January 2013
2 posts
5 tags
Combating Sexual Assault on Public Transit
The recent fatal bus rape in India has opened many people’s eyes to the problem of sexual assault on public transit. This article delves into the problem of sexual assault on public transit in the U.S. and other countries. Contrary to what one may think, it appears that such assault is all too common, illustrating this is a problem that must be immediately addressed.
The article noted...
December 2012
3 posts
8 tags
A City-Owned Movie Theater? Yes, y'all.
In Jackson, MS, the state’s capital city, there are no movie theaters. The lack of a movie theater in the city is perplexing - the city boasts a population of more than 175,000 people (surely, there is enough of a demand for at least a small cinema) and city leaders would love for Jackson to have a theater (leaders are discussing using grants or tax incentives to attract a theater). In Sarah...
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Economics & The NRA Proposal for Armed Guards
Today, the NRA put forth its proposal for preventing tragedies like Sandy Hook: placing armed guards, both police and private volunteers, in schools. From an economic perspective, this proposal is irrational.
Presumably, the NRA believes that armed guards will prevent shootings in schools by 1) deterring potential shooters from engaging in the act and 2) quickly disarming a shooter once a...
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The Mortgage Interest Deduction: A Better Way...
The Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) should be drastically reformed. It is flawed in three major ways: 1) it does not significantly impact homeownership, 2) the amount of resources it allocates towards homeownership appears unjustified, and 3) it disrupts the accumulation of affordable housing by encouraging larger than needed homes. Hence, the MID is failing to effectively achieve its apparent...
October 2012
1 post
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Philly Tax Credit - A Reason to be Skeptical
Philadelphia is receiving the greatest form of flattery - mimicry. Massachusetts is adopting a tax credit program that the city pioneered in 2002. According to this article, “Philadelphia’s original program allowed private companies to commit to a 10-year partnership that would parlay $100,000 of their annual business tax obligation into funding for a community development corporation to...
September 2012
1 post
1 tag
August 2012
4 posts
1 tag
Is this what cities are really about?
j5d:
““What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.””
— Kurt Vonnegut
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The Next Step for Infrastructure Banks
Infrastructure banks are all the rage. Rahm Emanuel’s infrastructure bank in Chicago received national attention and praise for its innovative approach to Chicago’s infrastructure needs. Governor Cuomo of New York has also been in the national spotlight as a result of his creation of an infrastructure bank.
These banks are viewed as being on the cutting-edge of public finance because...
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Entrepreneurism: An Ideal Econ Dev Strategy for...
This week, NextAmCity’s feature article focuses on small-scale entrepreneurship as a tool to revitalize our cities. The article neatly illustrates why for-profit entrepreneurial endeavors on the part of city residents is good for cities. When residents start businesses, jobs and wealth are created. In addition, when residents see their neighbors become successful, they believe they can have...
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Social Impact Bonds: The Other Side
One of the biggest pieces of news in the policy wonk world this week was Goldman Sach’s announcement that it has agreed to invest $9.6M in an NYC program addressing recidivism as part of a social impact bond.
Social impact bonds work like this: a private actor, such as Goldman, invests money in a program that has the potential to create savings for a government entity; if the program...
July 2012
8 posts
1 tag
2 tags
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The False Divide
The city/suburb distinction is an often referred to dichotomy in the world of local policy enthusiasts. For example, today in the Atlantic Cities, Eric Jaffe published an article critiquing a recent report showing faster growth rates in cities than in suburbs. While this distinction is widely accepted, it should be re-examined in light of the current state of localities.
Last spring, in my Local...
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A Role for Cities in Growing Working Class Jobs
The fastest growing types of jobs in the US are service sector jobs, but the salaries associated with these jobs are insufficient to ensure an adequate standard of living. Richard Florida has argued for upgrading service work (see Wanted: Working Class Jobs) as a means to ensure wide-segments of our population are not trapped in poverty. By adding management, leadership, and creative-thinking...
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Debating the Local Food Movement: A Short Comment →
In this Atlantic Cities article, Emily Badger outlines the various arguments made for and against the local food movement. Specifically, she highlights the arguments made in a new book by Pierre Desrochers against the movement. Desrochers refers to the movement away from local food over the past hundred years as evidence that the local food model is flawed. If the local food model is efficient and...
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Hometown Talent
A constantly heard refrain is some version of the following: cities need to attract talent to survive and thrive. A talented workforce is central to anchoring industry in a city and ensuring the city remains innovative and desirable. As a result of the financing structure our cities face, the former appears to be the most important reason for having a skilled workforce; cities need corporations...
June 2012
15 posts
5 tags
Cities, Health Care, and The Supreme Court
As with most issues that society faces today, city problems are deeply interconnected. To highlight just a few of these interconnecting issues: poor education affects joblessness, joblessness affects crime, crime policies affect family structure, and family structure affects education. Renowned criminologist David Kennedy supports this idea of the interconnectedness of city issues. Kennedy labels...
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Using Public Safety Tech to Generate New Revenue
Data is hot. Facebook and other social media sites make lots of money off of data. Companies crave data about the markets they operate in. Facebook offers companies a chance to buy data about what we like, where we go, and what we do. New public safety technology has the capacity to collect the same type of data. Therefore, this technology could be used by cities to generate much needed...
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“There is a greater orientation around not just locking up as many kids as...”
– Dana Kaplan, Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, speaking about New Orleans’ juvenile justice system in NextAmCity.
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Critically Thinking about Homeownership Rates
Richard Florida’s recent article, Homeownership Means Little to No Economic Growth, illustrates that home ownership is not correlated to any indicators of economic growth. The message: putting resources towards home ownership may be inefficient if economic growth is the goal. What explains this finding?
Historically, we have felt that homeownership is an important tool for economic growth....
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Built Environment, Healthy Communities, & Economic...
It is well known that the US is facing rapidly increasing health care costs and is fighting an obesity epidemic. These trends have a particularly large impact on businesses. The poor health of the population is contributing to rising health care costs by creating a higher demand for health care and creating more risk for insurance providers. As a result, insurance prices are increasing, thereby...
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What to do with Convention Centers
Recently, the Atlantic Cities published an article, Is it Time to Stop Building Convention Centers? by Amanda Erickson, highlighting the shortcomings of using convention centers as drivers of economic development. Erickson followed this article up with a piece on Buffalo’s convention center and the uncertainty surrounding its future. In Buffalo, it appears that continuing to allocate money...
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Public Space Pests: Why We Want Them and How to...
This Washington Post article profiles DC’s Terry Lynch. Lynch spends hours and hours a week examining DC’s public spaces and notifying the city about things that need to be fixed. He reports everything from dead trees to graffiti to broken traffic lights. Some would say Terry is a “pest” because of his extreme civic engagement. But, we might be better off with more people...
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Moto-Bike Sharing: "A Better Route" Part Deux
A friend and certified Texas expert (that’s right, certified) let us know about an issue regarding our “Better Route” analysis. The Texas high speed road is to be used by travelers as well as commuters and such travelers often head to smaller towns and cities that do not have a robust public transportation infrastructure. Thus, our high-speed bus idea may not really be feasible...
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A Better Route →
Texas is set to institute an 85 mph speed limit on a new toll highway in the state. The state appears to be using the high speed limit as a means to divert traffic to the toll road in order to 1) free up congestion on other roads and 2) to enhance revenues. Considering these goals, there seems to be a much better route on the table for the state.
An opportunity to drive faster will surely lure...
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Bidding for Policy
Across the country, states and cities have laws that require public contracts be awarded through a bidding process - the lowest bidder gets the contract. This policy is straightforward: a competitive bidding process will lead to government entities getting the most “bang for their buck.” Given the widespread adoption of such an approach, it is odd that this concept has not been...
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Innovation District →
Boston is taking a new approach to economic development: creating an environment conducive to entrepreneurs and publicly praising/advertising for those entrepreneurs that come.
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Bus Rapid Transit & Jacksonville, FL: A Perfect...
This article in The Atlantic Cities discusses the growing popularity of bus rapid transit systems around the world as well as the benefits of such systems. Bus rapid transit is much cheaper to build than subways or light rails and it is hard to imagine they are significantly slower than these other forms of transportation. Along with being cheaper to build, buses are cheaper to manage than...
May 2012
21 posts
5 tags
Richard Florida vs. Neo-Classical Economics?
Urbanist Richard Florida is well-known partly for his studies pertaining to the benefits of density. As a place becomes more dense, it often becomes a “hotbed” for creativity and innovation. A dense, diverse city has people discussing ideas, learning from each other, and thinking about issues in different ways. Arguably, this dynamic leads to increased productivity.
Can this line of...
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City Open-Houses
The city of New Haven recently developed a program to help increase the foot traffic in one of its downtown districts. According to this article, the program, called “On 9,” can be viewed “as a set of open houses emphasizing different attributes of the area.” The first open house event will be “Art on 9,” which will introduce people to the district’s art...
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Bike Friendly Streets →
LA recently began a pilot program in which the city paints bike lanes bright green. Presumably, the benefit of this program is that it clearly marks bike lanes so bikers can feel more comfortable riding and it sends a message that the city is supportive of eco-friendly living. The program has not been effective as the city had hoped, because the paint has worn away after multiple coats in a...
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Cities: The Solution to Rising Tuition Costs?
This week, presidential candidate Mitt Romney unveiled his plan for higher education, and student loan interest rates were at the forefront of Congress’ agenda. Both Congress and Romney were focused on the rapidly rising costs of higher education.
College affordability is an increasingly pressing issue. Growth of college tuition and fees has outpaced the prices of goods and services, and...
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The Participatory City
What are cost effective strategies cities can adopt to attract residents and thrive? This is a question we constantly ponder. Reading this article while checking out Mayor Cory Booker’s twitter feed (yes, simultaneously - city policy enthusiasts are THAT good), I began to think about people’s desire to interact with our local leaders and have a “say” in the place they...
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Why are Cities Coming Back? →
In this interview, Alan Ehrenhalt, former editor of Governing magazine, discusses different explanations for why cities are coming back. He mentions transportation costs, changing demographics (such as more people staying single longer) and job concentration. Undoubtedly, each of these factors are playing a role in the re-urbanization of America, but is there something else going on as well?
...
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Why Stop at a Teacher's Village? →
Newark is building a teacher’s village - a mixed use area with housing specifically for teachers. This seems brilliant on many levels. By tailoring new housing to teacher’s salaries, Newark is likely to attract teachers. Teachers will be able to live comfortably in a nice area built for them and be surrounded by others with similar interests. In addition, having teachers live together creates a...
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"Diversity" includes Persons with Disabilities
Renowned urbanist Richard Florida often speaks about the importance of diversity for cities; diversity makes cities havens for creativity and, therefore, ideal places for businesses to locate. Many articles and blogs were recently written about the ill effects North Carolina’s recent constitutional amendment banning same sax marriage will have on the state’s economy because of the...
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The Street Hacker: City friend or foe?
Recently, Emily Badger published this article (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/05/street-hacker-officially-embraced/1921/) on Atlantic Cities. It highlights the rise of street hackers - community members that enhance physical public space through innovative DIY projects, such as turning parking spaces into parks (building “parklets”). In particular, San Francisco...
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How a Small Midwestern Town Rebuilt Itself:... →
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Good Neighbors = Valuable Local Assets →
This link is attached to an article, “A Micro-Market for Vacant Housing,” that was published today on TheAtlanticCities.com. The article highlights an innovative approach to housing vacancies being undertaken by Dot Dot Dot Property Guardians in London. Often, having renters is burdensome to London landlords because of upcoming building changes and tenants rights. As a result, many...
