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Showing posts from December, 2016

Transit as Economic Development

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In recent decades urban transportation policies have migrated out from forgotten corners within department of public works buildings to hip and flashy places where hot-button issues like bike-sharing, car-sharing, complete streets, and transportation equity are addressed. This article tracks why transportation has become a front and center matter for mayors across the country and why transportation is seen now as a key economic development tool. Urban congestion in Manhattan (source: Best Practices for NYC) In economic terms, cities are agglomerations that provide economic benefits that make it more beneficial to locate businesses there than elsewhere. Such beneficial agglomerations also tend to produce "productive inefficiencies", —things like air pollution, parking cost, and congestion. These inefficiencies begin to limit or even reduce the agglomeration benefits. Vehicle-based mobility in a growing agglomeration initially increases as more jobs and amenities locate in an a

What's next, America?

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There are a great many people who would like to know what's next. Maybe  right now the future is less predictable than it has been in a long time. Especially immigrants are concerned what the future will hold. This article, although written from the perspective of an immigrant, isn't about the recent election but about the "brand" USA, how the world sees the country and how it sees itself and what should happen next to align the country with expectations and master the challenges with a special eye on cities.  Each immigrant has a vision of the country of choice over the reality left behind. An idea of what the future homeland should be like that is fed from education, stories, news and folklore. America's brand has held its appeal over generations, even though the country has reinvented itself many times over. Immigrant nation: what's next? Each immigrant will find that the new found reality doesn't always conform to the imagined one. The worse the place

Infrastructure: Make America Great Together?

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Speaker after speaker agreed: Infrastructure would be a good investment especially for cities. The psychiatrist Mindi Fullilove and the doctor Richard Jackson spoke about infrastructure in the context of health and human well being, "In social psychiatry health comes from connectedness i.e. A sense of shared values". (Mindi Fullilove ).  Panel discussion in the NYT Conference center by Renzo Piano with open air atrium behind the stage opening a view to 41st Street. Speaking: Mitchell Silver, NYC Parks Commissioner (photo: Philipsen) The developers Jonathan Rose and Chris Leinberger evoked the "Well Tempered City" and the social entrepreneur . NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver spoke about the value of parks ("parks are where you let your brain breathe"), Tyler Duvall , Partner at McKinsey advised about the structural deficiencies in how to deliver infrastructure, Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans made a fervent case for cities as the places where