There are many ways to tell the story of urban-policy failure. Economists have shown how rent control creates housing shortages, sociologists how welfare programs destroy poor communities, and urbanologists how urban planning can debilitate cities. In his book The Future Once Happened Here, … [Read more...]
My New Book On Market Urbanism
I am happy to announce that my new book "Government Intervention and Suburban Sprawl: The Case for Market Urbanism" is now available at Amazon. There is a "look inside the book" feature at the book's Amazon webpage for those who would like to know more. I would like to thank not just the readers … [Read more...]
Joel Kotkin’s New Book Lays Out His Sprawling Vision For America
Also read my other post about Kotkin's book: NIMBYism as an Argument Against Urbanism Traditionally, defenders of suburban sprawl have been skittish about proclaiming that government should promote sprawl and halt infill development. Instead, they have taken a libertarian tack, … [Read more...]
The Bottom-Up Urbanism Of Patrik Schumacher
[editor's note: This article was originally posted at Medium.com, and republished with permission of the author, Zachary Caceres. Below are links to some of the Free Market Urbanism writings and speaking of Patrik Schumacher, Partner at Zaha Hadid Architects. Schumacher's writing is … [Read more...]
Taylor Swift Spurns Country Music’s Longtime Attitude Towards Cities
If you listen to a lot of bluegrass and country, you’d think cities were the worst thing that ever happened to humanity. J.D. Crowe and the New South ask why they ever left their plow behind to look for a job in the town: Hank Williams, Jr. thinks that you’ll only get mugged if you go downtown. … [Read more...]
Glamour in streetscapes
A while ago I attended an Urban Land Institute event on development trends in Fairfax's Mosaic District. A presenter from the retail developer EDENS described their strategy of adding "sidewalk jewelry," a design technique used to entice shoppers to travel down sidewalks between stores. Having never … [Read more...]
Thoughts on The Power Broker and Government Roads
I recently finished The Power Broker by Robert Caro after many months of Metro reading. I loved the book, and can't recommend it enough. Caro provides an overview of Robert Moses' policies here. If you don't want to invest in reading the full 1162 pages, I would particularly recommend the chapters … [Read more...]
A Conversation about the Commonwealth of Belle Isle
Yesterday I learned about a proposed free city in the United States through Arnold Kling. The project, called the Commonwealth of Belle Isle would be located on an island on the Detroit River that is currently a city park. The proposal comes from Detroit real estate developer Rod Lockwood who … [Read more...]