In today’s post, I’d like to hit four items:
Some uploads of my published material relating to cities in the COVID era, with special emphasis on New York City.
A “reveal” on my major projects on the 2021 docket.
A sense of my upcoming activities in the month ahead.
A comment on this week’s politics - with a stress on how this website’s material bridges the complicated confluence of such varied streams as economics, philosophy/theology, academics, and the political environment.
The Uploads: I was asked by various publications to share my thoughts about the impact of the pandemic, as it was evolving in 2020. These are “short form” pieces, published between May and September 2020. They can be found under the New York City Tab/COVID Experience. The articles are:
“Size Does Not Fit All” (Westchester Business Journal, May 2020)
“Reprised Observations on Black Swans” (The Counselor, June 2020)
“The Impact of COVID-19 on Cities” (New York Real Estate Journal, August 2020)
“Higher Education: An NYC Asset, Even in COVID-19 Times (The Mann Report, September 2020)
My Biggest Upcoming Projects: I have two major writing projects underway, both of which are in the research and early draft stages. I expect they will be occupying a lot of my time in 2021. I’m very open to ideas and suggestions, and urge readers to reach out to me via “hughkelly@hotmail.com” with your thoughts.
I’m collaborating on a Real Estate Capital Markets textbook, for the academic publisher Cognella. We are hoping to have a preliminary edition (a “beta product”) available a year from now, with publication by the Fall 2022 Semester. More info available to those contacting my email address.
Given the deep divisions marking America, divisions which look like they’ll persist and further challenge “e pluribus unum” in the years ahead, I’m preparing a monograph or book length treatment provisionally entitled, “Transcending Tribalism.” I’ll be drawing on challenges that have marked the past 100 years when deep divisions faced societies: Gandhi’s movement in colonial India, post-WWII Europe, South African apartheid, the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, and of course the civil rights and racial strife in America. My thought is that each of these needed resolution not by the victory of one side over the other, but a “transcending” movement of moral quality. This is obviously not a simple topic to address —- nor does it recommend simplistic solutions. But (in my mind, anyway) it is the most critical issue facing us, and highly worthy of serious thinking. YOUR THOUGHTS?
January 2021: The year is beginning with a flurry of presentations involving the economic and real estate outlook for the immediate and mid-range future. All are “via Zoom”
January 12th will see my annual presentation to the Miami chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) - the 22nd talk in this series dating back to my Landauer days. This year Danielle Squires of Wells Fargo Securities will also be on the program.
January 19th is the third in a quarterly series of presentations for the “Real Professionals Network”:, a multidisciplinary group committed to mutual business development and collaboration. Ryan Severino, chief economist of JLL, will be sharing the virtual podium with me.
On either January 25 or 26th I’ll be speaking with a small private group, based in Cincinnati, about how this public health and economic disruption is affecting the urban outlook - for 24-hour cities, some of the emerging smaller “vibrant cities”, and the far more numerous urban areas seeking a “reinvention” in the 21st century.
In the midst of it all, I’ll be taking some time (as I do each year) to attend the sessions of the American Philosophical Association, where items of Ethics, Civic Education, Sustainability, Diversity, Justice, and even Gentrification are on the agenda. Gotta keep that side of my brain engaged!
This week in Bedlam. The breaking news over the weekend of President Trump’s hour-long pressure call to Georgia state officials, seeking to undo election results in his desperate - I would say “mad” - attempt to stay in office has been characterized as futile by Republicans and Democrats alike, and as delusional by both legal and mental health commentators. This prompted me to return to my 2008 essay (under the Philosophy tab on this website) “Judgment: Imagination, Creativity, and Delusion” which treats such topics in depth. Delusion is a psychopathology, an entrenched belief or view of the world that is impervious to objective evidence. It is closed-minded, in accepting only self-reinforcing inputs. Importantly, as my essay explicitly states “immense consequences can be engendered, especially if the delusion is implanted in and propagated by political, economic, or other social-network systems.” The ability of an individual to sustain his activities, even with some success, is not proof that the pathology is not present, as the case of Captain Ahab in Melville’s Moby Dick so dramatically illustrates. It is our misfortune to be witnessing in real time such a delusion working itself out publicly, with already grave social and economic consequences. This is why I consider the writings in the Philosophy/Theology pages of this website to be integral to my professional and real estate academic thinking. I hope you, as readers, will concur.