Category Commentary

Obsolete before its even tried: A simple mileage fee is a bad way to pay for roads It’s being touted as a replacement for the gas tax, but the VMT fee is a flawed way to pay for roads. We…

What City Observatory did this week   1. Two thing’s everyone’s missed about Amazon’s HQ2. The urbanist Internet has been all abuzz reading the tea leaves from Amazon’s decision to winnow the list of contenders for its ballyhooed HQ2 to…

Growing supply is producing growing vacancies and easing rents There’s been a lot of skepticism expressed as to whether supply and demand are actually at work in the housing market. We’ve been strong believers that the economic perspective is fundamentally…

What kind of company is Amazon, and how many locations does it want? We’re now into round 2 of the great Amazon HQ2 extravaganza, and as with the initial announcement much digital ink has been spilled to analyze the meaning…

What City Observatory did this week 1. We’re losing the battle for Vision Zero. One of the compelling aspects of the Vision Zero road safety campaign is its bold, measurable objective: we want to completely eliminate traffic deaths. That vision…