{"id":2840,"date":"2008-03-27T17:48:32","date_gmt":"2008-03-28T00:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2840"},"modified":"2008-03-27T17:45:46","modified_gmt":"2008-03-28T00:45:46","slug":"urbanologist-joel-kotkin-why-growth-oriented-cities-like-houston-phoenix-and-atlanta-reflect-the-future-of-global-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2840\/urbanologist-joel-kotkin-why-growth-oriented-cities-like-houston-phoenix-and-atlanta-reflect-the-future-of-global-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"Urbanologist Joel Kotkin: Why growth-oriented cities like Houston, Phoenix and Atlanta reflect the future of global commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joel Kotkin is the only American urbanologist who can tolerate actual living human beings. In consequence, he can write about the organic growth of cities as they really are, rather than as he might remake them with enough tax money and firepower. This is a long extract from a much longer article about Houston’s emergence as a world-class city<\/a>, this despite the scorn that might be heaped upon it — at tax-payer expense — by urban monument-builders like Richard Florida. In this section of the article, Kotkin discusses what makes young, growth-oriented cities so dynamic by comparison to older, more-typically-urban urban environments.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it’s a question of defining what makes a city great. Many city planners today focus largely on aesthetics, the arts, and the perception of being “cool.” Academics and many economic-development experts link urban success to cities’ appeal to the “creative class” of college-educated young people. In this calculus, the traditional practice of gauging a city’s success by studying patterns of population or employment growth, or noting the opportunities available for working-class or middle-class families to flourish, rarely registers as important. One prominent academic, Rutgers University’s Paul Gottlieb, has even offered an elegant formula for what he calls “growth without growth”—focusing on increasing per-capita incomes without expanding either population or employment. Indeed, Gottlieb suggests that successful post-industrial cities might well do best if they actually “minimize” the influx of new people and jobs.<\/p>\n

Such an approach may work, at least superficially, in an attractive older city such as Chicago, New York, or Boston, but it’s an unlikely model for most cities in a country where the population is expected to reach 420 million by 2050. Growth-without-growth cities might be great to visit, and they might prove exciting homes for the restless young or the rich, but it is doubtful that they can create the jobs or the housing for more than a small portion of our future urban population. For these and other reasons, the Houston model of the opportunity city—welcoming new jobs and new families—may prove far more relevant to the American future.<\/p>\n

Chicago, the great growth city of the late Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joel Kotkin is the only American urbanologist who can tolerate actual living human beings. In consequence, he can write about the organic growth of cities as they really are, rather than as he might remake them with enough tax money and firepower. This is a long extract from a much longer article about Houston’s emergence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-investment","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-technology","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16314,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16314\/kotkin-why-the-next-great-american-cities-arent-what-you-think\/","url_meta":{"origin":2840,"position":0},"title":"Kotkin: “Why the next great American cities aren\u2019t what you think.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Joel Kotkin at The Daily Beast:Once considered backwaters, these Sunbelt cities are quietly achieving a critical mass of well-educated residents. They are also becoming major magnets for immigrants. Over the past decade, the largest percentage growth in foreign-born population has occurred in sunbelt cities, led by Nashville, which has doubled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16349,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16349\/joel-kotkin-on-the-triumph-of-suburbia\/","url_meta":{"origin":2840,"position":1},"title":"Joel Kotkin on the triumph of suburbia.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"New Geography:The \u201csilver lining\u201d in our five-years-and-running Great Recession, we\u2019re told, is that Americans have finally taken heed of their betters and are finally rejecting the empty allure of suburban space and returning to the urban core. \u201cWe\u2019ve reached the limits of suburban development,\u201d HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan declared in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13252,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13252\/joel-kotkin-why-housing-will-come-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":2840,"position":2},"title":"Joel Kotkin: Why housing will come back.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Urban savant Joel Kotkin in Forbes magazine:What we are going through now is not a sea change but a correction from insane government and business practices. The rise in homeownership from 44% in 1944 to nearly 70% at the height of the bubble reflected a great social democratic achievement. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18128,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18128\/overnight-news-the-secret-to-zillows-flavor-of-ibuying-sucking-at-real-estate-helps-them-sucker-real-estate-agents-which-is-where-the-real-money-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":2840,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: The secret to Zillow\u2019s flavor of iBuying? Sucking at real estate helps them sucker real estate\u00a0agents \u2013 which is where the real money\u00a0is.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote the other day about Zillow's losses on its iBuyer \"investments\" \u2013 incomprehensible losses considering that this is one of the few times when it is possible to make money on non-producing real estate. The losses on iBuyer \"investments\" can be stupefying from the point of view of any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":499,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/499\/where-the-babies-are-and-where-they-arent\/","url_meta":{"origin":2840,"position":4},"title":"Where the babies are — and where they aren’t . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a decently if not very deftly balanced comparison of Gilbert, Arizona, to Portland, Oregon, in the Christian Science Monitor today. The star of the piece is urbanologist Joel Kotkin, so Gilbert doesn't suffer the usual big-city-dweller's I-just-don't-get-it sliming. The issue of fecundity is touched upon without any mention of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5621,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5621\/can-california-cultivate-anything-better-than-the-seeds-of-its-own-destruction-urbanologist-joel-kotkin-tallies-the-states-ills\/","url_meta":{"origin":2840,"position":5},"title":"Can California cultivate anything better than the seeds of its own destruction? Urbanologist Joel Kotkin tallies the state’s ills","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Joel Kotkin on the rise and fall of the Golden State:Twenty-five years ago, along with another young journalist, I coauthored a book called California, Inc. about our adopted home state. The book described \u201cCalifornia\u2019s rise to economic, political, and cultural ascendancy.\u201d As relative newcomers at the time, we saw California\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}