This is the first article of a five-part series on suburbia in the United States.In primary school, one of my friends lived in a duplex. This fact blew my mind. To my inexperienced 7-year-old mind, a duplex barely registered as a house. Her family shared a driveway with their neighbors, and … [Read more...]
TILTs for Income Mobility
Land-use scholars have offered a variety of policy proposals that attempt to identify institutional reforms to reduce the incentive for homeowner NIMBYs to protest development. For example, in a 2013 paper law professor David Schleicher proposed a policy called Tax Increment Local Transfers (TILTs). … [Read more...]
Is Inclusionary Zoning Legal?
Market Urbanism may soon have a hearing in the Supreme Court. Two of my colleagues at the Mercatus Center, Sandy Ikeda, half a dozen other professors, and I argue that the Court should take up the case 616 Croft Ave., LLC, v. City of West Hollywood. The case is an opportunity for the Court … [Read more...]
What makes Philadelphia so affordable?
In 2005, Joseph Gyourko published an economic history of Philadelphia. He explored the economic and policy factors that contributed to its population and job loss during the twentieth century. Gyourko's outlook for Philadelphia was pessimistic. He argued that the city lacked the supply of skilled … [Read more...]
How Governments Outlaw Affordable Housing
This post was originally published at mises.org and reposted under a creative commons license.It's no secret that in coastal cities — plus some interior cities like Denver — rents and home prices are up significantly since 2009. In many areas, prices are above what they were at the peak of the … [Read more...]
A Guide to Urban Development [Guia de Gestão Urbana]
![A Guide to Urban Development [Guia de Gestão Urbana]](https://i2.wp.com/marketurbanism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GGU_COVER.png?fit=614%2C408)
Caos Planejado, in conjunction with Editora BEI/ArqFuturo, recently published A Guide to Urban Development (Guia de Gestão Urbana) by Anthony Ling. The book offers best practices for urban design and although it was written for a Brazilian audience, many of its recommendations have universal … [Read more...]
Government-Created Parking Externalities
In new research on parking policy in the Journal of Economic Geography, Jan Brueckner and Sofia Franco argue that residential developers should be required to provide more off-street parking in places where street parking contributes to traffic congestion. They argue that because traffic congestion … [Read more...]
Market Urbanist Book Review: Cities and The Wealth of Nations by Jane Jacobs
No one writer of the last 60 years has influenced urban planning and thinking as much as Jane Jacobs. It seems like just about everyone who has ever set foot in a major city has read The Death and Life of Great American Cities and most professional urban planners have embraced at least part of her … [Read more...]