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.

Exempting Suburbia: How suburban sprawl gets special treatment in our tax code

By

This is the third post in a series about government policies that encouraged suburban growth in the US. You can find the first part here and the second one here. Suburban sprawl gets preferential tax treatment in the US. As a result, it is cheaper to spend a dollar on housing than on … [Read more...]

Financing Suburbia: How government mortgage policy determined where you live

By

The government exercises tremendous power over residential design in the US. Its influence is nearly invisible, because it works through complex financing programs, insurance incentives, and secondary markets. These mechanisms go unnoticed, but their effect is hard to miss—they remade the United … [Read more...]

Subsidizing Suburbia: A forgotten history of how the government created suburbia

By

This is the first article of a five-part series on suburbia in the United States. In primary school, one of my friends lived in a duplex. This fact blew my mind. To my inexperienced 7-year-old mind, a duplex barely registered as a house. Her family shared a driveway with their neighbors, and their … [Read more...]

My New Book On Market Urbanism

By

I am happy to announce that my new book "Government Intervention and Suburban Sprawl: The Case for Market Urbanism" is now available at Amazon.  There is a "look inside the book" feature at the book's Amazon webpage for those who would like to know more. I would like to thank not just the readers … [Read more...]

Urban Mass Transit Out Of Suburban Sprawl

By

The economist F.A. Hayek explained why it’s impossible for human reason to successfully design complex systems such as markets or language.  One can’t simply say, “Hey, I’d like to invent a Germanic language that does away with those troublesome genders and inflections but has plenty of Latin- and … [Read more...]

Thoughts On Today’s Emily Hamilton Vs. Randal O’Toole Cato Discussion

By

Because of work obligations, I listened to only about a third of today's Cato Institute discussion on urban sprawl.  I heard some of Randall O'Toole's talk and some of the question-and-answer period. O’Toole said high housing prices don’t correlate with “zoning” just with “growth constraints.”  … [Read more...]

The Demand Curve For Sprawl Slopes Downward

By

Suburbs have been around for as long as there have been urbs – cities, that is – a fact Robert Bruegmann reminds us of in his excellent book Sprawl.  And as sociologist Max Weber in The City and historian Henri Pirenne in Medieval Cities remind us, it’s often in the younger, freer suburbs rather … [Read more...]

Meta