ESI Blog: Present Value
Present Value was created as a platform for sharing ideas, discussing our interests and improving connections with our community. Each week, we invite guest contributors from the ranks of our senior advisors, industry experts, and thought leaders.
In our last post about COVID-19 and public transit, I discussed potential short run challenges and long run implications for the epidemic. The short run is now here. Philadelphia’s transit agency, SEPTA, is reporting an 88% reduction in travel on its commuter trains linking the city and the suburbs, and a 60% reduction in its […]
Turning on the news, or scrolling through your news feed, you are bombarded by the non-stop headlines and announcements. Businesses are closing, schools are shuttered, people are being asked to work from home, or even losing their jobs. We are rightly concerned about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and necessary quarantine on our economy, […]
Well, now we know. Speculation on when the long bull market, economic expansion and real estate boom would come to an end has been answered. While the official statistics lag behind reality, it is hard to imagine that we have not entered R20 – Recession 2020. The COVID accentuated slowdown will impact the real estate market and […]
Think back to your most vivid memories of college. (For some of us, “back” is a lot of years ago.) Tailgating before the big game and rushing the field after a big upset. Frat parties or small group Bible studies (or, for some of us, both!). 9:00am lecture hall and late-night study sessions, ugh. And of course, graduation. We […]
Whether you love it or hate it, transit receives public funding because government leaders and a majority of the public believe that transit yields an array of benefits that enhance our quality of life and economic productivity. These beliefs are supported by a significant amount of high-quality research. The emerging COVID-19 epidemic has suddenly put transit in […]
Today in Present Value, we highlight a case study from Building a Hyperconnected City. We review Las Vegas’ pilot system, highlighting two pilot programs specifically – a park safety pilot application and driving detection pilot. Instead of issuing traditional RFPs, Las Vegas has established a pilot system in which companies work with the city to […]
In my new capacity as an ESI Senior Advisor I had the opportunity to attend a presentation on ESI Thoughtlab’s global research initiative, Building a Hyperconnected City. This project surveyed 100 cities across the globe about their use of advanced technologies, data, and analytics, along with returns on smart city investments. ESI economists used the […]
We are a society that has, for the most part, respected the rule of law and has used facts, mixed with some sense of human emotion as a basis for all decision making. The facts are discouraging as they relate to diversity and inclusion in real estate and construction in the City of Philadelphia, and […]
For this Present Value post, members of ESI’s thought leadership team sit down with the experts behind Driving Cybersecurity Performance to examine the state of cybersecurity practices and the growing trends impacting the industry. Driving Cybersecurity Performance is the latest multi-client study from ESI ThoughtLab. The study will include an in-depth global survey of CISOs […]
Recent advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence have some experts worrying about the coming obsolescence of the human worker. Some are even calling for a universal basic income provided by the government for everyone, under the assumption that work will become scarce. But economists seem to have a pretty different view from the futurist and […]