Adam Hengels

1. This week at Market Urbanism: Emily Washington ties Adam Smith‘s ideas to urbanism in Mercantilist logic and land-use regulation Adam Smith taught the world that mercantilism impoverished 18th-century nations by erecting barriers to trade and reducing opportunities for specialization and economic growth. Regulations that restrict urban development likewise reduce opportunities for innovation and specialization by limiting cities’ population size and density. Dan Keshet Taylor Swift Spurns Country Music’s Longtime Attitude Towards Cities Taylor Swift, on the other hand, can portray a positive side of cities: cosmopolitan places to escape bad relationships, meet new people with different life experiences, and grow your dreams. Let’s Go L.A., an anonymous new contributor, adds Zoning, Buildings Codes, And Low-Quality Housing quality can be used to convey a wide variety of characteristics. Something can be low quality in the sense that it is hazardous to human health and safety, or something can be low quality in the sense that, while functional, it doesn’t meet the aesthetic preferences of the neighbors. Stephen Smith quoted about Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn at Washington Post 2. Wednesday was Jane Jacobs‘ 100th birthday, giving market urbanists much to walk and talk about. These include numerous Jane’s Walks that will occur this weekend in numerous U.S. cities: Nolan Gray discussed Jane Jacobs and Friedrich Hayek on the Strong Towns Podcast Emily Washington talked about Jane Jacobs on the Cato Daily Podcast Sandy Ikeda is hosting his annual Brooklyn Heights Janes Walk this weekend An urbanist friend of Jeff Fong dedicated a song to Jane Jacobs Stephen Smith is never afraid to point out the NIMBY tendencies of Jane Jacobs on twitter: It’s Jane Jacobs’s 100th birthday!! To celebrate, I will tweet out some of her most NIMBYrrific quotes. — Market Urbanism (@MarketUrbanism) May 4, 2016 3. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer spent his third week in San Antonio, and will travel tomorrow to the Mexican […]

  1. This week at Market Urbanism: Carolyn Zelikow of Aspen Institute wrote her first Market Urbanism article, Richard Florida Should Replace The Term ‘Creative Class’ With ‘Country Club’ So I was shocked that reading Florida’s book not only gave me zero ideas for my own community, but actually made me question whether the “Creative Class” was something that cities should try to foster, period. As far as I can tell, the Creative Class is just a new name for rich people. Howard Ahmanson also contributed his first post, No, ‘New Urbanism’ And ‘Smart Growth’ Are Not The Same It is a fact that perhaps 90% of New Urbanists are also Smart Growthers, though many of the leaders of the New Urbanist movement are not; that still does not mean the two philosophies are identical. Michael Lewyn followed up on his article on “school-based sprawl”: “Public Schools Only” Vouchers and Sprawl This plan might discourage sprawl by making prestigious suburban schools available to urban parents.  And if both students from affluent families and students from poor families entered these schools, the class differences between urban and suburban schools might be erased in the long run. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer spent his second week in San Antonio. He wrote two Forbes articles this week–about a Private Proposal To Solve Chicago’s Freight Rail Bottleneck, and whether San Francisco’s Solar Panel Mandate Will Increase Housing Costs: The goals driving the solar panel mandate sound wonderful, but how will they influence San Francisco’s already-high housing prices?…As I learned through recent research and interviews, it doesn’t appear that San Francisco’s officials are too curious about the answer. Scott also published on his blog a radio interview about his visit to Havana, Cuba (starts at the 20:31 mark) 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: Bjorn Swenson “dropped a bombshell” on his hometown’s Facebook […]

1. This week at Market Urbanism: Nolan Gray Reclaiming “Redneck” Urbanism: What Urban Planners Can Learn From Trailer Parks Trailer parks remain one of the last forms of housing in US cities provided by the market explicitly for low-income residents. Better still, they offer a working example of traditional urban design elements and private governance. Scott Beyer San Francisco Seeks Public, Not Private, Solutions To Housing Crisis However the biggest problem with San Francisco’s housing policy is that officials and citizens alike are hostile to new buildings, especially tall ones, even when they are built in appropriate locations. Emily Washington and Michael Hamilton Market Urbanism Is Underrated Zoning is not a Georgist tax in which landowners are taxed in proportion to their land’s value; rather, zoning hugely decreases the value of the country’s most valuable land, while it props up the value of land that would be less desirable absent zoning. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott flew early this week from his hometown of Charlottesville, VA to San Antonio. He has been hired by the Center for Opportunity Urbanism to do a profile on the city, including its history, growth, and future prospects. 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: Todd Litman, of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, talks about The Disconnect Between Liberal Aspirations and Liberal Housing Policy John Morris says, “Ironic: Portland’s best shot at an equitable, environmentally sound, affordable city is to return to development before “progressive” planning.” Jeff Fong found interesting simulations predicting the promising effect of driverless cars on cities Lot’s of discussion about Tyler Cowen‘s skepticism that the deregulation Market Urbanism advocates won’t actually lower rents.  (via Anthony Ling) Alex Tabarrok shared his latest post at Marginal Revolution: Regulatory Arbitrage, Rent-Seeking and the Deal of the Year where 4,000sf of valuable New York real estate had to be destroyed to comply with zoning “An eclectic coalition of residents, business owners, […]

1. This week at Market Urbanism: Tory Gattis has an interesting take on the restaurant scene in Houston Cities like to hype amenities like museums and performing arts, but really, how often do you go to a museum or an arts performance? A few times a year? How often do you eat out? Hopefully more than a few times a year Calib Malik explains why Rent Control Is Bad For Both Landlords And Tenants Void of analysis, rent control sounds utopian. Yet, the effects are unfortunate: tenants face limited housing stocks that are either run-down or unaffordable; landlords lose money, and ultimately stop investing and building altogether. And yet it is a policy now being flirted with in cities like Seattle, San Diego, and Richmond, California. The potential economic effect in those cities could be dire. Johnny Sanphilippo wrote his predictions on the future of driverless cars Here’s a little heads up for those of you who think you know how driver-less cars will play out in the culture and economy. Asher Meyers recently moved to Brussels, and reports how the urban fabric fared after the terror attack. The atrocity raises some interesting questions in regards to urbanism—are there certain urban designs that can prevent or discourage terrorism? Should the threat of terrorism influence the design of our cities? How would it? Dan Keshet explains the 9 Barriers To Building Housing In Central City Austin Austin, like most cities, has rules that prevent new housing from getting centrally built. That makes it easier to buy and build on virgin land in the suburbs. Here are some of those rules. Scott Beyer continues his America’s Progressive Developers series in New Orleans with Sean Cummings and Steve Dumez  In the process of building this expensive waterfront, [the city] avoided any value capture strategy, and in fact downzoned adjacent properties from 75′ to 55′. […]