Where It’s Tough To Select a New Garbage Can

Ranging from price to design, San Francisco and New York City have very different goals when it comes to designing a new garbage can.

Why Traffic Jams Could Spread Less

First in the nation for pre-Covid gridlock, Boston has a #1 award that no one wants. During 2019, Boston’s average rush hour driver lost 149 hours in congestion. In just five years, traffic congestion will have absorbed a month (730…

Why We Should Care About the Night Time Economy

Inadequately supported, the food, drink, and entertainment businesses in a city’s night time economy can be a valuable source of economic growth.

Can Shoveling a Parking Spot Make It Yours?

Called winter dibs, shoveling the snow from a public parking space can temporarily make that spot your private property…but should it?

Debating Kenya’s Plastic Bag Ban

To hear a single-use plastic bag regulation debate, you could go to Kenya or NYC while Rwandans might be discussing their plastic bag black market.

Why It’s Tough to Solve Traffic Congestion

While the traffic congestion problem in NYC, LA and D.C. wastes huge time and money, they do not appear to want to solve it.

How to Deal With Skyscraper Shadows

Whenever a new skyscraper is built, we can ask whether its shadow violates our property rights when it eliminates the sunlight in a city’s parks.

The Regulations that Food Truck Chefs Hate

In Chef, recently fired upscale restaurant chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) has no job offers, a viral video to cope with, and a life that is spiraling south. I won’t divulge the ending but the movie was about a food truck, the…

Dilemmas From the “Sharing Economy”

Today’s story is specifically about Airbnb. More generally though, it involves whether government or the market system should regulate the “sharing economy.” But first–Craigslist and the Sharing Economy from xkcd: An apartment owner in Astoria, Queens (a subway ride from…

What We Sacrifice for Pothole Patches

With 150,000 more potholes than last year and $12 for each temporary patch, Chicago has spent close to $3 million on pothole repair and the end is not in sight. NYC was at a record breaking 113,131 on February 20.…