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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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Why do condos even exist?

July 1, 2012 By Stephen Smith

It sounds like a dumb question – they exist because people like the security of owning a home combined with the services and lower costs that apartments offer, duh! But upon further reflection, condominium-style tenure can be a bit problematic. The main problem, as I see it, is that a building … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economics, history, housing, Law Tagged With: condos, nyc, Singapore

The War on Drugs Is a War on Cities

October 12, 2011 By Stephen Smith

Ken Burns’ new documentary Prohibition is excellent and highly recommended on its own merits, but urbanists should take special note of its urban themes. Cities have always been caricatured as centers of licentiousness, and the booming cities of turn-of-the-century America, teeming with poor … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture & Books, history, Places & Spaces, Policy Tagged With: real estate, regulation

New standards for ridiculousness in historic preservation

July 28, 2011 By Emily Hamilton

Because Arlington County, VA is not home to many properties over 100 years old, planning officials have turned their historic preservation efforts to those properties they do have to preserve. The Sun Gazette reports: The first phase of the effort focused on only a very narrow slice of property … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economics, history, preservation

The Little-Known History of “Light and Air”

April 26, 2011 By Stephen Smith

"Light and air" is a very common excuse that people give for why we must have basic zoning laws, and while nowadays a lot of people mean it simply in an aesthetic sense – another way of saying "I like to be able to look out a window and not see another skyscraper 50 feet away" (though for some … [Read more...]

Filed Under: history, planning, Policy, Zoning Tagged With: density, history, progressivism, skyscrapers, zoning

More Libertarians on Jane Jacobs

April 23, 2011 By Adam Hengels

The Ludwig von Mises Institute publishes a podcast performed by Jeff Riggenbach called "The Libertarian Tradition", which discusses significant figures in the libertarian movement.  The most recent edition is dedicated to Jane Jacobs, who's ideas are highly regarded by many libertarians, despite the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economics, history, Jane Jacobs Tagged With: Author: Sandy Ikeda, Brooklyn Heights, Jane Jacobs, Ludwig Von Mises, Thomas Schmidt

Links

February 2, 2011 By Stephen Smith

1. Systemic Failure calls out the Bay Area for giving an award to a textbook example of greenwashing in urbanism: Ironically, this project was recently promoted on the SF-Streetsblog website by “New Urbanist” developer Peter Calthrope for its “highest level” of green technology. What does it say … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economics, history, Transportation Tagged With: Bay Area, gas tax, history, LA

The roots of anti-density sentiment

February 2, 2011 By Stephen Smith

Matt Yglesias, Kevin Drum, and Ryan Avent have been discussing the political economy of anti-density regulations, and I have a lot of comments, but I'm not sure I have the time (or, really, the patience) to air all of them. So, we'll see how long this post gets. First of all, I think all this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: history, infrastructure, planning, Transportation, Zoning Tagged With: density, history

The origin of user fees?

January 25, 2011 By Stephen Smith

I just started reading Paving the Way: New York Road Building and the American State, 1880-1956by Michael R. Fein, and though I don't have time to talk as much about it as I'd like, I will say that I'm only a couple pages in and I can already tell it's going to be great. Its thesis is essentially … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economics, history, infrastructure, Transportation Tagged With: gas tax, highways, history

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