Aaron M. Renn

All Things Aaron

This Is Sprawl

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Sprawl is a word familiar to most people, but few can tell you exactly what it means. Even experts don't always agree on a precise definition. The term itself is somewhat ambiguous, and often divisive. This is especially true when the word is preceded by the modifiers suburban or urban, which is commonly the case. Then the term is really loaded. Political discussion of the topic regularly provokes the already contentious relationships between cities and suburbs. This needlessly causes communities that should be cooperating to take sides … [Read more...]

The New Look of the American Suburb

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This article is about the intersection of two trends I've written about before: suburban redevelopment and immigration. If you want an easy demonstration of the unsustainability of the classic American suburb, just take a drive around the inner ring suburbs of almost any city, starting with the ones that have a classic branching, winding streets, not traditional grids or those that grew up along transit lines. It is easy to find untold miles of decay, of "dead malls", "grayboxes", and subdivisions that have seen better days. If most of … [Read more...]

True Cities and Shadow Cities

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As many cities, particularly smaller industrial ones, continue to struggle with the loss of manufacturing jobs, people wonder how or if these places will come back and again become economically prosperous. I think the potential for economic renewal at least partly depends on whether or not a place is a true city or a shadow city. What do I mean by that? Here is one way I categorize the economic life of cities. One can divide companies into three types: Local goods and services. These are things like banks, grocery stores, dry cleaners, … [Read more...]

The Other Side of Detroit

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That picture is of a house in the city of Detroit. Surprised? Don't be. Detroit actually contains numerous intact neighborhoods ranging from working class to upscale. These are seldom shown in the voluminous photo tours of the city that tend to focus exclusively on decay, and too often on the same handful of sites such as Michigan Central Station, a practice Vice Magazine dubbed "ruin porn." The decay is there. The collapse is real. That is the story. But it's not the whole story. Amid the truly legitimate and titanic struggles of Detroit … [Read more...]

Downsides of Consolidation #2 – Cost Increases, Dilution of Urban Interests, Deferred Problems

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This is the second and last installment in my mini-series on the downsides of city-county consolidation, or "big box" vs. "small box" government. Part one covers neighborhood redevelopment challenges. For those of you who didn't read that, I'm not opposed to city-county consolidations at all, and generally think they've been positives in places that have pursued them. I am merely examining some of the trade-offs that come with that choice. Like any form of government, this one too has its challenges. Cost Increases Proponents of government … [Read more...]

Downsides of Consolidation #1: Neighborhood Redevelopment

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This is the first in a short series of posts on the downsides of city-county consolidation. Actually, it might better be described as a discussion of some of the pros and cons of "big box" vs. "small box" municipal government. It is similar to business. It seems like every large business is either doing one of two things: centralizing or decentralizing. There's a sort of cycle of reincarnation about this. Every model has its flaws, and people tend to gravitate towards the other side of the spectrum from time to time when the problems of the … [Read more...]

An Examination of City-County Consolidation

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[ This piece will serve as a warm-up to a forthcoming series on the downsides of the consolidation of US city and county governments. I updated it from the original with a bit of information about the current mayoral election in Louisville. ] H. V. Savitch and Ronald K. Vogel of the University of Louisville authored the paper "Suburbs Without a City", analyzing the merger of Louisville and Jefferson County, and in the process making many good observations about or relevant to other consolidated cities like Indianapolis and … [Read more...]

Back From Barcelona

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I just got back from spending a week in Barcelona. It's a great city, the weather was perfect, and the crowds weren't too bad. A very enjoyable trip all around. As usual, I have a few observations that struck me while there. Urban Culture I used to have a team I supervised in Madrid, so I had been to that city many times, but never made it to Barcelona apart from one brief in and out trip. I was eager to compare and contrast the two. One thing that struck me was an analogy to the Midwest. Spain was once a mighty empire, but became a sort … [Read more...]

Mega-Skepticism

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[ This post inaugurates a three part series on "megaregions" and the applicability of this concept to the Midwest. It is a repeat of something I wrote on the subject a bit over a year ago. That should lay the ground work. Part two of the series will be a review of the book "Megaregions", edited by Catherine L. Ross. The third part will be some thinking on ways the Midwest might be able to apply megaregional thinking to its problems. As you will see, I come to this subject as a skeptic. This post originally ran on July 11, 2008] There … [Read more...]

Pro Sports As Naming Rights Deal

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"The real question is what these expensive, publicly bankrolled behemoths add to their local economies. The consensus across every, single serious study ever done of the economic impact of sports stadia is 'absolutely nothing." As the old song goes, 'say it again.'" - Richard Florida  Over at Columbus Underground they are discussing a report commissioned by the Columbus Blue Jackets NHL team claiming the team and its arena had a $2 billion economic impact in the region. I've no doubt that a lot of money was spent around the team, but if … [Read more...]