Search Results for "Joel Kotkin"

Are suburbs and small towns poised to make a comeback thanks to COVID 19?

American commuter rail lines tend not to draw many riders. That's what happens when service is limited and the line is set up to shuttle suburban park-and-ride commuters to an urban center in the morning and back home in the evening.

Every so often someone (usually Joel Kotkin) tries to make the case that the rapid growth of Houston, as opposed to say, Chicago, is evidence that Americans love sprawl.

In a series of recent articles, the D.C. press have been throwing cold water on the idea that younger people don't drive as much as their parents. The impetus was a recent study of millennials in the D.C. that found 60 percent still drive to work alone. This is sort of like the "if the earth is warming, how come it's snowing outside?" argument.

There's a notion that remains very pervasive in certain quarters -- *cough* Joel Kotkin *cough* -- that the reason so many American cities are sprawling and suburban is the natural result of market forces. Essentially, Americans love driving and big yards and so that's what we get.

Cross-posted from the Frontier Group.

NHTSA Endorses, Takes Steps to Regulate Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications Technology As Construction Begins, CA HSR Chair Says Everything Is Hunky-Dory (Mercury, Cap News Radio) “A Major Leap in Public Transit”: Dallas Light Rail Extends to Airport (CBS) Brookings Examines the Lessons Learned from the Failure of Missouri’s Amendment 7 Transit Funding Ballot Initiative Ignites Austin Battle Over Rail (KVUE) … Continued

As soon as some consensus emerges about a demographic trend pointing to positive signs for cities, you can count on leading suburban crusader Joel Kotkin to say the experts have it wrong. Kotkin would like you to believe that he's the one true voice in demographic trends, and in his view, it's always the suburbs that come out on top.

Reading this sentence in a mainstream publication just validated everything I feel about the kind of parent I want to be: "It doesn’t mean millennials put parenthood second, but their definition of what makes a good parent is Mom and Dad being happy, and exposing their child to all the things that they have enjoyed."

All of a sudden, I feel like all anyone is talking about is whether it’s a good idea to raise kids in the city. I’m raising a kid in the city. I feel great about it when she has a blast on the back of the bike, or makes friends on the bus, or gets excited about pressing the beg button at the corner. I feel a little less certain when we toddle down the sidewalk and come upon guys peeing on the dumpster or passed out on the stoop. When I look at the test scores for our neighborhood schools, I get a knot in my stomach.