The revival of America’s core cities is one of the most celebrated narratives of our time—yet, perhaps paradoxically, urban progress has also created a growing problem of increasing inequality and middle-class flight. Once exemplars of middle-class advancement, most...
Originally published for The Huffington Post. The world is rapidly becoming urban. More than half the world’s 7-plus billion people live in urban areas (urban cores, suburbs and small towns). Nearly a quarter of the population lives in “cities” of a million or more....
Originally printed in the Huffington Post. The history of humanity is a history of poverty. This is illustrated in the work of University of California, Davis economist Gregory Clark. According to Clark (Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World):...
People flock to major cities to take advantage of unique experiences. In theory, most of the types of activities tourists seek out can be replicated most anywhere, but people are willing to pay a large premium and go out of their way to see a show on Broadway, or eat...
For the past 14 years, Vancouver surgeon Dr. Brian Day has led the charge for health-care reform, pushing for the right of patients to pay for private care if their health and well-being are threatened as a result of waiting in a stagnant and overburdened public...
The path to net zero, based on the much disputed belief that carbon dioxide is a pollution, is more steep and impractical than most people realize. Replacing fossil fuels with clean electricity will require much more power generation and a greatly upgraded grid to...
Creating Satellite Towns to Accommodate Growth Makes Sense.
Provincial and municipal governments are attempting to increase density and transit use in most Canadian cities. Rather than increasing affordability and mobility, that approach is doing the opposite. The report argues that cities should embrace, rather than reject, urban dispersion.
You have to admit that whether you agree with him or not, Wendell Cox offers a fresh perspective. It’s long been de rigueur for professional urban planners and left-of-centre middle-class lay-people alike to opine on the benefits of “high density” areas: These concentrations of large groups of people are supposed to be better for the environment, better for the economy and better for society. Residents are said to use cars less, walk more and consume fewer resources. Some even claim they’ll breathe fresher air. But in a commentary released Thursday by the Macdonald-Laurier institute, Mr. Cox – an urban policy authority himself – dares to suggest just the opposite. What “radical densification” has done, he says, is drive down the quality of life for Canadians living in the country’s major cities.
I think that the City of London in the UK is taking efforts to decrease urban sprawl a bit too far. The National Post
In his new book, Last Exit: Privatization and Deregulation of the U.S. Transportation System, Brookings Institution economist Clifford Winston contends that transit subsidies are largely the result of labor productivity losses, inefficient operations and counterproductive federal regulations.
“Provincial guidelines intended to contain urban sprawl in the Greater Toronto Area are choking development, according to the building industry, pushing the value of single-family homes above $500,000 in 2010 as developers struggled to find land they are allowed to build upon.”
“California futurist Joel Kotkin anticipates the unequivocal restoration of the United States as the most dynamic country in the world. With its population increasing at a record-setting pace, he argues, the U.S. will grow younger as the rest of the world grows older.”
“The cities of the plains—from Dallas in the south through Omaha, Des Moines, and north to Fargo—have enjoyed strong job growth and in-migration from the rest of the country.”
The megacity was supposed to be more efficient and less costly, with a new arrondisement system that promised suburban-style service for everyone. But even with the best intentions, it’s just created more layers of arrondo-bureaucracy, piled atop mega-bureaucracy, piled atop blue-collar-ocracy. It’s become obvious that bigger is not more efficient. It’s slower, more bureaucratic and less friendly.