Guess where people are connecting these days. YouTube? Yes. MySpace? Of course. But a new (old?) place to connect turns out to be the ever-expanding common spaces and amenities in condos. And since condo living is growing at a fast clip in cities (condo sales are holding steady vs. single… more

Google's new My Maps tool has the potential to help urban leaders both effectively communicate new ideas about their cities and learn from their citizens. Create your own map by navigating to maps.google.com and clicking on "My Maps" in the left-hand pane.

Want to see a finished map? See locations… more

Chicagoland Bicycle Federation is attempting to ban car traffic from 7.5 miles of the city's boulevard system on certain Sunday afternoons. And so far, Mayor Daley, neighborhood leaders and local chamber execs say they love it.

Here's a typical comment from the head of the Logan Square chamber as reported… more

With New York’s population is expected to grow by one million in two decades, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been working to get citizens to imagine the impact growth will have on the city. Plan NYC is a dramatic provocation (and a nice visualization) of what NYC can look… more

Since when did libraries become hot spots for dates? museums become sites of both learning and romance? Since imaginative thinkers began retooling their public programming. Cities' anchor institutions, reports the Washington Post, are quickly being re-discovered by young and old looking to meet someone new or try something different… more

We don't normally recommend books, but this one, "The Strategy Paradox" by Michael Raynor is excellent. Even though it is a business book, it has much to teach urban leaders. Most relevant points:

(1) Great strategy requires having a bold vision of the future. But the future is uncertain and cannot… more

"Roughly one out of every six American workers commutes more than forty-five minutes, each way. People travel between counties the way they used to travel between neighborhoods," writes Nick Paumgarten in the New Yorker. "The number of commuters who travel ninety minutes or more each way—known to the Census… more

I am spending several days in Pittsburgh, working with Creative City consultant Charles Landry. So it came as a timely find to run across the recently published Manifesto for Pittsburgh from blogger Mike Madison, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Its focus on connections is especially… more

Anecodtal evidence continues to confirm CEOs for Cities' finding that young college graduates frequently pick a place to live and then find a job, rather than following a secured job to a specific location. The New York Times' Times Select blog "The Graduates" offers a number of interesting perspectives,… more

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's State of the City address delivered last month stands as a refreshing contrast to all the blather and hedging we are usually fed. Mayor Kilpatrick has issued a frank call to action to the citizens of Detroit.

After an accounting of his considerable achievements during… more

By 2030 the number of drivers 65 and over will be 57 million - double what it is today, according to a report issued by the Government Accounting Office released Wednesday and reported in the Chicago Tribune. The gray driver boom means states (and to some extent local governments)… more

When I saw the trailer over the weekend for the new movie "Disturbia," I thought, the title is a rather clever play on a word. But I had in mind long commutes, traffic tie-ups, no place to walk and no place to walk to.

But this version of Disturbia is a… more

The man with what may be the toughest job in America is Edward Blakely. He is executive director for recovery management in New Orleans, and he is one frank urban leader.

He recently told a university audience that New Orleans' economy "entirely made up of T-shirts. That is our major… more

After being declared dead by so-called urban experts, new economy metros are gaining population again. Austin, San Franciso-San Jose, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Boise and Raleigh are all growing again.

Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Dayton and Detroit showed acclerating population declines in the year ended last July 1.

Read more… more

Business Week reports that companies worldwide are suddenly scrambling to manage a labor crunch. "With global growth running at a strong 5% a year since 2004, the strategies that companies developed to hold down labor costs -- including offshoring work to low-wage countries -- are running out of gas… more

Talent is not only about special people and special places, and creativity is not just for the elite. Rather, with the right platform, the right tools and distributed resources, talent can be enabled as a mass, self-organizing collaborative activity.

Imagine the benefits to cities if, in fact, that could be accomplished.… more

Old stories about gentrification are increasingly outdated, reports the Boston Globe in a survey of recent research on the winners and losers associated with urban economic development: "Several social scientists are helping to make sense of the emerging landscape of race and politics in the contemporary American city, where… more

In the Wall Street Journal, Julia Vitullo-Martin brings an important perspective to the debate on immigration, and one that resonates well with CEOs for Cities' research on Portal Neighborhoods: "Immigrants have significantly improved the quality of life in many of America's most successful cities." In her article, Vitullo-Martin… more