just a quick note on an encouraging article by James Rodriguez of Business Insider. Rodriguez reports a significant reduction in house prices in Austin, Texas, due to building a large number of single-family homes and apartments. I was unable to discern whether the article dealt with the Austin market (the metropolitan area) or the city (which is a housing submarket). Nor could I tell if his insightful comparison to San Francisco was the housing market (metro) or the city submarket.  read more »

Overall, immigration has both positive and negative effects, something rarely acknowledged by advocates on either side.  read more »

Last week, the shopping period for my classes at Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) was disrupted on Zoom by a  “Divestment Coalition” of campus groups, including the Sarah Lawrence Socialist Coalition and the Sarah Lawrence Review.  read more »

“Ordinary Americans of all backgrounds and convictions recognize that the entire political ecosystem—not only its leadership and its governing institutions, but also its leading ideas and ideals—is failing.”  read more »

For decades, Canada won a deserved reputation as a country with a sensible immigration policy  read more »

In a recent post I noted problematic city/suburb relationships that harm Midwestern cities and metros.  read more »

Recently we reported that current, official population projections by state agencies indicate that Texas will become the most populous state by 2050.  read more »

In 1873, as a result of the Homestead Act, my great-great-great grandfather, of French-Canadian descent, was awarded 160 acres of land in Leelanau County, Michigan for military service in the Civil War.  read more »

Many states are beginning to limit the use of cell phones in schools for various reasons ranging from their impact on mental health to being distractions in the classroom.  read more »

Does anyone really think about the relationship a city has to its surrounding metro area? It means a lot more than you might think.  read more »