Recently, I met someone who was trapped in a terrible apartment. Why "trapped"? For months (if not years) she had been in an adversarial relationship with both her landlord and her neighbors, but she can't quite bring herself to leave. Why not?First, she is in a rent-stabilized apartment, and … [Read more...]
Thoughts On Today’s Emily Hamilton Vs. Randal O’Toole Cato Discussion
Because of work obligations, I listened to only about a third of today's Cato Institute discussion on urban sprawl. I heard some of Randall O'Toole's talk and some of the question-and-answer period.O’Toole said high housing prices don’t correlate with “zoning” just with “growth constraints.” … [Read more...]
One Reason Why Subsidies Aren’t the (Only) Solution
I was rereading the Obama Administration's surprisingly market-oriented policy paper on zoning and affordable housing, and saw one good point that I had never really thought about.One common anti-development argument is that government should subsidize housing for the poor instead of allowing … [Read more...]
Kotkin And The Atlantic- Spreading ‘Localism’ Nonsense Together
The Atlantic Magazine's Citylab web page ran an interview with Joel Kotkin today. Kotkin seems to think we need more of something called "localism", stating: "Growth of state control has become pretty extreme in California, and I think we’re going to see more of that in the country in general, … [Read more...]
Collective Action Problems Are Similar For Land Use And Schools
I just read a law review article complaining that some white areas in integrated southern counties were trying to secede from integrated school systems (thus ensuring that the countywide systems become almost all-black while the seceding areas get to have white schools), and it occurred to me that … [Read more...]
Joel Kotkin’s New Book Lays Out His Sprawling Vision For America
Traditionally, defenders of suburban sprawl have been skittish about proclaiming that government should promote sprawl and halt infill development. Instead, they have taken a libertarian tack, arguing that government should allow any kind of development while asserting that a level playing field … [Read more...]
NIMBYism As An Argument Against Urbanism
In his new book The Human City, Joel Kotkin tries to use NIMBYism as an argument against urbanism. He cites numerous examples of NIMBYism in wealthy city neighborhoods, and suggests that these examples rebut "the largely unsupported notion that ever more people want to move 'back to the city'." … [Read more...]
Home-Sharing and Housing Supply
One common argument against Airbnb and other home-sharing companies is that they reduce housing supply by taking housing units off the long-term market.* As I have written elsewhere, I don't think home-sharing affects housing supply enough to matter. But even leaving aside the empirical question of … [Read more...]