Nolan Gray a regular contributor to Market Urbanism. He is also a practicing city planner, having earned a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University. His work regularly appears on Citylab and Strong Towns. He lives in New York City and is originally from Lexington, Kentucky.
You can find his contributions to Market Urbanism here.
Send your questions, comments, and frustrations to him on Twitter at @mnolangray.
For more elaborate concerns, send him an email:
Market Urbanism
Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up
We are blessed and cursed to live in times in which most smart people are expected to have an opinion on zoning. Blessed, in that zoning is arguably the single most important institution shaping where we live, how we move around, and who we meet. Cursed, in that zoning is notoriously obtuse, with zoning ordinances […]
The post What Should I Read to Understand Zoning? appeared first on Market Urbanism.
As zoning has become more restrictive over time, the need for “safety valve” mechanisms—which give developers flexibility within standard zoning rules—has grown exponentially. U.S. zoning officially has two such regulatory relief mechanisms: variances and special permits. Variances generally provide flexibility on bulk rules (e.g. setbacks, lot sizes) in exceptional cases where following the rules would […]
The post Against Spot Text Amendments appeared first on Market Urbanism.
Over the past few years, Japanese zoning has become popular among YIMBYs thanks to a classic blog post by Urban kchoze. It’s easy to see why: Japanese zoning is relatively liberal, with few bulk and density controls, limited use segregation, and no regulatory distinction between apartments and single-family homes. Most development in Japan happens “as-of-right,” […]
The post Why Is Japanese Zoning More Liberal Than US Zoning? appeared first on Market Urbanism.
Believe it or not, the YIMBY movement won a lot in 2018. It kicked off with January’s high of California State Senator Scott Wiener’s introduction of SB 827, which would have permitted multifamily development near transit across the state, but fell to a low after its eventual defeat in committee, invariably followed by a flurry […]
The post What Should YIMBYs Learn From 2018? appeared first on Market Urbanism.
With the Democrats scrambling to come up with a legislative agenda after their November takeover of the House of Representatives, an old idea is making a comeback: a “Green New Deal.” Once the flagship issue of the Green Party, an environmental stimulus package is now a cause de celebre among the Democratic Party’s progressive wing. […]
The post Any Green New Deal Must Tackle Zoning Reform appeared first on Market Urbanism.
Alain Bertaud’s long awaited book, Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities, is out today. Bertaud is a senior research scholar at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management and former principle urban planner at the World Bank. Working through a pre-release copy over the past few weeks, I can confidently say that the book is an instant […]
The post “Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities” Out Today appeared first on Market Urbanism.
Earlier this year, researchers Paavo Monkkonen and Michael Manville at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) conducted a survey of 1,300 residents of Los Angeles County to understand the motives behind NIMBYism. As part of the study, they presented respondents with three common anti-development arguments, including the risk of traffic congestion, changes to neighborhood […]
The post Why Do We Hate Developers? appeared first on Market Urbanism.
It’s an understatement to say that zoning is a dry subject. But in a new video for the Institute for Humane Studies, Josh Oldham and Professor Sanford Ikeda (a regular contributor to this blog) manage to breath new life into this subject, accessibly explaining how zoning has transformed America’s cities. From housing affordability to mobility […]
The post New Video: How Zoning Laws Are Holding Back America’s Cities appeared first on Market Urbanism.