economic development
« Previous EntriesThe coming blurred boundaries between work and home
Monday, February 8th, 2010Over the past year I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing the intersection of workplace trends and urban living trends. It’s becoming probable that the urban knowledge economy will require many workers to supply their own private workspace. Employers — or the city milieu itself — will be responsible for supplying the space for collaboration. […]
American cities facing challenges
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009As the United States grapples with the worst job losses since World War Two, the nation’s cities need to be centers of solutions and incubators of private sector jobs. Yet, with government bank balances at all levels in the red, finding the resources to provide infrastructure and even maintain basic services will be challenging. Municipalities […]
Changing urban jobs, new urban lifestyles
Monday, November 9th, 2009How is the changing nature of urban employment changing our cities?
Many cities, particularly in North America, emerged as centers for manufacturing, primary industry and some natural resource processing and trade. In recent decades, manufacturing finished products has become more automated and global. Making primary products like steel has undergone a similar transformation. And many of […]
Urban jobs - tale of two countries
Friday, November 6th, 2009Want to compare urban employment across all major North American cities? and with historical perspective?
Here:’s a graph that allows you to see, on a monthly basis since 2002, the year-over-year job gains or losses.
If you look at the most recent month, across North America, what a “tale of two countries.”
H1N1 manufactured panic inconsistent with urban living
Monday, November 2nd, 2009Back in the late spring when the “swine flu” migrated out of Mexico, public health officials and the media quickly told the story of how it was proving to be a widespread, yet reasonably mild influenza virus. Other than people with certain pre-existing conditions, most who contracted it only had mild-to-moderate flu symptoms.
Flash forward to […]
Urban scenarios under high oil prices
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009How much will life in the cities change if gasoline costs significantly more than it does today?
Will the city be able to offer the housing, transportation options or amenities that its residents may prefer if fuel becomes a more expensive item relative to the family budget?
These are some questions I’ve been pondering lately and would […]
Intriguing idea: Charter Cities
Saturday, October 10th, 2009Why is it that in hundreds of cities around the world, average citizens can own and use cel phones every day, but don’t have electricity or running water in their homes? They have a new, 21st century technology, but not a late-19th century one.
From this premise, Stanford University Economist Paul Romer develops an explanation, and […]
Rio 2016
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009Being chosen to host the Olympic Games is a complicated process. Without delving into that issue too much, here’s a take on what becoming an Olympic City typically signifies — that a city somewhere in the world has passed a threshold and become a “world city” at least in the eyes of the voting delegates. […]
Asia-Pacific Cities and Premium Home Prices
Thursday, September 24th, 2009During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries cities in the Atlantic region flourished. As key centers for “world trade” (or at least trade between Europe and the Americas, which to many was the world), great streets for commerce and neighbourhoods for families emerged, including highly exclusive addresses.
Many of these great Atlantic world cities still have pricey […]
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 […]