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...]
Worcester v. Providence: Is Downtown Revitalization the Sum of Urban Revitalization? by Stephen Eide
Worcester, MA and Providence, RI invite comparison for at least four reasons. They’re the same size (pop. ~180,000), they share the same history of deindustrialization and urban decline, they’re only 40 miles apart, and they’re different, which makes comparison stimulating and worthwhile. By most any fiscal or economic measure, Worcester outperforms Providence. But because of the so-called Renaissance, the revitalization of downtown Providence throughout the 1980s and 90s, Providence has attracted far more attention among urbanists and the … [Read more...]
New England vs. Midwest Culture
How Physical, Cultural and Political Differences Shape Development and Economic Growth I was recently asked to make a comparison living in New England versus the Midwest-specifically how cultural and political differences impact the economic and physical development framework of the two regions. This is something that I have at least a modest knowledge of, given that I have lived and worked in both areas (Born and raised in Hamden, CT near New Haven, attended college near Boston and now live near Columbus, OH). As a real estate developer and … [Read more...]
Don’t Fly Too Close to the Sun
I was honored to speak at a conference in Milwaukee over the summer called Milwaukee's Future in the Chicago Mega-City. Chicago and Milwaukee are about 90 miles apart on I-94. There's an Amtrak link that makes the journey in about 90 minutes. The two cities have been sprawling such that there's now more or less continuous development along the lakefront between the two cities. Milwaukee has been a challenged city economically and demographically. Chicago has had its own serious problems, but has seen its already muscular core boom in terms of … [Read more...]