I consider the suburban decay facing inner ring suburbs across America, especially those of the 60's and 70's vintage built on a modern suburban pattern, as one of the key challenges facing urban leaders over the coming decades. I outlined a lot of the case in my review of the book "Retrofitting Suburbia". Why is this happening? One big reason cities tend to fall into decline is that they accumulate huge unfunded liabilities, and those liabilities attach to the territory, not the people. This lets one generation of residents rack up huge … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2009
End Property Tax Collection in Arrears
Jim Meredith over at Archizoo bemoans the state of retail overbuilding in America and looks at ways to prevent it. These range from "certificates of need" as some states require for hospital expansion to new zoning standards. Take a look for yourself. This reminds me that I've been remiss in following up on my "Buildings Suburbs That Last" series. So look for more installments of that shortly. This post isn't per se about that, but does talk about how we discourage overbuilding. In some states - and I don't have a full list, but know it … [Read more...]
Globalization and the Soft Power of Cities
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has stressed the need for the city to become more international. A recent blog posting elsewhere covers some interesting facets of his program, so I thought I’d use that as a departure point for thinking about globalization and the city. Mayor Ballard is absolutely right that to be successful in the 21st century economy, a broader vision is required, one that acknowledges global realities and gets the city more engaged in the great global conversation. In my view, there are five main planks of any city’s … [Read more...]
The Talent Equation
Nancy Kaffer's column over at Crain's Detroit Business is all about attracting college educated youth to that city, and extensively features an interview with Yours Truly. This piece is subscription only, so I thought I would restate the case here in brief. The Logic of Talent There are three potential sources of talent: Retention "Boomerang" migration Net new immigration from people with no previous affiliation The majority of Midwest talent initiatives focus on "brain drain", which almost entirely targets retention and … [Read more...]