William Fulton / Jan 09 2010
For Release Saturday, January 9, 2010
Citiwire.net
For half a century, Americans have been pounded with the message: “To get a good job, get a good education.” For people like me, who came of age in the Rust Belt in the ’70s, this meant only one thing: Go to a four-year college, get a white-collar job, and get out of the factories. This was a big change from the world of our parents. For them, economic security meant unionized semi-skilled factory jobs. For us, economic security meant bailing from the factory before it shut down and joining the white-collar workforce.
But now it’s 2010, and white-collar jobs aren’t the ticket any more. Every day, more and more college-educated workers in America lose their job to “outsourcing” –especially to India, Ireland, and Eastern Europe, all of which have an abundance of highly educated English speakers capable of doing white-collar work. Read More »
William Fulton / Sep 18 2009
For Release Friday, September 18, 2009
Citiwire.net
Portland is often held up as such an outstanding model of urban planning–and one that is so difficult to replicate–that you might think it’s somehow different from other cities. But let’s face it: Portland is like any other U.S. city. There are freeways and subdivisions and confusing arterials and big malls and stupid little strip centers.
But there is also a remarkable downtown, a fabulous set of close-in neighborhoods, a remarkably large and diverse transit system for a city Portland’s size, and an emerging ethic that is comfortable with being an urban place.
Rather than simply thinking there’s no way to copy Portland–or that all cities must slavishly follow the Portland model–it’s worth thinking about Portland’s DNA. Why does Portland do things–and do them successfully–that a lot of other cities can’t seem to do? Read More »
William Fulton / Aug 22 2008
For Release Sunday, August 24, 2008
Citiwire.net
In the age of climate change, California is once again on the cutting edge of environmental policy, busy figuring out how to implement its nationally-hailed new greenhouse-gas emissions reduction law. A big new question: how can “smart growth” be part of the answer?
There’s little question that California’s growth and development patterns will have to change significantly if the state’s greenhouse ambitious gas reduction goals are to be met. Technological fixes will only take the state so far, and even Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s own experts agree that “smart growth” must be part of the answer. But state officials are reluctant to dictate development patterns from Sacramento, so they’re trying to figure out whether incentives alone will do the trick. As Schwarzenegger’s chief planning deputy, Cynthia Bryant, puts it: “We need a carrot so big it’s a stick.”
The “carrot stick” is likely to be a requirement for a smart growth regional plan in every metropolis in the state, with the flow of transportation funding officially tied to implementing the local plans. This could be a national model of how to promote smart growth — if it passes the legislature without being watered down too much. Read More »