Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 16/07/2026found just now in a 1911 socialist newspaper 18713
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 11/07/2026I'm really looking forward to teaching this new experiential seminar, "Local Governance and the Food Culture of Greater Los Angeles," next year at UCLA Law. Reading and restaurant recommendations welcome! 0161
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 14/05/2026Lots of great personal anecdotes in the comments (230 already, in just 20 hours!) about how viewers have experienced the consequences of tax base fragmentation in their own communities. 060
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 29/03/2026There’s a Briffault for every state/local headline (this one remains a favorite): scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcont... 1101
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 13/01/2026Enjoyed reading these reflections. “AI systems are trained on human judgments, after all. But they still learn a kind of averaged, derivative taste. As a result they can recognize what has been valued but I suspect will struggle to anticipate what should be valued.” 0102
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025Tax base fragmentation matters. Local governance in the US is highly fragmented: property tax revenues are collected—and critical services are provided—by ~90k independent jurisdictions, and centralized (redistributive) fiscal transfers are much lower than in other federal systems. See: 1246
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025In addition to identifying such wealthy enclaves, we also find a mirror phenomenon: a distinctive form of place-based disadvantage that distinguishes entirely *poor cities* (e.g., Paterson NJ) from *poor neighborhoods* in prosperous cities (e.g., East Brooklyn). We call this "fiscal impoverishment": 1264
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025We also uncovered a striking phenomenon of "corporate enclaves": localities w virtually no residents but millions (even billions) of dollars’ worth of commercial property. Examples include the Disney-owned jurisdictions near Orlando and the industrial city of Vernon in LA (profiled by Mike Davis): 1488
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025We identify over 500 of these municipal tax havens: jurisdictions with per capita tax bases many times larger than their metro average. They include well-known bastions of residential affluence like Malibu & Miami Beach—but also many smaller, less famous municipalities—all across the US. 1363
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025Consider Honolulu. In spatial terms, its housing wealth is highly segregated (see map). But on our index, Honolulu receives the lowest possible score. Why? Bc Hawaii is the only US state w/o any formal local govts below its 5 counties: the full metro area is part of the same local tax base. 1360
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025What is unique about our measure is that we aggregate wealth at the level of the municipality: the funding base for many critical public services. This allows us to capture the important difference between (1) a *wealthy neighborhood* in a larger municipality, and (2) a *wealthy municipality* 15312
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025We find significant variation in tax base inequality across metropolitan areas in the US—substantially driven by local government law, as state/regional variation in jurisdictional fragmentation interacts with (by spatially overlapping onto) different levels of economic segregation: 2492
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025For the whole US, we produce two metrics: one capturing the degree of tax base fragmentation within every metro area, and another capturing the own-source fiscal capacity of every general-purpose local jurisdiction (measured as per capita property wealth; standardized by metro). 2386
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 24/11/2025🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16] 10446183
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 21/07/2025Found in the archives: In protest of populists' inclusion of "statutory" detail (like labor rights) in the 1910 Arizona constitution, conservatives introduced a petition to constitutionally limit the size of women's "merry widow hats".. honestly, great gag, have to hand it to them. 141
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 19/06/2025What could go wrong! www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult... 080
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 16/06/2025The final version of my job market paper—about the strategies that have facilitated localized corporate domination at different points in our history—is now out. I'm so grateful to the SLR team and everyone else whose feedback has shaped this along the way! www.stanfordlawreview.org/print/articl... 3396
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 04/06/2025imagining the raucous scene of a populist third-party political convention in Omaha where it all culminates in a 20m rendition of “Yankee Doodle” that brings the house down 010
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 03/05/2025This is a great, and well-reported, story about what happens when the world’s wealthiest man decides that he wants his own government. 34316
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 29/04/2025I am grateful for the opportunity to share some reflections—about courts & constitutional entrenchment of oligarchy, drawing lessons from state constitutionalism—in this exciting collection. Check out “Court Reform Can’t Be Limited to ‘Reforming Courts’” here: rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/court-r... 082
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 06/03/2025In other life updates: I’m incredibly excited to be joining the law faculty at UCLA this summer as an asst prof. I’ll be teaching state constitutional law, contracts, and a local govt seminar ("Place, Race, & Power"). Feeling deeply grateful for all who have supported me along the winding path here! 15662
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 06/03/2025I've posted 'Governing the Company Town' (my job market paper; now revised), which contextualizes contemporary enclaves—like Elon Musk's TX municipal incorporations, Disney's FL special district, & global private city movements—within a longer history of capital-governed communities: bit.ly/4hi449O 0299
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 03/12/2024The final version of "Regulating Location Incentives” is now posted. It draws from 19th cent. rail history to show how federal-level market regulation could address harms—to competitors, workers & consumers—created by location incentive megadeals. Many thanks to all who gave feedback! bit.ly/49GeA7t 1236
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 08/11/2023it must be said: a weeknight halloumi salad goes crazy. 080
Brian Highsmith @bhighsmith.bsky.social · 07/10/2023I really appreciate this suggestion (from Gerald Frug) that what distinguishes “community” is not what we have in common by rather “the hard work of community building” between strangers. 070
