Month: August 2016
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The politics of grand housing bargains: NYC
You might not think it, but New York City has a below-market affordable housing infrastructure that most other cities can only dream of. As one of the only major American cities not to tear down large amounts of its legacy public housing, it has nearly 180,000 units. Many more are in other below-market housing programs.…
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The Economic Value of Walkability: New Evidence
One of the hallmarks of great urban spaces is walkability–places with lots of destinations and points of interest in close proximity to one another, buzzing sidewalks, people to watch, interesting public spaces–all these are things that the experts and market surveys are telling us people want to have. Its all well and good to acknowledge walkability in…
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Who patronizes small retailers?
Urban developers regularly wax eloquent over the importance of local small businesses. But ultimately, businesses depend on customer support. So, in what markets do customers routinely support small businesses? Getting data that reflects on this question is often very difficult. A new source of “big data” on consumer spending patterns comes from the JPMorganChase…
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The Week Observed: Aug. 26, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. How economically integrated is your city? It keeps getting clearer: Mixed-income neighborhoods are an important force in helping more kids escape poverty. So has economic integration been getting worse or better? A study this year by Kendra Bischoff and Sean Reardon found that income integration has declined in virtually…
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More Driving, More Dying (2016 First Half Update)
More grim statistics from the National Safety Council: The number of persons fatally injured in traffic crashes in the first half of 2016 grew by 9 percent. That means we’re on track to see more than 38,000 persons die on the road in 2016, an increase of more than 5,000 from levels recorded just two…
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The link between parking and housing
Generally, parking is thought of as a transportation and urban design issue, involving tradeoffs between easing access to a place by car while potentially imposing greater social costs by discouraging other modes and, sometimes, degrading the pedestrian environment and spreading out neighborhoods and entire cities. There’s no shortage of parking craters nominated to compete in…
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Why Talent Matters to Cities
The biggest single factor determining the success of a city’s economy is how well-educated is its population. As the global economy has shifted to knowledge-based industries, the jobs with the best pay have increasingly gone to those with the highest levels of education and skill. For a long time, we’ve been talking about the talent…
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How economically integrated is your city?
Last week, we looked at some of the growing body of academic evidence that shows that mixed income neighborhoods play a key role in helping create an environment where kids from poor families can achieve economic success. One of our key urban problems is that economically, we’ve grown more segregated over time: the poor tend…
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The Week Observed: Aug. 19, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. The high price of cheap gas. We’ve hit the peak of summer driving season, and also the 103rd consecutive week of falling year-on-year gas prices. Though the 39 percent drop in gas prices over the last two years has led to only 4 percent more driving per person (so…
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The role of mixed income neighborhoods in lessening poverty
Its a truism that the zip code that you are born in (or grow up in) has a lot to do with your life chances. If you’re born to a poor household, a neighborhood with safe streets, good schools, adequate parks and public services, and especially some healthy and successful peers and neighbors has a…
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How do we know zoning really constrains development?
One of the chief arguments in favor of the suburbs is simply that that is where millions and millions of people actually live. If so many Americans live in suburbs, this must be proof that they actually prefer suburban locations to urban ones. The counterargument, of course, is that people can only choose from among…
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The limits of data-driven approaches to planning
City Observatory believes in using data to understand problems and fashion solutions. But sometimes the quantitative data that’s available is too limited to enable us to see what’s really going on. And incomplete data can lead us to the wrong conclusions. Our use of data is subject to what we call the “drunk under the…
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The Summer Driving Season & The High Price of Cheap Gas
Cheaper gas comes at a high price: More driving, more dying, more pollution. We’re at the peak of the summer driving season, and millions of Americans will be on the road. While gas prices are down from the highs of just a few years ago, there’s still a significant price to be paid. As the…
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The Week Observed: Aug. 12, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. The national party platforms on transit. In November, most Americans will be choosing between a party whose platform offers the barest details and seemingly little understanding of urban transportation and a party whose platform is “more or less openly hostile” to it. 2. Marietta’s victory over affordable housing. Last year we…
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Court: Don’t spend billions on outdated travel forecasts
Last week, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has ordered new ridership projections for the proposed Purple Line light rail line, which will connect a series of Maryland suburbs. Like any multi-billion dollar project that serves a densely settled metropolitan area—and this one connects some of its wealthiest suburbs—there’s…
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Patents, place, and profit
Readers of the Aug. 19 Week Observed: here’s the piece you’re looking for. Here’s a puzzle: If 89 percent of Apple’s ideas are invented in the U.S., why is 92 percent of its profit overseas? The link between local economies and tax bases has long been obvious and physical. Companies paid property taxes on their…
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A postcard from Marietta
Last summer, we told here the story of Marietta, Georgia, where local officials used $65 million in taxpayer funds to buy up and begin demolishing some 1,300 apartments along Franklin Road. This is a striking case where the displacement of low income families was an explicit objective of public policy, rather than the side-effect of…
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The party platforms on transit
In the first installment of this two-part series, we investigated what each of the major party platforms had to say about a crucial urban policy issue: housing. This time, we’re taking a look at another major concern for American cities: transportation. (It’s also definitely worthwhile to read what other people have written on the subject,…
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The Week Observed: Aug. 5, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. The case for more Ubers. From mobile phones to microchips, it’s clear that even mega-companies must act in consumer interest when competition forces them to. When Uber and Lyft can pull out of Austin in response to new regulations, that’s a sign that they’re not facing enough healthy…
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Five consecutive years of job growth: a clear cause for optimism in Detroit
Back in 2009, in the darkest days of the Great Recession, Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke attempted to reverse the economic pessimism that gripped the nation. He pointed to what he called “green shoots,” small bits of good news around the country. To him, the green shoots showed that the economy was turning around, the…
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How Racial Segregation Leads to Income Inequality
Less Segregated Metro Areas Have Lower Black/White Income Disparities Income inequality in the United States has a profoundly racial dimension. As income inequality has increased, one feature of inequality has remained very much unchanged: black incomes remain persistently lower than white incomes. But while that pattern holds for the nation as a whole, its interesting to…
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A To-Do List for Promoting Competitive Ride-Sharing Markets
Making a market for shared mobility services Yesterday, we urged cities to think hard about how they can craft the rules for the transportation network companies that offer “ride sharing” systems to maximize competition, and encourage innovation and low prices. “Let a thousand Ubers bloom,” we said. The rules and regulations that cities set…
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Let a thousand Ubers bloom
Why cities should promote robust competition in ride sharing markets We’re in the midst of an unfolding revolution in transportation technology, thanks to the advent of transportation network companies. By harnessing cheap and ubiquitous communication technology, Uber and other firms organizing what they call “ride sharing” services have not only disrupted the taxi business, but…