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Market Urbanism MUsings December 7th 2018
1. Recently at Market Urbanism:
Two Cheers for PHIMBY by Michael Lewyn
One alternative to market urbanism that has received a decent amount of press coverage is the PHIMBY (Public Housing In My Back Yard) movement. PHIMBYs (or at least the most extreme PHIMBYs) believe that market-rate housing fails to reduce housing costs and may even lead to gentrification and displacement. Their alternative is to build massive amounts of public housing.
New and Noteworthy: Randy Shaw’s Generation Priced Out by Michael Lewyn
In Generation Priced Out, housing activist Randy Shaw writes a book about the rent crisis for non-experts. Shaw’s point of view is that of a left-wing YIMBY: that is, he favors allowing lots of new market-rate housing, but also favors a variety of less market-oriented policies to prevent displacement of low-income renters (such as rent control, and more generally policies that make it difficult to evict tenants)
“Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities” Out Today by Nolan Gray
Alain Bertaud’s long awaited book, Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities, is out today. Bertaud is a senior research scholar at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management and former principle urban planner at the World Bank.
“Order Without Design”, a new guide to urban planning by Anthony Ling
This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding. This is how Jane Jacobs opened her 1961 classic “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”. It wouldn’t be an inappropriate opener for Alain Bertaud’s upcoming “Order Without Design”.
2. Also by Market Urbanists:
Nolan Gray‘s viral tweet critiquing local control of land use:
Local control is America’s weirdest fetish. Every single one of these photos shows a room full of people—in no way representative of their respective communities—agitating against affordable, multifamily, and/or mixed-use housing. Every single one was taken in 2018. pic.twitter.com/4bW2aDwPDI
— Nolan Gray (@mnolangray) December 2, 2018
Emily Hamilton at the Washington Post: “Amazon’s arrival requires smarter housing in Arlington“
Alain Bertaud and Nobel Prize winner Paul Romer discuss Alain’s new book.
3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group:
Matt Robare at New Urbs: Hyperlocal Zoning Can Reset London—and American Politics
Randy Shaw wrote: Will Cities Learn from the Ghost Ship Tragedy?
Matt Robare wrote: What’s next for the MBTA?
Roger Valdez at FREOP: Expanding Housing Supply is a Civil Rights Issue
Tom Burroughs states: “One reason I dislike the land tax idea is that it plays on the idea that we only really own land at the sufferance of the state.”
Via Joe Wolf: Developer’s plan for riverfront would change St. Paul skyline
Via Carl Webb: Cities Can Save $17 Trillion by Preventing Urban Sprawl
Via Bruce Powell Majors: How Local Housing Regulations Smother the U.S. Economy
Via Michael Hamilton: The US Housing Boom is Coming to an End, Starting in Dallas
Via Brian David: Pay Toilets Are Illegal in Much of the U.S. They Shouldn’t Be.
Via Fred Foldvary: America’s Urban Land is Worth a Staggering Amount
Via Anthony Ling: A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty. That’s 50 Million Apartments
Via Len Conly: Car Culture Cements Suburban Unsustainability
Via Carl Webb: Capitalism Can’t Give us Affordable Housing
Via Michael Burns: Exclusive: Airbnb will start designing houses in 2019
Via Mark Frazier: What’s Really Happening to Retail?
Via Joe Wolf: Uber is Headed for a Crash
Via Adam Zielinski: Don’t Blame California’s Poop Crisis on Capitalism
Via Roger Valdez, “Seattle is flirting with disaster” with mandatory affordable housing
4. Stephen Smith‘s tweet of the week:
My god, it’s actually happening! Minneapolis City Council is expected to abolish single-family zoning on Dec. 7, allowing three-family homes on every residentially zoned lot https://t.co/Lbe8cqWUvU
— Market Urbanism (@MarketUrbanism) November 20, 2018
