The top 10 metro areas according to median income of Inc. 5000 look like this:

Grand Rapids
San Antonio
Baton Rouge
Houston
Kansas City
Sarasota
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Cincinnati
Hartford

There are certainly some surprises on this list.

California is nearing adoption of a law to encourage housing close to job sites, rail lines and bus stops to shorten the time people spend in their cars.  And, surprise!  The homebuilders are on board.  The measure, which has passed the State Assembly and awaits Senate approval, would be the… more

"Holy mackerel, the energy coming out of this country is unrivaled.  We are so cooked.  Start teaching your kids Mandarin."  was Thomas Friedman's reaction to the Beijing Olympics.  As he points out, Beijing has selected only seven years ago for the Olympics and look what that nation has done in… more

The Inc. 500 of fast-growing businesses lists these metro areas with the most companies on the list:

Washington, DC,  39 companies (explained by having government contractors supplying a war)
New York, 31
Atlanta, 29
Chicago, 27
Los Angeles, 26
Dallas/San Francisco, 20
Boston, 18
Miami, 14
Philadelphia/Seattle, 13

Here's the… more

Yesterday I made a quick trip to Denver to visit with mayors there for the Democratic National Convention.  I took a very early flight (The CTA is always interesting at 4 a.m., filled with workers headed to O'Hare.), so I had plenty of time to look around a city I… more

Interesting commentary here by Bob Yaro, as published by the Center for an Urban Future.  Mr. Yaro suggests that in order for the U.S. to compete with China's fast growing economy, it will have to take a more aggressive approach to building the urban infrastructure supporting its mega-regions.  China… more

Once home to Wal-Mart in Wisconsin Rapids, a 120,000-square-foot big-box retail shell is now home to the Centralia Center for Senior Citizens.  The town has revived and reinvented this empty space that threatened to leave a hole in the middle of their community and the neighboring shopping area.

That will be an important sign of whether bus rapid transit, the value-priced alternative to light rail, actually works, according to Alan Hoffman, a San Diego-based transit consultant.  It may not be politically correct to say so out loud, he said , "but it's what I call the 'AYF Factor.'… more

Watch today for the relaunch of Barack Obama's "urban agenda," documented in a 32-page blueprint. According to today's Wall Street Journal, the plan features an increase in the minimum hourly wage, a new White House office focused on metropolitan areas and $60 billion to establish a national bank to… more

The working age population of 18-64 is expected to drop from 63% of the population in 2008 to 57% by 2050.  That working population will be 55% minority in 2050, according to census estimates, a 21 percentage point increase from 2008.  More than 30% of the working-age population will be… more

A photo in the Thursday edition of The Chicago Tribune caught my eye.  The character Mr. Monopoly was standing on a large version of the game board for Monopoly Here & Now:  The World Edition.  Cities visible in the photo include New York, Sydney, London, Beijing, Vancouver, Shanghai and Hong… more

At predictable intervals, the press promotes the "new trend" of hordes of women leaving the workforce to raise their children.  The problem is it's just not true. 

Sixty percent of all women who have children work. 

A new Census Bureau report finds that women are waiting longer to have children… more

The Chicago Public Library is on pace for a record number of items in circulation this year, thanks to soaring food and gas prices.  In July, CPL saw a 28% rise in the number of items "out."  Can we expect to see further consolidations and closings of big format bookstores? … more

A nice film on how bike sharing works in DC can be found here.  Portland, Oregon, is considering its own program, as is Chicago and a number of Southern California communities.  The biggest hurdles seem to be liability, resistence to more advertising on the streets (the way most communities… more

Newly hired president of Portland State University Wim Wiewel will join the throngs of downtown bike commuters tomorrow when he reports for his first day on the job. Wiewel will join Commissioner (and Mayor-elect) Sam Adams on the ride and a small reception will follow in the South Park Blocks.

That's the theme for this year's Designboost to be held in Malmo October 15-17.  Learn more here.

As a big city mayor, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley pronounced himself pleased with the new Democratic ticket. As he told the Chicago Tribune, "It could be the first time in a long time that we had the top two officials coming from an urban environment and I'm not just… more

Just so you don't get behind in your urban nomenclature, Time magazine this week introduces "co-ho," short for communal homeowner, Time's terms for a person who buys a house with friends. 

Michelle Rhee, Washington D.C.'s new education chief, is profiled in this month's Fast Company.  In a school district that spends $17,000+ per pupil gets some of the nation's worst results, and Rhee is determined to change that.  She has managed to downsize the central office significantly, fire multiple principals,… more

"Over the… more

Apparently, a significant number of volunteers are not happy with their experience, with only 2 out of 3 volunteers in 2006 returning to volunteer in 2007.  But the number of people who volunteer more than 100 hours is growing, now standing at 34 percent of all volunteers, the highest level… more

A new study to appear in the September issue of The American Journal for Preventive Medicine finds that people who live in older neighborhoods appear less likely to be overweight.  The key?  Walkability.  Older communities encourage people to drive less and walk more because they tend to have better sidewalks,… more

Inspired by the work of CEOs for Cities and Joe Cortright on City Vitals, this report just released provides a check on the vital signs of Australia’s major cities.  Comparative Capitals compares how each of the cities are faring in attracting and keeping young, educated and creative workers;… more

Colleague Greg Zachary has found in Nairobi 600 young programmers, bloggers and Web enthusiasts who have turned themselves into Skunkworks, a group sharing ideas and encouraging new businesses to develop in response to the distinctive (narrow bandwidth) digital experience in that city.

“To be truly creative in… more

"To keep tempers cool and spirits high this year, the Aeroports de Paris implemented an unconventional plan: free dance lessons for passengers," according to Springwise.

"Summertime passengers can use their wait time at the airport to learn any one of 15 dances offered by the airport's resident trainers,… more

Yesterday, I visited with Aly Khalifa and his partner Beth (and dog Angus) in their DesignBox offices in Raleigh, NC.  Aly is my new Starfish guru, the man who with colleagues created the open source potluck festival, SparkCon.  Aly explained the concept behind DesignBox.

For more… more

Monocle’s 2008 listing of the World’s Top 25 Most Liveable Cities features two new U.S. entries to the list.  Along with Honolulu, which was included in the first listing last year, Minneapolis and Portland have also ranked in this survey of the cities that offer the best quality of life. … more

With the economic downturn and fuel prices re-shaping the landscape of urban and suburban environments, what is to become of some of the large-scale buildings and spaces that are now emptying out?  How can we avoid being left with empty concrete jungles?

Morgan Greenseth offers some examples of interesting… more

Can freedom be a terrible thing?  Maybe, according to Ethan Watters, author of “Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family and Commitment.  “This generation doesn’t know what to do with its own freedom,” Watters told The New York Times.  As the average age of marriage continues to rise, the… more

Our good colleague Stacey Randall, a leader in our Charlotte delegation, has shared valuable insights on how to attract and retain talent, based on her workplace research at IMR Group. The firm has developed an Employee Motivator Matrix as part of its Work/Life scorecard. Findings are based on sophisticated… more

Another city, another brand.  But this one gets your attention.

Dayton Patented/Originals Wanted "rings all the right changes on the various tropes of Dayton economic traditions without invoking yet again the tired mantra of the Wrights/Kettering/the pop-top, reflects what’s really happening here (assembly being replaced by tech, or… more

Here's one exciting path to lifelong learning.

TeachStreet has just launched in Portland, Oregon. According to Springwise, the site features "more than 55,000 teachers, trainers, tutors, instructors, coaches and classes in the Pacific Northwest, 25,000 of which are in the Portland area... TeachStreet aims to unearth hidden… more

According to Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), Democrats are rejoicing over the high cost of gas and the loss of jobs around the country.
 
"This is their agenda," Bachmann states bluntly. "I know it is hard to believe, it's hard to fathom -- but this… more

Google obviously sees great potential in new tools that enable people to get involved in producing their own creative content and to recombine content in new ways, as their latest $15 million investment suggests.

Google have purchased a California-based startup, launched by three young Australians, focused on making… more

Our colleague Joe Cortright, author of Driven to the Brink and many other reports from CEOs for Cities, reminded us today that too much reporting is of the "all or nothing" quality.

The rising gas/house prices story must mean that either one of two possible narratives is true: more

Bentonville, Arkansas is home to Wal-Mart.  It is also, according to The Wall Street Journal, home to half-built subdivisions that are today very lonesome places.  In this formerly booming community, signs promoting "Elegant Homes" sit on lots "choked with weeds.  The block is as quiet as an old ghost town." 

Want to play in the dirt?  Want to do it in big, heavy machines?  The Wall Street Journal reports that Ed Mumm has taken a 10-acre plot of ground in Steamboat Springs and turned it into "the first, and only, heavy-equipment playground in the U.S."  With 90 paying customers to… more

I love prototypes, and this is a cool one.  Trek has teamed up with a local Madison, Wisconsin bike shop, Machinery Row Bicycles, to try out a 24-hour access vending machine that allows cyclists to make on-the-road repairs (or just pick up an iced… more

The New York Times called it "Night Life Reprogrammed."  It's today's story on how young, tech-savvy New Yorkers are getting together at night under banners like "Ignite NYC" to show off their wonky skills, their best ideas and their best advice.  As one participant put it, "Instead of just… more

The Washington Post reports today that the U.S. has seen as much as a 20 percent drop in motor vehicle vehicle deaths in some states. It seems that with fuel costs as high as they are, people are driving less, planning more efficient routes and taking it easy on… more

Guess where the most satisfied people in all the world’s major cities live? 

Would you believe Midwest, USA?

Chicago, to be specific.

It turns out that, according to the world survey of 14 major cities commissioned by Veolia Environnement,  Chicagoans are not only the most satisfied… more

Here's another view of last week's UrbanNext meeting in New Orleans, this time from GLUE co-founder Abby Wilson.  (She is this amazing force of nature, just what the Midwest needs in a champion.)