A study by Maxim Massenkoff and Nathan Wilmers argues that “low-price full-service restaurants,” like Olive Garden or the Cheesecake Factory, are the third places in which rich and poor are most likely to rub shoulders. Using location data, they found that these low-price chain restaurants had more class integration than churches, schools, and independent bars […]
Pedestrianized streets usually fail – and that’s OK
Urbanists love to celebrate, and replicate great urban spaces - and sometimes can't understand why governments … [Read More...]
Solano County Dreamin’: Is there a market urbanist way to build a new city?
Conor Dougherty and Erin Griffith revealed the identities behind a Silicon Valley investor group, Flannery Associates, that had gradually purchased 55,000 acres of ranchland near Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California. Scale check: that's a lot of … [Read More...]
Are Republicans or Democrats more pro-housing? Yes.
Some weeks ago, I was participating in a Zoom discussion on NIMBYism, and someone asked: are Republicans and conservatives more pro-housing than Democrats and liberals, or less so?After examining some poll data, I discovered that the answer depends on how … [Read More...]
Gentrification: An LVT Would Do That
In many cities, poor people occupy valuable urban land close to downtown jobs, amenities, and transit. They can afford to live there because the housing stock in inner areas is usually older. If it hasn't been completely renovated, the result can be quite … [Read More...]
Will congestion pricing hurt cities?
In a series of recent posts, Tyler Cowen has taken the view that congestion prices in major downtowns are a bad idea. This is what one might expect of a typical New Jerseyan, but not a typical economist.The writing in these posts is a bit squirrelly (or is … [Read More...]
New Report on Massachusetts’s Building Code Confirms: It’s Harder to Build Energy-Efficient Housing When You Don’t Let People Build Anything
Photo by Cloris Ying on UnsplashThe state of Massachusetts lets municipal governments choose how strictly they regulate energy efficiency in buildings. Fifty-two of the state’s municipalities use the base building code, whereas 299, including Boston, … [Read More...]
Rhode Island’s housing process package
"Renting in Providence puts city councilors in precarious situations." That was the Providence Journal's leading headline a few days ago, as the legislature waited for Governor Daniel McKee to sign a pile of housing-related bills (Update: He signed them all). … [Read More...]
Why lawyer salaries matter
Today's Wall Street Journal includes a front-page article about sky-high lawyer incomes. The article points out that top lawyers can earn $15 million per year or more.Why is this relevant to urbanism or markets? Because one common argument against new … [Read More...]
On coexistence
One common NIMBY* argument is that new housing (or the wrong kind of new housing) will "destroy the neighborhood." For example, one suburban town's politicians fought zoning reform in New York by claiming that allowing multifamily housing "is a direct assault … [Read More...]