Blog Posts
Insight: The Geography of Manufacturing in Utah
By: Max Backlund Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. […]
Insight: Utah’s Seasonal Employee Housing Conundrum
By: Jennifer Leaver Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Across the West, resort and recreation towns are no strangers to employee housing availability and affordability problems—but are these problems worsening? […]
Insight: What Goes Up Must Come Down? The Muddled Post-Pandemic Inflation Picture
By: Phil Dean Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. More than any time in recent memory, inflation is a hotly debated economic topic. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) July price change as measured by the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows a 5.3% year-over-year overall increase (5.4% when not seasonally adjusted). […]
Insight: Public-Private Partnerships for Public Purpose
By: Meredith King Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. […]
Insight: New decennial data for Utah cities and counties
By: Mallory Bateman The release of the redistricting data (or PL 94 file) by the Census Bureau on August 12 provided a new set of insights from the 2020 enumeration. This release includes data on race, Hispanic or Latino origin, and housing from the state level to the smallest Census geography (block). […]
Insight: Access New Community Data with the Census 2020 Utah Redistricting Data Dashboard
By: Eric Albers and Emily Harris After months of anxiously waiting, we have finally received the next round of Census 2020 results! On August 12th, the Census Bureau released its third phase of Census 2020 data products: the redistricting data. This data’s primary purpose is redistricting, so while it goes down to the smallest geographic level possible, it does not have the full level of demographic detail that later data releases will have. Additionally, the initial data format is not particularly user-friendly, so cleaning, aggregation, and analysis is required. […]
Insight: Utah’s Uninsured Population May Look Different After the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Ends
By: Laura Summers Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. One thought that struck me as I was preparing for a recent meeting was how the characteristics of Utah’s uninsured population may have changed over the last year and a half―and how we don’t yet know what Utah’s uninsured population will look like until the public health emergency ends. This is due to several federal[...]
Insight: Public Asset Development in Utah
By: Max Backlund and Dejan Eskic Note: The opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Public finance is one of those topics that few people ever plan to research, but here we are writing a blog post about it. And, here you are reading a blog post about it. So, before you read too far along and become enraptured by the idea of increasing non-tax revenues, let’s[...]
Insight: The Little Engine that Could
By: Thomas Holst Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Shareholder pressure is forcing a global oil and gas company to reduce its carbon footprint. […]
Insight: Economic Development Needs to Address Wealth Generation
By: Max Backlund Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. In a previous blog post I outlined some of the challenges Utah faces if we want to use economic development to address issues like upward mobility and the American Dream. The decline of the American Dream is well documented, and based in two trends: lower growth rates for Gross Domestic Product and greater inequality in[...]