I am a Contributing Editor at City Journal, the quarterly urban policy magazine of the Manhattan Institute.
- Struggling Communities and Their Prospects (April 8, 2022) – A new academic collection focuses much-needed attention on the challenges facing America’s small cities and towns
- American Cincinnatus (June 17, 2021) – A new biography of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. reminds us of a bygone model of the public servant
- Bluegrass, Bourbon, and Basketball (Fall 2020) – Lexington, Kentucky, builds on its core strengths and smart urban planning to forge a promising future
- Desert Visionary (December 1, 2020) – The death of Tony Hsieh is the loss of an urban pioneer
- Understanding the Midwest (June 1, 2020)
- The Lifeblood of America (April 8, 2020) – Small businesses are imperiled by the pandemic, but local efforts are under way to help them
- If You Improve It, They Will Come (September 10, 2019) – Several Midwest cities are pursuing innovative mass-transit plans—with encouraging results
- Bring Back Boomtown (July 16, 2019) – New York needs to think like a growth city again
- Atlanta Now (July 8, 2019) – The hub of the New South is no longer a go-go city, and it needs to adjust to that reality
- The Rust Belt’s Mixed Population Story (July 1, 2019) – Larger cities in the region are seeing some growth—but mostly from in-state residents leaving troubled or stagnant locales
- St. Louis Blues (June 17, 2018) – Once a major American city, the Gateway to the West struggles to redefine itself
- Portraits of Despair in Chicago (May 8, 2019) – The impact of urban violence on its survivors is incalculable
- Glitter, Without Growth (April 18, 2019) – New estimates from the Census Bureau indicate that some of the nation’s major metros are beginning to shrink
- Changing the Chicago Way? (April 3, 2019) – A reformist outsider disrupts politics in the Windy City
- The Tech Campus Moves Downtown (Winter 2019) – States ponder expanding their university tech departments to big cities, hoping to maximize economic benefits
- Let’s Hear It For South Bend (February 7, 2019) – Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s longshot presidential candidacy highlights the challenge of being a talented Democrat from Indiana
- Midwestern Breakout? (December 17, 2018) – Columbus, Ohio, is firing on all cylinders—demographically, economically, and culturally
- Shining in the Rust Belt (Autumn 2018) – Kokomo, Indiana, is no paradise, but a working-class/creative-class synthesis has helped turn it around
- Idyll, or Elegy? (November 8, 2018) – Frederick Wiseman’s new documentary dramatizes the tough choices that America’s small towns face
- The Sunny Side of Midsized (September 28, 2018) – Oklahoma City’s successful former mayor offers lessons from his experience
- Exit Rahm (September 6, 2018) – Announcing that he won’t run for reelection, Chicago’s powerhouse mayor leaves a mixed record and a city badly in need of a new political model
- Great Plains Metropolis (August 24, 2018) – A new book tells the story of Oklahoma City, past and present
- The Market Is “Banning the Box” (August 8, 2018) – A robust jobs economy, not federal or state mandates, is putting the long-term unemployed back to work
- Middle City, USA (Summer 2018) – Akron, Ohio, looks to reinvent itself
- Manufacturing a Comeback (Spring 2018) – Grand Rapids has become a midwestern economic star and is generating new industrial jobs
- Ante Up (April 20, 2018) – A thriving society needs its decision-makers to have something at stake
- Trump as “Clown Genius” (February 27, 2018) – Dilbert creator Scott Adams sees the president’s mastery of persuasion techniques as the key to understanding his election
- Assessing the Trump Infrastructure Plan (February 12, 2018) – Providing for local scrutiny will help avoid boondoggles, but is the federal contribution enough to get digging started?
- The Lifeblood of Cities (January 9, 2018) – “Middle” neighborhoods—neither affluent nor poor—remain crucial to urban success
- Vigor in the Heartland (Autumn 2017) – America’s “flyover country” is stronger than you think
- Who’s Really Censoring the Web? (November 29, 2017) – Net neutrality advocates have it backwards
- First Amendment in Peril? (August 18, 2017) – The Google/Apple duopoly on the mobile Internet seems unconcerned with free expression
- Post-Work Won’t Work (August 4, 2017) – The universal basic income is an idea based on dubious social and moral logic
- Trouble in Trump County, USA (Shape of Work to Come Special Issue) – An Indiana community typifies the working-class struggles that shaped the 2016 election
- America the Cheap (April 24, 2017) – Always searching for the lowest price can get you the quality you deserve
- The Real Unmaskers (April 5, 2017) – Independent bloggers and social-media voices are scooping the mainstream media
- How About Freedom for Dinner? (March 15, 2017) – The regulatory state determines too much of what and how we eat
- The Mayor Builder (January 27, 2017) – How Richard M. Daley set the stage for Chicago’s comeback—and planted the seeds of fiscal crisis
- What Will President Trump Mean For Cities? (Winter 2017) – Some clues from his campaign
- Where the Buffalo Zone (January 5, 2017) – An innovative zoning code overhaul could help revive the western New York city and is already inspiring copycat
- The Mayor Trap (November 30, 2016) – Trump must avoid the temptation to micromanage individual infrastructure and economic projects—like the Carrier deal
- Winner (November 9, 2016) – Facing long odds, Donald Trump rewrote the political playbook
- You’ve Been Restricted (November 3, 2016) – Social-media sites are growing increasingly comfortable with censorship
- Culture, Circumstance, and Agency (August 23, 2016) – Reflections on Hillbilly Elegy
- The End of Eyes on the Street (August 22, 2016) – On the delegitimizing of social control
- Trump’s Pitch to Blacks (August 18, 2016) – He probably won’t win many African-American votes, but he sounds a warning about unlimited immigration
- Catching Up Is Hard to Do (June 10, 2016) – Los Angeles has fallen far behind the Bay Area–perhaps permanently
- The Duck-Billed Platypus of American Cities (May 25, 2016) – Its population declining, Chicago should focus on its core strengths–and forget about competing with New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco
- Black Residents Matter (Spring 2016) – They’re fleeing the most progressive cities–why?
- Honey, I Shrunk Chicago (March 24, 2016) – The Illinois Supreme Court refuses to let anyone fix the pension crisis, and people are leaving
- Why Connecticut Lost GE (January 14, 2016) – High taxes aren’t the only reason
- Reinventing Buffalo (Autumn 2015) – The western New York city should focus on getting better–not bigger
- The Fall of Rahm Emanuel (December 15, 2015) – Chicago’s bullyboy mayor will never change
- Doing OK in OKC (Autumn 2015) – Oklahoma City is booming, thanks to vibrant and fiscally conservative governance
- Gas Tax Fever (November 4, 2015) – Alternative-transportation projects rely on federal highway funding, putting bike and rail advocates in a tough spot
- Eve of Destruction (October 23, 2015) – A snapshot of Detroit circa 1963
- Beneath Chicago’s Gloss (September 24, 2015) – How it is possible for a city this booming to be this broke?
- Under the Elevated (September 18, 2015) – A new report argues for development of New York’s forgotten public spaces
- Resetting New York’s Economy (August 28, 2015) – Gotham continues to create jobs, but too many are low-wage
- Think Globally, Disrupt Locally (Summer 2015) – Cities shouldn’t make America’s environmental policies
- Chicago’s Financial Fire (July 12, 2015) – The city faces trouble from every direction
- Hooray for the High Bridge (June 22, 2015) – A civic restoration project that deserves to be celebrated
- Libertarians of Convenience (Spring 2015) – Urban progressives favor deregulation–but only for things they like or want to do
- Rahm’s Reprieve (April 8, 2015) – The Chicago mayor survives his runoff election, but he faces all the same problems
- Strong People, Strong Cities (April 5, 2015) – The conservative case for resilience
- Rahm’s Runoff (February 26, 2015) – Chicago’s problems run deeper than many in the city want to acknowledge
- Is Detroit Open For Business? (Winter 2015) – A fear of outsiders could scuttle the Motor City’s long-awaited recovery
- After the Mirage (January 27, 2015) – New Yorkers grumble and get back to life as usual
- Why Policing (January 12, 2015) – Without public safety, cities fail
- Belt Tightening 101 (Autumn 2014) – Mitch Daniels has helped Purdue keep costs down for students
- City Smart (October 24, 2014) – Data technology is transforming urban governance
- Detroit Water City (September 28, 2014) – If the city can’t even make customers pay their bills, how can it move forward?
- The Bluest State (Spring 2014) – Decades of liberal policies have made Rhode Island the nation’s basket case
- Rahm Emanuel’s Nightmare (May 23, 2014) – The combative Chicago mayor’s reelection chances suddenly look grim
- Chicago’s Vanishing Middle Class (April 16, 2014) – In the Windy City and elsewhere, a liberal top-bottom coalition drives it out
- The Old Regime and the New (December 29, 2013) – Will Bill de Blasio tackle New Yorkers’ real problems or undo the achievements of his predecessors?
- Is the City Where You Should Be? (November 15, 2013) – A new book tries to make the case
- Well-Heeled in the Windy City (October 16, 2013) – Rahm Emanuel splurges on amenities for the elite, while poor and middle-class Chicagoans suffer
- Leaving Town (Special Issue 2013) – Metro New York hemorrhaged $49 billion during the 2000s as residents sought opportunity elsewhere
- Hail Columbia! (Winter 2013) – The federal government’s relentless expansion has made Washington, D.C., America’s real Second City
- The Second-Rate City? (Spring 2012) – Chicago’s swift, surprising decline presents formidable challenges for new mayor Rahm Emanuel