Category Archives for "Urban Economics"

[A version of this article first appeared in Ottawa Business Journal, https://www.obj.ca/article/op-ed-meet-steve-willis-city-halls-most-important-person] [Read part 2 here, https://brucemfirestone.com/steve-willis-attempt-to-makeover-ottawa-part-2-of/] I meet with Steve Willis in his suite of offices at Ottawa city hall after everyone else’s workday seems to be over, except his. He’s the new general manager of planning, infrastructure & economic development, a crucial 700-person […]

[August 31, 2017 was the 20th anniversary of the passing of Lady Diana. Here is my story about why, other than for the obvious fact of her untimely and unnecessary death, I remember that day and night so well.] I’ve created waterfront property in my career–lots of it. Want to know how? I dig nature […]

Do we build cities for cars or people? I vote for people. Here’s what a woonerf (livable) road really looks like: Here’s a fabulous makeover of a roadway for pedestrians and bikes. In Stockholm? No. Berlin? No. LA? Nope. In Moscow, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-08-10/moscow-s-makeover-swaps-soviet-grit-for-urban-sparkle And how about an inexpensive makeover of a main street as a flower […]

Why are land prices (and home prices) accelerating in many North American cities? Simple, because of wrong-headed municipal, county, provincial, and state policies. When I see the price of industrial land in my hometown of Ottawa, it makes me sick. I mean it. The city of Ottawa believes it has a 50-year supply of vacant […]

[Here’s an article I wrote in 2009 for a local Ottawa newspaper that is worthwhile re-reading today amidst talk of the Sens possibly packing up and heading to greener pastures (possibly Quebec City) due to attendance woes in the 2016/17 regular season and playoffs as well as subsequent years. I think a better idea would […]

I am often asked, “What are the keys to success?” I have developed some ideas about this over the years and, like any such list, mine is bound to be incomplete. Worse than that, many of these ideas about success are contradictory. Things that I learned from my Dad, Professor O. J. Firestone, like “Never […]

(This article first appeared in OBJ,  https://obj.ca/article/opinion-coach-houses-open-door-better-urban-planning-ottawa.) As OBJ readers may already know, the city of Ottawa recently changed its bylaws to permit construction of coach houses on many existing residential lots. This is part of a worldwide effort to densify and intensify existing urban areas to make them more interesting, more diverse, and more […]

[This article originally appeared on Spirepoint.ca] The number of mega wealthy people on this planet (a class that includes billionaires and millionaires, the latter, however, must have a net worth greater than $30 million USD to be included) is a tiny percentage of overall population—just 0.004% of adults qualify according to Wealth-X. This group controls […]

The NCC is asking citizens to submit their big ideas to make Ottawa a more inspiring G7 capital city. Here is Prof Bruce’s big idea for a national boardwalk, one that would be the longest in the world (surpassing current record-holder Atlantic City) and link the provinces of Ontario and Quebec as well as major […]

The Cap Rate Most real estate professionals do not use IRR, internal rate of return, calculations—they use cap (capitalization) rates to compare one project with another. The cap rate is an approximate assessment of ROI, return on investment, as all financial measures are anyway. But they are more approximate than the IRR is, in my […]

The Telfer School of Management’s professor Barbara Orser assisted by Luc Lalande has asked me to give one last lecture in 2016. I tried to make it both fun and informative. You can watch the video of the lecture below. It is also available on YouTube, https://youtu.be/GqqdLeT25us Here is the slidedeck I used, https://www.dropbox.com/s/jvo3187hnzr3397/firestone-legacy-lecture.pptx?dl=0 Here’s […]

There are many ways to value your real property— by completing a CMA, comparative market analysis, yourself or asking a realtor to do one for you, using the DFCA (direct comparison approach)—comparing what other similar properties have recently sold for in the same general area within the recent past (aka using “comps”) 2.       by using a cost approach—that is, determining the […]