Sublime

Byrne is pointing to a change in the American landscape where postindustrial work can be done anywhere, and so places like Virgil must invent completely new reasons for people to stay. As you may have already guessed, small towns will turn to services, mass consumption, and cultural amenities as a new source of both tax revenue and a reason for exi

Today, only one in three new homes in America is “self-built” by individuals. In the United Kingdom, the figure is an abysmal one in ten. A regulatory thicket makes it prohibitively difficult and costly for individuals to build.

Cities whose economic-development strategy is a corporate-capture strategy are typically those whose economic development director and planning director don’t talk to each other. The smart cities, like Lowell, hire a director of planning and development, who is first charged with creating a city where people want to be. Rather than trying to land n