A careful study of evictions in San Francisco says “No.” There’s a widespread belief among some neighborhood activists that building new housing triggers displacement. We-and most economists are highly skeptical of that argument at the metropolitan level, but its at…
Overselling localism is becoming an excuse to shed and shred federal responsibility Our friend, and director of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, Amy Liu, weighs in with a timely commentary on the limits of localism. As regular readers of…
Coffee and ice cream and jam (or traffic jams) Just once, we are going to sugar-coat our commentary. At City Observatory, we know that a lot of what we present is highly technical, especially when it comes to understanding the…
Why a recent Fed study tells us very little about supply and affordability The takeaway: A recent Federal Reserve study which seems to show that building more housing won’t improve affordability has little relevance to supply-constrained cities; among other things,…
People and social interaction, not technology, is the key to the future of cities Smart city afficianado’s are agog at the prospects that the Internet of Things will create vast new markets for technology that will disrupt and displace cities.…