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The Bohemian-Gay Index
Richard Florida's latest pseudo-scientific conceit adds Regional Income, Regional Amenity Premium and Regional Openness Premium together to determine Regional Housing Value. Of course, so long as he gets to make up the values he's "measuring," it's easy to ensure they add up to just the results he's after. He's also casting his eye on the Patti Smith effect. I can't wait to see how he determines just how hard different people rock, and what equation he gins up to demonstrate the effect of said rocking on various urban economies.

—In an incredibly credulous dispatch, the AP asks Are Gayborhoods Vanishing?
The cake-taking quote, and there are several to choose from, comes from a planner in San Francisco's Castro district who explains that "But if you took [Chinatown and Japantown] away, you would still have China and Japan. If the Castro goes away as a gay neighborhood, there is nowhere else."

—Our latest featured essay has Howard Husock casting his eye on New Zealand, The Small San Francisco of the Southern Hemisphere.

—Immigration Propels Canadian Population Growth
With a fertility rate of 1.5 (well below replacement, and well below America's 2.0 rate), immigration may be the nation's only source of population growth by 2030. The latest census also shows population growth "is largely concentrated in a handful of urban areas that attract most of the country's newcomers." And most of that growth is in the suburbs, not the cities proper.

—The Penguins stay in Pittsburgh
After 41 years, two bankruptcies and two Stanley Cups, the team finds a way to stay in a city that could ill afford the symbolism of their leaving, but had to pay nearly $300 million for a new stadium to fend off aggressive suitor-cities Kansas City and Las Vegas .

—No and Hell No
Following up on Dominic Moreo's report from Seattle, voters in a non-binding but politically significant referendum there have shot down both proposals for replacing a worn-down viaduct, marking the latest non-happening in a city that's been failing to put together a light rail system for 25 years.