Joel Kotkin

Who is Joel Kotkin?

Joel Kotkin is a professor of urban development, currently a fellow at Chapman University in Orange, California, and the Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank. His writing on trends in urban and suburban America are regularly sponsored and promoted by the Cato Institute. Kotkin attended the University of California, Berkeley. A native of New York City, he now lives in Los Angeles.

Kotkin is the author of The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, published in February 2010 by Penguin Press. The book explores how Kotkin believes the nation will evolve in the next four decades. He has also 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 the New America Foundation, 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argues that the model of urban development as exemplified by pre-automobile cities such as New York City and Paris is outdated in many cases.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 with traditional suburban development. He states that the current trend of growth of suburbs will be the dominant pattern around the world. As a result, one of his arguments is that rail transit is not always ideal for modern cities and suburbs.