national politics
« Previous EntriesAmerican 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 […]
Is infrastructure spending the answer?
Monday, January 19th, 2009Many North American cities face crumbling infrastructure along with a need to offer residents new mass transit options. During the current economic slow down, the conventional wisdom seems to be that investing in infrastructure is a win - win, offering short term employment and long term needs.
But, what if many of the people needed to […]
Not the time for short term thinking
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009Many smart business leaders and investment managers are taking advantage of the economic slow down to stop, think, and put into place the foundations for the next 5 to 10 year business cycle — and even thinking much further ahead than that.
Unfortunately, it seems that many city governments, and those at other levels that impact […]
Will cities be elevated?
Monday, November 3rd, 2008Barack Obama has pledged to create an “Office of Urban Policy” as part of his cabinet. This would be a first — but also an encouraging sign. 80% of Americans live in cities and suburbs — metropolitan areas. They are the centres of the 21st century, global knowledge economy as clusgters of people and industry […]
US “citistates” and the election
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008During the presidential primaries, few candidates spoke much about urban issues. No one seemed to acknowledge how reliant the US economy is on its cities. Although a few blogs attempted to bark about this, the mainstream media and therefore most American voters largely ignored this omission.
The Brookings Institution is hoping to […]
Transit needs some creativity
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008Despite rising fuel prices, agonizing congestion, and depressingly large portions of lives wasted in commutes, public transit is typically not viewed as a desirable choice in the United States. And most cities transit systems are woefully incapable of handling a significant increase in demand anyway.
The present situation presents a challenge and an opportunity for […]
Is urban living in conflict with the US Constitution?
Friday, July 4th, 2008The American constitution was written to serve a new country’s new citizens who were hard-working, independent-minded and primarily rural.
If over the next few decades more Americans (not all, just more) move into higher density, “urban” neighborhoods, I’m wondering if some long-held American values and customs will be challenged.
A CEOs for Cities post this week was […]
Innovation, spiky-ness and poverty
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 In Who’s Your City, Richard Florida notes that economic spikes and valleys are becoming ever more pronounced.
What I found most intriguing, and simultaneously worrying, is his finding that the most innovative centers in the United States — Silicon Valley, Boston and the Research Triangle — also contain the USA’s “highest levels of inequality.”
Is poverty a […]
Is this the Obama city plan?
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008Channel surfing I stumbled across Obama’s speech tonight right when he got to the subject of cities. The jist of what he said was:
America is spending $9 Billion per month in Iraq
Instead, we could take this money and (re)-build roads, bridges, and other infrastructure
We could law more broadband lines
…
So, is Obama advocating a New […]
Presidential candidates: where’s the urban policy?
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 America’s cities desperately need help — particularly repaired and new transportation infrastructure. Whether in response to bridges collapsing in Minneapolis or congestion-fueled pollution destroying the health of children in Los Angeles, a bold federal policy is necessary.
And yet, in looking through the platforms of the five main contenders for President next year, no […]