Market Urbanism

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.

Rothbard the Urbanist Part 4: Policing

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I apologize for the extended delay between posts.  Personal (newborn) and professional priorities have prevented me from having the free time I once had. Unfortunately posts will probably continue to be sporadic until things settle down a little. We are now at Part 4 in the multi-part series … [Read more...]

Rothbard the Urbanist Part 3: Prevention of Blockades

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In the last post, we discussed the first paragraphs of chapter 11 of Murray Rothbard's For A New Liberty. (available free from Mises.org as pdf, web page, and audio book) Those paragraphs discussed the private ownership of all land, including streets and roads. Rothbard clearly and concisely … [Read more...]

Rothbard the Urbanist Part 2: Safe Streets

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The recent post, Public Education’s Role in Sprawl and Exclusion generated some interest and fantastic comments.   I recommend reading Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty in its entirety.  It is elegant in its consistently radical application of principles.  It is available for free from the Mises … [Read more...]

Are You a Wright or Friedman Urbanist?

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In a post blogger Eric Orozco called, ‘forerunner candidate for "most incisive blog post" of the year,’ Daniel Nairn of Discovering Urbanism discussed the seemingly conflicted camps of libertarianism when it comes to Urbanism.  His observations are based upon the comments in the Volokh article on … [Read more...]

Block vs Poole: The Public-Private Partnership Debate

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The Orange County Register’s Freedom Politics website (check out my rent control article FreePo published in March) features articles discussing two differing takes on road privatization from notable scholars Walter Block and Robert Poole. In Robert Poole’s article, he discusses the merits of the … [Read more...]

Rothbard the Urbanist Part 1: Public Education’s Role in Sprawl and Exclusion

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I’ve been meaning to address the public education system’s complex role in land use patterns, and found that Murray Rothbard does a better job in his 1973 manifesto, For a New Liberty than I ever could.  In summary, locally-funded public education is an engine of geographical segregation, which … [Read more...]

How Pricing Tolls Right Eliminates Congestion

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Chris Bradford over at Austin Contrarian has been making some solid points in favor of congestion pricing. (here, here, here and here)  Chris’s core argument in favor of congestion tolling is that: congestion pricing does more than relieve congestion.  Congestion pricing tells us when a road needs … [Read more...]

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