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“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.

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  • What Should I Read to Understand Zoning?

Why Is Japanese Zoning More Liberal Than US Zoning?

March 19, 2019 By Nolan Gray

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: planning, World, zoning Tagged With: japan, land-use regulation, preemption, tokyo, united states, zoning

“Order Without Design”, a new guide to urban planning

December 5, 2018 By Anthony Ling

This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding. This is how Jane Jacobs opened her 1961 classic “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”. It wouldn’t be an inappropriate opener for Alain Bertaud’s upcoming “Order Without Design”.While Jacobs was an observer of how cities … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Review, Economics, housing, planning, Policy, Transportation, zoning Tagged With: alain bertaud, books, order without design

New Video: How Zoning Laws Are Holding Back America’s Cities

September 13, 2018 By Nolan Gray

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 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: history, housing, Jane Jacobs, parking, planning, zoning Tagged With: institute for humane studies, Jane Jacobs, josh oldham, minimim lot sizes, modernist planning, robert moses, San Francisco, sandy ikdea, segregation, single-family zonign, St. Louis, Urban Planning, zoning

Light and Air, Sound and Fury; or, Was the Equitable Life Building Panic Only About Shadows?

September 6, 2018 By Nolan Gray

Equitable Life Building from the street. It's imposing!

When I first became interested in urban planning, I believed a piece of professional mythology that went like this: “For all its faults, Euclidean zoning was a well-meaning effort to expand nuisance regulation in the face of the urban industrialization. It was later practitioners who used zoning for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: history, NIMBYism, planning, zoning Tagged With: equitable life building, landlords, New York City, nuisance, shadows, zoning

Why Autonomous Vehicles != Endless Sprawl

July 18, 2018 By Jeff Fong

There’s been an ongoing debate in urbanist circles about whether autonomous vehicles (AVs) will damn us to perpetual sprawl and super commuting. I don’t believe that they will. In the first place, the business conditions under which AVs could conceivably induce more sprawl are unlikely. And in the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Logistics & Transportation, planning, sprawl, Transportation Tagged With: autonomous vehicles, self driving cars, sprawl

Ch. 1 What is a City?: Concluding thoughts & works cited

May 31, 2018 By Sandy Ikeda

Viewing cities as spontaneous orders and not as works of art helps to explain the tradeoff between scale and order, as well as the role of time in softening the severity of that tradeoff. Complexity and creativity are at odds with scale and the comprehensiveness of design because increasing scale … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Author: Sandy Ikeda, Culture of Congestion, Jane Jacobs, planning Tagged With: spontaneous order, urban tactility

The Case for Subsidizing Deed Restrictions

May 9, 2018 By Nolan Gray

Houston skyline

In most of my discussions of Houston here on the blog, I have always been quick to hedge that the city still subsidizes a system of quasi-private deed restrictions that control land use and that this is a bad thing. After reading Bernard Siegan’s sleeper market urbanist classic, “Land Use Without … [Read more...]

Filed Under: housing, planning, zoning Tagged With: bernard siegan, covenants, deed restrictions, hoas, homeowners associations, Houston, land-use regulation, zoning

Ch. 1 What is a City?: Complexity and radical ignorance

May 7, 2018 By Sandy Ikeda

First of all, Jacobs observed that the artist abstracts from life, with all its “inclusiveness” and “literally endless intricacy.” Many architects, especially those with great ambition, seem to treat urban environments as merely a canvas for their works of genius, which if not already blank needs to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Author: Sandy Ikeda, Culture of Congestion, Jane Jacobs, planning Tagged With: abstraction, complexity, local knowledge, radical ignorance, scale, tradeoff

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