Original Reporting

Is this any way to run a railroad?
Original Reporting | By Greg Marx | Environment, Transportation, Urban Policy
With budget battles looming in an era of divided government, the fate of the federal transportation bill will be one of the key questions for the next Congress. Alongside the funding debate, though, the U.S. faces another fundamental challenge: since the interstate era, there's been no real consensus about what the goals of the national transportation project should be. The next national network will be the most complex one America has ever built: are our institutions up to the task? More
Priced out of the American dream?
Original Reporting | By Greg Marx | Immigration
America’s legal immigration process, long notorious for being slow, inefficient, and inconsistent, has been making gains in recent years. But those improvements have come at a real cost — the fees charged to immigrants and naturalized citizens went up sharply in 2007, and many are rising again this fall. The trend raises the question: to what extent should applicants bear the lion's share of the cost of the legal immigration process? For that matter, should U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that reviews the applications, be fee-funded at all? More
Integrated effort to fight housing, school barriers?
Original Reporting | By Greg Marx | Education, Housing
When the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week announced $100 million in grants to promote sustainable regional planning, it was a big day for the Obama Administration’s flagship effort to build a “geography of opportunity.” A closer look, though, shows outstanding questions about what role racial and economic integration play in the new metropolitan agenda — and about how hard the federal government is prepared to push for those goals when it encounters local resistance. More
Data viz tools show increasing big bank share over time
Original Reporting | By Mike Alberti | Banking
Remapping Debate translates 18 years of FDIC data into interactive form; top 5 banks viewable within and across sectors. More
Preparation for active citizenship not on education agenda
Original Reporting | By Diana Jean Schemo | Education
As various education debates rage, schooling in the tools of democracy not part of national discussion. More
Street view: what's missing from press coverage?
Original Reporting | By Mike Alberti, By Adam Kroopnick | Media
Remapping Debate recently visited Union Square Park in New York to sample what some people had to say about the state of press coverage today. More
Coming Boomer pension cuts: what impact on economy?
Original Reporting | By Diana Jean Schemo | Economy, Pensions
With 78 million Baby Boomers heading into retirement over the next 20-plus years, how will cuts in guaranteed monthly pension benefits to both public and private sector workers — in addition to those that have already been implemented — affect the ability of future retirees to engage in economy-sustaining consumer spending? More
Can the anti-inflation reflex be tamed?
Original Reporting | By Greg Marx | Economy, Monetary Policy, Unemployment
With the economy stalled and unemployment stuck near 10 percent, an increasingly broad range of economists, from small-government libertarians to those on the center-left, has argued that higher inflation could be key to creating jobs. Their argument echoes the analysis offered by some top officials at the Federal Reserve — but can the central bank shake off old habits and craft policy built to meet current circumstances? More

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