I've always said that some day spammers are going to become so creative in their filler content that it actually becomes better than the median good-faith commenter. Well, that day has finally arrived!From some Romanians spamming for a Bucharest car rental service on two articles on rent … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2010
A handful of tall buildings being allowed on Paris’ outskirts
I'm sure this is a copyright violation, but this blog isn't very big and hopefully the AFP will appreciate the free translation. There were so many interesting things in this article about Paris' first experiment in over 30 years with tall buildings, and American sources make the plan sound a lot … [Read more...]
Almost-Thanksgiving list
Unfortunately, none of these things are really things to be thankful for:1. 81% of Americans disagree with Kelo v. City of New London in a 2009 survey, with the wording being quite generous to the pro-takings side.2. Who possibly could have thought this was a good idea? It's like they took … [Read more...]
The mirage of revealed preferences
I often hear from libertarian-inclined defenders of the suburban status quo that the fact that American is so overwhelmingly suburban is proof that it's what Americans want. Economists call this "revealed preference," but it could also be understood as voting with your feet and wallet. People have … [Read more...]
NYC to raise on-street parking rates, local news freaks out
New York City has some of the most underpriced parking in the nation, and while there have been a few pilot programs (in the UES, the West Village, and Park Slope) to raise rates during peak hours, it looks like Bloomberg is finally pushing to implement Park Smart citywide. Residential metered … [Read more...]
Hard Truths About Why Conservatives and Libertarians Hate Urbanism
It's no secret that conservatives and libertarians don't have very warm feelings towards urbanism. But with their emphasis on upzoning and reducing parking minimums, shouldn't new urbanism and smart growth have at least some libertarian constituency? And given that local roads are paid for almost … [Read more...]
Quote of the day
From Matt Yglesias: I never like to visit a place without checking out its local parking regulations. Whoa, and I thought I was bad! (He is, of course, talking about minimum parking requirements for developers, not day-to-day rules for people looking to park their cars.)If you're feeling … [Read more...]
Happy 250th post!
...okay, so it's not really the 250th post – that passed a few weeks ago, uneventfully. But we did recently pass 100,000 total page views (at least, so says Sitemeter...WordPress seems to think it's more), so I thought it would be a good time to introduce myself and maybe ask you guys for a … [Read more...]