Data At CityObservatory, we strive to make data the driving force behind our operations. We know that many of you share our keen interest in digging through the data, and we strongly believe that everyone benefits when data sou... → By CityObservatory Guest 23.2.2015
Grading the City Clean Energy Scorecard A new scorecard tries to measure how cities are promoting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases—a laudable goal. But the scorecard has some serious limitations. This scorecard emphasizes policies and process... → By Joe Cortright 6.6.2024
A yawning chasm: Patterns of neighborhood distress in US metros There's a yawning chasm of neighborhood level economic distress across US metro areas. While about 1 in 6 US neighborhoods is classed as distressed, some metro areas have large concentrations of distress, while others ha... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2024
Bad data: Not a decline in travel An imagined decline in trip-making is the result of bad data analysis USDOT counted fewer trips in 2022, because it used a different, and less reliable survey method USDOT's social media created a false perception th... → By Joe Cortright 21.12.2023
Down is not up: The truth about traffic, congestion and trucking A central message of the highway building sales pitch is that traffic is ever-growing and ever worsening, and that we have no choice but to throw more money at expanded capacity. The Oregon Department of Transportation ... → By Joe Cortright 4.12.2023
ODOT’s I-205 Bridge: 1/10th of 1 Percent for Black Contractors The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises One-tenth of one percent of I-205 contracts went to Black construction firms ODO... → By Joe Cortright 20.7.2023
Scratch one flat top! Oregon freeway fighters chalk up a key victory—but the fight continues On June 26, the Oregon Department of Transportation finally bowed to reality that it simply lacks the funds to pay for a seven-mile long widening ... → By Joe Cortright 29.6.2023
Getting prices right to improve urban transportation City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary from Miriam Pinski. With the needed federal environmental approvals in hand, New York looks set to be the first American city to implement congestion pricin... → By Miriam Pinski 6.6.2023
The Color of Money: Bailing out highways with flexible federal funds ODOT grabs a billion dollars that could be used for bikes, pedestrians and transit, and allocates it to pay highway bills. Oregon highways are out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the cost of ... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2023
Houston’s I-45: Civil rights or repeated wrongs? Editor's Note: For the past two year's the Federal Highway Administration has been investigating a civil rights complaint brought against the proposed I-45 freeway expansion project in Houston. This week, FHWA and TxDO... → By Kevin DeGood 10.3.2023
More induced travel denial Highway advocates deny or minimize the science of induced travel Induced travel is a well established scientific fact: any increase in roadway capacity in a metropolitan area is likely to produce a proportional increa... → By Joe Cortright 27.2.2023
Why should Oregonians subsidize suburban commuters from another state? Oregon is being asked to pay for half of the cost of widening the I-5 Interstate Bridge. Eighty percent of daily commuters, and two-thirds of all traffic on the bridge are Washington residents. On average, these commut... → By Joe Cortright 18.4.2023
ODOT doesn’t care about covers, again ODOT's Supplemental Environmental Analysis shows it has no plans for doing anything on its vaunted freeway covers It left the description of cover's post-construction use as "XXX facilities" in the final, official Suppl... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2022
ODOT reneges on Rose Quarter cover promises The soon-to-be released Rose Quarter I-5 Revised Environmental Assessment shows that ODOT is already reneging on its sales pitch of using a highway widening to heal Portland's Albina Neighborhood. It trumpeted "highway ... → By Joe Cortright 14.11.2022
ODOT’s “Fix-it first” fraud ODOT claims that its policy is "fix-it first" maintaining the highway system. But it is spending vastly less on maintenance and restoration than is needed to keep roads and bridges from deteriorating It blames the Le... → By Joe Cortright 28.7.2022
A Universal Basic income . . . for Cars California is the first in the nation to establish a Universal Basic Income . . . for cars One of the most widely discussed alternatives for tackling poverty and inequality head-on is the idea of a "Universal Basic Inco... → By Joe Cortright 14.4.2022
Which metros are vulnerable to gas price hikes? Green cities will be less hurt by higher gas prices; Sprawling cities are much more vulnerable to gas price hikes. In sprawling metros like Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando, Nashville and Oklahoma City, higher gas prices will c... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2022
A reporter’s guide to congestion cost studies Reporters: read this before you write a "cost of congestion" story. Congestion cost studies are a classic example of pseudo-science: Big data and bad assumptions produce meaningless results Using this absurd meth... → By Joe Cortright 9.1.2023
More Congestion Pseudo Science A new study calculates that twenty percent of all time "lost" in travel is due to traffic lights Finally, proof for the Lachner Theorem: Traffic signals are a major cause of traffic delay Another classic example o... → By Joe Cortright 26.5.2022
Freeway widening for whomst? Widening freeways is no way to promote equity. The proposed $5 billion widening of I-5 between Portland and Vancouver is purportedly being undertaken with "an equity lens," but widening Portland's I-5 freeway serves high... → By Joe Cortright 23.2.2022
Biased statistics: Woke-washing the I-5 Boondoggle The Oregon and Washington transportation departments are using a biased, unscientific survey to market their $5 billion I-5 freeway widening project. The survey over-represents daily bridge users by a factor of 10 compa... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2022
Oregon’s economic success: The triumph of the city After decades of lagging the nation, Oregon's income now exceeds the national average. While some seem to think its a mystery: It's not. It all about a flourishing Portland economy, especially in the central city of... → By Joe Cortright 22.11.2021
Let’s stop whining about gas prices: Gasoline is cheap, too cheap. Gas prices are going up, and it's annoying to have to pay more, but let's take a closer look at how much we're paying for gas. Even with a recent uptick, gas prices are still lower than they were a decade ago. Cheap ... → By Joe Cortright 15.11.2021
Here’s what’s wrong with Oregon DOT’s Rose Quarter pollution claims 10 reasons not to believe phony DOT claims that widening highways reduces pollution We know that transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and that our car dependent transportation syst... → By Joe Cortright 12.10.2021
Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence The Oregon Department of Transportation's glossy mailer to sell its $1.25 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project is a cynical, error-ridden marketing ploy. ODOT doesn't show or tell about its wider freeway an... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2021
Talkin’ ’bout my gentrification Jerusalem Demsas of Vox has a thoughtful synthesis of what we know about gentrification. If we're concerned about poverty and inequality, gentrification is far from the biggest problem we face. Gentrification is ... → By Joe Cortright 9.9.2021
Insurance and the Cost of Living: Auto Insurance Everyone loves to compare the affordability of different cities, and most of the attention gets focused on differences in housing prices and rents. Clearly, these are a major component of living costs, and they vary su... → By Eli Molloy 17.8.2021
To solve climate, we need electric cars—and a lot less driving Electric vehicles will help, but we need to do much more to reduce driving Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to offer this guest commentary by Matthew Lewis. Matthew is Director of Communications for Califor... → By Matthew Lewis 10.8.2021
It’s back, and it’s even dumber than ever: The Urban Mobility Report There was an unprecedented decline in traffic congestion in the US last year. According to the Urban Mobility Report, there's essentially nothing we can learn from this experience The Texas Transportation Institute ha... → By Joe Cortright 1.7.2021
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 ... → By Joe Cortright 2.6.2021
Single-Family Zoning and Exclusion in L.A. County: Part 1 Single-family zoning, a policy that bans apartments, is widespread in Los Angeles County. The median city bans apartments on 80% of its land for housing. Cities with more widespread single-family zoning have higher medi... → By Anthony Dedousis 24.5.2021
Single-Family Zoning and Exclusion in L.A. County: Part 2 Single-family zoning, a policy that bans apartments, is widespread in Los Angeles County. The median city bans apartments on 80% of its land for housing. Cities with more widespread single-family zoning have higher whit... → By Anthony Dedousis 27.5.2021
State DOTs can and should build housing to mitigate highway impacts If OregonDOT is serious about "restorative justice" it should mitigate highway damage by building housing Around the country, states are subsidizing affordable housing to mitigate the damage done by highway projects ... → By Joe Cortright 25.5.2021
For a grand bargain, think bigger and bolder Right diagnosis, weak medicine, wrong metaphor In a far ranging thought piece for James Fallows' Our Towns Civic Foundation—"Learning from Eisenhower and Lincoln: A Grand Bargain for Transportation," Patrick Doherty... → By Joe Cortright 17.5.2021
The NIMBYs made $6 trillion last year In 2021, US residential values increased by $6.9 trillion, almost entirely due to price appreciation Those gains went disproportionately to older, white, higher income households Capital gains on housing in 2021 were... → By Joe Cortright 6.4.2022
Who got trillions? We found the real speculators profiting from higher housing costs In 2020, US residential values increased by $2.2 trillion Those gains went disproportionately to older, white, higher income households Capital gains on housing in 2020 were more than three times larger than the tota... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2021
Wholly Moses: Pave now, pay later Oregon legislation goes whole hog on highways HB 3065 would launch a whole new round of freeway boondoggles, and plunge the state into debt to pay for them The classic Robert Moses scam: Drive stakes, sell bonds ... → By Joe Cortright 6.4.2021
Greenwashing auto infrastructure: Natick’s diverging diamond A proposed interchange in Natick, Mass. is a classic example of greenwashing The diverging diamond is an idea entirely given over to making things better for cars, and creates a disorienting, circuitous and dangerous wo... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2021
Taking Tubman: ODOT’s plan to build a freeway on school grounds ODOT's proposed I-5 Rose Quarter project would turn a school yard into a freeway The widened I-5 freeway will make already unhealthy air even worse Pollution from high volume roads has been shown to lower student ac... → By Joe Cortright 13.4.2021
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The I-5 Meat Axe Interstate 5 "Meat Axe" slashed through the Albina Neighborhood in 1962 This was the second of three acts by ODOT that destroyed housing and isolated Albina Building the I-5 freeway led to the demolition of housing ... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2021
Covid Migration: Temporary, young, economically insecure There's relatively little migration in the wake of Covid-19 Most Covid-related migration is temporary, involves moving in with friends or relatives, and not leaving a metro area It's not professionals fleeing cities:... → By Joe Cortright 16.2.2021
How housing segregation reduces Black wealth Black-owned homes are valued at a discount to all housing, but the disparity is worst in highly segregated metro areas There's a strong correlation between metropolitan segregation and black-white housing wealth dispari... → By Joe Cortright 9.2.2021
America’s K-shaped housing market Home prices are soaring, rents are falling The disparate impact of the recession on high income and low income households in driving the housing market in two directions at once. Job losses have been concentrated amo... → By Joe Cortright 3.2.2021
Housing discrimination is baked into zoning The real housing discrimination today is institutional, not personal The unfinished business of dismantling the institutional racism built into zoning Overt, personal discrimination in housing is just the tip of the ... → By Joe Cortright 18.1.2021
Sustainability is about more than electrification Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this guest commentary by Kevin DeGood, Director of Infrastructure Policy at the Center for American Progress. This commentary originally appeared as a tweetstorm, and is republish... → By Joe Cortright 16.12.2020
Put a bird on it: Highway Greenwashing There's no shortage of cynical greenwashing to sell climate-killing highway widening projects GeorgiaDOT and AASHTO have a new PR gimmick to promote the same old product In a famous season one sketch of Portlandia, F... → By Joe Cortright 12.4.2023
More cynical greenwashing from the highway industry There's no shortage of cynical greenwashing to sell climate-killing highway widening projects GeorgiaDOT and AASHTO have a new PR gimmick to promote the same old product AASHTO—the American Association of State Hig... → By Joe Cortright 16.11.2020
Systemic racism and automobile insurance Does geographic rating of car insurance amount to 21st Century redlining? Car insurance rates vary more based on who your neighbors are than on your driving record The premium penalty for living in a Black neighborho... → By Joe Cortright 5.11.2020
Covid & Cities: Reasons for optimism There are several compelling reasons—the seven "C's"—to believe cities will thrive and prosper in a post-pandemic world: Competition: Zooming it in works when everyone has to do it, but if you work remotely whil... → By Joe Cortright 9.11.2020
Equity and Metro’s $5 Billion Transportation Bond Advocates for a $5 billion transportation bond that Portland area voters will be deciding in November are making a specious argument about it being an equity measure. Its largest single project, a multi-billion dollar l... → By Joe Cortright 26.10.2020
The Great Disconnect: The perverse rhetoric of gentrification The Great Disconnect By Jason Segedy City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary from Akron's Jason Segedy. It originally appeared on his blog. As this decade draws to a close, the story... → By Joe Cortright 29.9.2020
Red states are now the red zone for Covid-19 Covid-19 now disproportionately affects rural America, and is hitting red states harder than blue ones. Rural counties have 14 percent of US population and 21 percent of new Covid-19 cases. The nation's largest, densest... → By Joe Cortright 13.10.2020
Covid-19 is now a rural and red state pandemic Covid-19 now disproportionately affects rural America, and is hitting red states harder than blue ones. OK, reporters, we're waiting for the stories about rural Americans decamping to cities (or suburbs) and from red st... → By Joe Cortright 16.9.2020
Lived segregation in US cities We're much less segregated during the day, and when we're away from home Commercial and public spaces are important venues for interaction with people from other racial/ethnic groups Patterns of experienced segregati... → By Joe Cortright 15.9.2020
The myth of pedestrian infrastructure in a world of cars Big money "pedestrian" projects are often remedial and performative; their real purpose is to serve faster car traffic. One of the biggest lies in transportation planning is calling something "multi-modal." When someb... → By Joe Cortright 3.9.2020
Is there anything “smart” about smart cities? Big data and new technology make bold promises about solving urban problems, but not only fall well short of solutions, but actually can end up making things worse. Why we're skeptical of the "smart city" movement. Y... → By Joe Cortright 7.9.2020
America’s least (and most) segregated metro areas: 2020 The latest Census data show that Black/White segregation is decreasing in large metro areas. Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is one of America'... → By Joe Cortright 20.10.2021
America’s least (and most) segregated cities. Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is the nation's least segregated large city. The murder of George Floyd by police has reignited national intere... → By Joe Cortright 17.8.2020
The amazing disappearing urban exodus The greatest urban myth of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fear of density has triggered an exodus from cities. US Post Office data show that the supposed urban exodus was just a trickle, and Americans moved even less in ... → By Joe Cortright 19.10.2020
The Exodus that never happened The greatest urban myth of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fear of density has triggered an exodus from cities. The latest data show an increase in interest in dense urban locations. At City Observatory, we've regularl... → By Joe Cortright 21.7.2020
The toxic flood of cars, not just the freeway, crushed Albina Restorative Justice & A Viable Neighborhood What destroyed the Albina community? What will it take to restore it? It wasn't just the freeway, it was the onslaught of cars, that transformed Albina into a bleak a... → By Joe Cortright 16.9.2020
Dominos falling on Rose Quarter freeway widening Last week, over the space of about 24 hours, the prospects for Portland's proposed the Rose Quarter freeway widening dimmed almost to extinction. Leaders of Portland's African-American community have concluded that the ... → By Joe Cortright 14.7.2020
Portland awards itself a participation trophy for climate Portland is utterly failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, but not to worry, its ticking lots of boxes in its bureaucratic check-list. The city walks away from its 2015 Climate Action Plan after... → By Joe Cortright 30.7.2020
COVID Lessons for Portland (and others) COVID Lessons for Portland (and others) by Ethan Seltzer (. . . with profound thanks to anonymous reviewers) Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this essay by City Observatory friend Ethan Seltzer, reflecting o... → By Joe Cortright 16.6.2020
Youth movement: A generational shift in preference for urbanism Well-educated young adults are increasingly moving to city centers Real estate search activity shows no decline in interest in city living due to the pandemic Our new report—Youth Movement: Accelerating America's U... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2020
Youth Movement The movement of talented young adults to dense urban neighborhoods isn't waning, it is widespread and accelerating, and it is powering urban revival. Cities continue to be magnets for talented young adults The number of... → By Joe Cortright 14.6.2020
Youth Movement Dashboard See how your city's close-in neighborhoods did in attracting well-educated young adults Our CityReport, Youth Movement: Accelerating America's Urban Renaissance, charts the growing concentration of well-educated young a... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2020
Covid-19 and segregation Segregated cities seem to be harder hit by the pandemic Covid-19 prevalence is more strongly correlated with metropolitan racial and economic segregation than with urban density The New York City metro area has been ... → By Joe Cortright 8.6.2020
Coronavirus in L.A. County: Separating Fact from Fiction Are cities the latest victim of coronavirus? Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary by Anthony Dedousis of Abundant Housing LA. Some elected officials and journalists have draw... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2020
Don’t make “equity” the enemy of improving cities for people Invoking concerns about equity to block providing more street space for people is destructive A cautionary tale from Chicago, with some keen insight from Greg Shill. Let's begin by stipulating one thing: Ther... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2020
What is urban? Shape of the urban/suburban divide: Views differ There's a lot of debate about the relative merits and performance of cities and suburbs. You'll read that the migration to cities has come to a halt, that suburbs are g... → By Joe Cortright 19.5.2020
Postcards from the edges: Density is not Destiny There's a meme equating density with Covid-19 risk. Two polar cases shows that density (or lack thereof) has little to do with the spread of the pandemic. Many, including New York's Governor, have been quick t... → By Joe Cortright 21.5.2020
What cities tell us about the trajectory of the pandemic Each metro area represents a different instance of the Covid-19 pandemic; we can use the varied experiences and timing of the virus in each metro area to better understand where we're headed. Seattle is 10 days to 2 wee... → By Joe Cortright 4.4.2020
The state of the pandemic by metro area Updated April 29 with data through April 28. In geographic terms, the Corona Virus has become the Northeast Corridor Virus: NE Corridor metros account for 6 of the 8 hardest hit large metros, and have 6 of the ... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2020
Cities and coronavirus: Some thoughts The Coronavirus pandemic is already worse in several American states than anywhere in China outside Hubei Province The pandemic is all about geography, and we need to do more to pinpoint hotspots and contagion The ve... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2020
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter will increase greenhouse gases Adding more freeway capacity at the Rose Quarter will thousands of tons to the region's greenhouse gas emissions If you say you believe in science, and you take climate change seriously, you can't support spending $800... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2021
Equity and Homelessness What's equitable about spending six times as much per homeless person in the suburbs as in the city? The "equity" standard that's guiding the division of revenue for Metro's housing initiative is based on politics, not ... → By Joe Cortright 21.2.2020
Why Atlanta’s anti-gentrification moratorium will backfire Blocking new development will only accelerate demand for existing homes The moratorium makes flipping houses even more lucrative Atlanta's making a major investment in Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry, not far from t... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2020
Understanding Walkable Density A new way of measuring urban density that explicitly considers walkability by DW Rowlands Editor's Note: We're pleased to offer this guest commentary by DW Rowlands. DW Rowlands is a human geography grad student a... → By Joe Cortright 19.2.2020
Fighting Climate Change is Inherently Equitable Happy Earth Day, Everyone! If we care about equity, we need to make rapid progress on climate change Equity needs to be defined by substantive outcomes, not vacuous rhetoric and elaborate process. Ultimately equit... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2021
Local flavor: Independent restaurants indicate city vitality Which US cities have the most independent restaurants? One of the chief advantages of cities is the range of consumption choices they afford to their residents. In general, larger cities offer more choices than smaller ... → By Joe Cortright 3.8.2023
Local flavor: Cities with the most independent restaurants Which US cities have the most independent restaurants? One of the chief advantages of cities is the range of consumption choices they afford to their residents. In general, larger cities offer more choices than smaller ... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2020
How driving ruins local flavor Car-dependent metros have fewer independent restaurants Chain restaurants and cars go together Yesterday, we used data compiled by Yelp on chain and independent restaurants to compute the market share of chains in th... → By Joe Cortright 18.2.2020
Climate failure and denial at the Oregon Department of Transportation Oregon is utterly failing to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions Instead of being down 10 percent by 2020, transportation greenhouse gas emissions are up more than 20 percent Oregon will miss its 2020 GHG ... → By Joe Cortright 20.2.2020
Why we should enable more people to move to opportunity Enabling low income households to move to high opportunity neighborhoods is one way to promote equity and intergenerational mobility. But some people apparently don't want anyone to move. Last year, we profiled an exp... → By Joe Cortright 8.1.2020
Why cheap gas is our real climate and transportation policy Forget about lofty greenhouse gas reduction goals and vision zero, our real climate and transportation policy is cheap gas The fall in gas prices in 2014 led to more driving, more SUV purchases, less transit ridership, ... → By Joe Cortright 13.4.2021
Freeway deja vu all over again: The freeway builders ignore school kids The Oregon Department of Transportation has a decades long-tradition of ignoring Portland Public Schools when it comes to freeway projects So here's our story so far. The Oregon Department of Transportation, ODOT, is ... → By Joe Cortright 9.12.2019
Walkable places are growing in value almost everywhere Over the past decade, across the nation, the most walkable homes have appreciated the most In two-thirds of large metro areas, walkable neighborhoods have higher home values than car-dependent ones Walkable neighborh... → By Joe Cortright 16.1.2020
Transportation planners flunk Econ 101: Price elasticity of demand The most basic concept in economics is that higher prices lead to less consumption, yet this fact is routinely ignored in transportation planning and policy. If we got the prices right, many of our most pressing transpo... → By Joe Cortright 16.12.2019
The city as labor saving device Great cities, especially ones with dense, walkable mixed use neighborhoods are an economic boon to households because they save the precious commodity of time [caption id="attachment_9013" align="aligncenter" width="700... → By Joe Cortright 14.11.2019
Does walkability promote economic mobility? A new study shows a tantalizing connection between more walkable places and intergenerational economic mobility City Observatory readers will be familiar with the findings of Raj Chetty and his colleagues in the Equalit... → By Joe Cortright 22.10.2019
How homeownership as wealth is rigged against people of color Timing is everything in real estate, and mortgage availability cycles mean that people of color buy high and sell low. The Urban Institute has an informative new report charting the swings of home prices across the nati... → By Joe Cortright 23.10.2019
No youth exodus from cities: WSJ is detecting noise, not signal There's no statistically significant news on young adults in cities in the latest Census release Pro-tip: Ignore changes smaller than the margin of error: they're noise, not signal It's hard to underestimate the ... → By Joe Cortright 4.10.2019
Won’t be fooled again: Transportation for America Too often, progressive transportation advocates have been rolled by the highway crowd; No more, says Transportation for America Three principles for reform: Fix it First, Safety before Speed, Accessibility, not Mobility... → By Joe Cortright 9.10.2019
What if we regulated cars like we do houses? What if we regulated new car ownership the same way we do new housing? A recent story about Singapore caught our eye: In Singapore, you can't even buy a car without a government issued "certificate"—and the number o... → By Joe Cortright 4.10.2023
A modest proposal: An EIS for the DMV Many states subject housing approval to environmental reporting requirements; what if we extended this same principle to car registrations. Back in the early days of the environmental movement--the late sixties and earl... → By Joe Cortright 1.10.2019
Why its important for your city to be unequal If your city isn't unequal, it's either poor or exclusionary Measured income equality, which is sensible goal nationally, is a perversely misleading indicator of which cities are the most just and and inclusive Incom... → By Joe Cortright 21.10.2019
What supercommuting really means Super-commuting is a really a plea for more housing and better transit If long distance commutes are up, its probably because gas prices are so low If you're covering the transportation beat, the plight of the poor s... → By Joe Cortright 18.9.2019
Inclusive urbanism comes to the presidential race Beto O'Rourke brings a strong urbanist, inclusive message to the presidential campaign The 2020 Democratic presidential race has been remarkable for addressing both climate change and housing policy issues that have long ... → By Joe Cortright 9.9.2019
Seeing red We're killing more people because more people are ignoring traffic signals We've charted the ominous increase in road deaths in the past several years, and now there's a new bit of evidence of just how bad the problem h... → By Joe Cortright 3.9.2019
The Week Observed, January 12, 2024 What City Observatory did this week The pernicious myth of "Naturally Occurring" Affordable Housing. One of the most dangerous and misleading concepts in housing reared its ugly head in the form a a new publication from... → By Joe Cortright 12.1.2024
The Week Observed, January 26, 2024 What City Observatory this week Robert Moses strikes again: One of the most infamous decisions of "The Power Broker" was to build the overpasses on the Long Island Expressway too low to allow city buses to use the roadw... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2024
The Week Observed, January 15, 2024 What City Observatory this week 1. The Urban Institute gets inclusion backwards. The Urban Institute has released an updated set of estimates that purport to measure which US cities are the most inclusive. The report i... → By Joe Cortright 15.1.2021
The Week Observed, January 22, 2021 What City Observatory this week Institutionalized housing discrimination. A recent study of housing discrimination in Detroit came to a seemingly surprising conclusion: Fair housing complaints were less likely to be fil... → By Joe Cortright 22.1.2021
The Week Observed, January 29, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. Why Portland's Rose Quarter Freeway widening will increase greenhouse gas emissions. The Oregon Department of Transportation hashas falsely claimed its $800 million freeway widening pr... → By Joe Cortright 29.1.2021
The Week Observed, February 5, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. Calculating induced travel. Widening freeways to reduce traffic congestion in dense urban areas inevitably fails because of the scientifically demonstrated problem of induced demand; som... → By Joe Cortright 5.2.2021
The Week Observed, April 2, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. How the Oregon Department of Transportation destroyed a Portland neighborhood, Part 2: The Moses Meat Axe. We continue our historical look at the role that freeway construction (and ... → By Joe Cortright 2.4.2021
The Week Observed, April 9, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. How ODOT destroyed Albina: Part 3 the Phantom Freeway. Even a freeway that never got built played a key role in demolishing part of Portland's Albina neighborhood. In parts 1 and 2... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2021
The Week Observed, April 16, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. Taking Tubman: The Oregon Department of Transportation is planning to widen the Interstate 5 freeway in Portland into the backyard of Harriet Tubman Middle School. The $800 million w... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2021
The Week Observed, April 30, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. Restorative justice without funding is a sham. Portland's Albina neighborhood was decimated by the construction of three Oregon Department of Transportation highway projects in the 195... → By Joe Cortright 30.4.2021
The Week Observed, April 23, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. Fighting climate change is inherently equitable. While there's a growing recognition of the existential threat posed by climate change, it's becoming increasingly frequent to pit equity ... → By Joe Cortright 23.4.2021
The Week Observed, May 7, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. It's not a bridge replacement, it's a 5 mile long, 12 lane wide freeway that just happens to cross a river. The Oregon and Washington highway departments are trying to revive the faile... → By Joe Cortright 7.5.2021
The Week Observed, May 14, 2021 What City Observatory this week Don't be fooled again. The Oregon and Washington state highway departments are up to their old tricks in trying to push a multi-billion dollar highway building boondoggle in the POrtland ... → By Joe Cortright 14.5.2021
The Week Observed, May 21, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. Needed: A bolder, better building back. In response to an invitation from its authors, we take a look at a "grand bargain" proposed by Patrick Doherty and Chris Leinberger for breaki... → By Joe Cortright 21.5.2021
The Week Observed, July 16, 2021 What City Observatory did this week An open letter to Secretary Pete Buttigieg on his visit to Oregon. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to Oregon this week to look at some local transportation innovations. ... → By Joe Cortright 16.7.2021
The Week Observed, July 30, 2021 What City Observatory did this week Oregon Department of Transportation's Climate Fig-Leaf. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases in Oregon, and the state's Department of Transportation is—yet again... → By Joe Cortright 30.7.2021
The Week Observed, September 17, 2021 What City Observatory did this week The cost of Oregon DOT's Rose Quarter project has nearly tripled to $1.25 billion. Just four years ago, the Oregon Department of transportation sold its mile-and-a-half long I-5 freew... → By Eli Molloy 17.9.2021
The Week Observed, September 10, 2021 What City Observatory did this week Talkin' 'bout my gentrification. Jerusalem Demsas of Vox has a thoughtful synthesis of what we know about gentrification. If we're concerned about poverty and inequality, gentrifi... → By Joe Cortright 10.9.2021
The Week Observed, April 1, 2022 What City Observatory did this week The Cappuccino Congestion Index. Media reports regularly regurgitate the largely phony claims about how traffic congestion costs travelers untold billions of dollars in wasted time. ... → By Joe Cortright 1.4.2022
The Week Observed, May 6, 2022 What City Observatory did this week Ten questions that deserve answers before making a multi-billion dollar decision. The Portland metro area is being asked by the Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation to gi... → By Joe Cortright 6.5.2022
The Week Observed, June 17, 2022 What City Observatory did this week There's nothing green about free parking, no matter how many solar panels you put on the garage. The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory brags about its sus... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2022
The Week Observed, July 1, 2022 Must read The most gas guzzling states. The sting of higher gas prices depends on where you live, not so much because of the variation in prices, but because in some states, you just have drive a lot more. The website Q... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2022
The Week Observed, November 11, 2022 What City Observatory did this week Risky bridges. The Oregon and Washington highway departments are blundering ahead with a $5 billion plan to widen I-5 between Portland and Vancouver, and are making many of the same m... → By Joe Cortright 11.11.2022
The Week Observed, February 3, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Groundhog's Day for Climate. So you think you're not Bill Murray in the classic "Groundhog's Day?" Oregonians, ask yourself: are we anywhere closer to seriously addressi... → By Joe Cortright 3.2.2023
The Week Observed, March 17, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Why does a $500 million bridge cost $7.5 billion? For almost two decades the Oregon and Washington highway departments have been saying they want to replace the I-5 bridges over t... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2023
The Week Observed, March 23, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Oregon's transportation finance in crisis: Testimony to the Joint Ways and Means Committee. On March 16, City Observatory's Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Legislature's b... → By Joe Cortright 24.3.2023
The Week Observed, March 31, 2023 What City Observatory did this week What are they hiding? Oregon and Washington are being asked to spend $7.5 billion on a giant bridge: Why won’t anyone show pictures of what it would look like? The Oregon ... → By Joe Cortright 31.3.2023
The Week Observed, June 30, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Scratch one flat top! That was the famous cry of US Naval aviators, when, early in World War II they chalked up their first victory, sinking the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho. Por... → By Joe Cortright 30.6.2023
The Week Observed, May 3, 2024 What City Observatory Did This Week Beware of phony claims that highway projects are "On-time and Under-Budget." For highway departments, the key to being on-time and under-budget is Orwellian double-speak. Oregon ... → By Joe Cortright 3.5.2024
The Week Observed, August 23, 2024 What City Observatory Did This Week How Metro's RTP illegally favors driving and violates state climate rules. Oregon's planning rules require Portland area transportation plans to prioritize investments that reduce ve... → By Joe Cortright 23.8.2024
The Week Observed, August 2, 2024 Must Read Induced Demand and Climate Denial. As we've long said, the favorite folk tale of state DOTs and highway boosters is the idea that the primary solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is lowering the amoun... → By Joe Cortright 29.7.2024
The Week Observed, July 12, 2024 Must Read The problem with elevators in America. Market Urbanism's Stephen Smith has an op-ed in the New York Times opening up a new front in the YIMBY effort to expand housing supply in the US. Smith argues that th... → By Joe Cortright 8.7.2024
The Week Observed, April 26, 2024 What City Observatory Did This Week Earth Day: Oregon is spending billions to widen freeways in a move that will only worsen the increase in greenhouse gases from transportation. Transportation is the leading source of ... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2024
The Week Observed, April 19, 2024 What City Observatory Did This Week A teachable moment: Free Ice Cream Day. Traffic was lined up around the block last Tuesday at your local Ben and Jerry's, for the same reason roadways are clogged most weekday afterno... → By Joe Cortright 19.4.2024
The Week Observed, April 5, 2024 What City Observatory did this week Thirty seconds over Portland: Spending $7.5 billion on a freeway widening project will save the typical affected commuter about 30 seconds a day, according to the Interstate Bridge Re... → By Joe Cortright 5.4.2024
The Week Observed, March 29, 2024 What City Observatory did this week What the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project doesn't want you to know. The $7.5 Billion Interstate Bridge Replacement project is afraid of what you’ll find out when they release ... → By Joe Cortright 29.3.2024
The Week Observed, March 22, 2024 What City Observatory did this week The high cost of covering freeways. The latest fashion in highway urbanism is "capping" freeways. In theory, highway builders claim that capping freeways will repair past damage and... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2024
The Week Observed, March 15, 2024 What City Observatory did this week Abandoning road pricing monkey-wrenches state transportation, traffic reduction and climate plans. This week, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek terminated Oregon's Regional Mobility Pricing ... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2024
The Week Observed, March 8, 2024 What City Observatory did this week A yawning chasm in neighborhood distress among metro areas. Almost every metropolitan area has some neighborhoods that face serious economic distress, but the patterns of distress vary ... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2024
The Week Observed, February 2, 2024 Must Read How CalTrans cheated on its environmental reporting. Some months back, former Deputy Director of CalTrans,Jeanie Ward-Waller blew the whistle on the agency's effort to evade environmental laws and illegally us... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2024
The Week Observed, December 22, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Bad data. What appears, at first glance, to be a big decline in trip-making is really an object lesson in failing to read the footnotes. Every five years or so, the US Department of... → By Joe Cortright 22.12.2023
The Week Observed, November 10, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Snow-Job: Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) threatens to slash snow-plowing and other safety maintenance unless it is given more money, while spending billions on a handful o... → By Joe Cortright 10.11.2023
The Week Observed, November 3, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Killer off-ramps. The Oregon Department of Transportation's $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter widening has been repeatedly (and falsely) portrayed as a "safety" project, but the latest re... → By Joe Cortright 3.11.2023
The Week Observed, September 8, 2023 What City Observatory did this week What apartment consolidation in New York tells us about housing markets and gentrification. A new study shows that over the past several decades, New York City lost more than 100,000 ... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2023
The Week Observed, September 1, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Rose Quarter: Death throes of a bungled boondoggle. For years, we've been following the tortured Oregon Department of Transportation Plans to widen a 1.5 mile stretch of I-5 near do... → By Joe Cortright 28.8.2023
The Week Observed, August 25, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Metro's Climate-Denial Regional Transportation Plan. Portland's regional governtment, Metro, has published a draft Regional Transportation Plan, outlining priorities for transportatio... → By Joe Cortright 24.8.2023
The Week Observed, August 18, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Climate fraud in the Portland Metro RTP. Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan rationalizes spending billions on freeway expansion by publishing false estimates and projections of gr... → By Joe Cortright 18.8.2023
The Week Observed, August 4, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Eating local: Why independent, local restaurants are a key indicator of city vitality. Jane Jacobs noted decades ago that“The greatest asset a city can have is something that is d... → By Joe Cortright 4.8.2023
The Week Observed, July 7, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Yet another exploding whale: One of the Internet's most popular videos shows employees of the Oregon Department of Transportation blowing up a dead whale carcass stranded on an Ocean ... → By Joe Cortright 7.7.2023
The Week Observed, May 5, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Why can't Oregon DOT tell the truth? Oregon legislators asked the state transportation department a simple question: How wide is the proposed $7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacem... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2023
The Week Observed, April 28, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Testifying on the Oregon Transportation Finance. City Observatory director Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Legislature on HB 2098, a bill being proposed to fund bloated free... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2023
The Week Observed, March 3, 2023 What City Observatory did this week More induced travel denial. Highway advocates deny or minimize the science of induced travel. We offer our rebuttal to a reason column posted at Planetizen, attempting to minimize... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2023
The Week Observed, February 17, 2023 What City Observatory did this week Driving between Vancouver and Wilsonville at 5PM? ODOT plans to charge you $15. Under ODOT’s toll plans, A driving from Wilsonville to Vancouver will cost you as much as $15, each-w... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2023
The Week Observed, February 10, 2023 What City Observatory did this week CEVP: Non-existent cost controls for the $7.5 billion IBR project. Oregon DOT has a history of enormous cost overruns, and just told the Oregon and Washington Legislatures that the co... → By Joe Cortright 10.2.2023
The Week Observed, January 6, 2023 What City Observatory did this week The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening. This week marked the end of public comment on the Supplemental Environmental Assessment for the Oregon Department of Tr... → By Joe Cortright 6.1.2023
The Week Observed, December 2, 2022 Editor's Note: Public Comment on the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Project In the next month, the public will be asked to weigh in with its comments on the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Widening project. If you're inte... → By Joe Cortright 2.12.2022
The Week Observed, October 28, 2022 What City Observatory did this week A toll policy primer for Oregon. The Oregon Department of Transportation is proposing to finance billions in future road expansions with tolling. While we're enamored of road pricin... → By Joe Cortright 29.10.2022
The Week Observed, October 21, 2022 What City Observatory did this week Using phony safety claims to sell a billion dollar freeway widening. This past week, Sarah Pliner, a promising young Portland chef was killed when she and her bike were crushed by a t... → By Joe Cortright 21.10.2022
The Week Observed, May 27, 2022 What City Observatory did this week Our apologies to City Observatory readers for our website outage on 19-22 May. More meaningless congestion pseudo science. A new study from the University of Maryland claims that... → By Joe Cortright 27.5.2022
The Week Observed, March 4, 2022 What City Observatory did this week Oregon crosses the road-pricing Rubicon. Starting this spring, motorists will pay a $2 toll to drive Oregon's historical Columbia River Gorge Highway. Instead of widening t... → By Joe Cortright 4.3.2022
The Week Observed, February 25, 2022 What City Observatory did this week Freeway widening for whomst? Woke-washing is all the rage among those pushing highway projects these days, and there's no better example that Portland's I-5 "bridge replacem... → By Joe Cortright 28.2.2022
The Week Observed, January 14, 2022 What City Observatory did this week What does equity mean when we have a caste-based transportation system? Transportation and planning debates around the country increasingly ponder how we rectify long-standin... → By Joe Cortright 14.1.2022
The Week Observed, December 17, 2021 What City Observatory did this week The financial fallout from Louisville's I-65 boondoggle. As we showed earlier, Kentucky and Indiana both wasted a billion dollars on doubling the capacity of I-65 across the... → By Joe Cortright 17.12.2021
The Week Observed, December 10, 2021 What City Observatory did this week 1. ODOT's real climate strategy: Pollution as usual. Oregon's highway builders are keeping two sets of books, one claiming that it cares about climate issues, the other shows that i... → By Joe Cortright 10.12.2021
The Week Observed, November 19, 2021 What City Observatory did this week Why we shouldn't be whining about higher gas prices. Gas prices are going up, and it’s annoying to have to pay more, but let’s take a closer look at how much we’re paying for... → By Joe Cortright 19.11.2021
The Week Observed, November 5, 2021 What City Observatory did this week The Opposite of Planning: Why Portland's Metro government needs to turn down the highway department request for more money to plan future freeway widenings. On paper, and to admirer... → By Joe Cortright 5.11.2021
The Week Observed, October 22, 2021 What City Observatory did this week America's least and most segregated metro areas: Evidence from Census 2020. Racial segregation remains a chronic problem in US metropolitan areas. Data from Census 2020 provides a... → By Joe Cortright 22.10.2021
The Week Observed, October 15, 2021 What City Observatory did this week Ten reasons you can't trust DOT claims that widening highways reduces pollution. Highway departments are fond of ginning up traffic projections and air quality analyses claiming... → By Joe Cortright 15.10.2021
The Week Observed, September 24, 2021 What City Observatory did this week Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence. The Oregon Department of Transportation has been trying to sell its $1.25 billion freeway widening project as a ... → By Joe Cortright 24.9.2021
The Week Observed, September 3, 2021 What City Observatory did this week Portland's Clean Energy Fund needs accountability. Portland voters approved a ballot measure creating a $60 million annual fund to invest in community-based clean energy projects, par... → By Joe Cortright 3.9.2021
The Week Observed, August 27, 2021 What City Observatory did this week Is the campus 100 percent clean energy? (Only if you don't count the cars and parking lots). Stanford University announced that its near to realizing a goal to move all of its campu... → By Joe Cortright 27.8.2021
The Week Observed, August 20, 2021 What City Observatory did this week Cost of Living and Auto Insurance. We often compare the affordability of different cities with a clear focus on housing prices and rents. This week at City Observatory we are interest... → By Joe Cortright 20.8.2021
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... → By Joe Cortright 17.6.2021
The Week Observed, May 28, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. Why highway departments can and should build housing to mitigate road damage. For decades, American cities have been scarred and neighborhoods destroyed by highway construction project... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2021
The Week Observed, March 19, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. An open letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission. For more than two years, City Observatory and others have been shining a bright light on the Oregon Department of Transportation... → By Joe Cortright 19.3.2021
The Week Observed, March 12, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. The failure of Vision Zero. Like many regions, the Portland metropolitan area has embraced the idea of Vision Zero; a strategy of planning to take concrete steps over time to reduce th... → By Joe Cortright 7.3.2021
The Week Observed, January 8, 2021 What City Observatory this week 1. 2021 is when we have to get real about tackling climate change. We've boiled our analysis of the climate challenge down to four key points: Pledges alone won't accomplish anything... → By Joe Cortright 8.1.2021
The Week Observed, December 18, 2020 What City Observatory did this week 1. Want lower rents? Build more housing! A new study from Germany provides more evidence that the fundamentals of economics are alive and well in the housing market. The study looks... → By Joe Cortright 18.12.2020
The Week Observed, December 11, 2020 What City Observatory did this week 1. The only reason many people drive is because we pay them to. There's an important insight from recent applications of tolling to urban highways. When asked to pay even a modest amoun... → By Joe Cortright 11.12.2020
The Week Observed, September 18, 2020 What City Observatory did this week 1. Lived segregation in US cities. Our standard measure of urban segregation, whether people reside in different neighborhoods, doesn't really capture the way people from different raci... → By Joe Cortright 18.9.2020
The Week Observed, August 28, 2020 What City Observatory did this week The case against Metro's $5 billion transportation bond. Portland's regional government, Metro, is asking voters to approve a $5 billion package of transportation improvements, to be fu... → By Joe Cortright 28.8.2020
The Week Observed, August 21, 2020 What City Observatory did this week America's most and least segregated cities. Residential racial segregation is a fundamental and persistent aspect of system racism in the United States. Segregation cuts of disfavored g... → By Joe Cortright 21.8.2020
The Week Observed, July 17, 2020 What City Observatory did this week Dominos falling on Portland's Rose Quarter freeway widening project. In the space of just a few hours two weeks ago, local political support for an $800 million freeway widening project... → By Joe Cortright 18.7.2020
The Week Observed, June 5, 2020 What City Observatory did this week 1. Covid-19 and Cities: An uneven pandemic. We've been following the progress of the Covid-19 virus in the nation's metropolitan areas for the past three months, and with the benefit ... → By Joe Cortright 5.6.2020
The Week Observed, May 29, 2020 What City Observatory did this week 1. LA Covid correlates with overcrowding and poverty, not density. City Observatory is pleased to publish a guest analysis and commentary from Abundant Housing LA's Anthony Dedousis.... → By Joe Cortright 29.5.2020
The Week Observed, May 22, 2020 What City Observatory this week 1. Postcards from the Edges: Looking at the relationship between density and the pandemic. There's a widely circulating meme associating urban density with the spread of the Covid-19 viru... → By Joe Cortright 22.5.2020
The Week Observed, May 15, 2020 What City Observatory did this week 1. City Beat: We push back on a New York Times story claiming that people are decamping New York City on account of pandemic fears. You can always find an anecdote about someone lea... → By Joe Cortright 15.5.2020
The Week Observed, May 1, 2020 What City Observatory this week Our updated analysis of the prevalence of Covid-19 in US metro areas. It continues to be the case that the pandemic is most severe in the Northeast Corridor. The New York Metro area is ... → By Joe Cortright 1.5.2020
The Week Observed, April 10, 2020 What City Observatory this week 1. What cities are showing us about the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic. In an important sense, each large US metro area is a separate test case of the path of the Covid-19 virus. By... → By Joe Cortright 10.4.2020
The Week Observed, March 27, 2020 What City Observatory this week 1. The Geography of Covid-19. A week ago, we issued a call to get much more granular with our statistical analysis of the pandemic's spread. In just the past few days, a number of new l... → By Joe Cortright 27.3.2020
The Week Observed, February 21, 2020 What City Observatory this week 1. Local flavor: Which cities have the most independent restaurants. Local eateries are one of the most visibly distinctive elements of any city. As Jane Jacobs said, the most important... → By Joe Cortright 21.2.2020
The Week Observed, December 13, 2019 What City Observatory this week 1. Oregon DOT repeats its idle lie about emissions. It's every highway builder's go-to response to climate change: we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we could just keep cars from... → By Joe Cortright 10.12.2019
The Week Observed, December 20, 2019 What City Observatory this week 1. Portland's progress (or lack thereof) on climate. Portland likes to present itself as a climate leader, but the latest data on transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions shows that ... → By Joe Cortright 20.12.2019
The Week Observed, October 18, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Our 5th Anniversary. October 17 marked 5 years since we started publishing our research and commentary at City Observatory. We reflect back on five years of work, and thank all tho... → By Joe Cortright 18.10.2019
The Week Observed, October 11, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Transportation for America won't be fooled again.. After years of getting rolled by the freeway lobby, it appears that T4America has finally said "Enough." Transit and active tra... → By Joe Cortright 11.10.2019
The Week Observed, October 4, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. We debunk the Wall Street Journal's claim of an exodus of young adults from cities. Last week, the Wall Street Journal trumpeted an "exodus" of 25 to 39 year old adults from cities... → By Joe Cortright 4.10.2019
Highway to Hell: Climate denial at the TRB The Transportation Research Board, nominally an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is engaged in technocratic climate arson with its call for further highway expansion and more car travel. The planet is in immin... → By Joe Cortright 15.12.2020
Highway to Hell: Climate denial at the TRB The Transportation Research Board, nominally an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is engaged in technocratic climate arson with its call for further highway expansion and more car travel. The planet is in immin... → By Joe Cortright 4.9.2019
Get Out!: Moving to a new neighborhood to escape poverty For many families, the way out of poverty is to move to a better neighborhood A new study shows modest investments in information combined with supportive services can help them make that move. We need to rethink... → By Joe Cortright 6.8.2019
Gentrification: the case of the missing counter-factual Why are there so few studies charting displacement and cultural decline in non-gentrifying neighborhoods? The implicit assumption in most gentrification research is that if a neighborhood doesn't change, that it stays t... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2020
Devaluation of housing in black neighborhoods, Part 2: Appreciation Are home prices appreciating more or less in black neighborhoods? Is that a good thing? Today, in part 2 of our analysis of the home price gap between majority black and predominantly white neighborhoods we look at the ... → By Joe Cortright 24.7.2019
How gentrification benefits long-time residents of low income neighborhoods The new Philadelphia Fed study of gentrification is the best evidence yet that gentrification creates opportunity and promotes integration To many "gentrification" is intrinsically negative. When wealthier, whiter peopl... → By Joe Cortright 19.7.2019
Why homeownership is frequently a bad bet Home buying is a risky bet: There's a 30% chance your house will be worth less in five years It's a widely agreed that promoting homeownership is a key means to help American households build wealth. But as we and oth... → By Joe Cortright 15.7.2019
Is Covid-19 the end of cities? (Spoiler: No.) The New York Times tells us that cities were "losing their allure" before the Covid-19 pandemic, and that now people are preparing to flee urban areas. Sure, cities had a bit of a resurgence after 2000, But by the mid-2... → By Joe Cortright 20.4.2020
About those swelling suburbs Faster suburban population growth doesn't signal a preference for suburbs: Here's why Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported suburbs growing faster than cities. The article, "American suburbs swell again as a n... → By Joe Cortright 10.7.2019
Why are US drivers killing so many pedestrians? US drivers are killing 50 percent more pedestrians, European drivers are killing a third fewer If anything else--a disease, terrorists, gun-wielding crazies--killed as many Americans as cars do, we'd regard it as a nati... → By Joe Cortright 27.6.2019
The devaluation of black neighborhoods: Part 1. Lingering racism holds down property values in majority black neighborhoods For most American households, their home is their largest financial asset; how valuable that asset is, and whether it appreciates has a profoun... → By Joe Cortright 23.7.2019
Buses, Bike Lanes, Crosswalks: Reclaiming public space Renegotiating the right of way in public space They erased the lines on 24th Avenue. Just a few blocks from my house is NE 24th Avenue in Portland, a principal North-South route through the Irvington neighborhood. F... → By Joe Cortright 14.10.2019
Who bikes? Workers in low income households rely more on bikes for commuting, but the data show people of all income levels cycle to work There's a lot of hand-wringing and harrumphing about the demographics of cycling. Some worry... → By Joe Cortright 28.5.2019
Will upzoning ease housing affordability problems? More housing supply denialism--debunked It appears that we have been a bit premature in calling the housing supply debate over. Last week's urbanist Internet was all a flutter with the latest claim of an academic study ... → By Joe Cortright 15.5.2019
The Young and Restless in Black and White A sharp divide by race in urban residence for young adults Well-educated young whites are increasingly living in central cities, while well-educated young African-Americans are shifting increasingly to the suburbs Fo... → By Joe Cortright 14.5.2019
The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening Portland is weighing whether to spend as much as $1.45 billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've publi... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2023
25 reasons not to widen Portland freeways Portland is weighing whether to spend half a billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've published 25 co... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2019
Traffic is declining at the Rose Quarter: ODOT growth projections are fiction ODOT's own traffic data shows that daily traffic (ADT) has been declining for 25 years, by -0.55 percent per year The ODOT modeling inexplicably predicts that traffic will suddenly start growing through 2045, growing by... → By Joe Cortright 22.12.2022
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening State DOT officials have crafted an Supplemental Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals The Rose Quarter traffic report contains no data on "average daily traffic" the most common measure of vehicle... → By Joe Cortright 28.11.2022
How a freeway destroyed a neighborhood, and may again Portland's Albina neighborhood was devastated by the I-5 freeway; Widening it repeats that mistake Freeways and the traffic they generate are toxic to vibrant urban spaces. The great lesson of the urban freeway building... → By Joe Cortright 18.3.2019
Why Portland shouldn’t be widening freeways Why Portland's freeway fight is so important to the future of cities everywhere The plan to widen the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway in Portland, at a cost of $500 million, is a tragic error for one city, and an object lesson... → By Joe Cortright 11.3.2019
Freeway widening for whomst? There's a huge demographic divide between those who use freeways and neighbors who bear their costs When it comes time to evaluate the equity of freeway widening investments, it's important to understand that there are ... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2019
Angie’s List: The problem isn’t ride hailing, it’s the lack of road pricing Streetsblogger extraordinaire Angie Schmidt is not happy with Uber and Lyft. They're not really the ones to blame. Are Uber and Lyft to blame for growing urban transportation problems? Streetsblog's Angie Schmit makes a... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2019
Economists & Scientists agree: To save the planet, we have to price carbon One thing economists agree about: pricing carbon is essential to saving the planet; but if you don't believe economists, you ought to believe Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Economists are famous for disagreeing with one ano... → By Joe Cortright 30.7.2019
The high cost of low house prices Low house prices signify problems, not affordability There's a presumption that low housing prices are a sign of affordability, and a related belief that if housing prices rise, that its "a bad thing" because it must me... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2019
The outlook for the Portland housing market Coping with the nation's shortage of cities is a key factor in the Portland housing market in 2019 On January 9, I was invited to talk to the annual housing outlook seminar convened by HFO Oregon. A video of my remark... → By Joe Cortright 23.1.2019
A third way for more affordable housing? Part I. The problem How can affordable housing help minimize, rather than perpetuate, income segregation? At City Observatory, we've long focused on the challenge of concentrated poverty, starting with our first report Lost in Place, in 20... → By Joe Cortright 28.1.2019
Displacement by decline An obsession with gentrification obscures the urban problem: concentrated poverty Editor's Note: We're again pleased to offer a guest commentary from Akron Planning Director Jason Segedy, who has some keen insights... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2019
How tax evasion fuels traffic congestion in Portland Tax free shopping in Oregon saves the typical Southwest Washington household $1,000 per year Cross border shopping accounts for 10-20 percent of all trips across the I-5 and I-205 bridges Tax avoidance means we're ... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2019
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 play... → By Joe Cortright 14.11.2018
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 w... → By Joe Cortright 12.11.2018
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... → By Joe Cortright 19.11.2018
Cities, talent and prosperity America's economy is increasingly driven by the concentration of talent in cities The Economic Innovation Group (aka EIG, a DC-based think tank) has been compiling some interesting data on the relative economic performa... → By Joe Cortright 22.10.2018
The limits of job creation Whether at the neighborhood or metropolitan level, more job growth doesn't seem to improve economic mobility There's a seemingly un-questioned (and unquestionable) truth among economic development practitioners that mor... → By Joe Cortright 18.10.2018
Fresh evidence for Portland’s green dividend Building a city so its residents don't have to drive so much powers economic growth A decade ago, we coined the term "green dividend." We noted that among large US metropolitan areas, Portland residents drove signific... → By Joe Cortright 16.10.2018
Does your neighborhood help kids succeed? The Opportunity Atlas: Stunning neighborhood maps of economic opportunity Some of the most important research findings of the past decade have come from the work of Raj Chetty and his colleagues at the Equality of Oppor... → By Joe Cortright 4.10.2018
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 4: Metropolitan context Part 4. Are racially and economically homogeneous cities and suburbs in a segregated metro "inclusive?" Looking only at disparities within cities misses the often far larger disparities across cities within in single m... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2018
Let’s stop with the absurd surveys masquerading as serious research No: Eighty percent of today's 8 to 23 year-olds won't be buying houses in the next five years At City Observatory, we get a regular stream of press releases and media advisories about the results of surveys and other ... → By Joe Cortright 4.9.2018
Is St. Louis Gentrifying? Gentrification Debates Without Gentrification? By Todd Swanstrom Editor's note: We're pleased to offer a guest commentary from Todd Swanstrom. Todd is the Des Lee Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Pol... → By Joe Cortright 14.8.2018
Whither small towns? Wither small towns? Rural and small town America faces some tough odds In an article entitled: "How to save the Troubled American Heartland," Bloomberg's very smart Noah Smith shares his thoughts on how to revive the smaller towns of rural... → By Joe Cortright 15.8.2018
Don’t decry new urban housing as “gentrification” Whenever a distressed neighborhood gets new market rate housing, someone's bound to cry "Gentrification". Here's why that's wrong. This is a guest post from Jason Segedy, Director of Akron's Planning Department. Thi... → By Joe Cortright 6.8.2018
E-Scooters and Paying for Roads If charging scooters to use city streets makes sense, let's charge cars proportionately A little bit late to the party, but today the first electric scooters appeared on the streets of Portland. Bird announced that, wit... → By Joe Cortright 31.7.2018
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 Grea... → By Joe Cortright 14.6.2021
Your summertime, urbanist “must read” Allan Mallach’s Divided City A review of The Divided City Alan Mallach, The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America (Island Books, 2018, 326 pages). Before you head out to the beach or mountains or wherever your summertime plans ta... → By Joe Cortright 30.7.2018
Where we embrace socialism in the US: Parking Lots How we embrace socialism for car storage in the public right of way Florida Senator Marco Rubio has denounced President Biden's $3.5 trillion spending program as un-American socialism. Rubio claims: In the end, Ameri... → By Joe Cortright 30.9.2021
Envisioning more cohesive communities What aspects of the built environment give rise to greater social trust? We're pleased to offer a guest commentary today from Em Friedenberg. Em is a recent graduate of the University of Oregon, who's studied urban desi... → By Joe Cortright 10.7.2018
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 resid... → By Joe Cortright 5.11.2018
Profiles of Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods Our new CityReport dives deep in data; but what does a diverse, mixed income neighborhood look like? As we explained in our new report–America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods–nearly seven million American... → By Joe Cortright 19.6.2018
Handicapping the City-Suburb Horserace The simple-minded comparison on city and suburb population growth rates is misleading and incomplete Every year, in the late Spring, the Census Bureau releases its latest population estimates for the nation's municipali... → By Joe Cortright 11.6.2018
The persistence of residential segregation How slow growth and industrial decline perpetuate racial segregation As regular readers of City Observatory know, we think that the continuing racial and economic segregation of the nation's metropolitan areas is at the... → By Joe Cortright 5.6.2018
State government as an anchor industry Eds and Meds . . . and Capitol Domes? I recently participated as a part of an expert panel reviewed Sacramento’s economic development strategy. You can learn more about the city’s “Project Prosper” here. It ... → By Joe Cortright 21.5.2018
Why doesn’t the federal government protect access to affordable housing the way it does access to TV? A powerful federal agency can override local laws limiting access to TV. But housing? Nope. Local control. It's the bedrock principle of land use planning. Cities and neighborhoods should have absolute control over the ... → By Joe Cortright 1.5.2018
The Mortgage Interest Deduction: Smaller, but even more unfair Tax changes cut the Mortgage Interest Deduction sharply–but not for the rich The 1.2 percent of households with incomes over $500,000 get 20 times as much tax relief from the mortgage interest deduction as the half of... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2018
Dow of Cities: Big data on the urban price premium Zillow's data tracking prices of tens of millions of US homes adds further confirmation to the Dow of Cities For some time, we've been talking about the Dow of Cities: the notion that the price premium that urban home... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2018
City as theme park There's no critique more cutting than saying that development is turning an urban neighborhood into a theme park. The irony of course, is that cities like Dubrovnik and Venice represent a profoundly obsolete, ... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2018
A critical look at suburban triumphalism The "body count" view of suburban population misses the value people attach to cities Lately, we've seen a barrage of comments suggesting that the era of the city is over, and that Americans, including young adults, are... → By Joe Cortright 12.4.2018
Gerontopoly: Homeownership, wealth, and age Is the "dream" of homeownership really just a massive, intergenerational wealth transfer? Recently, that's just how it has worked out. The takeaways: Homeownership is a gerontopoly. Most housing wealth is held by... → By Joe Cortright 23.4.2018
Is Fruitvale gentrifying? Did it prevent displacement? What does Fruitvale tell us about gentrification and displacement? Gentrification solved, or at least prevented. That was the celebratory headline announcing a recent study from UCLA's Latino Politics and Policy Init... → By Joe Cortright 8.5.2018
Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods Maps This page contains maps showing the nation's most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, and those with the highest levels of income mixing. for City Observatory's Diverse, Inclusive Neighborhood report. These we... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2018
Gentrification isn’t ending. We must rise to meet that challenge. We're pleased to publish another contribution from City Observatory friend and colleague Alex Baca. Alex has written about cities while living in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Cleveland, OH, and earlier this year au... → By Alex Baca 29.3.2018
Moving the goalposts The key to being on-time and under-budget: Orwellian double-speak Oregon DOT projects are always on-time and under budget--because the agency simply disappears its original schedules and budgets. Delayed, half-fini... → By Joe Cortright 30.4.2024
Housing reparations for Northeast Portland Attention freeway builders! Want to make up for dividing the community and destroying neighborhoods? How about replacing the homes you demolished? One of the carefully crafted talking points in the sales pitch for the $... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2018
Dallas: Diverse mobility, complete neighborhoods & placemaking Carol Coletta’s Remarks to Downtown Dallas, Inc. (Our friend and colleague Carol Coletta delivered the keynote address to the annual meeting of Downtown Dallas, Inc. on March 5. While her remarks are focused on Dallas... → By Joe Cortright 13.3.2018
City Women Jane Jacobs was just one of the first of many It’s International Women’s Day, and today, we’d like to acknowledge just a few of the really sharp women urbanists we rely on, every day, at City Observatory, to under... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2018
Gentrification & integration in DC Gentrification is producing more diverse schools and growing enrollment In Washington DC, gentrification is producing higher levels of integration and increasing the total number of kids–black and white–attending sc... → By Joe Cortright 25.3.2018
The emperor’s new infrastructure plan Politics and the President's wheeler-dealer background suggest the infrastructure plan is a mirage If there's been one shred of hope for bi-partisan progress in this politically polarized time, its been the idea that so... → By Joe Cortright 20.2.2018
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 2: The limits of ethnography City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. This is the second installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Baca. You can read parts... → By Alex Baca 13.2.2018
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 1: A New Premise? City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. This is the first installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Baca. Parts two and three... → By Alex Baca 12.2.2018
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 3: Cultural Displacement City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. Today, we are pleased to offer the final installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Ba... → By Alex Baca 14.2.2018
2017 Year-in-review: More driving, more dying We're driving more, and more of us are dying on the roads. Four days before Christmas, on a Wednesday morning just after dawn, Elizabeth Meyers was crossing Sandy Boulevard in Portland, near 78th Avenue, just about a bl... → By Joe Cortright 16.1.2018
A modest proposal: Extend the Americans with Disabilities Act to highways Let's require that highways really be accessible to those who can't drive: State highway departments should provide bus service on state roads for the disabled The Americans with Disabilities Act was landmark legislat... → By Joe Cortright 29.7.2019
The high price of cheap gasoline When gas prices stopped diving, Americans again began to drive less The most fundamental point in economics is that people respond to incentives. Make something cheaper to buy, and people will buy more of it. Make somet... → By Joe Cortright 25.2.2019
Cities continue to attract smart young adults The young and restless are continuing to move to the nation's large cities One trend that highlights the growing demand for city living is the increasing tendency of well-educated young adults to live in the close-in ur... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2018
Diverging diamond blues A key design element of the supposedly pedestrian friendly Rose Quarter freeway cover is a pedestrian hostile diverging diamond interchange One of the main selling points of the plan to spend nearly half a billion dolla... → By Joe Cortright 19.12.2017
How the g-word poisons public discourse on making cities better We're pleased to publish this guest post from Akron's Jason Segedy. It originally appeared on his blog Notes from the Underground. Drawing on his practical experience in a rust-belt city, he offers a compelling new insig... → By Joe Cortright 21.12.2017
Are the young leaving cities? The so-called "peak millennial" conjecture. Is it right? What does it mean? Should I care? Time has published an article, based largely on the research of UCLA demographer Dowell Myers, proclaiming that US cities are ... → By Joe Cortright 18.12.2017
Is inequality over? After a long, slow recovery, wages are finally rising for the lowest-paid workers, but we're no where close to rectifying our inequality problem; in fact, it's going to get worse. The very smart Jed Kolko, who now write... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2017
The death of Flint Street A proposed freeway widening project will tear out one of Portland's most used bike routes At City Observatory, were putting a local Portland-area proposed freeway widening project under a microscope, in part because we ... → By Joe Cortright 5.12.2017
A constant state of change: turnover in business establishments Churn means that lots of businesses, even large ones, aren't around forever Many of our discussions of the economy are based on simple, and often largely static mental models of the economy. In a good year, a local econ... → By Joe Cortright 6.12.2017
Autonomous Vehicles: Does federal preemption shut down the laboratories of democracy? There are a lot of details to be worked out to integrate autonomous vehicles into cities. Federal preemption could foreclose the opportunity of states and cities to help figure out the best ways forward. It's a touchsto... → By Joe Cortright 28.10.2017
Transportation equity: Why peak period road pricing is fair Peak hour car commuters have incomes almost double those who travel by transit, bike and foot The Oregon Legislature has directed the state's department of transportation to come up with a value pricing system for inter... → By Joe Cortright 27.9.2017
Racial wealth disparities: How housing widens the gap The wealth of black families lags far behind whites, and housing markets play a key role There's a great article from The New York Times' Emily Badger about a new study that shows just how much Americans (especially wh... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2017
An affogato theory of transportation Coffee and ice cream and jam (or traffic jams) Just once, we are going to sugar-coat our commentary. [caption id="attachment_5029" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Affogato (1912Pike.com)[/caption] At City Observa... → By Joe Cortright 6.9.2018
Inequality in three charts: Piketty, the picket fence and Branko’s elephant Rising inequality in the US isn't new; Declining inequality globally is. Scratch just beneath the surface of many daily problems, and you'll find income inequality is a contributing factor, if not the chief culprit. W... → By Joe Cortright 28.8.2017
Driven Apart: How sprawl is lengthening our commutes The secret to reducing the amount of time Americans spend in peak hour traffic has more to do with how we build our cities than how we build our roads. Our 2010 report, published by CEOs for Cities, looks at how land us... → By Joe Cortright 17.8.2017
Hundred dollar bills on the municipal sidewalk The public wealth of cities is substantial, but under-pricing public assets is rampant There's an old saw among economists. Two economists are walking along, and one of them says, "Look, there's a hundred dollar bill ... → By Joe Cortright 14.8.2017
Housing policy lessons from Vienna: Part I Is Stadt Wien the model for US urban housing policy? We’re pleased to welcome a guest commentary from Mike Eliason of Seattle. Mike is a passivhaus designer with Patano Studio who is interested in baugruppen, mass tim... → By Joe Cortright 20.7.2017
Such a deal How tax policy subsidizes homeownership, mostly for the wealthiest Americans OK. Imagine that someone offers you this investment deal. We want you to buy some stock; in fact, we want you to buy about $150,000 or $20... → By Joe Cortright 22.8.2017
Housing Policy Lessons from Vienna, Part II Allowing multi-family housing in all residential zones, and aggressively promoting private bidding lowers housing costs We’re pleased to welcome a guest commentary from Mike Eliason of Seattle. Mike is a passivhaus de... → By Joe Cortright 24.7.2017
“Free parking” isn’t green No matter how many solar panels it has, your parking garage isn't green, and especially if you don't charge parking (This commentary is cross-published at the Parking Reform Network) Almost five years ago, we called ... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2022
How green is my free parking structure? Not very. Why does the National Renewable Energy Lab give its employees free parking? The researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab are hard at work on a lot of cool ideas for reducing pollution and promoting greater energ... → By Joe Cortright 18.7.2017
Reality check: Poverty rates are much lower in suburbs Despite what you may have heard, poverty rates in suburbs are on average half what they are in urban centers There's a growing chorus about the so-called suburbanization of poverty. A couple of years ago, Alan Ehrenhalt... → By Joe Cortright 12.7.2017
What’s the biggest threat facing cities? Politico's survey of experts leaves out the most important challenges, in our humble opinion. A couple of weeks back, Politco, the wonky-insider beltway news source queried a dozen of the nation's urban thought leaders ... → By Joe Cortright 11.7.2017
A Nobel Prize with a solution for climate change Let's put a price on using the atmosphere as a garbage dump for carbon Earlier this week, Yale economist William Nordhaus was announced as this year's co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics (along with Paul Romer,... → By Joe Cortright 10.10.2018
Pity the poor Super Commuter About 2 percent of all car commuters travel 90 minutes to work, same as a decade ago. We've always been clear about our views on mega commuters, those traveling an hour and a half or more to work daily. As we said last ... → By Joe Cortright 28.6.2017
Sisyphus meets Bob the Builder Why traffic engineers really aren't interested in reducing traffic congestion We now know with a certainty that investments in additional highway capacity in dense urban environments simply trigger additional travel, wh... → By Joe Cortright 13.6.2018
You can’t judge housing affordability without knowing transportation costs The "commonly accepted" 30 percent standard for judging housing affordability leaves out transportation and location At City Observatory, we've long been dissatisfied with commonly used measures of describing housing af... → By Joe Cortright 24.4.2019
You can’t judge housing affordability without knowing transportation costs The "commonly accepted" 30 percent standard for judging housing affordability leaves out transportation and location At City Observatory, we've long been dissatisfied with commonly used measures of describing housing af... → By Joe Cortright 22.6.2017
More evidence of the growth of concentrated poverty Since 2000, the number of people living in extremely poor neighborhoods has doubled; neighborhoods of concentrated poverty are still disproportionately in the densest urban places. Last week, the Joint Center on Housing... → By Joe Cortright 20.6.2017
Portland’s Green Dividend When you build a city that enables people to drive less, they spend less on cars and gas and have more to spend on other things. Here is my 2007 report, published by CEOs for Cities, which describes Portland's Green Div... → By Joe Cortright 6.6.2017
Cultural appropriation: Theft or Smorgasbord? If it weren't for cultural appropriation, would America have any culture at all? In Portland, two women opened a food cart business--Kook's Burritos--selling burritos based on ones that they'd seen and tasted during a ... → By Joe Cortright 12.6.2017
Your college degree pays off more if you live in a city The more education you have, the bigger the payoff to living in a city It's a well-understood fact that education is a critical determinant of earnings. On average, the more education you've attained, the higher your le... → By Joe Cortright 11.1.2018
Cities and the returns to education The more education you have, the bigger the payoff to living in a city A recent Wall Street Journal article painted the nation's rural areas as its new inner cities, with high rates of poverty, limited economic opportun... → By Joe Cortright 30.5.2017
Integration and social interaction: Evidence from Intermarriage Reducing segregation does seem to result in much more social interaction, as intermarriage patterns demonstrate Change doesn't happen fast, but it happens more frequently and more quickly when we have integrated communi... → By Joe Cortright 4.4.2019
Integration and social interaction: Evidence from Intermarriage Reducing segregation does seem to result in much more social interaction, as intermarriage patterns demonstrate Yesterday, we took a close and critical look at Derek Hyra's claim that mixed-income, mixed-race communitie... → By Joe Cortright 1.6.2017
Socioeconomic mixing is essential to closing the Kumbaya gap Integrated neighborhoods produce more mixing, but don't automatically generate universal social interaction. What should we make of that? Our recent report, America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods identifies ... → By Joe Cortright 25.6.2018
Integration and the Kumbaya gap Gentrifying neighborhoods produce more mixing, but don't automatically generate universal social interaction. What should we make of that? In one idealized view of the world, economically integrated neighborhoods would ... → By Joe Cortright 31.5.2017
Back at the ranch What the ranch house teaches us about house prices and filtering. Back in the heyday of the post-war housing boom, back when the baby boomers were babies, America was building ranch houses–millions of them. In its pri... → By Joe Cortright 31.10.2017
Let’s use a marketing campaign to solve traffic congestion Here's a thought: Let's fight traffic congestion using the same techniques DOT's use to promote safety. Let's have costumed superheroes weigh in against congestion, and spend billions on safety, instead of the other... → By Joe Cortright 6.10.2020
The New Urban Crisis: Cliff Notes version Your 1,200 word bluffer's guide to Richard Florida's new book Richard Florida’s new book “The New Urban Crisis: How our cities are increasing inequality, deepening segregation, and failing the middle class–and wha... → By Joe Cortright 18.4.2017
Volunteering as a measure of social capital Volunteering is one of the hallmarks of community; here are the cities with the highest rates of volunteerism The decline of the civic commons, the extent to which American's engage with one another in the public realm,... → By Joe Cortright 15.5.2017
Why America can’t make up its mind about housing Here are two ideas that, if you’re like most Americans, you probably mostly agree with: Government policy should help keep housing broadly affordable, so as not to price out people of low or moderate incomes from en... → By Joe Cortright 16.5.2017
My illegal neighborhood Editor’s note: City Observatory is pleased to provide this guest commentary by our friend Robert Liberty a keen observer of and advocate for cities. We first published this post in 2015, but its as timely today as it... → By Joe Cortright 9.5.2017
Key to prosperity: Talent in the “traded sector” of the economy "Traded sector" businesses that employ well-educated workers mark a prosperous region At City Observatory, we regularly stress the importance of education and skills to regional economic success. Statistically, we can e... → By Joe Cortright 10.5.2017
The pernicious myth of “naturally occurring” affordable housing Housing doesn't "occur naturally" Using zoning to preserve older, smaller homes doesn't protect affordability There's no such thing as "Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing"--older, smaller homes become affordable ... → By Joe Cortright 11.1.2024
Too soon to write off city revival County data can't tell us much about thriving urban neighborhoods New county-level census population estimates became available last week, and Jed Kolko produced an interesting analysis published by FiveThirtyEight conc... → By Joe Cortright 10.4.2017
More debate on city revival Is the urban renaissance over? Earlier this week, The New York Times published an op-ed from Jed Kolko–"Seattle Climbs but Austin Sprawls, The Myth of the Return to Cities"–offering up another iteration of his lo... → By Joe Cortright 23.5.2017
Migration is making counties more diverse Migration, especially by young adults, is increasing racial and ethnic diversity in US counties As we related last week, a new report from the Urban Institute quantifies the stark economic costs of racial and income seg... → By Joe Cortright 5.4.2017
A teachable moment: Ben & Jerry’s seminar in transportation economics They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads Your highway department is broke, and thinks it needs much bigger roads because it gives its produce away for free e... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2024
Time for the annual Ben & Jerry’s seminar in transportation economics They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads You can learn everything you need to know about transportation economics today, just by helping yourself to a free i... → By Joe Cortright 9.4.2019
Breaking Bad: Why breaking up big cities would hurt America New York Times columnist Russ Douthat got a lot of attention a few days ago for his Johnathan Swiftian column–"Break up the liberal city"–suggesting that we could solve the problems of lagging economic growth in rural ... → By Joe Cortright 28.3.2017
Are restaurants dying, and taking city economies with them? Alan Ehrenhalt is alarmed. In his tony suburb of Clarendon, Virginia, several nice restaurants have closed. It seems like an ominous trend. Writing at Governing, he's warning of "The Limits of Cafe' Urbanism." Cafe Urbanis... → By Joe Cortright 14.3.2017
Twilight of the NIMBYs? LA’s Measure S Fails La-La Land voters deal a crushing defeat to a "NIMBYism on steroids" The latest returns show Los Angeles' Measure S–the self-styled "Neighborhood Integrity Initiative"–failing by a 31 percent "Yes" to 69 percent ... → By Joe Cortright 8.3.2017
Cursing the candle How should we view the early signs of a turnaround in Detroit? Better to light a single candle than simply curse the darkness. The past decades have been full of dark days for Detroit, but there are finally signs of a t... → By Joe Cortright 23.2.2017
The Week Observed, April 7, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Carmaggedon stalks Atlanta. Following an arson-caused blaze, a key section on Interstate 85 in Atlanta collapsed, and is likely to be out of service for at least a couple of months. ... → By Joe Cortright 7.4.2017
The Week Observed, April 14, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Too soon to write off city revival? The release of the Census county-level population estimates two weeks ago led to a series of quick-reaction analyses of what the data portend for ... → By Joe Cortright 14.4.2017
The Week Observed, June 9, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. How green was my city? The Trump administration's announcement that it would pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accords was greeted with dismay by many environmentalists, but gover... → By Joe Cortright 9.6.2017
The Week Observed, June 23, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Downzoning won't make housing cheaper. Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns notes that land that's zoned for apartments generally commands higher prices than nearby land zoned for single fami... → By Joe Cortright 23.6.2017
The Week Observed, October 13, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The constancy of change in neighborhood populations. The canonical story of gentrification focuses on the fact that many of the people living in a neighborhood today are not the same... → By Joe Cortright 13.10.2017
The Week Observed, November 10, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The growing premium for urban living. Three years ago, City Observatory introduced the term "the Dow of cities." In essence, its the observation that the growth in city home prices r... → By Joe Cortright 10.11.2017
The Week Observed, February 9, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. City Limits: Some qualms about the new localism. The nation is deeply divided along political lines and it's depressingly unlikely that we'll generate national consensus on many issu... → By Joe Cortright 9.2.2018
The Week Observed, February 16, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cappucino City. Our friend and colleague Alex Baca offers the first of her three-part review of Derek Hyra's book "The Cappucino City." Baca, a former Washington DC journalist take... → By Joe Cortright 16.2.2018
The Week Observed, April 20, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Housing reparations for Northeast Portland. The Oregon Department of Transportation is selling its plan to spend half a billion dollars widening a stretch of freeway in Portland by c... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2018
The Week Observed, June 15, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Handicapping the city vs. suburb horse race. The latest round of Census population estimates for municipalities has led some observers to claim that city growth has faltered. We take... → By Joe Cortright 15.6.2018
The Week Observed, July 13, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Don't demonize cars, just stop subsidizing them. Is there anything in the urban space that is more inflamed than the passion and rhetoric around cars and driving? Advocates on both s... → By Joe Cortright 13.7.2018
The Week Observed, July 27, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland rents are going down. There are those who are skeptical that we can "build our way to affordability." But the economic evidence suggests that's exactly what's happening in P... → By Joe Cortright 27.7.2018
The Week Observed, September 21, 2018 What City Observatory did this week This week, we published five posts taking a critical look at how a recent Urban Institute report, Measuring Inclusiveness, illustrates the problems and pitfalls of defining and measurin... → By Joe Cortright 21.9.2018
The Week Observed, September 28, 2018 What City Observatory did this week Peaks, Valleys and Donuts: Visualizing cities in cross-section. The University of Virginia's Demographics Research Group at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service has produced a po... → By Joe Cortright 28.9.2018
The Week Observed, September 6, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Highway to Hell. There's a new report out on the the future of the Interstate Highway System, and its a shocker. It's a shock because it shows that the National Academies of Engineer... → By Joe Cortright 6.9.2019
The Week Observed, January 25, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Remembering Dr. King. We were reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King's speech about the pronounced tendency in public policy to prescribe socialism for the rich and rugged, free market c... → By Joe Cortright 25.1.2019
The Week Observed, February 1, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. The limits of our current approaches to providing affordable housing. We present a summary of some remarks offered by Rob Stewart, a principal with JBG Smith Real Estate, reflecting ... → By Joe Cortright 1.2.2019
The Week Observed, February 8, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Measuring Anti-Social Capital. Thanks to the scholarship of Harvard's Robert Putnam, the idea of social capital has become firmly entrenched in the policy lexicon. Putnam and oth... → By Joe Cortright 8.2.2019
The Week Observed, June 14, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. The economics of fruit, time, and place. Last week, Paul Krugman, fresh off his European vacation, waxed poetic about the fleeting joy of summer fruit, and true to form, may an econo... → By Joe Cortright 6.6.2019
The Week Observed, June 21, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. It's official: The Rose Quarter Freeway Widening is a Boondoggle. Frontier Group and USPIRG released the latest version of their annual Highway Boondoggle report, and the Oregon Depa... → By Joe Cortright 21.6.2019
The Week Observed, July 12, 2019 What City Observatory did this week About those swelling suburbs. Much was made last week of a Wall Street Journal story noting that 14 of the 15 fastest growing cities with populations greater than 50,000 were suburbs.... → By Joe Cortright 12.7.2019
The Week Observed, July 19, 2019 What City Observatory did this week Homeownership is frequently a bad bet. Although homeownership gets treated as the best way to built wealth, it's actually a highly risky financial strategy for many households, especial... → By Joe Cortright 27.6.2019
The Week Observed, August 23, 2019 What City Observatory did this week Portland's food cart pods are dead; long live Portland's food cart pods. Portland is famous as a foodie town, and one of the city's claims to fame is having more than 500 food carts, mo... → By Joe Cortright 23.8.2019
The Week Observed, August 16, 2019 What City Observatory did this week Copenhagen's success: More than just bike lanes. Copenhagen is one of the world's great cycling cities, and its accomplishments are a a beacon to those looking to build more bike fr... → By Joe Cortright 16.8.2019
The Week Observed, August 2, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. CityLab: Everything you think you know about gentrification is wrong. We take a look at a recent CityLab article reporting (faithfully) the findings of some recent research on gent... → By Joe Cortright 2.8.2019
The Week Observed, July 26, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Why gentrification is good for long time residents of low income neighborhoods. We take a close look at a new study from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank that challenges much of... → By Joe Cortright 26.7.2019
The Week Observed, May 24, 2019 What City Observatory did this week Exit, hope and loyalty: What's behind neighborhood change? America's neighborhoods are always changing, and it's often a question of whether change is driven more by hope or despair. ... → By Joe Cortright 24.5.2019
The Week Observed, May 31, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Who bikes? Discussions of investing in bike infrastructure are often fraught with arguments about who benefits, with oft-expressed fears that bike lanes chiefly benefit a spandex-wea... → By Joe Cortright 31.5.2019
The Week Observed, May 17, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Will upzoning help housing affordability? Housing supply denialism--claims that the laws of supply and demand don't apply to housing markets--have a ready audience in the NIMBY com... → By Joe Cortright 17.5.2019
The Week Observed, April 26, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. The high cost of low house prices. We generally take low house prices as a sign that housing is affordable, but the reality isn't that simple. In the case of cities and urban neighbo... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2019
The Week Observed, April 12, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. The annual Ben and Jerry's advanced seminar in transportation economics. If you love ice cream--who doesn't?--Tuesday was your chance to get a free cone at Ben and Jerry's and while ... → By Joe Cortright 12.4.2019
The Week Observed, February 15, 2019 What City Observatory did this week Widening freeways doesn't reduce crashes or crash related delay. The Oregon Department of Transportation is proposing to spend half a billion dollars to widen a mile-long stretch of I... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2019
The Week Observed, March 22, 2019 What City Observatory did this week A note to City Observatory readers: We're deep in the thick of Portland's debate about whether to spend a half billion dollars to widen a mile-long stretch of freeway near the city's ... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2019
The Week Observed, March 1, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. The high price of cheap gas. The most fundamental point in economics is that people respond to incentives. Make something cheaper to buy, and people will buy more of it. Make someth... → By Joe Cortright 1.3.2019
The Week Observed, December 14, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities, Ideas and Us: Paul Romer's Nobel Address. Romer, who won this year's Nobel Prize in the Economic Sciences had some interesting things to say about cities in his address t... → By Joe Cortright 14.12.2018
The Week Observed, December 21, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. The limits of Nieman Marcus environmentalism. It's fashionable to demonstrate one's green credibility by conspicuous acts of non-consumption, but framing our environmental problems a... → By Joe Cortright 21.12.2018
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.... → By Joe Cortright 16.11.2018
The Week Observed, January 4, 2019 What City Observatory did this week 1. Displacement by decline. Akron Planning Director Jason Segedy offers a guest post on our misplaced obsession with gentrification. He argues that pundits and urban policy people are... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2019
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... → By Joe Cortright 9.11.2018
The Week Observed, October 12, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Carol Coletta on why cities need to embrace change. We publish Carol Coletta's remarks to the Congress for the New Urbanism, outlining the case for thinking about cities in a more dy... → By Joe Cortright 12.10.2018
The Week Observed, October 19, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Now we are four. October 17 marked City Observatory's fourth birthday. We celebrated with a shout-out to our founders, funders and partners, and reflected on what we think the most... → By Joe Cortright 19.10.2018
The Week Observed, August 31, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. If you want less displacement, build more housing. A common refrain at planning commission meetings around the country is that cities ought to block new housing as a way of insulatin... → By Joe Cortright 31.8.2018
The Week Observed, August 24, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Philadelphia's urban policy harmonic convergence. The proposal to build a multi-billion dollar expansion of University City adjacent to Drexel University and Philadelphia's Center Ci... → By Joe Cortright 24.8.2018
The Week Observed, August 17, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. We disagree with the Washington Post on housing economics. Two weeks ago, the Washington Post published an article claiming that rents were going down for higher income renters but i... → By Joe Cortright 17.8.2018
The Week Observed, August 10, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Jason Segedy on gentrification. This week we feature a guest column from Akron planning director Jason Segedy. You can't build new housing in any existing neighborhood, it seems, wit... → By Joe Cortright 10.8.2018
The Week Observed, July 20, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Nattering nabobs of NIMBYism at the New York Times. Columnist Tim Egan called plans for a limited upzoning to enable more people to live in Seattle an unholy conspiracy of develope... → By Joe Cortright 20.7.2018
The Week Observed, August 3, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Your summertime must read: Alan Mallach's Divided City. We have a review of this newly released book, which we think every urbanist ought to read. Although written primarily from t... → By Joe Cortright 3.8.2018
The Week Observed, June 8, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Growth in the center. A new report from New York City's Office of Planning graphically demonstrates the growing centralization of people and economic activity in the nation's largest... → By Joe Cortright 8.6.2018
The Week Observed, May 11, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities as selection environments. It's an article of faith in the economic development business that cheaper is better, or at least more competitive. The claim is that businesses wil... → By Joe Cortright 11.5.2018
The Week Observed, May 4, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Why don't we have a powerful federal agency who can pre-empt local laws that drive up housing costs? Last week, the Federal Communications Commission took action that invalidated a ... → By Joe Cortright 4.5.2018
The Week Observed, April 27, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Gerontopoly: Is homeownership a sure route to building wealth? It has been in the US, but increasingly, its only working for older generations. Homeowners 55 and older now hold mos... → By Joe Cortright 27.4.2018
The Week Observed, March 16, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland doesn't really want to make housing affordable. Portland's City Council has officially declared a housing crisis, and has passed strong renter protection measured and an ill... → By Joe Cortright 16.3.2018
The Week Observed, March 23, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland's teachable moment: time for a little housing economics 101. There's a big debate going on in Portland right now about whether using discretionary land use approvals to bloc... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2018
The Week Observed, February 23, 2018 What City Observatory did this week Drinking, Parking, Flying, Peaking, Pricing: The five drivers of ride-hailing demand. The Transportation Research Board has published a dense, 100 page study of ride-hailing demand, d... → By Joe Cortright 23.2.2018
The Week Observed, January 19, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. We're losing the battle for Vision Zero. One of the compelling aspects of the Vision Zero road safety campaign is its bold, measurable objective: we want to completely eliminate traf... → By Joe Cortright 19.1.2018
The Week Observed, December 15, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Is inequality over? There was some good news from the labor market this month. According to an analysis by Jed Kolko, low wage workers saw their earnings increase slightly faster tha... → By Joe Cortright 15.12.2017
The Week Observed, December 22, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Should cities be worried about "Peak Millennial?" Time magazine highlighted data from three cities where the count of millennials has declined in the past year, according to the Am... → By Joe Cortright 22.12.2017
The Week Observed, January 12, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. How great cities enable you to live longer. We take a close look at some findings from the Equality of Opportunity Project on the connections between community characteristics and ... → By Joe Cortright 12.1.2018
The Week Observed, January 5, 2018 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities continue to attract the young and restless. We've seen some push-back in the last few months, arguing that city population growth is no longer outpacing suburbs, and that the ... → By Joe Cortright 5.1.2018
The Week Observed, November 3, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Rent control's impact on the San Francisco housing market. A new study from three Stanford economists dissects the impacts of rent control in San Francisco. Using a late-in-the-g... → By Joe Cortright 3.11.2017
The Week Observed, October 27, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Signs of the times. For most of the past few years, Portland--like other flourishing metro economies--has seen significant increases in apartment rents, as demand for urban living ha... → By Joe Cortright 27.10.2017
The Week Observed, September 22, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. What price autonomous vehicles? It's easy to obsess about the cool technological details of autonomous vehicles: their sophisticated computers, LIDAR systems, and vehicle-to-vehicl... → By Joe Cortright 22.9.2017
The Week Observed, September 29, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1.Interim report card on Portland's Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance: An Incomplete. Portland's inclusionary zoning requirements have been in effect for six months. While the ordinance pro... → By Joe Cortright 29.9.2017
The Week Observed, September 8, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Is the urban revival over? A provocative (but highly misleading) headline in last week's New York Times sits atop Richard Florida's op-ed about the future of cities. Although Florida... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2017
The Week Observed, July 21, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. How green is my free parking structure? Not very. The National Renewable Energy Lab does cutting edge research on wind, solar and renewable energy. One area where their thinking ... → By Joe Cortright 26.7.2017
The Week Observed, July 7, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Why median rents are an incomplete and often misleading indicator of housing affordability. Our colleague Daniel Hertz shows how the median rent statistics that are often cited to de... → By Joe Cortright 7.7.2017
The Week Observed, August 18, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Hundred dollar bills on the municipal sidewalk? There's a lot of interest in tapping the hidden value of municipal assets to address city financial problems. The typical city owns bi... → By Joe Cortright 18.8.2017
The Week Observed, June 16, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cultural appropriation: Theft or smorgasbord? A recent Internet furor erupted over a Portland burrito stand that copied its recipe from that of street vendors in Mexico. An essential... → By Joe Cortright 16.6.2017
The Week Observed, May 26, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Dirt Cheap. A number of tech startups are exploring techniques for high density urban farming. In theory, new methods, like vertical farming in plastic tubes, can greatly reduce the ... → By Joe Cortright 26.5.2017
The Week Observed, May 5, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Mystery in the Bookstore. In cities around the country, there's been a noticeable rebound in the local bookstore business. After decades of steady decline, this is a pleasant surpris... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2017
The Week Observed, March 17, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Are restaurants dying and taking city economies with them? In a column at Governing, Alan Ehrenhalt raises the alarm that a city economic revival predicated on what he calls "cafe ur... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2017
The Week Observed, March 31, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. 13 propositions about autonomous vehicles. Despite occasional setbacks–like last week's crash of an Uber self-driving car in Phoenix–it looks increasingly likely that autonomous ... → By Joe Cortright 31.3.2017
The Week Observed, March 3, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. More flawed congestion rankings. Traffic analysis firm Inrix released yet another report purporting to estimate the dollar cost of congestion and ranking the world's cities from mos... → By Joe Cortright 3.3.2017
The Week Observed, February 17, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. Anti-social capital. You're probably familiar with the term "social capital" which Robert Putnam popularized with his book Bowling Alone. In it Putnam devised a series of indicators ... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2017
Are young adults moving less? Conflicting data sources present very different pictures of young adult migration rates The Pew Research Center presented an analysis of census data reporting that today's young adults are less likely to move in a given... → By Joe Cortright 14.2.2017
Visions of the City Part III: You don’t own me What kind of future do we want to live in? While that question gets asked by planners and futurists in an abstract and technical way, some of the most powerful and interesting conversations about our future aspirations are... → By Joe Cortright 9.2.2017
Envisioning the way we want to live in cities The biggest challenge for creating great cities is imagination, not technology There's a definite technological determinism to how we approach future cities. Some combination of sensors, 5G Internet, sophisticated compu... → By Joe Cortright 2.7.2018
Visions of a future city, Part I What stories do we tell ourselves about the kind of world we want to live in? In his recent presidential address to the American Economics Association, Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller talked about "narrative economics." ... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2017
Visions of the City Part II: A Perfect Day Yesterday we took a close look at Ford's vision for the future of cities. Our take: Ford's preferred narrative of the places we'll live is all about optimizing city life for vehicles. But is that the narrative that should ... → By Joe Cortright 8.2.2017
The Week Observed, February 3, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1.What HOT Lanes tell us about the value of travel time. The economic underpinning of claims that traffic congestion costs Americans billions and billions of dollars each year is the as... → By Joe Cortright 3.2.2017
Happy Birthday America; Thanks Immigrants! We celebrate the fourth of July by remembering that a nation composed overwhelmingly of immigrants owes them a special debt. [caption id="attachment_4083" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Lighting the way to a stronger ... → By Joe Cortright 4.7.2019
What makes America great, as always: Immigrants Happy Independence Day, America! All Americans are immigrants (Even the Native American tribes trace their origins to Asians who migrated over the Siberian-Alaskan land bridge during the last ice age). And this nation o... → By Joe Cortright 4.7.2018
Openness to immigration drives economic success Last Friday, President Trump signed an Executive Order effectively blocking entry to the US for nationals of seven countries—Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. We'll leave aside the fearful, xenophobic ... → By Joe Cortright 31.1.2017
How urban geometry creates neighborhood identity Does geometry bias our view of how neighborhoods work? Imagine a neighborhood that looks like this: On any given block, there might be a handful of small apartment buildings—three-flats—which are usually clus... → By Daniel Hertz 23.1.2017
The Week Observed, February 24, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1.Busting the urban myth about high income housing and affordability. One of the most widespread beliefs about housing is that the construction of new high income housing somehow makes ... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2017
What HOT lanes reveal about the value of travel time Every year, the Texas Transportation Institute, and traffic monitoring firms like Inrix and Tom-Tom trot out scary sounding reports that claim that Americans lose billions or tens of billions of dollars worth of time sitti... → By Joe Cortright 30.1.2017
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 releas... → By Daniel Hertz 21.11.2018
Speed: Fast cities Which cities move the fastest? Does it matter? The raison d'etre of the highway engineer is making cars go faster. That's reflected in chronic complaints about traffic congestion, and codified in often misleading studie... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2017
The immaculate conception theory of your neighborhood’s origins A while back, a columnist in Seattle Magazine, Knute Berger, expressed his discontent with modern housing development. As Berger sees it, today’s homebuilding pales in comparison to the virtues of early 20th century bung... → By Daniel Hertz 2.5.2017
The Week Observed, January 20, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. The long journey toward greater equity in transportation. The observance of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday got us thinking about how far we've come–and how far we have yet to g... → By Joe Cortright 20.1.2017
Race & transportation: Still a long way to go January 17 is the day we celebrate the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is also the first year that we're observing a national day of racial healing. We thought we'd take a minute to reflect on tw... → By Joe Cortright 16.1.2017
The Week Observed, January 6, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. A Toast to 2017: Beer and Cities. Its traditional to begin the New Year with a delicious beverage, and more and more Americans are choosing to celebrate with a locally brewed ale. ... → By Joe Cortright 6.1.2017
The Week Observed, January 13, 2017 What City Observatory did this week 1. How diverse are the neighborhoods white people live in? Data from the newly released 5-year American Community Survey tabulations give us an updated picture of the demographics of ur... → By Joe Cortright 13.1.2017
Beer and cities: A toast to 2017 Celebrating the new year, city-style, with a local brew Champagne may be the traditional beverage for ringing in the new year, but we suspect that a locally brewed ale may be the drink of choice for many urbanists today... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2017
The Week Observed, December 30, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. The illegal city of Somerville. Just outside of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Somerville is one of the most sought after suburbs in the Boston area. It has a combination of attractive ne... → By Joe Cortright 30.12.2016
The Week Observed, December 16, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Urban transportation's camel problem. Naive optimism is the order of the day in speculating about the future of urban transportation. In theory, some combination of autonomous ... → By Joe Cortright 16.12.2016
How diverse are the neighborhoods white people live in? Overall, America is becoming more diverse, but in many places the neighborhoods we live in remain quite segregated. The population of the typical US metropolitan area has a much more ethnically and racially mixed compositi... → By Joe Cortright 9.1.2017
Copenhagen’s cycling success: Make cars pay their way, not just bike lanes Promoting biking requires ending the big, hidden subsidies to car ownership and use It easy to be in love with cycling in Copenhagen. Bikes are the mode of transport most favored for trips to work and school by local ... → By Joe Cortright 11.11.2019
Are the ‘burbs really back? Last Friday's Wall Street Journal came out with another eye-catching headline story in the city versus suburbs battle of the bands: "Suburbs outstrip cities in population growth, study finds. Big cities may be getting a... → By Joe Cortright 6.12.2016
Destined to disappoint: housing lotteries Affordable housing is in short supply in many US cities, perhaps nowhere more chronically than in New York City. Even though New York has more public housing than any other US city, the demand for subsidized units is far... → By Joe Cortright 30.11.2016
The Week Observed, November 25, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. The rise of global neighborhoods. A new paper published in Demography by Wenquan Zhang and John Logan traces out the changes in the racial and ethnic composition of US neighborho... → By Joe Cortright 25.11.2016
More evidence on the migration of talent At City Observatory, we've long maintained that the location patterns of talented young workers are an economically important signal. (You can read our report on "The Young and Restless here). Well-educated young adult... → By Joe Cortright 23.11.2016
The growth of global neighborhoods As the US grows more diverse, so too do its urban neighborhoods. A new paper—“ Global Neighborhoods: Beyond the Multiethnic Metropolis”--published in Demography by Wenquan Zhang and John Logan traces out the chang... → By Joe Cortright 21.11.2016
Your guide to the debate over the Trump Infrastructure Plan There's a lot of ink being spilled -- or is it pixels rearranged? -- over the size, shape, merits and even existence of a Trump Administration infrastructure plan. Infrastructure was one of just a handful of substantive po... → By Joe Cortright 22.11.2016
The Week Observed, November 18, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Daytime and nighttime segregation. Economic, racial and ethnic segregation are persistent features of the American metropolis. Most studies measure segregation using Census data on... → By Joe Cortright 18.11.2016
The Week Observed, November 11, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. A tax credit for renters. The Terman Center for Housing Innovation at the UC Berkeley has come up with three fleshed-out and cost-estimated models for providing tax credits for l... → By Joe Cortright 11.11.2016
Market timing and racial wealth disparities How buying high and selling low makes housing a bad investment for many disadvantaged groups One of the enduring features of American inequality is the wide disparity in homeownership rates between white Americans and L... → By Joe Cortright 6.7.2017
Market timing and racial wealth disparities One of the enduring features of American inequality is the wide disparity in homeownership rates between white Americans and Latinos and African-Americans. And because homeownership has -- or at least was, historically -- ... → By Joe Cortright 3.11.2016
Halloween was yesterday: Let’s stop scaremongering about cities We love scary stories. That's what Halloween was all about--dressing up as something terrifying, if only for a day. Being scary one day a year can be fun. But constant scaremongering is one way that attitudes and beliefs ... → By Joe Cortright 1.11.2016
The Week Observed: November 4, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. The myth of a revealed preference for suburban living. It's often argued that most Americans must prefer to live in suburbs because so many persons do so. We take a close look at t... → By Joe Cortright 4.11.2016
Affordable Housing: Not just for a favored few As we all know, 2016 is the year that reality television made its way to the national political stage. Less well noticed is how another idea from reality television has insinuated its way into our thinking about housing po... → By Joe Cortright 2.11.2016
The Week Observed: October 28, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1.Measuring Walkability: Non-car modes of transportation have always been at a disadvantage in policy discussions because of a profound lack of widely available quantitative measures ... → By Joe Cortright 28.10.2016
Lies, damn lies, and (on-line shopping) statistics. Here’s an eye-catching statistic: “people in the US buying more things online than in brick-and-mortar stores.” This appears in the lead of a story published this week by Next City. There’s one problem with this... → By Joe Cortright 27.10.2016
The new mythology of rich cities and poor suburbs There’s a new narrative going around about place. Like so many narratives, it's based on a perceptible grain of truth, but then has a degree of exaggeration that the evidence can’t support. [caption id="attachment_3... → By Joe Cortright 20.10.2016
Where is ridesharing growing fastest? There's a revolution afoot in transportation. Transportation network companies, aka "ridesharing" firms, like Uber and Lyft are disrupting both the markets for urban transportation and labor markets. Their business mod... → By Joe Cortright 13.10.2016
Bubble logic We shouldn't expect the return of the trade-up buyer anytime soon. Is the American homebuyer increasingly stuck in a starter home? That’s the premise of a recent commentary from the Urban Institute "Do we have a gener... → By Joe Cortright 3.10.2016
Are integrated neighborhoods stable? More American neighborhoods are becoming integrated–and are staying that way It's rare that some obscure terminology from sociology becomes a part of our everyday vernacular, but "tipping point" is one of those terms.... → By Joe Cortright 18.1.2018
The Week Observed: October 7, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Bubble Logic. A major and persistent change in the housing market from a decade ago has been the decline in the number of “trade-up” home-buyers. While some fret that recent ... → By Joe Cortright 7.10.2016
The Week Observed: September 30, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Where are African-American entrepreneurs? A new Census Bureau survey, undertaken in cooperation with the Kauffman Foundation provides a detailed demographic profile of the owners o... → By Joe Cortright 30.9.2016
The Week Observed: September 23, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. America's most creative metros, ranked by Kickstarter campaigns. One of the most popular ways to raise funds for a new creative project--music, a video, an artistic endeavor, or even... → By Joe Cortright 23.9.2016
The Week Observed: Sept. 16, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities are powering the rebound in national income growth. There was great news in this week's Census report: After years of stagnation, average household income saw its largest one... → By Michael Andersen 16.9.2016
Lessons in Supply and Demand: Housing Market Edition Its apparent to almost everyone that the US has a growing housing affordability problem. And its generating more public attention and public policy discussions. Recent proposals to address housing affordability i... → By Joe Cortright 22.9.2016
Cities are powering the rebound in national income growth Behind the big headlines about an national income rebound: thriving city economies are the driver. As economic headlines go, it was pretty dramatic and upbeat news: The US recorded an 5.2 percent increase in real hous... → By Joe Cortright 15.9.2016
Counting women entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is both a key driver of economic activity and an essential path to economic opportunity for millions of Americans. For much of our history, entrepreneurship has been dominated by men. But in recent decades... → By Joe Cortright 6.9.2016
Where are African-American entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurship is both a key driver of economic activity and an essential path to economic opportunity for millions of Americans. Historically, discrimination and lower levels of wealth and income have been barriers to e... → By Joe Cortright 26.9.2016
The Week Observed: Sept. 9, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Counting Women Entrepreneurs. The Census Bureau has just released the results of its new survey of entrepreneurs, and we report its key findings on the extent and geography of wo... → By Joe Cortright 9.9.2016
The Week Observed: Sept. 2, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Which cities and metros shop most at small retail firms? A new "big data" set from the JPMorganChase Institute offers some answers. It uses 16 billion transactions from the bank's c... → By Michael Andersen 2.9.2016
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... → By Daniel Hertz 31.8.2016
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... → By Joe Cortright 30.8.2016
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 integratio... → By Michael Andersen 26.8.2016
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... → By Joe Cortright 25.8.2016
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, some... → By Daniel Hertz 24.8.2016
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 serv... → By Joe Cortright 18.8.2016
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 p... → By Michael Andersen 19.8.2016
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 loc... → By Daniel Hertz 17.8.2016
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 mil... → By Joe Cortright 13.11.2018
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 mil... → By Joe Cortright 31.10.2016
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 ... → By Michael Andersen 12.8.2016
Back to school: Three charts that make the case for cities Its early September, and most of the the nation's students are (or shortly will be) back in the classroom. There may be a few key academic insights that are no longer top of mind due to the distractions of summer, so as go... → By Joe Cortright 7.9.2016
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 ... → By Joe Cortright 16.8.2016
Talent: The key to metro economic success Educational attainment explains two-thirds of the variation in economic success among metropolitan areas. Each additional percentage point increase in the four-year college attainment rate increases metro per capita inc... → By Joe Cortright 3.2.2020
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 subu... → By Joe Cortright 11.8.2016
The Talent Dividend: Updated Educational attainment explains two-thirds of the variation in economic success among metropolitan areas. Each additional percentage point increase in the four-year college attainment rate increases metro per capita inc... → By Joe Cortright 11.12.2017
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 jus... → By Joe Cortright 15.8.2016
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 loca... → By Joe Cortright 10.8.2016
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 p... → By Michael Andersen 5.8.2016
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... → By Daniel Hertz 8.8.2016
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 ch... → By Joe Cortright 1.8.2016
The party platforms on housing Urban policy conversations are largely focused on local policy, though we at City Observatory have occasionally argued that more attention ought to be paid to state and federal policy. We haven’t had much to say about... → By Daniel Hertz 27.7.2016
Housing can’t be a good investment and affordable Recently, we made the case that promoting homeownership as an investment strategy is a risky proposition. No financial advisor would recommend going into debt in order to put such a massive part of your savings in any othe... → By Daniel Hertz 20.7.2016
Housing can’t both be a good investment and be affordable A fundamental contradiction lies beneath most of our housing policy debates At City Observatory, we've frequently made the case that promoting homeownership as an investment strategy is a risky proposition. No financia... → By Daniel Hertz 30.10.2018
Homeownership: A failed wealth-creation strategy It’s an article of faith in some quarters—well, most quarters—that in the United States, owning a home ought to be a surefire way to build wealth. Whether it’s presidents, anti-poverty groups, foundations, or realt... → By Joe Cortright 18.7.2016
For low-income households, median home prices aren’t always what count Affordable housing is an issue rife with statistics: median rents, median housing costs, percentage of people who are “housing cost burdened,” and so on. Previously, we’ve written about some of the issues with many o... → By Daniel Hertz 5.7.2017
For low-income households, median home prices aren’t always what count Affordable housing is an issue rife with statistics: median rents, median housing costs, percentage of people who are “housing cost burdened,” and so on. Previously, we’ve written about some of the issues with many o... → By Daniel Hertz 8.9.2016
The Week Observed: July 29, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Economist Paul Romer Joins the World Bank. Paul Romer, a leading exponent of the New Growth Theory has been hired as chief economist for the World Bank. We explore how his thinking... → By Joe Cortright 29.7.2016
The Week Observed: July 22, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Homeownership: A failed wealth creation strategy. Its an article of faith that owning a home is the most reliable route to wealth building in the US. But this hasn't been true ... → By Joe Cortright 22.7.2016
The Week Observed: July 15, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. How safe will the autonomous cars of the future be? The first-ever fatal collision involving a Tesla running on autopilot mode has prompted a debate on that subject. On the one hand,... → By Daniel Hertz 15.7.2016
The Week Observed: July 8, 2016 The Week Observed recently celebrated its first birthday! At the end of June 2015, we sent our first roundup of the most important urbanist news to about 700 people; since then, we've faithfully published a new issue every... → By Daniel Hertz 8.7.2016
The values of value capture Late last month, the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation allowing what may become one of the largest transit value capture measures in the US. “Value capture” is a transit funding mechanism based on the ide... → By Daniel Hertz 12.7.2016
Londonize! One of the first “urbanist” blogs I found was Copenhagenize. It’s a brilliantly simple name that carries its argument in a single word: Here is a place, Copenhagen, that does something right, so let’s be more like ... → By Daniel Hertz 7.7.2016
Review: State of the Nation’s Housing 2016 At City Observatory, we love fat reports full of data, especially when they shed light on important urban policy issues. Last week, we got the latest installment in a long-running series of annual reports on housing produc... → By Joe Cortright 6.7.2016
The fourth virtue of public transit For most Americans, public transit basically has three virtues. The first two cater to liberal sensibilities: it’s environmentally friendly, and because it’s cheap, it’s effectively a sort of transportation safety ne... → By Daniel Hertz 5.7.2016
The Week Observed: July 1, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Last week's big news was Brexit: the vote by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. What does that have to do with urban policy on our side of the Atlantic? Well, it turns o... → By Daniel Hertz 1.7.2016
More evidence on the “Dow of Cities” Last summer, we flagged a fascinating study by Fitch Investment Advisers which tracked twenty five years of home price data, stratified by the “urbanness” of housing. Fitch showed that particularly since 2000, home pri... → By Joe Cortright 29.6.2016
Sprawl and the cost of living Over the past three weeks, we’ve introduced the “sprawl tax”—showing how much more Americans pay in time and money because of sprawling urban development patterns. We’ve also shown how much higher the sprawl tax ... → By Joe Cortright 28.6.2016
More on the illegal city of Somerville We got quite a bit of interest on our post last week about how the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts had written itself a zoning code that would have prevented the construction of virtually the entire city of 80,... → By Daniel Hertz 22.6.2016
The Week Observed: June 24, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Urban housing is a massive asset. How massive? Well, a comparison to the valuation of our nation's biggest corporations shows it's no comparison at all—housing in major cities has ... → By Daniel Hertz 24.6.2016
The market cap of cities What are cities worth? More than big private companies, as it turns out: The value of housing in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas ($22 trillion) is more than double the value of the stock of the nation’s 50 l... → By Joe Cortright 20.6.2016
The Week Observed, December 2, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Does Rent Control Work: Evidence from Berlin. Economists are nearly unanimous about rent control: they think it doesn't work. Berlin's recent adoption of a new rent control sche... → By Joe Cortright 2.12.2016
The Week Observed: June 17, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. In previous installments of our "Sprawl Tax" series, we've calculated the billions of dollars that longer distances between homes and workplaces cost American commuters, and shown th... → By Daniel Hertz 17.6.2016
Why Houston has been special since at least 1999 A little while ago, in a post called “Sprawl beyond zoning,” we argued that even though Houston doesn’t technically have a zoning code, it still regulates the built environment in lots of ways that make it difficult ... → By Daniel Hertz 16.6.2016
Equity and Parks Last week, our friend and colleague, Carol Coletta delivered a "master talk" to the 66th Annual Conference of the International Downtown Association. Carol is President & CEO, Memphis River Parks Partnership, and a ... → By Joe Cortright 14.10.2020
Why cities need to embrace change This is the text of a speech delivered in Detroit to the Congress for New Urbanism conference by Carol Coletta, a senior fellow at the Kresge Foundation's American Cities Practice. Could there be a more apt place to... → By Joe Cortright 8.10.2018
When cities change This is the text of a speech delivered in Detroit last week at the Congress for New Urbanism conference by Carol Coletta, a senior fellow at the Kresge Foundation's American Cities Practice. Could there be a more ap... → By Daniel Hertz 14.6.2016
How sprawl taxes our well-being In the first installment of our “Sprawl Tax” series, we explained how laws and patterns of development that make our homes, businesses, and schools farther apart cost us time and money—on average, nearly $1,400 a yea... → By Joe Cortright 13.6.2016
The Week Observed: June 10, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Last week, we introduced the "Sprawl Tax": the time and money American commuters spend just because their cities are more spread out than they might be. This week, we compare America... → By Daniel Hertz 10.6.2016
How many carless workers are there really? One of the first posts I ever wrote for City Observatory was called “Undercounting the transit constituency,” and it made a simple point: We dramatically undercount the number of people who depend on public transit to ... → By Daniel Hertz 9.6.2016
The Week Observed: June 3, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. In real life, somehow, Google patented sticky cars so that when their autonomous vehicles hit pedestrians, they won't get thrown into the air, but will rather be pinned to the vehicl... → By Daniel Hertz 3.6.2016
Sprawl Tax: How the US stacks up internationally In our first post on the “Sprawl Tax,” we’ve explored the ways that our decisions about how to build American cities have imposed significant costs—in money, time, and quality of life—on all of us. We pay more to... → By Joe Cortright 7.6.2016
Neighborhood change in Philadelphia Last week, the Pew Charitable Trusts released a fascinating report detailing neighborhood change in Philadelphia over the past decade and a half. “Philadelphia’s Changing Neighborhoods” combines a careful, region-wid... → By Joe Cortright 3.6.2016
Introducing the Sprawl Tax If you read the news, you’ve probably seen reports about “congestion costs”: how much American commuters pay, in money and time, when they’re stuck in traffic. It’s fair to say that we’ve got some issues with m... → By Daniel Hertz 2.6.2016
The Week Observed: May 27, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Last month, we released the Storefront Index, a report that catalogued the nation's retail clusters and provided a window into the spatial organization of an important part of Jane J... → By Daniel Hertz 27.5.2016
City center job growth continues strength; suburbs rebounding from recession As recently as the years 2002 to 2007, outlying urban neighborhoods and suburbs experienced much faster job growth than urban cores. But as a February 2015 City Observatory report, “Surging City Center Job Growth,” doc... → By Daniel Hertz 24.5.2016
How we did the Storefront Index We’ve received many questions on how we did the analysis behind our Storefront Index. This post will describe our dataset, our method, and how we created our visualizations. We hope that this will spur future research an... → By Dillon Mahmoudi 23.5.2016
The Week Observed: May 20, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. What's the relationship between urban sprawl, income segregation, and economic opportunity? A recent study by Reid Ewing and colleagues at the University of Utah used an innovative n... → By Daniel Hertz 20.5.2016
The demand for city living is behind the urban rent premium The US faces a shortage of cities. More and more Americans, especially talented, young workers with college degrees, are looking to live in great urban locations. As we’ve explored at City Observatory, the demand for urb... → By Joe Cortright 19.5.2016
USDOT to shut down nation’s roads, citing safety concerns WASHINGTON, DC - Citing safety concerns, today Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announced he was contemplating the closure of roads to all private vehicles in nearly every city in the country until he could assure ... → By Daniel Hertz 11.5.2016
The Week Observed: May 13, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. A new study from Stanford Business School claims that society reaps the greatest benefits from low-income housing when that housing is built in the lowest-income neighborhoods—as o... → By Daniel Hertz 13.5.2016
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. ... → By Joe Cortright 22.8.2016
The rising tide of economic segregation Last week, we argued that the problem called “income segregation” is actually several problems, and broke it down with the help of different measurements designed to capture different aspects of the issue. In partic... → By Daniel Hertz 12.5.2016
The Week Observed: May 6, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. At City Observatory, we're interested in hard numbers—but we're also interested in the human community and public spaces that cities can create. As we did in April with "Lost in Pl... → By Daniel Hertz 6.5.2016
There’s more than one kind of income segregation Much of the conversation about urban inequality today—from Raj Chetty’s work on intergenerational economic mobility, to issues of concentrated poverty and gentrification—is framed in terms of economic segregation. Bu... → By Daniel Hertz 3.5.2016
Successful cities and the civic commons At City Observatory, we’ve been bullish on cities. There’s a strong economic case to be made that successful cities play an essential role in driving national economic prosperity. As we increasingly become a ... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2016
Our infographic for thinking about the civic commons City Observatory is about cities, and while much of the discussion of urban policy surrounds the physical and built environment, ultimately cities are about people. When cities work well, they bring people together. Conver... → By Joe Cortright 25.10.2016
What it means to be in common When we talk about the costs and consequences of car-dependent urban development, we often talk about hard economics and climate science. Spread-out neighborhoods divided by big, pedestrian-hostile roads force people to sp... → By Daniel Hertz 2.5.2016
Storefronts and job growth Earlier this week, we introduced the Storefront Index, a measure of the location and clustering of customer-facing retail and service businesses. A primary use of the index is to identify places that have the concentration... → By Joe Cortright 27.4.2016
The Week Observed: April 29, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. This week, we were proud to release City Observatory's latest report: The Storefront Index. The Storefront Index maps and tallies every "storefront" business in the 51 largest US met... → By Daniel Hertz 29.4.2016
The Week Observed: April 22, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. When we measure segregation, we almost always use Census numbers that reflect where people live—ie, where their homes are. But people don't spend all day in their homes, so a team ... → By Daniel Hertz 22.4.2016
On the road again? Hot on the heels of claims that Millennials are buying houses come stories asserting that Millennials are suddenly big car buyers. We pointed out the flaws in the home-buying story earlier this month, and now let’s take ... → By Joe Cortright 25.4.2016
An infographic summarizing neighborhood change One of City Observatory’s major reports is “Lost in Place,” which chronicles the change in high-poverty neighborhoods since 1970. In it, you’ll find a rich array of data at the neighborhood level showing how and wh... → By Joe Cortright 9.11.2016
A new look at neighborhood change One of City Observatory’s major reports is “Lost in Place,” which chronicles the change in high-poverty neighborhoods since 1970. In it, you’ll find a rich array of data at the neighborhood level showing how and wh... → By Joe Cortright 21.4.2016
Excessive expectations: A first look at the DOT’s new road performance rules We’ve just gotten our first look at the new US Department of Transportation performance measurement rule for transportation systems. The rule (nearly three years in gestation, since the passage of the MAP-21 Act) is USDO... → By Joe Cortright 19.4.2016
The Week Observed: April 15, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. More than half of commuters to jobs in classically suburban DuPage County, outside Chicago, say they'd like to walk, bike, or take transit—but nearly 90 percent of them drive anywa... → By Daniel Hertz 15.4.2016
Urbanism isn’t yet a luxury good For most of the 20th century, cities and their accoutrements were associated with immigrants, people of color, and relative economic deprivation. The very phrase “inner city” became a synonym of “poor,” and in cert... → By Daniel Hertz 14.4.2016
How great cities enable you to live longer Low income people live longer in dense, well-educated, immigrant-friendly cities Some of the most provocative social science research in the past decade has come from the Equality of Opportunity Project, led by Stanford... → By Joe Cortright 9.1.2018
The Week Observed: April 8, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Even in a relatively dense city like Chicago, large amounts of off-street parking goes unused daily. A new report from the Center for Neighborhood Technology documents the over-suppl... → By Daniel Hertz 8.4.2016
The limits of technology: Let’s hack an app A Hollywood staple of the 1930s and 1940s was the story of a plucky band of young kids—usually led by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland—who, their dreams of making it on Broadway dashed by some plot twist, decide to stage... → By Joe Cortright 7.4.2016
Sprawl beyond zoning Another column from Paul Krugman today on the ways that US-style zoning laws are detrimental to economic opportunity is a pleasant reminder that the role of building regulations in broader questions of inequality is no lon... → By Daniel Hertz 5.4.2016
What lifecycle and generational effects tell us about young people’s homebuying It’s been debunked, right? Though we’ve long been told that millennials want to live in cities, renting rather than owning, and biking instead of driving, a new round of articles are here to tell us that all of that is... → By Joe Cortright 6.4.2016
The Week Observed: April 1, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Have we reached "peak Millennial"? One researchers argues that because new births peaked in 1990, today's 26-year-olds represent the high water mark of a youth-led urban renaissance.... → By Daniel Hertz 1.4.2016
Introducing the Pedestrian Pain Index America’s pedestrians are in pain. Every day, tens of millions of Americans waste tens of thousands of hours stuck waiting on the side of streets for car traffic to get out of their way. We estimate that the annual va... → By Joe Cortright 1.4.2016
Why mixed-income neighborhoods matter: lifting kids out of poverty There’s a hopeful new sign that how we build our cities, and specifically, how good a job we do of building mixed income neighborhoods that are open to everyone can play a key role in reducing poverty and promoting equit... → By Joe Cortright 29.3.2016
Flood tide–not ebb tide–for young adults in cities The number of young adults is increasing, not declining, and a larger share of them are living in cities. Yesterday's New York Times Upshot features a story from Conor Dougherty–"Peak Millennial? Cities Can't Assume a... → By Joe Cortright 24.1.2017
The Week Observed: March 25, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. When supply catches up to demand, rents go down. While stories about crazy housing markets tend to focus on big, coastal metropolitan areas, it turns out there's a lot to learn from ... → By Daniel Hertz 25.3.2016
Not peak Millennial: the coming wave It’s an eye-catching, convention-tweaking claim: We’ve reached peak Millennial. And, so the argument goes, because Millennials have hit their “peak,” it's time to junk all these crazy theories about Millennials not... → By Joe Cortright 28.3.2016
Here’s your definitive field guide to median rent statistics Even the most casual consumer of urban news can’t avoid reading articles about whether rents in their city are up, or down, and how they compare to other cities around their country. Unfortunately, the vast majority of t... → By Daniel Hertz 24.3.2016
County data is great, but it can’t tell us much about urban living You're on your couch, streaming the latest episode of Broad City on your Mac laptop, just like a good millennial. But all of a sudden, your wifi connection goes bad, and the screen goes all pixelated. Instead of Abbi and I... → By Daniel Hertz 25.3.2016
The Week Observed: March 18, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Finding nuance in the housing supply arguments. A new article from Rick Jacobus at Shelterforce helps resolve some of the tensions in the growing debate about whether and how housing... → By Daniel Hertz 18.3.2016
Like Uber, but for redistribution In a January 2015 paper, the Yale Law professor David Schleicher and Yale Law student Daniel Rauch published a paper on how local governments might regulate “sharing economy” companies, such as Uber, in the future. ... → By Daniel Hertz 16.3.2016
Why the new Inrix Traffic Scorecard deserves a “D” At City Observatory, we’ve long been critical of some seemingly scientific studies and ideas that shape our thinking about the nature of our transportation system, and its performance and operation. We’ve pointed out t... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2016
Super long commutes: a non-big, non-growing, non-problem Last week, the Washington Post published an article repeating an old-refrain in transportation journalism—the horror of long commutes. According to the Post, more and more Americans are commuting longer and longer dis... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2016
Finding nuance in the housing supply arguments On the one hand, over the last few years, the growing debate about the root causes of affordable housing crises in high-income, coastal American cities has been robust, passionate, and often nuanced. On the other, there ha... → By Daniel Hertz 14.3.2016
How should cities approach economic development? Everyone interested in state or local economic development should read "Remaking Economic Development: The Markets and Civics of Continuous Growth and Prosperity." In it, the Brookings Institution’s Amy Liu neatly synthe... → By Joe Cortright 9.3.2016
The Week Observed: March 11, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Muddling income inequality and economic segregation. What does it mean to be a prosperous city? What does it mean to be a city with high economic inequality? These questions can be d... → By Daniel Hertz 11.3.2016
How we shut the door on housing Note: Tomorrow, NYU's Furman Center will hold a seminar with Dartmouth professor William Fischel on his new paper,"The Rise of the Homevoters: How OPEC and Earth Day Created Growth-Control Zoning that Derailed the Growth ... → By Daniel Hertz 8.3.2016
The Week Observed: March 4, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities can't solve all our problems. Like other people who think and work about cities and urban issues, we're often focused on how ground-level changes can make cities better—thin... → By Daniel Hertz 4.3.2016
Quantifying Jane Jacobs Our storefront index shows where there's a density of destinations to enable walkability As Jane Jacobs so eloquently described it in The Death and Life of American Cities, much of the essence of urban living is reflect... → By Joe Cortright 5.9.2018
Where you can walk and shop locally: The Storefront Index Where are walkable local shopping districts in your city? There are just six shopping days left until Christmas; while much of our shopping is done on-line or with at big box stores and national chains, many consumers l... → By Joe Cortright 18.12.2018
The Storefront Index As Jane Jacobs so eloquently described it in The Death and Life of American Cities, much of the essence of urban living is reflected in the “sidewalk ballet” of people going about their daily errands, wandering along t... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2016
Explore national transportation change trends by age group In some ways, the urban renaissance of the last decade or two has been quite dramatic. Downtown or downtown-adjacent neighborhoods in cities around the country have seen rapid investments, demographic change, and growth in... → By Daniel Hertz 1.3.2016
Undercounting the transit constituency By far the most common way to measure transit use is "commute mode share," or the percentage of workers who use transit to get to their job. For the most part, this is a measure of convenience: it's the most direct way the... → By Daniel Hertz 23.2.2016
The Week Observed: February 26, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Another round on the Washington Post's housing roundtable. On Friday, we took part in a roundtable at the Washington Post's Wonkblog on what it would take to solve the housing afford... → By Daniel Hertz 26.2.2016
What I learned playing SimCity Like most city lovers of a certain age, I spent many hours as a kid playing SimCity. For readers who are tragically uninitiated, SimCity is one of the iconic computer games of the 1990s, though new versions have been relea... → By Daniel Hertz 24.2.2016
The Storefront Index As Jane Jacobs so eloquently described it in The Death and Life of American Cities, much of the essence of urban living is reflected in the “sidewalk ballet” of people going about their daily errands, wandering along t... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2016
The Week Observed: February 19, 2016 Next week, we'll be releasing our latest City Report, which maps the location of consumer-facing businesses around the nation to provide a new, quantitative measure of a city's street-level vitality—one facet of Jane Jac... → By Daniel Hertz 19.2.2016
Urban myth busting: Why building more high income housing helps affordability After fourteen seasons, Discovery Channel’s always entertaining “Mythbusters” series ended last year. If you didn't see the show-and it lives on at Youtube, of course–co-hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman construc... → By Joe Cortright 20.2.2017
Urban myth busting: New rental housing and median-income households The price of new housing is a poor gauge of housing affordability Increasing housing supply over time, coupled with individual housing units moving down-market as they age, provides affordability New cars are unaffor... → By Joe Cortright 4.2.2021
Urban myth busting: New rental housing and median-income households After fourteen seasons, Discovery Channel’s always entertaining “Mythbusters” series is coming to an end later this year. If you haven’t seen the show, co-hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman construct elaborate (of... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2016
The Week Observed: February 12, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. More evidence on the "Dow of cities." We've argued before that evidence of shifting demand for urban real estate can be read as a sort of "stock" in cities—and that cities' stock ... → By Daniel Hertz 12.2.2016
More driving means more dying New data from the national traffic safety administration shows an ominous trend: traffic related deaths are up 11.3 percent for the first nine months of 2015, as compared to the same period a year earlier. Although the ... → By Joe Cortright 15.2.2016
Why the first-time homebuyer is an endangered species First-time home buyers play a critical role in the housing market. The influx of new households into the owner-occupied market is a key source of sales, and provides impetus for existing homeowners to move, liquidate their... → By Joe Cortright 9.2.2016
More support for a real estate capital gains tax A few months ago, we offered a proposal to dramatically increase funding for affordable housing and put a damper on real estate speculation: tax housing capital gains. While San Francisco’s voter-approved Proposition A w... → By Daniel Hertz 4.2.2016
The Week Observed: February 5, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Don't demonize driving—just stop subsidizing it. City Observatory likes to make data-driven arguments—but the rhetorical frameworks we use to explain the data matter, too. Here, ... → By Daniel Hertz 5.2.2016
Don’t demonize driving—just stop subsidizing it At City Observatory, we try to stick to a wonky, data-driven approach to all things urban. But numbers don’t mean much without a framework to explain them, and so today we want to quickly talk about one of those rhetoric... → By Joe Cortright 1.2.2016
Rather than demonizing driving—let’s just stop subsidizing it A "war on cars" won't win many hearts and minds; let's ask for responsibility It's clear that cars, and particular the large numbers of cars we have, and the way in which we and our urban environments have become depend... → By Joe Cortright 9.7.2018
Let’s not demonize driving—just stop subsidizing it At City Observatory, we try to stick to a wonky, data-driven approach to all things urban. But numbers don’t mean much without a framework to explain them, and so today we want to quickly talk about one of those rhetoric... → By Joe Cortright 16.2.2017
The Week Observed: January 29, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. The market cap of cities. What's the value of a city? We've taken a stab at answering that question—at least, the value of a city's housing. Using a measure called market capitaliz... → By Daniel Hertz 29.1.2016
The Week Observed: January 22, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Which federal agency has a big role to play in housing affordability? The answer might surprise you. The Federal Reserve has announced a plan to increase the interest rates it charge... → By Daniel Hertz 22.1.2016
The market cap of cities, 2019 What are cities worth? More than big private companies, as it turns out: The value of housing in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas ($25.7 trillion) is more than double the value of the stock of the nation’s 50... → By Joe Cortright 4.2.2019
The market cap of cities What are cities worth? More than big private companies, as it turns out: The value of housing in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas ($22 trillion) is more than double the value of the stock of the nation’s 50 l... → By Joe Cortright 25.1.2016
For highway advocates, it’s about the journey, not the destination Last month, we called out the American Highway User’s Alliance (AHUA) for trumpeting the Katy Freeway as a congestion-fighting success story. The Katy, as you will recall, is Houston’s 23-lane freeway, which was recent... → By Joe Cortright 19.1.2016
The Week Observed: January 15, 2016 What City Observatory did this week 1. Bending the carbon curve in the wrong direction. After years in which Americans were driving less, cheap gas is helping to push those numbers back up—erasing a full sixth of the pr... → By Daniel Hertz 15.1.2016
Bending the carbon curve in the wrong direction Gas prices are down, driving is up, and so, too, is carbon pollution. In a little over a year, the US has given up about one-sixth of the progress it made in reducing transportation’s carbon footprint. For more than a... → By Joe Cortright 11.1.2016
The Week Observed: January 8, 2016 This week, Planetizen named City Observatory one of its 10 best urban websites of 2015, adding that "every single post is essential reading." We're extremely grateful for the recognition, and are excited about continuing o... → By Daniel Hertz 8.1.2016
The economic strength of American cities in four charts Cities are becoming more important to the economic health of the country. How do we know? We can boil the answer down to four charts, each of which plots a key indicator of urban economic strength. 1. The Dow of Cities T... → By Joe Cortright 7.1.2016
Make housing vouchers an entitlement—we can afford it We could extend housing vouchers to every very-low-income household—and expand housing support to the middle class, too — if we were willing to take away just one of the big housing subsidies to people making over ... → By Daniel Hertz 5.1.2016
The Year Observed: Your 12 favorite posts from 2015, part 1 12. Let's talk about neighborhood stigma In the last year or two, there has been a resurgence of awareness and debate about the big, structural issues facing America's persistently poor neighborhoods. But one part of the... → By Daniel Hertz 28.12.2015
Our favorites from 2015, part 1 Over the last two days, we've give you readers' favorite posts from 2015. Now we're choosing our own. Here are Joe Cortright's five favorite: 5. Want to close the black/white income gap? Work to reduce segregation The in... → By Joe Cortright 30.12.2015
The Week Observed: December 24, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. The Katy isn't ready for its closeup. When the Texas Department of Transportation tried to sell the public on its Katy Freeway expansion project, part of the story was that it would ... → By Daniel Hertz 24.12.2015
About that “consensus” on zoning Is there a “cross-ideological consensus” on zoning reform? Writing in the Washington Post earlier this month, economist Ilya Somin made such a claim. Libertarians, he wrote, have opposed the strict laws that prescri... → By Daniel Hertz 22.12.2015
The Week Observed: December 18, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Don't bank on it. Hillary Clinton, as part of her campaign for President, has proposed a National Infrastructure Bank to help local governments pay for crucial infrastructure mainten... → By Daniel Hertz 18.12.2015
The Katy isn’t ready for its closeup When it comes to selling huge new road projects to the public, the highway lobby and their allies in government have many tools. Last week, we wrote about one of them: touting initial declines in congestion as success, wit... → By Joe Cortright 21.12.2015
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 Ba... → By Daniel Hertz 6.11.2018
Homevoters v. the growth machine There are two big theories about who controls the pace of development in American cities and suburbs. One is the “growth machine.” In this telling, developed by academics like Harvey Molotch in the 1970s, urban elec... → By Daniel Hertz 15.12.2015
Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t Here’s a highway success story, as told by the folks who build highways. Several years ago, the Katy Freeway in Houston was a major traffic bottleneck. It was so bad that in 2004 the American Highway Users Alliance (A... → By Joe Cortright 16.12.2015
Where did all the small apartment buildings go? Back in August, we wrote about the phenomenon of the “missing middle”: the fact that today’s urban (and suburban) development tends to take the form of either single-family homes or very large apartment buildings, bu... → By Daniel Hertz 17.12.2015
Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t Here’s a highway success story, as told by the folks who build highways. Several years ago, the Katy Freeway in Houston was a major traffic bottleneck. It was so bad that in 2004 the American Highway Users Alliance (A... → By Joe Cortright 27.12.2016
The Week Observed: December 11, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. A $1.6 billion proposal. A film school teacher in San Francisco had some people talking about "ethical landlording" as a solution to the problem of too-high real estate prices. But s... → By Daniel Hertz 11.12.2015
Don’t bank on it Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton laid out the broad outlines of her plan for a National Infrastructure Bank, which would make low interest loans to help fund all kinds of public and private infrastructu... → By Joe Cortright 14.12.2015
Climate concerns steamrolled by FAST Act and cheap gas There’s plenty of high-minded rhetoric at the UN climate change conference in Paris about getting serious about the threat of climate change. According to the Los Angeles Times, Secretary of State John Kerry is optimisti... → By Joe Cortright 9.12.2015
The Week Observed: December 4, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Engaged communities, civic participation, and democracy. A guest post from the Knight Foundation's Carol Coletta begins by noting some dismal numbers on voting in American cities—e... → By Daniel Hertz 4.12.2015
Is foreign capital destroying our cities? Be afraid: Big foreign corporations are buying up our cities and stamping out our individuality. Or so warns Saskia Sassen in a piece ominously entitled, “Who owns our cities—and why this urban takeover should concern ... → By Joe Cortright 2.12.2015
You need more than one number to understand housing affordability Back in October, we wrote a post called “Affordability beyond the median.” While most discussions of housing costs measure based on a city’s or neighborhood’s median price, that’s not all that matters. After a... → By Daniel Hertz 3.12.2015
Engaged communities, civic participation, and democracy Today we're publishing an edited version of a speech given by Carol Coletta, VP of Community and National Initiatives at the Knight Foundation, last month in Portland, OR. Informed and engaged communities are fundam... → By Daniel Hertz 1.12.2015
It’s a good time for buyers to beware It's the hardiest perennial in the real estate business: “Now,” your realtor will tell you, “is a great time to buy a home.” Back in 2006, just as the housing market was faltering, that’s exactly what the Nat... → By Joe Cortright 24.11.2015
The Week Observed: November 27, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Ways forward to more equitable land use law. Following up on last week's posts about William Fischel's new book, Zoning Rules!, and its arguments about how America got into its curre... → By Daniel Hertz 27.11.2015
The Week Observed: November 20, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. The high price of cheap gas. While many economists emphasize the positive effects of low gas prices—more disposable income in consumers' pockets, which can act as a stimulus—it's... → By Daniel Hertz 20.11.2015
Zoning and cities on the national economic stage It's hard to think of an issue that is more quintessentially local than zoning. It's all about what happens on the ground on a specific piece of property in a particular neighborhood. It's the bread and butter of local gov... → By Joe Cortright 25.11.2015
The shopkeeper: A zoning parable This year, William Fischel, a professor at Dartmouth and one of the country’s leading scholars of land use policy, published a new opus on zoning: Zoning Rules! There’s far too much in the book to do a comprehensive re... → By Daniel Hertz 18.11.2015
Ways forward to more equitable land use law Last week, going off a recent book by William Fischel, we published a parable that explained the evolution of American zoning over the 20th century, from non-zoning land use in the early years to the introduction of true z... → By Daniel Hertz 23.11.2015
The origins of the housing crisis Yesterday, we published a “zoning parable,” based on William Fischel’s arguments for why and how zoning regulations developed in American cities over the 20th century. Today, we’ll expand a bit on one of the book... → By Daniel Hertz 19.11.2015
The Week Observed: November 13, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. What filtering can and can't do. In most cities, the majority of homes that are affordable to people of modest or low incomes don't receive special affordability subsidies—they're ... → By Daniel Hertz 13.11.2015
The high price of cheap gas At least on the surface, the big declines in gas prices we’ve seen over the past year seem like an unalloyed good. We save money at the pump, and we have more to spend on other things, But the cheap gas has serious hidde... → By Joe Cortright 17.11.2015
The Week Observed: November 6, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. More doubt cast on food deserts. The concept of a "food desert"—typically low-income urban neighborhoods where a lack of nearby grocery stores leads to poor nutrition—is widely a... → By Daniel Hertz 6.11.2015
What filtering can and can’t do “Affordable housing” can seem like a hopelessly vague term. First of all, affordable to whom? (Follow the link to a description of an “affordable” program targeting people making 40 percent more than the median inc... → By Daniel Hertz 10.11.2015
Do the rich (neighborhoods) get richer? Many studies of gentrification (for example, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia study we wrote about last week) begin by dividing neighborhoods into one of two categories: gentrifiable and non-gentrifiable. Usually, ... → By Daniel Hertz 4.11.2015
The Week Observed: October 30, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Introducing City Observatory policy memos. At City Observatory, one of our goals is to translate the best and latest urban policy research for advocates, organizers, and practitioner... → By Daniel Hertz 30.10.2015
A “helicopter drop” for the asphalt socialists The House of Representatives has hit on a clever new strategy for funding the bankrupt Highway Trust Fund: raid the Federal Reserve. Their plan calls for transferring nearly $60 billion from the profits earned on the Feder... → By Joe Cortright 11.11.2015
Introducing City Observatory policy memos One role we hope to play at City Observatory is translator: taking some of the best, most rigorous research on American cities and urban policy and turning it into smart, sophisticated, and readable pieces that can inform... → By Daniel Hertz 26.10.2015
More doubt cast on food deserts It’s a plausible and widely-believed hypothesis: Poor people in the United States suffer from measurably worse nutrition because they have such limited access to good food. Confronted with a high concentration of poor di... → By Joe Cortright 2.11.2015
Why creating meaningful transportation change is so hard At his blog, The Transport Politic, Yonah Freemark pushed back this week on the idea that we’re seeing a revolution in the way people get around cities and suburbs, largely thanks to new transit-and-bike-friendly Millenn... → By Daniel Hertz 21.10.2015
Higher-inequality neighborhoods reduce inequality A few weeks ago, in a post about what income inequality means in an urban (rather than national) context, we contrasted images of a lower Manhattan neighborhood with a Dallas suburb. The Manhattan street had subsidized hou... → By Daniel Hertz 27.10.2015
The Week Observed: October 23, 2015 Our partners and supporters at the Knight Foundation have announced a new round of the Knight Cities Challenge, which gives grants to people and organizations around the country for projects that make their cities more li... → By Daniel Hertz 23.10.2015
Beyond gas: The price (of driving) is wrong Our recent conversation about the future of American driving habits, and the role of the price of gas in changing them, is a good reminder of a broader truth about transportation policy: prices are important, and getti... → By Joe Cortright 21.10.2015
Eleven things you’d know if you read City Observatory Last week, City Observatory celebrated its first birthday. This week, we're taking some time to look back at all the reports and commentaries we researched and wrote in the last year, and picking out some of what we thin... → By Daniel Hertz 20.10.2015
A modest proposal: treat affordable housing more like food stamps Two of the most fundamental human needs are food and housing. As a result, we have government programs to help people who might not be able to afford them. But the way those programs work is wildly different. So let’s... → By Daniel Hertz 14.10.2015
Happy birthday to us! A year ago today, October 15th, 2014, we launched City Observatory, a data-driven voice on what makes for successful cities. [caption id="attachment_1725" align="alignnone" width="800"] The Plaza in Kansas City. Credit... → By Joe Cortright 15.10.2015
The Week Observed: October 16, 2015 Our partners and supporters at the Knight Foundation have announced a new round of the Knight Cities Challenge, which gives grants to people and organizations around the country for projects that make their cities more li... → By Daniel Hertz 16.10.2015
The Week Observed: October 9, 2015 Last week, our partners and supporters at the Knight Foundation announced a new round of the Knight Cities Challenge, which gives grants to people and organizations around the country for projects that make their cities mo... → By Daniel Hertz 9.10.2015
Mystery in the Bookstore Signs of a rebound in independent bookstores, but not in the statistics Lately, there've been a spate of stories pointing to a minor renaissance of the independent American bookstore. After decades of glum news and clos... → By Joe Cortright 1.5.2017
The danger of taking policy lessons from extreme cases Two recent press features have suggested that one Utah city has worked out the recipe for equitable development. The cover story from Newsweek’s October 2, issue offers “Lessons from America’s most egalitarian zip co... → By Joe Cortright 8.10.2015
Talent, opportunity, and engagement are essential to successful cities We're very excited to spread the news that this fall, our partners and supporters at the Knight Foundation are reprising their wildly successful "Knight Cities Challenge." Last year, Knight chose 32 winners out of more tha... → By Daniel Hertz 7.10.2015
Why America can’t make up its mind about housing Here are two ideas that, if you’re like most Americans, you probably mostly agree with: 1. Government policy should help keep housing broadly affordable, so as not to price out people of low or moderate incomes from e... → By Daniel Hertz 13.10.2015
The end of peak driving? A little over a year ago, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $3.70. Since then, that price has plummeted, and remains more than a dollar cheaper than it was through most of 2014. Over the same period, there’s been a sm... → By Joe Cortright 6.10.2015
The Week Observed: October 2, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities' role in growing our nation's economy. New data from the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis builds on our "Dow of Cities" post and Surging City Center Job Growth report to sh... → By Daniel Hertz 2.10.2015
What’s behind the debate over American streets What are roads for? For that matter, what’s transportation policy for? Much of the urban reform movement of the last few decades has been about re-asking, and re-answering, these questions. Most people who follow trends ... → By Daniel Hertz 5.10.2015
When it comes to transit use, it’s all about destination density At City Observatory, we’ve written quite a bit about the phenomenon of city center job growth. We did a whole CityReport about the phenomenon, showing that since the Great Recession, urban cores have been outperforming t... → By Daniel Hertz 17.7.2017
When it comes to transit use, destination density matters more than where you live At City Observatory, we’ve written quite a bit about the phenomenon of city center job growth. We did a whole CityReport about the phenomenon, showing that since the Great Recession, urban cores have been outperforming t... → By Daniel Hertz 30.9.2015
One of the biggest myths about cities: Crime is rising There's a lot happening in American cities these days, which means that there's a lot to read about! Even for those of us at City Observatory, sometimes good, important articles slip through the cracks. In recognition of t... → By Joe Cortright 1.10.2015
The Week Observed: September 25, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Zoning in everything—even the education gap. By now, thanks to renewed attention in major media outlets from writers like the New York Times' Nikole Hannah-Jones, many observers of... → By Daniel Hertz 25.9.2015
The immaculate conception theory of your neighborhood’s origins Last week, a columnist in Seattle Magazine, Knute Berger, expressed his discontent with modern housing development. As Berger sees it, today’s homebuilding pales in comparison to the virtues of early 20th century bungalo... → By Daniel Hertz 24.9.2015
Big city metros are driving the national economy The nation's largest city-centered metro areas are powering national economic growth. 2017 will mark a decade since the peak of the last economic cycle (which according to the National Bureau of Economic Research was De... → By Joe Cortright 23.3.2017
Cities’ role in growing our nation’s economy Cities have always played a vital role in the national economy, but in the past few years their importance has increased. Last month, we highlighted the “Dow of Cities”—how the rising value of housing in the most ... → By Joe Cortright 28.9.2015
Zoning in everything—even the education gap A few weeks ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones produced a tour de force report on school segregation in America, which became a two-part episode on the public radio show This American Life. In the first part, she dove into the compl... → By Daniel Hertz 21.9.2015
What else does the new “severely rent-burdened” report tell us? This week, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and the affordable housing organization Enterprise Community Partners released a report sketching out various scenarios of rental cost and income growth for the next ... → By Daniel Hertz 23.9.2015
The Week Observed: September 18, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Great neighborhoods don't have to be illegal—they're not elsewhere. Daniel Kay Hertz follows up on our earlier piece about illegal neighborhoodsto point out that most other wealthy... → By Daniel Hertz 18.9.2015
Why are metropolitan areas more “equal” than their central cities? To butcher Orwell, all cities are unequal, but some cities are more unequal than others. While working with some of the Census-calculated income inequality numbers—in particular, the Gini index—we noticed an interestin... → By Daniel Hertz 22.9.2015
The prisoner’s dilemma of local-only planning One of the most broadly popular ideas about urban planning today is that decisions should be made locally. After all, who knows better what a neighborhood needs than the people who live there? And what better way to squash... → By Daniel Hertz 15.9.2015
Caught in the prisoner’s dilemma of local-only planning The fundamental conundrum underlying many of our key urban problems is the conflict between broadly shared regional interests and impacts in local communities. While we generally all share an interest in housing affordabil... → By Joe Cortright 21.9.2016
Great neighborhoods don’t have to be illegal—they’re not elsewhere Ah, Paris! Perhaps one of the world's most beautiful cities, a capital of European culture, and prosperous economic hub. What’s its secret? Zoning, of course! [caption id="attachment_1579" align="alignnone" width="80... → By Joe Cortright 10.11.2016
Great neighborhoods don’t have to be illegal—they’re not elsewhere Ah, Paris! Perhaps one of the world's most beautiful cities, a capital of European culture, and prosperous economic hub. What’s its secret? Zoning, of course! [caption id="attachment_1579" align="alignnone" width="80... → By Daniel Hertz 14.9.2015
The Week Observed: September 11, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. My illegal neighborhood. Guest Commentary writer Robert Liberty describes all the things he loves about his neighborhood in Northwest Portland—and then explains why all of them wou... → By Daniel Hertz 11.9.2015
My illegal neighborhood Editor’s note: City Observatory is pleased to provide this guest commentary by our friend Robert Liberty a keen observer of and advocate for cities. by Robert Liberty For many years I lived in Northwest... → By Joe Cortright 8.9.2015
Why do we make it illegal to build the neighborhoods Americans love most? Narrow streets, a mix of large houses and tiny apartments, interspersed with shops and businesses in close walking distance. It's the most desirable neighborhood in the city, and we've made it illegal to build any more lik... → By Joe Cortright 10.5.2018
Updated: Is traffic worse now? The “congestion report” can’t tell us Part 1: Resurrecting discredited data to paint a false history The Texas Transportation Institute claims that traffic congestion is steadily getting worse. But its claims are based on resurrecting and repeating traffic ... → By Joe Cortright 1.9.2015
The Week Observed: September 4, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Looking at housing injustice requires a broad lens. A new research project on Bay Area neighborhood change defines "displacement" as any reduction in the number of low-income people ... → By Daniel Hertz 4.9.2015
UPDATED (again): Another tall tale from the Texas Transportation Institute UPDATE: A chorus of congestion cost critiques By this point, researchers and practitioners from around the country (and beyond!) have laid out their problems with TTI's congestion reports. Here's a roundup of some of the ... → By Joe Cortright 25.8.2015
Looking at housing injustice requires a broad lens What does it mean for someone to be displaced by gentrification? And in a just world, what do our cities’ neighborhoods look like? As reported by Next City, a team of researchers at the University of California-Berkel... → By Daniel Hertz 31.8.2015
New Orleans’ missing black middle class Washed away? Or moved to the suburbs? At FiveThirtyEight, Ben Casselman writes: “Katrina Washed Away New Orleans's Black Middle Class.” It's a provocative piece showing the sharp decline in the black population of... → By Joe Cortright 27.8.2015
The Week Observed: August 28, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Another tall tale from the Texas Transportation Institute. This week, TTI released another episode of its "Urban Mobility Report," claiming to measure the cost of congestion and trac... → By Daniel Hertz 28.8.2015
Why Cyber-Monday doesn’t mean delivery gridlock Tuesday? Far from increasing traffic congestion, more on-line shopping reduces it, by reducing personal shopping trips Delivery trucks generate 30 times less travel than people traveling to stores to make the same purchases T... → By Joe Cortright 25.11.2019
Black Friday, Cyber-Monday and the myth of gridlock Tuesday Far from increasing traffic congestion, more on-line shopping reduces it, by reducing personal shopping trips Delivery trucks generate 30 times less travel than people traveling to stores to make the same purchases T... → By Joe Cortright 25.11.2020
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 $... → By Joe Cortright 26.11.2018
Does Cyber-Monday mean delivery gridlock Tuesday? Yesterday was, famously, cyber-Monday, the day in which the nation's consumers took to their web-browsers and started clicking for holiday shopping in earnest. Tech Crunch reports that estimated e-commerce sales will yeste... → By Joe Cortright 29.11.2016
Growing e-commerce means less urban traffic The takeaway: Urban truck traffic is flat to declining, even as Internet commerce has exploded. More e-commerce will result in greater efficiency and less urban traffic as delivery density increases We likely are o... → By Joe Cortright 25.8.2015
The Dow of Cities The Dow Jones Industrial may be down, but the Dow of Cities is rising The daily business news is obsessed with the price of stocks. Widely reported indicators like the Dow Jones Industrial average gauge the overall heal... → By Joe Cortright 9.4.2018
Are racial “tipping points” overblown? Why are America’s neighborhoods so segregated? For a lot of people, the answer requires reaching deep into history: explaining the rise of the subsidized mortgage market and redlining; racial violence in towns from Cicer... → By Daniel Hertz 24.8.2015
The next road safety revolution “The automobile tragedy is one of the most serious...man-made assaults on the human body,” wrote Ralph Nader in 1965. “It is a lag of almost paralytic proportions that these values of safety...have not found their wa... → By Daniel Hertz 11.8.2015
The Week Observed: August 14, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. City home prices outpacing suburbs by 50 percent. Joe Cortright examines a new study prepared by investment firm Fitch looking at the growing value premium in central cities. Sin... → By Joe Cortright 14.8.2015
The McMansion mirage reappears OK, we admit we might be a bit obsessed with this story. But if you can, bear with us one more time. Here’s the most basic fact: The number of newly-built McMansions—single family homes of 4,000 square feet or large... → By Joe Cortright 6.8.2015
The suburbs: where the rich ride transit This isn’t actually a post about transit. It’s about land use. But we’ll get there in a second. Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, is responsible for one of the most widely-shared quotes in ... → By Daniel Hertz 17.8.2015
The suburbs: where the rich ride transit This isn’t actually a post about transit. It’s about land use. But we’ll get there in a second. Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, is responsible for one of the most widely-shared quotes in ... → By Daniel Hertz 17.8.2015
Between highrises and single-family homes One of the most controversial recommendations from Seattle’s affordable housing task force, or HALA, was to reform zoning laws that only allow single-family homes in certain neighborhoods. That was al... → By Daniel Hertz 12.8.2015
City home prices outpacing metro by 50% Since 2000, home prices have grown 50 percent faster in urban centers than in their surrounding metro areas. If your are an urban data geek, like we are, this is big news. A dramatic shift in city-suburb price differenti... → By Joe Cortright 12.8.2015
The Week Observed: August 7, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Let's talk about neighborhood stigma. Daniel Kay Hertz reviews some of the literature on the interplay between a neighborhood's reputation and its disadvantage—and finds a surprisi... → By Daniel Hertz 7.8.2015
Revisiting Marietta Last month, we questioned why people weren’t paying more attention to Marietta, the Atlanta suburb that is tearing down 1,300 apartments and permanently displacing their low-income residents. We wondered why this large-s... → By Joe Cortright 6.8.2015
Let’s talk about neighborhood stigma My hometown, Chicago, is having a fight over words: in particular, “Chiraq.” That’s a portmanteau of “Chicago” and “Iraq,” which is meant to analogize the city not to that country’s rich cultural heritage, ... → By Daniel Hertz 3.8.2015
Measuring housing affordability: What about homeowners? Over the past two posts, we’ve argued that the most common measure of housing affordability - whether someone is paying more than 30% of their income - has a lot of serious problems. For one, housing costs are only one f... → By Daniel Hertz 22.7.2015
The Week Observed: July 24, 2015 What City Observatory did this week This week, we ran a three-part series on what we mean by "housing affordability." 1. In The way we measure housing affordability is broken, Daniel Kay Hertz writes about the problems... → By Daniel Hertz 24.7.2015
How cutting back on driving helps the economy There are two kinds of economics: macroeconomics, which deals in big national and global quantities, like gross domestic product, and microeconomics, which focuses on a smaller scale, like how the prices of specific produc... → By Joe Cortright 28.7.2015
What can conservatives do for cities? Imagine an urban policy agenda defined by simplifying business regulations and promoting entrepreneurship as the key to prosperity. Add to that an attack on overly restrictive zoning laws that hold back housing constructio... → By Daniel Hertz 15.7.2015
The devilish details of getting a VMT fee right At City Observatory, we’re big believers that many of our transportation problems come from the fact that our prices are wrong - and solving those problems will require us to get prices right. While we desperately need a... → By Joe Cortright 9.7.2015
The Week Observed: July 17, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. Why aren't we talking about Marietta, Georgia? Joe Cortright covers a Robert Moses-style case of "slum clearance" in suburban Atlanta. The city of Marietta is demolishing a complex ... → By Daniel Hertz 17.7.2015
The Week Observed: July 10, 2015 What City Observatory did this week 1. In More evidence on the changing demographics of American downtowns, Daniel Kay Hertz looks at a recent study from the Cleveland Fed on growing high-income neighborhoods in city core... → By Daniel Hertz 10.7.2015
An idea whose time has passed: The VMT Fee Obsolete before its even tried: A simple mileage fee is a bad way to pay for roads It's being touted as a replacement for the gas tax, but the VMT fee is a flawed way to pay for roads. We should adopt a pricing sys... → By Joe Cortright 30.1.2018
The Week Observed: June 26, 2015 Below is the inaugural issue of The Week Observed, City Observatory’s weekly newsletter. Every Friday, we’ll give you a quick review of the most important articles, blog posts, and scholarly research on American citie... → By Daniel Hertz 26.6.2015
Three more takeaways from Harvard’s “State of the Nation’s Housing” report “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2015,” the report published last week by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, has already garnered a lot of attention. We wrote about how it points to a new “gerontrific... → By Daniel Hertz 29.6.2015
Paving Paradise Vancouver and Seattle are regularly rated among the most environmentally conscious cities in North America. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked them among the top five greenest cities in 2012. The State of Washington h... → By Joe Cortright 2.7.2015
More evidence on the changing demographics of American downtowns Earlier this year, Daniel Hartley of the Cleveland Fed and Nathan Baum-Snow of Brown University published a novel analysis of what has been called the “Great Inversion”: the shift of higher-income people from the perip... → By Daniel Hertz 7.7.2015
Playing together is getting harder to do In our CityReport, Less in Common, we explored a key symptom of the decline in social capital: Americans seem to be spending less time playing together. One major driver of this trend is a dramatic privatization ... → By Joe Cortright 12.6.2015
Show Your Work: Getting DOT Traffic Forecasts Out of the Black Box Traffic projections used to justify highway expansions are often wildly wrong The recent Wisconsin court case doesn’t substitute better models, but it does require DOTs to show their data and assumptions instead of ... → By Joe Cortright 3.6.2015
Playing Apart Our City Observatory report, Less in Common, catalogs the ways that we as a nation have been growing increasingly separated from one another. Changes in technology, the economy and society have all coalesced to create mo... → By Joe Cortright 22.2.2017
Portland, the Mission, and the housing affordability debate It would be tempting to call the eight hours of testimony over a proposed moratorium on housing construction in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, and the SF Board of Supervisor’s subsequent failure to approve that... → By Daniel Hertz 22.6.2015
New evidence on integration and economic mobility It's unusual to flag an economics article as a “must-read” for general audiences: but if you care about cities and place, and about the prospects for the American Dream in the 21st Century, you owe it to yourself to re... → By Joe Cortright 21.5.2015
Urban residents aren’t abandoning buses; buses are abandoning them “Pity the poor city bus,” writes Jacob Anbinder in an interesting essay at The Century Foundation’s website. Anbinder brings some of his own data to a finding that’s been bouncing around the web for a while: that e... → By Daniel Hertz 1.6.2015
Baltimore’s problems belong to 2015, not 1968 Think riots destroyed #Baltimore? Entire blocks boarded up. pic.twitter.com/OKSnHXMb9f— Michael Kaplan (@MichaelD_Kaplan) May 1, 2015 Look what the riots did to Baltimore! Oh wait no...These were taken before th... → By Daniel Hertz 14.5.2015
The real welfare Cadillacs have 18 wheels Truck freight movement gets a subsidy of between $57 and $128 billion annually in the form of uncompensated social costs, over and above what trucks pay in taxes, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If truck... → By Joe Cortright 2.6.2015
The real welfare Cadillacs have 18 wheels Truck freight movement gets a subsidy of between $57 and $128 billion annually in the form of uncompensated social costs, over and above what trucks pay in taxes, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If tru... → By Joe Cortright 1.3.2017
Gentrification: The state of the debate in 2015 Gentrification continues to command an enormous amount of attention in the media, and several prominent publications – from The Economist to The Week – have made provocative arguments on the subject since our previous ... → By Daniel Hertz 1.5.2015
Undercounting the transit constituency By far the most common way to measure transit use is "commute mode share," or the percentage of workers who use transit to get to their job. For the most part, this is a measure of convenience: it's the most direct way the... → By Daniel Hertz 19.5.2015
City of ideas, and the idea of cities Cities have always been about bringing people together and creating new ideas Editor's Note: City Observatory Director Joe Cortright will be giving the Harold Vatter Memorial Lecture in Economics at Portland State Uni... → By Joe Cortright 2.5.2019
City of ideas, and the idea of cities [caption id="attachment_964" align="alignnone" width="800"] Credit: Galería de Faustino, Flickr[/caption] Notes from your far flung correspondent, in the shadow of the Acropolis. Though the local economy is still in... → By Joe Cortright 11.5.2015
On Baltimore: Concentrated Poverty, Segregation, and Inequality Yet again, a black citizen dies at the hands of the police. This event and the ensuing riots in Baltimore are a painful reminder of the deep divisions that cleave our cities. There's little we can add to this debate, exc... → By Joe Cortright 28.4.2015
How we measure segregation depends on why we care Segregation is complicated and multi-dimensional, and measuring it isn't easy In 2014, NYU's Furman Center hosted a roundtable of essays on "The Problem of Integration." Northwestern sociologist Mary Pattillo kicked it ... → By Daniel Hertz 17.4.2017
Peaks, valleys, and donuts: a great new way to see American cities In my inaugural post, I claimed that county-level population data is bad at telling us much of anything about cities and housing preferences. Counties just contain too many multitudes – of built environments, of types of... → By Daniel Hertz 23.4.2015
How we measure segregation depends on why we care Last year, NYU's Furman Center hosted a roundtable of essays on "The Problem of Integration." Northwestern sociologist Mary Pattillo kicked it off: I must begin by stating that I am by no means against integration.... My... → By Daniel Hertz 4.5.2015
Young People are Buying Fewer Cars Will somebody teach the Atlantic and Bloomberg how to do long division? In this post, we take down more breathless contrarian reporting about how Millennials are just as suburban and car-obsessed as previous generat... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2015
Peaks, valleys, and donuts: Visualizing cities in cross-section Too often, the descriptions of urban form are reduced to excessively simple binary classifications (city v. suburb), or rely on data grouped by counties, which are maddeningly disparate units. County-level population data ... → By Daniel Hertz 25.9.2018
City Observatory Welcomes Daniel Kay Hertz We’re delighted to announce that Daniel Kay Hertz is joining City Observatory as our new Senior Fellow. Its likely that if you’ve been following the discussions on a wide range of urban issues in the past year or so, y... → By Daniel Hertz 13.4.2015
More evidence on city center job growth In February, we released our latest CityReport documenting a remarkable turnaround in the pattern of job growth within metropolitan areas. After decades of steady job decentralization, the period 2007-2011 marked the fir... → By Joe Cortright 30.4.2015
Want to close the Black/White Income Gap? Work to Reduce Segregation. Nationally, the average black household has an income 42 percent lower than average white household. But that figure masks huge differences from one metropolitan area to another. And though any number of factors ... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2015
Travis County, TX is booming. Cook County, IL is shrinking. What does that tell us about cities? Not much. For the last few years, counties at the center of their metropolitan areas have been growing faster than those at the edge. But late last month, the Washington Post's Emily Badger – citing analysis by demographer William... → By Daniel Hertz 14.4.2015
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... → By Joe Cortright 3.8.2016
How important is proximity to jobs for the poor? More jobs are close at hand in cities. And on average the poor live closer to jobs than the non-poor. One of the most enduring explanations for urban poverty is the "spatial mismatch hypothesis" promulgated by John Ka... → By Joe Cortright 27.3.2015
Walkability rankings: One step forward, one step back To begin, let’s be clear about one thing: we’re huge fans of Walk Score--the free Internet based service that rates every residential address in the United States (and a growing list of other countries) of a scale of... → By Joe Cortright 8.4.2015
The Cappuccino Congestion Index April First falls on Saturday, and that's a good reason to revisit an old favorite, the Cappuccino Congestion Index We're continuing told that congestion is a grievous threat to urban well-being. It's annoying to queue ... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2017
The Cappuccino Congestion Index The Cappuccino Congestion Index shows how you can show how anything costs Americans billions and billions We're continuing told that congestion is a grievous threat to urban well-being. It's annoying to queue up for any... → By Joe Cortright 31.3.2022
The Cappuccino Congestion Index The Cappuccino Congestion Index shows how you can show how anything costs Americans billions and billions We're continuing told that congestion is a grievous threat to urban well-being. It's annoying to queue up for any... → By Joe Cortright 1.4.2021
The Cappuccino Congestion Index The Cappuccino Congestion Index shows how you can show how anything costs Americans billions and billions We're continuing told that congestion is a grievous threat to urban well-being. It's annoying to queue up for any... → By Joe Cortright 2.4.2018
On the Road Again The last few months have witnessed a notable rebound in vehicle miles traveled. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that for the year ended December, 2014, American’s drove 3.015 trillion miles, up about 1.7 pe... → By Joe Cortright 16.3.2015
The Cappuccino Congestion Index City Observatory, April 1. 2015 A new City Observatory analysis reveals a new and dangerous threat to the nation’s economic productivity: costly and growing coffee congestion. Yes, there’s another black fluid... → By Joe Cortright 31.3.2015
Misleading Medians & the McMansion Mirage A story published by the Washington Post’s Wonkblog last week made the headline claim that “The McMansion is back, and bigger than ever.” The article says that new homes are an average of 1,000 feet larger than in ... → By Joe Cortright 9.3.2015
The Perils of Conflating Gentrification and Displacement: A Longer and Wonkier Critique of Governing’s Gentrification Issue It’s telling that Governing calls gentrification the “g-word”—it’s become almost impossible to talk about neighborhood revitalization without objections being raised almost any change amounts to gentrification. W... → By Joe Cortright 20.2.2015
How is economic mobility related to entrepreneurship? (Part 2: Small Business) We recently featured a post regarding how venture capital is associated with economic mobility. We know that these are strongly correlated—and that, if we are concerned with the ability of children today to obtain ‘The... → By Joe Cortright 11.2.2015
Less in Common The essence of cities is bringing people—from all walks of life—together in one place. Social interaction and a robust mixing of people from different backgrounds, of different ages, with different incomes and intere... → By Joe Cortright 9.6.2015
Surging City Center Job Growth For over half a century, American cities were decentralizing, with suburban areas surpassing city centers in both population and job growth. It appears that these economic and demographic tides are now changing. Over the p... → By Joe Cortright 23.2.2015
How Governing got it wrong: The problem with confusing gentrification and displacement Here’s a quick quiz: Which of the following statements is true? a) Gentrification can be harmful because it causes displacement b) Gentrification is the same thing as displacement c) Gentrification is a totally diff... → By Joe Cortright 6.2.2015
America’s Most Diverse Mixed Income Neighborhoods In a nation increasingly divided by race and economic status, where our life prospects are increasingly de ned by the wealth of our zip codes, some American neighborhoods are bucking the trend. These neighborhoods... → By Joe Cortright 18.6.2018
One tip for a prosperous city economy Local media over the course of the last several months have asked us variations on one question repeatedly: if our city wants to do better – be more productive, retain more young people, reduce poverty—how can it do th... → By Joe Cortright 27.1.2015
How segregation limits opportunity The more segregated an metro area is, the worse the economic prospects of the poor and people of color Our City Observatory report, Lost in Place, closely tracks the growth of concentrated poverty in the nation’s citi... → By Joe Cortright 27.3.2018
New Findings on Economic Opportunity (that you should know) Our recent report, Lost in Place, closely tracks the growth of concentrated poverty in the nation’s cities; this is particularly important because of the widespread evidence of the permanent damage high-poverty neighborh... → By Joe Cortright 3.2.2015
Why integration matters Socioeconomic mixing, in neighborhoods that are diverse in race, ethnicity and income, benefits everyone To some extent, we take for granted that integration and equal opportunity should be valued for their own sake. Bu... → By Joe Cortright 14.6.2018
Is life really better in Red States (and cities)? The red state/blue state divide is a persistent feature of American politics. Political differences among states are also associated with important economic differences, and a similar patterns hold across and within metro ... → By Joe Cortright 14.1.2015
Where are the food deserts? One of the nation’s biggest health problems is the challenge of obesity: since the early 1960s the number of American’s who are obese has increased from about 13 percent to 35 percent. The problem is a complex, de... → By Joe Cortright 5.1.2015
City Report: Lost in Place Here's a summary of our latest CityReport: Lost in Place: Why the persistence and spread of concentrated poverty--not gentrification--is our biggest urban challenge. Lost in Place traces the history of high poverty neig... → By Joe Cortright 4.12.2014
How Poverty Has Deepened (part 1) Many talk about poverty—its causes, its effects, and its possible remedies. There is literature on this issue from almost every social science, and no one can summarize it all in one blog post. However, there’s one asp... → By CityObservatory Guest 12.1.2015
City Report: America’s Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods Today we're releasing our latest CityReport: America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods. In this report, we use Census data to identify those neighborhoods that have the highest levels of both racial/ethnic and ... → By Joe Cortright 18.6.2018
How we build our cities: What’s at stake Guest Commentary by Carol Coletta It’s a glorious moment to be in the business of promoting the built environment. I use “built environment” to encompass the way we build our buildings, arrange our neighborhoods a... → By CityObservatory Guest 24.12.2014
Young and Restless The Young and Restless—25 to 34 year-olds with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education—are increasingly moving to the close-in neighborhoods of the nation’s large metropolitan areas. This migration is ... → By Joe Cortright 19.10.2014
The varying thickness of the blue line Cops per capita: An indicator of "Anti-social" capital?" Why do some cities have vastly fewer police officers relative to their population than others? In the 1966 film "The Thin Blue Line" director William Friedki... → By Joe Cortright 2.3.2020
How distinct is your city? Every city has its own unique characteristics. We know that industrial and occupational specializations can be measured using standard economic tools like location quotients. But some of the more intangible characteristics... → By CityObservatory Guest 10.12.2014
Gender Differences in Unemployment To celebrate the Census Bureau’s release of the 5-year American Community Survey estimate, we decided to do a quick analysis of some of its information. So for some light Friday afternoon reading, we present you with an ... → By CityObservatory Guest 5.12.2014
Ten More you should read about Gentrification, Integration and Concentrated Poverty Gentrification and neighborhood changes are hotly contested subjects. In the past few years some very thoughtful and provocative work has been done that helps shed light on these issues. Here we offer ten more of the m... → By Joe Cortright 9.12.2014
Are suburbs really happier? A few months back our friends at CityLab published the results of a survey looking at differences in attitudes about cities and suburbs under the provocative headline, “Overall, Americans in the suburbs are still the hap... → By Joe Cortright 25.11.2014
Ten things you should read about Gentrification, Integration and Concentrated Poverty Gentrification and neighborhood changes are hotly contested subjects. In the past few years some very thoughtful and provocative work has been done that helps shed light on these issues. Here we offer a baker’s dozen... → By Joe Cortright 4.12.2014
Data At CityObservatory, we strive to make data the driving force behind our operations. We know that many of you share our keen interest in digging through the data, and we strongly believe that everyone benefits when data sou... → By Dillon Mahmoudi 23.2.2015
Our Shortage of Cities: Portland Housing Market Edition The big idea: housing in desirable city neighborhoods in getting more expensive because the demand for urban living is growing. The solution? Build more great neighborhoods. To an economist, prices are an important signa... → By Joe Cortright 11.11.2014
The four biggest myths about cities – #3: Crime is rising in cities The Myth: Crime in cities is on the rise The Reality: Cities are getting safer For decades, the common perception about cities is that they were dangerous, dirty, and crowded. A look at the facts tells a differen... → By Joe Cortright 30.10.2014
The four biggest myths about cities – #1 Cities aren’t safe for children If your impression of cities came entirely from watching the evening news, you might think that cities are saddled with ever-increasing traffic congestion and rising crime rates. From talking to your Great Aunt Ida at Than... → By Joe Cortright 23.10.2014
The four biggest myths about cities – #2: Cities are dirty The Myth: Cities are polluted and have dirty air The Reality: Urban air quality has improved dramatically since 1990 For decades, the common perception about cities is that they were dangerous, dirty, and crowded... → By Joe Cortright 26.10.2014
The four biggest myths about cities – #4: Traffic is getting worse The Myth: Traffic congestion is getting worse The Reality: Congestion has declined almost everywhere It’s a common movie trope – a busy commuter rushes out of his downtown office at 5pm, hoping to get only to... → By Joe Cortright 3.11.2014
Boo! The annual Carmaggedon scare is upon us. A new report detailing the “costs” of congestion twists the data to become little more than talking points for the highway lobby. For transportation geeks, Halloween came early this year. A new report claims ... → By CityObservatory Guest 17.10.2014
Economic Opportunity A key measure of economic success has to be whether we provide widely shared opportunities for economic advancement. → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Talent & Prosperity Talent drives city success: The biggest single factor explaining urban economic success is human capital. → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Housing Markets The creation and allocation of living space within a metropolitan area shapes our well-being and the regional economy. → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Urban Form & Transportation Density, land use patterns and the transportation system interact to determine how well cities fulfill their fundamental task of bringing people together. → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Distinctiveness Every city has its own unique character and strengths which shape its economic opportunities. → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Data & Tools Quantitative data can shed light on the functions and performance of urban economies. → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Kids in Cities Young adults are increasingly choosing cities--what will happen when they have kids? → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Portland Portland is our home and a local laboratory for many interesting developments in urban living. → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Our Shortage of Cities The Big Idea: High housing prices in American cities are a symptom of our shortage of great urban neighborhoods. The tried-and-true solution to a shortage is to supply by building new neighborhoods—places where people wa... → By Joe Cortright 14.10.2014
Is Portland really where young people go to retire? Forget the quirky, slacker stereotype, the data show people are coming to Portland to start businesses. A recent New York Times magazine article “Keep Portland Broke,” echoed a meme made popular by the satirical... → By Joe Cortright 14.10.2014
Questioning Congestion Costs It's frequently claimed that traffic congestion imposes high and rising costs on the economy. But is that true? → By CityObservatory Guest 14.10.2014
Search Results for: American
Data
At CityObservatory, we strive to make data the driving force behind our operations. We know that many of you share our keen interest in digging through the data, and we strongly believe that everyone benefits when data sou... →
Grading the City Clean Energy Scorecard
A new scorecard tries to measure how cities are promoting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases—a laudable goal. But the scorecard has some serious limitations. This scorecard emphasizes policies and process... →
A yawning chasm: Patterns of neighborhood distress in US metros
There's a yawning chasm of neighborhood level economic distress across US metro areas. While about 1 in 6 US neighborhoods is classed as distressed, some metro areas have large concentrations of distress, while others ha... →
Bad data: Not a decline in travel
An imagined decline in trip-making is the result of bad data analysis USDOT counted fewer trips in 2022, because it used a different, and less reliable survey method USDOT's social media created a false perception th... →
Down is not up: The truth about traffic, congestion and trucking
A central message of the highway building sales pitch is that traffic is ever-growing and ever worsening, and that we have no choice but to throw more money at expanded capacity. The Oregon Department of Transportation ... →
ODOT’s I-205 Bridge: 1/10th of 1 Percent for Black Contractors
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises One-tenth of one percent of I-205 contracts went to Black construction firms ODO... →
Scratch one flat top!
Oregon freeway fighters chalk up a key victory—but the fight continues On June 26, the Oregon Department of Transportation finally bowed to reality that it simply lacks the funds to pay for a seven-mile long widening ... →
Getting prices right to improve urban transportation
City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary from Miriam Pinski. With the needed federal environmental approvals in hand, New York looks set to be the first American city to implement congestion pricin... →
The Color of Money: Bailing out highways with flexible federal funds
ODOT grabs a billion dollars that could be used for bikes, pedestrians and transit, and allocates it to pay highway bills. Oregon highways are out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the cost of ... →
Houston’s I-45: Civil rights or repeated wrongs?
Editor's Note: For the past two year's the Federal Highway Administration has been investigating a civil rights complaint brought against the proposed I-45 freeway expansion project in Houston. This week, FHWA and TxDO... →
More induced travel denial
Highway advocates deny or minimize the science of induced travel Induced travel is a well established scientific fact: any increase in roadway capacity in a metropolitan area is likely to produce a proportional increa... →
Why should Oregonians subsidize suburban commuters from another state?
Oregon is being asked to pay for half of the cost of widening the I-5 Interstate Bridge. Eighty percent of daily commuters, and two-thirds of all traffic on the bridge are Washington residents. On average, these commut... →
ODOT doesn’t care about covers, again
ODOT's Supplemental Environmental Analysis shows it has no plans for doing anything on its vaunted freeway covers It left the description of cover's post-construction use as "XXX facilities" in the final, official Suppl... →
ODOT reneges on Rose Quarter cover promises
The soon-to-be released Rose Quarter I-5 Revised Environmental Assessment shows that ODOT is already reneging on its sales pitch of using a highway widening to heal Portland's Albina Neighborhood. It trumpeted "highway ... →
ODOT’s “Fix-it first” fraud
ODOT claims that its policy is "fix-it first" maintaining the highway system. But it is spending vastly less on maintenance and restoration than is needed to keep roads and bridges from deteriorating It blames the Le... →
A Universal Basic income . . . for Cars
California is the first in the nation to establish a Universal Basic Income . . . for cars One of the most widely discussed alternatives for tackling poverty and inequality head-on is the idea of a "Universal Basic Inco... →
Which metros are vulnerable to gas price hikes?
Green cities will be less hurt by higher gas prices; Sprawling cities are much more vulnerable to gas price hikes. In sprawling metros like Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando, Nashville and Oklahoma City, higher gas prices will c... →
A reporter’s guide to congestion cost studies
Reporters: read this before you write a "cost of congestion" story. Congestion cost studies are a classic example of pseudo-science: Big data and bad assumptions produce meaningless results Using this absurd meth... →
More Congestion Pseudo Science
A new study calculates that twenty percent of all time "lost" in travel is due to traffic lights Finally, proof for the Lachner Theorem: Traffic signals are a major cause of traffic delay Another classic example o... →
Freeway widening for whomst?
Widening freeways is no way to promote equity. The proposed $5 billion widening of I-5 between Portland and Vancouver is purportedly being undertaken with "an equity lens," but widening Portland's I-5 freeway serves high... →
Biased statistics: Woke-washing the I-5 Boondoggle
The Oregon and Washington transportation departments are using a biased, unscientific survey to market their $5 billion I-5 freeway widening project. The survey over-represents daily bridge users by a factor of 10 compa... →
Oregon’s economic success: The triumph of the city
After decades of lagging the nation, Oregon's income now exceeds the national average. While some seem to think its a mystery: It's not. It all about a flourishing Portland economy, especially in the central city of... →
Let’s stop whining about gas prices: Gasoline is cheap, too cheap.
Gas prices are going up, and it's annoying to have to pay more, but let's take a closer look at how much we're paying for gas. Even with a recent uptick, gas prices are still lower than they were a decade ago. Cheap ... →
Here’s what’s wrong with Oregon DOT’s Rose Quarter pollution claims
10 reasons not to believe phony DOT claims that widening highways reduces pollution We know that transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and that our car dependent transportation syst... →
Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence
The Oregon Department of Transportation's glossy mailer to sell its $1.25 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project is a cynical, error-ridden marketing ploy. ODOT doesn't show or tell about its wider freeway an... →
Talkin’ ’bout my gentrification
Jerusalem Demsas of Vox has a thoughtful synthesis of what we know about gentrification. If we're concerned about poverty and inequality, gentrification is far from the biggest problem we face. Gentrification is ... →
Insurance and the Cost of Living: Auto Insurance
Everyone loves to compare the affordability of different cities, and most of the attention gets focused on differences in housing prices and rents. Clearly, these are a major component of living costs, and they vary su... →
To solve climate, we need electric cars—and a lot less driving
Electric vehicles will help, but we need to do much more to reduce driving Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to offer this guest commentary by Matthew Lewis. Matthew is Director of Communications for Califor... →
It’s back, and it’s even dumber than ever: The Urban Mobility Report
There was an unprecedented decline in traffic congestion in the US last year. According to the Urban Mobility Report, there's essentially nothing we can learn from this experience The Texas Transportation Institute ha... →
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 ... →
Single-Family Zoning and Exclusion in L.A. County: Part 1
Single-family zoning, a policy that bans apartments, is widespread in Los Angeles County. The median city bans apartments on 80% of its land for housing. Cities with more widespread single-family zoning have higher medi... →
Single-Family Zoning and Exclusion in L.A. County: Part 2
Single-family zoning, a policy that bans apartments, is widespread in Los Angeles County. The median city bans apartments on 80% of its land for housing. Cities with more widespread single-family zoning have higher whit... →
State DOTs can and should build housing to mitigate highway impacts
If OregonDOT is serious about "restorative justice" it should mitigate highway damage by building housing Around the country, states are subsidizing affordable housing to mitigate the damage done by highway projects ... →
For a grand bargain, think bigger and bolder
Right diagnosis, weak medicine, wrong metaphor In a far ranging thought piece for James Fallows' Our Towns Civic Foundation—"Learning from Eisenhower and Lincoln: A Grand Bargain for Transportation," Patrick Doherty... →
The NIMBYs made $6 trillion last year
In 2021, US residential values increased by $6.9 trillion, almost entirely due to price appreciation Those gains went disproportionately to older, white, higher income households Capital gains on housing in 2021 were... →
Who got trillions? We found the real speculators profiting from higher housing costs
In 2020, US residential values increased by $2.2 trillion Those gains went disproportionately to older, white, higher income households Capital gains on housing in 2020 were more than three times larger than the tota... →
Wholly Moses: Pave now, pay later
Oregon legislation goes whole hog on highways HB 3065 would launch a whole new round of freeway boondoggles, and plunge the state into debt to pay for them The classic Robert Moses scam: Drive stakes, sell bonds ... →
Greenwashing auto infrastructure: Natick’s diverging diamond
A proposed interchange in Natick, Mass. is a classic example of greenwashing The diverging diamond is an idea entirely given over to making things better for cars, and creates a disorienting, circuitous and dangerous wo... →
Taking Tubman: ODOT’s plan to build a freeway on school grounds
ODOT's proposed I-5 Rose Quarter project would turn a school yard into a freeway The widened I-5 freeway will make already unhealthy air even worse Pollution from high volume roads has been shown to lower student ac... →
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The I-5 Meat Axe
Interstate 5 "Meat Axe" slashed through the Albina Neighborhood in 1962 This was the second of three acts by ODOT that destroyed housing and isolated Albina Building the I-5 freeway led to the demolition of housing ... →
Covid Migration: Temporary, young, economically insecure
There's relatively little migration in the wake of Covid-19 Most Covid-related migration is temporary, involves moving in with friends or relatives, and not leaving a metro area It's not professionals fleeing cities:... →
How housing segregation reduces Black wealth
Black-owned homes are valued at a discount to all housing, but the disparity is worst in highly segregated metro areas There's a strong correlation between metropolitan segregation and black-white housing wealth dispari... →
America’s K-shaped housing market
Home prices are soaring, rents are falling The disparate impact of the recession on high income and low income households in driving the housing market in two directions at once. Job losses have been concentrated amo... →
Housing discrimination is baked into zoning
The real housing discrimination today is institutional, not personal The unfinished business of dismantling the institutional racism built into zoning Overt, personal discrimination in housing is just the tip of the ... →
Sustainability is about more than electrification
Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this guest commentary by Kevin DeGood, Director of Infrastructure Policy at the Center for American Progress. This commentary originally appeared as a tweetstorm, and is republish... →
Put a bird on it: Highway Greenwashing
There's no shortage of cynical greenwashing to sell climate-killing highway widening projects GeorgiaDOT and AASHTO have a new PR gimmick to promote the same old product In a famous season one sketch of Portlandia, F... →
More cynical greenwashing from the highway industry
There's no shortage of cynical greenwashing to sell climate-killing highway widening projects GeorgiaDOT and AASHTO have a new PR gimmick to promote the same old product AASHTO—the American Association of State Hig... →
Systemic racism and automobile insurance
Does geographic rating of car insurance amount to 21st Century redlining? Car insurance rates vary more based on who your neighbors are than on your driving record The premium penalty for living in a Black neighborho... →
Covid & Cities: Reasons for optimism
There are several compelling reasons—the seven "C's"—to believe cities will thrive and prosper in a post-pandemic world: Competition: Zooming it in works when everyone has to do it, but if you work remotely whil... →
Equity and Metro’s $5 Billion Transportation Bond
Advocates for a $5 billion transportation bond that Portland area voters will be deciding in November are making a specious argument about it being an equity measure. Its largest single project, a multi-billion dollar l... →
The Great Disconnect: The perverse rhetoric of gentrification
The Great Disconnect By Jason Segedy City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary from Akron's Jason Segedy. It originally appeared on his blog. As this decade draws to a close, the story... →
Red states are now the red zone for Covid-19
Covid-19 now disproportionately affects rural America, and is hitting red states harder than blue ones. Rural counties have 14 percent of US population and 21 percent of new Covid-19 cases. The nation's largest, densest... →
Covid-19 is now a rural and red state pandemic
Covid-19 now disproportionately affects rural America, and is hitting red states harder than blue ones. OK, reporters, we're waiting for the stories about rural Americans decamping to cities (or suburbs) and from red st... →
Lived segregation in US cities
We're much less segregated during the day, and when we're away from home Commercial and public spaces are important venues for interaction with people from other racial/ethnic groups Patterns of experienced segregati... →
The myth of pedestrian infrastructure in a world of cars
Big money "pedestrian" projects are often remedial and performative; their real purpose is to serve faster car traffic. One of the biggest lies in transportation planning is calling something "multi-modal." When someb... →
Is there anything “smart” about smart cities?
Big data and new technology make bold promises about solving urban problems, but not only fall well short of solutions, but actually can end up making things worse. Why we're skeptical of the "smart city" movement. Y... →
America’s least (and most) segregated metro areas: 2020
The latest Census data show that Black/White segregation is decreasing in large metro areas. Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is one of America'... →
America’s least (and most) segregated cities.
Racial segregation still prevails in most American cities, but varies widely across the nation. Portland is the nation's least segregated large city. The murder of George Floyd by police has reignited national intere... →
The amazing disappearing urban exodus
The greatest urban myth of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fear of density has triggered an exodus from cities. US Post Office data show that the supposed urban exodus was just a trickle, and Americans moved even less in ... →
The Exodus that never happened
The greatest urban myth of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fear of density has triggered an exodus from cities. The latest data show an increase in interest in dense urban locations. At City Observatory, we've regularl... →
The toxic flood of cars, not just the freeway, crushed Albina
Restorative Justice & A Viable Neighborhood What destroyed the Albina community? What will it take to restore it? It wasn't just the freeway, it was the onslaught of cars, that transformed Albina into a bleak a... →
Dominos falling on Rose Quarter freeway widening
Last week, over the space of about 24 hours, the prospects for Portland's proposed the Rose Quarter freeway widening dimmed almost to extinction. Leaders of Portland's African-American community have concluded that the ... →
Portland awards itself a participation trophy for climate
Portland is utterly failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, but not to worry, its ticking lots of boxes in its bureaucratic check-list. The city walks away from its 2015 Climate Action Plan after... →
COVID Lessons for Portland (and others)
COVID Lessons for Portland (and others) by Ethan Seltzer (. . . with profound thanks to anonymous reviewers) Editor's Note: We're pleased to publish this essay by City Observatory friend Ethan Seltzer, reflecting o... →
Youth movement: A generational shift in preference for urbanism
Well-educated young adults are increasingly moving to city centers Real estate search activity shows no decline in interest in city living due to the pandemic Our new report—Youth Movement: Accelerating America's U... →
Youth Movement
The movement of talented young adults to dense urban neighborhoods isn't waning, it is widespread and accelerating, and it is powering urban revival. Cities continue to be magnets for talented young adults The number of... →
Youth Movement Dashboard
See how your city's close-in neighborhoods did in attracting well-educated young adults Our CityReport, Youth Movement: Accelerating America's Urban Renaissance, charts the growing concentration of well-educated young a... →
Covid-19 and segregation
Segregated cities seem to be harder hit by the pandemic Covid-19 prevalence is more strongly correlated with metropolitan racial and economic segregation than with urban density The New York City metro area has been ... →
Coronavirus in L.A. County: Separating Fact from Fiction
Are cities the latest victim of coronavirus? Editor's Note: City Observatory is pleased to publish this guest commentary by Anthony Dedousis of Abundant Housing LA. Some elected officials and journalists have draw... →
Don’t make “equity” the enemy of improving cities for people
Invoking concerns about equity to block providing more street space for people is destructive A cautionary tale from Chicago, with some keen insight from Greg Shill. Let's begin by stipulating one thing: Ther... →
What is urban?
Shape of the urban/suburban divide: Views differ There's a lot of debate about the relative merits and performance of cities and suburbs. You'll read that the migration to cities has come to a halt, that suburbs are g... →
Postcards from the edges: Density is not Destiny
There's a meme equating density with Covid-19 risk. Two polar cases shows that density (or lack thereof) has little to do with the spread of the pandemic. Many, including New York's Governor, have been quick t... →
What cities tell us about the trajectory of the pandemic
Each metro area represents a different instance of the Covid-19 pandemic; we can use the varied experiences and timing of the virus in each metro area to better understand where we're headed. Seattle is 10 days to 2 wee... →
The state of the pandemic by metro area
Updated April 29 with data through April 28. In geographic terms, the Corona Virus has become the Northeast Corridor Virus: NE Corridor metros account for 6 of the 8 hardest hit large metros, and have 6 of the ... →
Cities and coronavirus: Some thoughts
The Coronavirus pandemic is already worse in several American states than anywhere in China outside Hubei Province The pandemic is all about geography, and we need to do more to pinpoint hotspots and contagion The ve... →
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter will increase greenhouse gases
Adding more freeway capacity at the Rose Quarter will thousands of tons to the region's greenhouse gas emissions If you say you believe in science, and you take climate change seriously, you can't support spending $800... →
Equity and Homelessness
What's equitable about spending six times as much per homeless person in the suburbs as in the city? The "equity" standard that's guiding the division of revenue for Metro's housing initiative is based on politics, not ... →
Why Atlanta’s anti-gentrification moratorium will backfire
Blocking new development will only accelerate demand for existing homes The moratorium makes flipping houses even more lucrative Atlanta's making a major investment in Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry, not far from t... →
Understanding Walkable Density
A new way of measuring urban density that explicitly considers walkability by DW Rowlands Editor's Note: We're pleased to offer this guest commentary by DW Rowlands. DW Rowlands is a human geography grad student a... →
Fighting Climate Change is Inherently Equitable
Happy Earth Day, Everyone! If we care about equity, we need to make rapid progress on climate change Equity needs to be defined by substantive outcomes, not vacuous rhetoric and elaborate process. Ultimately equit... →
Local flavor: Independent restaurants indicate city vitality
Which US cities have the most independent restaurants? One of the chief advantages of cities is the range of consumption choices they afford to their residents. In general, larger cities offer more choices than smaller ... →
Local flavor: Cities with the most independent restaurants
Which US cities have the most independent restaurants? One of the chief advantages of cities is the range of consumption choices they afford to their residents. In general, larger cities offer more choices than smaller ... →
How driving ruins local flavor
Car-dependent metros have fewer independent restaurants Chain restaurants and cars go together Yesterday, we used data compiled by Yelp on chain and independent restaurants to compute the market share of chains in th... →
Climate failure and denial at the Oregon Department of Transportation
Oregon is utterly failing to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions Instead of being down 10 percent by 2020, transportation greenhouse gas emissions are up more than 20 percent Oregon will miss its 2020 GHG ... →
Why we should enable more people to move to opportunity
Enabling low income households to move to high opportunity neighborhoods is one way to promote equity and intergenerational mobility. But some people apparently don't want anyone to move. Last year, we profiled an exp... →
Why cheap gas is our real climate and transportation policy
Forget about lofty greenhouse gas reduction goals and vision zero, our real climate and transportation policy is cheap gas The fall in gas prices in 2014 led to more driving, more SUV purchases, less transit ridership, ... →
Freeway deja vu all over again: The freeway builders ignore school kids
The Oregon Department of Transportation has a decades long-tradition of ignoring Portland Public Schools when it comes to freeway projects So here's our story so far. The Oregon Department of Transportation, ODOT, is ... →
Walkable places are growing in value almost everywhere
Over the past decade, across the nation, the most walkable homes have appreciated the most In two-thirds of large metro areas, walkable neighborhoods have higher home values than car-dependent ones Walkable neighborh... →
Transportation planners flunk Econ 101: Price elasticity of demand
The most basic concept in economics is that higher prices lead to less consumption, yet this fact is routinely ignored in transportation planning and policy. If we got the prices right, many of our most pressing transpo... →
The city as labor saving device
Great cities, especially ones with dense, walkable mixed use neighborhoods are an economic boon to households because they save the precious commodity of time [caption id="attachment_9013" align="aligncenter" width="700... →
Does walkability promote economic mobility?
A new study shows a tantalizing connection between more walkable places and intergenerational economic mobility City Observatory readers will be familiar with the findings of Raj Chetty and his colleagues in the Equalit... →
How homeownership as wealth is rigged against people of color
Timing is everything in real estate, and mortgage availability cycles mean that people of color buy high and sell low. The Urban Institute has an informative new report charting the swings of home prices across the nati... →
No youth exodus from cities: WSJ is detecting noise, not signal
There's no statistically significant news on young adults in cities in the latest Census release Pro-tip: Ignore changes smaller than the margin of error: they're noise, not signal It's hard to underestimate the ... →
Won’t be fooled again: Transportation for America
Too often, progressive transportation advocates have been rolled by the highway crowd; No more, says Transportation for America Three principles for reform: Fix it First, Safety before Speed, Accessibility, not Mobility... →
What if we regulated cars like we do houses?
What if we regulated new car ownership the same way we do new housing? A recent story about Singapore caught our eye: In Singapore, you can't even buy a car without a government issued "certificate"—and the number o... →
A modest proposal: An EIS for the DMV
Many states subject housing approval to environmental reporting requirements; what if we extended this same principle to car registrations. Back in the early days of the environmental movement--the late sixties and earl... →
Why its important for your city to be unequal
If your city isn't unequal, it's either poor or exclusionary Measured income equality, which is sensible goal nationally, is a perversely misleading indicator of which cities are the most just and and inclusive Incom... →
What supercommuting really means
Super-commuting is a really a plea for more housing and better transit If long distance commutes are up, its probably because gas prices are so low If you're covering the transportation beat, the plight of the poor s... →
Inclusive urbanism comes to the presidential race
Beto O'Rourke brings a strong urbanist, inclusive message to the presidential campaign The 2020 Democratic presidential race has been remarkable for addressing both climate change and housing policy issues that have long ... →
Seeing red
We're killing more people because more people are ignoring traffic signals We've charted the ominous increase in road deaths in the past several years, and now there's a new bit of evidence of just how bad the problem h... →
The Week Observed, January 12, 2024
What City Observatory did this week The pernicious myth of "Naturally Occurring" Affordable Housing. One of the most dangerous and misleading concepts in housing reared its ugly head in the form a a new publication from... →
The Week Observed, January 26, 2024
What City Observatory this week Robert Moses strikes again: One of the most infamous decisions of "The Power Broker" was to build the overpasses on the Long Island Expressway too low to allow city buses to use the roadw... →
The Week Observed, January 15, 2024
What City Observatory this week 1. The Urban Institute gets inclusion backwards. The Urban Institute has released an updated set of estimates that purport to measure which US cities are the most inclusive. The report i... →
The Week Observed, January 22, 2021
What City Observatory this week Institutionalized housing discrimination. A recent study of housing discrimination in Detroit came to a seemingly surprising conclusion: Fair housing complaints were less likely to be fil... →
The Week Observed, January 29, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Why Portland's Rose Quarter Freeway widening will increase greenhouse gas emissions. The Oregon Department of Transportation hashas falsely claimed its $800 million freeway widening pr... →
The Week Observed, February 5, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Calculating induced travel. Widening freeways to reduce traffic congestion in dense urban areas inevitably fails because of the scientifically demonstrated problem of induced demand; som... →
The Week Observed, April 2, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. How the Oregon Department of Transportation destroyed a Portland neighborhood, Part 2: The Moses Meat Axe. We continue our historical look at the role that freeway construction (and ... →
The Week Observed, April 9, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. How ODOT destroyed Albina: Part 3 the Phantom Freeway. Even a freeway that never got built played a key role in demolishing part of Portland's Albina neighborhood. In parts 1 and 2... →
The Week Observed, April 16, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Taking Tubman: The Oregon Department of Transportation is planning to widen the Interstate 5 freeway in Portland into the backyard of Harriet Tubman Middle School. The $800 million w... →
The Week Observed, April 30, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Restorative justice without funding is a sham. Portland's Albina neighborhood was decimated by the construction of three Oregon Department of Transportation highway projects in the 195... →
The Week Observed, April 23, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Fighting climate change is inherently equitable. While there's a growing recognition of the existential threat posed by climate change, it's becoming increasingly frequent to pit equity ... →
The Week Observed, May 7, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. It's not a bridge replacement, it's a 5 mile long, 12 lane wide freeway that just happens to cross a river. The Oregon and Washington highway departments are trying to revive the faile... →
The Week Observed, May 14, 2021
What City Observatory this week Don't be fooled again. The Oregon and Washington state highway departments are up to their old tricks in trying to push a multi-billion dollar highway building boondoggle in the POrtland ... →
The Week Observed, May 21, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Needed: A bolder, better building back. In response to an invitation from its authors, we take a look at a "grand bargain" proposed by Patrick Doherty and Chris Leinberger for breaki... →
The Week Observed, July 16, 2021
What City Observatory did this week An open letter to Secretary Pete Buttigieg on his visit to Oregon. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to Oregon this week to look at some local transportation innovations. ... →
The Week Observed, July 30, 2021
What City Observatory did this week Oregon Department of Transportation's Climate Fig-Leaf. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases in Oregon, and the state's Department of Transportation is—yet again... →
The Week Observed, September 17, 2021
What City Observatory did this week The cost of Oregon DOT's Rose Quarter project has nearly tripled to $1.25 billion. Just four years ago, the Oregon Department of transportation sold its mile-and-a-half long I-5 freew... →
The Week Observed, September 10, 2021
What City Observatory did this week Talkin' 'bout my gentrification. Jerusalem Demsas of Vox has a thoughtful synthesis of what we know about gentrification. If we're concerned about poverty and inequality, gentrifi... →
The Week Observed, April 1, 2022
What City Observatory did this week The Cappuccino Congestion Index. Media reports regularly regurgitate the largely phony claims about how traffic congestion costs travelers untold billions of dollars in wasted time. ... →
The Week Observed, May 6, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Ten questions that deserve answers before making a multi-billion dollar decision. The Portland metro area is being asked by the Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation to gi... →
The Week Observed, June 17, 2022
What City Observatory did this week There's nothing green about free parking, no matter how many solar panels you put on the garage. The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory brags about its sus... →
The Week Observed, July 1, 2022
Must read The most gas guzzling states. The sting of higher gas prices depends on where you live, not so much because of the variation in prices, but because in some states, you just have drive a lot more. The website Q... →
The Week Observed, November 11, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Risky bridges. The Oregon and Washington highway departments are blundering ahead with a $5 billion plan to widen I-5 between Portland and Vancouver, and are making many of the same m... →
The Week Observed, February 3, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Groundhog's Day for Climate. So you think you're not Bill Murray in the classic "Groundhog's Day?" Oregonians, ask yourself: are we anywhere closer to seriously addressi... →
The Week Observed, March 17, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Why does a $500 million bridge cost $7.5 billion? For almost two decades the Oregon and Washington highway departments have been saying they want to replace the I-5 bridges over t... →
The Week Observed, March 23, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Oregon's transportation finance in crisis: Testimony to the Joint Ways and Means Committee. On March 16, City Observatory's Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Legislature's b... →
The Week Observed, March 31, 2023
What City Observatory did this week What are they hiding? Oregon and Washington are being asked to spend $7.5 billion on a giant bridge: Why won’t anyone show pictures of what it would look like? The Oregon ... →
The Week Observed, June 30, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Scratch one flat top! That was the famous cry of US Naval aviators, when, early in World War II they chalked up their first victory, sinking the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho. Por... →
The Week Observed, May 3, 2024
What City Observatory Did This Week Beware of phony claims that highway projects are "On-time and Under-Budget." For highway departments, the key to being on-time and under-budget is Orwellian double-speak. Oregon ... →
The Week Observed, August 23, 2024
What City Observatory Did This Week How Metro's RTP illegally favors driving and violates state climate rules. Oregon's planning rules require Portland area transportation plans to prioritize investments that reduce ve... →
The Week Observed, August 2, 2024
Must Read Induced Demand and Climate Denial. As we've long said, the favorite folk tale of state DOTs and highway boosters is the idea that the primary solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is lowering the amoun... →
The Week Observed, July 12, 2024
Must Read The problem with elevators in America. Market Urbanism's Stephen Smith has an op-ed in the New York Times opening up a new front in the YIMBY effort to expand housing supply in the US. Smith argues that th... →
The Week Observed, April 26, 2024
What City Observatory Did This Week Earth Day: Oregon is spending billions to widen freeways in a move that will only worsen the increase in greenhouse gases from transportation. Transportation is the leading source of ... →
The Week Observed, April 19, 2024
What City Observatory Did This Week A teachable moment: Free Ice Cream Day. Traffic was lined up around the block last Tuesday at your local Ben and Jerry's, for the same reason roadways are clogged most weekday afterno... →
The Week Observed, April 5, 2024
What City Observatory did this week Thirty seconds over Portland: Spending $7.5 billion on a freeway widening project will save the typical affected commuter about 30 seconds a day, according to the Interstate Bridge Re... →
The Week Observed, March 29, 2024
What City Observatory did this week What the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project doesn't want you to know. The $7.5 Billion Interstate Bridge Replacement project is afraid of what you’ll find out when they release ... →
The Week Observed, March 22, 2024
What City Observatory did this week The high cost of covering freeways. The latest fashion in highway urbanism is "capping" freeways. In theory, highway builders claim that capping freeways will repair past damage and... →
The Week Observed, March 15, 2024
What City Observatory did this week Abandoning road pricing monkey-wrenches state transportation, traffic reduction and climate plans. This week, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek terminated Oregon's Regional Mobility Pricing ... →
The Week Observed, March 8, 2024
What City Observatory did this week A yawning chasm in neighborhood distress among metro areas. Almost every metropolitan area has some neighborhoods that face serious economic distress, but the patterns of distress vary ... →
The Week Observed, February 2, 2024
Must Read How CalTrans cheated on its environmental reporting. Some months back, former Deputy Director of CalTrans,Jeanie Ward-Waller blew the whistle on the agency's effort to evade environmental laws and illegally us... →
The Week Observed, December 22, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Bad data. What appears, at first glance, to be a big decline in trip-making is really an object lesson in failing to read the footnotes. Every five years or so, the US Department of... →
The Week Observed, November 10, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Snow-Job: Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) threatens to slash snow-plowing and other safety maintenance unless it is given more money, while spending billions on a handful o... →
The Week Observed, November 3, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Killer off-ramps. The Oregon Department of Transportation's $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter widening has been repeatedly (and falsely) portrayed as a "safety" project, but the latest re... →
The Week Observed, September 8, 2023
What City Observatory did this week What apartment consolidation in New York tells us about housing markets and gentrification. A new study shows that over the past several decades, New York City lost more than 100,000 ... →
The Week Observed, September 1, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Rose Quarter: Death throes of a bungled boondoggle. For years, we've been following the tortured Oregon Department of Transportation Plans to widen a 1.5 mile stretch of I-5 near do... →
The Week Observed, August 25, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Metro's Climate-Denial Regional Transportation Plan. Portland's regional governtment, Metro, has published a draft Regional Transportation Plan, outlining priorities for transportatio... →
The Week Observed, August 18, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Climate fraud in the Portland Metro RTP. Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan rationalizes spending billions on freeway expansion by publishing false estimates and projections of gr... →
The Week Observed, August 4, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Eating local: Why independent, local restaurants are a key indicator of city vitality. Jane Jacobs noted decades ago that“The greatest asset a city can have is something that is d... →
The Week Observed, July 7, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Yet another exploding whale: One of the Internet's most popular videos shows employees of the Oregon Department of Transportation blowing up a dead whale carcass stranded on an Ocean ... →
The Week Observed, May 5, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Why can't Oregon DOT tell the truth? Oregon legislators asked the state transportation department a simple question: How wide is the proposed $7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacem... →
The Week Observed, April 28, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Testifying on the Oregon Transportation Finance. City Observatory director Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Legislature on HB 2098, a bill being proposed to fund bloated free... →
The Week Observed, March 3, 2023
What City Observatory did this week More induced travel denial. Highway advocates deny or minimize the science of induced travel. We offer our rebuttal to a reason column posted at Planetizen, attempting to minimize... →
The Week Observed, February 17, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Driving between Vancouver and Wilsonville at 5PM? ODOT plans to charge you $15. Under ODOT’s toll plans, A driving from Wilsonville to Vancouver will cost you as much as $15, each-w... →
The Week Observed, February 10, 2023
What City Observatory did this week CEVP: Non-existent cost controls for the $7.5 billion IBR project. Oregon DOT has a history of enormous cost overruns, and just told the Oregon and Washington Legislatures that the co... →
The Week Observed, January 6, 2023
What City Observatory did this week The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening. This week marked the end of public comment on the Supplemental Environmental Assessment for the Oregon Department of Tr... →
The Week Observed, December 2, 2022
Editor's Note: Public Comment on the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Project In the next month, the public will be asked to weigh in with its comments on the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Widening project. If you're inte... →
The Week Observed, October 28, 2022
What City Observatory did this week A toll policy primer for Oregon. The Oregon Department of Transportation is proposing to finance billions in future road expansions with tolling. While we're enamored of road pricin... →
The Week Observed, October 21, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Using phony safety claims to sell a billion dollar freeway widening. This past week, Sarah Pliner, a promising young Portland chef was killed when she and her bike were crushed by a t... →
The Week Observed, May 27, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Our apologies to City Observatory readers for our website outage on 19-22 May. More meaningless congestion pseudo science. A new study from the University of Maryland claims that... →
The Week Observed, March 4, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Oregon crosses the road-pricing Rubicon. Starting this spring, motorists will pay a $2 toll to drive Oregon's historical Columbia River Gorge Highway. Instead of widening t... →
The Week Observed, February 25, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Freeway widening for whomst? Woke-washing is all the rage among those pushing highway projects these days, and there's no better example that Portland's I-5 "bridge replacem... →
The Week Observed, January 14, 2022
What City Observatory did this week What does equity mean when we have a caste-based transportation system? Transportation and planning debates around the country increasingly ponder how we rectify long-standin... →
The Week Observed, December 17, 2021
What City Observatory did this week The financial fallout from Louisville's I-65 boondoggle. As we showed earlier, Kentucky and Indiana both wasted a billion dollars on doubling the capacity of I-65 across the... →
The Week Observed, December 10, 2021
What City Observatory did this week 1. ODOT's real climate strategy: Pollution as usual. Oregon's highway builders are keeping two sets of books, one claiming that it cares about climate issues, the other shows that i... →
The Week Observed, November 19, 2021
What City Observatory did this week Why we shouldn't be whining about higher gas prices. Gas prices are going up, and it’s annoying to have to pay more, but let’s take a closer look at how much we’re paying for... →
The Week Observed, November 5, 2021
What City Observatory did this week The Opposite of Planning: Why Portland's Metro government needs to turn down the highway department request for more money to plan future freeway widenings. On paper, and to admirer... →
The Week Observed, October 22, 2021
What City Observatory did this week America's least and most segregated metro areas: Evidence from Census 2020. Racial segregation remains a chronic problem in US metropolitan areas. Data from Census 2020 provides a... →
The Week Observed, October 15, 2021
What City Observatory did this week Ten reasons you can't trust DOT claims that widening highways reduces pollution. Highway departments are fond of ginning up traffic projections and air quality analyses claiming... →
The Week Observed, September 24, 2021
What City Observatory did this week Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence. The Oregon Department of Transportation has been trying to sell its $1.25 billion freeway widening project as a ... →
The Week Observed, September 3, 2021
What City Observatory did this week Portland's Clean Energy Fund needs accountability. Portland voters approved a ballot measure creating a $60 million annual fund to invest in community-based clean energy projects, par... →
The Week Observed, August 27, 2021
What City Observatory did this week Is the campus 100 percent clean energy? (Only if you don't count the cars and parking lots). Stanford University announced that its near to realizing a goal to move all of its campu... →
The Week Observed, August 20, 2021
What City Observatory did this week Cost of Living and Auto Insurance. We often compare the affordability of different cities with a clear focus on housing prices and rents. This week at City Observatory we are interest... →
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... →
The Week Observed, May 28, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. Why highway departments can and should build housing to mitigate road damage. For decades, American cities have been scarred and neighborhoods destroyed by highway construction project... →
The Week Observed, March 19, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. An open letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission. For more than two years, City Observatory and others have been shining a bright light on the Oregon Department of Transportation... →
The Week Observed, March 12, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. The failure of Vision Zero. Like many regions, the Portland metropolitan area has embraced the idea of Vision Zero; a strategy of planning to take concrete steps over time to reduce th... →
The Week Observed, January 8, 2021
What City Observatory this week 1. 2021 is when we have to get real about tackling climate change. We've boiled our analysis of the climate challenge down to four key points: Pledges alone won't accomplish anything... →
The Week Observed, December 18, 2020
What City Observatory did this week 1. Want lower rents? Build more housing! A new study from Germany provides more evidence that the fundamentals of economics are alive and well in the housing market. The study looks... →
The Week Observed, December 11, 2020
What City Observatory did this week 1. The only reason many people drive is because we pay them to. There's an important insight from recent applications of tolling to urban highways. When asked to pay even a modest amoun... →
The Week Observed, September 18, 2020
What City Observatory did this week 1. Lived segregation in US cities. Our standard measure of urban segregation, whether people reside in different neighborhoods, doesn't really capture the way people from different raci... →
The Week Observed, August 28, 2020
What City Observatory did this week The case against Metro's $5 billion transportation bond. Portland's regional government, Metro, is asking voters to approve a $5 billion package of transportation improvements, to be fu... →
The Week Observed, August 21, 2020
What City Observatory did this week America's most and least segregated cities. Residential racial segregation is a fundamental and persistent aspect of system racism in the United States. Segregation cuts of disfavored g... →
The Week Observed, July 17, 2020
What City Observatory did this week Dominos falling on Portland's Rose Quarter freeway widening project. In the space of just a few hours two weeks ago, local political support for an $800 million freeway widening project... →
The Week Observed, June 5, 2020
What City Observatory did this week 1. Covid-19 and Cities: An uneven pandemic. We've been following the progress of the Covid-19 virus in the nation's metropolitan areas for the past three months, and with the benefit ... →
The Week Observed, May 29, 2020
What City Observatory did this week 1. LA Covid correlates with overcrowding and poverty, not density. City Observatory is pleased to publish a guest analysis and commentary from Abundant Housing LA's Anthony Dedousis.... →
The Week Observed, May 22, 2020
What City Observatory this week 1. Postcards from the Edges: Looking at the relationship between density and the pandemic. There's a widely circulating meme associating urban density with the spread of the Covid-19 viru... →
The Week Observed, May 15, 2020
What City Observatory did this week 1. City Beat: We push back on a New York Times story claiming that people are decamping New York City on account of pandemic fears. You can always find an anecdote about someone lea... →
The Week Observed, May 1, 2020
What City Observatory this week Our updated analysis of the prevalence of Covid-19 in US metro areas. It continues to be the case that the pandemic is most severe in the Northeast Corridor. The New York Metro area is ... →
The Week Observed, April 10, 2020
What City Observatory this week 1. What cities are showing us about the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic. In an important sense, each large US metro area is a separate test case of the path of the Covid-19 virus. By... →
The Week Observed, March 27, 2020
What City Observatory this week 1. The Geography of Covid-19. A week ago, we issued a call to get much more granular with our statistical analysis of the pandemic's spread. In just the past few days, a number of new l... →
The Week Observed, February 21, 2020
What City Observatory this week 1. Local flavor: Which cities have the most independent restaurants. Local eateries are one of the most visibly distinctive elements of any city. As Jane Jacobs said, the most important... →
The Week Observed, December 13, 2019
What City Observatory this week 1. Oregon DOT repeats its idle lie about emissions. It's every highway builder's go-to response to climate change: we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we could just keep cars from... →
The Week Observed, December 20, 2019
What City Observatory this week 1. Portland's progress (or lack thereof) on climate. Portland likes to present itself as a climate leader, but the latest data on transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions shows that ... →
The Week Observed, October 18, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Our 5th Anniversary. October 17 marked 5 years since we started publishing our research and commentary at City Observatory. We reflect back on five years of work, and thank all tho... →
The Week Observed, October 11, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Transportation for America won't be fooled again.. After years of getting rolled by the freeway lobby, it appears that T4America has finally said "Enough." Transit and active tra... →
The Week Observed, October 4, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. We debunk the Wall Street Journal's claim of an exodus of young adults from cities. Last week, the Wall Street Journal trumpeted an "exodus" of 25 to 39 year old adults from cities... →
Highway to Hell: Climate denial at the TRB
The Transportation Research Board, nominally an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is engaged in technocratic climate arson with its call for further highway expansion and more car travel. The planet is in immin... →
Highway to Hell: Climate denial at the TRB
The Transportation Research Board, nominally an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is engaged in technocratic climate arson with its call for further highway expansion and more car travel. The planet is in immin... →
Get Out!: Moving to a new neighborhood to escape poverty
For many families, the way out of poverty is to move to a better neighborhood A new study shows modest investments in information combined with supportive services can help them make that move. We need to rethink... →
Gentrification: the case of the missing counter-factual
Why are there so few studies charting displacement and cultural decline in non-gentrifying neighborhoods? The implicit assumption in most gentrification research is that if a neighborhood doesn't change, that it stays t... →
Devaluation of housing in black neighborhoods, Part 2: Appreciation
Are home prices appreciating more or less in black neighborhoods? Is that a good thing? Today, in part 2 of our analysis of the home price gap between majority black and predominantly white neighborhoods we look at the ... →
How gentrification benefits long-time residents of low income neighborhoods
The new Philadelphia Fed study of gentrification is the best evidence yet that gentrification creates opportunity and promotes integration To many "gentrification" is intrinsically negative. When wealthier, whiter peopl... →
Why homeownership is frequently a bad bet
Home buying is a risky bet: There's a 30% chance your house will be worth less in five years It's a widely agreed that promoting homeownership is a key means to help American households build wealth. But as we and oth... →
Is Covid-19 the end of cities? (Spoiler: No.)
The New York Times tells us that cities were "losing their allure" before the Covid-19 pandemic, and that now people are preparing to flee urban areas. Sure, cities had a bit of a resurgence after 2000, But by the mid-2... →
About those swelling suburbs
Faster suburban population growth doesn't signal a preference for suburbs: Here's why Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported suburbs growing faster than cities. The article, "American suburbs swell again as a n... →
Why are US drivers killing so many pedestrians?
US drivers are killing 50 percent more pedestrians, European drivers are killing a third fewer If anything else--a disease, terrorists, gun-wielding crazies--killed as many Americans as cars do, we'd regard it as a nati... →
The devaluation of black neighborhoods: Part 1.
Lingering racism holds down property values in majority black neighborhoods For most American households, their home is their largest financial asset; how valuable that asset is, and whether it appreciates has a profoun... →
Buses, Bike Lanes, Crosswalks: Reclaiming public space
Renegotiating the right of way in public space They erased the lines on 24th Avenue. Just a few blocks from my house is NE 24th Avenue in Portland, a principal North-South route through the Irvington neighborhood. F... →
Who bikes?
Workers in low income households rely more on bikes for commuting, but the data show people of all income levels cycle to work There's a lot of hand-wringing and harrumphing about the demographics of cycling. Some worry... →
Will upzoning ease housing affordability problems?
More housing supply denialism--debunked It appears that we have been a bit premature in calling the housing supply debate over. Last week's urbanist Internet was all a flutter with the latest claim of an academic study ... →
The Young and Restless in Black and White
A sharp divide by race in urban residence for young adults Well-educated young whites are increasingly living in central cities, while well-educated young African-Americans are shifting increasingly to the suburbs Fo... →
The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening
Portland is weighing whether to spend as much as $1.45 billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've publi... →
25 reasons not to widen Portland freeways
Portland is weighing whether to spend half a billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've published 25 co... →
Traffic is declining at the Rose Quarter: ODOT growth projections are fiction
ODOT's own traffic data shows that daily traffic (ADT) has been declining for 25 years, by -0.55 percent per year The ODOT modeling inexplicably predicts that traffic will suddenly start growing through 2045, growing by... →
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening
State DOT officials have crafted an Supplemental Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals The Rose Quarter traffic report contains no data on "average daily traffic" the most common measure of vehicle... →
How a freeway destroyed a neighborhood, and may again
Portland's Albina neighborhood was devastated by the I-5 freeway; Widening it repeats that mistake Freeways and the traffic they generate are toxic to vibrant urban spaces. The great lesson of the urban freeway building... →
Why Portland shouldn’t be widening freeways
Why Portland's freeway fight is so important to the future of cities everywhere The plan to widen the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway in Portland, at a cost of $500 million, is a tragic error for one city, and an object lesson... →
Freeway widening for whomst?
There's a huge demographic divide between those who use freeways and neighbors who bear their costs When it comes time to evaluate the equity of freeway widening investments, it's important to understand that there are ... →
Angie’s List: The problem isn’t ride hailing, it’s the lack of road pricing
Streetsblogger extraordinaire Angie Schmidt is not happy with Uber and Lyft. They're not really the ones to blame. Are Uber and Lyft to blame for growing urban transportation problems? Streetsblog's Angie Schmit makes a... →
Economists & Scientists agree: To save the planet, we have to price carbon
One thing economists agree about: pricing carbon is essential to saving the planet; but if you don't believe economists, you ought to believe Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Economists are famous for disagreeing with one ano... →
The high cost of low house prices
Low house prices signify problems, not affordability There's a presumption that low housing prices are a sign of affordability, and a related belief that if housing prices rise, that its "a bad thing" because it must me... →
The outlook for the Portland housing market
Coping with the nation's shortage of cities is a key factor in the Portland housing market in 2019 On January 9, I was invited to talk to the annual housing outlook seminar convened by HFO Oregon. A video of my remark... →
A third way for more affordable housing? Part I. The problem
How can affordable housing help minimize, rather than perpetuate, income segregation? At City Observatory, we've long focused on the challenge of concentrated poverty, starting with our first report Lost in Place, in 20... →
Displacement by decline
An obsession with gentrification obscures the urban problem: concentrated poverty Editor's Note: We're again pleased to offer a guest commentary from Akron Planning Director Jason Segedy, who has some keen insights... →
How tax evasion fuels traffic congestion in Portland
Tax free shopping in Oregon saves the typical Southwest Washington household $1,000 per year Cross border shopping accounts for 10-20 percent of all trips across the I-5 and I-205 bridges Tax avoidance means we're ... →
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 play... →
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 w... →
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... →
Cities, talent and prosperity
America's economy is increasingly driven by the concentration of talent in cities The Economic Innovation Group (aka EIG, a DC-based think tank) has been compiling some interesting data on the relative economic performa... →
The limits of job creation
Whether at the neighborhood or metropolitan level, more job growth doesn't seem to improve economic mobility There's a seemingly un-questioned (and unquestionable) truth among economic development practitioners that mor... →
Fresh evidence for Portland’s green dividend
Building a city so its residents don't have to drive so much powers economic growth A decade ago, we coined the term "green dividend." We noted that among large US metropolitan areas, Portland residents drove signific... →
Does your neighborhood help kids succeed?
The Opportunity Atlas: Stunning neighborhood maps of economic opportunity Some of the most important research findings of the past decade have come from the work of Raj Chetty and his colleagues at the Equality of Oppor... →
Why inclusive is so elusive, Part 4: Metropolitan context
Part 4. Are racially and economically homogeneous cities and suburbs in a segregated metro "inclusive?" Looking only at disparities within cities misses the often far larger disparities across cities within in single m... →
Let’s stop with the absurd surveys masquerading as serious research
No: Eighty percent of today's 8 to 23 year-olds won't be buying houses in the next five years At City Observatory, we get a regular stream of press releases and media advisories about the results of surveys and other ... →
Is St. Louis Gentrifying?
Gentrification Debates Without Gentrification? By Todd Swanstrom Editor's note: We're pleased to offer a guest commentary from Todd Swanstrom. Todd is the Des Lee Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Pol... →
Whither small towns? Wither small towns?
Rural and small town America faces some tough odds In an article entitled: "How to save the Troubled American Heartland," Bloomberg's very smart Noah Smith shares his thoughts on how to revive the smaller towns of rural... →
Don’t decry new urban housing as “gentrification”
Whenever a distressed neighborhood gets new market rate housing, someone's bound to cry "Gentrification". Here's why that's wrong. This is a guest post from Jason Segedy, Director of Akron's Planning Department. Thi... →
E-Scooters and Paying for Roads
If charging scooters to use city streets makes sense, let's charge cars proportionately A little bit late to the party, but today the first electric scooters appeared on the streets of Portland. Bird announced that, wit... →
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 Grea... →
Your summertime, urbanist “must read” Allan Mallach’s Divided City
A review of The Divided City Alan Mallach, The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America (Island Books, 2018, 326 pages). Before you head out to the beach or mountains or wherever your summertime plans ta... →
Where we embrace socialism in the US: Parking Lots
How we embrace socialism for car storage in the public right of way Florida Senator Marco Rubio has denounced President Biden's $3.5 trillion spending program as un-American socialism. Rubio claims: In the end, Ameri... →
Envisioning more cohesive communities
What aspects of the built environment give rise to greater social trust? We're pleased to offer a guest commentary today from Em Friedenberg. Em is a recent graduate of the University of Oregon, who's studied urban desi... →
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 resid... →
Profiles of Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods
Our new CityReport dives deep in data; but what does a diverse, mixed income neighborhood look like? As we explained in our new report–America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods–nearly seven million American... →
Handicapping the City-Suburb Horserace
The simple-minded comparison on city and suburb population growth rates is misleading and incomplete Every year, in the late Spring, the Census Bureau releases its latest population estimates for the nation's municipali... →
The persistence of residential segregation
How slow growth and industrial decline perpetuate racial segregation As regular readers of City Observatory know, we think that the continuing racial and economic segregation of the nation's metropolitan areas is at the... →
State government as an anchor industry
Eds and Meds . . . and Capitol Domes? I recently participated as a part of an expert panel reviewed Sacramento’s economic development strategy. You can learn more about the city’s “Project Prosper” here. It ... →
Why doesn’t the federal government protect access to affordable housing the way it does access to TV?
A powerful federal agency can override local laws limiting access to TV. But housing? Nope. Local control. It's the bedrock principle of land use planning. Cities and neighborhoods should have absolute control over the ... →
The Mortgage Interest Deduction: Smaller, but even more unfair
Tax changes cut the Mortgage Interest Deduction sharply–but not for the rich The 1.2 percent of households with incomes over $500,000 get 20 times as much tax relief from the mortgage interest deduction as the half of... →
Dow of Cities: Big data on the urban price premium
Zillow's data tracking prices of tens of millions of US homes adds further confirmation to the Dow of Cities For some time, we've been talking about the Dow of Cities: the notion that the price premium that urban home... →
City as theme park
There's no critique more cutting than saying that development is turning an urban neighborhood into a theme park. The irony of course, is that cities like Dubrovnik and Venice represent a profoundly obsolete, ... →
A critical look at suburban triumphalism
The "body count" view of suburban population misses the value people attach to cities Lately, we've seen a barrage of comments suggesting that the era of the city is over, and that Americans, including young adults, are... →
Gerontopoly: Homeownership, wealth, and age
Is the "dream" of homeownership really just a massive, intergenerational wealth transfer? Recently, that's just how it has worked out. The takeaways: Homeownership is a gerontopoly. Most housing wealth is held by... →
Is Fruitvale gentrifying? Did it prevent displacement?
What does Fruitvale tell us about gentrification and displacement? Gentrification solved, or at least prevented. That was the celebratory headline announcing a recent study from UCLA's Latino Politics and Policy Init... →
Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods Maps
This page contains maps showing the nation's most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, and those with the highest levels of income mixing. for City Observatory's Diverse, Inclusive Neighborhood report. These we... →
Gentrification isn’t ending. We must rise to meet that challenge.
We're pleased to publish another contribution from City Observatory friend and colleague Alex Baca. Alex has written about cities while living in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Cleveland, OH, and earlier this year au... →
Moving the goalposts
The key to being on-time and under-budget: Orwellian double-speak Oregon DOT projects are always on-time and under budget--because the agency simply disappears its original schedules and budgets. Delayed, half-fini... →
Housing reparations for Northeast Portland
Attention freeway builders! Want to make up for dividing the community and destroying neighborhoods? How about replacing the homes you demolished? One of the carefully crafted talking points in the sales pitch for the $... →
Dallas: Diverse mobility, complete neighborhoods & placemaking
Carol Coletta’s Remarks to Downtown Dallas, Inc. (Our friend and colleague Carol Coletta delivered the keynote address to the annual meeting of Downtown Dallas, Inc. on March 5. While her remarks are focused on Dallas... →
City Women
Jane Jacobs was just one of the first of many It’s International Women’s Day, and today, we’d like to acknowledge just a few of the really sharp women urbanists we rely on, every day, at City Observatory, to under... →
Gentrification & integration in DC
Gentrification is producing more diverse schools and growing enrollment In Washington DC, gentrification is producing higher levels of integration and increasing the total number of kids–black and white–attending sc... →
The emperor’s new infrastructure plan
Politics and the President's wheeler-dealer background suggest the infrastructure plan is a mirage If there's been one shred of hope for bi-partisan progress in this politically polarized time, its been the idea that so... →
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 2: The limits of ethnography
City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. This is the second installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Baca. You can read parts... →
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 1: A New Premise?
City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. This is the first installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Baca. Parts two and three... →
Challenging the Cappuccino City: Part 3: Cultural Displacement
City Observatory has long challenged the popular narrative about the nature and effects of gentrification. Today, we are pleased to offer the final installment of a three-part commentary by our friend and colleague Alex Ba... →
2017 Year-in-review: More driving, more dying
We're driving more, and more of us are dying on the roads. Four days before Christmas, on a Wednesday morning just after dawn, Elizabeth Meyers was crossing Sandy Boulevard in Portland, near 78th Avenue, just about a bl... →
A modest proposal: Extend the Americans with Disabilities Act to highways
Let's require that highways really be accessible to those who can't drive: State highway departments should provide bus service on state roads for the disabled The Americans with Disabilities Act was landmark legislat... →
The high price of cheap gasoline
When gas prices stopped diving, Americans again began to drive less The most fundamental point in economics is that people respond to incentives. Make something cheaper to buy, and people will buy more of it. Make somet... →
Cities continue to attract smart young adults
The young and restless are continuing to move to the nation's large cities One trend that highlights the growing demand for city living is the increasing tendency of well-educated young adults to live in the close-in ur... →
Diverging diamond blues
A key design element of the supposedly pedestrian friendly Rose Quarter freeway cover is a pedestrian hostile diverging diamond interchange One of the main selling points of the plan to spend nearly half a billion dolla... →
How the g-word poisons public discourse on making cities better
We're pleased to publish this guest post from Akron's Jason Segedy. It originally appeared on his blog Notes from the Underground. Drawing on his practical experience in a rust-belt city, he offers a compelling new insig... →
Are the young leaving cities?
The so-called "peak millennial" conjecture. Is it right? What does it mean? Should I care? Time has published an article, based largely on the research of UCLA demographer Dowell Myers, proclaiming that US cities are ... →
Is inequality over?
After a long, slow recovery, wages are finally rising for the lowest-paid workers, but we're no where close to rectifying our inequality problem; in fact, it's going to get worse. The very smart Jed Kolko, who now write... →
The death of Flint Street
A proposed freeway widening project will tear out one of Portland's most used bike routes At City Observatory, were putting a local Portland-area proposed freeway widening project under a microscope, in part because we ... →
A constant state of change: turnover in business establishments
Churn means that lots of businesses, even large ones, aren't around forever Many of our discussions of the economy are based on simple, and often largely static mental models of the economy. In a good year, a local econ... →
Autonomous Vehicles: Does federal preemption shut down the laboratories of democracy?
There are a lot of details to be worked out to integrate autonomous vehicles into cities. Federal preemption could foreclose the opportunity of states and cities to help figure out the best ways forward. It's a touchsto... →
Transportation equity: Why peak period road pricing is fair
Peak hour car commuters have incomes almost double those who travel by transit, bike and foot The Oregon Legislature has directed the state's department of transportation to come up with a value pricing system for inter... →
Racial wealth disparities: How housing widens the gap
The wealth of black families lags far behind whites, and housing markets play a key role There's a great article from The New York Times' Emily Badger about a new study that shows just how much Americans (especially wh... →
An affogato theory of transportation
Coffee and ice cream and jam (or traffic jams) Just once, we are going to sugar-coat our commentary. [caption id="attachment_5029" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Affogato (1912Pike.com)[/caption] At City Observa... →
Inequality in three charts: Piketty, the picket fence and Branko’s elephant
Rising inequality in the US isn't new; Declining inequality globally is. Scratch just beneath the surface of many daily problems, and you'll find income inequality is a contributing factor, if not the chief culprit. W... →
Driven Apart: How sprawl is lengthening our commutes
The secret to reducing the amount of time Americans spend in peak hour traffic has more to do with how we build our cities than how we build our roads. Our 2010 report, published by CEOs for Cities, looks at how land us... →
Hundred dollar bills on the municipal sidewalk
The public wealth of cities is substantial, but under-pricing public assets is rampant There's an old saw among economists. Two economists are walking along, and one of them says, "Look, there's a hundred dollar bill ... →
Housing policy lessons from Vienna: Part I
Is Stadt Wien the model for US urban housing policy? We’re pleased to welcome a guest commentary from Mike Eliason of Seattle. Mike is a passivhaus designer with Patano Studio who is interested in baugruppen, mass tim... →
Such a deal
How tax policy subsidizes homeownership, mostly for the wealthiest Americans OK. Imagine that someone offers you this investment deal. We want you to buy some stock; in fact, we want you to buy about $150,000 or $20... →
Housing Policy Lessons from Vienna, Part II
Allowing multi-family housing in all residential zones, and aggressively promoting private bidding lowers housing costs We’re pleased to welcome a guest commentary from Mike Eliason of Seattle. Mike is a passivhaus de... →
“Free parking” isn’t green
No matter how many solar panels it has, your parking garage isn't green, and especially if you don't charge parking (This commentary is cross-published at the Parking Reform Network) Almost five years ago, we called ... →
How green is my free parking structure? Not very.
Why does the National Renewable Energy Lab give its employees free parking? The researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab are hard at work on a lot of cool ideas for reducing pollution and promoting greater energ... →
Reality check: Poverty rates are much lower in suburbs
Despite what you may have heard, poverty rates in suburbs are on average half what they are in urban centers There's a growing chorus about the so-called suburbanization of poverty. A couple of years ago, Alan Ehrenhalt... →
What’s the biggest threat facing cities?
Politico's survey of experts leaves out the most important challenges, in our humble opinion. A couple of weeks back, Politco, the wonky-insider beltway news source queried a dozen of the nation's urban thought leaders ... →
A Nobel Prize with a solution for climate change
Let's put a price on using the atmosphere as a garbage dump for carbon Earlier this week, Yale economist William Nordhaus was announced as this year's co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics (along with Paul Romer,... →
Pity the poor Super Commuter
About 2 percent of all car commuters travel 90 minutes to work, same as a decade ago. We've always been clear about our views on mega commuters, those traveling an hour and a half or more to work daily. As we said last ... →
Sisyphus meets Bob the Builder
Why traffic engineers really aren't interested in reducing traffic congestion We now know with a certainty that investments in additional highway capacity in dense urban environments simply trigger additional travel, wh... →
You can’t judge housing affordability without knowing transportation costs
The "commonly accepted" 30 percent standard for judging housing affordability leaves out transportation and location At City Observatory, we've long been dissatisfied with commonly used measures of describing housing af... →
You can’t judge housing affordability without knowing transportation costs
The "commonly accepted" 30 percent standard for judging housing affordability leaves out transportation and location At City Observatory, we've long been dissatisfied with commonly used measures of describing housing af... →
More evidence of the growth of concentrated poverty
Since 2000, the number of people living in extremely poor neighborhoods has doubled; neighborhoods of concentrated poverty are still disproportionately in the densest urban places. Last week, the Joint Center on Housing... →
Portland’s Green Dividend
When you build a city that enables people to drive less, they spend less on cars and gas and have more to spend on other things. Here is my 2007 report, published by CEOs for Cities, which describes Portland's Green Div... →
Cultural appropriation: Theft or Smorgasbord?
If it weren't for cultural appropriation, would America have any culture at all? In Portland, two women opened a food cart business--Kook's Burritos--selling burritos based on ones that they'd seen and tasted during a ... →
Your college degree pays off more if you live in a city
The more education you have, the bigger the payoff to living in a city It's a well-understood fact that education is a critical determinant of earnings. On average, the more education you've attained, the higher your le... →
Cities and the returns to education
The more education you have, the bigger the payoff to living in a city A recent Wall Street Journal article painted the nation's rural areas as its new inner cities, with high rates of poverty, limited economic opportun... →
Integration and social interaction: Evidence from Intermarriage
Reducing segregation does seem to result in much more social interaction, as intermarriage patterns demonstrate Change doesn't happen fast, but it happens more frequently and more quickly when we have integrated communi... →
Integration and social interaction: Evidence from Intermarriage
Reducing segregation does seem to result in much more social interaction, as intermarriage patterns demonstrate Yesterday, we took a close and critical look at Derek Hyra's claim that mixed-income, mixed-race communitie... →
Socioeconomic mixing is essential to closing the Kumbaya gap
Integrated neighborhoods produce more mixing, but don't automatically generate universal social interaction. What should we make of that? Our recent report, America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods identifies ... →
Integration and the Kumbaya gap
Gentrifying neighborhoods produce more mixing, but don't automatically generate universal social interaction. What should we make of that? In one idealized view of the world, economically integrated neighborhoods would ... →
Back at the ranch
What the ranch house teaches us about house prices and filtering. Back in the heyday of the post-war housing boom, back when the baby boomers were babies, America was building ranch houses–millions of them. In its pri... →
Let’s use a marketing campaign to solve traffic congestion
Here's a thought: Let's fight traffic congestion using the same techniques DOT's use to promote safety. Let's have costumed superheroes weigh in against congestion, and spend billions on safety, instead of the other... →
The New Urban Crisis: Cliff Notes version
Your 1,200 word bluffer's guide to Richard Florida's new book Richard Florida’s new book “The New Urban Crisis: How our cities are increasing inequality, deepening segregation, and failing the middle class–and wha... →
Volunteering as a measure of social capital
Volunteering is one of the hallmarks of community; here are the cities with the highest rates of volunteerism The decline of the civic commons, the extent to which American's engage with one another in the public realm,... →
Why America can’t make up its mind about housing
Here are two ideas that, if you’re like most Americans, you probably mostly agree with: Government policy should help keep housing broadly affordable, so as not to price out people of low or moderate incomes from en... →
My illegal neighborhood
Editor’s note: City Observatory is pleased to provide this guest commentary by our friend Robert Liberty a keen observer of and advocate for cities. We first published this post in 2015, but its as timely today as it... →
Key to prosperity: Talent in the “traded sector” of the economy
"Traded sector" businesses that employ well-educated workers mark a prosperous region At City Observatory, we regularly stress the importance of education and skills to regional economic success. Statistically, we can e... →
The pernicious myth of “naturally occurring” affordable housing
Housing doesn't "occur naturally" Using zoning to preserve older, smaller homes doesn't protect affordability There's no such thing as "Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing"--older, smaller homes become affordable ... →
Too soon to write off city revival
County data can't tell us much about thriving urban neighborhoods New county-level census population estimates became available last week, and Jed Kolko produced an interesting analysis published by FiveThirtyEight conc... →
More debate on city revival
Is the urban renaissance over? Earlier this week, The New York Times published an op-ed from Jed Kolko–"Seattle Climbs but Austin Sprawls, The Myth of the Return to Cities"–offering up another iteration of his lo... →
Migration is making counties more diverse
Migration, especially by young adults, is increasing racial and ethnic diversity in US counties As we related last week, a new report from the Urban Institute quantifies the stark economic costs of racial and income seg... →
A teachable moment: Ben & Jerry’s seminar in transportation economics
They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads Your highway department is broke, and thinks it needs much bigger roads because it gives its produce away for free e... →
Time for the annual Ben & Jerry’s seminar in transportation economics
They'll be lined up around the block because the price is too low–just like every day on urban roads You can learn everything you need to know about transportation economics today, just by helping yourself to a free i... →
Breaking Bad: Why breaking up big cities would hurt America
New York Times columnist Russ Douthat got a lot of attention a few days ago for his Johnathan Swiftian column–"Break up the liberal city"–suggesting that we could solve the problems of lagging economic growth in rural ... →
Are restaurants dying, and taking city economies with them?
Alan Ehrenhalt is alarmed. In his tony suburb of Clarendon, Virginia, several nice restaurants have closed. It seems like an ominous trend. Writing at Governing, he's warning of "The Limits of Cafe' Urbanism." Cafe Urbanis... →
Twilight of the NIMBYs? LA’s Measure S Fails
La-La Land voters deal a crushing defeat to a "NIMBYism on steroids" The latest returns show Los Angeles' Measure S–the self-styled "Neighborhood Integrity Initiative"–failing by a 31 percent "Yes" to 69 percent ... →
Cursing the candle
How should we view the early signs of a turnaround in Detroit? Better to light a single candle than simply curse the darkness. The past decades have been full of dark days for Detroit, but there are finally signs of a t... →
The Week Observed, April 7, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Carmaggedon stalks Atlanta. Following an arson-caused blaze, a key section on Interstate 85 in Atlanta collapsed, and is likely to be out of service for at least a couple of months. ... →
The Week Observed, April 14, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Too soon to write off city revival? The release of the Census county-level population estimates two weeks ago led to a series of quick-reaction analyses of what the data portend for ... →
The Week Observed, June 9, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. How green was my city? The Trump administration's announcement that it would pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accords was greeted with dismay by many environmentalists, but gover... →
The Week Observed, June 23, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Downzoning won't make housing cheaper. Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns notes that land that's zoned for apartments generally commands higher prices than nearby land zoned for single fami... →
The Week Observed, October 13, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The constancy of change in neighborhood populations. The canonical story of gentrification focuses on the fact that many of the people living in a neighborhood today are not the same... →
The Week Observed, November 10, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The growing premium for urban living. Three years ago, City Observatory introduced the term "the Dow of cities." In essence, its the observation that the growth in city home prices r... →
The Week Observed, February 9, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. City Limits: Some qualms about the new localism. The nation is deeply divided along political lines and it's depressingly unlikely that we'll generate national consensus on many issu... →
The Week Observed, February 16, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cappucino City. Our friend and colleague Alex Baca offers the first of her three-part review of Derek Hyra's book "The Cappucino City." Baca, a former Washington DC journalist take... →
The Week Observed, April 20, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Housing reparations for Northeast Portland. The Oregon Department of Transportation is selling its plan to spend half a billion dollars widening a stretch of freeway in Portland by c... →
The Week Observed, June 15, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Handicapping the city vs. suburb horse race. The latest round of Census population estimates for municipalities has led some observers to claim that city growth has faltered. We take... →
The Week Observed, July 13, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Don't demonize cars, just stop subsidizing them. Is there anything in the urban space that is more inflamed than the passion and rhetoric around cars and driving? Advocates on both s... →
The Week Observed, July 27, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland rents are going down. There are those who are skeptical that we can "build our way to affordability." But the economic evidence suggests that's exactly what's happening in P... →
The Week Observed, September 21, 2018
What City Observatory did this week This week, we published five posts taking a critical look at how a recent Urban Institute report, Measuring Inclusiveness, illustrates the problems and pitfalls of defining and measurin... →
The Week Observed, September 28, 2018
What City Observatory did this week Peaks, Valleys and Donuts: Visualizing cities in cross-section. The University of Virginia's Demographics Research Group at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service has produced a po... →
The Week Observed, September 6, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Highway to Hell. There's a new report out on the the future of the Interstate Highway System, and its a shocker. It's a shock because it shows that the National Academies of Engineer... →
The Week Observed, January 25, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Remembering Dr. King. We were reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King's speech about the pronounced tendency in public policy to prescribe socialism for the rich and rugged, free market c... →
The Week Observed, February 1, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. The limits of our current approaches to providing affordable housing. We present a summary of some remarks offered by Rob Stewart, a principal with JBG Smith Real Estate, reflecting ... →
The Week Observed, February 8, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Measuring Anti-Social Capital. Thanks to the scholarship of Harvard's Robert Putnam, the idea of social capital has become firmly entrenched in the policy lexicon. Putnam and oth... →
The Week Observed, June 14, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. The economics of fruit, time, and place. Last week, Paul Krugman, fresh off his European vacation, waxed poetic about the fleeting joy of summer fruit, and true to form, may an econo... →
The Week Observed, June 21, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. It's official: The Rose Quarter Freeway Widening is a Boondoggle. Frontier Group and USPIRG released the latest version of their annual Highway Boondoggle report, and the Oregon Depa... →
The Week Observed, July 12, 2019
What City Observatory did this week About those swelling suburbs. Much was made last week of a Wall Street Journal story noting that 14 of the 15 fastest growing cities with populations greater than 50,000 were suburbs.... →
The Week Observed, July 19, 2019
What City Observatory did this week Homeownership is frequently a bad bet. Although homeownership gets treated as the best way to built wealth, it's actually a highly risky financial strategy for many households, especial... →
The Week Observed, August 23, 2019
What City Observatory did this week Portland's food cart pods are dead; long live Portland's food cart pods. Portland is famous as a foodie town, and one of the city's claims to fame is having more than 500 food carts, mo... →
The Week Observed, August 16, 2019
What City Observatory did this week Copenhagen's success: More than just bike lanes. Copenhagen is one of the world's great cycling cities, and its accomplishments are a a beacon to those looking to build more bike fr... →
The Week Observed, August 2, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. CityLab: Everything you think you know about gentrification is wrong. We take a look at a recent CityLab article reporting (faithfully) the findings of some recent research on gent... →
The Week Observed, July 26, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Why gentrification is good for long time residents of low income neighborhoods. We take a close look at a new study from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank that challenges much of... →
The Week Observed, May 24, 2019
What City Observatory did this week Exit, hope and loyalty: What's behind neighborhood change? America's neighborhoods are always changing, and it's often a question of whether change is driven more by hope or despair. ... →
The Week Observed, May 31, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Who bikes? Discussions of investing in bike infrastructure are often fraught with arguments about who benefits, with oft-expressed fears that bike lanes chiefly benefit a spandex-wea... →
The Week Observed, May 17, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Will upzoning help housing affordability? Housing supply denialism--claims that the laws of supply and demand don't apply to housing markets--have a ready audience in the NIMBY com... →
The Week Observed, April 26, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. The high cost of low house prices. We generally take low house prices as a sign that housing is affordable, but the reality isn't that simple. In the case of cities and urban neighbo... →
The Week Observed, April 12, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. The annual Ben and Jerry's advanced seminar in transportation economics. If you love ice cream--who doesn't?--Tuesday was your chance to get a free cone at Ben and Jerry's and while ... →
The Week Observed, February 15, 2019
What City Observatory did this week Widening freeways doesn't reduce crashes or crash related delay. The Oregon Department of Transportation is proposing to spend half a billion dollars to widen a mile-long stretch of I... →
The Week Observed, March 22, 2019
What City Observatory did this week A note to City Observatory readers: We're deep in the thick of Portland's debate about whether to spend a half billion dollars to widen a mile-long stretch of freeway near the city's ... →
The Week Observed, March 1, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. The high price of cheap gas. The most fundamental point in economics is that people respond to incentives. Make something cheaper to buy, and people will buy more of it. Make someth... →
The Week Observed, December 14, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities, Ideas and Us: Paul Romer's Nobel Address. Romer, who won this year's Nobel Prize in the Economic Sciences had some interesting things to say about cities in his address t... →
The Week Observed, December 21, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. The limits of Nieman Marcus environmentalism. It's fashionable to demonstrate one's green credibility by conspicuous acts of non-consumption, but framing our environmental problems a... →
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.... →
The Week Observed, January 4, 2019
What City Observatory did this week 1. Displacement by decline. Akron Planning Director Jason Segedy offers a guest post on our misplaced obsession with gentrification. He argues that pundits and urban policy people are... →
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... →
The Week Observed, October 12, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Carol Coletta on why cities need to embrace change. We publish Carol Coletta's remarks to the Congress for the New Urbanism, outlining the case for thinking about cities in a more dy... →
The Week Observed, October 19, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Now we are four. October 17 marked City Observatory's fourth birthday. We celebrated with a shout-out to our founders, funders and partners, and reflected on what we think the most... →
The Week Observed, August 31, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. If you want less displacement, build more housing. A common refrain at planning commission meetings around the country is that cities ought to block new housing as a way of insulatin... →
The Week Observed, August 24, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Philadelphia's urban policy harmonic convergence. The proposal to build a multi-billion dollar expansion of University City adjacent to Drexel University and Philadelphia's Center Ci... →
The Week Observed, August 17, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. We disagree with the Washington Post on housing economics. Two weeks ago, the Washington Post published an article claiming that rents were going down for higher income renters but i... →
The Week Observed, August 10, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Jason Segedy on gentrification. This week we feature a guest column from Akron planning director Jason Segedy. You can't build new housing in any existing neighborhood, it seems, wit... →
The Week Observed, July 20, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Nattering nabobs of NIMBYism at the New York Times. Columnist Tim Egan called plans for a limited upzoning to enable more people to live in Seattle an unholy conspiracy of develope... →
The Week Observed, August 3, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Your summertime must read: Alan Mallach's Divided City. We have a review of this newly released book, which we think every urbanist ought to read. Although written primarily from t... →
The Week Observed, June 8, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Growth in the center. A new report from New York City's Office of Planning graphically demonstrates the growing centralization of people and economic activity in the nation's largest... →
The Week Observed, May 11, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities as selection environments. It's an article of faith in the economic development business that cheaper is better, or at least more competitive. The claim is that businesses wil... →
The Week Observed, May 4, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Why don't we have a powerful federal agency who can pre-empt local laws that drive up housing costs? Last week, the Federal Communications Commission took action that invalidated a ... →
The Week Observed, April 27, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Gerontopoly: Is homeownership a sure route to building wealth? It has been in the US, but increasingly, its only working for older generations. Homeowners 55 and older now hold mos... →
The Week Observed, March 16, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland doesn't really want to make housing affordable. Portland's City Council has officially declared a housing crisis, and has passed strong renter protection measured and an ill... →
The Week Observed, March 23, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Portland's teachable moment: time for a little housing economics 101. There's a big debate going on in Portland right now about whether using discretionary land use approvals to bloc... →
The Week Observed, February 23, 2018
What City Observatory did this week Drinking, Parking, Flying, Peaking, Pricing: The five drivers of ride-hailing demand. The Transportation Research Board has published a dense, 100 page study of ride-hailing demand, d... →
The Week Observed, January 19, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. We're losing the battle for Vision Zero. One of the compelling aspects of the Vision Zero road safety campaign is its bold, measurable objective: we want to completely eliminate traf... →
The Week Observed, December 15, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Is inequality over? There was some good news from the labor market this month. According to an analysis by Jed Kolko, low wage workers saw their earnings increase slightly faster tha... →
The Week Observed, December 22, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Should cities be worried about "Peak Millennial?" Time magazine highlighted data from three cities where the count of millennials has declined in the past year, according to the Am... →
The Week Observed, January 12, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. How great cities enable you to live longer. We take a close look at some findings from the Equality of Opportunity Project on the connections between community characteristics and ... →
The Week Observed, January 5, 2018
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities continue to attract the young and restless. We've seen some push-back in the last few months, arguing that city population growth is no longer outpacing suburbs, and that the ... →
The Week Observed, November 3, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Rent control's impact on the San Francisco housing market. A new study from three Stanford economists dissects the impacts of rent control in San Francisco. Using a late-in-the-g... →
The Week Observed, October 27, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Signs of the times. For most of the past few years, Portland--like other flourishing metro economies--has seen significant increases in apartment rents, as demand for urban living ha... →
The Week Observed, September 22, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. What price autonomous vehicles? It's easy to obsess about the cool technological details of autonomous vehicles: their sophisticated computers, LIDAR systems, and vehicle-to-vehicl... →
The Week Observed, September 29, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1.Interim report card on Portland's Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance: An Incomplete. Portland's inclusionary zoning requirements have been in effect for six months. While the ordinance pro... →
The Week Observed, September 8, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Is the urban revival over? A provocative (but highly misleading) headline in last week's New York Times sits atop Richard Florida's op-ed about the future of cities. Although Florida... →
The Week Observed, July 21, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. How green is my free parking structure? Not very. The National Renewable Energy Lab does cutting edge research on wind, solar and renewable energy. One area where their thinking ... →
The Week Observed, July 7, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Why median rents are an incomplete and often misleading indicator of housing affordability. Our colleague Daniel Hertz shows how the median rent statistics that are often cited to de... →
The Week Observed, August 18, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Hundred dollar bills on the municipal sidewalk? There's a lot of interest in tapping the hidden value of municipal assets to address city financial problems. The typical city owns bi... →
The Week Observed, June 16, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cultural appropriation: Theft or smorgasbord? A recent Internet furor erupted over a Portland burrito stand that copied its recipe from that of street vendors in Mexico. An essential... →
The Week Observed, May 26, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Dirt Cheap. A number of tech startups are exploring techniques for high density urban farming. In theory, new methods, like vertical farming in plastic tubes, can greatly reduce the ... →
The Week Observed, May 5, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Mystery in the Bookstore. In cities around the country, there's been a noticeable rebound in the local bookstore business. After decades of steady decline, this is a pleasant surpris... →
The Week Observed, March 17, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Are restaurants dying and taking city economies with them? In a column at Governing, Alan Ehrenhalt raises the alarm that a city economic revival predicated on what he calls "cafe ur... →
The Week Observed, March 31, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. 13 propositions about autonomous vehicles. Despite occasional setbacks–like last week's crash of an Uber self-driving car in Phoenix–it looks increasingly likely that autonomous ... →
The Week Observed, March 3, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. More flawed congestion rankings. Traffic analysis firm Inrix released yet another report purporting to estimate the dollar cost of congestion and ranking the world's cities from mos... →
The Week Observed, February 17, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. Anti-social capital. You're probably familiar with the term "social capital" which Robert Putnam popularized with his book Bowling Alone. In it Putnam devised a series of indicators ... →
Are young adults moving less?
Conflicting data sources present very different pictures of young adult migration rates The Pew Research Center presented an analysis of census data reporting that today's young adults are less likely to move in a given... →
Visions of the City Part III: You don’t own me
What kind of future do we want to live in? While that question gets asked by planners and futurists in an abstract and technical way, some of the most powerful and interesting conversations about our future aspirations are... →
Envisioning the way we want to live in cities
The biggest challenge for creating great cities is imagination, not technology There's a definite technological determinism to how we approach future cities. Some combination of sensors, 5G Internet, sophisticated compu... →
Visions of a future city, Part I
What stories do we tell ourselves about the kind of world we want to live in? In his recent presidential address to the American Economics Association, Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller talked about "narrative economics." ... →
Visions of the City Part II: A Perfect Day
Yesterday we took a close look at Ford's vision for the future of cities. Our take: Ford's preferred narrative of the places we'll live is all about optimizing city life for vehicles. But is that the narrative that should ... →
The Week Observed, February 3, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1.What HOT Lanes tell us about the value of travel time. The economic underpinning of claims that traffic congestion costs Americans billions and billions of dollars each year is the as... →
Happy Birthday America; Thanks Immigrants!
We celebrate the fourth of July by remembering that a nation composed overwhelmingly of immigrants owes them a special debt. [caption id="attachment_4083" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Lighting the way to a stronger ... →
What makes America great, as always: Immigrants
Happy Independence Day, America! All Americans are immigrants (Even the Native American tribes trace their origins to Asians who migrated over the Siberian-Alaskan land bridge during the last ice age). And this nation o... →
Openness to immigration drives economic success
Last Friday, President Trump signed an Executive Order effectively blocking entry to the US for nationals of seven countries—Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. We'll leave aside the fearful, xenophobic ... →
How urban geometry creates neighborhood identity
Does geometry bias our view of how neighborhoods work? Imagine a neighborhood that looks like this: On any given block, there might be a handful of small apartment buildings—three-flats—which are usually clus... →
The Week Observed, February 24, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1.Busting the urban myth about high income housing and affordability. One of the most widespread beliefs about housing is that the construction of new high income housing somehow makes ... →
What HOT lanes reveal about the value of travel time
Every year, the Texas Transportation Institute, and traffic monitoring firms like Inrix and Tom-Tom trot out scary sounding reports that claim that Americans lose billions or tens of billions of dollars worth of time sitti... →
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 releas... →
Speed: Fast cities
Which cities move the fastest? Does it matter? The raison d'etre of the highway engineer is making cars go faster. That's reflected in chronic complaints about traffic congestion, and codified in often misleading studie... →
The immaculate conception theory of your neighborhood’s origins
A while back, a columnist in Seattle Magazine, Knute Berger, expressed his discontent with modern housing development. As Berger sees it, today’s homebuilding pales in comparison to the virtues of early 20th century bung... →
The Week Observed, January 20, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. The long journey toward greater equity in transportation. The observance of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday got us thinking about how far we've come–and how far we have yet to g... →
Race & transportation: Still a long way to go
January 17 is the day we celebrate the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is also the first year that we're observing a national day of racial healing. We thought we'd take a minute to reflect on tw... →
The Week Observed, January 6, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. A Toast to 2017: Beer and Cities. Its traditional to begin the New Year with a delicious beverage, and more and more Americans are choosing to celebrate with a locally brewed ale. ... →
The Week Observed, January 13, 2017
What City Observatory did this week 1. How diverse are the neighborhoods white people live in? Data from the newly released 5-year American Community Survey tabulations give us an updated picture of the demographics of ur... →
Beer and cities: A toast to 2017
Celebrating the new year, city-style, with a local brew Champagne may be the traditional beverage for ringing in the new year, but we suspect that a locally brewed ale may be the drink of choice for many urbanists today... →
The Week Observed, December 30, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. The illegal city of Somerville. Just outside of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Somerville is one of the most sought after suburbs in the Boston area. It has a combination of attractive ne... →
The Week Observed, December 16, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Urban transportation's camel problem. Naive optimism is the order of the day in speculating about the future of urban transportation. In theory, some combination of autonomous ... →
How diverse are the neighborhoods white people live in?
Overall, America is becoming more diverse, but in many places the neighborhoods we live in remain quite segregated. The population of the typical US metropolitan area has a much more ethnically and racially mixed compositi... →
Copenhagen’s cycling success: Make cars pay their way, not just bike lanes
Promoting biking requires ending the big, hidden subsidies to car ownership and use It easy to be in love with cycling in Copenhagen. Bikes are the mode of transport most favored for trips to work and school by local ... →
Are the ‘burbs really back?
Last Friday's Wall Street Journal came out with another eye-catching headline story in the city versus suburbs battle of the bands: "Suburbs outstrip cities in population growth, study finds. Big cities may be getting a... →
Destined to disappoint: housing lotteries
Affordable housing is in short supply in many US cities, perhaps nowhere more chronically than in New York City. Even though New York has more public housing than any other US city, the demand for subsidized units is far... →
The Week Observed, November 25, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. The rise of global neighborhoods. A new paper published in Demography by Wenquan Zhang and John Logan traces out the changes in the racial and ethnic composition of US neighborho... →
More evidence on the migration of talent
At City Observatory, we've long maintained that the location patterns of talented young workers are an economically important signal. (You can read our report on "The Young and Restless here). Well-educated young adult... →
The growth of global neighborhoods
As the US grows more diverse, so too do its urban neighborhoods. A new paper—“ Global Neighborhoods: Beyond the Multiethnic Metropolis”--published in Demography by Wenquan Zhang and John Logan traces out the chang... →
Your guide to the debate over the Trump Infrastructure Plan
There's a lot of ink being spilled -- or is it pixels rearranged? -- over the size, shape, merits and even existence of a Trump Administration infrastructure plan. Infrastructure was one of just a handful of substantive po... →
The Week Observed, November 18, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Daytime and nighttime segregation. Economic, racial and ethnic segregation are persistent features of the American metropolis. Most studies measure segregation using Census data on... →
The Week Observed, November 11, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. A tax credit for renters. The Terman Center for Housing Innovation at the UC Berkeley has come up with three fleshed-out and cost-estimated models for providing tax credits for l... →
Market timing and racial wealth disparities
How buying high and selling low makes housing a bad investment for many disadvantaged groups One of the enduring features of American inequality is the wide disparity in homeownership rates between white Americans and L... →
Market timing and racial wealth disparities
One of the enduring features of American inequality is the wide disparity in homeownership rates between white Americans and Latinos and African-Americans. And because homeownership has -- or at least was, historically -- ... →
Halloween was yesterday: Let’s stop scaremongering about cities
We love scary stories. That's what Halloween was all about--dressing up as something terrifying, if only for a day. Being scary one day a year can be fun. But constant scaremongering is one way that attitudes and beliefs ... →
The Week Observed: November 4, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. The myth of a revealed preference for suburban living. It's often argued that most Americans must prefer to live in suburbs because so many persons do so. We take a close look at t... →
Affordable Housing: Not just for a favored few
As we all know, 2016 is the year that reality television made its way to the national political stage. Less well noticed is how another idea from reality television has insinuated its way into our thinking about housing po... →
The Week Observed: October 28, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1.Measuring Walkability: Non-car modes of transportation have always been at a disadvantage in policy discussions because of a profound lack of widely available quantitative measures ... →
Lies, damn lies, and (on-line shopping) statistics.
Here’s an eye-catching statistic: “people in the US buying more things online than in brick-and-mortar stores.” This appears in the lead of a story published this week by Next City. There’s one problem with this... →
The new mythology of rich cities and poor suburbs
There’s a new narrative going around about place. Like so many narratives, it's based on a perceptible grain of truth, but then has a degree of exaggeration that the evidence can’t support. [caption id="attachment_3... →
Where is ridesharing growing fastest?
There's a revolution afoot in transportation. Transportation network companies, aka "ridesharing" firms, like Uber and Lyft are disrupting both the markets for urban transportation and labor markets. Their business mod... →
Bubble logic
We shouldn't expect the return of the trade-up buyer anytime soon. Is the American homebuyer increasingly stuck in a starter home? That’s the premise of a recent commentary from the Urban Institute "Do we have a gener... →
Are integrated neighborhoods stable?
More American neighborhoods are becoming integrated–and are staying that way It's rare that some obscure terminology from sociology becomes a part of our everyday vernacular, but "tipping point" is one of those terms.... →
The Week Observed: October 7, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Bubble Logic. A major and persistent change in the housing market from a decade ago has been the decline in the number of “trade-up” home-buyers. While some fret that recent ... →
The Week Observed: September 30, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Where are African-American entrepreneurs? A new Census Bureau survey, undertaken in cooperation with the Kauffman Foundation provides a detailed demographic profile of the owners o... →
The Week Observed: September 23, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. America's most creative metros, ranked by Kickstarter campaigns. One of the most popular ways to raise funds for a new creative project--music, a video, an artistic endeavor, or even... →
The Week Observed: Sept. 16, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities are powering the rebound in national income growth. There was great news in this week's Census report: After years of stagnation, average household income saw its largest one... →
Lessons in Supply and Demand: Housing Market Edition
Its apparent to almost everyone that the US has a growing housing affordability problem. And its generating more public attention and public policy discussions. Recent proposals to address housing affordability i... →
Cities are powering the rebound in national income growth
Behind the big headlines about an national income rebound: thriving city economies are the driver. As economic headlines go, it was pretty dramatic and upbeat news: The US recorded an 5.2 percent increase in real hous... →
Counting women entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is both a key driver of economic activity and an essential path to economic opportunity for millions of Americans. For much of our history, entrepreneurship has been dominated by men. But in recent decades... →
Where are African-American entrepreneurs?
Entrepreneurship is both a key driver of economic activity and an essential path to economic opportunity for millions of Americans. Historically, discrimination and lower levels of wealth and income have been barriers to e... →
The Week Observed: Sept. 9, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Counting Women Entrepreneurs. The Census Bureau has just released the results of its new survey of entrepreneurs, and we report its key findings on the extent and geography of wo... →
The Week Observed: Sept. 2, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Which cities and metros shop most at small retail firms? A new "big data" set from the JPMorganChase Institute offers some answers. It uses 16 billion transactions from the bank's c... →
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... →
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... →
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 integratio... →
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... →
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, some... →
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 serv... →
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 p... →
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 loc... →
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 mil... →
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 mil... →
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 ... →
Back to school: Three charts that make the case for cities
Its early September, and most of the the nation's students are (or shortly will be) back in the classroom. There may be a few key academic insights that are no longer top of mind due to the distractions of summer, so as go... →
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 ... →
Talent: The key to metro economic success
Educational attainment explains two-thirds of the variation in economic success among metropolitan areas. Each additional percentage point increase in the four-year college attainment rate increases metro per capita inc... →
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 subu... →
The Talent Dividend: Updated
Educational attainment explains two-thirds of the variation in economic success among metropolitan areas. Each additional percentage point increase in the four-year college attainment rate increases metro per capita inc... →
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 jus... →
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 loca... →
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 p... →
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... →
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 ch... →
The party platforms on housing
Urban policy conversations are largely focused on local policy, though we at City Observatory have occasionally argued that more attention ought to be paid to state and federal policy. We haven’t had much to say about... →
Housing can’t be a good investment and affordable
Recently, we made the case that promoting homeownership as an investment strategy is a risky proposition. No financial advisor would recommend going into debt in order to put such a massive part of your savings in any othe... →
Housing can’t both be a good investment and be affordable
A fundamental contradiction lies beneath most of our housing policy debates At City Observatory, we've frequently made the case that promoting homeownership as an investment strategy is a risky proposition. No financia... →
Homeownership: A failed wealth-creation strategy
It’s an article of faith in some quarters—well, most quarters—that in the United States, owning a home ought to be a surefire way to build wealth. Whether it’s presidents, anti-poverty groups, foundations, or realt... →
For low-income households, median home prices aren’t always what count
Affordable housing is an issue rife with statistics: median rents, median housing costs, percentage of people who are “housing cost burdened,” and so on. Previously, we’ve written about some of the issues with many o... →
For low-income households, median home prices aren’t always what count
Affordable housing is an issue rife with statistics: median rents, median housing costs, percentage of people who are “housing cost burdened,” and so on. Previously, we’ve written about some of the issues with many o... →
The Week Observed: July 29, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Economist Paul Romer Joins the World Bank. Paul Romer, a leading exponent of the New Growth Theory has been hired as chief economist for the World Bank. We explore how his thinking... →
The Week Observed: July 22, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Homeownership: A failed wealth creation strategy. Its an article of faith that owning a home is the most reliable route to wealth building in the US. But this hasn't been true ... →
The Week Observed: July 15, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. How safe will the autonomous cars of the future be? The first-ever fatal collision involving a Tesla running on autopilot mode has prompted a debate on that subject. On the one hand,... →
The Week Observed: July 8, 2016
The Week Observed recently celebrated its first birthday! At the end of June 2015, we sent our first roundup of the most important urbanist news to about 700 people; since then, we've faithfully published a new issue every... →
The values of value capture
Late last month, the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation allowing what may become one of the largest transit value capture measures in the US. “Value capture” is a transit funding mechanism based on the ide... →
Londonize!
One of the first “urbanist” blogs I found was Copenhagenize. It’s a brilliantly simple name that carries its argument in a single word: Here is a place, Copenhagen, that does something right, so let’s be more like ... →
Review: State of the Nation’s Housing 2016
At City Observatory, we love fat reports full of data, especially when they shed light on important urban policy issues. Last week, we got the latest installment in a long-running series of annual reports on housing produc... →
The fourth virtue of public transit
For most Americans, public transit basically has three virtues. The first two cater to liberal sensibilities: it’s environmentally friendly, and because it’s cheap, it’s effectively a sort of transportation safety ne... →
The Week Observed: July 1, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Last week's big news was Brexit: the vote by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. What does that have to do with urban policy on our side of the Atlantic? Well, it turns o... →
More evidence on the “Dow of Cities”
Last summer, we flagged a fascinating study by Fitch Investment Advisers which tracked twenty five years of home price data, stratified by the “urbanness” of housing. Fitch showed that particularly since 2000, home pri... →
Sprawl and the cost of living
Over the past three weeks, we’ve introduced the “sprawl tax”—showing how much more Americans pay in time and money because of sprawling urban development patterns. We’ve also shown how much higher the sprawl tax ... →
More on the illegal city of Somerville
We got quite a bit of interest on our post last week about how the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts had written itself a zoning code that would have prevented the construction of virtually the entire city of 80,... →
The Week Observed: June 24, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Urban housing is a massive asset. How massive? Well, a comparison to the valuation of our nation's biggest corporations shows it's no comparison at all—housing in major cities has ... →
The market cap of cities
What are cities worth? More than big private companies, as it turns out: The value of housing in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas ($22 trillion) is more than double the value of the stock of the nation’s 50 l... →
The Week Observed, December 2, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Does Rent Control Work: Evidence from Berlin. Economists are nearly unanimous about rent control: they think it doesn't work. Berlin's recent adoption of a new rent control sche... →
The Week Observed: June 17, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. In previous installments of our "Sprawl Tax" series, we've calculated the billions of dollars that longer distances between homes and workplaces cost American commuters, and shown th... →
Why Houston has been special since at least 1999
A little while ago, in a post called “Sprawl beyond zoning,” we argued that even though Houston doesn’t technically have a zoning code, it still regulates the built environment in lots of ways that make it difficult ... →
Equity and Parks
Last week, our friend and colleague, Carol Coletta delivered a "master talk" to the 66th Annual Conference of the International Downtown Association. Carol is President & CEO, Memphis River Parks Partnership, and a ... →
Why cities need to embrace change
This is the text of a speech delivered in Detroit to the Congress for New Urbanism conference by Carol Coletta, a senior fellow at the Kresge Foundation's American Cities Practice. Could there be a more apt place to... →
When cities change
This is the text of a speech delivered in Detroit last week at the Congress for New Urbanism conference by Carol Coletta, a senior fellow at the Kresge Foundation's American Cities Practice. Could there be a more ap... →
How sprawl taxes our well-being
In the first installment of our “Sprawl Tax” series, we explained how laws and patterns of development that make our homes, businesses, and schools farther apart cost us time and money—on average, nearly $1,400 a yea... →
The Week Observed: June 10, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Last week, we introduced the "Sprawl Tax": the time and money American commuters spend just because their cities are more spread out than they might be. This week, we compare America... →
How many carless workers are there really?
One of the first posts I ever wrote for City Observatory was called “Undercounting the transit constituency,” and it made a simple point: We dramatically undercount the number of people who depend on public transit to ... →
The Week Observed: June 3, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. In real life, somehow, Google patented sticky cars so that when their autonomous vehicles hit pedestrians, they won't get thrown into the air, but will rather be pinned to the vehicl... →
Sprawl Tax: How the US stacks up internationally
In our first post on the “Sprawl Tax,” we’ve explored the ways that our decisions about how to build American cities have imposed significant costs—in money, time, and quality of life—on all of us. We pay more to... →
Neighborhood change in Philadelphia
Last week, the Pew Charitable Trusts released a fascinating report detailing neighborhood change in Philadelphia over the past decade and a half. “Philadelphia’s Changing Neighborhoods” combines a careful, region-wid... →
Introducing the Sprawl Tax
If you read the news, you’ve probably seen reports about “congestion costs”: how much American commuters pay, in money and time, when they’re stuck in traffic. It’s fair to say that we’ve got some issues with m... →
The Week Observed: May 27, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Last month, we released the Storefront Index, a report that catalogued the nation's retail clusters and provided a window into the spatial organization of an important part of Jane J... →
City center job growth continues strength; suburbs rebounding from recession
As recently as the years 2002 to 2007, outlying urban neighborhoods and suburbs experienced much faster job growth than urban cores. But as a February 2015 City Observatory report, “Surging City Center Job Growth,” doc... →
How we did the Storefront Index
We’ve received many questions on how we did the analysis behind our Storefront Index. This post will describe our dataset, our method, and how we created our visualizations. We hope that this will spur future research an... →
The Week Observed: May 20, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. What's the relationship between urban sprawl, income segregation, and economic opportunity? A recent study by Reid Ewing and colleagues at the University of Utah used an innovative n... →
The demand for city living is behind the urban rent premium
The US faces a shortage of cities. More and more Americans, especially talented, young workers with college degrees, are looking to live in great urban locations. As we’ve explored at City Observatory, the demand for urb... →
USDOT to shut down nation’s roads, citing safety concerns
WASHINGTON, DC - Citing safety concerns, today Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announced he was contemplating the closure of roads to all private vehicles in nearly every city in the country until he could assure ... →
The Week Observed: May 13, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. A new study from Stanford Business School claims that society reaps the greatest benefits from low-income housing when that housing is built in the lowest-income neighborhoods—as o... →
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. ... →
The rising tide of economic segregation
Last week, we argued that the problem called “income segregation” is actually several problems, and broke it down with the help of different measurements designed to capture different aspects of the issue. In partic... →
The Week Observed: May 6, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. At City Observatory, we're interested in hard numbers—but we're also interested in the human community and public spaces that cities can create. As we did in April with "Lost in Pl... →
There’s more than one kind of income segregation
Much of the conversation about urban inequality today—from Raj Chetty’s work on intergenerational economic mobility, to issues of concentrated poverty and gentrification—is framed in terms of economic segregation. Bu... →
Successful cities and the civic commons
At City Observatory, we’ve been bullish on cities. There’s a strong economic case to be made that successful cities play an essential role in driving national economic prosperity. As we increasingly become a ... →
Our infographic for thinking about the civic commons
City Observatory is about cities, and while much of the discussion of urban policy surrounds the physical and built environment, ultimately cities are about people. When cities work well, they bring people together. Conver... →
What it means to be in common
When we talk about the costs and consequences of car-dependent urban development, we often talk about hard economics and climate science. Spread-out neighborhoods divided by big, pedestrian-hostile roads force people to sp... →
Storefronts and job growth
Earlier this week, we introduced the Storefront Index, a measure of the location and clustering of customer-facing retail and service businesses. A primary use of the index is to identify places that have the concentration... →
The Week Observed: April 29, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. This week, we were proud to release City Observatory's latest report: The Storefront Index. The Storefront Index maps and tallies every "storefront" business in the 51 largest US met... →
The Week Observed: April 22, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. When we measure segregation, we almost always use Census numbers that reflect where people live—ie, where their homes are. But people don't spend all day in their homes, so a team ... →
On the road again?
Hot on the heels of claims that Millennials are buying houses come stories asserting that Millennials are suddenly big car buyers. We pointed out the flaws in the home-buying story earlier this month, and now let’s take ... →
An infographic summarizing neighborhood change
One of City Observatory’s major reports is “Lost in Place,” which chronicles the change in high-poverty neighborhoods since 1970. In it, you’ll find a rich array of data at the neighborhood level showing how and wh... →
A new look at neighborhood change
One of City Observatory’s major reports is “Lost in Place,” which chronicles the change in high-poverty neighborhoods since 1970. In it, you’ll find a rich array of data at the neighborhood level showing how and wh... →
Excessive expectations: A first look at the DOT’s new road performance rules
We’ve just gotten our first look at the new US Department of Transportation performance measurement rule for transportation systems. The rule (nearly three years in gestation, since the passage of the MAP-21 Act) is USDO... →
The Week Observed: April 15, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. More than half of commuters to jobs in classically suburban DuPage County, outside Chicago, say they'd like to walk, bike, or take transit—but nearly 90 percent of them drive anywa... →
Urbanism isn’t yet a luxury good
For most of the 20th century, cities and their accoutrements were associated with immigrants, people of color, and relative economic deprivation. The very phrase “inner city” became a synonym of “poor,” and in cert... →
How great cities enable you to live longer
Low income people live longer in dense, well-educated, immigrant-friendly cities Some of the most provocative social science research in the past decade has come from the Equality of Opportunity Project, led by Stanford... →
The Week Observed: April 8, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Even in a relatively dense city like Chicago, large amounts of off-street parking goes unused daily. A new report from the Center for Neighborhood Technology documents the over-suppl... →
The limits of technology: Let’s hack an app
A Hollywood staple of the 1930s and 1940s was the story of a plucky band of young kids—usually led by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland—who, their dreams of making it on Broadway dashed by some plot twist, decide to stage... →
Sprawl beyond zoning
Another column from Paul Krugman today on the ways that US-style zoning laws are detrimental to economic opportunity is a pleasant reminder that the role of building regulations in broader questions of inequality is no lon... →
What lifecycle and generational effects tell us about young people’s homebuying
It’s been debunked, right? Though we’ve long been told that millennials want to live in cities, renting rather than owning, and biking instead of driving, a new round of articles are here to tell us that all of that is... →
The Week Observed: April 1, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Have we reached "peak Millennial"? One researchers argues that because new births peaked in 1990, today's 26-year-olds represent the high water mark of a youth-led urban renaissance.... →
Introducing the Pedestrian Pain Index
America’s pedestrians are in pain. Every day, tens of millions of Americans waste tens of thousands of hours stuck waiting on the side of streets for car traffic to get out of their way. We estimate that the annual va... →
Why mixed-income neighborhoods matter: lifting kids out of poverty
There’s a hopeful new sign that how we build our cities, and specifically, how good a job we do of building mixed income neighborhoods that are open to everyone can play a key role in reducing poverty and promoting equit... →
Flood tide–not ebb tide–for young adults in cities
The number of young adults is increasing, not declining, and a larger share of them are living in cities. Yesterday's New York Times Upshot features a story from Conor Dougherty–"Peak Millennial? Cities Can't Assume a... →
The Week Observed: March 25, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. When supply catches up to demand, rents go down. While stories about crazy housing markets tend to focus on big, coastal metropolitan areas, it turns out there's a lot to learn from ... →
Not peak Millennial: the coming wave
It’s an eye-catching, convention-tweaking claim: We’ve reached peak Millennial. And, so the argument goes, because Millennials have hit their “peak,” it's time to junk all these crazy theories about Millennials not... →
Here’s your definitive field guide to median rent statistics
Even the most casual consumer of urban news can’t avoid reading articles about whether rents in their city are up, or down, and how they compare to other cities around their country. Unfortunately, the vast majority of t... →
County data is great, but it can’t tell us much about urban living
You're on your couch, streaming the latest episode of Broad City on your Mac laptop, just like a good millennial. But all of a sudden, your wifi connection goes bad, and the screen goes all pixelated. Instead of Abbi and I... →
The Week Observed: March 18, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Finding nuance in the housing supply arguments. A new article from Rick Jacobus at Shelterforce helps resolve some of the tensions in the growing debate about whether and how housing... →
Like Uber, but for redistribution
In a January 2015 paper, the Yale Law professor David Schleicher and Yale Law student Daniel Rauch published a paper on how local governments might regulate “sharing economy” companies, such as Uber, in the future. ... →
Why the new Inrix Traffic Scorecard deserves a “D”
At City Observatory, we’ve long been critical of some seemingly scientific studies and ideas that shape our thinking about the nature of our transportation system, and its performance and operation. We’ve pointed out t... →
Super long commutes: a non-big, non-growing, non-problem
Last week, the Washington Post published an article repeating an old-refrain in transportation journalism—the horror of long commutes. According to the Post, more and more Americans are commuting longer and longer dis... →
Finding nuance in the housing supply arguments
On the one hand, over the last few years, the growing debate about the root causes of affordable housing crises in high-income, coastal American cities has been robust, passionate, and often nuanced. On the other, there ha... →
How should cities approach economic development?
Everyone interested in state or local economic development should read "Remaking Economic Development: The Markets and Civics of Continuous Growth and Prosperity." In it, the Brookings Institution’s Amy Liu neatly synthe... →
The Week Observed: March 11, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Muddling income inequality and economic segregation. What does it mean to be a prosperous city? What does it mean to be a city with high economic inequality? These questions can be d... →
How we shut the door on housing
Note: Tomorrow, NYU's Furman Center will hold a seminar with Dartmouth professor William Fischel on his new paper,"The Rise of the Homevoters: How OPEC and Earth Day Created Growth-Control Zoning that Derailed the Growth ... →
The Week Observed: March 4, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities can't solve all our problems. Like other people who think and work about cities and urban issues, we're often focused on how ground-level changes can make cities better—thin... →
Quantifying Jane Jacobs
Our storefront index shows where there's a density of destinations to enable walkability As Jane Jacobs so eloquently described it in The Death and Life of American Cities, much of the essence of urban living is reflect... →
Where you can walk and shop locally: The Storefront Index
Where are walkable local shopping districts in your city? There are just six shopping days left until Christmas; while much of our shopping is done on-line or with at big box stores and national chains, many consumers l... →
The Storefront Index
As Jane Jacobs so eloquently described it in The Death and Life of American Cities, much of the essence of urban living is reflected in the “sidewalk ballet” of people going about their daily errands, wandering along t... →
Explore national transportation change trends by age group
In some ways, the urban renaissance of the last decade or two has been quite dramatic. Downtown or downtown-adjacent neighborhoods in cities around the country have seen rapid investments, demographic change, and growth in... →
Undercounting the transit constituency
By far the most common way to measure transit use is "commute mode share," or the percentage of workers who use transit to get to their job. For the most part, this is a measure of convenience: it's the most direct way the... →
The Week Observed: February 26, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Another round on the Washington Post's housing roundtable. On Friday, we took part in a roundtable at the Washington Post's Wonkblog on what it would take to solve the housing afford... →
What I learned playing SimCity
Like most city lovers of a certain age, I spent many hours as a kid playing SimCity. For readers who are tragically uninitiated, SimCity is one of the iconic computer games of the 1990s, though new versions have been relea... →
The Storefront Index
As Jane Jacobs so eloquently described it in The Death and Life of American Cities, much of the essence of urban living is reflected in the “sidewalk ballet” of people going about their daily errands, wandering along t... →
The Week Observed: February 19, 2016
Next week, we'll be releasing our latest City Report, which maps the location of consumer-facing businesses around the nation to provide a new, quantitative measure of a city's street-level vitality—one facet of Jane Jac... →
Urban myth busting: Why building more high income housing helps affordability
After fourteen seasons, Discovery Channel’s always entertaining “Mythbusters” series ended last year. If you didn't see the show-and it lives on at Youtube, of course–co-hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman construc... →
Urban myth busting: New rental housing and median-income households
The price of new housing is a poor gauge of housing affordability Increasing housing supply over time, coupled with individual housing units moving down-market as they age, provides affordability New cars are unaffor... →
Urban myth busting: New rental housing and median-income households
After fourteen seasons, Discovery Channel’s always entertaining “Mythbusters” series is coming to an end later this year. If you haven’t seen the show, co-hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman construct elaborate (of... →
The Week Observed: February 12, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. More evidence on the "Dow of cities." We've argued before that evidence of shifting demand for urban real estate can be read as a sort of "stock" in cities—and that cities' stock ... →
More driving means more dying
New data from the national traffic safety administration shows an ominous trend: traffic related deaths are up 11.3 percent for the first nine months of 2015, as compared to the same period a year earlier. Although the ... →
Why the first-time homebuyer is an endangered species
First-time home buyers play a critical role in the housing market. The influx of new households into the owner-occupied market is a key source of sales, and provides impetus for existing homeowners to move, liquidate their... →
More support for a real estate capital gains tax
A few months ago, we offered a proposal to dramatically increase funding for affordable housing and put a damper on real estate speculation: tax housing capital gains. While San Francisco’s voter-approved Proposition A w... →
The Week Observed: February 5, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Don't demonize driving—just stop subsidizing it. City Observatory likes to make data-driven arguments—but the rhetorical frameworks we use to explain the data matter, too. Here, ... →
Don’t demonize driving—just stop subsidizing it
At City Observatory, we try to stick to a wonky, data-driven approach to all things urban. But numbers don’t mean much without a framework to explain them, and so today we want to quickly talk about one of those rhetoric... →
Rather than demonizing driving—let’s just stop subsidizing it
A "war on cars" won't win many hearts and minds; let's ask for responsibility It's clear that cars, and particular the large numbers of cars we have, and the way in which we and our urban environments have become depend... →
Let’s not demonize driving—just stop subsidizing it
At City Observatory, we try to stick to a wonky, data-driven approach to all things urban. But numbers don’t mean much without a framework to explain them, and so today we want to quickly talk about one of those rhetoric... →
The Week Observed: January 29, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. The market cap of cities. What's the value of a city? We've taken a stab at answering that question—at least, the value of a city's housing. Using a measure called market capitaliz... →
The Week Observed: January 22, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Which federal agency has a big role to play in housing affordability? The answer might surprise you. The Federal Reserve has announced a plan to increase the interest rates it charge... →
The market cap of cities, 2019
What are cities worth? More than big private companies, as it turns out: The value of housing in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas ($25.7 trillion) is more than double the value of the stock of the nation’s 50... →
The market cap of cities
What are cities worth? More than big private companies, as it turns out: The value of housing in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas ($22 trillion) is more than double the value of the stock of the nation’s 50 l... →
For highway advocates, it’s about the journey, not the destination
Last month, we called out the American Highway User’s Alliance (AHUA) for trumpeting the Katy Freeway as a congestion-fighting success story. The Katy, as you will recall, is Houston’s 23-lane freeway, which was recent... →
The Week Observed: January 15, 2016
What City Observatory did this week 1. Bending the carbon curve in the wrong direction. After years in which Americans were driving less, cheap gas is helping to push those numbers back up—erasing a full sixth of the pr... →
Bending the carbon curve in the wrong direction
Gas prices are down, driving is up, and so, too, is carbon pollution. In a little over a year, the US has given up about one-sixth of the progress it made in reducing transportation’s carbon footprint. For more than a... →
The Week Observed: January 8, 2016
This week, Planetizen named City Observatory one of its 10 best urban websites of 2015, adding that "every single post is essential reading." We're extremely grateful for the recognition, and are excited about continuing o... →
The economic strength of American cities in four charts
Cities are becoming more important to the economic health of the country. How do we know? We can boil the answer down to four charts, each of which plots a key indicator of urban economic strength. 1. The Dow of Cities T... →
Make housing vouchers an entitlement—we can afford it
We could extend housing vouchers to every very-low-income household—and expand housing support to the middle class, too — if we were willing to take away just one of the big housing subsidies to people making over ... →
The Year Observed: Your 12 favorite posts from 2015, part 1
12. Let's talk about neighborhood stigma In the last year or two, there has been a resurgence of awareness and debate about the big, structural issues facing America's persistently poor neighborhoods. But one part of the... →
Our favorites from 2015, part 1
Over the last two days, we've give you readers' favorite posts from 2015. Now we're choosing our own. Here are Joe Cortright's five favorite: 5. Want to close the black/white income gap? Work to reduce segregation The in... →
The Week Observed: December 24, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. The Katy isn't ready for its closeup. When the Texas Department of Transportation tried to sell the public on its Katy Freeway expansion project, part of the story was that it would ... →
About that “consensus” on zoning
Is there a “cross-ideological consensus” on zoning reform? Writing in the Washington Post earlier this month, economist Ilya Somin made such a claim. Libertarians, he wrote, have opposed the strict laws that prescri... →
The Week Observed: December 18, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Don't bank on it. Hillary Clinton, as part of her campaign for President, has proposed a National Infrastructure Bank to help local governments pay for crucial infrastructure mainten... →
The Katy isn’t ready for its closeup
When it comes to selling huge new road projects to the public, the highway lobby and their allies in government have many tools. Last week, we wrote about one of them: touting initial declines in congestion as success, wit... →
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 Ba... →
Homevoters v. the growth machine
There are two big theories about who controls the pace of development in American cities and suburbs. One is the “growth machine.” In this telling, developed by academics like Harvey Molotch in the 1970s, urban elec... →
Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t
Here’s a highway success story, as told by the folks who build highways. Several years ago, the Katy Freeway in Houston was a major traffic bottleneck. It was so bad that in 2004 the American Highway Users Alliance (A... →
Where did all the small apartment buildings go?
Back in August, we wrote about the phenomenon of the “missing middle”: the fact that today’s urban (and suburban) development tends to take the form of either single-family homes or very large apartment buildings, bu... →
Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t
Here’s a highway success story, as told by the folks who build highways. Several years ago, the Katy Freeway in Houston was a major traffic bottleneck. It was so bad that in 2004 the American Highway Users Alliance (A... →
The Week Observed: December 11, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. A $1.6 billion proposal. A film school teacher in San Francisco had some people talking about "ethical landlording" as a solution to the problem of too-high real estate prices. But s... →
Don’t bank on it
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton laid out the broad outlines of her plan for a National Infrastructure Bank, which would make low interest loans to help fund all kinds of public and private infrastructu... →
Climate concerns steamrolled by FAST Act and cheap gas
There’s plenty of high-minded rhetoric at the UN climate change conference in Paris about getting serious about the threat of climate change. According to the Los Angeles Times, Secretary of State John Kerry is optimisti... →
The Week Observed: December 4, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Engaged communities, civic participation, and democracy. A guest post from the Knight Foundation's Carol Coletta begins by noting some dismal numbers on voting in American cities—e... →
Is foreign capital destroying our cities?
Be afraid: Big foreign corporations are buying up our cities and stamping out our individuality. Or so warns Saskia Sassen in a piece ominously entitled, “Who owns our cities—and why this urban takeover should concern ... →
You need more than one number to understand housing affordability
Back in October, we wrote a post called “Affordability beyond the median.” While most discussions of housing costs measure based on a city’s or neighborhood’s median price, that’s not all that matters. After a... →
Engaged communities, civic participation, and democracy
Today we're publishing an edited version of a speech given by Carol Coletta, VP of Community and National Initiatives at the Knight Foundation, last month in Portland, OR. Informed and engaged communities are fundam... →
It’s a good time for buyers to beware
It's the hardiest perennial in the real estate business: “Now,” your realtor will tell you, “is a great time to buy a home.” Back in 2006, just as the housing market was faltering, that’s exactly what the Nat... →
The Week Observed: November 27, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Ways forward to more equitable land use law. Following up on last week's posts about William Fischel's new book, Zoning Rules!, and its arguments about how America got into its curre... →
The Week Observed: November 20, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. The high price of cheap gas. While many economists emphasize the positive effects of low gas prices—more disposable income in consumers' pockets, which can act as a stimulus—it's... →
Zoning and cities on the national economic stage
It's hard to think of an issue that is more quintessentially local than zoning. It's all about what happens on the ground on a specific piece of property in a particular neighborhood. It's the bread and butter of local gov... →
The shopkeeper: A zoning parable
This year, William Fischel, a professor at Dartmouth and one of the country’s leading scholars of land use policy, published a new opus on zoning: Zoning Rules! There’s far too much in the book to do a comprehensive re... →
Ways forward to more equitable land use law
Last week, going off a recent book by William Fischel, we published a parable that explained the evolution of American zoning over the 20th century, from non-zoning land use in the early years to the introduction of true z... →
The origins of the housing crisis
Yesterday, we published a “zoning parable,” based on William Fischel’s arguments for why and how zoning regulations developed in American cities over the 20th century. Today, we’ll expand a bit on one of the book... →
The Week Observed: November 13, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. What filtering can and can't do. In most cities, the majority of homes that are affordable to people of modest or low incomes don't receive special affordability subsidies—they're ... →
The high price of cheap gas
At least on the surface, the big declines in gas prices we’ve seen over the past year seem like an unalloyed good. We save money at the pump, and we have more to spend on other things, But the cheap gas has serious hidde... →
The Week Observed: November 6, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. More doubt cast on food deserts. The concept of a "food desert"—typically low-income urban neighborhoods where a lack of nearby grocery stores leads to poor nutrition—is widely a... →
What filtering can and can’t do
“Affordable housing” can seem like a hopelessly vague term. First of all, affordable to whom? (Follow the link to a description of an “affordable” program targeting people making 40 percent more than the median inc... →
Do the rich (neighborhoods) get richer?
Many studies of gentrification (for example, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia study we wrote about last week) begin by dividing neighborhoods into one of two categories: gentrifiable and non-gentrifiable. Usually, ... →
The Week Observed: October 30, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Introducing City Observatory policy memos. At City Observatory, one of our goals is to translate the best and latest urban policy research for advocates, organizers, and practitioner... →
A “helicopter drop” for the asphalt socialists
The House of Representatives has hit on a clever new strategy for funding the bankrupt Highway Trust Fund: raid the Federal Reserve. Their plan calls for transferring nearly $60 billion from the profits earned on the Feder... →
Introducing City Observatory policy memos
One role we hope to play at City Observatory is translator: taking some of the best, most rigorous research on American cities and urban policy and turning it into smart, sophisticated, and readable pieces that can inform... →
More doubt cast on food deserts
It’s a plausible and widely-believed hypothesis: Poor people in the United States suffer from measurably worse nutrition because they have such limited access to good food. Confronted with a high concentration of poor di... →
Why creating meaningful transportation change is so hard
At his blog, The Transport Politic, Yonah Freemark pushed back this week on the idea that we’re seeing a revolution in the way people get around cities and suburbs, largely thanks to new transit-and-bike-friendly Millenn... →
Higher-inequality neighborhoods reduce inequality
A few weeks ago, in a post about what income inequality means in an urban (rather than national) context, we contrasted images of a lower Manhattan neighborhood with a Dallas suburb. The Manhattan street had subsidized hou... →
The Week Observed: October 23, 2015
Our partners and supporters at the Knight Foundation have announced a new round of the Knight Cities Challenge, which gives grants to people and organizations around the country for projects that make their cities more li... →
Beyond gas: The price (of driving) is wrong
Our recent conversation about the future of American driving habits, and the role of the price of gas in changing them, is a good reminder of a broader truth about transportation policy: prices are important, and getti... →
Eleven things you’d know if you read City Observatory
Last week, City Observatory celebrated its first birthday. This week, we're taking some time to look back at all the reports and commentaries we researched and wrote in the last year, and picking out some of what we thin... →
A modest proposal: treat affordable housing more like food stamps
Two of the most fundamental human needs are food and housing. As a result, we have government programs to help people who might not be able to afford them. But the way those programs work is wildly different. So let’s... →
Happy birthday to us!
A year ago today, October 15th, 2014, we launched City Observatory, a data-driven voice on what makes for successful cities. [caption id="attachment_1725" align="alignnone" width="800"] The Plaza in Kansas City. Credit... →
The Week Observed: October 16, 2015
Our partners and supporters at the Knight Foundation have announced a new round of the Knight Cities Challenge, which gives grants to people and organizations around the country for projects that make their cities more li... →
The Week Observed: October 9, 2015
Last week, our partners and supporters at the Knight Foundation announced a new round of the Knight Cities Challenge, which gives grants to people and organizations around the country for projects that make their cities mo... →
Mystery in the Bookstore
Signs of a rebound in independent bookstores, but not in the statistics Lately, there've been a spate of stories pointing to a minor renaissance of the independent American bookstore. After decades of glum news and clos... →
The danger of taking policy lessons from extreme cases
Two recent press features have suggested that one Utah city has worked out the recipe for equitable development. The cover story from Newsweek’s October 2, issue offers “Lessons from America’s most egalitarian zip co... →
Talent, opportunity, and engagement are essential to successful cities
We're very excited to spread the news that this fall, our partners and supporters at the Knight Foundation are reprising their wildly successful "Knight Cities Challenge." Last year, Knight chose 32 winners out of more tha... →
Why America can’t make up its mind about housing
Here are two ideas that, if you’re like most Americans, you probably mostly agree with: 1. Government policy should help keep housing broadly affordable, so as not to price out people of low or moderate incomes from e... →
The end of peak driving?
A little over a year ago, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $3.70. Since then, that price has plummeted, and remains more than a dollar cheaper than it was through most of 2014. Over the same period, there’s been a sm... →
The Week Observed: October 2, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Cities' role in growing our nation's economy. New data from the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis builds on our "Dow of Cities" post and Surging City Center Job Growth report to sh... →
What’s behind the debate over American streets
What are roads for? For that matter, what’s transportation policy for? Much of the urban reform movement of the last few decades has been about re-asking, and re-answering, these questions. Most people who follow trends ... →
When it comes to transit use, it’s all about destination density
At City Observatory, we’ve written quite a bit about the phenomenon of city center job growth. We did a whole CityReport about the phenomenon, showing that since the Great Recession, urban cores have been outperforming t... →
When it comes to transit use, destination density matters more than where you live
At City Observatory, we’ve written quite a bit about the phenomenon of city center job growth. We did a whole CityReport about the phenomenon, showing that since the Great Recession, urban cores have been outperforming t... →
One of the biggest myths about cities: Crime is rising
There's a lot happening in American cities these days, which means that there's a lot to read about! Even for those of us at City Observatory, sometimes good, important articles slip through the cracks. In recognition of t... →
The Week Observed: September 25, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Zoning in everything—even the education gap. By now, thanks to renewed attention in major media outlets from writers like the New York Times' Nikole Hannah-Jones, many observers of... →
The immaculate conception theory of your neighborhood’s origins
Last week, a columnist in Seattle Magazine, Knute Berger, expressed his discontent with modern housing development. As Berger sees it, today’s homebuilding pales in comparison to the virtues of early 20th century bungalo... →
Big city metros are driving the national economy
The nation's largest city-centered metro areas are powering national economic growth. 2017 will mark a decade since the peak of the last economic cycle (which according to the National Bureau of Economic Research was De... →
Cities’ role in growing our nation’s economy
Cities have always played a vital role in the national economy, but in the past few years their importance has increased. Last month, we highlighted the “Dow of Cities”—how the rising value of housing in the most ... →
Zoning in everything—even the education gap
A few weeks ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones produced a tour de force report on school segregation in America, which became a two-part episode on the public radio show This American Life. In the first part, she dove into the compl... →
What else does the new “severely rent-burdened” report tell us?
This week, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and the affordable housing organization Enterprise Community Partners released a report sketching out various scenarios of rental cost and income growth for the next ... →
The Week Observed: September 18, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Great neighborhoods don't have to be illegal—they're not elsewhere. Daniel Kay Hertz follows up on our earlier piece about illegal neighborhoodsto point out that most other wealthy... →
Why are metropolitan areas more “equal” than their central cities?
To butcher Orwell, all cities are unequal, but some cities are more unequal than others. While working with some of the Census-calculated income inequality numbers—in particular, the Gini index—we noticed an interestin... →
The prisoner’s dilemma of local-only planning
One of the most broadly popular ideas about urban planning today is that decisions should be made locally. After all, who knows better what a neighborhood needs than the people who live there? And what better way to squash... →
Caught in the prisoner’s dilemma of local-only planning
The fundamental conundrum underlying many of our key urban problems is the conflict between broadly shared regional interests and impacts in local communities. While we generally all share an interest in housing affordabil... →
Great neighborhoods don’t have to be illegal—they’re not elsewhere
Ah, Paris! Perhaps one of the world's most beautiful cities, a capital of European culture, and prosperous economic hub. What’s its secret? Zoning, of course! [caption id="attachment_1579" align="alignnone" width="80... →
Great neighborhoods don’t have to be illegal—they’re not elsewhere
Ah, Paris! Perhaps one of the world's most beautiful cities, a capital of European culture, and prosperous economic hub. What’s its secret? Zoning, of course! [caption id="attachment_1579" align="alignnone" width="80... →
The Week Observed: September 11, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. My illegal neighborhood. Guest Commentary writer Robert Liberty describes all the things he loves about his neighborhood in Northwest Portland—and then explains why all of them wou... →
My illegal neighborhood
Editor’s note: City Observatory is pleased to provide this guest commentary by our friend Robert Liberty a keen observer of and advocate for cities. by Robert Liberty For many years I lived in Northwest... →
Why do we make it illegal to build the neighborhoods Americans love most?
Narrow streets, a mix of large houses and tiny apartments, interspersed with shops and businesses in close walking distance. It's the most desirable neighborhood in the city, and we've made it illegal to build any more lik... →
Updated: Is traffic worse now? The “congestion report” can’t tell us
Part 1: Resurrecting discredited data to paint a false history The Texas Transportation Institute claims that traffic congestion is steadily getting worse. But its claims are based on resurrecting and repeating traffic ... →
The Week Observed: September 4, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Looking at housing injustice requires a broad lens. A new research project on Bay Area neighborhood change defines "displacement" as any reduction in the number of low-income people ... →
UPDATED (again): Another tall tale from the Texas Transportation Institute
UPDATE: A chorus of congestion cost critiques By this point, researchers and practitioners from around the country (and beyond!) have laid out their problems with TTI's congestion reports. Here's a roundup of some of the ... →
Looking at housing injustice requires a broad lens
What does it mean for someone to be displaced by gentrification? And in a just world, what do our cities’ neighborhoods look like? As reported by Next City, a team of researchers at the University of California-Berkel... →
New Orleans’ missing black middle class
Washed away? Or moved to the suburbs? At FiveThirtyEight, Ben Casselman writes: “Katrina Washed Away New Orleans's Black Middle Class.” It's a provocative piece showing the sharp decline in the black population of... →
The Week Observed: August 28, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Another tall tale from the Texas Transportation Institute. This week, TTI released another episode of its "Urban Mobility Report," claiming to measure the cost of congestion and trac... →
Why Cyber-Monday doesn’t mean delivery gridlock Tuesday?
Far from increasing traffic congestion, more on-line shopping reduces it, by reducing personal shopping trips Delivery trucks generate 30 times less travel than people traveling to stores to make the same purchases T... →
Black Friday, Cyber-Monday and the myth of gridlock Tuesday
Far from increasing traffic congestion, more on-line shopping reduces it, by reducing personal shopping trips Delivery trucks generate 30 times less travel than people traveling to stores to make the same purchases T... →
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 $... →
Does Cyber-Monday mean delivery gridlock Tuesday?
Yesterday was, famously, cyber-Monday, the day in which the nation's consumers took to their web-browsers and started clicking for holiday shopping in earnest. Tech Crunch reports that estimated e-commerce sales will yeste... →
Growing e-commerce means less urban traffic
The takeaway: Urban truck traffic is flat to declining, even as Internet commerce has exploded. More e-commerce will result in greater efficiency and less urban traffic as delivery density increases We likely are o... →
The Dow of Cities
The Dow Jones Industrial may be down, but the Dow of Cities is rising The daily business news is obsessed with the price of stocks. Widely reported indicators like the Dow Jones Industrial average gauge the overall heal... →
Are racial “tipping points” overblown?
Why are America’s neighborhoods so segregated? For a lot of people, the answer requires reaching deep into history: explaining the rise of the subsidized mortgage market and redlining; racial violence in towns from Cicer... →
The next road safety revolution
“The automobile tragedy is one of the most serious...man-made assaults on the human body,” wrote Ralph Nader in 1965. “It is a lag of almost paralytic proportions that these values of safety...have not found their wa... →
The Week Observed: August 14, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. City home prices outpacing suburbs by 50 percent. Joe Cortright examines a new study prepared by investment firm Fitch looking at the growing value premium in central cities. Sin... →
The McMansion mirage reappears
OK, we admit we might be a bit obsessed with this story. But if you can, bear with us one more time. Here’s the most basic fact: The number of newly-built McMansions—single family homes of 4,000 square feet or large... →
The suburbs: where the rich ride transit
This isn’t actually a post about transit. It’s about land use. But we’ll get there in a second. Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, is responsible for one of the most widely-shared quotes in ... →
The suburbs: where the rich ride transit
This isn’t actually a post about transit. It’s about land use. But we’ll get there in a second. Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, is responsible for one of the most widely-shared quotes in ... →
Between highrises and single-family homes
One of the most controversial recommendations from Seattle’s affordable housing task force, or HALA, was to reform zoning laws that only allow single-family homes in certain neighborhoods. That was al... →
City home prices outpacing metro by 50%
Since 2000, home prices have grown 50 percent faster in urban centers than in their surrounding metro areas. If your are an urban data geek, like we are, this is big news. A dramatic shift in city-suburb price differenti... →
The Week Observed: August 7, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Let's talk about neighborhood stigma. Daniel Kay Hertz reviews some of the literature on the interplay between a neighborhood's reputation and its disadvantage—and finds a surprisi... →
Revisiting Marietta
Last month, we questioned why people weren’t paying more attention to Marietta, the Atlanta suburb that is tearing down 1,300 apartments and permanently displacing their low-income residents. We wondered why this large-s... →
Let’s talk about neighborhood stigma
My hometown, Chicago, is having a fight over words: in particular, “Chiraq.” That’s a portmanteau of “Chicago” and “Iraq,” which is meant to analogize the city not to that country’s rich cultural heritage, ... →
Measuring housing affordability: What about homeowners?
Over the past two posts, we’ve argued that the most common measure of housing affordability - whether someone is paying more than 30% of their income - has a lot of serious problems. For one, housing costs are only one f... →
The Week Observed: July 24, 2015
What City Observatory did this week This week, we ran a three-part series on what we mean by "housing affordability." 1. In The way we measure housing affordability is broken, Daniel Kay Hertz writes about the problems... →
How cutting back on driving helps the economy
There are two kinds of economics: macroeconomics, which deals in big national and global quantities, like gross domestic product, and microeconomics, which focuses on a smaller scale, like how the prices of specific produc... →
What can conservatives do for cities?
Imagine an urban policy agenda defined by simplifying business regulations and promoting entrepreneurship as the key to prosperity. Add to that an attack on overly restrictive zoning laws that hold back housing constructio... →
The devilish details of getting a VMT fee right
At City Observatory, we’re big believers that many of our transportation problems come from the fact that our prices are wrong - and solving those problems will require us to get prices right. While we desperately need a... →
The Week Observed: July 17, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. Why aren't we talking about Marietta, Georgia? Joe Cortright covers a Robert Moses-style case of "slum clearance" in suburban Atlanta. The city of Marietta is demolishing a complex ... →
The Week Observed: July 10, 2015
What City Observatory did this week 1. In More evidence on the changing demographics of American downtowns, Daniel Kay Hertz looks at a recent study from the Cleveland Fed on growing high-income neighborhoods in city core... →
An idea whose time has passed: The VMT Fee
Obsolete before its even tried: A simple mileage fee is a bad way to pay for roads It's being touted as a replacement for the gas tax, but the VMT fee is a flawed way to pay for roads. We should adopt a pricing sys... →
The Week Observed: June 26, 2015
Below is the inaugural issue of The Week Observed, City Observatory’s weekly newsletter. Every Friday, we’ll give you a quick review of the most important articles, blog posts, and scholarly research on American citie... →
Three more takeaways from Harvard’s “State of the Nation’s Housing” report
“The State of the Nation’s Housing 2015,” the report published last week by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, has already garnered a lot of attention. We wrote about how it points to a new “gerontrific... →
Paving Paradise
Vancouver and Seattle are regularly rated among the most environmentally conscious cities in North America. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked them among the top five greenest cities in 2012. The State of Washington h... →
More evidence on the changing demographics of American downtowns
Earlier this year, Daniel Hartley of the Cleveland Fed and Nathan Baum-Snow of Brown University published a novel analysis of what has been called the “Great Inversion”: the shift of higher-income people from the perip... →
Playing together is getting harder to do
In our CityReport, Less in Common, we explored a key symptom of the decline in social capital: Americans seem to be spending less time playing together. One major driver of this trend is a dramatic privatization ... →
Show Your Work: Getting DOT Traffic Forecasts Out of the Black Box
Traffic projections used to justify highway expansions are often wildly wrong The recent Wisconsin court case doesn’t substitute better models, but it does require DOTs to show their data and assumptions instead of ... →
Playing Apart
Our City Observatory report, Less in Common, catalogs the ways that we as a nation have been growing increasingly separated from one another. Changes in technology, the economy and society have all coalesced to create mo... →
Portland, the Mission, and the housing affordability debate
It would be tempting to call the eight hours of testimony over a proposed moratorium on housing construction in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, and the SF Board of Supervisor’s subsequent failure to approve that... →
New evidence on integration and economic mobility
It's unusual to flag an economics article as a “must-read” for general audiences: but if you care about cities and place, and about the prospects for the American Dream in the 21st Century, you owe it to yourself to re... →
Urban residents aren’t abandoning buses; buses are abandoning them
“Pity the poor city bus,” writes Jacob Anbinder in an interesting essay at The Century Foundation’s website. Anbinder brings some of his own data to a finding that’s been bouncing around the web for a while: that e... →
Baltimore’s problems belong to 2015, not 1968
Think riots destroyed #Baltimore? Entire blocks boarded up. pic.twitter.com/OKSnHXMb9f— Michael Kaplan (@MichaelD_Kaplan) May 1, 2015 Look what the riots did to Baltimore! Oh wait no...These were taken before th... →
The real welfare Cadillacs have 18 wheels
Truck freight movement gets a subsidy of between $57 and $128 billion annually in the form of uncompensated social costs, over and above what trucks pay in taxes, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If truck... →
The real welfare Cadillacs have 18 wheels
Truck freight movement gets a subsidy of between $57 and $128 billion annually in the form of uncompensated social costs, over and above what trucks pay in taxes, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If tru... →
Gentrification: The state of the debate in 2015
Gentrification continues to command an enormous amount of attention in the media, and several prominent publications – from The Economist to The Week – have made provocative arguments on the subject since our previous ... →
Undercounting the transit constituency
By far the most common way to measure transit use is "commute mode share," or the percentage of workers who use transit to get to their job. For the most part, this is a measure of convenience: it's the most direct way the... →
City of ideas, and the idea of cities
Cities have always been about bringing people together and creating new ideas Editor's Note: City Observatory Director Joe Cortright will be giving the Harold Vatter Memorial Lecture in Economics at Portland State Uni... →
City of ideas, and the idea of cities
[caption id="attachment_964" align="alignnone" width="800"] Credit: Galería de Faustino, Flickr[/caption] Notes from your far flung correspondent, in the shadow of the Acropolis. Though the local economy is still in... →
On Baltimore: Concentrated Poverty, Segregation, and Inequality
Yet again, a black citizen dies at the hands of the police. This event and the ensuing riots in Baltimore are a painful reminder of the deep divisions that cleave our cities. There's little we can add to this debate, exc... →
How we measure segregation depends on why we care
Segregation is complicated and multi-dimensional, and measuring it isn't easy In 2014, NYU's Furman Center hosted a roundtable of essays on "The Problem of Integration." Northwestern sociologist Mary Pattillo kicked it ... →
Peaks, valleys, and donuts: a great new way to see American cities
In my inaugural post, I claimed that county-level population data is bad at telling us much of anything about cities and housing preferences. Counties just contain too many multitudes – of built environments, of types of... →
How we measure segregation depends on why we care
Last year, NYU's Furman Center hosted a roundtable of essays on "The Problem of Integration." Northwestern sociologist Mary Pattillo kicked it off: I must begin by stating that I am by no means against integration.... My... →
Young People are Buying Fewer Cars
Will somebody teach the Atlantic and Bloomberg how to do long division? In this post, we take down more breathless contrarian reporting about how Millennials are just as suburban and car-obsessed as previous generat... →
Peaks, valleys, and donuts: Visualizing cities in cross-section
Too often, the descriptions of urban form are reduced to excessively simple binary classifications (city v. suburb), or rely on data grouped by counties, which are maddeningly disparate units. County-level population data ... →
City Observatory Welcomes Daniel Kay Hertz
We’re delighted to announce that Daniel Kay Hertz is joining City Observatory as our new Senior Fellow. Its likely that if you’ve been following the discussions on a wide range of urban issues in the past year or so, y... →
More evidence on city center job growth
In February, we released our latest CityReport documenting a remarkable turnaround in the pattern of job growth within metropolitan areas. After decades of steady job decentralization, the period 2007-2011 marked the fir... →
Want to close the Black/White Income Gap? Work to Reduce Segregation.
Nationally, the average black household has an income 42 percent lower than average white household. But that figure masks huge differences from one metropolitan area to another. And though any number of factors ... →
Travis County, TX is booming. Cook County, IL is shrinking. What does that tell us about cities? Not much.
For the last few years, counties at the center of their metropolitan areas have been growing faster than those at the edge. But late last month, the Washington Post's Emily Badger – citing analysis by demographer William... →
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... →
How important is proximity to jobs for the poor?
More jobs are close at hand in cities. And on average the poor live closer to jobs than the non-poor. One of the most enduring explanations for urban poverty is the "spatial mismatch hypothesis" promulgated by John Ka... →
Walkability rankings: One step forward, one step back
To begin, let’s be clear about one thing: we’re huge fans of Walk Score--the free Internet based service that rates every residential address in the United States (and a growing list of other countries) of a scale of... →
The Cappuccino Congestion Index
April First falls on Saturday, and that's a good reason to revisit an old favorite, the Cappuccino Congestion Index We're continuing told that congestion is a grievous threat to urban well-being. It's annoying to queue ... →
The Cappuccino Congestion Index
The Cappuccino Congestion Index shows how you can show how anything costs Americans billions and billions We're continuing told that congestion is a grievous threat to urban well-being. It's annoying to queue up for any... →
The Cappuccino Congestion Index
The Cappuccino Congestion Index shows how you can show how anything costs Americans billions and billions We're continuing told that congestion is a grievous threat to urban well-being. It's annoying to queue up for any... →
The Cappuccino Congestion Index
The Cappuccino Congestion Index shows how you can show how anything costs Americans billions and billions We're continuing told that congestion is a grievous threat to urban well-being. It's annoying to queue up for any... →
On the Road Again
The last few months have witnessed a notable rebound in vehicle miles traveled. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that for the year ended December, 2014, American’s drove 3.015 trillion miles, up about 1.7 pe... →
The Cappuccino Congestion Index
City Observatory, April 1. 2015 A new City Observatory analysis reveals a new and dangerous threat to the nation’s economic productivity: costly and growing coffee congestion. Yes, there’s another black fluid... →
Misleading Medians & the McMansion Mirage
A story published by the Washington Post’s Wonkblog last week made the headline claim that “The McMansion is back, and bigger than ever.” The article says that new homes are an average of 1,000 feet larger than in ... →
The Perils of Conflating Gentrification and Displacement: A Longer and Wonkier Critique of Governing’s Gentrification Issue
It’s telling that Governing calls gentrification the “g-word”—it’s become almost impossible to talk about neighborhood revitalization without objections being raised almost any change amounts to gentrification. W... →
How is economic mobility related to entrepreneurship? (Part 2: Small Business)
We recently featured a post regarding how venture capital is associated with economic mobility. We know that these are strongly correlated—and that, if we are concerned with the ability of children today to obtain ‘The... →
Less in Common
The essence of cities is bringing people—from all walks of life—together in one place. Social interaction and a robust mixing of people from different backgrounds, of different ages, with different incomes and intere... →
Surging City Center Job Growth
For over half a century, American cities were decentralizing, with suburban areas surpassing city centers in both population and job growth. It appears that these economic and demographic tides are now changing. Over the p... →
How Governing got it wrong: The problem with confusing gentrification and displacement
Here’s a quick quiz: Which of the following statements is true? a) Gentrification can be harmful because it causes displacement b) Gentrification is the same thing as displacement c) Gentrification is a totally diff... →
America’s Most Diverse Mixed Income Neighborhoods
In a nation increasingly divided by race and economic status, where our life prospects are increasingly de ned by the wealth of our zip codes, some American neighborhoods are bucking the trend. These neighborhoods... →
One tip for a prosperous city economy
Local media over the course of the last several months have asked us variations on one question repeatedly: if our city wants to do better – be more productive, retain more young people, reduce poverty—how can it do th... →
How segregation limits opportunity
The more segregated an metro area is, the worse the economic prospects of the poor and people of color Our City Observatory report, Lost in Place, closely tracks the growth of concentrated poverty in the nation’s citi... →
New Findings on Economic Opportunity (that you should know)
Our recent report, Lost in Place, closely tracks the growth of concentrated poverty in the nation’s cities; this is particularly important because of the widespread evidence of the permanent damage high-poverty neighborh... →
Why integration matters
Socioeconomic mixing, in neighborhoods that are diverse in race, ethnicity and income, benefits everyone To some extent, we take for granted that integration and equal opportunity should be valued for their own sake. Bu... →
Is life really better in Red States (and cities)?
The red state/blue state divide is a persistent feature of American politics. Political differences among states are also associated with important economic differences, and a similar patterns hold across and within metro ... →
Where are the food deserts?
One of the nation’s biggest health problems is the challenge of obesity: since the early 1960s the number of American’s who are obese has increased from about 13 percent to 35 percent. The problem is a complex, de... →
City Report: Lost in Place
Here's a summary of our latest CityReport: Lost in Place: Why the persistence and spread of concentrated poverty--not gentrification--is our biggest urban challenge. Lost in Place traces the history of high poverty neig... →
How Poverty Has Deepened (part 1)
Many talk about poverty—its causes, its effects, and its possible remedies. There is literature on this issue from almost every social science, and no one can summarize it all in one blog post. However, there’s one asp... →
City Report: America’s Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods
Today we're releasing our latest CityReport: America's Most Diverse, Mixed Income Neighborhoods. In this report, we use Census data to identify those neighborhoods that have the highest levels of both racial/ethnic and ... →
How we build our cities: What’s at stake
Guest Commentary by Carol Coletta It’s a glorious moment to be in the business of promoting the built environment. I use “built environment” to encompass the way we build our buildings, arrange our neighborhoods a... →
Young and Restless
The Young and Restless—25 to 34 year-olds with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education—are increasingly moving to the close-in neighborhoods of the nation’s large metropolitan areas. This migration is ... →
The varying thickness of the blue line
Cops per capita: An indicator of "Anti-social" capital?" Why do some cities have vastly fewer police officers relative to their population than others? In the 1966 film "The Thin Blue Line" director William Friedki... →
How distinct is your city?
Every city has its own unique characteristics. We know that industrial and occupational specializations can be measured using standard economic tools like location quotients. But some of the more intangible characteristics... →
Gender Differences in Unemployment
To celebrate the Census Bureau’s release of the 5-year American Community Survey estimate, we decided to do a quick analysis of some of its information. So for some light Friday afternoon reading, we present you with an ... →
Ten More you should read about Gentrification, Integration and Concentrated Poverty
Gentrification and neighborhood changes are hotly contested subjects. In the past few years some very thoughtful and provocative work has been done that helps shed light on these issues. Here we offer ten more of the m... →
Are suburbs really happier?
A few months back our friends at CityLab published the results of a survey looking at differences in attitudes about cities and suburbs under the provocative headline, “Overall, Americans in the suburbs are still the hap... →
Ten things you should read about Gentrification, Integration and Concentrated Poverty
Gentrification and neighborhood changes are hotly contested subjects. In the past few years some very thoughtful and provocative work has been done that helps shed light on these issues. Here we offer a baker’s dozen... →
Data
At CityObservatory, we strive to make data the driving force behind our operations. We know that many of you share our keen interest in digging through the data, and we strongly believe that everyone benefits when data sou... →
Our Shortage of Cities: Portland Housing Market Edition
The big idea: housing in desirable city neighborhoods in getting more expensive because the demand for urban living is growing. The solution? Build more great neighborhoods. To an economist, prices are an important signa... →
The four biggest myths about cities – #3: Crime is rising in cities
The Myth: Crime in cities is on the rise The Reality: Cities are getting safer For decades, the common perception about cities is that they were dangerous, dirty, and crowded. A look at the facts tells a differen... →
The four biggest myths about cities – #1 Cities aren’t safe for children
If your impression of cities came entirely from watching the evening news, you might think that cities are saddled with ever-increasing traffic congestion and rising crime rates. From talking to your Great Aunt Ida at Than... →
The four biggest myths about cities – #2: Cities are dirty
The Myth: Cities are polluted and have dirty air The Reality: Urban air quality has improved dramatically since 1990 For decades, the common perception about cities is that they were dangerous, dirty, and crowded... →
The four biggest myths about cities – #4: Traffic is getting worse
The Myth: Traffic congestion is getting worse The Reality: Congestion has declined almost everywhere It’s a common movie trope – a busy commuter rushes out of his downtown office at 5pm, hoping to get only to... →
Boo! The annual Carmaggedon scare is upon us.
A new report detailing the “costs” of congestion twists the data to become little more than talking points for the highway lobby. For transportation geeks, Halloween came early this year. A new report claims ... →
Economic Opportunity
A key measure of economic success has to be whether we provide widely shared opportunities for economic advancement. →
Talent & Prosperity
Talent drives city success: The biggest single factor explaining urban economic success is human capital. →
Housing Markets
The creation and allocation of living space within a metropolitan area shapes our well-being and the regional economy. →
Urban Form & Transportation
Density, land use patterns and the transportation system interact to determine how well cities fulfill their fundamental task of bringing people together. →
Distinctiveness
Every city has its own unique character and strengths which shape its economic opportunities. →
Data & Tools
Quantitative data can shed light on the functions and performance of urban economies. →
Kids in Cities
Young adults are increasingly choosing cities--what will happen when they have kids? →
Portland
Portland is our home and a local laboratory for many interesting developments in urban living. →
Our Shortage of Cities
The Big Idea: High housing prices in American cities are a symptom of our shortage of great urban neighborhoods. The tried-and-true solution to a shortage is to supply by building new neighborhoods—places where people wa... →
Is Portland really where young people go to retire?
Forget the quirky, slacker stereotype, the data show people are coming to Portland to start businesses. A recent New York Times magazine article “Keep Portland Broke,” echoed a meme made popular by the satirical... →
Questioning Congestion Costs
It's frequently claimed that traffic congestion imposes high and rising costs on the economy. But is that true? →