Economics
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Urban Density and a Pocketbook Plea for Congestion Pricing
Of the ten largest cities in the United States, New York has far and away the greatest population density: 26,402.9 people per square mile, more than double the second densest big city, Chicago. The chart at right shows how the largest metropolitan areas stack up in terms of core population, overall population and core population density. This fact alone should force New York City authorities to think differently than the rest of the country on all sorts of matters of public policy. New York is a quantitatively different animal than the other big American metropolitan regions in terms of percentage of people that live in the core, density and size of the core and size of the metropolitan area.
September 26, 2006
The True Cost of Gasoline, and What to Do About Energy
The news media has been writing a lot about energy and oil addiction lately. One particularly noteworthy package of reporting highlights the hidden problems of oil addiction. Another searches for ways it could be alleviated but misses the most critical one. The first is The Chicago Tribune's enormously important four-part series by Pulitzer-winning reporter Paul Salopek called A Tank of Gas, a World of Trouble published July 29.
August 23, 2006
Eyes on the Street: Demand Management
You get more of what you subsidize and less of what you tax. --Ancient Economic Adage
August 21, 2006
Sneak Preview of Bloomberg’s 21st Century Urban Vision
As reported in today's Observer a team working under Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff has, for the last year or so, been secretly developing a sweeping, new urban planning vision for New York City. In its scope and ambition, the Observer compares the plan to the 1811 layout of Manhattan's street grid system and the 1929 Regional Plan that gave us many of today's highways and parks.
August 16, 2006
Car Ownership Cost Calculator
The Volvo has stolen $214,177.23 from our son's college education.
June 29, 2006
Charles Komanoff’s “Fuel Tax Magic”
New York City economist and activist Charles Komanoff has been focused lately on developing and promoting the idea of a "carbon tax." Carbon taxes are still still very much considered fringe economic theory and politically unviable, though, as you read Komanoff's latest essay in Grist, you have to wonder how long that will last. The arguments in favor of carbon taxes are logical, powerful and, at least to this non-economist, seem to make a ton of common sense.
June 28, 2006