One of the more highly touted concepts in the urbanism world is the idea of "smart cities." Wikipedia says of the smart city: "A city can be defined as ‘smart’ when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic development and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory action and engagement." The basic idea is "better urban living through technology". That smart cities has captured a huge amount of … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2014
Why Does Louisville Have Better Restaurants Than Indianapolis?
I was briefly back on the homefront earlier this month to check out the now fully opened Big Four Bridge pedestrian path across the Ohio River in Louisville. While there I spent some time in NuLu, a retail and restaurant district centered on Market St. just east of downtown, and had dinner at a French bistro type place called La Coop. This place focuses on what I'd call the basics - it's not trying to be a super high end kind of place. But I'm not going to lie, the undistinguished frites aside, the meal was spectacular front to back, and my … [Read more...]
The Uniqueness of Detroit’s Housing Stock
[ I've posted a number of pieces by Pete Saunders here in the past. He's not just a great analyst generally, he's particularly great on Detroit. His post laying out nine reasons why Detroit failed has more page views than any other article in Urbanophile history. (The top four posts are all about Detroit, showing the powerful hold that city has on the public consciousness). In his blog, Corner Side Yard, he's bee revisiting that post to go in depth on each of his nine points. Today I'm pleased to be able to repost his analysis of Detroit's … [Read more...]
Starter Ideas For Improving Rhode Island’s Economic Competitiveness
This is the third and last part in my series on Rhode Island. You can go back and read part one and part two if you missed them. Justin Katz, writing at a web site called the Ocean State Current that appears to be published by a libertarian think tank in the state, is unhappy with my proposals. In fact, he's giving a point by point rebuttal to my six part toolkit, which you can read here, here, here, here, here and here. I think it's fair to say he thinks Rhode Island needs much more radical change than I prescribe, and can't rely on a … [Read more...]
A Toolkit for Rhode Island Policy Analysis
Sunday I described how Rhode Island's fundamental economic problem is that it has been acting like it's selling a premium product from a structurally advantaged position when in reality it's selling a commodity product into a highly competitive global marketplace. Unsurprisingly, it hasn't gotten a lot of takers. Before giving my starter set of action items, I want to provide a brief decision toolkit in the form of a set of guiding principles or questions to help people evaluate any proposed solutions. I won't pretend this is a totally … [Read more...]
Ruining Rhode Island – Missing the Context
My latest article is online over at City Journal, and shows how Rhode Island has become an economic and demographic basket case, one not making headlines largely because the state is small enough to fly under the radar. I'll give you a trigger warning on this one. While making clear that the Republicans of Rhode Island have hardly crowned themselves in glory, I focus on the follies of the Democrats who have had overwhelming control in the state since 1935. If you don't want to read this one, try one my previous posts about the Tea Party … [Read more...]