About
Articles by Nicholas
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Universities and Hospitals Need to Kick Their Auto Addiction
Universities and Hospitals Need to Kick Their Auto Addiction
By Nicholas Bloom
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Is Suburban WFH Only for White-Collar Workers?
Is Suburban WFH Only for White-Collar Workers?
By Nicholas Bloom
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The Fiftieth Anniversary of Nixon's Housing Moratorium (1973): The Road to Tent Cities
The Fiftieth Anniversary of Nixon's Housing Moratorium (1973): The Road to Tent Cities
By Nicholas Bloom
Activity
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E-bikes are now the majority of *all* adult bike sales in countries like Germany, Belgium, & Holland. In Bloomberg CityLab, I spoke with philippe…
E-bikes are now the majority of *all* adult bike sales in countries like Germany, Belgium, & Holland. In Bloomberg CityLab, I spoke with philippe…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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“A 2021 study showed that prioritizing housing with services decreased homelessness by 88 percent. It's also a good investment. An…
“A 2021 study showed that prioritizing housing with services decreased homelessness by 88 percent. It's also a good investment. An…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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Hello Capital Boulevard in #Raleigh. Big ideas can yield big results. ‘Grand Boulevards’ Could Ease Housing Crisis
Hello Capital Boulevard in #Raleigh. Big ideas can yield big results. ‘Grand Boulevards’ Could Ease Housing Crisis
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
Experience & Education
Publications
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The Great American Transit Disaster: A Century of Austerity, Auto-Centric Planning, and White Flight
University of Chicago Press
A potent re-examination of America’s history of public disinvestment in mass transit.
Many a scholar and policy analyst has lamented American dependence on cars and the corresponding lack of federal investment in public transportation throughout the latter decades of the twentieth century. But as Nicholas Dagen Bloom shows in The Great American Transit Disaster, our transit networks are so bad for a very simple reason: we wanted it this way.
Focusing on Baltimore, Atlanta…A potent re-examination of America’s history of public disinvestment in mass transit.
Many a scholar and policy analyst has lamented American dependence on cars and the corresponding lack of federal investment in public transportation throughout the latter decades of the twentieth century. But as Nicholas Dagen Bloom shows in The Great American Transit Disaster, our transit networks are so bad for a very simple reason: we wanted it this way.
Focusing on Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and San Francisco, Bloom provides overwhelming evidence that transit disinvestment was a choice rather than destiny. He pinpoints three major factors that led to the decline of public transit in the United States: municipal austerity policies that denied most transit agencies the funding to sustain high-quality service; the encouragement of auto-centric planning; and white flight from dense city centers to far-flung suburbs. As Bloom makes clear, these local public policy decisions were not the product of a nefarious auto industry or any other grand conspiracy—all were widely supported by voters, who effectively shut out options for transit-friendly futures. With this book, Bloom seeks not only to dispel our accepted transit myths but hopefully to lay new tracks for today’s conversations about public transportation funding. -
How States Shaped Postwar America: State Government and Urban Power
University of Chicago Press
The history of public policy in postwar America tends to fixate on developments at the national level, overlooking the crucial work done by individual states in the 1960s and ’70s. In this book, Nicholas Dagen Bloom demonstrates the significant and enduring impact of activist states in five areas: urban planning and redevelopment, mass transit and highways, higher education, subsidized housing, and the environment. Bloom centers his story on the example set by New York governor Nelson…
The history of public policy in postwar America tends to fixate on developments at the national level, overlooking the crucial work done by individual states in the 1960s and ’70s. In this book, Nicholas Dagen Bloom demonstrates the significant and enduring impact of activist states in five areas: urban planning and redevelopment, mass transit and highways, higher education, subsidized housing, and the environment. Bloom centers his story on the example set by New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, whose aggressive initiatives on the pressing issues in that period inspired others and led to the establishment of long-lived state polices in an age of decreasing federal power. Metropolitan areas, for both better and worse, changed and operated differently because of sustained state action—How States Shaped Postwar America uncovers the scope of this largely untold story.
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Affordable Housing in New York: The People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City
Princeton University Press
How has America’s most expensive and progressive city helped its residents to live? Since the nineteenth century, the need for high-quality affordable housing has been one of New York City’s most urgent issues. Affordable Housing in New York explores the past, present, and future of the city’s pioneering efforts, from the 1920s to the major initiatives of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“Affordable Housing in New York is an engaging account of more than a century of efforts to provide New…
How has America’s most expensive and progressive city helped its residents to live? Since the nineteenth century, the need for high-quality affordable housing has been one of New York City’s most urgent issues. Affordable Housing in New York explores the past, present, and future of the city’s pioneering efforts, from the 1920s to the major initiatives of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“Affordable Housing in New York is an engaging account of more than a century of efforts to provide New Yorkers with below-market housing. The contributors are excellent and the extensive illustrations enhance the rich text.”—Lawrence Vale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Highlighting the important people, places, and policies that tell the story of below-market housing in New York, this is an authoritative history of the subject.”—Edward G. Goetz, University of MinnesotaOther authors -
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The Metropolitan Airport: JFK International and Modern New York
University of Pennsylvania Press
In The Metropolitan Airport, Nicholas Dagen Bloom chronicles the untold story of JFK International's complicated and turbulent relationship with the New York City metropolitan region. In spite of its reputation for snarled traffic, epic delays, endless construction, and abrasive employees, the airport was a key player in shifting patterns of labor, transportation, and residence; the airport both encouraged and benefited from the dispersion of population and economic activity to the outer…
In The Metropolitan Airport, Nicholas Dagen Bloom chronicles the untold story of JFK International's complicated and turbulent relationship with the New York City metropolitan region. In spite of its reputation for snarled traffic, epic delays, endless construction, and abrasive employees, the airport was a key player in shifting patterns of labor, transportation, and residence; the airport both encouraged and benefited from the dispersion of population and economic activity to the outer boroughs and suburbs. As Bloom shows, airports like JFK are vibrant parts of their cities and powerfully influence urban development. The Metropolitan Airport is an indispensable book for those who wish to understand the revolutionary impact of airports on the modern American city.
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Public Housing Myths: Perception, Reality, and Social Policy
Cornell University Press
Popular opinion holds that public housing is a failure; so what more needs to be said about seventy-five years of dashed hopes and destructive policies? Over the past decade, however, historians and social scientists have quietly exploded the common wisdom about public housing. Public Housing Myths pulls together these fresh perspectives and unexpected findings into a single volume to provide an updated, panoramic view of public housing.
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American Tourism: Constructing a National Tradition
Center for American Places/Columbia College Chicago
_American Tourism_ reveals the remarkable stories behind the places Americans love to visit. From Independence Hall to Las Vegas, and from Silver Springs to Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the collection pulls back the curtain on many of America’s most successful tourist attractions to reveal the carefully hidden transformations that turn places into destinations. Readers will discover that a powerful creative process, rather than chance, has separated the enduring attractions from the many…
_American Tourism_ reveals the remarkable stories behind the places Americans love to visit. From Independence Hall to Las Vegas, and from Silver Springs to Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the collection pulls back the curtain on many of America’s most successful tourist attractions to reveal the carefully hidden transformations that turn places into destinations. Readers will discover that a powerful creative process, rather than chance, has separated the enduring attractions from the many failures that litter the highways and byways of tourism history.
Written by leading academic and public historians, writers, and tourism professionals, the thirty-five lively, illustrated essays that comprise this volume illuminate the visionaries who created such iconic destinations and the business models that sustained them. Covering issues of design, culture, and impact, _American Tourism_ will appeal to scholars, tourism professionals, and armchair travelers alike.Other authorsSee publication -
Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century
University of Pennsylvania Press
When it comes to large-scale public housing in the United States, the consensus for the past decades has been to let the wrecking balls fly. The demolition of infamous projects, such as Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis and the towers of Cabrini-Green in Chicago, represents to most Americans the fate of all public housing. Yet one notable exception to this national tragedy remains.
The New York City Housing Authority, America's largest public housing manager, still maintains over 400,000 tenants in…When it comes to large-scale public housing in the United States, the consensus for the past decades has been to let the wrecking balls fly. The demolition of infamous projects, such as Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis and the towers of Cabrini-Green in Chicago, represents to most Americans the fate of all public housing. Yet one notable exception to this national tragedy remains.
The New York City Housing Authority, America's largest public housing manager, still maintains over 400,000 tenants in its vast and well-run high-rise projects. While by no means utopian, New York City's public housing remains an acceptable and affordable option.
The story of New York's success where so many other housing authorities faltered has been ignored for too long. Public Housing That Worked shows how New York's administrators, beginning in the 1930s, developed a rigorous system of public housing management that weathered a variety of social and political challenges. A key element in the long-term viability of New York's public housing has been the constant search for better methods in fields such as tenant selection, policing, renovation, community affairs, and landscape design.
Nicholas Dagen Bloom presents the achievements that contradict the common wisdom that public housing projects are inherently unmanageable. By focusing on what worked, rather than on the conventional history of failure and blame, Bloom provides useful models for addressing the current crisis in affordable urban housing. Public Housing That Worked is essential reading for practitioners and scholars in the areas of public policy, urban history, planning, criminal justice, affordable housing management, social work, and urban affairs. -
Adventures into Mexico: American Tourism beyond the Border
Rowman and Littlefield, Jaguar Series on Latin America
Moving beyond the tequila-soaked clichés of Mexican tourism, this multifaceted book explores the influence and experiences of Americans in Mexico since World War II. The authors trace Mexico's growing role as an important refuge for Americans seeking not only sun and fun but also an alternative cultural and social model. And on the other side of the border, Mexican citizens and politicians have responded in creative and unexpected ways to growing numbers of migrants from their northern…
Moving beyond the tequila-soaked clichés of Mexican tourism, this multifaceted book explores the influence and experiences of Americans in Mexico since World War II. The authors trace Mexico's growing role as an important refuge for Americans seeking not only sun and fun but also an alternative cultural and social model. And on the other side of the border, Mexican citizens and politicians have responded in creative and unexpected ways to growing numbers of migrants from their northern neighbor.
Delving into the rich and varied worlds of political exiles, students, art dealers, retiree/artist colonies, and tourist zones, this work illustrates why large numbers of Americans have been irresistibly drawn to Mexico for the past sixty years. Specialists in literature, anthropology, history, and geography bring their unique perspectives to the stories of both short- and long-term migrants. Together their essays illuminate the complex goals and impact of American tourism, offering a fascinating interpretation to all those interested in modern Mexican history, border studies, tourism, and retirement in Mexico.
Contributions by: Diana Anhalt, Dina M. Berger, Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Michael Chibnik, Drewey Wayne Gunn, Janet Henshall Momsen, Rebecca M. Schreiber, Rebecca Torres, David Truly, and Richard W. Wilkie -
Merchant of Illusion: James Rouse: America's Salesman of the Businessman's Utopia
Ohio State University Press
"James Rouse was one of the most significant figures in American urban development during the second half of the twentieth century and deserves the attention devoted to him here. Merchant of Illusion fills a major gap in urban scholarship, and will attract wide attention among urbanists in history, political science, sociology, and planning." —Jon Teaford, Purdue University
Merchant of Illusion revisits the intriguing projects and ideas of famed developer James Rouse. Known mainly for his…"James Rouse was one of the most significant figures in American urban development during the second half of the twentieth century and deserves the attention devoted to him here. Merchant of Illusion fills a major gap in urban scholarship, and will attract wide attention among urbanists in history, political science, sociology, and planning." —Jon Teaford, Purdue University
Merchant of Illusion revisits the intriguing projects and ideas of famed developer James Rouse. Known mainly for his "Festival Marketplaces" in Boston and Baltimore, Rouse actually played a more important role in redefining private sector urban policy as the leading force in American public life. He argued persuasively—using diverse means of communication—that the private sector, with only limited state aid, had the ability to create a nearly ideal urban order. The shopping centers, planned communities, downtown redevelopment projects, community development corporations and festival marketplaces he helped pioneer, develop, and publicize became America’s compelling answer to state-dominated urbanism in the Soviet Union and social democratic Europe.
Although Rouse occasionally acknowledged the limitations of his privatized brand of public policy, and the continuing urban crisis, his own critical insights were overshadowed by his high-profile projects. Bloom examines Rouse’s major spheres of activities, both their strengths and weaknesses, in thematic chapters. Merchant of Illusion, by evaluating Rouse’s activities in the context of cold war ideology and competition, provides a much needed critical treatment of the rise of private sector urbanism in the United States. For this reason and many others it will be of great interest to urban and cultural historians, political scientists, sociologists, planners and the general public with an interest in urban affairs.
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Suburban Alchemy: 1960S New Towns and the Transformation of the American Dream
Ohio State University Press
In Suburban Alchemy: 1960s New Towns and the Transformation of the American Dream, Nicholas Dagen Bloom examines the "new town" movement of the 1960s, which sought to transform the physical and social environments of American suburbs by showing that idealism could be profitable.
Bloom offers case studies of three of the movement's more famous examples—Reston, Virginia; Columbia, Maryland; and Irvine, California—to flesh out his historical account. In each case, innovative planners mixed land…In Suburban Alchemy: 1960s New Towns and the Transformation of the American Dream, Nicholas Dagen Bloom examines the "new town" movement of the 1960s, which sought to transform the physical and social environments of American suburbs by showing that idealism could be profitable.
Bloom offers case studies of three of the movement's more famous examples—Reston, Virginia; Columbia, Maryland; and Irvine, California—to flesh out his historical account. In each case, innovative planners mixed land uses and housing types; refined architectural, graphic, and landscape design; offered well-defined village and town centers; and pioneered institutional planning. As Bloom demonstrates, these efforts did not uniformly succeed, and attempts to reshape community life through design notably faltered. However, despite frequent disappointments and compromises, the residents have kept the new town ideals alive for over four decades and produced a vital form of suburban community that is far more complicated and interesting than the early vision promoted by the town planners. Lively chapters illustrate efforts in local politics, civic spirit, social and racial integration, feminist innovations, and cultural sponsorship.
Suburban Alchemy should be of interest to scholars of U.S. urban history, planning history, and community development, as well as the general reader interested in the development of alternative communities in the United States.
More activity by Nicholas
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'The overall cooling effect of a single, mature tree on average is equivalent to 10 air conditioning units running for 20 hours a day.' - Trees for…
'The overall cooling effect of a single, mature tree on average is equivalent to 10 air conditioning units running for 20 hours a day.' - Trees for…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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Impact in Focus: In honor of CPC’s 50th year, and in celebration of completing renovations to 16 Manhattan NYCHA developments, we’re shining the…
Impact in Focus: In honor of CPC’s 50th year, and in celebration of completing renovations to 16 Manhattan NYCHA developments, we’re shining the…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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☀️School’s out for summer! ☀️ Another successful year of learning in #NYC and at the New York Transit Museum! We are so proud to have hosted over…
☀️School’s out for summer! ☀️ Another successful year of learning in #NYC and at the New York Transit Museum! We are so proud to have hosted over…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️Macaulay showing the love at NYC Pride 2024! #nycpride #cunypride
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️Macaulay showing the love at NYC Pride 2024! #nycpride #cunypride
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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Finished Andrew Kahrl's excellent book! Highly recommend! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Bridges the history of expropriation of Black-owned land/property with the…
Finished Andrew Kahrl's excellent book! Highly recommend! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Bridges the history of expropriation of Black-owned land/property with the…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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Today we announced the closing on the financing for Sack Wern Houses, a $275 million PACT project! This closing will bring comprehensive renovations…
Today we announced the closing on the financing for Sack Wern Houses, a $275 million PACT project! This closing will bring comprehensive renovations…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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More residents are choosing urban living! According to Bloomberg, America’s downtowns have recovered to 111% of pre-Covid levels. This isn't just a…
More residents are choosing urban living! According to Bloomberg, America’s downtowns have recovered to 111% of pre-Covid levels. This isn't just a…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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Crain’s New York editorial board calls for #affordablehousing in every NYC neighborhood referencing NYHC’s analysis in NYC Housing Tracker report…
Crain’s New York editorial board calls for #affordablehousing in every NYC neighborhood referencing NYHC’s analysis in NYC Housing Tracker report…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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I’m happy to share that I’ve been appointed an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at MIT, starting…
I’m happy to share that I’ve been appointed an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at MIT, starting…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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Grateful to this administration for yesterday’s budget announcement with $2 billion in new funding for #affordablehousing and a portion specifically…
Grateful to this administration for yesterday’s budget announcement with $2 billion in new funding for #affordablehousing and a portion specifically…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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I’m proud to work for a firm that makes me feel so comfortable sharing my identity in the workplace. Working openly allows me to think openly and…
I’m proud to work for a firm that makes me feel so comfortable sharing my identity in the workplace. Working openly allows me to think openly and…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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Do you know why the Empire State Building has a mooring mast at the top?
Do you know why the Empire State Building has a mooring mast at the top?
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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Hiring alert! The City of Chicago Department of Environment is now hiring an Administrative Manager to join our growing team. Learn more about the…
Hiring alert! The City of Chicago Department of Environment is now hiring an Administrative Manager to join our growing team. Learn more about the…
Liked by Nicholas Bloom
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