Category MUsings

  1. This week at Market Urbanism Does President Obama Have A ‘Regionalism’ Agenda? by Scott Beyer Such policies represent less a turn towards socialism, than one away from the nation’s existing socialized paradigm favoring suburbs, wherein housing regulations restrict dense infill development, while the public foots the costs of state highways, local roads, and other sprawl infrastructure. Obama, for all of his supposedly urban bias, has not been immune to extending this paradigm; for example, his stimulus package, writes economist Ed Glaeser, disproportionately benefited low-density states with low unemployment. 100 Years After Zoning In New York City, Government Dominates Land Use by Vince Graham Zoning is segregation – not only of land uses deemed incompatible, but of people deemed “undesirable.” Progressives behind New York City’s 1916 zoning ordinance regarded immigrants moving into northern cities from Europe and the South as “undesirable.” NIMBYs Outdo YIMBYs In Organizing Ability by Krishan Madan The reason boils down to the classic problem of concentrated costs and dispersed benefits: the beneficiaries of new housing are scattered, while those who benefit from a housing shortage–and thus higher prices–are concentrated. These organizational skills enable NIMBYs to dominate the discussion. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer spent his 3rd week in Austin. His two Forbes articles were Dallas And Houston: Centers For Economic Development and Austin’s Commuter Rail Is A Monument To Government Waste In 2014, the rail line had an operating deficit of $12.6 million. The upfront capital costs of $140 million, when amortized at 2% over 30 years, creates an additional $6.2 million annual cost to taxpayers. Add these two sums up, and then divide them by the line’s number of annual unlinked trips—763,551—and the per-trip subsidy works out to $24.62. 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: A Market Urbanism podcast with Nolan Gray?  Yes, it’s coming, and some hints leak […]

1. This week at Market Urbanism Quantifying the effects of California zoning rules by Emily Hamilton Kip Jackson finds that California zoning rules and other land-use restrictions not only reduce the growth rate of new housing stock, but a new regulation can actually be expected to reduce the existing stock of housing by 0.2% per year. This correlation is greatest when looking only at multifamily buildings, where each new restriction results in 6% fewer apartments built annually. Tech for Housing: An Experiment in YIMBY Activism by Jeff Fong We want to make participation in land use reform a conspicuously consumable good within Bay Area tech. We want everyone within tech to identify as YIMBY by default and for that reflexive self-identification to tip the scales of everyone’s internal cost benefit analysis in favor of having an articulable opinion and taking minimal actions like sending a letter, signing a petition, or casting a vote. 2. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: Shanu Athiparambath wrote, Elevators are a Mass Transit System Adam Millsap wrote, Recessions Don’t Have The Same Impact On Every City Shanu Athiparambath wrote, Zoning Is Unjust, Anti-Poor & A Cause of Inequality via Tobias Cassandra Holbrook: Cash-Strapped Towns Are Un-Paving Roads They Can’t Afford to Fix via Vinay Natu, “Man behind charter cities – Paul Romer, named for Chief Economist, World Bank“ via Melanie Meharchand, “The Coastal Commission wrote a letter chiding the City of Laguna Beach for its overly-restrictive regulations on short-term rentals.” via Nolan Gray, “Hard to tell who’s more irritating here, the weirdo utopian schemers or the petty narrow-minded NIMBYs:” A Mormon Tycoon Wants to Build Joseph Smith’s Mega-Utopia in Vermont via Roger Valdez: Renting in Seattle? City could put a cap on your move-in fees via Matt Robare:  The Tyranny of Free Parking via Jake Thomas: Housing […]

  1. This week at Market Urbanism, we’re Liberalizing Cities From The Bottom Up Middle Aged NIMBYs, Young YIMBYs by Michael Lewyn Most of the Pro-Urb posters on housing costs assume that high rents are the result of insatiable demand driven by wealthy foreigners, that government lets developers do as they please, and that housing supply is pretty much irrelevant. Why The Tech Industry Should Care About Housing by Jeff Fong Our broken housing system is silently depriving us of future contributors who could build great things; and for each individual who’s preemptively priced out, we’ll never know what those things might have been. Is Commercialism Making Cities Less Livable? by Shanu Athiparambath Are these people correct? If they were, the world’s most commercial cities would be the least livable. But anyone with a modicum of education or travel experience knows this is not true. The cities with the most economic freedom, commercial enterprise and prosperity–think Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Sydney and Vancouver–also have the highest living standards. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer will spend his last day in Dallas tomorrow visiting the downtown location of the recent sniper attacks. The rest of his weekend will be in Fort Worth, and the rest of July in Austin, stop #7 on his 30-city writing tour. 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: Brent Gaisford wants to get together with fellow Los Angelenos “if you want to get more involved in the fight for affordable, urbanist housing in LA“ Sandy Ikeda is surprised by an update on China‘s largest “ghost city” Cato Institute filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to take up a case that would restrict historical districting via takings law. Nick Zaiac and Randal John Meyer were involved in the research Shanu Athiparambath wrote Why Building In India Is A Challenge and These Income Segments […]

  1. This week at Market Urbanism Shane Phillips points the finger to a major culprit in LA‘s affordability problems: Keep Los Angeles Affordable By Repealing Proposition U Of the 29,000 acres zoned for commercial and industrial uses throughout LA, 70 percent saw their development capacity sliced in half, from a floor-area ratio (FAR) of 3.0 to 1.5. Since the city allows housing to be built in many of these zones, it didn’t just mean less office, retail, and manufacturing space, but fewer homes as well. Emily Washington contributed to New Urbs at The American Conservative: Family-Friendly Cities Start With Schools But where I depart from Schwarz is that public policy, not economic forces or renter preferences, is largely responsible for the lack of children in American cities. Specifically, education policy. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer took a writing break this week to wander around Texas, visiting the towns of Cuero, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Brownsville, McAllen, and the Mexican border city of Reynosa. He has since returned to Dallas, and will be flying this week to Boulder, CO, for the first annual YIMBY conference. Tickets for the event are still available. 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group Alden Wilner creates a Wikipedia stub for Market Urbanism, Russ Nelson adds to it.  We’d love to see the hive mind expand the page! Adam Millsap‘s latest: What The Boom And Bust Of Williston, ND Teaches Us About The Future Of Cities via Jonathan Coppage at New Urbs: Rescue Cities for Families Shanu Athiparambath wrote,  Indian Cities Need Private Fire Stations Matt Robare sums up the Massachusetts zoning reform, which passed the Senate Alex Bernstein wants to know the best objective and unbiases books to start reading Asher Meyers suggest the benefit of Universal Basic Income extends to urban issues based on Charles Murray‘s editorial […]

  1. This week at Market Urbanism Brent Gaisford sums up How Los Angeles’ Rent Got So Damn High Three big things happened, two of them awesome, and one dumb. We decided living in cities was cool again (awesome), city centers are creating tons of new jobs (awesome), and we didn’t build very many new places to live in our cities (not awesome). 2. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer spent his 6th and final week in San Antonio. His two Forbes articles this week were about how Subsidizing Light Rail Is Like Subsidizing The Landline Telephone and how Modern Zoning Would Have Killed Off America’s Dense Cities, which covered the New York Times research conducted by Stephen Smith If today’s regulatory climate had been applied a century or two ago, the American cities that people most want to preserve would be shells of themselves. And that was the point of the Times’ article, to show the fundamentally anti-urban nature of modern zoning regulations. 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group Michael Lewyn‘s latest at Planetizen:  Does New Housing Create New Demand for Housing? Rick Rybeck shared his writing: Funding Infrastructure to Rebuild Equitable, Green Prosperity via Krishan Madan:  Will Bellevue Kneecap Development to Preserve Its Employees’ Views? via Bjorn Swenson:  The “Grandma Test” says “speak up” Marcos Paulo Schlickmann wants to discuss whether the technology is a barrier to entry to less tech savvy Uber/Lyft customers John Coppage at American Conservative: Co-living shouldn’t just be for big-city yuppies via John Morris: Housing Costs Too Much: A Responsive Series of Awkward Dinner Conversations via John Morris: [Pittsburgh] Terminal Bldg converting to The Highline with bike trails and green space via Krishan Madan: SF Now Has Highest Per Capita Property Crime Rate In The US via Krishan Madan: For First Time in Modern Era, Living With Parents Edges Out Other Living Arrangements for […]