15 Quotes by Joel Kotkin

People want to know whether a place is a credible first-world city. What they found in New Orleans was that underneath the gloss and facade of a first-world tourist attraction was a third-world reality. It will take a lot of work to erase that view.

Growth is itself a spur. If you're a dentist, there are more teeth to fill. If you're an accountant, there are more taxes to examine.

Some of those industries have gone away, but some have migrated to other more energetic places. Look at Houston. It was nothing at the start of the 20th century, (but) now it has the port business and the energy industry that used to belong to New Orleans.

My theory is Americans are villagers, basically. We want the private space, the single-family house. But we want also the public space.

You have a declining urban core (in Baltimore) and a fairly buoyant state. And that's tough if you're the captain of what can be seen as a sinking ship, ... He's dealt a fairly hard hand.

You now have options in suburbia that never existed before. If you're nomadic in the tech world, you're really moving from one suburb to another.

There's always going to be a Mardi Gras - at least, a lot of Americans hope there will always be. But that doesn't mean that has to be the only reason for your economic existence.

There's always going to be a Mardi Gras -- at least, a lot of Americans hope there will always be, ... But that doesn't mean that has to be the only reason for your economic existence.

It's about creating a sense of identity which the suburbs currently don't have.