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The Planetizen News Brief - 5/21/09

21 May 2009 - 5:00am
Smart City Radio

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript

Over the last decade, the housing market in Phoenix saw an exponential rise. Property values were soaring, and new construction was popping up left and right. But in 2007, everything fell apart. Property values began to sharply careen, and are now less than half of what they were just two years ago. That’s the biggest decline amongst America’s top 20 metro areas. These low prices, however, are becoming a big draw for investors, and home sales in the Phoenix region are on the rise. The Los Angeles Times reported recently that home sales for March 2009 are almost twice as high as they were in 2008, and the highest they’ve been since 2006, the height of the housing boom. So even though the housing market may have busted, there are signs that the free market is pushing it back into a buying boom.

There’s another boom-and-bust cycle affecting a lot of cities, but it’s got nothing to do with housing –not directly anyway. For years now, the so-called creative class has been leaving stagnating cities and suburbs and flocking to so-called creative cities in search of jobs and more appealing lifestyles. Creative magnets like Portland Oregon and Austin Texas have been pulling in young, hip job seekers for a while now. But, as the Wall Street Journal reports, these cities don’t really have anything for them to do. The jobs market has dried up almost everywhere, and these creative cities are no exception. And as the youth masses pour in, they’re boosting the unemployment rate. Though some of the jobless are eventually moving out or back home, demographers say the trend of young people moving to these magnet cities will continue – whether there are jobs or not.

And finally, in some grim news, two separate studies have just been released that cast a dark light over the world’s increasing urbanization. The New York Times reports on the studies, which find that populations living in areas prone to disaster have grown significantly in recent years. Developing countries are especially vulnerable to such natural disasters as hurricanes, floods and droughts. One report, from the United Nations, compared data on population, economic trends, urban growth patterns and weather, showing that even relatively rich countries like Japan are vulnerable. The other study from the Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster Reduction focused on efforts by rural and developing communities to counteract disasters. Both studies showed a disproportionate vulnerability in developing countries, one that is expected to increase as these countries’ urban populations grow.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

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In the long term, removing major urban freeways should be part of a more comprehensive approach to reduce automobile dependency by promoting public transportation and transit-oriented development.
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