This morning, as I stepped to the stairway that brings me into Brooklyn's 86th street subway station on the R line, I was greeted by two MTA employees who handed me MTA's 'Rider Report Card' to fill out and mail in. As I started down the steps, I noticed something different than the usual routine; … [Read more...]
Irrationality Towards Shortages
Brendan Crain at Where tipped me off to a great post by Ryan Avent at The Bellows. Here's a little snippet of Shortage:For whatever reason, we’re not built to naturally internalize negative externalities. When riding on a crowded highway, no one (no non-economist, at any rate) curses the … [Read more...]
Urban[ism] Legend: Creating Jobs With Infrastructure
This post is part of an ongoing series featured on Market Urbanism called Urbanism Legends. The Urbanism Legends series is intended to expose many of the myths about development and Urban Economics. (it's a play on the term: “Urban Legends” in case you didn’t catch that)Last week … [Read more...]
Chicago Privatizes Parking Meters
Of course, Chicago is just privatizing the revenue from meters, not the actual parking spaces. Plus, the city will regulate rate increases, but it's a step in the right direction. (right?)For today's politicians, this is a great way to get windfalls of money today for revenues of future … [Read more...]
Euclid’s Legacy
While well intentioned, like many progressive interventions of the eary 1900s, zoning has contributed to sprawl (which has begun to be demonized by progressives over the recent decades) and served to inhibit the vitality and diversity of urban neighborhoods. The triumph of the core philosophy behind … [Read more...]
“The answer: Freedom.”
I related to this particular post by Michael Lewyn at Planetizen, Why I fight: Occasionally, someone familiar with my scholarship asks me: why do you care about walkability and sprawl and cities? Why is this cause more important to you than twenty other worthy causes you might be involved … [Read more...]
Links to Interesting Articles
Market Urbanism readers may not have noticed, but not too long ago I added a feature to the sidebars labeled "Check these out." This is a feed from the Market Urbanism del.icio.us bookmarks. I added this feature as a timesaving alternative to creating a new post every time I find a relevant article, … [Read more...]
Cul-de-sacs – Privatize ’em
Daniel Nairn at Discovering Urbanism brings up a great point about cul-de-sacs. Are they public goods, or truly unnecessary "socialism in its most extreme form"?Take the standard cul-de-sac that serves a handful of households. The purpose of this design is to exclude the general public from … [Read more...]