In recent years, I have thought of Herbert Hoover as sort of an urban policy villian, thanks to his promotion of zoning. But I recently ran across one of his memoirs in our school's library. (Hoover's memoirs were a multivolume set, and this particular volume related to his service as Secretary of … [Read more...]
YIMBYs and liberals
The pro-housing movement (more colloquially known as "YIMBYs" as an acronym for "Yes In My Back Yard" can't catch a break from either the Left or the Right. On the Left, pundits like to "expose" them as supporters of big business. But conservatives don't always embrace YIMBYs either; both on … [Read more...]
An Anti-Anti-NIMBY article
During the Trump Administration, liberals sometimes criticized conservatives for being anti-anti-Trump: that is, not directly championing Trump's more obnoxious behaviour, but devoting their energies to criticizing people who criticized him.Similarly, I've seen some articles recently that were … [Read more...]
Would the Vienna strategy work here?
Progressives often argue that American cities should imitate Vienna's 1920s strategy of building enormous amounts of public housing while controlling rents paid to private landlords. But a look at the birth of Vienna's public housing system shows why that system is not easily replicated.A … [Read more...]
Louisville and density regulation
Lydia Lo and Yonah Freemark have an interesting new paper ? EditSignon zoning in Louisville on the Urban Institute website. They point out that of the land zoned for single-family housing, 59 percent is zoned R4, requiring 9000-square-foot lots, which means no more than five houses per … [Read more...]
Is Tokyo comparable to U.S. cities?
In his new book Arbitrary Lines, Nolan Gray points out that Tokyo is more affordable than many U.S. cities because its zoning policies are less restrictive.One common counterargument is that because Tokyo is a population-losing city in a population-losing city, it simply lacks the demand to have … [Read more...]
Long-term renters ARE short-term renters (maybe)
One reason local governments are often hostile to Airbnb and similar home-sharing websites is that politicians believe that the interests of short-term renters and long-term renters are opposed- that is, that Airbnb wastes housing units that could be used by long-term renters. This claim is of … [Read more...]
Review: Homelessness is a Housing Problem
In Homelessness is a Housing Problem, Prof. Gregg Colburn and data scientist Clayton Page Aldern seek to answer the question: why is homelessness much more common in some cities than in others?They find that only two factors are significant: 1) overall rents and 2) rental vacancy rates. Where … [Read more...]