Author: Kaitlin Hopkins

“Copenhagen was always doomed by the opposition from China, India and Russia. It was always a rich man’s club — E.U., U.S. and Japan — and can only succeed by weakening those economies vis-à-vis the developing countries. In the U.S., U.K. and parts of Europe, the cap-and-trade system is being seen … as a rigged game that hurts the middle and working classes, benefits Wall Street, expands the bureaucracy and may well do very little to clean up the environment. A new approach is needed that does not disadvantage the middle-income, private-sector constituencies that the administration seems ready to throw to the wolves.”

Joel on POLITICO

“Indeed by some accounts, most embarrassingly in a recent Time magazine cover, the shift to green technologies has already created a “thriving” economy.”

Joel on Reuters Blog

First, yes, Michael Lind is spot on. We should be pledging to other people, not the government.

Michael on The Socratic Gadfly

A piece (also reflecting on the “zillions of pictures to illustrate the vast emptiness of Detroit) in the Urbanophile blog by Aaron Renn on “Detroit as the New American Frontier” was resurrected in the New York Times and Time magazine. “One thing this massive failure has made possible is ability to come up with radical ideas for the city, and potentially to even implement some of them. Places like Flint and Youngstown might be attracting new ideas and moving forward, but it is big cities that inspire the big, audacious dreams. And that is Detroit.”

Aaron on Archizoo

A good friend of mine, a Democratic mayor here in California, describes the Obama administration as “Moveon.org run by the Chicago machine.” This combination may have been good enough to beat John McCain in 2008, but it is proving a damned poor way to run a country or build a strong, effective political majority. And while the president’s charismatic talent — and the lack of such among his opposition — may keep him in office, it will be largely as a kind of permanent lame duck unable to make any of the transformative changes he promised as a candidate.

Joel on Forbes

Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there’s a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and midsize cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis and Denver. In particular, Portland is held up as a paradigm, with its urban growth boundary, extensive transit system, excellent cycling culture and a pro-density policy. These cities are frequently contrasted with those of the Rust Belt and South, which are found wanting, often even by locals, as “cool” urban places.

Aaron on Dallas News

“Meanwhile, Joel Kotkin of New Geography and Forbes continues to pour empirical water on Florida’s creative class thesis in Numbers Don’t Support Migration Exodus to “Cool” Cities”

Joel on Law Professor Blog

“With the ring road open around the north part of the city, highway traffic and truckers can now avoid the congestion and lights of 16th Avenue and bypass Calgary. According to transportation expert Wendell Cox the ring road is a step in the right direction.”

Wendell on Education for the Driving Masses

Newgeography.com’s Aaron Renn discusses the effects of reducing carbon emissions on regional economies. Renn concludes the article this way: “In short, action on carbon reduction may well be a good policy goal. But we shouldn’t embrace any means to that end uncritically if it creates huge distortions in regional economic advantage or further damages America’s industrial competitiveness.”

Aaron on EMSI

“The key rule of Chicago politics is delivering the spoils to supporters, and Obama’s stimulus program essentially fills this prescription. The stimulus’s biggest winners are such core backers as public employees, universities and rent-seeking businesses who leverage their access to government largesse, mostly by investing in nominally “green” industries. Roughly half the jobs saved form the ranks of teachers, a highly organized core constituency for the president and a mainstay of the political machine that supports the Democratic Party.”

Joel on Reuters