I'm in Chicago for the Chicago Forum on Global Cities and managed to snag fellow-attendee Rob Paral for a podcast. Rob is a Chicago demographer and consultant who is known for being much more positive on the city's demographics than the average analyst. We talk about why Chicago's population has declined, whether the city really has a population problem, what's been happening in the greater downtown area, and whether the Chicago metro area will ever reach 10 million people. If the audio player doesn't display for you, click over to listen on … [Read more...]
Kwame Kilpatrick’s 28 Year Prison Sentence Is Unfairly Long
A recent article noting that former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had been transferred between prisons, combined with rumors that President Trump might commute the sentence of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich made me think about the fairness of Kilpatrick's 28 year prison sentence. According to a 2016 article from the Washington Post, only one other person has ever been sentenced to more than 20 years for political corruption. In fact, they only list four that got more then 15 years and they seem to involve extreme cases, like Rita … [Read more...]
De-Annexation Rears Its Head
You may be familiar with the "cityhood" movement in Atlanta. Much of suburban Atlanta was traditionally unincorporated. But there have been a series of incorporations of new suburban municipalities, something that has been controversial. Now some places are taking it to the next level and seeking to secede from existing municipalities in order to form a new one. Breaking apart a municipality brings all sorts of issues into play, especially financial ones, and most especially if the communities have bonded debt. Ratings agencies are keeping … [Read more...]
Vermont Subsidizes Remote Workers to Move to the State
Vermont, like many states, is suffering from demographic challenges. It has the fourth slowest population growth of any state since 2000. It has the lowest share of its population who are children under 18 (if you exclude the District of Columbia, a "city-state" from the figures). Vermont is also impeccably progressive, has many quaint cities and towns, and is known for natural beauty. None of these factors has driven population growth there. Population growth is not the only metric, but the situation in much of New England is not looking … [Read more...]
New York’s Unique Retail Dynamics: Kellogg’s Cafe
I've previously written about how New York's retail rents are inflated by corporations opening showrooms there for branding purposes rather than profits. The Maille mustard shop by my apartment was a good example. (That location was shuttered shortly after a hostile takeover attempt of Unilever, which I take as evidence confirming my thesis that it was unprofitable). Here's another one I noticed recently: the Kellogg's cafe in Union Square. This is second floor retail, but still. I had to go inside: Self-serve cereal with a … [Read more...]
Housing’s “Two-Board Knot” Problem
I was down in Washington yesterday and was pleased to be able to record a podcast on housing with Salim Furth, an economist at the Mercatus Center. We discussed his American Affairs article from last year The Two-Board Knot: Zoning, Schools, and Inequality. He describes the way that zoning boards and school boards intersect to promote inequality in America. If the podcast doesn't display for you, click over to listen on Soundcloud. (Note: this podcast contains some audio … [Read more...]
6 Forces Disrupting Higher Education
Universities and health care, "eds and meds", have been in a huge growth cycle over the last few decades. Many communities have been pinning their hopes on anchor institutions like a university or research hospital to retool their economies for the 21st century. Yet the higher education industry is facing a convergence of several trends and forces that are threaten their future. At a minimum, schools need to be figuring out how to navigate these choppy waters ahead. Here are six forces converging on colleges today and in the near … [Read more...]
Do You Have to be “Into Minnesota”?
A friend of mine made an interesting observation about Denver, Boulder, and other cities in Colorado. He said, "The people who move to Colorado are really into Colorado." By that he meant that they were extremely into the lifestyle there, notably outdoor endeavors. He mentions that it can be difficult to get people to show up for events in the city on weekends because people are out doing things. Those who aren't as into the Colorado lifestyle either don't come or don't stay. In part, he surmises, because Colorado is not close to anything … [Read more...]
Census Releases City Population Estimates
The Census Bureau just released its 2017 population estimates for municipalities. Here are the results for the 25 largest cities in American (as of 2017), ranked by year over year percentage change. Rank Municipality 2016 2017 Total Change Pct Change 1 Seattle city, WA 707,255 724,745 17,490 2.47% 2 Fort Worth city, TX 855,504 874,168 18,664 2.18% 3 Charlotte city, NC 843,484 859,035 15,551 1.84% 4 Columbus city, OH 863,741 879,170 15,429 1.79% 5 San Antonio city, … [Read more...]
Ranking Larger College Towns
A few weeks ago I took a look at smaller college towns. Today I'll present some data about larger ones. This list is a bit more challenging in some respects. For one thing, because these are larger cities (relative to the previous list at a minimum), are they really "college towns"? Madison is the state capital of Wisconsin, for example. The university is important to be sure, but doesn't dominate the city to quite the extent that say the University of Illinois does Champaign-Urbana. In any event, I'm presenting this with very limited … [Read more...]
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