One of the various progressive movements out there is so-called "ban the box" regulation. This prohibits employers from asking if an applicant has been convicted of a crime during some portion of the initial stages of the hiring process. The name seems to refer to the boxes on job applications that ask if someone has ever been convicted of a crime. Los Angeles is the latest city to contemplate joining in. I personally don't support ban the box as a regulation, because imposing this by fiat is unlikely to actually change employer hiring … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2016
The Indianapolis Infrastructure Hole Is So Huge It Can’t Ever Be Filled
The Indianapolis Star just ran an excellent in-depth article on the city's sad situation with street lighting. Indy placed a moratorium on new streetlight installation in 1980, leaving a vast city with very few streetlights relative to its population and geography. As I pointed out some time ago during the Detroit bankruptcy, when the fact that half its streetlights weren't working was national news, even a half-functioning streetlight system in, of all places, Detroit was better than the situation in Indy. But streetlights are the least … [Read more...]
Is Peter Thiel Right About Chicago?
Peter Thiel recently made one of his trademark provocative statements by saying, "If you are a very talented person, you have a choice: You either go to New York or you go to Silicon Valley." The problem for Thiel was that he said this while speaking at an event in Chicago. No surprise, it didn't go over well. An enquiring questioner wanted to know, "Who comes to Chicago if first-rate people go to New York or Silicon Valley?" Thiel sputtered a bit and suggested he was employing hyperbole, but said "It's an extremely important question, … [Read more...]
The Economist on Jobs Returning to Downtown
The Economist's Schumpeter column this week was a great feature on the return of jobs to downtown from suburban office parks. I was delighted to be featured in it for my concept of the "executive headquarters" and the notion that these relocated HQs are often both different and smaller than in the past. (And what's more, the relocation itself often involves downsizing). I don't want to claim too much credit, but I did help pioneer this concept of executive HQs in downtown, starting with a 2008 piece on the move of HQs into downtown Chicago. … [Read more...]