My guest this week is Sanford Ikeda, a professor of economics at SUNY Purchase and a visiting scholar at New York University. He has written extensively on urban economics, policy, and planning.Professor Ikeda introduced me to urban economics and urban planning when he gave a … [Read more...]
Urban Design and Social Complexity
This week’s column is drawn from a lecture I gave at the University of Southern California on the occasion of the retirement of urban economist Peter Gordon.One of my heroes is the urbanist Jane Jacobs, who taught me to appreciate the importance for entrepreneurial development of how public … [Read more...]
How Houston Regulates Land Use
If you regularly read about cities, you might notice that Texas cities rarely seem to come up. We make cases for why Detroit is definitely coming back—just you wait! We come up with elaborate theories of how cities can become the next Silicon Valley. We spend hours coming up with a solution to New … [Read more...]
Episode 02: Emily Hamilton on Land-Use Regulation and the Cost of Housing
When I was scheduling out the first few episodes of the Market Urbanism Podcast, it seemed natural to start with one of Market Urbanism's favorite topics: the relationship between land-use regulation and rising housing costs in American cities. This week I sit down with Emily Hamilton, a regular … [Read more...]
When It Comes to Walkability, Mexico City Is Miles Ahead
This piece was coauthored by Nolan Gray and Katarina Hall.It’s like Los Angeles, but worse. To many, that’s the mental image of Mexico City: a city of unending traffic, unbearable smog, and unrestrained horizontal expansion. Yet when one walks the streets of Mexico City, a distinct … [Read more...]
100 Years After Zoning In New York City, Government Dominates Land Use
This month marks the 100th anniversary of two pieces of legislation that revolutionized the way we live. On July 11, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the first Federal Aid Road Bill. And on July 25, 1916--exactly 100 years ago today--New York City passed the country’s first comprehensive zoning … [Read more...]
Y-Combinator, Tech, and “New Cities”
Monday, Y-Combinator, an early-stage technology startup incubator, announced it will “study building new, better cities.” Some existing cities will get bigger and there's important work being done by smart people to improve them. We also think it’s possible to do amazing things given a blank slate. … [Read more...]
Houston’s Beautiful (Yet Partial) Embrace of Market Urbanism
A metropolitan economy, if it is working well, is constantly transforming many poor people into middle-class people, many illiterates into skilled people, many greenhorns into competent citizens. … Cities don’t lure the middle class. They create it. – Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great … [Read more...]