Aaron M. Renn

All Things Aaron

When High Density Is Humane

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So many of the complaints about density seem to revolve around all the supposed negative affects of congestion, as well a general sense of the inhumanity of high density living, which in the popular mind is associated with the proverbial "concrete jungle" and a forest of skycrapers. I can understand why many people want a house on a big lot. On the other hand, high density living, done right, can be extremely livable, humane, and even uncongested. When I lived in Chicago I frequently would have people tell me that they couldn't imagine … [Read more...]

Behind the Facade in St. Petersburg

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St. Petersburg, Peter the Great's new European style capital for imperial Russia, is the most visited city for tourists in Russia. It has a ton of great buildings, energetic street life in its smallish central core, and world-renowned cultural institutions like the Hermitage Museum and the Mariinsky Theater. As with Moscow, however, I am not going to attempt to replicate what you can find better elsewhere online or in a guidebook. Rather, I want to show a few things that reflect on something a person there told me, namely that "St. … [Read more...]

A Visit to Kazan

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St. Petersburg and Moscow are typical destinations in Russia, but if you're looking for other places to visit, where do you go? I can't claim to answer that question as I have not fully surveyed the realm, but I did visit the city of Kazan for a day, so want to share a few observations and photos. Kazan is a city of a bit over a million people about 450 miles east of Moscow (a flight of around 1:20). It's the capital of the Tatar Republic of the Russian Federation. The Tatars were a nomads of Turkish ethnicity who established an independent … [Read more...]

Transport in Moscow

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I was in Russia last week and plan to share a few relevant posts from the trip. Since you can easily find better photos of places like the Kremlin than I'll ever take online, when it comes to Moscow I'm going to focus on more planning and transport items. There's a lot of other commentary I might make, and if you want to read it, be sure to sign up for my exclusive content by email if you haven't already, because I may write up further observations on the political scene there. Writing anything positive about public space and transport in … [Read more...]

A Manifesto Against Completing Sagrada Famí­lia Church

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I've written before about Sagrada Família Church in Barcelona, an architectural masterwork by Antoni Gaudí. In particular you may remember my essay "Will Sagrada Família Be Mankind’s Last Ever Great Artistic Statement for God?." I wrote that piece after reading an article by Oscar Tusquets Blanca in Domus magazine in 2011. In it he talked about being an instigator as a student of the publication of a manifesto (his term) against completion of the church. And how he now believes he and his fellow signatories were very mistaken. While … [Read more...]

Why Are US Rail Transit Construction Costs So High?

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It's no secret to readers here that US rail transit construction costs are far out of line vs. other countries. David Schleicher, a law professor at Yale, recently co-authored an article examining some potential reasons why. I crossed paths with David last week and recorded this short podcast with him delving into the matter. If the audio embed doesn't display for you, click over to listen on Soundcloud. … [Read more...]

Suburban Migration In Baltimore

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One unique aspect of Baltimore is that it is a so-called "independent city" that is not part of any county. Because of this, migration data from the IRS allows us to look specifically at the city of Baltimore. So I wanted to take a quick look at migration between Baltimore and its suburbs. As you might expect, there's been a net outflow of people from the city for quite some time. From 1990 to 2011 (the most recent year the IRS has released), Baltimore lost almost 151,000 people on a net basis to its suburbs. Here's the chart: You see … [Read more...]

More Privatization Pain For the Public in North Carolina

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Privatization done right can be a great boon. Done poorly, it can harm the public for decades. We see another example of the latter ongoing in North Carolina (h/t @mihirpshah). The Charlotte Observer reports: The N.C. Department of Transportation’s contract with a private developer to build toll lanes on Interstate 77 includes a controversial noncompete clause that could hinder plans to build new free lanes on the highway for 50 years. The clause has long been part of the proposed contract. But it was changed in late 2013 or early 2014 to … [Read more...]

Creating Fertile Soil For Innovation

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I was privileged to give the opening keynote at Governing Magazine's Summit on Performance and Innovation in Louisville last week. Not only was it great to get to speak there in its own right, it's particularly special for me because Louisville is my hometown. My talk was on innovation, the imperative for innovation today, the barriers to innovation, and how to create fertile soil for innovation to flourish. The video is embedded below, but if it doesn't display for you, click over to watch on You Tube. … [Read more...]

Global City Framework

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This is a concept in development, so I'm going to open this post up to comments. Global cities are like that famous quip on obscenity: we know one when we see it. But the definitions of global cities are incredibly varied and there doesn't seem to be a consensus or well-defined way to think about. I looked at the criteria used in various prominent studies back in 2012 and found them highly divergent. Only the Sassen based one appeared to have a robust definition and theoretical basis, but it's a pretty narrow definition. While it's very … [Read more...]