• The good news on desegregation

    The data shows that neighborhoods across America are becoming more racially diverse—despite some reports of persistent segregation.
    Its rare that some obscure terminology from sociology becomes a part of our everyday vernacular, but “tipping point” is one of those terms. Famously, Thomas Schelling used the tipping point metaphor to explain the dynamics of residential segregation in the United States. His thesis was that white...Read more

  • Place and the displaced

    Two very different issues—America’s displaced, and the world’s displaced—both scream for the same response. Our leaders today, unlike 80 years ago, don't understand the relationship between city building, housing for all, and political power.
    The impulse to write this occurred while I was teaching at the University of Rome last year, at a moment when the refugee nightmare was dominating the news with horrible mass drownings off the Italian coast. It was also the time when the annual meeting of the International Seminar for Urban Form,...Read more

  • New opportunity for Detroit neighborhood

    In Detroit, the neighborhood of Brush Park stands between three of the city’s fastest revitalizing areas: Midtown, Eastern Market, and the Central Business District.
    In Detroit, the neighborhood of Brush Park stands between three of the city’s fastest revitalizing areas: Midtown, Eastern Market, and the Central Business District. All three have roared back to life in recent years, but Brush Park—just a five-minute walk from major cultural assets, pro sports...Read more

  • Duany bound with red tape

    CNU co-founder Andres Duany and many of his colleagues launched the Lean Urbanism initiative two years ago to fight overregulation in building cities and towns. Duany recounts that his generation of architects and builders in the 1970s and 1980s faced a much lighter regulatory regime. Walton County...Read more