Aaron M. Renn

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Why the Rent Is Too High, Reason #239

December 19, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

It's no secret housing costs are high and going higher in major US cities like NYC, San Francisco, etc. I was just tweeting with someone this week who moved back from Park Slope, Brooklyn to Indianapolis because her rent was being raised by over 50% (possibly that's a cumulative increase over time - not sure). Most of the urbanist discussion tends to focus around zoning as the reason prices are high. That's certainly an important factor. But there are also other things driving up costs and rents. The NYT highlighted one of them last Sunday, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Governance and Public Services, New York

Talking Tuition With Mitch Daniels

December 12, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

This summer I sat down with Purdue University President Mitch Daniels to talk about his tuition freeze initative there for my City Journal article on the subject. Here's the podcast of that conversation. If the embed doesn't display for you, click over to listen on Soundcloud. Here are some excerpted highlights. Daniels on what's driving costs up: Government has imposed a whole lot of this administrative cost on the colleges. Not all of it, but a lot of it. You know, administrative costs have soared in banks, too. And so there’s some … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Governance and Public Services

London’s Global City Royal Flush

December 8, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

A recent article in the Economist about the Rosetta space probe reminded me again of the uniqueness of London on the global stage. The piece notes: In a clean room at the Airbus Defence & Space (ADS) factory north of London, scientists are working on LISA Pathfinder (pictured), a hexagon-shaped satellite due to be launched next year. The aim of the ambitious space mission is to try, for the first time, to find and measure gravitational waves–ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. ... About one-quarter … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Demographics and Economic Development, London

Building the Responsive City

November 6, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data Smart Governance by Stephen Goldsmith and Susan Crawford Technology, and especially the use of data and analytics, has been transforming the way cities manage service delivery. Former Indianapolis mayor New York City deputy mayor Steve Goldsmith, and his colleague at Harvard Susan Crawford, recently wrote a book called "The Responsive City" looking at this technology revolution. I recently read the book and posted some thoughts in a review posted at City Journal. Here's an excerpt: The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Governance and Public Services

The Urbanophile Interview: Portland Mayor Charlie Hales

November 2, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

I was out in Portland, Oregon last week and while there I sat down for an interview with Mayor Charlie Hales. We talked about the real Portland vs. the idea of Portland, the city's industrial base, retrofitting suburban infrastructure, and a lot more. If the audio doesn't display for you, click over to Soundcloud. Mayor Charlie Hales. Image via Wikipedia Here are some edited highlights of our conversation. For those who prefer reading to listening, a complete transcript is available. Mayor Hales rejects the idea that we will have to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Governance and Public Services, Portland

The Magic of Microclusters

October 12, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

This post originally appeared on October 27, 2013. If you look at the list of target industries for any given city or state, you usually find several from the same list of five common items: high technology, life sciences (under various names), green tech, advanced manufacturing, logistics. Take a few from this list, and add a legacy industry if there’s one or two where you are already particularly strong, and there you have it. The problem is that everybody and their brother is now claiming to be a tech or startup “hub”, etc. And there’s … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Demographics and Economic Development, Indianapolis

More On the Midwest vs. the South

October 10, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

My post on Sunday about SEC vs. Big 10 football produced quite a stir. There are 165 comments and counting, and it even prompted posts by Richard Longworth and Crain's Cleveland Business. Not everyone was critical but the ones that were basically say that it's ludicrous to say that football proves anything. I don't think that it does. But I will make three points: 1. The differing fortunes of the two conference is yet another in an extremely long series of data points and episodes that demonstrate a shift in demographic, economic, and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Chicago, Demographics and Economic Development

Thoughts On My Neighborhood Post-Ferguson

September 29, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

Some folks asked me to comment on Ferguson, MO. I don't have anything to add to the massive amount that has already been written, but it did get me thinking about my own neighborhood and the racial dynamics that exist in America. I live in a mixed race neighborhood on the North Side of Indianapolis called various names, including South of Broad Ripple (SoBro) and Keystone-Monon. It's a racially diverse area, mostly featuring wood frame 2-3br/1-ba worker cottages built around wartime. It's likely always been working class or starter home … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Indianapolis, Urban Culture

The New Donut

September 14, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

Former Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut used to like to say that "you can't be a suburb of nowhere." This is the oft-repeated notion has been a rallying cry for investments to revitalize downtowns in America for three decades or so now. The idea being that you can't have a smoking hole in your region where your downtown is supposed to be. This created a mental based on a donut. You can't let downtown become an empty hole. For reason that will become apparent soon, I call this model "the old donut": Filling in the hole became every city's … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Demographics and Economic Development

Reinventing Higher Education

September 4, 2014 By Aaron M. Renn

It's no secret that the status quo in higher education is facing a lot of pressure from things like skyrocketing tuition, ballooning student loan debt, people questioning the need for higher education, difficulties graduates are getting established in careers, etc. One organization focused on helping universities navigate the transition to a new future and boost higher educational attainment rates in the US is the Lumina Foundation. Lumina is a $1 billion foundation in Indianapolis - no, they don't give out scholarships! - focused on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Demographics and Economic Development

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About Aaron M. Renn


 
Aaron M. Renn is an opinion-leading urban analyst, consultant, speaker, and writer on a mission to help America’s cities and people thrive and find real success in the 21st century. (Photo Credit: Daniel Axler)
 
Email: aaron@aaronrenn.com
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