Thomas Schmidt wrote a great article for LewRockwell.com that covers a lot of urbanist ground, with some help from a broad selection of Jane Jacobs’ work. Here’s a snippet: Though you might blame any number of obvious villains and historical processes for this, the name Ebenezer Howard would … [Read more...]
20/20 Segment on Private Roads (& Some things to ponder while in traffic)
Some other things to ponder for the next time you are sitting on a congested highway… When I talk to people about tolling roads, most people immediately reject the idea entirely. I like to ask them to think about it next time they are in a traffic jam. Hey, if you sit in traffic, you … [Read more...]
TLtest
testing … [Read more...]
Books for Beginner Urbanists
Over at Where, Dan Lorentz identified the top 5 books that he considers “the basics of urbanism”, as well as a “Tall Stack of Other Suggestions”: Based on that library visit, on posted comments from readers, on behind-the-scenes advice from Where contributors and my interpretation—from my own … [Read more...]
My Article at FreePo on the Resurrection of Rent Control
The Orange County Register’s new site, Freedom Politics just posted an article I wrote for them on rent control. Here’s a snippet: In these days of economists constantly debating the right way to revive the economy, it seems like there is no way to find consensus among economists. … [Read more...]
How FDR’s TVA Went Wrong
Jim Powell’s latest article at Reason discusses the Tennessee Valley Authority, FDR’s most ambitious infrastructure program: It was heralded as a program to build dams that would control floods, facilitate navigation, lift people out of poverty, and help America recover from the Great … [Read more...]
“Misbuilding” the Future, Again…
From "Highway to hell revisited", a Financial Times article by Christopher Caldwell: The Highway Act probably has more defenders than detractors. But Mr Obama should be among the latter. The act, which budgeted $25bn in federal money to build 41,000 miles of motorway, exacerbated the … [Read more...]
How to Sidestep FAR Restrictions: Mezzanine Floors
Most municipalities use the Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R.) metric to restrict development within their communities. F.A.R. is calculated by dividing the total floor area of a building by the area of the site it is built upon. In achieving planners’ and neighbors’ questionable objective of … [Read more...]