I wrote my latest piece about Providence, but it could apply to a lot of cities. It's a bit of contrarian take on civic engagement. For some people, too much civic engagement can result in a fixation on problems, which then turns them negative on the community. This makes the grass look greener in other places. Whereas if they just enjoyed the good things about a city instead of worrying about civic challenges, they might enjoy life more and be more likely to stay. Here's an excerpt: When I was living in Rhode Island, I tried to dig more into … [Read more...]
Providence Shows the Limits of Metropolitan Governance
Regionalism and metropolitan government are urban planning orthodoxy. The idea is that we need to have region-wide planning to meet the actual regional needs, which transcend boundaries. And also to have an equitable financing structure. So entities like Portland's Metro (a directly elected layer of regional government on the Oregon side of that metro area) and the Twin Cities' Metropolitan Council and region-wide tax sharing system are lauded. Because these regions have been fairly successful and seem to function well, their regional … [Read more...]
Urban Renewal, Brutalism, and Economic Development
I was in Providence, Rhode Island this week and stopped by the new video studios at GoLocalProv for a chat about urbanism with Kate Nagle on their new Facebook/YouTube live venture. I just put the audio of that up on my podcast channel. If the audio player doesn't display for you, click over the listen on Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/aaronrenn/urban-renewal-and-economic-development-in-cities Subscribe to podcast via iTunes | Soundcloud. Cover image via Bullshark44 CC BY-SA 3.0 … [Read more...]
The Inevitability of Tradeoffs, or Understanding New England’s Sky High Energy Costs
People advance two main sorts of arguments in favor of things for which they advocate: the moral argument (it's the right thing to do) and the utilitarian one (it will make us better off). As it happens, in practice most people tend to implicitly suggest there's a 100% overlap between the two categories. That is, if we do what's right, it will always make us better off too with no down sides at all. But is that true? For most of us, our life experience suggests that there are always tradeoffs and there's no such thing as a free lunch. … [Read more...]
When the People Are Corrupted
This is another installment in my series on corruption. The New York Times ran an article last week about Buddy Cianci entering the race for mayor of Providence. Cianci is a larger than life figure in Rhode Island. Dubbed the "Prince of Providence," he served two previous stints as mayor of the city - both times ending up forced from office due to felony convictions. I don't know the details of the first case, in which he pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge over attacking someone with "a lit cigarette, ashtray and fireplace log." … [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...]
Industrial Policy Reconsidered
[ I've always been a skeptic of industrial policy, and the travails of the various federal green programs and such make me feel justified my thinking in that regard. Yet, for struggling communities, clearly something needs to be done, even if not trying to pick specific winners and losers. In 1983 Rhode Island had an opportunity to have implemented an economic turnaround plan dismissed by critics as industrial policy, but voted it down. I recently took a look back and that, and the results of that decision that I think are relevant to other … [Read more...]
What Triggers a Civic Turnaround?
Lots of cities in America are struggling with low population growth and sluggish economies. Poor demographics and economics lead to fiscal problems that result in more people and businesses leaving, perpetuating a downward spiral. Detroit, which recently filed bankruptcy, is an extreme case, but many cities and states find themselves in similar straits, including much of New England and especially most of Rhode Island. How to places break out of this and renew prosperity? Looking at cities where there has been change, I have observed several … [Read more...]