People studying Cities

Intellectuals

Alex Armlovich

• Senior Housing Policy Analyst at Niskanen Center
• MPP in Social and Urban Policy, BA in Econ. and Poly. Sci.
• https://twitter.com/aarmlovi

Gregg Colburn

• Asst. Professor in Real Estate at U. of Washington
• PhD in Public Affairs at UMN, MBA, MSW
• Wrote "Homeslessness is a Housing Problem" with data scientist Clayton Page Aldern

Joe Cortright

• works as economist, but degree was in public policy from Berkeley
• Founder of and Author on City Observatory
• worked for Brookings Institution
• was Executive Officer of the Oregon Legislature’s Trade and Economic Development Committee
• is Chair of the Oregon Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers

Jerusalem Demsas

• Staff Writer, The Atlantic
• Formerly: Policy Reporter, Vox
• https://twitter.com/JerusalemDemsas
• Champion debater at William and Mary

Eli Dourado

• "economist and regulatory hacker"
• Senior Researcher, Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University
• https://elidourado.com/
• https://twitter.com/elidourado
• His website spells out his philosophy, which I like: raising per-capita GDP.
• wrote paper with Emily Hamilton on Walk Score where I don't trust the results.

Chris Elmendorf

• Law Professor at UC Davis
• JD, BA in Economics
• https://twitter.com/CSElmendorf

Kevin Erdmann

• Senior Affiliated Scholar with Mercatus Center
• Masters in Finance
• Personal Blog on Substack
• Older Personal Blog is IdiosyncraticWhisk
• https://twitter.com/KAErdmann
• book "Shut Out" claims there was no housing boom and bust before the Financial Crisis

Jeff Fong, author on Market Urbanism

• author for Market Urbanism
• author for Tech for Housing
• employee of Lyft and Postmates
• Writes on a variety of topics: tech, politics, taxes, etc..

Salim Furth

• Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center
• Ph.D. Economics, U of Rochester
• author for Market Urbanism
• https://twitter.com/salimfurth

Charlie Gardner

• Research Fellow, Mercatus Center
• Lawyer, local elected official
• author of Old Urbanist blog

M. Nolan Gray

• Research Director, CAYIMBY
• Associated with Mercatus Center
• PhD Student in Urban Planning at UCLA
• was NYC planner
• https://twitter.com/mnolangray
• Book "Arbitrary Lines" argues that zoning is not necessary at all.

Daniel Kay Hertz

• was Author for City Observatory
• is at Chicago Department of Housing
• https://danielkayhertz.com/
• https://twitter.com/danielkayhertz

Emily Hamilton

• Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center
• PhD in Economics, George Mason University.
• author for Market Urbanism
• author for Neighborhood Effects at Mercatus Center
• written for USA Today, Washington Post, and LA Times
• advisor for Up for Growth
• https://twitter.com/ebwhamilton
• wrote paper with Eli Dourado on Walk Score where I don't trust the results.

Adam Hengels

• founder of Market Urbanism
• co-founder of Parafin, a startup for optimizing building parameters
• personal website: https://adamhengels.com/
• Masters in Real Estate Development from MIT, MS in Structural Engineering.
• https://twitter.com/hengels

Sanford "Sandy" Ikeda

• Professor of Economics at SUNY Purchase
• Advisor, Heartland Institute
• PhD from NYU
• author for Market Urbanism
• author for FEE
• https://twitter.com/ikedasandy?lang=en
• fan of Jane Jacobs, both social and economic theory

Andrew Justus

• Housing Policy Analyst at Niskanen Center
• JD and Masters in Urban and Regional Planning
• https://twitter.com/AWJustus

Eli Kahn

• Research Asst at Mercatus Center
• MPP from UC Berkeley

Michael Lewyn

• Professor at Touro Law Center
• Director of the Institute on Land Use and Sustainable Development
• author for Market Urbanism
• JD from Penn
• Ran to be Manhattan Borough President
• https://twitter.com/mlewyn

Stephen Smith

• author and tweeter for Market Urbanism
• written for Forbes, Reason, National Review, and The Atlantic
• is a New Yorker
• in 2015, took a job with Progress Real Estate Partners
• @stephenjacobsmith@mastodon.social

Websites

CityLab

• https://www.bloomberg.com/citylab
• broad, global focus
• https://twitter.com/CityLab

City Observatory

• https://cityobservatory.org/
• commentary on cities by economicly-minded Joe Cortright, also a think-tank?
• https://twitter.com/cityobs
• https://urbanists.social/@cityobs

Market Urbanism

• https://marketurbanism.com/
• "classical liberal economics" and "urban way of life and its benefits to society"
• https://twitter.com/marketurbanism

Planetizen.com

• https://www.planetizen.com
• planning and tech

Strong Towns

• https://www.strongtowns.org/
• seeks to replace post-war suburban growth "ponzi scheme" with financially strong and resilient cities.
• founded by Charles Marohn
• patron saint is "Nassim Taleb"; view cities as complex anti-fragile systems, where failure is frequent
• https://twitter.com/StrongTowns

Economists

Ed Glaeser

• Professor at Harvard
• supply of housing
• land prices

Joseph Gyourko

• Professor at Wharton School
• regulations' effect on housing

Brendan O’Flaherty

• Professor at Columbia
• Urban Economist
• homelessness models

Al Saiz

• Professor at MIT
• Urban Economics Lab

Hans Koster

• Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Blog

Institutes and Centers

Texas A&M Transportation Institute

https://mobility.tamu.edu

Urban Mobility Report appendix has Excel Spreadsheet with commuters, traffic, etc. by city.

Activists

Organizations

AURA

• YIMBY group in Austin, Texas
• https://twitter.com/AURAatx

Coalition for Smarter Growth

• "smart growth" group in Washington D.C.
• https://twitter.com/betterdcregion

New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens ("NUMTOT")

• https://www.facebook.com/groups/whatwouldjanejacobsdo/
• "We are not explicitly Leftbook, but we are certainly left-leaning. We won’t ban you for being a capitalist, but don't expect us to defend you either."
• Admins are Emily Orenstein (she/her, Chicago, IL), Juliet Eldred (she/her, Washington, DC), and Jonathan Marty (he/him, New York, NY)

Greater Greater Washington

• "growing" "walkable urban" Washington D.C.
• https://twitter.com/ggwash/

To add:

• Jenny Schuetz Brookings Institute
• Nikolai Fedak, founded New York Yimby
• Market Urbanism
• Greater Greater Washington
• Sonja Trauss
• SFBarf
• SF YIMBY Party
• Scott Wiener, California politician
• Laura Foot Clarke
• YIMBY Action
• Charles "Chuck" Marohn, founder and president of Strong Towns
• Urban3, a company helping cities plan their economy (and be financially stable)
• Mercatus Center
• ? Manhattan Institute
• ? Better Cities Project
• Welcoming Neighbors Network