Global Trajectories from 30,000 feet… The future of STEM, Education, and Healthcare… On Oil, Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula... On China...
30K Insights
The scale of urbanization that will happen in Africa over the next 80 years is staggering. While Africa today has only a few megacities, its massive young population and high birth rates are projected to cause an explosion in the size of its cities that by the year 2100 will
Cities
We’ve written about the vision for NEOM multiple times on Capital Frontiers. NEOM is the massive new city project Saudi Arabia launched in 2017 in the country’s northwest corner by Jordan, a priority project of the Crown Prince with the objective to create an unparalleled and unprecedented reinvention
Cities
It’s an uncomfortable question for planners, mayors, and urban theorists alike: what if most people never really wanted to live in cities in the first place? For decades, the prevailing narrative has been that cities are the apex of civilization—a place where ideas collide, creativity thrives, and human
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
America
Originally published on New Geography 2017's tragic events in Charlottesville kickstarted a somber debate about the appropriate way to commemorate the war that gave all Americans their freedom. It also triggered a conversation about whether the south’s legacy of rebellion and independence – with slavery a painful and
America
How would we solve medicine if doctors thought more like economists? Though it has been at the forefront of American political discourse for decades, the fundamental flaws in the economics of America’s healthcare system can only be solved if we undo an oil-and-water philosophical contradiction between two
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
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
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
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
Cities
Originally published in 2015: https://www.newgeography.com/content/005063-techno-fixing-urban-zone In 2008, when Chicago inked a deal to privatize its parking meters, a chorus of groans ensued. To say that the deal was widely panned is putting it mildly. Its detractors say the city accepted too