Category MUsings

  1. This week at Market Urbanism: Four Warnings For Los Angeles On Measures S I’m not going to rehash arguments for or against the measure.  Instead, I’m going to offer several warnings based on the experience of Davis, CA, which passed its own Ballot Box Zoning Measure in 2000. World City Profiles: Ancient Rome Really Knew How To City by Matt Gangemi Now imagine a modern implementation of a Roman city. The narrow streets would be well-lit and safe, the apartments would be ranging from affordable to extravagant, the tiny shops would provide jobs to many that live above, and dense office buildings would provide jobs for many more. Well-planned parks and amenities would provide endless entertainment and chances for social interaction, while the pub on your block may connect you with your nearby neighbors. 2. Announcement Gangemi’s post above on Rome gave us an idea for what could be an ongoing and sporadic MU series—“World City Profiles”. That is, readers who live in or visit international cities could write photo blog posts about the brilliant urbanism in those places, peppering them with historical context, and commentary on how America’s design codes make such development illegal here. Given our disperse audience–and your frequent traveling–this could make for an illustrative series. PM me or Scott Beyer if you have a submission 3. Where’s Scott? Scott will spend his final weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area visiting its many notable suburbs, including Berkeley, Napa, Palo Alto and more. Then he’s heading to Portland, stop #12 on his 30-city tour. His Forbes article this week explains how Measure S Would Grip Los Angeles In A Housing Shortage The city is the nation’s homeless capital, and just passed a ballot measure that would dedicate $1.2 billion in bond revenue to fund 13,000 supportive units. But it […]

  1. Announcement Market Urbanism and the Foundation for Economics Education are partnering on a special 6-session track focused on Market Urbanism at this Summer’s conference in Atlanta. Mark your calendars for June 15-18 (we are also going to try to plan some gatherings separate from the FEE itinerary on Sunday, the 18th). Here’s the description on FEE’s website: Wherever you live, your city uses archaic regulations to restrict what can be built, and for what purposes buildings can be used. The Urbanism, Development, and Your Neighborhood track is a joint effort by Market Urbanism and FEE to shed some light on the vast spectrum of land use and transportation regulations that suck the vibrancy out of neighborhoods, cause traffic congestion, and constrain housing supply to the point we have an affordable housing crisis in cities across the world. This track provides you with the intellectual tools you’ll need to make a case for liberty in your own backyard and bring liberty to your streets. 2. This week at Market Urbanism: New contributor “California Palms“–who is using a pen name to avoid any workplace drama from Nimbys in his home city–authored his first piece When NIMBYs Use Renters’ Health To Stop Rental Housing Stay tuned, as Davis-style development laws are starting to appear on the ballots of big cities like Los Angeles, which will vote on Measure S (or the “neighborhood integrity initiative”) in March. I want to make sure you see exactly how much more difficult your community’s land use politics will become if you mistakenly go the Davis way. Michael Hamilton How to finance a sanctuary city Many cities will maintain their sanctuary status, since a large percentage of their workforce and entrepreneurial base are undocumented….Assuming that this decision robs sanctuary cities of federal funding, liberalizing land-use regulation and selling city-owned property […]

  1. This week at Market Urbanism: If Landlords Can Profit, Homes Must Be Great Investments, Right? by Emily Hamilton A childless couple might purchase a four-bedroom home in a good school district for the future, meaning that they end up over-consuming housing for their yet unborn children. If this hypothetical couple decided to rent until their children were school-age instead, they would likely be able to save and invest a substantial amount by spending less on housing in the near term. The Disconnect Between Liberal Aspirations And Liberal Housing Policy Is Killing Coastal U.S. Cities by Shane Phillips There really is something inherently flawed in the way we’ve approached housing policy for the past several decades (at least), and I would argue that it comes down to a kind of cognitive dissonance on three key issues…. 2. Announcement Market Urbanism reader Kyle Zheng alerted us to his blog TwoFiveSeven.org. It includes a “Master City” page that connects readers, in very user-friendly fashion, to just about every urban issues blog in America. There’s even a built-in feature to add any blog he may’ve missed. This site is a great resource for urbanists far and wide. 3. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer has arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, settling in the Merritt Park neighborhood of Oakland. His two Forbes articles this week were America’s ‘Inner City’ Problem, As Seen In One Baltimore Neighborhood and The Case For Localizing Federal Transportation Policy This underlies a longtime trend, in which states of largely rural and suburban character get more federal funding per tax dollar paid than urban ones. It is particularly pronounced for transportation funding. Scott also did a radio interview about his cross-country trip, on Sacramento’s KFBK Home Show. He appears at the 20:40 mark. 4. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group Elizabeth Lasky wants to start a political meme: “Mothers for more housing” […]

  1. This week at Market Urbanism: The Rural Libertarian As A Historical Anomaly by Sandy Ikeda I believe the positive correlation between political conservatism and libertarianism and rural or “agricultural” living is an historical anomaly; that historically the countryside has been a great obstacle to liberty while cities have been the places where liberty and the fruits of liberty have flourished. Burrowing Owls, Comic Books, and Telling Stories That Change the World by Jeff Fong Translating the article’s information, ideas and arguments into a visually consumable format, however, makes it accessible to a much larger group of people. For every person that read the original article, there are probably fifty who would thumb through the comic book if left out on your coffee table. 7 Reasons To Oppose Los Angeles’ Neighborhood Integrity Initiative by Shane Phillips It’s a really bad plan, but calling Measure S “bad” doesn’t go nearly far enough. It is, in fact, the Donald Trump of ballot initiatives. It’s a cynical effort to co-opt a legitimate sense of frustration—frustration felt by those who haven’t shared in the gains of an increasingly bifurcated society—and to use that rage and desperation for purely selfish purposes. 2. Announcement: Kim-Mai Cutler, a Bay Area journalist, launched a kickstarter for her upcoming comic book about the need for more housing. Saturday is the final day of the campaign. 3. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer will spend most the upcoming week meandering his way from Los Angeles to San Francisco, stopping in Malibu, Santa Barbara, Monterey and other coastal cities. His Forbes article this week was about his Year Spent Traveling Through America’s Fast-Growing Sunbelt The popular explanation is that people are seeking warmer climates. This is likely somewhat true–but regulatory climates also factor in. Economic Freedom rates, which in America have been a driver of […]

1. This week at Market Urbansim:  Is There a “Libertarian Architecture”? by Sandy Ikeda By “libertarian architecture” I don’t mean a particular style. In the absence of government intervention, however, I do think certain kinds of projects would be unlikely to emerge, and so it may be possible to rule out styles associated with such projects. 2. MU Elsewhere Stephen Smith wrote a guest post for the blog 2nd Ave Sagas: Enough Is Enough. Tell your elected officials the MTA’s costs are too high Stephen was also interviewed by Architizer.com about Why 40 Percent of Manhattan’s Buildings Couldn’t Be Built Today 3. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer is flying tomorrow from Los Angeles to his hometown of Charlottesville, VA for the holidays. He wrote this week for Forbes about his interview with Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett, and for Governing Magazine about When Local Control Backfires Local governance can backfire, especially when parochial interests trump larger regional concerns. Nowhere is this more evident than in housing, where prices are skyrocketing in many U.S. cities. 4. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: Caleb Brown Interviewed Randal O’Toole on the Cato Daily Podcast about Trump‘s Plans for American Infrastructure Anthony Ling shared SF real estate listings from 1990 Garrett Malcolm Petersen asks about how property values would be affected if homelessness were treated differently Ethan Kent asks, “Thoughts on how the market urbanism conversation can help shape and support the placemaking movement?” Sonja Trauss announces a kickstarter for a new YIMBY comic book Todd Litman has been working with the Middle Tennessee “Moving Forward” program to help develop high quality public transit services in the Nashville region. Jaap Weel discusses plans to upzone the Central SOMA area around the new Central Subway in San Francisco. Franco Martín López wonders if someone wants to co-write an article about demolitions of entire blocks in […]

  1. This week at Market Urbansim: Same Old Story: How Planners Continue to Drive Gentrification by Nolan Gray 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 disadvantaged against the vagaries of the unrestrained market.” Urban Mass Transit Out Of Suburban Sprawl by Sandy Ikeda The trick is to find “rules of the game” – such as private property and norms of reciprocity – that over time generate consequences that correct errors and promote rather than prevent social cooperation. While economists and social theorists since Adam Smith have understood this, many in the urban-planning profession don’t seem to have fully grasped the message. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer is in Los Angeles, and this weekend will visit Anaheim, Huntington Beach and other previously unexplored parts of Orange County. His two Forbes articles this week were Oklahoma City’s MAPS Is A Model Public Works Program and Oakland’s Warehouse Tragedy Resulted From Too Little Housing Construction As long as this mismatch remains–thousands of new people per year, only hundreds of new units–many Oaklandites will live in substandard housing, from dangerous warehouses to overcrowded apartments to poorly-maintained rent-controlled units that tenants are scared to leave. 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: Donald Shoup, Quan Yuan, and Xin Jiang wrote: Charging for Parking to Finance Public Services Anthony Ling translated Mark Lutter‘s article, Instead Of Temporary Camps, We Should Let Refugees Build Their Own Flourishing Cities to Portuguese John Morris asks, “How might the still emerging local and state government pension crisis affect land use? Zoning clearly reduces potential revenues from taxable property. Could strained budgets and insolvency make pensioners and […]