When universities use the essence of their work to change a community, that's the best example of an anchor institution at work.

The University of Houston-Victoria is doing that by becoming an unlikely hot spot for experimental fiction and the humanities. But, according to Inside Higher Education, "this 3,200-student… more

Have you seen Arlington, Virgina's Car-Free Diet campaign?  Very clever.

The President-elect is clued in on why cities matter.  See him extol Jane Jacobs on the campaign trail.  Now, let's hope for a great pick as Urban Policy Czar.

As the discussion on the stimulus heats up, some projects submitted by mayors are being used to demonstrate how foolish it would be to funnel stimulus money directly to cities.  The proposed Las Vegas Museum of the Mob is this morning's poster child for stupid submissions.  (Sadly, new roads and… more

From Tom Friedman's column Sunday:  "... a bridge is just a bridge. Once it’s up, it stops stimulating. A student who normally would not be interested in science but gets stimulated by a better teacher or more exposure to a lab, or a scientist who gets the funding for… more

One more thought on Pittsburgh... The NYT noted that Pittsburgh had not experienced a housing boom, which has left the city in stronger shape as the housing market tanked.  One thing the article did not note is that Pittsburgh is far more centralized and economically integrated than most major… more

The New York Times today featured a piece on Pittsburgh's successful efforts to reinvent itself as a center for healthcare and education, pointing out that even in today's economic slowdown the unemployment rate in that city is at 5.5 percent (below the national average), that housing values are on… more

Here is a great example of under-utilized talent being put to work in new ways.  In this initiative that taps young people’s intuitive grasp of technology, students aged 12 - 16 take on a mentoring role as cell phone ‘coaches’.

“The program’s goal is to improve their… more

Through the pain of the economy, it’s nice to see a positive in the efforts to reduce VMT.  Bike sales in Australia are up 38% for 2008, making it the ninth consecutive year demand for bikes has outstripped vehicles according to this article.

Elliot Fishman, advisor to… more

From Thursday Washington Post:  Bronx politician Adolfo Carrion Jr. is expected to serve in another new White House post, implementing Obama's education and housing agenda for cities.

He has been "expected" for weeks.  Can we get on with it?

(And U.S. Chamber President Tom Donahue may want… more

Here's one organization that believes the glass is half full.  Knowledge Works Foundation, in its first email of the year, took note of the ways in which the economy will change over the next ten years.  "The news is good," KWF concluded.  "Though we are facing a recession and volatility… more

From new Portland Mayor Sam Adams inaugural remarks:

What a glorious and quirky city we have.  Where else can you buy a donut designed to look like “dirt?”   Or browse one of the world’s largest bookstores and then walk a couple of blocks to the world’s smallest park. There is… more

Eliot Spitzer, former governor of NY, has posted a very smart piece on Slate challenging current plans for the economic stimulus package.  After noting that the lasting impact of the New Deal was the way in which it redefined the social contract, Spitzer wrote, "The off the shelf infrastructure… more

Our friend and colleague Kim Walesh was recently commissioned to write a piece about how San Jose thinks about the arts, creativity and economic development.  In it, she writes about the city's goal of developing and supporting a cadre of artist-engineers that will help fuel "a unique, vibrant arts scene… more

Why do cities continue to grow? And why, even in the electronic age, do they endure as wellsprings of intellectual life?

The Boston Globe believes it has found the answer.  "Recent research by scientists at the Santa Fe Institute used a set of complex mathematical algorithms to demonstrate that… more

Opened last month, L.A Live, with its two concert halls, an ESPN Zone/broadcast studio, a bowling alley, movie theaters, ten restaurants, Grammy Museum, and condos, is being called a "content campus" by Business Week.  Its developers call it an entertainment campus. The complex cost $2.5 billion and is… more

Rich Florida cited on his blog a study by Greg Linden, Jason Dedrick and Ken Kraemar, of the Personal Computing Industry Center at UC Irvine  that concluded the "iPod and its components accounted for about 41,000 jobs worldwide, of which about 27,000 are outside the U.S. and 14,000 in… more

Hockey came to Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.  It was the unusual scene of the Winter Classic, with the Chicago Blackhawks facing off against the Detroit Redwings.

Here's how the Tribune's Paul Sullivan described the experience:

"The Wrigleyville experience—including the ballpark, the bars, the rooftops and assorted… more

From Sustainable Shelby (Memphis and Shelby County) comes a simple set of criteria for stimulus spending:

Principles:

1. Focus on projects that will spur local job growth by awarding contracts to local and minority owned businesses (multiplier effect).
2. Focus on projects within areas with under utilized infrastructure in order… more