Economic & Business Development

And Now for Something Saner and More Positive:

Fresno, Erie

Arts

Old City, Old Buildings, New Life

An art museum with a long history reinvents itself with passion and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Economic & Business Development

Dodge City Postcard

Notes from the ground, from the sky, and from the people of Dodge City, Kansas

Economic & Business Development

Paradise Duluth

Postcard of the old Clyde Iron Works in its prime, via Perfect Duluth Day. As part of the unfolding saga of start-up businesses as the crucial creators of new jobs, and of particular start-ups like craft breweries (along with tech incubators, arts companies, manufacturing “maker spaces,” and others) in bringing life to fringe areas of recovering cities, I talked […]

Economic & Business Development

From Fresno to Duluth to Allentown, with Montana in Between

Civic Updates

Economic & Business Development

Why an F-16 Hit a Cessna, and Some More-Upbeat Updates

Sobering news from the NTSB, but encouraging news from Maine to California

Economic & Business Development

The Battle for Downtown, From Canada to the Carolinas

"It is strange, but true." What one reader says about Raleigh, North Carolina, applies many other places as well.

Economic & Business Development

An Incredible Time-Capsule View of One Downtown’s Development

Can tearing up a noted artistic zone be a path to civic success? City leaders say yes, while some of their citizens say no.

Economic & Business Development

Cars, Pedestrians, and the Struggle for the Future of Downtowns

Plus: how much is any discussion of "downtown" a coded talk about race?

Economic & Business Development

Fresno to South Bend to Louisville:

The Elusive Elements of Civic Success

Economic & Business Development

Can Cars Save Downtown?

Fresno, California prepares to rip up its landmark pedestrian mall and replace it with a street.

Economic & Business Development

Asheville Just ‘Happened’ to Develop a Nice Downtown or Did It

In the immortal words from Liberty Valance, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Herewith the legend and reality of Asheville.

Economic & Business Development

Equal Time for Tampa, and More on Asheville Too

Catching up with changes in major cities, and in the Atlantic's own web site

Economic & Business Development

More on Nice Downtowns: Do They Just Happen? Or Are They Made?

Tampa has kept trying to revive its downtown, and has kept failing. Asheville has been wildly successful—but was it even trying at all?

Economic & Business Development

Nice Downtowns: How Did They Get That Way?

"Visitors think, 'That's just how Seattle is.' But it wasn't." Lessons via places ranging from Fresno to Shanghai.

Economic & Business Development

Three Ways of Thinking About Fresno (and Why You Should Care)

A beleaguered city shows the path toward revival.