Burgh Diaspora Archives

Economics

The Great Creative Class Migration

The demand for labor explains a lot of migration patterns. Where the uneducated once moved to staff large industrial centers, now those with the means and a college education flock to feed the Innovation Economy that is rising from their ashes.

Jim Russell

Economics

Fleeing Greater Density for Lower Taxes

Make your money in New York City—and then hit the road.

Jim Russell

Economics

Gentrification Is Not About Race and Class, but Fear of Outsiders

More than anything else, gentrification is about the tension between the mobile and the stuck.

Jim Russell

Economics

Rabenmutter: Germany Waging the War for Talent Without Women

Germany is facing a serious talent shortage, but the country continues to stigmatize working mothers, who are already underpaid and underemployed.

Jim Russell

Economics

Urban Frontier Mythology

Where the creative class, to use urbanist Richard Florida's term, are moving to today—and why.

Jim Russell

Economics

That New York City Magic

Mayor Bloomberg is wrong: The Big Apple's main attraction isn't "safe and clean streets." Why, then, do people move there?

Jim Russell

Economics

Lena Dunham Wants Brooklyn to Be More Like Chattanooga

"If they struggle for too long, they're leaving New York for Seattle, Chicago, Austin, and in some cases, even Tampa. We can't have our generation's Patti Smith moving to Tampa."

Jim Russell

Economics

Rust Belt Landscapes and Memory

In which Robert Putnam of Bowling Alone fame romanticizes his hometown of Port Clinton, Ohio.

Jim Russell

Economics

Trust in Cities

An established political order blocks innovation and economic development; there's too much local trust, with individuals only doing business with those they know. Look at what happened in Detroit.

Jim Russell

Economics

Displacing Poverty

Our metrics of urban neighborhood health fail to capture individual success stories, which is why we see South Central Los Angeles, which has a history of successfully encouraging social mobility, as a place with persistent poverty.

Jim Russell