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Affordable housing for the rich and the failure of zoning bonuses


In the past I have not been kind to affordable housing programs. I have a lot of deeper problems with them that I’ll get to in a minute, but I think the extraordinarily high upper income limits on some of the projects are indicative of the broader problem of the essentially arbitrary and random (literally – [...]

When “affordable housing” is just a random middle class housing subsidy


Affordable housing and inclusionary zoning are complicated subjects and it’s hard to sum up all my thoughts and objections to the schemes in one post, so I’m going to take the death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach. Today’s installment: income eligibility levels.

Now, the stated intent of affordable housing set-asides has always been a bit unclear to me. The cynic [...]

A question for the blogosphere: How much affordable housing is enough?


The developer will be losing money on 540 out of 1,240 units in "Gotham West"

Reading about a new ultra-luxury Far West Side rental project going up where over 40% of the apartments are going to have controlled rents (“affordable housing”), I’d like to pose a question to supporters of affordable housing mandates [...]

What favelas can teach us about America


Anthony Ling, an excellent Brazilian blogger who also happens to be an avowed market urbanism, gives us an interesting look at the politics and economics of low-income housing in Brazil:

In Brazil there is a vast regulation defining what are the minimum requirements to have a building approved by local authorities. The most common [...]

If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; if it dies…


I apologize for the lack of posts for the last few days – I just moved to DC (a few blocks north of H Street, right by Gallaudet, if anyone’s curious), and I have yet to begin another rewarding relationship with Comcast. But, I’m here at work (I started interning at Reason magazine today), [...]

New Years link list


Behold, your first link list of 2011!

1. The automobile may officially in decline (very good article!).

2. Interesting parallels between China and its HSR intellectual property disputes and post-WWII Japan and Korea. More here.

3. Fred Barnes writes a stupid article for the Weekly Standard (“The road to hell is paved with bike [...]

Why I don’t like inclusionary zoning


Inclusionary zoning is a hot item among urban planners today, and is often seen as a solution to residential segregation and high housing costs. Exact implementations vary, but the general idea is that developers of multiunit housing projects are encouraged to set aside a certain percentage of their units, generally raging from 10-30%, but [...]