Aaron M. Renn

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Articles in City Journal

I am a Contributing Editor at City Journal, the quarterly urban policy magazine of the Manhattan Institute.

  • Struggling Communities and Their Prospects (April 8, 2022) – A new academic collection focuses much-needed attention on the challenges facing America’s small cities and towns
  • American Cincinnatus (June 17, 2021) – A new biography of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. reminds us of a bygone model of the public servant
  • Bluegrass, Bourbon, and Basketball (Fall 2020) – Lexington, Kentucky, builds on its core strengths and smart urban planning to forge a promising future
  • Desert Visionary (December 1, 2020) – The death of Tony Hsieh is the loss of an urban pioneer
  • Understanding the Midwest (June 1, 2020)
  • The Lifeblood of America (April 8, 2020) – Small businesses are imperiled by the pandemic, but local efforts are under way to help them
  • If You Improve It, They Will Come (September 10, 2019) – Several Midwest cities are pursuing innovative mass-transit plans—with encouraging results
  • Bring Back Boomtown (July 16, 2019) – New York needs to think like a growth city again
  • Atlanta Now (July 8, 2019) – The hub of the New South is no longer a go-go city, and it needs to adjust to that reality
  • The Rust Belt’s Mixed Population Story (July 1, 2019) – Larger cities in the region are seeing some growth—but mostly from in-state residents leaving troubled or stagnant locales
  • St. Louis Blues (June 17, 2018) – Once a major American city, the Gateway to the West struggles to redefine itself
  • Portraits of Despair in Chicago (May 8, 2019) – The impact of urban violence on its survivors is incalculable
  • Glitter, Without Growth (April 18, 2019) – New estimates from the Census Bureau indicate that some of the nation’s major metros are beginning to shrink
  • Changing the Chicago Way? (April 3, 2019) – A reformist outsider disrupts politics in the Windy City
  • The Tech Campus Moves Downtown (Winter 2019) – States ponder expanding their university tech departments to big cities, hoping to maximize economic benefits
  • Let’s Hear It For South Bend (February 7, 2019) – Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s longshot presidential candidacy highlights the challenge of being a talented Democrat from Indiana
  • Midwestern Breakout? (December 17, 2018) – Columbus, Ohio, is firing on all cylinders—demographically, economically, and culturally
  • Shining in the Rust Belt (Autumn 2018) – Kokomo, Indiana, is no paradise, but a working-class/creative-class synthesis has helped turn it around
  • Idyll, or Elegy? (November 8, 2018) – Frederick Wiseman’s new documentary dramatizes the tough choices that America’s small towns face
  • The Sunny Side of Midsized (September 28, 2018) – Oklahoma City’s successful former mayor offers lessons from his experience
  • Exit Rahm (September 6, 2018) – Announcing that he won’t run for reelection, Chicago’s powerhouse mayor leaves a mixed record and a city badly in need of a new political model
  • Great Plains Metropolis (August 24, 2018) – A new book tells the story of Oklahoma City, past and present
  • The Market Is “Banning the Box” (August 8, 2018) – A robust jobs economy, not federal or state mandates, is putting the long-term unemployed back to work
  • Middle City, USA (Summer 2018) – Akron, Ohio, looks to reinvent itself
  • Manufacturing a Comeback (Spring 2018) – Grand Rapids has become a midwestern economic star and is generating new industrial jobs
  • Ante Up (April 20, 2018) – A thriving society needs its decision-makers to have something at stake
  • Trump as “Clown Genius” (February 27, 2018) – Dilbert creator Scott Adams sees the president’s mastery of persuasion techniques as the key to understanding his election
  • Assessing the Trump Infrastructure Plan (February 12, 2018) – Providing for local scrutiny will help avoid boondoggles, but is the federal contribution enough to get digging started?
  • The Lifeblood of Cities (January 9, 2018) – “Middle” neighborhoods—neither affluent nor poor—remain crucial to urban success
  • Vigor in the Heartland (Autumn 2017) – America’s “flyover country” is stronger than you think
  • Who’s Really Censoring the Web? (November 29, 2017) – Net neutrality advocates have it backwards
  • First Amendment in Peril? (August 18, 2017) – The Google/Apple duopoly on the mobile Internet seems unconcerned with free expression
  • Post-Work Won’t Work (August 4, 2017) – The universal basic income is an idea based on dubious social and moral logic
  • Trouble in Trump County, USA (Shape of Work to Come Special Issue) – An Indiana community typifies the working-class struggles that shaped the 2016 election
  • America the Cheap (April 24, 2017) – Always searching for the lowest price can get you the quality you deserve
  • The Real Unmaskers (April 5, 2017) – Independent bloggers and social-media voices are scooping the mainstream media
  • How About Freedom for Dinner? (March 15, 2017) – The regulatory state determines too much of what and how we eat
  • The Mayor Builder (January 27, 2017) – How Richard M. Daley set the stage for Chicago’s comeback—and planted the seeds of fiscal crisis
  • What Will President Trump Mean For Cities? (Winter 2017) – Some clues from his campaign
  • Where the Buffalo Zone (January 5, 2017) – An innovative zoning code overhaul could help revive the western New York city and is already inspiring copycat
  • The Mayor Trap (November 30, 2016) – Trump must avoid the temptation to micromanage individual infrastructure and economic projects—like the Carrier deal
  • Winner (November 9, 2016) – Facing long odds, Donald Trump rewrote the political playbook
  • You’ve Been Restricted (November 3, 2016) –  Social-media sites are growing increasingly comfortable with censorship
  • Culture, Circumstance, and Agency (August 23, 2016) – Reflections on Hillbilly Elegy
  • The End of Eyes on the Street (August 22, 2016) –  On the delegitimizing of social control
  • Trump’s Pitch to Blacks (August 18, 2016) –  He probably won’t win many African-American votes, but he sounds a warning about unlimited immigration
  • Catching Up Is Hard to Do (June 10, 2016) – Los Angeles has fallen far behind the Bay Area–perhaps permanently
  • The Duck-Billed Platypus of American Cities (May 25, 2016) – Its population declining, Chicago should focus on its core strengths–and forget about competing with New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco
  • Black Residents Matter (Spring 2016) – They’re fleeing the most progressive cities–why?
  • Honey, I Shrunk Chicago (March 24, 2016) – The Illinois Supreme Court refuses to let anyone fix the pension crisis, and people are leaving
  • Why Connecticut Lost GE (January 14, 2016) – High taxes aren’t the only reason
  • Reinventing Buffalo (Autumn 2015) – The western New York city should focus on getting better–not bigger
  • The Fall of Rahm Emanuel (December 15, 2015) – Chicago’s bullyboy mayor will never change
  • Doing OK in OKC (Autumn 2015) – Oklahoma City is booming, thanks to vibrant and fiscally conservative governance
  • Gas Tax Fever (November 4, 2015) – Alternative-transportation projects rely on federal highway funding, putting bike and rail advocates in a tough spot
  • Eve of Destruction (October 23, 2015) – A snapshot of Detroit circa 1963
  • Beneath Chicago’s Gloss (September 24, 2015) – How it is possible for a city this booming to be this broke?
  • Under the Elevated (September 18, 2015) – A new report argues for development of New York’s forgotten public spaces
  • Resetting New York’s Economy (August 28, 2015) – Gotham continues to create jobs, but too many are low-wage
  • Think Globally, Disrupt Locally (Summer 2015) – Cities shouldn’t make America’s environmental policies
  • Chicago’s Financial Fire (July 12, 2015) – The city faces trouble from every direction
  • Hooray for the High Bridge (June 22, 2015) – A civic restoration project that deserves to be celebrated
  • Libertarians of Convenience (Spring 2015) – Urban progressives favor deregulation–but only for things they like or want to do
  • Rahm’s Reprieve (April 8, 2015) – The Chicago mayor survives his runoff election, but he faces all the same problems
  • Strong People, Strong Cities (April 5, 2015) – The conservative case for resilience
  • Rahm’s Runoff (February 26, 2015) – Chicago’s problems run deeper than many in the city want to acknowledge
  • Is Detroit Open For Business? (Winter 2015) – A fear of outsiders could scuttle the Motor City’s long-awaited recovery
  • After the Mirage (January 27, 2015) – New Yorkers grumble and get back to life as usual
  • Why Policing (January 12, 2015) – Without public safety, cities fail
  • Belt Tightening 101 (Autumn 2014) – Mitch Daniels has helped Purdue keep costs down for students
  • City Smart (October 24, 2014) – Data technology is transforming urban governance
  • Detroit Water City (September 28, 2014) – If the city can’t even make customers pay their bills, how can it move forward?
  • The Bluest State (Spring 2014) – Decades of liberal policies have made Rhode Island the nation’s basket case
  • Rahm Emanuel’s Nightmare (May 23, 2014) – The combative Chicago mayor’s reelection chances suddenly look grim
  • Chicago’s Vanishing Middle Class (April 16, 2014) – In the Windy City and elsewhere, a liberal top-bottom coalition drives it out
  • The Old Regime and the New (December 29, 2013) – Will Bill de Blasio tackle New Yorkers’ real problems or undo the achievements of his predecessors?
  • Is the City Where You Should Be? (November 15, 2013) – A new book tries to make the case
  • Well-Heeled in the Windy City (October 16, 2013) – Rahm Emanuel splurges on amenities for the elite, while poor and middle-class Chicagoans suffer
  • Leaving Town (Special Issue 2013) – Metro New York hemorrhaged $49 billion during the 2000s as residents sought opportunity elsewhere
  • Hail Columbia! (Winter 2013) – The federal government’s relentless expansion has made Washington, D.C., America’s real Second City
  • The Second-Rate City? (Spring 2012) – Chicago’s swift, surprising decline presents formidable challenges for new mayor Rahm Emanuel

Get my eBook The Urban State of Mind for your Kindle from Amazon.

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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