The Urbanophile

An "independent urbanist" group in Indianapolis spearheaded an idea to take seats from the closing Bush Stadium minor league ballpark to be used as much-needed bus stop furniture.

Aaron M. Renn dissects the rise and fall of Atlanta, concluding that lack of differentiation paired with no job growth will bring mean "game over" for the city.

Private bus companies are gaining in popularity, but Aaron Renn says that a large segment of the "urbanist/sustainability community" despise them for no good reason.

This post from The Urbanophile highlights some of the best videos focused on cities.

The first piece of data from the 2010 U.S. Census has been released, showing state-by-state population information. The Urbanophile offers three maps that document how the country has changed since the last Census in 2000.

On his blog, Aaron Renn has done an analysis of 2008 tax return data from metropolitan areas to show where domestic migration is happening. Some of his findings are a bit surprising.

It depends on your criteria, says Aaron M. Renn. A golden age of accessibility and consumption? Yes. But is it better to be in an era of plenty, or an era of creation and discovery?

This post from The Urbanophile explores the world of city branding, and argues that some cities are making the mistake of ignoring their own assets and focusing on trying to embrace the successful assets of others.

The Urbanophile reviews Richard Florida's new book, defending his populist approach and tackling Florida's central arguments of investing in the grassroots, encouraging "rentership" and the fundamental societal changes coming soon.

Aaron M. Renn reflects on the success of Daniel Burnham's plan of Chicago, and why. Perhaps it was the lack of government involvement in the planning process?

Planners take a prescriptive approach to urbanism, while people have their own ideas about what makes good places that don't fit the standard orthodoxy. Drew Austin says both extremes need attention, and synthesis.

Carol Coletta explains how improving education, lowering VMT and alleviating poverty by as little as 1% each could mean billions of dollars for cities.

Could Detroit turn its crumbling buildings into tourist attractions? The Urbanophile says there are worse ideas.

This essay from The Urbanophile looks at the economics behind greenfield development.

The Urbanophile attempts to separate the hype from the usefulness of the concept of the 'megaregion', deciding in the end that it is a 'convenient abstraction for federal-level thinkers.'

The Urbanophile reports from RailVolution in Boston, including a video interview with John Robert Smith, CEO of Reconnecting America.