Inside the crisis facing local TV news

At one point, local television news was a major money maker and one of the reasons behind the decline of newspapers.  Mostly local tv news was what I called "murders, fires, accidents, sports, and weather" with a sprinkling of news and feature stories on events in the metropolitan area.

But as television news supplanted local newspapers, cable specialization--channels dedicated to sports and weather--took away some of the key content, and later the Internet and streaming.  

It took a couple decades for Internet technology to be robust enough to deliver streaming video with as good or better production values, and depending on the investment in the product, competitive news with more depth, but it's happened.  Ratings (audience viewership) have dropped in response.

The finances of television news are tough too.  Great during election years in competitive states so lots of political ads.  But the main source of local advertising, car dealerships, has declined some too, as individual car dealerships get rolled up into massive car dealership firms.  

(Two of the largest dealership groups are based in Utah.  One, Larry H. Miller, was subsumed into the Asbury Auto Group, which after some sell offs, still has 150+ dealerships.)

One response has been industry consolidation.  The US Government has continually relaxed antitrust and competition concerns, so that a single firm can control multiple stations in one market.  And the station chains have consolidated, as restrictions on how much national audience they could cover have been relaxed.- 

The Los Angeles Times reports on this story, "Inside the crisis facing local TV news: Layoffs, consolidation and shrinking ratings."

• Longtime local TV anchors, including KTLA’s Mark Kriski and others, are being laid off as parent company Nexstar Media Group cuts staff across its stations nationwide. 
• Streaming now accounts for half of all viewing, pulling ad dollars and audiences away from traditional TV and forcing stations to cut costs. 
• TV station owners are pushing to consolidate and investing in cheaper streaming news formats to adapt to changing viewer habits.

And:

Broadcast TV stations have long had the highest profit margins in the media business. But the financial model that sustained that growth has steadily eroded in recent years. Streaming — which now accounts for more than 40% of all viewing — has pulled consumers away from traditional TV, putting pressure on outlets to control costs so they can remain financially viable.

More than 2,000 TV stations nationwide still provide a vital role in communities, delivering as much as 12 hours a day in programming, live sports and local news to every household in the U.S. But they are now faced with an aging audience that isn’t being replaced by younger viewers who prefer streaming platforms and social media.

“It used to be that people would grow into the news habits of their parents, and now they’re not,” said Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News who now advises local TV stations. “The next generation of consumers are never going to run home to watch the newscast at 5, 6, 10 or 11.”

 As an advocate, you used to be able to get historic preservation (Uline Arena) and bike matters (planning sessions when I ran a bike and ped plan process in Baltimore County) on television and in community newspapers.  Now, in most places, community newspapers are gone, the "big" Metropolitan paper is a ghost, and television news broadcasts are being trimmed back.

It's a bad time for mass communication.

Electric vehicles sales surge in Asia: Gerschenkron and EV production in China

A BYD dealership in Phuket, Thailand.

According to Bloomberg "BYD Showrooms Are Bustling Across Asia After Iran Oil Shock," people are reacting to gas price increases resulting from the war with Iran by looking at buying electric cars.

Maybe the US too ("What to Know About Electric Cars When Gas Prices Are Surging," New York Times).  From the article:

In the United States, prices for new electric vehicles have fallen but still average $6,500 more than vehicles that run on fossil fuels, according to Cox Automotive. From a purely financial point of view, an electric vehicle makes sense for people who will save that much on fuel and maintenance during the time they own it.

The New York Times offers a tool to help people make that calculation based on local electricity prices and driving habits. But there is more to the decision than dollars and cents. Some benefits of electric vehicles are hard to put a price on, like the peace of mind that comes from not being at the mercy of geopolitics.

Alexander Gerschenkron was an economist who studied development economics.  

In "Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective," he makes the point that later developing countries have an advantage when it comes to adopting new technologies, because unlike legacy advanced economies, they don't have billions invested in older technologies.

Vintage Marathon Oil gasoline station in Miami, Oklahoma.

China (in many technologies) is a great example.  One is with motor vehicles.  While their development of the automobile industry started with gasoline cars, many built through joint ventures with then advanced car makers like GM and Toyota, the companies were able to adopt and adapt the technologies for the development of their own domestic auto industry.

But China, seeing fossil fuel as a legacy fuel and making them dependent on the world oil economy, moved to the development of electric vehicles (and solar power, although the country still burns a lot of coal and is adding coal plants, since they have large supplies of coal domestically sourced) ("Chinese BYD cars emerge as threat to automakers," Detroit Free Press).

BYD started making electric batteries before moving to cars.  More recently they've developed a fast charging system that allows cars to go up to 600 miles between charges--except to provide this at scale would require serious electricity transmission upgrades.

Now China is years ahead of the American auto industry, which is losing billions of dollars trying to compete in the electric vehicle market ("Carmakers Took a $50 Billion Loss on EVs," Autoweek). And they are an increasing force in global markets ("How America’s EV retreat is increasing China’s control of global markets," CNBC).

During the first Trump Administration, I remember the Economist writing about this ("America’s domination of oil and gas will not cow China"), and Trump's preference for coal ("Trump orders coal revival, but market favors natural gas," NPR) and oil, stating that in energy, China is the future, and the US is the past.  China is an electro-state and the US is a Petro-state ("The Petro States of America," Bloomberg). 

Foreign Policy Magazine develops this thesis further, ""How the Iran War Could Consolidate China’s Energy Dominance: Amid global oil and gas disruptions, China stands prepared for the electrostate era."

Petro states as a sub-national phenomenon.

Wind turbines operate at a wind farm near Whitewater, California. Renewables tend to be lower risk than oil projects, but they also tend to deliver lower returns. / Getty Images

I apply the concept of petro states at the sub-national scale as well--many states in the US are pro fossil fuels, and have hampered the development of alternative technologies ("Making oil is more profitable than saving the planet. These numbers tell the story," NPR).  

In large part, it's because excise taxes on oil and natural gas are a huge revenue source for states ("Congress gave a break to coal producers. Wyoming worries it’ll carry the loss," Wyoming Public Radio).  From the article:

Over the last 50 years, the state of Wyoming made bank from coal – billions of dollars to fund the government, schools, roads and parks. The state now has its own sovereign wealth fund thanks to coal.

Here’s how it works: When coal is mined on federal land, the mining company pays royalty fees. Half of those royalties go to the federal government and the other half goes to the state, and only Congress has the power to change that ratio.

President Trump’s GOP spending bill lowers those royalty fees for mining companies from 12.5% to 7% through 2034.

Or they continue to provide tax incentives for increased production ("Tax credit for huge oil producer raises questions about Utah board’s transparency," Salt Lake City Weekly) and other ways to promote production ("Supreme Court backs Utah oil railroad expansion, endorsing limited version of key environmental law," Colorado Public Radio).

For example, Oklahoma, with oil and natural gas interests (fracking especially) is fully committed to fossil fuels, but is toying with solar and wind ("As demand grows, Oklahoma considers its energy path forward," Daily Oklahoman).  Tulsa and Oklahoma City are home to many regional headquarters and a few national firms.

North Dakota ("Studies underscore oil and gas industry’s significant impact on North Dakota’s economy, communities").  Kentucky ("Heavy reliance on coal has eroded a KY economic advantage. Can Trump reverse the trend?," Kentucky Lantern). While New Mexico, which has a good producing section of the Permian Basin, and Pennsylvania--home to the nation's first oil well, but a center for fracking, are less committed.

It's the rare state, like California, pushing a sustainable fuel future despite historically having been a large producer.  Maybe the switch is due to significant drops in production ("As oil industry in California wanes, what will become of shuttered refineries?," Daily Breeze).

An oil pump jack stands near a field of wind turbines in Nolan, Texas. Oil companies are under pressure to pivot more swiftly toward renewable energy. Here's one reason why that's not happening so quickly: It's still incredibly lucrative to sell oil. / Getty Images

Texas is the mother lode of oil production in the US.  It is also a major wind power producer.  

Like the Trump Administration ("Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms," New York Times), some pro-oil interests are working to deemphasize wind in the state's mix of energy sources ("The War on Wind Rages in Texas," Earth Day).

Originally the Humble Oil Building, named before Humble Oil and Refining Company was fully integrated in Esso (which later became Exxon, then ExxonMobil).  Now it's the ExxonMobil Building.

Texas is the big winner nationally as Houston is the center of the oil and gas industry.  For example, Chevron is moving there from California.  The company in various forms has been headquartered in the SF Bay region since 1879.  

Production and supporting services companies often relocate from regional centers ("The economic impact of Expand Energy moving headquarters from Oklahoma to Houston," News9 OKC), as the oil industry business cluster there continues to intensify.

Why Disneyland should be taxed more: Anaheim Transportation Network to shut down because of ongoing deficits

Bus riders take Anaheim Regional Transportation (ART) buses shuttles from the Toy Story parking lot to the Disneyland Resort on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Anaheim, CA. The Anaheim Transportation Network’s board voted Wed. Jan. 28 to “wind down” operations, with the last day of shuttling planned for March 31. The bus system moves 8 million riders a year around the resort area. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The bus service in Anaheim, Anaheim Transportation Network, transports people between major destinations in the city including Disneyland and the Convention Center.  It has about 22,000 riders per day, 8 million per year.  It also provides an electric shuttle called FRAN--free rides around the neighborhood--and EVE, a van shuttle to and from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.

Your ride to Disneyland.  Not anymore.  A sign marks a stop at Great Wolf Lodge for an ART bus, Anaheim Resort Transportation, in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

It has been funded by fares and other revenues, with a persistent deficit covered by the cities tourism special district, which collects taxes on hotel stays.

That's not enough, and the service is shutting down ("With a shut-down deadline looming, Anaheim Transportation Network has buses and property to disperse," Orange County Register).  

City punts.  Elected officials lack vision, sound familiar?*  Last year, faced with the possibility of the system shutting down, the city figured it wasn't important enough to come up with other funding to maintain the service ("Anaheim looks at takeover of resort bus system that’s facing budget challenges," OCR).

The city of Anaheim last year considered taking over the struggling transportation network, in hopes of solving the agency’s financial troubles without asking hoteliers to pay more. But officials said earlier this year the city was no longer interested in the move.

... “We know there’s a need for a service,” Lyster said. “We want to do a study to look at whether there could be an advantage to putting this under the city umbrella that might make it cost-effective.”

... More than 70% of the transportation provider’s operating costs go toward labor, Kotler said. Fare increases would likely lower the number of people who choose to use the buses since the service is competing on cost with rideshare services and families who might choose to park at the resort. ATN charges $4 for a one-way fare and less for children and seniors.

“We believe that if fares were to increase, we would lose a large percentage of our passenger market to the rideshare companies,” Kotler said. “So, we have to be very careful about how we approach the fare policy … We feel that the fares need to stay at the current level.”

* DC just shut down its streetcar ("Eight big-picture lessons from the DC Streetcar," "How DC’s mayor and council chair thwarted every effort to better the streetcar," GGW). 

DisneyForward is not Transit Forward.  Disney has a huge expansion program underway, called DisneyForward, and they weren't required to include transportation demand management planning as an element of the project ("Disneyland doesn't have transportation demand management planning requirements," 2023).

One of ATN’s major routes is a line from a Disney parking lot to the theme parks’ gates.

====

When the magic fades.

Transportation Demand Management Plans for Amusement Parks.  Not dissimilarly, Disney World in Orlando shut down the branded Disney Express bus service from Orlando Airport and other locations.  In part they said this was because of the increased use of ride hailing services like Uber and Lyft.

Amusement parks/resorts, like stadiums, arenas and casinos ought to be required to have transportation demand management plans and fund transit as part of their operation .  Of course, in Florida, Disney's land district is legally separate from the counties there.  

Nonetheless, as a local government, it should be required to participate in a German style transport association, bringing together area jurisdictions and transit operations to plan and deliver transit in an integrated fashion.

-- "The answer is: Create a single multi-state/regional multi-modal transit planning, management, and operations authority association," 2017
-- "Verkehrsverbund: The evolution and spread of fully integrated regional public transport in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland," International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 2018

Orange County Transportation Authority does a lot of things--runs Metrolink, toll roads, cross-jurisdictional buses (at least one line makes it to CSU Long Beach), paratransit, and a fare media card usable on its buses and some of the city bus systems.  

It also provides some funds at least to some jurisdictions for intra-city transportation, like in Laguna Beach, through Measure M, a county wide sales tax for transportation--not just transit--projects.  They did pay for some things for Anaheim, I am not sure for buses.  The justification for transit funding is primarily congestion management.

US thinks it's doing better from war blowback than other nations

JD Vance bragged that the US isn't as impacted by the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz as other countries ("'Overseas' doing worse with petrol prices than USA: Trump's vice president," 9News Australia).  But it's a global economy ("Iran war will scar the global economy," Financial Times). 

Bloomberg notes the Administration is looking at the wrong impact, as oil is used in so many other products ("The White House Is Using the Wrong Oil Price for the Iran War"). 

Also see, especially the comments where I update with other articles, "Oil dependent economies are vulnerable at all times, but especially during wartime in the Mideast | From energy dominance to energy vulnerability."

Other countries will hardly look upon the US with favor.  The Toronto Star, "How can Canada protect itself amid a global energy crisis?," lists some of the effects on Canada.

A friend's brother runs a grain elevator operation in Montana, including the sale of fertilizer in large quantities.  He's getting stiffed on deliveries.

From the Star:

Yet Canadian consumers are hostage to a volatile world price for oil and gas. And the crisis extends beyond oil. 

• It is a threat to world food security with looming shortages of the natural gas and other key ingredients of fertilizer produced by Persian Gulf States. As they plant for this year’s harvest, Canadian farmers can choose to absorb higher costs for fuel and fertilizer or cut back and suffer lower crop yields. Either way, food prices, already high, will rise further. 
•  Options for protecting Canadian consumers include the cap on pump prices that has been imposed by South Korea and other countries. 
•  China is among major oil consumers that are curtailing fuel exports to hoard domestic supplies. Brazil is cutting federal taxes on fuel and will tax oil exports to offset the revenue loss. 
• The Philippines has mandated four-day work weeks to conserve energy. 
• Some Asia-Pacific factories are scaling back production to preserve fuel and spare themselves higher production costs. 
• In a worst-case scenario, there will be more factory slowdowns and shutdowns in the global supply chain. 
• If prolonged, that disruption will raise the price of Canada’s imports, risking a resurgence of inflation. 
• Canada would be self-sufficient in oil and gas if it chose to redirect a large portion of its exports to refineries in Central and Eastern Canada that rely on imported oil. That would require construction of an east-west pipeline.
• Canada could also build strategic reserves of oil and LNG readily available to Canadian refineries to keep fuel prices under control. Canada is the only G7 country without a strategic oil reserve to draw upon in times of crisis.
• One of the few certainties of the moment is that Iran can bottle up Middle East fuel and fertilizer supplies whenever it chooses after the current conflict ends. The Economist warned of further Iranian attacks on the world economy in coming years, saying that “disruption of energy markets will come and go with geopolitical tensions, especially if Iran concludes that it needs a nuclear weapon to be safe.”

Gasoline is up 49% today in Salt Lake, in response to Trump's Beautiful War with Iran

After a series of price increases since the commencement of the US/Israeli War Against Iran.  It was $2.67 per gallon just before.  From the Bloomberg article "The White House Is Using the Wrong Oil Price for the Iran War":

US President Donald Trump has seemingly turned the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil into a referendum on his war against Iran. Thumbs up if WTI stays below $100 a barrel. Thumbs down if it rises above. Even if he succeeds in keeping that particular gauge below the triple digits, it would be a pyrrhic victory.

What matters for the American economy isn’t the price of WTI, but the cost of refined petroleum products — and they’re rising rapidly. While the price of Texas crude is up 60% since January, the cost of key everyday fuels has risen by between 85% and 120%.

Image from Etsy.

Suburban ethnic enclaves

All that's left of DC's Chinatown is this ceremonial gate, a couple restaurants and stores, a nonprofit or two, and a public housing development for Asians with fewer than 300 residents.

Last year I wrote a piece, "Sometimes you've got to recognize reality and let things go: the diminishment of DC's "Chinatown" as an authentic place," saying DC should accept that demographic trends means that the city's "Chinatown," is no more.  

What happened is that over the decades succeeding generations moved to the suburbs, and today new immigrants move to the suburbs directly without first stopping to live in the city.

The decline of ethnic enclaves in cities is widely recognized: few Little Italy's, or Germantowns, or Polish or Irish-dense neighborhoods (there's apparently a great Polish buffet in Chicago, "Just in time for Casimir Pulaski Day: The Red Apple Buffet, filling stretchy pants since 1989," Chicago Tribune), Welsh, etc.

Today, cities, at least those with lagging real estate markets, do see new immigrant enclaves form around Portuguese (Massachusetts), Somali (Minneapolis-St. Paul), and Latino cultures.

One of the things that keeps an enclave going is people continuing to speak their native language.

This isn't entirely new.  Dearborn, not Detroit, is home to an Arab-American majority, the largest outside of the Mideast ("Dearborn, Michigan: A visit to the first Arab-majority city in the US," BBC).

The city of Mississauga, Ontario, has imposed steep fines on the companies that own the plaza for failing to stop gatherings with fireworks and loud music. Nearby residents also complain about heavy traffic.Credit...Ian Willms for The New York Times

Toronto.  The reason I write this is the New York Times has an article ("The suburb that won't sleep") about the Ridgedale community and how a major shopping center there is a focal point for people from the Mideast and near parts of Asia--speaking Arabic and other languages, legacy populations find this unnerving.

A graduate planner who wrote her thesis on the community has an op-ed in the Toronto Star ("This Mississauga plaza has been called ‘chaotic’ and a ‘nuisance.’ Its critics are missing what makes it great").  She makes the point that cities ought to want these kinds of thriving business communities.

A comment on her LinkedIn calls attention to Dragon Centre in Scarborough, now I think it's demolished but over time it became the area's first Chinese-centric mall of significant size and heft.

Note that because of the development of such shopping centers as hubs, there is a planning effort aimed at helping them to strengthen their community hub characteristics ("s").

DC area.  It's seen as an anomaly, but thriving retail districts in these places happen because of immigrant-related commerce.  Decades ago, Washington Post food writer Tim Carman reported on ethnic food finds in obscure shopping centers in the suburbs.  

Later I wrote a couple entries about how buildings are envelopes, that even dull strip shopping centers can have thriving businesses (in fact, a few weeks ago I ate at the only decent Ethiopian restaurant in Salt Lake, located in such a place.

-- "Millennials and suburban hipness and Montgomery County, Maryland," 2013
-- "More thoughts on suburban hipness (it's really about commercial hipness generally, not urban vs. suburban)," 2013

In the DC area, Latinos are especially concentrated in Takoma Langley Crossroads and Wheaton, Asians in Annandale (after a couple stops in Clarendon and Bailey's Crossroads)

Eden Center functions similarly to Ridgeway Plaza, while Ethiopians and Eritreans are more dispersed across DC's suburbs, although Ethiopians first "landed" in DC proper.  

The city still has a number of decent Ethiopian restaurants, even for breakfast.

-- "A New Chapter for the Eden Center?," Arlington Magazine
-- "At the Eden Center, historic businesses stand tall and new ones plant roots, ARLNow
-- "New Tools for Keeping Immigrant-Owned Shops in Place," (University of) Maryland Today

Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San José) of the 25th Assembly District, left, and Assemblymember Tri Ta (R-Westminster) of the 70th State Assembly District unveil the Little Saigon Freeway sign at a section of the 405 Freeway Friday, April 18, 2025. (James Carbone)

Orange County, California is home to a large Vietnamese community, strong enough to have had Vietnamese elected to Congress ("CSUF Economists Analyze Little Saigon, Largest Vietnamese Community Outside of Southeast Asia," "Here's a look at the history of Little Saigon," "CSUF report on Little Saigon inspires revitalization and growth," Orange County Register).  From the article:

Orange County’s Little Saigon comprises parts of Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Fountain Valley and is the largest Vietnamese community in the United States. Cal State Fullerton’s 2024 profile highlighted data about businesses, employment, education, rents and mortgages, among many other factors that characterize life for the multigenerational residents of Little Saigon.

Data presented in the report was intended to help guide decision-making by community leaders. “It offers cities, small businesses, nonprofits, educators, chambers of commerce and investors credible information to support thoughtful economic development decisions,” Nguyen said.

... Ever since refugee families began arriving in Orange County from Vietnam in 1975 in the first of several waves, Little Saigon has grown organically. The CSUF report now offers a guide for strategic growth for the future of its many communities.

Conclusion.  The paper, "The politics of Chinatown development in American cities" (Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies) discusses the real estate development dynamics faced by Chinatowns in a set of US cities, creating a set of types, based on the Growth Machine thesis.

I realize the dynamics of ethnic district shrinkage are likely the same for other types of "districts" in cities be they ground-up developed arts districts that lose out to real estate development, working ports that are replaced by waterfront entertainment districts, New York City's garment district, etc.

It would be interesting to develop a similar framework for suburban ethnic enclaves in terms of their development, growth, continued growth, or decline.

Housing at hospitals as a benefit for longevity for the wealthy, and housing aimed at achieving health equity goals

Hospital adjacent housing for the well off.  A new hospital development in West Palm Beach, Florida will include mixed use retail and housing ("New Good Samaritan Hospital, with luxury housing and retail planned in West Palm Beach," South Florida Sun-Sentinel).  

The new hospital, which Tenet is calling a next-generation Center of Excellence for health care, will be part of a larger, mixed-use project by Easton Street Capital that will include luxury condominiums, rentals, retail and a hotel.

“We will be reimaging the Good Samaritan campus,” said Maggie Gill, group president of Tenet Healthcare. “In partnership with Easton Street Capital, we are redeveloping the site for housing, wellness and health care. This is a well-funded plan to make state-of-the-art health care facilities and technology more accessible to the region.”

...“The focus of the entire campus is a place where you can live, work and receive health care with an emphasis on wellness and longevity,” Gill said. “We think of it as an integrative approach to looking at the person holistically to help them stay healthy.”

... Housing will include rentals for the hospital workforce, as well as luxury condominiums to attract baby boomers seeking easy access to health care, an alternative to senior living. “I want to build longevity living where we’re trying to enhance the health span and the lifespan of the baby boomers,” Crowell said. “We think there will be buyers from around the country who come into this project.”

Also see "Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach plans massive redo," Palm Beach Post. 

I have been somewhat "down" on mixed use proposals like what the Coalition for Smart Growth wanted for the new Prince George's County hospital with the University of Maryland ("University of Maryland could seed a complementary biotechnology and medical education initiative in Prince George's County") because my experience doing some consulting in Pittsburgh was that hospitals pretty much are inward facing places--people don't have much time to eat off campus, shop, etc.  

According to my next door neighbor, a doctor, now, some hospitals even offer private dining facilities with meals prepared by a chef, for physicians.  Try to get them to go to a nearby diner...

However, I have written about the St. Anthony Hospital project in Chicago, which will have housing ("New St. Anthony Hospital to be part of $600 million development at former trade school site in Little Village," Chicago Sun-Times).

Finished affordable housing units for sale in Baltimore with a great interest rate and relatively low cost.

And how Bon Secours Hospital System in Baltimore has developed senior and affordable housing as a part of providing better living facilities for older patients ("Royal Farms, Y of Central Maryland join Saint Agnes' Gibbons Commons project," Baltimore Business Journal. Bon Secours Community Development).  

They have 800 units, plus 147 units in development.  That's a decent amount.

Separately, they are rehabilitating 20 vacant houses and will make them available for sale ("8 things to know: Health system revives 20 vacant West Baltimore homes," Baltimore Business Journal).  

Not a huge project, but given Baltimore's straits, a worthy one, and a risk where others seem to sit back.

Dunn House, Toronto.

And while slightly more oriented to the homeless, there are a couple initiatives in Toronto sparked by hospitals, where they provide housing to chronically homeless or health needy people, in large part because it's cheaper to treat them when they have housing, than when they don't ("This Toronto philanthropist has millions to spend. Here’s why she’s pouring it into the homelessness crisis," "These Toronto hospitals are quietly sheltering homeless patients themselves to avoid discharging them into the cold," "Jason Miles’ addiction cost $260,000 in emergency room, shelter and jail stays. A Toronto hospital’s radical solution: just give him a home," Toronto Star, "Toronto’s University Health Network Takes on the Housing Crisis," Azure).

More on longevity housing projects in Florida ("New condo concept blends real estate and wellness. The goal? Staying young," Sun-Sentinel). 

Florida already has become home to hundreds of medical providers and clinics that promote treatments to slow aging and combat aging-related conditions.

“There is so much interest in it right now,” said Zhe He, director of Florida State University’s Institute for Successful Longevity. Aging, he said, is becoming viewed as a potentially modifiable condition that could be improved with certain interventions. He said that loneliness or social isolation can contribute to aging, so this type of longevity-promoting community environment could in itself have health benefits.

Cromwell said about 300 units in Easton Street Capital’s luxury condominium building will be marketed for $5 million to $25 million each. “The pricing is going to be expensive, but we are also fortunate that the baby boomers have accumulated more wealth than any other generation, and now, as they’re 80, there are two things in their lives that are the most important,” Cromwell said. “One is family and two is living longer because they want to be with their family.”

To help fund the preventive care services, Cromwell said Easton Street Capital plans to sell longevity center memberships. “This allows the general public to come in to access some of these services to cover and drive down the costs to the residents.”

There is two projects, by THE WELL group.

In North Miami-Dade, a condominium with a similar concept is expected to open by the end of the month. THE WELL in Bay Harbor Islands has combined a wellness center with 66 condominium units and some workspace.

Kane Sarhan, co-founder and chief creative officer of THE WELL brand, said the wellness center in the condominium building has a full gym, a bathhouse with a steam room, an infrared sauna, and a cold plunge. There are treatment rooms for IV vitamin therapy and access to functional medicine doctors, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, skin care, acupuncture, physical therapy, and energy work. There is also an organic cafe and grocery store that offers meal programs, and a movement studio for yoga, meditation, and fitness classes.

... Further south in Coconut Grove, THE WELL is underway with a second location: a larger condominium building with 194 residences. The units are larger and more expensive, from $1.5 to more than $10 million, but the concept remains the same — residences combined with 13,000 square feet of fitness and wellness spaces. Like its other locations, the wellness center will include visits with functional medicine doctors, health coaches, nutritionists and massage therapists.

RN Melissa Shaw checked on an IV drip bag for client John Blazo.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

It will be interesting to see if the "new age-y medicine stuff" which isn't research backed in terms of health benefits will feed into the hospital centric projects ("People are spending hundreds of dollars at IV drip bars in Boston. Are they worth the hype?," Boston Globe).

I had a colonoscopy last week and in talking with the doctor before the procedure, I was talking about people and their belief in things like "detoxing" your liver (I have some liver damage because of the various medicines I take).  We joked about it, and he said he's thought about creating a clinic that caters to that thinking--he'd make a lot of money from it, but he said he couldn't do it ethically.

Health equity and health-housing for the less well off.  The former examples are more about the well off wanting to live longer.  

But why not have housing on hospital campuses for the less well off, as a way to better achieve high ratings when it comes to "social determinants of health"? ("Health equity devolves to cities and states as the federal government cuts taxes for the wealthy").  

Bon Secours, hopefully Focal Point, and various workforce housing initiatives show a way forward, so that such services and benefits may not be limited only to the wealthy.

Loss of business clustering/headquarters hurts secondary cities

 1.  "Boston has lost its financial services clout. Santander’s latest move is just another example," Boston Globe.

As recently as 25 years ago, Boston punched above its weight in financial services, with powerhouse mutual fund managers at almost every corner, a top 10 retail bank in FleetBoston, even a stock exchange of our very own. Now? That supremacy feels like it has slipped away. This is just the latest example.

... With each passing year, it seems, Boston’s Financial District sheds just a little more of the sector’s clout that gave the place its name. The big post-COVID hope for the district’s future hinges on real estate conversions: hotels, dorms, apartments, tourist attractions. Anything but new offices. (And many of the offices that remain are being taken over by the likes of tech firms such as SimpliSafe, DraftKings, and Klaviyo.)

(Baltimore too had at one time been a regional financial center with national heft.  The first private equity bank was founded there.  Some big mutual funds.  Insurance companies.  No more.)

Norfolk Southern headquarters, shown here in an aerial photo on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, sits squarely in the Midtown Atlanta landscape, reflected in its gleaming glass facade. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

2.  A merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroads likely means the serious diminishment of the importance of Atlanta to the new company--NS is based in Atlanta ("Atlanta is at the center of a railroad merger with big economic implications," "Coming soon to Midtown: A Union Pacific building?," Atlanta Journal-Constitution).  From the second article:

In addition to a Fortune 500 headquarters, the proposed plan would cost Atlanta jobs as operations consolidate in Nebraska, the application outlined. In total, more than half the Midtown headquarters’ management employee headcount would either relocate to Omaha or lose their jobs, the filing said.

... expects the company’s total Georgia headcount to remain at about 3,000 post-merger — versus its current 4,000.

3.  Corporate headquarters are leaving California.  Part of it is consolidation to bigger business clusters, such as Chevron from suburban San Francisco to Houston, but also conservative company owners like Elon Musk making political statements.  

Focus on new business development and growth.  The business columnist for the Orange County Register ("How can California survive the departures of big companies?") suggests the response should be to focus on the state's strength as a place for start ups and new businesses, some of which end up growing to be quite large.

4.  Another issue is the relocation of divisions from a corporate headquarters city.  For example, Starbucks, based in Seattle, has relocated its logistics division to Nashville, and appears about to sign a lease for space that could support up to 2,000 workers, far more than the size of the logistics group ("Starbucks reportedly eyes Nashville office large enough for hundreds," Seattle Times).

==========

Also see:

-- "A wrinkle on corporate headquarters: leaving the city as buildings age," 2026
-- "Clustering/agglomeration economies and revival of Southern California's space sector," 2025
-- "How the closure of a Pfizer research center in Ann Arbor, Michigan led to the development of a more robust and independent biotech sector," 2021
-- "Federal government research hub development initiative," 2023
-- "Universities and ancillary economic development (versus the anti-research agenda of the Trump Administration)," 2025
-- "Next Phase of Clustering of Business away from the Midwest," 2022
-- "Do tax incentives pay off? : Illinois; Tennessee; Rosslyn + "The Airport Access Factor"," 2017
-- "Corporate headquarters relocating to the center city: GE chooses Boston," 2016
-- "Businesses moving back to the center: not a universal trend," 2015 
-- "A lesson that seeing is believing: Panasonic's new building in Newark, NJ as an example, positive and negative, in businesses coming back to the city center," 2015
-- "Pennsylvania Avenue DC planning initiative," 2014
-- "Could bringing premier regionally headquartered business enterprises to the Pennsylvania Avenue Corridor be key to its renewal and revitalization?," 2014

Austerity versus rot: Government capacity

The austerity neoliberal policy introduced into the US by Ronald Reagan took a long while to show serious repercussions.  I argued that impact of reducing government workers and capacity didn't show so much because the US had overinvested in capacity previously.

The failure of FEMA in dealing with the post-Katrina aftermath in New Orleans under George W. Bush was to me, the first glaring example of the impact of austerity.  Although this was accentuated by the agency having poor leadership as well.  (Since then FEMA has performed badly under Republican administrations, specifically Trump, "A Post-Katrina Law Guards FEMA Resources. Why Hasn’t It Stopped Noem?," New York Times.)

Writing in The Atlantic, "U.S. Capabilities Are Showing Signs of Rot," military historian Phillips O'Brien makes the point that firing capable officials, and installing ideologically acceptable but less skilled people in their place creates "Rot."  And that Rot is now very apparent in the US military, as shown by the performance in the current War against Iran.

Also in DHS under Noem, ICE ("Leaked Documents Show a Border Patrol Remade in the Image of Gregory Bovino," American Prospect), and the FBI, "How Kash Patel Wrecked FBI’s Ability to Stop an Espionage Attack," New Republic, among others. Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence during war time is another example of rot.  Richard Grenell at the Kennedy Center, most of the Secretaries in the Cabinet, etc.

The first Trump Administration's response to covid is another example of rot.  This rot has been deepened by appointing anti-medicine people in high positions at the FDA and CDC, and with RFK Jr.--who believes his voice dysphonia was caused by the flu vaccine--the Secretary of HHS!

WRT to war, sure the US and Israel can pummel Iran at will, but expending million dollar missiles to shoot down $50,000 drones is a cost-benefit ratio that is unsustainable.  Trump, who treats Ukraine like s***, has reached out to them for technical advice on dealing with drones.  In effect, Ukraine has provided more aid in dollar value to the US than Trump's Administration has provided to Ukraine as it fights Russia's invasion of the country.  (Fortunately, the US still shares intelligence with Iran.  But in general it does everything in its power to promote Russia.)

From the article:

On multiple occasions after President Trump launched a massive air campaign against Iran this past weekend, retaliatory attacks by simply constructed Iranian drones have penetrated American defenses with serious results. For example, at least six U.S. soldiers died, and others were wounded, in an Iranian strike Sunday on a command facility in Kuwait. CNN reported that the Americans received no warning of the incoming drone. According to CBS News, the fortifications around the facility protected it from car bombs but not from a direct overhead strike. “We basically had no drone defeat capability,” an unnamed military official told the network.

... When a complex system starts to decay, the first signs are usually subtle. In the third century, after the Roman empire had reached its geographic maximum, literacy began to decline across Roman society. Education levels fell not only among soldiers, but among officers, aristocrats, and even emperors. The Roman army still looked formidable for years afterward. It had good equipment and could march well. Yet it was no longer as advanced relative to Rome’s enemies as it had once been. It fought as hard as ever, but less effectively.

... The U.S. military’s supremacy over foreign rivals is built on intensive training and the manipulation of advanced technology. By contrast, Hegseth has been stressing lethality and a warrior ethos instead of learning and reflection, to the point of blocking U.S. military personnel from taking courses at the most elite American universities. Yet the events of the past week underscore how shows of force alone may not defeat even militarily inferior enemies.

In Bahrain, a lone Iranian drone penetrated the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which oversees 2.5 million square miles of the world’s oceans. The incoming weapon destroyed an AN/TPS-59 radar unit intended to provide 360-degree air surveillance for U.S. forces. In a moment, Iranian equipment that cost perhaps $30,000 devastated a piece of U.S. military hardware estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

Another term for this is "capital shallowing" or disinvestment.  It's the opposite of "capital deepening" or investing ("Capital shallowing: the effect of disinvestment on government functioning").

How Paris Beat the Car

 Is an article in the Financial Times.  The author discusses the Paris Mayoral election in term of a pro-sustainable mobility versus car-centric dynamic.  The leading left candidate supports sustainable mobility, the conservative candidate wants to be more car friendly

The author sees car friendliness as a step backward, not just for Paris, but for how Paris enables other cities to adopt similarly aggressive policies--an example of how I say "world class cities don't just take, they give"--in that their willingness to be more boldly innovative enables other cities to maybe not be so bold, but to be innovative, with a successful example they can point to.  From the article:

The city’s transition away from the car, though fantastically chaotic, has become a global role model. Under mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris was “the most influential city in the world”, says Canadian urbanist Brent Toderian. Parisian car traffic fell by more than half between 2002 and 2023, while cycle lanes expanded sixfold. Bikes now make more than twice as many journeys as cars. Hidalgo, stepping down after 12 years, exulted: “The bike beat the car.”

First, pushing out cars improves life for most inhabitants. Paris has reduced traffic accidents, noise and air pollution. More than 300 “school streets” have been pedestrianised; kids play there after school. More than ever before, Paris is a sea of terraces: from April to October, cafés and restaurants can put tables on parking spaces outside their premises. Cities shouldn’t be storage spaces for heaps of metal.

Avenue Lamoricière in the 12th has introduced play areas © Joséphine Brueder/Ville de Paris

Lesson two is that banishing cars doesn’t hurt an urban economy. Retailers often worry it will deter their customers. Studies repeatedly show it doesn’t. More broadly, French Hidalgo-haters need to explain why Paris is in the global top four of business-focused rankings of cities...

Lesson three: car-free cities must offer people good alternative ways to travel. Paris itself does: it has world-class public transport plus cycle lanes. Only 28 per cent of Parisian households own a car. But Paris is a relatively small city of 2.1 million inhabitants. The five million people living outside the ring road in the “Grand Paris” metropole are less well served.

Lesson four: a city needs to control deliveries (typically made in Paris by double-parked vans). A study by MIT found that delaying deliveries by five minutes could cut the kilometres travelled by delivery vehicles by about 30 per cent, because that lets transporters bundle parcels. To do this, cities need to meet a bigger challenge: get a grip on tech firms operating in their streets, and get those firms’ data. Firms like Waze or Google often possess the deepest knowledge of a city’s workings, says Missika.

Lesson five: cities must discipline bikes. Aggressive cyclists terrorise pedestrians. Early motorists were just as wild until laws came in. Grégoire (himself once fined for cycling with earphones on) promises stricter policing.

Note, he doesn't mention the Velib' (Velo Liberation=Freedom) bike sharing program which predates Hidalgo and ushered in a more bicycle-centric mode in a big way--one that "gave permission" to cities across the globe to do something similar.  

Other actions built from this one, the same way that Portland has incrementally built its sustainable mobility infrastructure ("A summary of my impressions of Portland Oregon," 2005).  While that entry is 20 years old, Portland furthered incremental positive change with streetcar expansion, the transit-bike-walking only bridge, the Aerial Tram, promotion of EVs, etc.

The UK has adopted the Paris school street model; NYC also.

I think lessons two and three should be reversed.  You can't have a sustainable mobility dominated transportation policy if you don't have great transit, let alone infrastructure supportive of walking and biking.  I consider it a privilege to have lived in DC where this kind of mobility paradigm is doable.  I biked to work and for most of my errands for 30+ years.

Salt Lake is developing bike infrastructure to the point where the State Legislature is pissed, seeing it as making it hard for them to drive to and from the Capitol ("After a brush with death, a bill to give Utah more control over SLC streets awaits Cox’s signature. Here’s what it would do.," Salt Lake Tribune).  But I was thinking about this and what Salt Lake isn't doing, which is true for just about every jurisdiction in the US, is proactively building the base of every day cycling.

Salt Lake in its core is flat and very hilly (foothills) on its east and northeast sides.  Start by promoting the hell out of biking in the core where it's relatively easy to do ("Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 26 programs").

9 Line adjacent to Liberty Park, Salt Lake City.

The state law affects Sugar House Park, where I am on the board.  We want to replace the right most lane of 2100 South into an enhanced bike lane, which the city is doing by other parks.  And add bike share stations.  

And I would like to have national best practice bike parking in the form of Biceberg underground kiosks (although the water table is an issue in some areas of the park).

Davis Kennedy, a one time force in local community newspapers, dies at 87

-- "Davis Kennedy, former publisher who pioneered growth of Gazette papers, dies at 87," Baltimore Banner

Most recently, Davis ran the Current newspapers, which published a number of free weekly newspapers, with neighborhood-focused editions in Northwest DC, with Georgetown Current as the flagship, and for awhile a Capitol Hill Current.

I had a bunch of op eds in some of the papers.  Community newspapers at this scale were great at covering the kind of "minutiae" that would never make the big paper unless there was a scandal.  Community council meetings, more detailed coverage of City Council and Executive Branch dealings related to the neighborhood, real estate matters, business openings, and lots of ads. 

Sub-city newspapers rely on independent businesses as primary advertisers, car dealers, and at one time had a strong revenue base in classified ads.

With the shift of print media to online, and the decline of local businesses, sub-city newspaper revenues dried up, and the Current Newspapers shut down in 2019 ("DC's community newspaper weekly, the Northwest Current, goes out of business").

From the Post article:

Former managing editor Chris Kain recalls the early 2000s as boom times for the Current, with page counts reaching as high as 56 for standard issues and 84 for special editions.

Until the coverage of that, I didn't know he was responsible for the expansion of the Gazette Newspapers, which covered a good swath of Maryland with sub-county editions for Frederick, Carroll, Montgomery and Prince George's Counties--and the Fairfax County Times.

But it began with his purchase of the Gaithersburg Gazette in 1981.

When I lived briefly in PG County, I read it, and they had a newspaper box at Takoma Station--in DC but on the border with Montgomery County--so I read that edition too.  I tried to read multiple editions.

They also published an official paper intended for legal notices for Maryland State Government, distributed and giving them presence in Annapolis.  

There was a vending box outside Tastee Diner in Silver Spring, and I happened to pick up a copy in 2003 when they published a masterful investigative impact on Prince George's County crime and housing, "Shouldering the Burden," a response to the downsizing of DC's public housing complexes through the HOPEVI federal housing reconstruction program, which added market rate units at the expense of subsidized units.

The Washington Post acquired them, and as advertising dried up--the papers were distributed for free also--they figured they'd save money to use elsewhere by shutting them down in 2015.  But there was no new money available, the papers ran based on the revenue collected for advertising.  

These shut down in 2015, before Current Newspapers. These free weeklies marketed as a group to get advertising inserts from big box stores.  Kennedy said when the Gazette Newspapers shut down, advertisers stopped their insert program, because they wanted the multi-county coverage, not just DC.  He said this was the final financial blow to the Current, leading to the shutdown four years later.

Revisiting St. Louis City and County: The idea of a merger | Renewing the Gateway to the West

Could a consolidated City and County of St. Louis be the next urban success story?

This has been suggested by the new County Executive, Sam Page ("St. Louis County executive floats city rejoining county amid budget crisis," St. Louis Business Journal).  From the article:

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page is expected Thursday to call for St. Louis to consider reentering St. Louis County as a municipality, framing the idea as part of a broader push to consolidate services and respond to mounting budget pressures in both jurisdictions.

In prepared remarks for a press event Thursday, Page said county budget cuts and rising costs have forced service reductions and opened a need for a larger public discussion about how the city and county can sustain core services without new taxes.

“Faced with the Council’s budget cuts and forced to reduce services, one path forward is to find more ways to consolidate key city and county services,” Page's prepared remarks said. “The city could even re-enter the county as a municipality.” Page said the idea has “a lot of political support,” though he also described it as a proposal meant to spur public feedback rather than an immediate policy push.

Sadly this historic building--yes, seriously damaged but repairable--near Downtown St. Louis was demolished instead of preserved. 

“These are big ideas. They won’t happen this year. They will not happen while I am county executive,” he said. “But let’s look at the challenges the county and city are facing and tackle them together.”

Like Baltimore, the City and County are separate jurisdictions, and the City is not counted as part of the County.  

Like Baltimore, St. Louis is a once industrial and financial center that continues to shrink, with a population of about 280,000.  In 1950 the population was almost 3x, 860,000.  

It was the 8th largest city in America, without the County as part of its population.  The County had about 406,000 residents.  So today

Outmigration has been great for the suburbs ("The 16 Best Suburbs in St. Louis, MO," Gateway Realty Group), while St. Louis is  --and Gateway Realty Group is based in the suburbs, and "appropriates" the "Gateway to the West" tagline not to promote the city, but the suburbs.

Anheuser-Busch when it was very successful.  The decline in sales of mass produced beer has led the company to close three production facilities.  But not in St. Louis ("Brewery Closures Hit Anheuser-Busch Facilities In Three States," CRE Daily).

Broken by business mergers shifting headquarters to other states and countries.  St. Louis has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs because business consolidation.  

Once a major rail town, railroads in other cities became much bigger and St. Louis was relegated to a secondary position.  It was once one of the largest stockyards--meat producers--in the US.  No more.

May Company Department Stores became Macy's, newly headquartered in NYC.  Boatman's Bank became part of Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte.  Anheuser-Busch still produces beer, but is now a subsidiary of a company in Europe. 

Not only did those companies leave, the ancillary jobs that served those firm like supply and logistics, advertising production, etc., left also.  These days, St. Louis no longer has a vibrant Downtown, although it remains attractive with an array of historic buildings.

Assets.  The city has assets: Washington University at St. Louis and St. Louis University as a couple of anchors.  It lost its pro football and basketball teams long ago, but still has baseball and hockey.  The Ballpark Village development around the baseball stadium is a national best practice example of "sports and entertainment districts" alongside stadiums/arenas.  Plus there is the Gateway Arch National Park, the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers--still a source of barge freight traffic, an acceptable but needs to grow light rail transit system, etc.

The opportunity for repositioning and a reenergized revitalization program.  The County's population is just under 1 million.  

Together they would be about 1.3 million in population, fighting with Dallas to be the 9th or 10th largest city in the US.  It would move up from 82nd.  And would allow for a big repositioning.  (Note that the combined population today is barely more than the population in 1950.)

"St. Louis was near the site of the 1804 Lewis and Clark Expedition launch, and the city later served as a gathering place for pioneers collecting supplies for trips to the American West, earning the city the nickname 'Gateway to the West.'"

A few years ago, a similar merger effort failed.  It's complicated, would require votes by the city and county and probably the State Legislature.  But it would make "the City of St. Louis" larger, with the ability for a new position beyond shrinkage.

I wrote two entries outlining what I saw as an ideal revitalization plan.

-- "St. Louis: what would I recommend for a comprehensive revitalization program? | Part 1: Overview and Theoretical Foundations"
-- "St. Louis: what would I recommend for a comprehensive revitalization program? | Part 2: Implementation Approach and Levers"

I ranked city/county consolidation as number one.  While Indianapolis and Jacksonville are also combined city-counties, and have leveraged this to great success--Indianapolis has an advantage of having some large corporations still like Eli Lilly and is the state capital, a combined St. Louis would be larger than both.

It might not be enough to turn the city's trajectory but it's a start.  By consolidating services it should save some monies, and allow for a higher amount of bonding authority.

I would introduce consolidation along with the vision of OKC's Metropolitan Area Projects program: Oklahoma City.  MAPS comprises the large infrastructure projects that have helped redefine Oklahoma City as a major city on the western side of the Midwest.  

Fans watch an entertainer at Scissortail Park before Game 2 of the NBA basketball playoff series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the New Orleans Pelicans at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Photo: Bryan Terry/Daily Oklahoman.  

Over four tranches, plus two similar projects for the basketball team/arena that technically were separate from MAPS, projects include a streetcar, a pro basketball arena that landed the now Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team, which won last year's championship ("Big League City: Smaller Cities"), a water course on Oklahoma River that is internationally known, physical investments in schools (they needed to invest in programming too...), and a new community with a revitalized canal called Bricktown, among others.

Bricktown Canal.  Wikipedia photo by Kerwin Moore.

It's funded by an add on sales tax.  And the model of big deal infrastructure projects has also been used to fund major streetscape projects throughout Downtown ("Change isn't usually that simple: The repatterning of Oklahoma City's Downtown Streetscape").  

The process is discussed in the book Next American City: The Big Promise of Our Midsized Cities, and referenced in Big League City: Oklahoma City's Rise to the NBA, the story about landing the Thunder basketball team..

OKC is only the 20th largest city in the US, but it is fortunate to be a major city, secondary to Houston, in the oil and natural gas biz.

Conclusion.  A St. Louis MAPS program + Consolidation would be killer. 

The St. Louis brand once was strong, as indicated by the branded "City of St. Louis" streamliner passenger railroad train of the Wabash Railroad, which before multiple mergers, was based in St. Louis.

And at least political and business leaders in St. Louis have the vision and guts to bring up consolidation.  It's not really discussed much in Baltimore or Pittsburgh, two places that need that additional oomph from being larger.  Although compared to Baltimore, Pittsburgh is on a better trajectory ("Big Ideas for a Better Pittsburgh | and a point about world class cities").