by Stephen Smith The Weekly Standard has a comprehensive and compelling piece of investigative reporting on Columbia University's attempt to acquire 17 acres in the heart of the Manhattanville section, north of its Morningside campus. The tale is a classic example of eminent domain abuse – the … [Read more...]
Search Results for: parking
Landmark Incentives
by Sandy Ikeda The other day I was lecturing to my students about externalities and the Coase Theorem. One of the examples I used came directly from the our textbook – Heyne, Boettke, & Prychitko’s The Economic Way of Thinking. It asks what would happen if you tried to declare a large tree … [Read more...]
Euclid’s Legacy
While well intentioned, like many progressive interventions of the eary 1900s, zoning has contributed to sprawl (which has begun to be demonized by progressives over the recent decades) and served to inhibit the vitality and diversity of urban neighborhoods. The triumph of the core philosophy behind … [Read more...]
Matt Yglesias fails to make the right case against highways
Matt Yglesias is one of the best mainstream bloggers on land use/transportation that I know of. As one blogger (who I don't recall right now) once said, his urban planning and transportation posts could be blogs in their own right. However, it's puzzling that in an article for Cato Unbound, he … [Read more...]
Happy Park(ing) Day 2008
I guess I must not be hip enough to have known about this beforehand, but there's a very interesting citywide event happening here in New York today called Park(ing) Day. All throughout New York City, people are reclaiming parking spaces for their street-side enjoyment. It's a very novel idea that … [Read more...]
Another On “Conservatives” and Urbanism
While I sympathize with the theme and agree with regards to roadway spending and "conservative" hypocrisy, a recent article in the progressive The American Prospect takes a narrow-minded view of politics and urbanism, while throwing around broad generalizations about evolution and global warming to … [Read more...]
Skyscrapers as Economic Indicators
Ever hear of interesting economic indicators such as the correlation between the economy and length of skirts? Here's one urbanists should appreciate: the skyscraper index, which shows strong correlation between the completion of world's tallest buildings and downturns in the business cycle. Mark … [Read more...]
Urban[ism] Legend: Gas Taxes and Fees Cover All Costs of Road Use
No doubt, mass production of the automobile is one of the greatest innovations of all times. It has allowed for increased mobility of goods and people, which has greatly improved productivity and leisure. But, is subsidizing mobility at the expense of taxpayers taking things too far? In various … [Read more...]