• It’s time to be honest about the impending costs of climate change

    The passage of the Biden Administration’s climate change package , the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” has predictably split along partisan lines, with Republicans characterizing the bill as an act of reckless government spending, certain to raise taxes and fuel further inflation. But does...Read more

  • In its hometown, Coors launches urban redevelopment

    As its name suggest, Golden, Colorado, began as a gold rush town, but it’s biggest economic driver in the 20 th Century was the golden liquid of Coors beer and Coors-related operations. The Coors family started the Coors Brewing Co. (now Molson Coors) in Golden, and also a ceramics manufacturing...Read more

  • Why malls are a bad public investment

    A failed mall is bringing down a neighborhood in Milwaukee, highlighting the advantages of more sustainable retail.
    Note: This article first appeared on Strong Towns .​ Public Square editor Robert Steuteville is on leave through the last week of October. Big investments can bring about big problems. Take the shopping mall , for instance: Built on the appealing premise of housing a bunch of commercial businesses...Read more

  • How place and prosperity interact

    William Fulton combines the sharp eye of a journalist, the objective rigor of an academic, and the practical experience of a leader in a book of urban essays, Place and Prosperity: How Cities Help Us Connect and Innovate.
    Ages ago, Saint Augustine juxtaposed the City of God and the City of Man. For the past forty years, Bill Fulton has been striving to reconcile the two. The heavenly city exists only as an ideal. The patron saint of contemporary urbanism, Jane Jacobs, described the earthly city as “organized...Read more