In Key to the City, Sara Bronin both critiques and defends zoning. Like numerous other commentators (including myself) Bronin points out that anti-density regulations such as minimum lot size and minimum parking requirements artificially increase housing costs. Her critique of the latter … [Read more...]
Let’s Talk About Soundview
In New York City, one common argument against congestion pricing (or in fact, against any policy designed to further the interests of anyone outside an automobile) is that because outer borough residents are all car-dependent suburbanites, only Manhattanites would benefit. For example, film … [Read more...]
Decriminalizing Jaywalking: The Early Data
In recent years, three states have legalized or decriminalized jaywalking: Virginia and Nevada did so in early 2021, and California legalized jaywalking at the start of 2023. The traditional argument for anti-jaywalking laws is that they protect pedestrians from themselves, by limiting their … [Read more...]
Where sale prices are going up
The conventional wisdom (based on Census estimates) seems to me that urban cores have lost population since COVID began, but are beginning to recover. But mid-decade Census estimates are often quite flawed. These estimates are basically just guesses based on complicated mathetmatical formulas, and … [Read more...]
Do People Travel Less In Dense Places?
Every so often I read something like the following exchange: "City defender: if cities were more compact and walkable, people wouldn't have to spend hours commuting in their cars and would have more free time. Suburb defender: but isn't it true that in New York City, the city with the most … [Read more...]
Swimming against the tide
One common anti-urbanist argument is that families simply don't want to live in cities. But analysis by New York's Department of City Planning (DCP) also shows that prosperous parts of New York City generally added children, at least in the decade before the rise of the COVID-19 virus. DCP … [Read more...]
Review: Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis
In Escaping the Housing Trap, Charles Marohn and Daniel Herriges address the role of zoning in creating the housing crisis. Like some other recent books (most notably by Nolan Gray and Bryan Caplan) this book shows how zoning limits housing supply and thus has led to our current housing crisis. … [Read more...]
Is zoning unconstitutional?
Two law professors, Joshua Braver of Wisconsin and Ilya Somin of George Mason, are coming out with an article suggesting that exclusionary zoning (by which they mean, rules such as apartment bans and minimum lot sizes that are designed to exclude people less affluent than an area's current … [Read more...]
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