Top 5 Stories from the Week (Feb 11–15, 2019)

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1. The California High-Speed Train that Wasn’t: The Opportunity Cost of Megaprojects

by Daniel Herriges | February 13, 2019

California’s high-speed rail project appears indefinitely on hold. What is the opportunity cost of all the things the state hasn’t done during the decade-plus its leaders have spent fixated on this?

2. The Financial Experiment at the Foundation of the Green New Deal

by Charles Marohn | February 11, 2019

Modern Monetary Theory is the financial foundation of the Green New Deal. It’s an experiment our cities don’t want to undertake.

3. The Problem with Helicopter Urbanism

by Andrew Price | February 12, 2019

It is important when we design a building or a neighborhood to look at how it feels and interacts with the street. Too often, new development feels designed from a helicopter’s-eye-view.

4. What's Missing From the Green New Deal

by Daniel Herriges | February 8, 2019

The proposed Green New Deal is ambitious and urgent—but completely omits any mention of local land use. Can sweeping federal policy mix with the kind of decentralized, bottom-up change we need?

5. Savor Your Small Parcels, and Create More of Them

by Kevin Klinkenberg | February 14, 2019

It matters what size chunks we build our cities in. Making room for many small-scale development projects on small lots is the universal historical model for a reason, and modern cities could stand to get back to it.

(Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons)