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Xiamen BRT
I had the chance to visit Xiamen in October 2025. China continues to inspire and impress me on every visit, not because everything is perfect, but because the pace, ambition, and willingness to build infrastructure at scale are impossible to ignore. Xiamen is a coastal city of about five million people in Fujian Province. Before…
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Tri-State Trillions
$1.2 trillion dollars for US infrastructure. How do you wrap your head around such a large number? (Believe it or not, it’s not even close to the amount spent by the U.S. government in Afghanistan and Iraq, but it is around the size of the NYC metropolitan region’s GDP.) The NYC region will hopefully be…
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Urban Legends
NYC has plenty of urban legends, many of which are literally urban legends. Perhaps this article will finally put an end to these largely untrue “myths” about the city’s built environment! NYC is fully “built-up”. The New York metropolitan region is populated by more than 20 million people. Approximately 70% of the world’s countries have…
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Planning Beyond Boundaries
The New York region functions more inefficiently due to its municipal and state boundaries. The Northeastern megalopolis is home to more than 50 million people and 20 percent of America’s GDP, centered around New York. Seventy percent of Manhattan employees commute from outside the borough. The region historically was entirely within New Netherland, but the British split…
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Cost
In around the same time it takes me to travel from D.C. to Boston on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC), I was whisked from Guangzhou to Luoyang, one of China’s ancient capital cities – roughly the distance from Dallas to Chicago (or double the mileage on the NEC) in a little over 7 hours by rail.…
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Governance
Our region’s political infrastructure stifles growth and prosperity, and keeps our 21st century economy from reaching its full potential. As a public authority, the MTA is a quasi-private corporation, with boards of directors appointed by elected officials, and it is exempt from many state and local regulations. The MTA is allowed to issue more debt…
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Speed
Our commutes need to be sped up to improve our quality of life and public health. Not only would it allow us to be more efficient, and allow our cities to be more sustainable, but it could even help increase social capital, giving us more time for family, friends, and neighbors. NYC has the highest…
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Incentives
For New York City to plan for the 21st century, it should embrace its 19th and early 20th century history. During this time, the city grew rapidly; in the 1930s, the city had almost 7 million people – an increase of almost 6 million people from the 1850s. And we could accommodate all this…
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Filling the Void
From the Independent Subway to the Freedom Tower, Americans rightly love their independence and freedom. But our affinity for liberty can be bad for urban planning, because it can hinder collaboration, coordination, and compromise. State’s rights and municipal police powers combine to make regional planning particular difficult in the United States. In the New York region, three states (governed…
Disclaimer: All content, including blog posts and tours, reflects my personal views and experiences. Nothing here should be interpreted as representing the views of any current or former employer.