I recently posted about sprawl in its purest form in Cleveland. Cuyahoga County massively expanded its urbanized footprint while the population remained the same. A couple of recent articles from Crain's Chicago highlight the same thing happening in that city - with the same results in terms of negative filtering of homes and stagnant to declining housing prices. Metro Chicago has lost population for the last two years. But a better way to characterize it is stagnant. The population shrinkage is tiny. On the other hand, the growth that … [Read more...]
Sprawl In Its Purest Form, Cleveland Edition
Jason Segedy tweeted the image below contrasting the amount of urbanized land in Cleveland's Cuyahoga County in 1948 vs. 2002. The county population was identical in both years: 1.39 million. I'm not a hater on suburbanization. Growing populations require new urbanized land on the fringes. But when population growth is flat or negative in a region, which is the case in Cleveland and many Rust Belt cities, then sprawl has negative effects. One of the them is the Chuck Banas quip that Buffalo has the same number of people, but three … [Read more...]
The Rise and Fall of Cities in Books
Google Books' ngram tool lets you search and compare mentions of various terms in books that they've digitized. I ran some city names through it to see how the relative level of mentions of these places has changed over time. These aren't perfect. Some city names are too generic to really isolate, like Columbus (could refer to Christopher) or Charlotte (a common name). Others I assumed do typically refer to the major city of that name, but have other uses as well (Paris, St. Louis). Also, these are English language city name searches, and I'm … [Read more...]
The College Shakeout: Illinois Spotlight
My post about how colleges are diverging into winners and losers drew a ton of excellent comments you should read. phelmon64 led off by saying: It’s becoming clear that the distance between the various higher education tiers is getting wider. Ivies at the top, Ivy-equivalent private schools next, followed by public elites, small private liberal arts schools, big public/land grant schools — and then the rest. At some point states can (and must) do their share to help the public elites and land grant types, but I’m concerned about the future for … [Read more...]
Inclusionary Zoning Flops in Portland
As the price of housing continues to rise in many cities, one popular progressive policy idea to address it is inclusionary zoning. Inclusionary zoning requires that a certain percentage of units in a building be priced at below market, targeted at people who earn some fraction of the area median income. Often this set aside is required in exchange for density bonuses or other things the developer might want. Portland passed one of these, and according to a report in the Portland Mercury, construction fell off a cliff: A year ago, Portland … [Read more...]
The Strange Case of Civic Identity in Northeast Ohio
I was recently in Akron presenting a forthcoming paper of mine. One of the interesting things about the Northeast Ohio constellation of cities is that there's a very weak sense of regional identity. In almost any other context, Cleveland and Akron would be considered some type of twin city ecosystem. Consider: Dallas and Ft. Worth are 32 miles apart. Seattle and Tacoma are 34 miles about. Cleveland and Akron are 39 miles apart. Cleveland's Cuyahoga County and Akron's Summit County are also physically contiguous. Yet, Cleveland … [Read more...]
Chicago’s $600 Million in Protein Bars
Crain's Chicago reports that a local protein bar company called RxBar is being acquired by Kellogg's for $600 million. RxBar was started by some friends in their early 30s with $10,000 in funds. They initially built it out of their parent's suburban kitchen, then into a commercial space in the city. They now have $120 million in revenue, employ 75, are hiring 40 more, and the owners (and any later investors they may have) are about to become spectacularly rich: Four years ago, Peter Rahal was making protein bars in his parents' Glen Ellyn … [Read more...]
Best “Made In Indiana” Logo Ever
I picked up a bottle of Terra Botanical Gin from Bloomington, Indiana's Cardinal Spirits and noticed this interesting logo on it. Many cites and states are attempting to create pride of place by various "Made in X" logos to indicate the location of origin. Coming up with a great logo is pretty tough, no matter where you are from. Most of the ones I've seen are fairly workaday. Indiana of course has done the same. There are a variety of "Made in Indiana" logos you can browse online at Google. This one is by far the best I've seen. I … [Read more...]
Industrial Past, Industrial Future
The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about how Chicago's downtown office boom is being fueled by old line industries like food and consumer goods. Like many other major U.S. cities, Chicago is enjoying a boom as big employers opt for downtowns over suburban office parks that are being shunned by young workers. More than $20 billion worth of residential, office, cultural and retail projects are in development or on the drawing board, according to the city Planning and Development Department. But Chicago’s growth engine is … [Read more...]
Are Cities Too Conservative?
Political conservatism is all but extinct in cities, but the conservative impulse is alive and well. That is, a desire to prevent change in the name of preserving something that people find of value is still a powerful motivating force. Historic preservation is an example of the conservative impulse. NIMBYism is an example of the conservative impulse. Anti-gentrification advocacy is an example of the conservative impulse. In fact, it strikes me that cities are more conservative now than they were in the past. Previous generations … [Read more...]
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