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Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up

“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.

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Nolan Gray

Nolan Gray
I am a writer living in the Washington, D.C. area. I studied philosophy, political science, and history at the University of Kentucky and will pursue a Master of City and Regional Planning degree at Rutgers University this fall. My research interests include urban economics, land-use regulation, and urban planning theory.

Send your questions, comments, and frustrations to me on Twitter at @mnolangray. You can find my personal blog here.

“Curb Rights” at 20: A Summary and Review

November 21, 2017 By Nolan Gray

People sitting on a bus

At 4:30 am, alarms on my cellphone and tablet start beeping, just enough out of sync to prompt me to get up and turn them off. By 5:00 am, I riding as a passenger along an unusually sedate New Jersey Turnpike, making friendly conversation with my driver and survey partner to make sure he stays … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Review, Logistics & Transportation, privatization, Transportation Tagged With: bus rapid transit, buses, mass transit, New Jersey, privatization, Transportation

How Suburban Parking Requirements Hold Back Downtown

August 3, 2017 By Nolan Gray

A large, empty parking lot

You wake up thirty minutes before your alarm, jerking up after having a nightmare about a car crash. Reluctantly, you clean up, eat breakfast, and hop into your car. Work is only three mile away—easy biking distance—and there are 15 or so people in your neighborhood who work where you work—enough … [Read more...]

Filed Under: parking, Transportation Tagged With: Houston, minimum parking requirements, parking

Towards A Liberal Approach To Urban Form

March 29, 2017 By Nolan Gray

It is because every individual knows little and, in particular, because we rarely know which of us knows best that we trust the independent and competitive efforts of many to induce the emergence of what we shall want when we see it. — Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty Imagine the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: history, Jane Jacobs, planning Tagged With: austrian economics, Frank Lloyd Wright, Friedrich Hayek, Jane Jacobs, Le Corbusier, urban form, zoning

How Lexington Can Expand Affordable Housing (Without Touching the UGB)

January 9, 2017 By Nolan Gray

  Lexington, Kentucky is a wonderful place, and that’s getting to be a problem. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the city: its urban amenities, thriving information economy, and unique local culture have brought in throngs of economic migrants from locales as exotic as Appalachia, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gentrification, housing, planning, Zoning Tagged With: adu, gentrification, kentucky, lexington, minimum parking requirements, mixed use, parking

Same Old Story: How Planners Continue to Drive Gentrification

December 12, 2016 By Nolan Gray

Slum clearance in action

  Planners, like all professions, have their own useful mythologies. A popular one goes something like this: “Many years ago, us planners did naughty things. We pushed around the poor, demolished minority neighborhoods, and forced gentrification. But that’s all over today. Now we protect the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gentrification, planning, Zoning Tagged With: Dallas, gentrification, small business, Texas, zoning

Episode 05: Samuel Zipp and Nathan Storring on Vital Little Plans

October 26, 2016 By Nolan Gray

Alley

  This week on the Market Urbanism Podcast, I chat with Samuel Zipp and Nathan Storring on the wonderful new volume Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs. From Jacobs' McCarthy-era defense of unorthodox thinking to snippets of her unpublished history of humanity, the book is a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economics, Jane Jacobs, market urbanism podcast Tagged With: Economics, Jane Jacobs, market urbanism podcast, systems of survival

Episode 04: Anthony Ling on Brazilian Cities and the Future of Transportation

October 12, 2016 By Nolan Gray

Sao Paulo

My guest this week is Anthony Ling. Anthony is founder and editor of Caos Planejado, a Brazilian website on cities and urban planning. He also founded Bora, a transportation technology startup and is currently an MBA candidate at Stanford University. He graduated Architecture and Urban Planning at … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Logistics & Transportation, market urbanism podcast, planning, Transportation, World Tagged With: brasilia, Brazil, driverless cars, Sao Paulo, smart city, transit

Episode 03: Sanford Ikeda on Jane Jacobs

September 21, 2016 By Nolan Gray

Jane Jacobs

  My guest this week is Sanford Ikeda, a professor of economics at SUNY Purchase and a visiting scholar at New York University. He has written extensively on urban economics, policy, and planning. Professor Ikeda introduced me to urban economics and urban planning when he gave a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: history, Jane Jacobs, market urbanism podcast, Places & Spaces, planning Tagged With: Jane Jacobs, New York City, robert moses, sanford ikeda

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