Amazon’s HQ2 Decision Was Always About Transit

The mega-retailer's twin HQ2 picks reflect the economic development power of mass transit. But New York's trains could use some help. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

The Skyscraper Dividing Quebec City

The $755-million (CDN) building project is named Le Phare, the French word for “lighthouse” or “beacon.” If built, it will be the tallest Canadian building east of Toronto. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

The Case For Deconstruction

Builders must imagine at the beginning of a structure’s life what will happen at the end of it. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

French Drivers Stage a Nationwide Protest Against Fuel Taxes

The "Yellow Vest" movement doesn't necessarily fall along typical partisan lines. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

A Fantasy Map For Brooklyn’s Buses That’s Grounded in Reality

The borough's system has been shedding riders for a decade. Here's how to fix it. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

CityLab Daily: Stitching Together a Town to Escape Poverty

Also: Give pay toilets another chance, and Texas cities block out Section 8 renters. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

How Pay Toilets Could Help Achieve 'Potty Parity'

In the 1970s, many American cities and states banned pay toilets, but the vision of abundant free toilets for all never came to pass. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

The Growing Inequality Between America’s Superstar Cities, and the Rest

A new Brookings study documents the growing economic divergence of America’s superstar cities from smaller urban and rural areas. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Housing Can’t Be Both Affordable and a Good Investment

The two pillars of American housing policy are fundamentally at odds. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Could Incorporating As a Town Save Gee’s Bend, Alabama?

Renowned for its long quilt-making tradition, the rural hamlet of Gee’s Bend (now Boykin), Alabama, struggles with deep poverty. Would incorporating as a town help? | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Housing Can’t Be Both Affordable and a Good Investment

The two pillars of American housing policy are fundamentally at odds. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Strangest Form of White Flight: New Southern Secession in Metro Atlanta

The wealthy residents of Eagle's Landing voted Tuesday on whether to secede from the metro Atlanta city of Stockbridge, just after a black mayor and an all-black city council took office. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Navigator: The Other Hiroshima Story

Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Seattle Wants to Save a Beloved Music Venue. But Is It Too Late?

The Showbox has become a flashpoint in the fight to preserve a changing city. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

CityLab Daily: To Prevent Wildfires, Fight Sprawl

Also: The geography of corporate headquarters, and Tulsa’s offer to remote workers. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Does Paying Remote Workers $10,000 to Move to Tulsa Make Sense?

A nonprofit is offering $10,000 and a host of perks to remote workers that agree to live in the Oklahoma city for a year. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

How Canada Discovered Its Visual Identity

Greg Durrell's new documentary, 'Design Canada,' looks at the political and cultural origins of a nation's impressive collection of postwar symbols. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

How California Cities Can Tackle Wildfire Prevention

Proactive tree removal, ensuring defensible space around homes, and even improving firefighters' access to sites all sound like no-brainers, but none of them comes easy or cheap. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

On the Table in Philly: a City-Wide Feast of Civic Engagement

The Knight Foundation’s On the Table series pairs food with community discussion. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Amazon Headquarter Incentives Aren’t a Done Deal Yet

Before contracts are signed and money is transferred, local politicians and activists in New York and Virginia have a few legal avenues left to alter their Amazon packages. And the opposition movement is building. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

The Geography of Corporate Headquarters

Complaints that Amazon HQ2 locations are already superstar cities don’t recognize a counter-trend of Fortune 500 corporate headquarters relocations, new data shows. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

CityLab Daily: The Movement to Derail Amazon HQ2 Incentives

Also: Millennials are more likely to buy their first homes in cities, and communities of color are more vulnerable to wildfire. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

The Bitterest Lesson of the Brexit Deal

How did the U.K. government so massively misjudge what leaving the European Union would do?: | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Millennials Are More Likely to Buy Their First Homes in Cities

New research finds that Millennials are 21 percent more likely to buy their first homes near city centers than Generation X. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

After the Retail Apocalypse, Prepare for the Property Tax Meltdown

Big-box retailers nationwide are slashing their property taxes through a legal loophole known as "dark store theory." For the towns that rely on that revenue, this could be a disaster. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Communities of Color Are More Vulnerable to Wildfire

Most of the Americans who live in areas with a high chance of extreme wildfire are white. But black, Hispanic, and Native American communities often have worse prospects for recovery. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Why Cities Must Tackle Single-Family Zoning

Advocates like 'Generation Priced Out' author Randy Shaw have correctly identified the key barrier to building more urban housing: older homeowners, and zoning regulations that protect them. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Cities Around Paris Strike a Rare Agreement to Ban Diesel Cars

France’s most comprehensive car ban marks an important moment of cooperation for oft-quarreling municipalities. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Inside the Movement to Derail Amazon HQ2 Incentives

Before contracts are signed and money is transferred, local politicians and activists in New York and Virginia have a few legal avenues left to alter their Amazon packages. And the opposition movement is building. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

CityLab Daily: It’s Time for Some ‘Dark Store Theory’

Also: America really is a nation of suburbs, and why cities need to smack down single-housing zoning. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Rediscover the Gilded Age’s Most Famous Architects

McKim, Meade & White introduced and normalized classicism into the nation's architectural landscape. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

‘Dark Store Theory’ Is the Fourth Horseman of the Retail Apocalypse

Big-box retailers nationwide are slashing their property taxes through a legal loophole known as "dark store theory." For the towns that rely on that revenue, this could be a disaster. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

America Really Is a Nation of Suburbs

According to new data from the American Housing Survey, 52 percent of people in the U.S. regard their neighborhoods as suburban, and so do 47 percent of those in the central cities of metropolitan areas. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Single-Family Zoning: The Biggest Battle in the Generational Housing War

Advocates like 'Generation Priced Out' author Randy Shaw have correctly identified the key barrier to building more urban housing: older homeowners, and zoning regulations that protect them. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Voting Rights Aren’t Just a Black Issue: They Affect Poor People of All Races

The Poor People's Campaign is building a multi-ethnic national force to “save the democracy,” and end the cross-racial poverty it sees as born of racialized voter suppression. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

CityLab Daily: Amazon HQ2: Just Another Winner-Take-All?

Also: How the housing crisis affects veterans, and how Stan Lee saw New York City. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

HQ2 Is Only Part of the Story of Big-Tech Expansion

Amazon HQ2 may be split between superstar cities, but San Francisco’s big tech firms are starting to move into smaller, non-coastal places. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Stan Lee’s New York City

The Marvel Comics maestro gave his superheroes a city that’s colorful, dangerous, rude, quippy, and full of heart. It might be his greatest creation. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Amazon HQ2 Goes to New York City and Northern Virginia

After Jeff Bezos set off one of the highest-profile bidding wars in modern history, Amazon picked two East Coast cities for its new headquarters. The surprise extra: There's something in it for Nashville, too. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

The Housing Crisis Seems to Be Hitting Some Veterans More Than Others

A new study finds that Post-9/11 veterans struggle with home prices at a greater rate than earlier generations of vets and more than other non-vet civilians. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Austin's Fix for Homelessness: Tiny Houses, and Lots of Neighbors

Austin's Community First! Village is designed to demonstrate the stabilizing power of social connections. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

A Neglected Art Deco Gem in Puerto Rico Becomes a Community Staple

Many hands pitched to help revive El Teatro Argel. Architects and decorators lent their advice for free and a student from a local university painted the signature bas relief panels on the exterior. The project took four years to complete. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

CityLab Daily: A Tiny Way to Address Chronic Homelessness

Also: How a housing agency fights off the drug trade, and photos from California’s deadly wildfires. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Photos: Wildfires Are Decimating California Cities

Northern California’s Camp Fire has destroyed thousands of homes and claimed many lives. Meanwhile, the Southern California Woolsey Fire has left much of Malibu under mandatory evacuation. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

In a Texas Town of Tiny Homes, the Chronically Homeless Find Community

Austin's Community First! Village is designed to demonstrate the stabilizing power of social connections. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

How a Dutch Housing Agency Rescued An Amsterdam Street From the Drug Trade

Frustrated by rampant heroin trade, residents of the street Zeedijk forced a public-private real-estate partnership to protect the street while preventing community displacement. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

To Find Community, Wake Up Early and Dance

Radha Agrawal, inventor of the Daybreaker events, wrote a new book on how to find community in an isolated world. I tried to follow her advice. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago

Why the Vote to Secede From a Black City Failed in Georgia

There were many reasons to oppose letting Eagle’s Landing tear apart the city of Stockbridge, but it shouldn’t have even been on the ballot in the first place. | Continue reading


@citylab.com | 5 years ago