The New City is a web journal on home ownership, land supply, deindustrialisation, automobility, post-CBD and the benefits of suburbanisation. Cities should be freed from the control of bureaucratic planners-financiers and left to a suburban market of workers, families and businesses. Based in Sydney. Click here for our free email updates.

Catalogued in the National Library of Australia's PANDORA archive and featured on New Geography, On Line Opinion, Quadrant Online, Demographia, Catallaxy Files, Forbes.com, the National Post, RealClearWorld, Architecture Insights and others ... past articles

August 2024: read our latest feature here

For more recent items visit The New City's blog here. Latest posts:

10 September 2021: Reply to Elizabeth Farrelly: Suburbia Not Kulturstadt

28 June 2021: Freeways Lost On The Way To Sydney's Post-CBD

23 March 2021: Street Trees Obscure Sydney's Architectural Gems

13 May 2020: On the Death of Australia's Jane Jacobs - Jack Mundey

Most recent articles on this site:

In Defence of Sydney's Westconnex Motorway

2 November 2017 | The acrimonious battle over Australia's largest motorway may be a case study in how class conflict plays out across the 'post-industrial' metropolis ... read more

This article was republished in On Line Opinion and on the US site New Geography and featured on The Suburban Alliance, the website of Australia's pro-suburban action network.

Seven perspectives on the evolution of Sydney CBD under Mayor Clover Moore

18 September 2017 | A seven part series on the evolution of Sydney CBD under Lord Mayor Clover Moore, originally published in the former online magazine SlowSydney.com ... read more

More thoughts on deindustrialisation in Sydney

13 June 2017 | Sydney may be entering a prolonged industrial land crisis unless access to undeveloped western land is improved with stepped up arterial road and motorway construction ... read more

Deindustrialisation in Sydney

18 April 2017 | High land value induced processes of contraction, dislocation and relocation are reshaping Sydney's industrial base but planning authorities are failing to keep up ... read more

This article was republished on the US site New Geography and featured on The Suburban Alliance, the website of Australia's pro-suburban action network.

Comment: The ABC of making housing unaffordable

20 December 2016 | ABC Radio National's Breakfast Program ran another predictable panel dicussion on housing affordability without a single advocate of greenfield expansion ... read more

This Comment was republished on the US site New Geography here.

Sydney lurches to housing affordability disaster

27 November 2016 | The state government is retreating from fringe development and raising residential densities to lower house prices, a serious misunderstanding of land markets that will makes things worse ... read more

An abridged version of this article was published in On Line Opinion, Australia's e-journal of social and political debate, and on the US site New Geography.

Industrial workers lose out to Sydney's knowledge elites

Industrial activities like manufacturing could generate many more opportunities for Sydney's people, if only the city's knowledge work elites would loosen their grip on urban planning policy ... read more

Sydney isn't dominated by inner-city knowledge workers

The claim that Sydney's workforce is dominated by knowledge workers concentrated in central locations like the CBD is a myth ... read more

Popular articles on urban issues:

Ruining our cities to save them

In line with the law of unintended consequences, green town planning only makes things worse ... read more

The suburban economy and its enemies

Beware those seeking to strangle our once and future booming suburbs ... read more

The use and misuse of Glaeser's Triumph of the City

Glaeser is the darling of green urbanists, but they misunderstand his economic logic ... read more

The illusions of Charles Montgomery's Happy City

In his book Happy City, Charles Montgomery's prefers Third World poverty over affluent suburbia ... read more

Workers flee Sydney's unaffordable housing

Flawed land supply policies are squeezing workers out of Sydney's housing market ... read more

Jan Gehl's pedestrian ideas for Sydney

Jan Gehl's anti-vehicle plan threatens the Sydney CBD's commercial vitality ... read more

Green office towers cast shadow over Sydney

Green office towers are a goldmine for the well-placed, an economic deadweight for others ... read more

Inside Sydney's CBD: the retail core

Sydney's CBD is resurgent but not returning to its historic metropolitan dominance ... read more

The crisis of academic urban planning

A wide gulf has opened up betweem mainstream values and our urban planning academics ... read more

Actually, cities are part of the economy

Despite the government's interventionist plans, economics still rules our cities ... read more

Suburbs and climate change: a homegrown brawl

Research shows that suburbia might not be as bad for the environment as greens claim ... read more

The New City on other sites:

► Deindustrialisation in Sydney

Our article on the contraction, dislocation and relocation of Sydney's industrial base is republished in New Geography.

► The illusions of Happy City

Our two part series on Charles Montgomery's poverty-loving book Happy City is republished in New Geography.

► It's a bug's life

Urban planners are treating us like insects, John Muscat in Quadrant Online.

Dense urban thinking down under

Writing in Forbes .com, Joel Kotkin calls The New City feisty while slamming Australia's urban planning and housing policies ... [more]

► The Myth of Green Australia

Australians are not pioneering greens, by John Muscat in New Geography, featured on RealClearWorld, and republished in On Line Opinion.

► Green Office Towers

Our article on Sydney's green office towers was republished in On Line Opinion and New Geography.

► From California to Canberra, the Real Class War

Our article on the real class war was republished on On Line Opinion and New Geography.

The Not-So-Lucky Country

Writing in Forbes.com, Joel Kotkin commends The New City while giving Kevin Rudd a serve ... [more]

► The use and misuse of Glaeser

Our item on Edward Glaeser was republished on On Line Opinion and New Geography and featured on RealClearPolicy.

► How Gillard Governs

Julia Gillard has downgraded the role of prime minister, John Muscat in Quadrant Online.

► Carbon tax betrayal

The Gillard minority government has forfeited its legitimacy, John Muscat in Quadrant Online.

► Freedom's weak pulse

Our editorial on freedom of expression featured on sites like Quadrant Online, Catallaxy Files and Menzies House.

► Australians are getting a carbon tax they don't want

By John Muscat in New Geography & Real Clear World.

► Inside Sydney's CBD: retail core

John Muscat's article on the growth and transformation of Sydney CBD's retail core is republished in New Geography.

► The Global Climate Standoff

Claims that China is tackling climate change are exaggerated, John Muscat in Quadrant Online.

► Cities are part of the economy

John Muscat's feature article on the Gillard Government's urban agenda is republished in New Geography.

► Triumph of the functionaries

The functionary class is playing the Greens off against Labor for power, John Muscat in Quadrant Online.

► Can Labor hold city and bush?

Christian Kerr quotes John Muscat on Labor's parlous relationship with the Greens under Julia Gillard in The Australian.

► A price on carbon: new greenmail

Our editorial comment has been republished by the US based urban policy site New Geography.

► Carbon greenmail

Our editorial comment on the sham arguments for a carbon price has featured on Australia's leading site of ideas and opinion Quadrant Online.

► Labor crosses Rubicon

The new Labor-Green alliance is dangerous for the ALP, by John Muscat in Quadrant Online.

► My party was trashed by the middle class

A lightly edited version of Michael Thompsons' The New City essay is published in The Weekend Australian.

► Australia 2010: Unstable politics in a prosperous country

Australia's new politics of regional division, by John Muscat in New Geography.

► Division of Labor

A look at Labor's divided and dysfunctional election campaign leadership, by John Muscat in Quadrant Online.

► The urbanist's guide to Kevin Rudd's downfall

Kevin Rudd's downfall viewed from a housing and urban development perspective, by John Muscat in New Geography.