Ex-Urbia

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"Town and country must be married and out of this joyous union will spring a new hope, a new life, a new civilization.”
— Ebenezer Howard, 1898"

All cities must evolve over time. Those that fail to do so end up, at best, like Venice, Vienna, or Florence: lifestyle and tourist hubs. This fate now awaits our greatest urban cores if they cannot address the demographic, social, and economic forces transforming the metropolitan landscape.  read more »

American Suppression of Fossil Fuels Courts a National Security Disaster

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The capacity of a modern economy to produce food and products for its citizens, and weapons and fuels for its military to project power, are the undeniable twin pillars of global power.  read more »

Subjects:

The Rich Are Eating Themselves

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Beware of plutocrats bearing gifts. The annual clown show at Davos epitomises how today, the global elites have embraced an unholy trinity of ‘progressive’ doctrines: climate-change apocalypticism, a belief in systemic racism and racial ‘equity’, and radical gender ideology.  read more »

Subjects:

Demographia International Housing Affordability – 2023 Edition Released

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Demographia International Housing Affordability rates middle-income housing affordability in 94 major housing markets in eight nations: Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. This edition covers the third quarter (September quarter) of 2022.  read more »

The New Great Game

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The Western response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is widely seen as a sign of a reinvigorated alliance of democracies against authoritarianism.  read more »

The Future of Cities: The Evolution of New York City Politics

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It's always been a mug's fame to best against New York City, which was counted out only to quickly bounce back after 9/11 and again in 2008 after the financial system nearly collapsed and took the world economy with it.  read more »

The 15 Minute City: An Idiotic Dream

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One of the arguments against single-family zoning is that separating housing from other uses forces people to drive to shops, work, and other destinations.  read more »

Canada and the U.S. are Not Systemically Racist — and the Numbers Prove It

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As we talk about the future, we also need to confront the past. History, with all its complexities, defines our civilization, creating both cautionary tales and forging a common identity  read more »

2022 Residential Building Permits by Housing Market

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The US Census Bureau has released preliminary data for residential building permits by metropolitan area (housing market). This article provides data for all of the 384 metropolitan areas, with emphasis on the 113 with populations exceeding 500,000 residents (Note).  read more »

California Has a Population Problem – At a Minimum

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There’s not much reason to expect more than a churn of mediocrity from the Los Angeles Times these days.  read more »