Aaron M. Renn

All Things Aaron

Planning and Free Market Density

By

I read articles out on the net with the general theme of claiming that a cabal of planners is conspiring to force us all to move back into overcrowded tenements in order to recognize their dream of reurbanizing America. There's no doubt that plenty of progressives write about how people ought to more or less be forced back into the city and would gladly do it if they had the power. And I'm sure in some places there are planning rules designed to achieve this effect, like urban growth boundaries. But if you ask me, the practical reality in most … [Read more...]

Building Suburbs That Last #6 – Limit Restrictive Covenants

By

This is another in my occasional series on creating suburbs that will remain successful over the long haul. To recap, I consider the suburban decay facing inner ring suburbs across America, especially those of the 60’s and 70’s vintage built on a modern suburban pattern, as one of the key challenges facing urban leaders over the coming decades. I outlined a lot of the case in my review of the book “Retrofitting Suburbia”. This series looks at ways to keep this same decay from happening to tomorrow's suburbs. The Market Urbanism blog recently … [Read more...]

Do Cities Need a Creative Director?

By

Cities that suffer from various brand stigmas or problems often want to give themselves an image makeover. Even cities that are doing well can fret about how their brand is faring versus the global competition. This had led some cities to ask whether or not they need to appoint a creative director, as in the private sector. For example, see this article about Birmingham, UK. Tyler Brûlé, whom I mentioned yesterday, listed appointing a creative director as one of the five things he would do as mayor of a city. As he put it, "All strong brands … [Read more...]

Picture-Perfect Portland?

By

Portland is one of the most-praised cities in contemporary America. But is the hype real? To some extent, it actually understates the case. Portland didn't invent bicycles, density or light rail -- but it understood the future implications of them for America's smaller cities first, and put that knowledge to use before anyone else. The longest journey begins with a step, but you have to take it. Nobody else did. In an era where most American cities went one direction, Portland went another, either capturing or even creating the zeitgeist of … [Read more...]

Employment Challenges Facing Smaller City Downtowns

By

I recently wrote about the return of jobs to downtown in large tier one cities like Chicago. There are a number of factors driving this: the rise of the "global city", the locational advantage of downtown for commuters, the significant rise in central city residency for professionals, etc. This has enabled the central cores of cities like New York to remain extremely strong even if in some sense they are losing job share to the suburbs or even outright losing jobs (as in Chicago). Smaller cities, which I define as anyone below those tier one … [Read more...]

Resolving the Paradox of Success

By

In a previous posting on innovation, I talked about how coming up with innovative new ideas is surprisingly easy. It is actually trying to do them that is hard. I pointed out many of the structural barriers to this, most of which lie in the realm of organizational dynamics. One of the problems is what I call the “paradox of success”. That is, it is harder for someone, be it an individual or company, to do something new and different to the extent that what they are currently doing is already successful. This actually seems, like the … [Read more...]

Learning to Love “Naptown”

By

Indianapolis has long chafed under the memory of being mocked by out of towners and bigger markets as “India-no-place” or “Naptown”. As with many nicknames, the actual origin of the term “Naptown” is in dispute. It has variously been attributed as an insult implying a sleepy, boring town; coming from call letters of WNAP radio; or originating in 1920's jazz from the so-called “Naptown sound”. Given that the “nap” syllable occurs in the long Indianapolis, a short form or diminutive is implied. Whatever the case, the word Naptown has long … [Read more...]

The Power of Greenfield Economics

By

I've touched on this before in other posts, but it is worth highlighting again. The great move from the city to the suburbs has been attributed to various factors: changing lifestyle preferences, the automobile, subsidies to sprawl, urban industrial pollution, etc. While there is probably truth in all of these, possibly the most powerful of them all is greenfield economics. What is greenfield economics? This is simply the set of conditions that flow from building on new territory or exploiting new markets vs. redevelopment of old places, … [Read more...]

The Logic of Failure

By

"It is far from clear whether 'good intentions plus stupidity' or 'evil intentions plus intelligence' have wrought more harm in the world. People with good intentions usually have few qualms about pursuing their goals. As a result, incompetence that would otherwise have remained harmless often becomes dangerous...Failure does not strike like a bolt from the blue; it develops gradually according to its own logic. As we watch individuals attempt to solve problems, we will see that complicated situations seem to elicit habits of thought that set … [Read more...]

Beyond Brain Drain

By

[ I wrote this for a newspaper in Indianapolis, but it's applicable everywhere. - Aaron] Much of the anxiety around human capital in places like Indiana revolves around the so-called “brain drain,” or loss of educated young people after they leave school. But while many would-be brain drain plugs are without question valuable, especially those focused on boosting education, the problem is actually much more complex than that simple idea suggests. Firstly, a lot of the regions and states that have bled population don't have especially high … [Read more...]