The Washington Post in an article entitled The interesting thing that happened when Kansas cut taxes and California hiked them provides an update on the economic fortune of the two states. Its a topic we covered previously in a post entitled California…
For nearly all of my getting close to forty year career I have heard about the imminent collapse of New York City. Those predictions were largely based on the twin beliefs that cities were part of the past (no longer…
Conventional wisdom is the places with the lowest costs (so-called business friendly) have the best economies. Think again! If that were true New York City--particularly Manhattan--and San Francisco should be collapsing. Instead they are surging. We explored Manhattan's success in…
Just finished reading the End of the Suburbs by Leigh Galagher, assistant managing editor at Fortune. Highly recommended. She details, with data and stories, the new reality that more and more Americans want to live in high density, walkable, mixed…
Across the country state and local leaders have made retaining and attracting young college graduates an economic development priority. Not in Michigan. Here, by and large, state and local policy makers and economic developers are missing in action. So are…
Some interesting press coverage of topics I have written about recently. Worth reading. On the topic of welcoming to all (see my pledge of allegiance post) the Governor's signing of the domestic partner benefit ban was a big step backwards.…
In a recent New York Times column Harvard’s Edward Glaeser wrote: “In the long run, America will be richer than China only by having smarter citizens, and that requires the skills that come from schools and cities, not dispersed factories.”…
Lot of reaction to my post on Ann Arbor's anti-density development policies. One theme is Ann Arbor can't be Madison mainly because they are the state capitol and have the two lakes. No question Madison has some assets that Ann…
Detroit needs a growth agenda. And the rest of us need to support it. There is a clear pattern across the country: the most prosperous states are either rich in energy resources or are anchored by an even more prosperous…