Archive for July, 2009
What all cities share with Urumqi, Xinjiang, China
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009The events on the fringes of the Chinese empire this week might sound confusing and exotic. But their roots are actually quite familiar.
The clashes between Uyghurs (WEE-GARs, a turkik-speaking, Islamic people living in the Chinese state) and the Han Chinese in Urumqi and Kashgar this week presented the ugly side of the ongoing ethnic or […]
Between rental and ownership: new forms of home tenure coming?
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009America’s crisis of real estate values and negative home equity has many urban theorists wondering whether home ownership is bad for the economy and bad for many individuals and families.
Richard Florida is one of them:
Two American dreams - of homeownership and of unfettered economic mobility - may be in conflict, as homeownership, especially in downturns […]
Where to move
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Occasionally readers send e-mails asking for my thoughts on which city they should move to during the recession and recovery era. This is a difficult question to answer — it depends on your age, stage in life, job skills, etc.
But, as a general rule, the economy will do better in faster growing cities. More people […]