Category MUsings

  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 […]

1. This week at Market Urbanism: Brent Gaisford contributed his first article, High Rent Sucks. Let’s Build More Houses and launched a new website: LA Rent Is Too Damned High Let’s upzone our cities and build more houses. And not just a few. A lot. Let’s build a lot more houses. Jeff Fong wrote a post inspired by a recent Nolan Gray piece, Planning As A Question Of Scale In Jane Jacob’s Hayekian Critique of Urban Planning, Nolan Gray argues for the futility of trying to master plan something as complex as an entire city. And he’s right. The last century’s Corbusian fantasies overwhelmingly ended in failure. Johnny Sanphillipo filmed a video about his small farm: Suburban Market Gardening  This sort of small scale local food production is generally ignored or labelled as irrelevant. It isn’t “agriculture.” It isn’t…. anything. It’s just eccentric hobbyists who like to play farmer. But I disagree. Michael Lewyn is skeptical rich foreigners are causing high housing costs: Are Billionaires To Blame? One common argument I have read in various places is that the high rent of New York and other large cities is a result of globalization and inequality (English translation: rich foreigners).  According to this theory, rich people have created a surge of demand so overwhelming that no amount of construction could possibly meet it. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer spent his fourth week in San Antonio. His Forbes article this week covered Puerto Rico’s business climate problem, focusing on the capital city of San Juan: Ricardo and Pamela were skeptical that one-stop permit shops would work in San Juan. The city would be too incompetent, settling for outdated technologies and low-energy employees. And special interests–such as existing businesses, entrenched civil servants and the gestores–would oppose streamlining the process. 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: via Logan Mohtashami: Build more houses […]

1. This week at Market Urbanism: Emily Washington ties Adam Smith‘s ideas to urbanism in Mercantilist logic and land-use regulation Adam Smith taught the world that mercantilism impoverished 18th-century nations by erecting barriers to trade and reducing opportunities for specialization and economic growth. Regulations that restrict urban development likewise reduce opportunities for innovation and specialization by limiting cities’ population size and density. Dan Keshet Taylor Swift Spurns Country Music’s Longtime Attitude Towards Cities Taylor Swift, on the other hand, can portray a positive side of cities: cosmopolitan places to escape bad relationships, meet new people with different life experiences, and grow your dreams. Let’s Go L.A., an anonymous new contributor, adds Zoning, Buildings Codes, And Low-Quality Housing quality can be used to convey a wide variety of characteristics. Something can be low quality in the sense that it is hazardous to human health and safety, or something can be low quality in the sense that, while functional, it doesn’t meet the aesthetic preferences of the neighbors. Stephen Smith quoted about Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn at Washington Post 2. Wednesday was Jane Jacobs‘ 100th birthday, giving market urbanists much to walk and talk about. These include numerous Jane’s Walks that will occur this weekend in numerous U.S. cities: Nolan Gray discussed Jane Jacobs and Friedrich Hayek on the Strong Towns Podcast Emily Washington talked about Jane Jacobs on the Cato Daily Podcast Sandy Ikeda is hosting his annual Brooklyn Heights Janes Walk this weekend An urbanist friend of Jeff Fong dedicated a song to Jane Jacobs Stephen Smith is never afraid to point out the NIMBY tendencies of Jane Jacobs on twitter: It’s Jane Jacobs’s 100th birthday!! To celebrate, I will tweet out some of her most NIMBYrrific quotes. — Market Urbanism (@MarketUrbanism) May 4, 2016 3. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer spent his third week in San Antonio, and will travel tomorrow to the Mexican […]

  1. This week at Market Urbanism: Carolyn Zelikow of Aspen Institute wrote her first Market Urbanism article, Richard Florida Should Replace The Term ‘Creative Class’ With ‘Country Club’ So I was shocked that reading Florida’s book not only gave me zero ideas for my own community, but actually made me question whether the “Creative Class” was something that cities should try to foster, period. As far as I can tell, the Creative Class is just a new name for rich people. Howard Ahmanson also contributed his first post, No, ‘New Urbanism’ And ‘Smart Growth’ Are Not The Same It is a fact that perhaps 90% of New Urbanists are also Smart Growthers, though many of the leaders of the New Urbanist movement are not; that still does not mean the two philosophies are identical. Michael Lewyn followed up on his article on “school-based sprawl”: “Public Schools Only” Vouchers and Sprawl This plan might discourage sprawl by making prestigious suburban schools available to urban parents.  And if both students from affluent families and students from poor families entered these schools, the class differences between urban and suburban schools might be erased in the long run. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott Beyer spent his second week in San Antonio. He wrote two Forbes articles this week–about a Private Proposal To Solve Chicago’s Freight Rail Bottleneck, and whether San Francisco’s Solar Panel Mandate Will Increase Housing Costs: The goals driving the solar panel mandate sound wonderful, but how will they influence San Francisco’s already-high housing prices?…As I learned through recent research and interviews, it doesn’t appear that San Francisco’s officials are too curious about the answer. Scott also published on his blog a radio interview about his visit to Havana, Cuba (starts at the 20:31 mark) 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: Bjorn Swenson “dropped a bombshell” on his hometown’s Facebook […]

1. This week at Market Urbanism: Nolan Gray Reclaiming “Redneck” Urbanism: What Urban Planners Can Learn From Trailer Parks Trailer parks remain one of the last forms of housing in US cities provided by the market explicitly for low-income residents. Better still, they offer a working example of traditional urban design elements and private governance. Scott Beyer San Francisco Seeks Public, Not Private, Solutions To Housing Crisis However the biggest problem with San Francisco’s housing policy is that officials and citizens alike are hostile to new buildings, especially tall ones, even when they are built in appropriate locations. Emily Washington and Michael Hamilton Market Urbanism Is Underrated Zoning is not a Georgist tax in which landowners are taxed in proportion to their land’s value; rather, zoning hugely decreases the value of the country’s most valuable land, while it props up the value of land that would be less desirable absent zoning. 2. Where’s Scott? Scott flew early this week from his hometown of Charlottesville, VA to San Antonio. He has been hired by the Center for Opportunity Urbanism to do a profile on the city, including its history, growth, and future prospects. 3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group: Todd Litman, of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, talks about The Disconnect Between Liberal Aspirations and Liberal Housing Policy John Morris says, “Ironic: Portland’s best shot at an equitable, environmentally sound, affordable city is to return to development before “progressive” planning.” Jeff Fong found interesting simulations predicting the promising effect of driverless cars on cities Lot’s of discussion about Tyler Cowen‘s skepticism that the deregulation Market Urbanism advocates won’t actually lower rents.  (via Anthony Ling) Alex Tabarrok shared his latest post at Marginal Revolution: Regulatory Arbitrage, Rent-Seeking and the Deal of the Year where 4,000sf of valuable New York real estate had to be destroyed to comply with zoning “An eclectic coalition of residents, business owners, […]

1. This week at Market Urbanism: Tory Gattis has an interesting take on the restaurant scene in Houston Cities like to hype amenities like museums and performing arts, but really, how often do you go to a museum or an arts performance? A few times a year? How often do you eat out? Hopefully more than a few times a year Calib Malik explains why Rent Control Is Bad For Both Landlords And Tenants Void of analysis, rent control sounds utopian. Yet, the effects are unfortunate: tenants face limited housing stocks that are either run-down or unaffordable; landlords lose money, and ultimately stop investing and building altogether. And yet it is a policy now being flirted with in cities like Seattle, San Diego, and Richmond, California. The potential economic effect in those cities could be dire. Johnny Sanphilippo wrote his predictions on the future of driverless cars Here’s a little heads up for those of you who think you know how driver-less cars will play out in the culture and economy. Asher Meyers recently moved to Brussels, and reports how the urban fabric fared after the terror attack. The atrocity raises some interesting questions in regards to urbanism—are there certain urban designs that can prevent or discourage terrorism? Should the threat of terrorism influence the design of our cities? How would it? Dan Keshet explains the 9 Barriers To Building Housing In Central City Austin Austin, like most cities, has rules that prevent new housing from getting centrally built. That makes it easier to buy and build on virgin land in the suburbs. Here are some of those rules. Scott Beyer continues his America’s Progressive Developers series in New Orleans with Sean Cummings and Steve Dumez  In the process of building this expensive waterfront, [the city] avoided any value capture strategy, and in fact downzoned adjacent properties from 75′ to 55′. […]