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
The Growth of Degrowth Economics
December 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
What if we promoted policies to shrink our economy, rather than grow it? What if government officials called for a recession, perhaps a depression, as the answer to humanity’s most intractable challenges? As heretical as they sound, such questions frame very real policy proposals debated by a growing legion of economists, activists, and government officials representing the so-called Degrowth movement. Degrowthists argue that only a contraction of the world’s developed economies can help reduce dependence on fossil fuel and other environmental resources, slow climate change, and ... Read More
Study: Soaking Up Rays May Produce Bigger Babies
June 2, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
After years of hearing it can cause first-degree burns, skin cancer and accelerated aging, some good news about ultraviolet sunlight has emerged: Increased height and bone health of children is related to the amount of sunlight mothers receive while pregnant. According to research published in the March edition of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, children born in the late summer and early fall are taller and have higher bone density and mineral content than their counterparts because their mothers are exposed to greater levels of UVB rays during the third ... Read More
The New College Try
October 21, 2008 • By • 1 Comment
Coming in from Chicago, it’s not a pretty ride to Thomas M. McDermott Jr.’s office. A mile to the north, you roll down from an unlovely concrete overpass that spans a trio of railroad tracks, greeted by a blighted strip of U.S. 41 that leads past the formerly marvelous structure that used to house the State Bank of Hammond. A wooden eagle, painted feathers slowly flaking off, is perched on the neoclassic building between tree-sized columns and golden gryphons on the edge of decay. The remainder of the road to McDermott is littered with similarly disused buildings, many plastered with ... Read More
Sprawl Increasing After All
January 24, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Sprawl, Elena Irwin freely admits, is a “buzzword” — a vague description of a troubling phenomenon. “It gets people’s attention, but it really doesn’t mean much,” she noted. “You can define it in a lot of different ways.” While Irwin is open to different definitions, the associate professor of environmental economics at Ohio State University has no doubt that Americans are living further from city centers, and further from one another, than ever before. Her previous studies suggest as much; so does common sense. So she was shocked by a 2006 study that found residential ... Read More
