Definitions
"The process by which the financial sector becomes more important than other sectors. As a result, banks, markets or other actors gain more influence and power."
"Economists know, of course, that there is really no such thing as “the economy,” there are only people. Yet they have succeeded in obscuring this simple truth completely.”
Moshe Adler
What Canadian city has (by far) the most PBSA (purpose built student accommodation) units?
Waterloo, ON
Reading: The urban development potential of Black-owned businesses, by T. Bates
Elliot
"A comprehensive concept that includes the change in the value of an individuals' property rights over time."
Income (Harvey)
"How strange; surely no other body of scholars or scientists in the modern world has remained as credulous as economists, for so long a time, about the merit of their subject matter’s most formative and venerable assumption"
Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations
City that exhibited a "shrinking to greatness" approach, according to Ed Glaeser
Youngstown
Reading:En-gendering effective planning: Spatial mismatch, low-income women, and transportation policy, by Evelyn Blumenburg
Leah
This term describes firms gaining efficiency when scales of production are larger.
Scale Economies / Economies of Scale
"Planners tend to be inordinately nice people. They gravitate to the profession our of a desire to help their cities and improve living conditions for their neighbors. Most planners do not seek to line the pockets of wealthy elites or displace the poor. And yet that is exactly what has happened, again and again, in city after city."
Samuel Stein, Capital City
In this city, transit ridership was stable from 1970-2000 (unlike most other large U.S. cities)
San Francisco
Reading: Triumph of the city: How urban spaces make us human, by Edward Glaeser
Julia
When the productivity of inputs is increased, but costs are not lowered. Creates knowledge spillover and competition.
Technological Agglomeration
"Areas such as the central and inner city where the rent cap may be the greatest also experience very high land values and housing costs despite disinvestment from the build environment and the consequent rent gap."
Neil Smith
Which major U.S. city is introducing congestion pricing this year?
NYC
Reading: Explaining Urban Regimes, by K. Dowding
Ian
Economic state where there is a finite number of resources, and resources are distributed in the manner that aligns with optimal use (the most efficient way possible!).
Pareto Efficiency
"How pleasant to nod off to a post-prandial address that reminds one of one's own importance."
Richard Schearmur
This city has an average house price of $1.5 million - up 453% over the past 25 years (from $198k)
Toronto
Reading: Cities as Labor Markets, by Alain Bertaud