That was the verdict on my family's production of carbon, according to a new online survey from the Ad Council's new campaign, "Fight Global Warming." The online survey has only eight quick questions about the type of home you occupy, your car use, where you live and your plane use.… more

First, it was New Jersey.  Then it was Atlanta. Now it's the state of Washington.  "Say WA" is the tagline of the state's newest effort to bring tourists to the state.  But reaction has been widely panned, inspiring "more quizzical stares than applause," according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 

The campaign… more

From London comes a new version of citizen co-creation with local government, this time to clean up graffiti and the like.  Citizens are invited to snap pictures of the offenses with their camera phones, note the location, then send the info to the local council.   The photos are then posted… more

The middle is disappearing, not only as in middle class, mid-size businesses and mid-size arts organization, but also in middle-of-the-road products, according to the latest issue of The McKinsey Quarterly. The firm studied 25 industries and product categories in Europe, North America, and found on the global level that from… more

The longer work day was re-discovered this weekend by both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

"By a wide variety of indicators, from electricity to water consumption, more U.S. households are starting their days before dawn," according to WSJ. "Businesses are taking note. CNN… more

I happened to re-read Ted Levitt's Harvard Business Review classic, "Marketing Myopia," this weekend and found this that applies to cities:

"No organization can achieve greatness without a vigorous leader who is driven onward by a pulsating will to succeed. A leader has to have a vision of grandeur, a… more

In The Economist's survey on Chicago (3.18.06), the writer sounded a cautionary note that cities everywhere should heed:

"In this thicket of predestined failure lie most of the difficulties of the inner city. Mayor Daley and his brothers-in-arms in business are doing their best to tackle it, but their… more

Henry Turley, one of Memphis' biggest urban renewal champions and developers, wrote an excellent piece on immenent domain and how it has helped to reshape a once-depressed Memphis neighborhood that is now experiencing and unprecendented boom. Read the full article in the Commercial Appeal here.

This week's Sunday papers from around the country told a sad story about African-American children in America.

The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times examined two shootings in Englewood on Chicago's South Side. Siretha White was shot dead at a party for her 11th birthday, only nine days after 14-year-old Starkesia Reed… more

Today's Washington Post reports on Minnieland, a locally-based chain of daycare centers that now employees 1330 people, "three times the Prince William workforce of AOL and Eli Lilly combined."

"Indeed, as a surge of new residents pushes the region's boundaries to Stafford County in the southwest and Frederick County… more

Kalamazoo, Michigan, is promising free in-state public college tuition for any student who enters the Kalamazoo school system by ninth grade, regardless of income or need.   It's called the Kalamazoo Promise, and it is the latest twist on economic development strategy. 

Estimates are that the Promise will cost… more

Someone finally realized that 65 is the new 40. 

Although Americans are aging rapidly, a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau reports that today's older Americans are markedly different from previous generations.  They are more prosperous, better educated and healthier, and those differences will accelerate.

The number of adults 65+… more

Are suburban governments facing a crisis as interest rates rise on the adjustable rate and subprime mortgages that have helped fuel the hot housing market? 

A recent study by First American Real Estate Solutions projects that about one in eight households with adjustable-rate mortgages that originated in 2004 and 2005 will… more

Interesting headline in The Wall Street Journal: 

"Behind GM's Slide:  Bosses Misjudged New Urban Tastes." 

Translation:  GM was clumsy in its efforts to build and advertise cars that appeal to the booming Hispanic population and to African-Americans.

The measurement of poverty was established more than 40 years ago and hasn't changed much since.  Poverty is based on the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet, which was assumed, on average, to be one-third of a family's expenses.  To come up with a poverty threshold, the cost of the nutrionally… more

"Lofts" -- at least that's what developers are calling them -- are invading the suburbs.  According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, dozens of McLofts are already being built and more are on the way.  No wonder.  Buyers are paying as much as 50 percent more per square… more

Chicago Tribune's very fine architecture critic Blair Kamin writes about the changes in booming downtown Chicago...

"Call it gentrification, yuppification, corporatization, whatever.  But the problem -- and admittedly, it is the right problem to have, compared to downtown Detroit and other struggling Midwestern urban centers -- is this:

"Now that we've figured out… more

Chicago's Cabrini Green was one of the nation's most infamous public housing projects, at one time housing as many as 15,000 people.  The entire complex, built over 20 years, covered 72 acres.   Three high rise buildings are being demolished to make way for  the first development on the site, a… more

Our good colleague, Otis White, writes Civic Strategies E-Newsletter, one of the very best resources for urban leaders.  Otis is also a weekly commentator on "Smart City."  Last week he caught this item on gentrification in The New York Times Magazine...

How does neighborhood gentrification get started? And… more