Empty office buildings. Workforce changes allow for more remote work. American downtowns are struggling. The pandemic-led changes in where and how we work and live have weakened and withered many urban cores. The office vacancy rate in Houston is some 26 percent; in Phoenix it is above 20 percent. This shift means fewer workers, fewer businesses to serve them, less tax revenue, and hollowed-out neighborhoods. Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh of Columbia University coined the term "urban doom loop" to describe the cycle now taking hold in American downtowns, and he believes the biggest challenges are yet to come. But we are not without hope. Can urban America be saved? The O'Connor Institute welcomes Drs. Van Nieuwerburgh and Tracy Hadden Loh of the Brookings Institution to discuss.

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We are excited to revisit this fascinating discussion with Judge Douglas Ginsburg as he delves into past, present, and future struggles for liberty through the lens of the US Constitution - just in time for the 4th of July and the celebration of our Country’s independence. Judge Ginsburg is the author of Voices of Our Republic, the companion to the 2020 three-part PBS series, A More or Less Perfect Union.

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The Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy presents a conversation with author and historian Claire Rydell Arcenas and Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute.

In her book America's Philosopher: John Locke in American Intellectual Life, Rydell Arcenas seeks to better understand and illuminate the crucial 17th century philosopher by showing how he influenced Americans at different historical moments. Widely known as the founding father of modern “liberal” thought, Locke pioneered the ideas of natural law, social contract, religious toleration, and the right to revolution that proved essential to both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution that followed.

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