City Makers: American Futures
The people, organizations, and ideas reshaping the country. A journey piloted by James Fallows with Deborah Fallows.
Economic Life
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Victor Gruen Associates documentary, via YouTube An Incredible Time-Capsule View of One Downtown's Development
Can tearing up a noted artistic zone be a path to civic success? City leaders say yes, while some of their citizens say no.
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Ian Schick/AP The Dilemmas of Maker Culture
Thinking through the consequences of the proliferation of powerful tools and technologies
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John Tierney How Makerspaces Help Local Economies
New technologies like 3-D printers and laser cutters have boosted entrepreneurial activity in American communities.
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Creative Fresno California's Centers of Technology: Bay Area, L.A., San Diego, and ... Fresno?
How would you build a high-tech center in a vast farming zone? You might start by applying tech solutions to farming problems of water use and sustainability in all forms.
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James Fallows Welcome to American Futures 3.0
A new season of reports on a renewing America
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UC Davis and Esri Talking With Dan Richard About High-Speed Rail
The chairman of California's costly and controversial infrastructure project explains why (in his view) it actually will get built—and whether its champion, 77-year-old Governor Jerry Brown, is likely to be able to take a ride.
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OC Weekly On SOTU Day, Some Next Steps in Civic Life
A conference in Washington, a development across the country
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Calisphere California High-Speed Rail: The Collector's Edition
An index to the arguments pro and con about the most ambitious infrastructure project in the United States
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Wikimedia California High-Speed Rail: A Minor End, an Important Beginning
Who should get the benefit of the doubt when we consider the unknowable future?
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Wikimedia How to Create a Tech Startup Scene If You're Not in Silicon Valley
Pittsburgh's success provides important and surprising clues.
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Esri and UC Davis That Winning Bid for California's High-Speed Rail: Is It Suspiciously Low?
"No one should have the illusion that this phase is going to be completed for $1.2 billion. This is a political number." So says a critic of the surprisingly low successful bid. The rail system's chairman begs to differ.
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Wikimedia California High-Speed Rail: It's Happening
Three weeks from now, a groundbreaking ceremony on the most important infrastructure project now underway in the United States
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Tom Nguyen How the Arts Drove Pittsburgh's Revitalization
The role of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, founded by a wealthy band of visionaries 30 years ago, is central—but hard to replicate.
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Booker T. Washington, An Autobiography: The Story of ... The Past Is Never Past: Slave Labor in the West Virginia Salt Works
"It is not fair to the men who were forced to work in this industry to celebrate the salt without celebrating them as well."
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Photos Bob Coffield Another Look at Salt-Harvesting in West Virginia
Combine ancient ingredients with a modern sensibility, and a new business takes form.
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Photos by James Fallows Artisanal Salt From an Ancient Sea
A different kind of underground wealth is the source of a new business in West Virginia.
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BikePGH How Political Leadership Makes City Streets Bikeable
Pittsburgh's Mayor Bill Peduto shows what political will and determination can do.
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John Tierney What Millennials Love About Pittsburgh
'Land of Opportunity' has real meaning here.
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Riverlife How Green Riverfronts Transformed Pittsburgh
The City of Bridges revives the rivers that helped make it an economic powerhouse.
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All photos Deborah Fallows America's Tiniest Innovators: Report from Pittsburgh
Teaching technology and life lessons in an urban elementary school
