This is part of the series North America's Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable or Not? To describe how central stations can help us evolve toward sustainable transportation, this series uses a middle category called “Economic Engines.” This category stimulates its surrounds. These three Chicago stations do that job well. Category: Economic Engines (click for all currently reviewed stations) Consolidated Scorecard: Click to view full scorecard Scorecard Summary: max pnts = 100 80 Ogilvie Transportation Center … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2014
Creating a Culture of Honest Critique
City Lab ran an interesting piece about Mark Lamster, architecture critic of the Dallas Morning News, called "Dallas Finds Its Voice." Lamster was brought to the city from New York by a joint hire between the newspaper and the University of Texas at Arlington. The goal was apparently to bring in a top notch out of town critic who wasn't afraid to apply the same lens to Dallas that he did to the Big Apple. He appears to have succeeded: Mark Lamster's very first assignment for The Dallas Morning News was a bombshell. His review of the George W. … [Read more...]
The Magic of Microclusters
This post originally appeared on October 27, 2013. If you look at the list of target industries for any given city or state, you usually find several from the same list of five common items: high technology, life sciences (under various names), green tech, advanced manufacturing, logistics. Take a few from this list, and add a legacy industry if there’s one or two where you are already particularly strong, and there you have it. The problem is that everybody and their brother is now claiming to be a tech or startup “hub”, etc. And there’s … [Read more...]
More On the Midwest vs. the South
My post on Sunday about SEC vs. Big 10 football produced quite a stir. There are 165 comments and counting, and it even prompted posts by Richard Longworth and Crain's Cleveland Business. Not everyone was critical but the ones that were basically say that it's ludicrous to say that football proves anything. I don't think that it does. But I will make three points: 1. The differing fortunes of the two conference is yet another in an extremely long series of data points and episodes that demonstrate a shift in demographic, economic, and … [Read more...]
How Segregated Is New York City?
[ I don't know how he comes up with this stuff, but Daniel Hertz has continued to turn out tons of interesting maps and findings on segregation and inequality. In this piece from last April, he looked at the matter of segregation in New York City. For more, check out his web site - Aaron. ] Update to Original Post: I wrote this in the comments, but several people have asked about it and not everyone makes it down there: this post focuses on white-black segregation because that, for various social and historical reasons, has been by far the … [Read more...]
The Decline of the Midwest, the Rise of the South
The New York Times ran an article last week that's nominally about football, but really gives insight into the decline of the Midwest and the rise of the South. Called "As Big Ten Declines, Homegrown Talent Flees," this piece ties in perfectly with my recent essay on the differing social states of the Midwest and South. The NYT's money quote says it all: The SEC sold excellence. The Big Ten sold tradition.Ironically, it is the formerly stigmatized "backwoods" South that has embraced excellence while the former industrial champion of the … [Read more...]
In Praise of Boring
My latest piece is online in the Guardian. It's called "In Praise of Boring Cities." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand got herself in a bit of trouble for dismissing Arlington, VA as a "soulless suburb." I argue that to a great extent soulless is in the eye of the beholder. And that a lot of inner cities could stand to be a lot more Maytag repairman type boring when it comes to actual delivering on the services citizens deserve. Here's an excerpt: “Soulless” and “boring” are to some extent judgmental code words for “stuff I don’t like.” … [Read more...]