A decade or two ago, a traveler who wished to stay in a city temporarily had no alternative to a hotel. Even if the owner of a house or condominium wished to rent out a room for a short period of time, the costs of advertising in a newspaper would have at least partially canceled out the … [Read more...]
Middle Aged NIMBYs, Young YIMBYs
Today, CNU Nextgen, a group of younger members of the Congress for New Urbanism, retweeted a New York Times story about the evils of NIMBYism in Boulder.Why did I find this noteworthy? Because on the Pro-Urb listserv, dominated by middle-aged CNUers, a very different conventional wisdom … [Read more...]
Do The Rich Cause High Rents?
One common argument against building new housing is that new construction will never reduce housing costs, because the influx of ultra-rich people into high-cost cities creates an insatiable level of demand.I recently found a source of information that may be relevant to this argument: the … [Read more...]
Are High-Rises More Expensive?
One common argument against allowing the construction of taller apartment buildings is that tall buildings cost more to build, and thus are "overwhelmingly occupied by the wealthy." For example, tall buildings, unlike houses and walk-up buildings, require elevators.But in fact, fairly tall … [Read more...]
Jane Jacobs And High-Rises
Since new urbanists (in my experience) tend to be very skittish of high-rise development, one might think that their ideological ancestor Jane Jacobs was one of these people who thought no building should be over five floors.But in her 1958 essay "Downtown Is For People," she hinted at a very … [Read more...]
To Know Home-Sharing Is To Support It
If you read elite commentary on the home-sharing industry (that is, Airbnb and its competitors), especially on the Left, you might think it is quite controversial. However, a recent Pew survey suggests otherwise.According to Pew, very few people know very much about home-sharing. Only 11 … [Read more...]
Are Billionaires To Blame?
One common argument I have read in various places is that the high rent of New York and other large cities is a result of globalization and inequality (English translation: rich foreigners). According to this theory, rich people have created a surge of demand so overwhelming that no amount of … [Read more...]
“Public Schools Only” Vouchers and Sprawl
About a month ago, I wrote about the pros and cons of school vouchers as a solution for "school-based sprawl" (that is, parents moving to suburbs to avoid urban public schools). I noted that a voucher program that included private schools might be expensive, since some private schools are quite … [Read more...]