The Avenue
Getting Rail Right
Yale’s Paul Kennedy knows a little something about global economic issues. So when he wrote about the high speed rail this week, I paid attention as I thought it would focus on the role of state of the art infrastructure in the transition to the next American economy. READ MORE >>
Metropolitan War in an Imagined NHL?
Metro Home Price Recovery: Strong, Weak, Non-existent?
College Education: Metros’ Anti-Recession Vaccine?
Boise’s Crack-Up: Say What?
WWJD? Fill out His Census Form.
It's appropriate at Christmas time to think back to the origin of the holiday: the birth of Jesus Christ. Most people know this story: Jesus was born to Mary & Joseph in Bethlehem, in a stable because there was no other place for them to stay. While Biblical scholars believe it was probably not actually a stable, but rather a ground-floor room of a house where Jesus was born, the fact remains that Joseph and Mary were visitors from out of town who needed lodging. What made them travel 70 plus miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem when Mary was pregnant? A census. READ MORE >>
Consolidated Appropriations Act Should Do Wonders for Metro Numbers
Last week, President Obama signed the 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act, an amalgam of six separate appropriations bills providing $447 billion to an array of federal departments. A small fraction of this funding is devoted to supporting federal statistical agencies that generate the demographic, economic, and social data that will help metros better understand themselves. READ MORE >>
Good News From Detroit
Today’s New York Times brings some unexpected but welcome news from Detroit: newly elected city council members are talking about the urgency of regional action. READ MORE >>
New Traffic Lights Play a Deadly Game of Hide-and-Seek
Our friends at Engadget picked up on an unfortunate engineering failure. See, the country has been slowly converting to a low-carbon future, something we here at the Avenue whole-heartedly endorse. However, we’re also pro-safety. And it looks like some developing traffic light technology won’t let us have both: READ MORE >>
