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Aaron M. Renn

Columnist

Aaron M. Renn is an opinion-leading urban analyst, consultant, speaker and writer on a mission to help America’s cities and people thrive and find real success in the 21st century. He focuses on urban, economic development and infrastructure policy in the greater American Midwest. He also regularly contributes to and is cited by national and global media outlets, and his work has appeared in many publications, including the The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

He can be reached at aaron@aaronrenn.com or on Twitter at @aaron_renn.

It’s a trend that started before the pandemic, and it isn’t slowing down, thanks in part to hefty price increases for housing.
Nice public restrooms are a genuine urban amenity. Big cities can afford to build more of them. Why don’t they?
Newcomers from liberal states don’t always tilt their new homes to the left. It’s the reason why migration politics is more complex than people give it credit for.
Urban leaders like to complain that suburbs are a drain on their prosperity. The facts are otherwise.
The factory jobs that used to be a fit for unskilled blue-collar workers are rapidly going high tech and white collar.
We need to move toward a lower-energy future, but we can’t present it as a punishment.
Cities in the South and Southwest aren’t just luring new residents. They’re growing their role as corporate headquarters towns.
No one disputes that we need more housing. But the YIMBY movement has a broader set of goals that would threaten the tradition of local land use decisions in America.
We focus on people leaving cities, but we tend to ignore where they came from and what they take with them.
Unlike many serious urban problems, this one is eminently solvable. There’s a growing body of useful research of what works to operate a well-functioning transit system.