The Wall Street Journal recently published an article called, "Atlanta's Growth Streak Has Come to an End." It's behind a paywall, though, so I don't actually know what it says. But Paul Krugman did write about it, here, and I do know that one of the key statistics that you should know is this: For the first time since the data was collected, net domestic migration to Atlanta has turned slightly negative.
Overall, the metro area is still growing because of natural births and international migration, but it's still noteworthy that more Americans are leaving Atlanta than moving there. Because up until recently, Atlanta was a high-growth metro region. It's an important logistics hub and it has had an elastic housing supply model. That is, it used suburban sprawl to keep home prices in check.
But that is starting to change. Housing supply is dropping and traffic congestion has become one of the worst in the US. Paul Krugman hypothesizes that this is an example of "the limits of sprawl." And I would agree with this. Sprawling cities have the advantage of being able to grow quickly when they're relatively small. But eventually, they reach a population and geographic limit where the model starts to fail.
The Atlanta urban region is massive. As defined by the US Census Bureau, it is 6,612.4 km2. The only urban region that is bigger is the one around New York City. Los Angeles — which might come to mind as another large car-oriented metro region — is smaller. It's about 4,239.4 km2, but with ~2.4x the population of Atlanta.
It may also surprise you to learn that Los Angeles is remarkably dense. When looking at the entire built-up urban area, it's the densest in the US at 2,886.6 people per km2; whereas Atlanta is one of the least dense big city regions at 771.3 people per km2. This figure really stands out when you compare it to its peers, which means it's going to be that much harder for it to overcome the limits of sprawl.
Density is the unlock that allows you to get people onto trains.
One traditional metric for measuring the performance of a company is revenue per employee. And in a knowledge-based economy, this makes a lot of sense. Human capital is often the biggest expense. But as we enter the age of AI, this is now being called into question.
Yesterday morning, Neat B and I were up at Friday Harbour messing about on jet skis with some friends. It was a lot of fun. It's a good little day trip if you're ever looking for something to do in the summer.
I think that the developers of Friday Harbour have done a wonderful job creating a new waterfront resort and creating an alternative to traditional cottages. I know a bunch of people who have opted for a place here instead. It's closer to Toronto, you don't have the same upkeep, and you get to enjoy urban amenities while still feeling like you're "up north."
Yesterday I also noticed that the most recent phase — which is just finishing up construction — looks like this:
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article called, "Atlanta's Growth Streak Has Come to an End." It's behind a paywall, though, so I don't actually know what it says. But Paul Krugman did write about it, here, and I do know that one of the key statistics that you should know is this: For the first time since the data was collected, net domestic migration to Atlanta has turned slightly negative.
Overall, the metro area is still growing because of natural births and international migration, but it's still noteworthy that more Americans are leaving Atlanta than moving there. Because up until recently, Atlanta was a high-growth metro region. It's an important logistics hub and it has had an elastic housing supply model. That is, it used suburban sprawl to keep home prices in check.
But that is starting to change. Housing supply is dropping and traffic congestion has become one of the worst in the US. Paul Krugman hypothesizes that this is an example of "the limits of sprawl." And I would agree with this. Sprawling cities have the advantage of being able to grow quickly when they're relatively small. But eventually, they reach a population and geographic limit where the model starts to fail.
The Atlanta urban region is massive. As defined by the US Census Bureau, it is 6,612.4 km2. The only urban region that is bigger is the one around New York City. Los Angeles — which might come to mind as another large car-oriented metro region — is smaller. It's about 4,239.4 km2, but with ~2.4x the population of Atlanta.
It may also surprise you to learn that Los Angeles is remarkably dense. When looking at the entire built-up urban area, it's the densest in the US at 2,886.6 people per km2; whereas Atlanta is one of the least dense big city regions at 771.3 people per km2. This figure really stands out when you compare it to its peers, which means it's going to be that much harder for it to overcome the limits of sprawl.
Density is the unlock that allows you to get people onto trains.
One traditional metric for measuring the performance of a company is revenue per employee. And in a knowledge-based economy, this makes a lot of sense. Human capital is often the biggest expense. But as we enter the age of AI, this is now being called into question.
Yesterday morning, Neat B and I were up at Friday Harbour messing about on jet skis with some friends. It was a lot of fun. It's a good little day trip if you're ever looking for something to do in the summer.
I think that the developers of Friday Harbour have done a wonderful job creating a new waterfront resort and creating an alternative to traditional cottages. I know a bunch of people who have opted for a place here instead. It's closer to Toronto, you don't have the same upkeep, and you get to enjoy urban amenities while still feeling like you're "up north."
Yesterday I also noticed that the most recent phase — which is just finishing up construction — looks like this:
Sara Menker has, for example, proposed a new metric: revenue per MWh. (See above comparing Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft.) This is meant to reflect the fact that, as AI infrastructure scales, it is likely that operating costs in the future will be dominated by electricity consumption, rather than employee count.
Naturally, this should make you wonder about a few things, namely: How will we manage the inequality that might (or will) arise from the decoupling of revenues from employees? And how are we going to sustainability supply this rapidly growing need for more and more electricity?
Albert Wenger argues that the comparable metric for nations will be GDP per GWh. This means that, to win, you're going to want cheap electricity. And as I understand it, the cheapest sources are wind, solar, and hydropower. This bodes well for Canada given that we dominate in the latter.
Cover photo by Thomas Reaubourg on Unsplash
Never before have I seen balcony guard glass like this — at least not here in the Toronto region. It is some kind of iridescent laminated glass, which changes color depending on the light and the viewing perspective. I would imagine that it also offers some degree of privacy benefits, because it got fairly opaque from some angles.
But the primary feature is that it just looks cool. And I think more projects should have fun like this. There's no need to be afraid of color.
What do you think?
Sara Menker has, for example, proposed a new metric: revenue per MWh. (See above comparing Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft.) This is meant to reflect the fact that, as AI infrastructure scales, it is likely that operating costs in the future will be dominated by electricity consumption, rather than employee count.
Naturally, this should make you wonder about a few things, namely: How will we manage the inequality that might (or will) arise from the decoupling of revenues from employees? And how are we going to sustainability supply this rapidly growing need for more and more electricity?
Albert Wenger argues that the comparable metric for nations will be GDP per GWh. This means that, to win, you're going to want cheap electricity. And as I understand it, the cheapest sources are wind, solar, and hydropower. This bodes well for Canada given that we dominate in the latter.
Cover photo by Thomas Reaubourg on Unsplash
Never before have I seen balcony guard glass like this — at least not here in the Toronto region. It is some kind of iridescent laminated glass, which changes color depending on the light and the viewing perspective. I would imagine that it also offers some degree of privacy benefits, because it got fairly opaque from some angles.
But the primary feature is that it just looks cool. And I think more projects should have fun like this. There's no need to be afraid of color.
What do you think?
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