Urban Affairs/Local Government

AIMS releases its 2004 High School Report Card, a new edition of “Ideas Matter,” featuring Edmonton School Superintendent Angus McBeath, Wendell Cox asks How Smart is “Smart Growth”? and more.

A world leader in smart growth has been Portland, Oregon. Many urban planners view Portland as a model for limiting sprawl. In the latest paper in AIMS’ Urban Futures project, “Smart Growth”: Threatening the quality of life, author Wendell Cox challenges the many assumptions promoted by smart growth advocates. He argues the evidence is mounting that Portland’s smart growth policies simply don’t work.

International expert challenges urban planning assumptions in AIMS’ most recent “Urban Futures” paper

According to AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley, writing in the Halifax Herald, “snowstorms can be powerful politically because they focus attention on something everybody understands: cities keep the streets open and people are harmed and angered when they can’t get where they need to go. Scent and lawn chemical bans, long debates about whether cats should be leashed and absurd foot-dragging on cleaning up the hurricane damage in Point Pleasant Park merely leave most people bemused. But no one is unaffected when overnight your street is turned into an impassable bog and remains that way for day. Both the Chronicle Herald and Times & Transcript versions are included.

AIMS and internationally recognised urban development expert Wendell Cox spoke in front of an audience of Atlantic Canadians concerned about urban development issues.

Over the past few years mayors, urban planners, and smart-growth and anti-suburban advocates have been arguing that wealthier cities will create investment to benefit the entire country. Civic boosters say they believe by cities keeping more of their taxes, the whole country wins. If Toronto wins, so does Truro. AIMS’ senior fellow on urban affairs asks “Do cities create wealth, or are they where most of Canada's wealth is generated?” In this commentary published in the Globe and Mail, Patrick Luciani says the distinction isn't simply a matter of economic hairsplitting.

Wendell Cox says rationing land "defies logic...in a region thirsting for growth"

Urban visionary and Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist on making city government more efficient and less costly for taxpayers

An invitation to lunch with urban visionary Mayor John Norquist of Milwaukee, lessons from the west coast's experience with property rights in the fishery and Brian Lee Crowley on how Employment Insurance causes unemployment.

New Senior Fellow Urban Policy