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Lost Angeles is the worst traffic city in America. 'Carmaggedon' is no joke. Drivers in the worst traffic city wasted an average of 63.3 hours in traffic over the last year. Congrats to Los Angeles, although worst traffic city might not be the most coveted of titles.

As a real estate agent in the struggling San Francisco Bay city of Richmond, Zina Hall is well acquainted with all ways of helping troubled homeowners. Hall spent months this autumn working with an elderly widow with a medical condition who was struggling to make payments. Her best option, Hall believed, was a short sale, and they began that laborious process. But after several weeks, the homeowner disappeared, then called Hall to say she wanted to pull out and use a new program by the city. "They have eminent domain and it's going to help me," Hall recalled her saying....

A federal judge granted Detroit’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing earlier this month, making it the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Bankruptcy is frequently the product of a history of problems. The unrelenting decline in manufacturing and the more recent collapse of the housing market resulted in a shrinking population, rampant unemployment and high debt, which have devastated the city. Click here to see the Ten Best-Run States in AmericaClick here to see the Ten Worst-Run States in AmericaIn order to determine the performance of the nation’s largest cities, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 100 largest U.S. cities by population....

ABC This Week viewers were treated to a classic conservative versus liberal debate Sunday. When former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich tried to blame the increase in poverty in the past five years on Republicans, former Speaker of the House and current CNN host Newt Gingrich called it "baloney" firing back, "Every major city which is a center of poverty is run by Democrats" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary): Gingrich Schools Reich: 'Every Major City Which Is a Poverty Center Is Run By Democrats' JONATHAN KARL, SUBSTITUTE HOST: And let me ask you, Mr....

Many quotes have been attributed to Mark Twain over the test of time, such as this gem: "I saw a startling sight today, it was a politician with his hands in his own pockets." That bit of transcendent satire rings with truth because time and again, members of both major parties seemingly manage to extract more of what we earn. In the United States, taxes from such sources as state and local income taxes, sales and gross receipts taxes, motor fuel taxes, vehicle taxes and alcohol taxes all hit record peaks in the second quarter of 2013. In other words,...

Using Census data, we've figured out that half of the United States population is clustered in just the 146 biggest counties out of over 3000. Here's the map, with said counties shaded in. Below the map is the list of all the counties, so you can see if you live in one of them. See link for list of names.

Using Census data, we've figured out that half of the United States population is clustered in just the 146 biggest counties out of over 3000. Here's the map, with said counties shaded in. Below the map is the list of all the counties, so you can see if you live in one of them. And here's the whole list of counties that are shaded in. Los Angeles County, CA Cook County, IL Harris County, TX Maricopa County, AZ San Diego County, CA Orange County, CA Miami-Dade County, FL Kings County, NY Dallas County, TX Queens County, NY (rest of list...

American politics turn on a now familiar set of categories: red states vs. blue states, rich states vs. poor states, Frostbelt vs. Sunbelt. But these generalizations mask deeper, less visible fissures in our political geography. We have written a great deal about the role of density in metropolitan voting patterns, highlighting the remarkably consistent and robust political red-to-blue tipping point that occurs when a metro reaches a density of roughly 800 residents per square mile. I took a deeper look at our emerging political geography in a recent feature for Politico magazine, where I argued that the suburbs have become...

With more people in the world living in cities than ever before, cities’ share of global GDP is rising: 25 cities account for approximately 50% of the world’s GDP. But not all cities can be winners, and not all are destined for greatness. The following smorgasbord of charts highlight how successful cities have typically had natural advantages such as location, time zone and resources; but more importantly, to remain successful they need education, a skilled workforce, strong property rights, a broad base of industries and in some cases, policies aimed at attracting capital and talent. Conversely, As Goldman notes,...

<p>Planning a trip abroad? It’s probably best to check out the State Department’s list of travel warnings for countries with unsafe political situations. At the moment, the State Department has issued travel warnings for 34 countries, from the Central African Republic and El Salvador to Iraq and North Korea.</p>

Crowdfunding has worked for films, political candidates, disaster relief and now real estate. Crowdfunding, the act of soliciting funds from the public, most recently on the Internet, is already a powerful tool. Now it is being used by cities to raise funds bypassing the traditional muni bond market. Central Falls, the Rhode Island city that filed for bankruptcy two years ago, is seeking to finance a park project through a crowdfunding website rather than the municipal-bond market. The city of about 19,000 wants $10,044 to put five trash cans in Jenks Park, which is currently “\”littered with garbage and debris,”...

<p>Ipsos, a market research organization, recently conducted a poll to find The World's Favorite City.</p> <p>The company polled more than 18,000 people in 24 countries to find out the best cities to do business in, live in, and visit.</p> <p>Ipsos then tallied the responses to determine which global cities ranked the highest across all three categories.</p>

NEW YORK (AP) — Fast-food customers in search of burgers and fries on Thursday might run into striking workers instead. Organizers say thousands of fast-food workers are set to stage walkouts in dozens of cities around the country, part of a push to get chains such as McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's to pay workers higher wages. It's expected be the largest nationwide strike by fast-food workers, according to organizers. The biggest effort so far was over the summer when about 2,200 of the nation's millions of fast-food workers staged a one-day strike in seven cities. Thursday's planned walkouts follow...

Violent crime reports rose in America for the first time in 2006, according to FBI statistics. However, the recent 1.2% increase belies a long-term trend: America is becoming a much safer country. To find out which parts of America are the safest, we looked at the FBI's latest report on crime and found cities with violent crime rates substantially below the national average. We only included cities with populations of more than 200,000 to exclude suburban areas. Many of the cities are repeat winners from our 2011 report on America's safest cities. Irvine, Calif. has been the safest city in...

"Redistributing" the Wealth

Singapore is currently the most competitive city in the world, beating out New York and London, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which focuses on global research. However, says the EIU, by 2025, New York City will be number one. In order for a city to be globally competitive, it must have a large and growing economy, a good legal system, an inviting and productive culture, good infrastructure and it must have good policy on things that determine long-term stability and success, like the environment. The EIUÂ’s latest report attempts to identify those cities that, as of 2012, best...

Thursday, June 13, 2013 Little Brother in the Big City Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog 0 Comments When the big things start getting out of control, we start focusing on the little ones instead. Tackling small problems we can't solve is a good way to feel good about the big ones that we can't. Can't do anything about the nice young men from Nigeria, Somalia and Bangladesh who occasionally stop maxing out social welfare and working odd jobs to set off bombs in the London Underground or butcher a soldier within sight of his base? Just...

American households are under stress again, according to the latest consumer distress index by CredAbility. “Despite the growth in jobs and an improved housing market, our index shows that the average U.S. household has seen little improvement in the past year and took a step back in 2013’s first quarter,” according to Phil Baldwin, CEO of CredAbility. Baldwin is referring to the rise in payroll taxes at the start of the year, which has forced people to save more. CredAbility adds that 49 million people are still on food stamps, and nearly 12 million are still unemployed. American households on...

Which U.S. cities have the highest costs of living? The Council for Community and Economic Research recently measured the prices of common purchases in 307 urban areas to find the cost of the professional standard of living in each location. The index, its fifth edition, crunched more than 50,000 prices -- everything from grocery items to transportation to housing. The national average on the index is 100. Following is a look at each of the 10 most expensive cities in the United States.

Gallup is out with its latest batch of "well-being" data, and a new city has fallen to the lowest spot in the rankings. This year, Charleston, W.Va. ranked lowest on the pollster's index of well-being in metropolitan areas. It displaced Huntington-Ashland, W.Va.-Ky.-Ohio, which came in last place the previous two years. The index ranks well-being by averaging scores in six categories: Life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities.