Joel Kotkin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joel Kotkin is a noted scholar on urban development, currently a fellow at Chapman University and the New America Foundation.

Kotkin attended the University of California, Berkeley. A native of New York City, he now lives in Los Angeles.

Kotkin has authored The City: A Global History and The New Geography, books about city development, and has studied various major cities, including Los Angeles. Previously he was a fellow at Pepperdine University and at the Milken Institute. In addition, he was a columnist for the New York Times, a business reporter at KTTV, earning a Golden Mic award for his reporting, and was West Coast editor for Inc. magazine.

Kotkin argues that the model of urban development as exemplified by pre-automobile cities such as New York City and Paris is outdated in many cases. Kotkin believes in a "back to basics" approach which stresses nurturing the middle class and families. He states that the current trend of growth of suburbs will be the dominant pattern around the world. [1] As a result, he believes rail transit is not always ideal for modern cities and suburbs.

[2].