Month: June 2021
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Lower interest rates = More expensive homes
The decline in interest rates in 2020 is a huge factor in explaining the recent surge in home prices. Population growth, a key driver of housing demand, actually slowed dramatically in the past year. The current surge in home prices may be a short-term phenomenon. We’re constantly being told that the housing market is hot,…
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The Week Observed, June 25, 2021
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cars kill city neighborhoods. Across the nation, America’s cities have been remade to accomodate the automobile. Freeways have been widened through city neighborhoods, demolishing homes and businesses, but more than that, the sprawling, car-dependent transportation system which is now firmly rooted across the nation is simply toxic to…
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The Bum’s Rush
The $800 million project transitions from “nothing has been decided” to “nothing can be changed” There’s a kind of calculated phase-shift in the way transportation department’s talk about major projects. For a long, long time, they’ll respond to any challenges or questions by claiming that “nothing has been decided” or that a project is still…
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The Week Observed, June 18, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Race and economic polarization. In the past several decades, racial segregation in the US has attenuated, but economic segregation has increased. This is nowhere more apparent than in the residential patterns of Black Americans. A recent analysis by David Rusk looks at the growing economic polarization of urban neighborhoods…
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More proof of ODOT’s Rose Quarter Freeway coverup
Newly revealed documents show its roadway is vastly wider than needed for traffic, and also makes “buildable” freeway covers prohibitively expensive If you really want just two additional lanes, you can do so much more cheaply and with less environmental destruction The reality is ODOT is planning a 10 lane freeway at the Rose Quarter,…
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Race and economic polarization
The growth of concentrated poverty has been fueled by the secession of successful African Americans David Rusk has summarized his research on race and economic polarization in a series of three commentaries on “The Great Sort,” for the DC Policy Center. The essence of the sorting in question is the sorting of the nation’s African…
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The Week Observed, June 4, 2021
What City Observatory this week What ultimately destroyed Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood: Highways. This past week marked the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre. In 1921, a racist mob attacked and destroyed the Black Greenwood neighborhood, killing hundreds. The Greenwood’s residents were resilient, rebuilding a neighborhood that thrived for almost 50 years. According to a new…
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How highways finally crushed Black Tulsa
Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood survived the 1921 race massacre, only to be ultimately destroyed by a more unrelenting foe: Interstate highways Black Tulsans quickly rebuilt Greenwood in the 1920s, and it flourished for decades, but was ultimately done in by freeway construction and urban renewal Even now, Tulsa has money for more road widening, but apparently…