Baseball
For months now we've been collecting responses to a poll asking fans to rank their favorite Major League ballparks. The results are in! 1. PNC Park 2. Wrigley Field 3. AT&T Park 4. Fenway Park 5. Camden Yards 6. Dodger Stadium 7. Petco Park 8. Citizens
World
Saudi Arabia is democratizing. In 2019 for the first time ever women are driving, the cinemas are open, and young people are mixing in the streets and in restaurants. The Kingdom is investing like never before in broadening its economy and establishing a private sector. And, importantly, they have invested
Baseball
In 1989 Pete Rose was banned from baseball, and with his shunning lost any hope of ever being enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, at least while alive. Mr. Rose has made it clear he would prefer enshrinement, but it is unlikely to happen soon, even posthumously. Pete Rose&
America
Why is Saudi Arabia suddenly the pit stop of choice for an impressive laundry list of major companies? How is it positioned among the growing number of Middle-Eastern industrial free zones? And should Rust Belt cities like Cincinnati look this way for answers? If a nation's cities
30K Insights
While it's unclear exactly when baseball will expand next after Las Vegas, robust conversations in Charlotte, Portland, Nashville, Austin and Montreal have crowned those cities the heir-apparent destinations in MLB's future growth sweepstakes, the likely next on deck locations should the Marlins or Rays relocate,
Columbus
The 2019 cohort of America’s college graduates are entering the workforce with no memories of a time when Michigan football was consistently competitive with Ohio State. For those of us who experienced the 1990s, this reality is hard to contemplate. While it’s easy to assume it will continue
Cities
In Milton Keynes, perhaps the most radical of Britain’s post-Second World War “New Towns,” the battle over Brexit and the culture war that it represents is raging hard a decade on. There, the consequences of EU immigration policy, of planning instituted by national authority, and of the grassroots
Baseball
2025 note: This piece was written in real-time in May 2019, five months before the Nationals stormed back to stun the baseball world, beating the Houston Astros to win the World Series in seven games. After this piece was written, the Nationals finished the rest of 2019 with baseball&
30K Insights
Like a front line of untuned and misshapen trumpets, a chorus of discordant pessimism blares negativity about humanity’s future. David Attenborough, through his recent article for the UK’s Telegraph, has taken first chair, but competition is fierce. From spit valves to sweat glands, the choir of discord drips
30K Insights
While New York City may symbolize the American Dream, Norman Rockwell and the American small town still epitomizes the country’s spirit. Two years removed from a bitter cultural stalemate that put the future of the country’s small town backbone at the forefront of an election about the future
30K Insights
2025 note: This post was originally published in 2013. Its projections about the future of downtown proved shockingly accurate, as many planners have now embraced the notion of a "residential future of downtown" . Today, the combined loss of commercial real estate demand downtown is being coupled with an
Baseball
At 47-115, the 2018 Baltimore Orioles were widely pitied as the worst team in baseball in 2018. Like many cellar-dwellers in recent memory, their futility, once demonstrated, was accepted as a given, and opponents fawned over the opportunity to play them. For those of us who remember the