In this exclusive interview to PropGuide, legendary economist David Friedman, who studied at Harvard University and University of Chicago, says that the government should allow developers to build high-rises to make homes affordable for everyone by 2022.I met David Friedman at Starbucks in … [Read more...]
A response to Interfluidity
On Interfluidity, Steve Randy Waldman posted some criticisms of the market urbanist position. The post was interesting, though I took issue with a few specific points. The following are my responses. Regulatory Authority as a Property RightThe customary property rights surrounding homeownership … [Read more...]
Smart city data and political opportunism
The term "smart cities" encompasses the interaction of the Internet of Things, the urban environment, and city dwellers. While these innovations have facilitated some very successful new services, smart cities have important limitations in the public sphere.Smart city technology includes city … [Read more...]
Shell Games in NIMBYism
Yesterday the Cato Institute hosted an event featuring William Fischel's discussion of his new book Zoning Rules! with commentary by Mark Calabria, Matt Yglesias, and Robert Dietz. Fischel explained his theory that zoning was an effective tool for minimizing nuisances between land uses through the … [Read more...]
Systemic bias against small scale development
In recent years, some of the country's largest mixed-use real estate developments involved disposition of government-owned land directly to developers. For example, Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and DC's City Center and Marriott Marquis came about when municipal governments … [Read more...]
San Francisco Turned Sisyphus: Why the City Can’t Fix the Housing Crisis On its Own
Housing prices in San Francisco are obscene. And, in large part, that’s because the city hasn’t permitted enough new construction. But that’s not the entire story. For as hard as San Francisco has resisted development, the Peninsula cities have resisted it even more. And in so doing they’ve pushed … [Read more...]
Market Fundamentalism in the Mission?
There’s a proposal to place a moratorium on all market rate construction in the Mission District, one of San Francisco’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Needless to say the proposal has sparked a debate. And Dan Ancona’s Putting Market Fundamentalism On Hold is another rock hurled into that … [Read more...]
Urban[ism] Legend: The Free Market Can’t Provide Affordable Housing
Over at Greater Greater Washington, Ms. Cheryl Cort attempts to temper expectations of what she calls the “libertarian view (a more right-leaning view in our region)” on affordable housing. It is certainly reassuring to see the cosmopolitan left and the pro-market right begin to warm to the … [Read more...]