Longtime commenter Alon Levy...has a blog! So far there's only one post up – a critique of one $295 million "HSR" grant for New York, money that was originally intended for Florida – but it's a good one, and I recommend everyone add the blog to their feed readers. He gets into the nitty-gritty … [Read more...]
Laneway housing in Vancouver and beyond
Vancouver holds a special place in most urbanists' heart – a sort of supercharged version of Portland, with its stunning skyline and bold embrace of density and transit. In addition to the glassy forest of skyscrapers, it also passed a law enabling laneway housing under former mayor Sam Sullivan's … [Read more...]
Garden apartments and letting go, then and now
In doing research for a post the other day, I stumbled upon this excerpt from a book called A History of Housing in New York City by Richard Plunz that I think has a useful lesson about development and regulation: The garden apartment would not have emerged unless it was profitable. In this aspect … [Read more...]
The irony of preserving that which was intended to destroy
From the front lines of the New York City preservation wars, one landlord is trying to convince the Landmarks Preservation Commission to allow him to demolish two of his landmarked buildings on the Upper East Side – something the commission has only approved 11 times for the 27,000 landmarks it … [Read more...]
Randal O’Toole’s responds on “per passenger miles”
I've had my disagreements with Randal O'Toole, a libertarian defender of suburban sprawl, but to his credit, he's done the most convincing accounting of subsidies (well, accounting costs, at least) that I've seen yet. And though he normally concentrates on federal costs, his write-up of an American … [Read more...]
Links: “At least they’re being honest” edition
1. NY Governor Cuomo promises the "most aggressive" strengthening of the state's (read: NYC's) rent laws.2. Bronx <3 parking: "This community wants a moratorium on any more building until we get a parking lot." "We don't want any bigger buildings and we want parking space for everyone."3. … [Read more...]
Links
1. The fact that we even have to have a debate over whether residential development should be allowed in Midtown, where new residents will have perhaps a smaller impact on transportation infrastucture than anywhere else in the country (they can either walk to work or do a reverse train commute), is … [Read more...]
“I’ve Walked Away From Projects Because of Parking Minimums”
Streetsblog NYC has been doing an excellent job of hounding the city on its lack of action on parking reforms, but this article with developer Alan Bell talking about his experience with parking minimums in the city is, I think, the best so far. Here's an excerpt: Hudson might have built more … [Read more...]