San Francisco leaders won’t be able to save dying malls one at a time. They need a big idea for San Francisco’s urban district as a whole.

Big urban shopping malls and office-supported retail are out. But authentic urban bookstores and catalogue stores are in.

Noah Smith says "shops" will save American cities. Nope. After Covid, the secret to vibrant American urban streets involves businesses that require face-to-face contact, like bars and restaurants

Towns that host mid-market colleges will struggle in the future. But that doesn't mean the lessons of great college towns can't be learned by these cities and others as well.

They're dense, walkable, and high-amenity. The demand for that kind of town far exceeds the supply -- which is a lesson we need to learn and act on.

We love living on and visiting "the edge" -- close to the ocean and other beautiful but fragile natural places. But can we really keep these places going in a way that doesn't break the bank?

People like hanging out on the edge of something compelling, like an ocean. But how can we make sure "edge towns" are both sustainable and affordable?

Rockville’s early New Urbanism and TOD puts it at the top of a green small cities list.

You can't just plug the retail gaps. You've got to blast past the retail mentality and be intentional about how you do it.

The suburbs needs strong and dynamic places to face-to-face gathering. Revitalization of dead malls can play this role -- but only if the re-do is done intentionally and not just as hole-plugging.

Even a dismal suburban parking lot can be converted into a pedestrian paradise for a few hours for a farmer's market or an art festival -- and people love it.

Digging into the stories of humans on the land

Yes, short urban auto trips are sometimes desirable. But with a little effort, cities can help people who live in urban neighborhoods find alternatives for running that short errand.

Driving eight blocks to get somewhere is better than driving eight miles.

Most cities are going to grow both "up" and "out". How can we make the "out" part of that growth as beneficial as possible?

Places like my homeowner have spent decades climbing out of an economic hole created when big factories closed. But their revived manufacturing economies will suffer from Trump's new tariffs.

Changes in the tourist economy -- especially the rise of short-term rentals -- have made life difficult for tourist towns. Here are a few ideas about how they can manage the situation.

Conventions and conferences create a constant flow of Burning Map-type events in downtowns. They are a critical part of the post-COVID "future of where" for cities.

The nationalization of sports is undercutting the ability of communities to use teams to strengthen their sense of identity. Here are four ways communities can combat the trend.

The aesthetics of the groups that make up today's American right - and what they tell us.

Minor league baseball teams are ia waste of money for the major league owners who control them. But they're not a waste of time for the communities who love them.

They're affluent and they seek a high quality of life. Economic development folks should go after treat them as a target just like a factory or a company.

Remote work and Amazon delivery trucks are here to stay. But a lot of the other changes I predicted simply didn't materialize once we had a vaccine.

The post-COVID "Suburban Workshops" are fundamentally different than the traditional suburbs. Here's how they need to change to function well in the post-COVID world.

Exurban areas are adding people in the wake of the pandemic. But they’re still not growing their economies as fast as urban cores.

There's intense competition for location shooting and an "arms race" in film tax credits. But creating a "new Hollywood" anywhere requires much more than that.

Anora and the Oscar contenders were dripping in their depiction of "place," reminding us once again that movies affect us emotionally in part by connecting us to the idea of "where".

They have some advantages that older Downtowns don’t have. But the challenges, including competition from other activity centers within their home regions, are immense. Here’s what they can do.

The state grew modestly last year, but the boom years are over. That's a problem for communities that have relied on development to pay for public works.

The AI revolution is putting the Suburban Workshop at risk. Place your bets on the Urban Hotels like Orlando and Las Vegas.

Centers of power drive local economies, but the placeless world is chipping away at them. Here are 3 keys to keeping them.

An economist at UCLA, Shoup said free parking carries a high cost, which is borne by everybody.

Will centers of power – political, economic, cultural like "Inside The Beltway" D.C. – ever be powerful again?

The bottom-line question is this: If people are displaced, is there a place for them to relocate to?

His mission was to help people understand the underlying economics of public goods and services. Parking was simply the vehicle, one might say, that he chose to do so.

It's tricky to create a neighborhood where people can thrive by walking. But the basic principles remain the same whether you're retrofitting a suburban neighborhood of building on a greenfield site.

But most people who work in a 15-minute neighborhood can’t afford to live there. We have to build more 15-minute neighborhoods to meet demand and make sure at least some housing in them is affordable.

John Nolen's plan for Venice, Florida, is legendary among urban planners. But what's interesting about Venice as an actual place, as opposed to Venice as a plan on a paper, is how it's evolved.

As the "nationalization of the sportscape" continues, maybe we need to re-think the idea pouring billions into stadiums in order to keep our teams local.

Podcast Episode · Public Money Pod · 01/20/2025 · 1h 2m

What the "nationalization of American sportscape" tells us about the future of where.

Josh Stephens reflects on what the L.A. wildfires mean for California, as he watches the blaze from his apartment on the edge of the evacuation zone.

As with Hurricane Helene last fall, the Los Angeles wildfires highlight the fact that we keep putting people in harm's way -- and we're reluctant to do much of anything about it.

“Place” is one of the most common and ubiquitous of all human experiences. Yet most of us never think about it. Here's how to change that.

The president-elect's housing policy is hard to predict, but California could be disproportionately affected by his proposal to open up federal land to development.