Subscribe to Market Urbanism
|
By Stephen Smith, on October 6th, 2011
A scandal may be brewing at New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. The LPC has never had a reputation for being very objective or easy to work with, but now its integrity is being called into question as preservationists are accusing both a current and former official of colluding with mega-developer Steven Roth of Vornado Realty to allow a controversial interior modification to sail through the commission unimpeded.
Continue reading at Forbes...
By Stephen Smith, on October 3rd, 2011
 Shinjuku Station, Tokyo
Train stations in Japan are a lot of things. They are busy – Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station sees two-thirds as many passengers as the entire NYC Subway. They are complex – the big ones are shared by multiple railway companies, from public to private and everything in between. Continue reading Good Transit Is Ugly Transit
Continue reading at Forbes...
By Emily Washington, on June 17th, 2011
In New York, lawmakers are currently debating a compromise between New York City and upstate interests to change the policies that shape residents’ housing costs. New York City lawmakers are fighting for an extension and expansion of current rent control laws, while Governor Cuomo wants to tie this extension to a two percent [...]
By Stephen Smith, on May 15th, 2011
Since Alon’s comment a few weeks ago that union work rules, not wages and benefits, are the real problem with labor unions at America’s transit authorities, I’ve been looking into the matter, which seems to be something that a lot of transit boosters don’t like to talk about. It’s an uncomfortable subject for [...]
By Stephen Smith, on May 13th, 2011
The New York Times is unusually good at ignoring economic forces at play in land use and transport markets, but I think this piece called “The Joys of Staying Put” by Constance Rosenblum takes the cake. Here’s a quote:
New Yorkers typically move a lot. Prompted by the arrival of a partner or [...]
By Stephen Smith, on May 12th, 2011
Having failed to deregulate New York City’s highly restrictive taxicab market, it looks like City Council and Bloomberg are opting for the populist reaction to NYC cabdrivers’ frequent refusal to take you anywhere outside Manhattan and, if you’re lucky, northwest Brooklyn: fines. Quoteth the Wall Street Journal:
The bill passed Wednesday increases the fine for a [...]
By Stephen Smith, on May 10th, 2011
Longtime commenter Alon Levy…has a blog! So far there’s only one post up – a critique of one $295 million “HSR” grant for New York, money that was originally intended for Florida – but it’s a good one, and I recommend everyone add the blog to their feed readers. He gets into the [...]
By Stephen Smith, on May 2nd, 2011
In doing research for a post the other day, I stumbled upon this excerpt from a book called A History of Housing in New York City by Richard Plunz that I think has a useful lesson about development and regulation:
The garden apartment would not have emerged unless it was profitable. In this aspect [...]
|
|