There isn’t a lot of good economic news coming out of Spain these days. But newly published research suggests one Spanish city made a very smart investment 15 years ago, which continues to pay off today. The city is Bilbao, and the investment is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, a postmodern palace for contemporary art designed by visionary architect Frank Gehry. “Culture-led branding has had real economic returns in Bilbao,” a research team led by economist Beatriz Plaza of the University of the Basque Country reports in the Journal of Cultural Economics Japan. “Since the Guggenheim ... Read More
Urban Renewal’s Record Shows It Wasn’t All Bad
January 21, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Tossed into the dustbin of history more than a generation ago, the concept of urban renewal, long derided as “Negro removal,” is getting a second look. The program began in 1950 and was scrapped in 1974, by then thoroughly discredited as unfair and unworkable. In the national war on blight, the poor were disproportionately targeted for eviction from dilapidated downtowns to make way for parks, office buildings, sports arenas, and high-rise apartments. But a new study for the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that urban renewal, or slum clearance, had some lasting positive ... Read More
Buildings Could Help People Breathe Easier
June 13, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
On the heels of record smog in Hong Kong comes a novel idea for clearing the air: Make buildings the “lungs of the city.” In effect, they may already be performing that function, said Elia Sterling, president of Theodor Sterling Associates Ltd. in Vancouver, a pioneer in the field of indoor air quality. Recent tests inside four Hong Kong skyscrapers revealed that the indoor levels of particulate matter were 70 percent lower than outdoor levels, Sterling said. The buildings, with their massive ventilation systems, were acting as oases from the smog. Why not expel their clean, ... Read More
Define a ‘Great’ City
March 22, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
H.V. Savitch knows that "Best of" lists are always debatable. That's why he didn't make one. Instead, the distinguished research professor at the University of Louisville took a less-traveled road. He analyzed other authoritative sources to glean information on an endlessly debated topic: What's the "greatest" American city? Sure, it's a frivolous question. And it begs to be countered with a simple, "Define 'great.'" But it's also a question dear to the hearts of nearly every glossy travel magazine, cultural watch-dog and, apparently, AOL or MSNBC blogger. Iconic cities, after all, seem ... Read More
Are Cities Like Lehman Brothers or AIG?
November 20, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Philadelphia in early November 2008 was in the midst of celebrating two unprecedented victories: a World Series championship, just the second in franchise history, and the election of the country's first black president, to whom locals had given 83 percent of their votes. "In city government, we were trying to figure out which day to tell citizens we now have a $1 billion deficit," said Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter. Should they interrupt the ticker-tape parade or rain on the election party? The city's fiscal situation would only deteriorate further over the coming months, ... Read More
Go East, Young Man (Oh, You Already Are)
September 24, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
Get your pens. Write it down. Something big has happened. The westward expansion of the United States is over. The phrase "Go West, young man," attributed to New York newspaperman Horace Greeley that heralded movement of people, livestock, capital and ideas across a continent has reached its logical conclusion. After two centuries of westward expansion, with California being a choice settling spot (there was no more continental west, after all), general U.S. migration patterns now are changing. It seems parts of the West have become what the settlers were leaving: too crowded, too ... Read More
Feeding the Meter, Helping the Homeless?
June 2, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
American cities have tried many ambitious methods to "fix" their homelessness problems, from San Francisco's "care-not-cash" program, which cut welfare funds in exchange for expanded access to shelters, to The Bridge, Dallas' just-opened center that aims to take the novel approach of treating the homeless like consumers. Now, it appears the latest craze in homeless policy takes its cue from Lovely Rita, Meter Maid. Earlier this month, San Francisco became the latest in an expanding list of cities that have converted downtown parking meters into collection boxes, with the coins deposited by ... Read More
Suburbs in Decline
February 27, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Can the suburbs be saved? It's a question few politicians expected they would need to answer — until just more than a decade ago, when socioeconomic data began to show population and income declining in the suburbs surrounding major American cities. Many of these "first suburbs," built during and after World War II, now suffer from old age and neglect, with crumbling infrastructure, outdated housing and poverty on the upswing. They face city-sized challenges without the tax base, political clout or other resources to easily combat them. As Sen. Hillary Clinton, a proponent of federal aid ... Read More
