Joel Kotkin

Urban Design critic

http://www.joelkotkin.com/

author, The City ISBN:0-679-60336-0 http://www.joelkotkin.com/Books.htm

lives in Los Angeles area, San Fernando Valley

in 2003 co-wrote (with Jonathan Bowles) Engine Failure about the Urban Development challenges facing NYC, esp post-WorldTradeCenter.

Apr'2013: Matthew Yglesias says Kotkin every six months writes some version of this exact same article in which he says media hipsters keep overhyping dense cities and downtowns while population growth evidence shows that most people move to sprawling sunbelt Suburb-s. Since he's written this article so many times and so many people have written the rebuttal to it, I'm sure he already knows what the rebuttal is and for some reasons doesn't care. But here goes. If people hate dense urban areas so much, why isn't Manhattan one of the cheapest places in America to buy a house?.. Luxury goods aren't unpopular, they're just expensive.