Month: November 2018
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Going faster doesn’t make you happier; you just drive farther
Speed doesn’t seem to be at all correlated to how happy we our with our local transportation systems. If there’s one big complaint people seem to have about the transportation system its that they can’t get from place to place as quickly as they like. TV traffic reporters are always alerting us to delays; Google…
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Does Cyber-Monday mean delivery gridlock Tuesday?
Today is famously “Cyber-Monday,” the day on which the nation’s consumers take to their web-browsers and started clicking for holiday shopping in earnest. Last year, its is estimated that online shoppers orders more than $3 billion worth of merchandise on this single day, and the expectation is this will grow even further this year. The…
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The Week Observed, November 23, 2018
Editors Note: We’re offering an abbreviated Thanksgiving Week version of the Week Observed. Our regular features–must read, new knowledge, and in the news–will return next Friday. What City Observatory did this week 1. The long tail of the housing bust. It’s been a little more than a decade since the collapse of the housing bubble,…
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The immaculate conception of your neighborhood
It’s naive to assume that existing housing stock sprang to life magically (We’re pleased to reprise this classic essay from Daniel Kay Hertz, long-time contributor to City Observatory, and now author of the newly released Battle of Lincoln Park: Urban Renewal and Gentrification in Chicago). A while back, a columnist in Seattle Magazine, Knute Berger,…
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Real home prices: A regional view
Wide variations in regional home price patterns tell us a lot about housing markets and cities Yesterday, we looked at the path of inflation-adjusted home prices in the US. While much attention has been paid to the fact that nominal prices of homes have, in many markets caught up to or surpassed levels recorded in…
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The long tail of the housing bust
Adjusted for inflation, US home prices are still lower than in 2006 For most US households, the home they own is their biggest financial asset. After the housing bust of 2007, when collectively about $7 trillion in home value was wiped out by declining house prices, many people have looked to subsequent increases in home…
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The Week Observed, November 16, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. If your corporate campus has 10,000 parking spaces, it isn’t really “walkable.” With great fanfare, American Airlines has announced its building a new corporate campus in Fort Worth. While American calls it highly walkable–it will have pedestrian paths, parks and some bikes, it is surrounded by freeways, it’s…
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You can’t feel ’em, if you can’t see ’em
We can’t have empathy for those we can’t encounter due to the way our cities are built Editor’s Note: Last month, our friend Carol Coletta spoke to the Kinder Institute in Houston about the critical role that place plays in building a shared sense of community. We’re pleased to reprint her remarks here. Monday night…
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The myth of revealed preference for suburbs
If so many people live in suburbs, it must be because that’s what they prefer, right? But the evidence is to the contrary. 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…
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Why suburban office campuses aren’t really walkable
A suburban campus with 10,000 parking spaces and virtually no transit isn’t walkable A recent news item caught our eye: The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported that American Airlines was putting a premium on promoting walkability as it built its new headquarters in that Texas city. The Star Telegram’s headline: “Why American Airlines doesn’t want…
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The Week Observed, November 9, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. There will be two HQ2, just as we predicted. Back in January, we took a close look at the Amazon HQ2 location contest. We said that the decision to build a second headquarters wasn’t simply to clone a another version of the existing Seattle operations, but to diversify…
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Why road pricing is inherently equitable: Faster buses
Road pricing is inherently fairer to the poor because it speeds up buses As economists, we’re keen on the idea of road pricing. The reason we have congestion and delay is because we charge a price for peak hour road use (zero), that doesn’t come close to covering the costs of providing roadway capacity and…
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Homevoters v. the growth machine
It’s election day, everyone. If you haven’t voted, please do so. In honor of the election, today we’re please to reprise one of Daniel Kay Hertz’s essays on urban politics. Daniel has just released his new book, The Battle of Lincoln Park: Urban Renewal and Gentrification in Chicago. There are two big theories about who…
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2HQ2? Amazon doubles down, just as we predicted
As City Observatory predicted in January, Amazon will select multiple locations for HQ2 The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon’s much ballyhooed headquarters contest will choose not one winner, but two. Amazon.com Inc. plans to split its second headquarters evenly between two locations rather than picking one city for HQ2, according to a person…
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Detroit’s Corktown: Portrait of a diverse neighborhood
One of the places where socioeconomic mixing is highest Despite deep concerns that America is increasingly divided along racial, ethnic and economic lines, there are some neighborhoods that have a diverse array of residents from different racial and ethnic groups and different economic strata. We know that segregation is devastating for the life prospects of…
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The Week Observed, November 2, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. The neighborhood you grow up shapes your life chances, especially for black kids. New research from the Equality of Opportunity Project shows the profound effect that neighborhoods have on lifetime economic results. Raj Chetty, Nate Hendren and their colleagues have calculated how much of the effect of place…