The Big Picture

Exploring the trends shaping our modern cities through a curated collection of articles and op-eds

The Millennial Metric Q&A: Kourtney Garrett (Dallas, TX)

Jun 05, 2020

Kourtny Garrett serves as President & CEO of Downtown Dallas, Inc. and has been dedicated to the revitalization of Downtown Dallas in various roles since 2002. With a resume spanning 15 years in the development of livable communities, her passion for strong and kinetic city centers carries from Dallas to abroad. Her primary focus of…

The Millennial Effect: Reshaping Real Estate for America’s Largest Generation

Jun 05, 2020

Millennials, members of the diverse generation currently making up nearly a quarter of the U.S. population, are reshaping American society and, with it, commercial real estate. The generation is delaying many of the traditional life stages of young adulthood that were commonplace for baby boomers, including marriage in your twenties and the subsequent purchase of…

Millennial Preferences in the 2020s

Jun 05, 2020

More than 9/11 or the Great Recession, COVID-19 and the associated economic downturn will shape Millennial preferences for years to come. Their intensive use of virtual media necessitated by the health risks may become more ingrained. The counter narrative is that the social distancing imposed by the pandemic will increase their desire for face-to-face communication…

A Rebounding Millennial Wave

Jun 05, 2020

Large cities of North America have followed a rollercoaster of growth and prosperity for more than 100 years. Decline of their urban cores after 1950 seemed to go hand-in-hand with the rise of the suburbs, but all that reversed—an inversion–with the new millennium. Now economic growth, rising rents and young adults were shifting toward the…

How Millennials are Retrofitting North American Suburbs

Jun 05, 2020

In 2000, the leading edge of the Millennial generation was still in high school, the youngest in diapers. In 2020, Millennials comprise a big chunk of the American workforce, and are reflective of profoundly diversified suburban demographics. Over these twenty years, I’ve been researching and writing about why it’s high time to “retrofit” the suburbanized…

Why Millennial Families and Cities Need Each Other

Jun 05, 2020

The Millennial Family 82% of babies born today are children of Millennials, but you probably wouldn’t think that if you lived in New York City. Millennials who forgo the suburbs and stay in the city are delaying having children, or having fewer children, due to mounting student debt and the general unaffordability of raising a…

The Increasing Allure of the “Metroburb”

Jun 05, 2020

Millennials have grown up. Many people retain a misperception around this demographic’s current age, but the reality is that they are now in their mid-to-late 30s and are settling into their adult lives. As they start to have children and pursue homeownership, millennials are now increasingly turning to suburban locales that offer more space and…

Millennial Migration

Jun 05, 2020

As the Millennial generation comes of age, their preferences, which tend to diverge from those of their baby boomer parents, present cities with an opportunity to fundamentally rethink urban and suburban life. In this edition of the Big Picture, we will explore how policymakers, developers, and more are placing bets and working feverishly to retain…

Will COVID-19 Make Us Think of Cities Differently?

Mar 20, 2020

SARS-CoV-2, or ‘COVID-19’, is quite a formidable foe. Easily transmissible, low-mortality rate, the flu-like virus spread across national borders and social strata with little discrimination. Cities and urban thinking might be fundamentally affected by the present reality of quarantine, social distancing, and global dis-connection. Will all of this drive a change in the way we…

Open Letter to Citymakers: 10 Key Implications of the COVID-19

Mar 19, 2020

On January 21st, I traveled from Shanghai, my adopted home, via a one-day layover in Los Angeles, on my way to spend several weeks in Boston for some non-critical medical treatments. The next day, the first case of Coronavirus hit Shanghai. Four days later, my husband, who owns an import-export business joined me in the…

The City At Stake

Mar 19, 2020

Public Health and Vital Budget were two concepts at the core of Patrick Geddes’ vision for a thriving city in his seminal 1910 essay “Cities in Evolution”. He was right, and this abrupt lockdown we are now experiencing forces us to reconsider both of them as priorities in the development of our cities. For twenty…