I related to this particular post by Michael Lewyn at Planetizen, Why I fight: Occasionally, someone familiar with my scholarship asks me: why do you care about walkability and sprawl and cities? Why is this cause more important to you than twenty other worthy causes you might be involved … [Read more...]
Weekend Reading: Jane Jacobs, Agglomeration, Farms, NIMBY Songs
During my early college studies in Architecture and Urban Design, I became loosely familiar with the ideas of Jane Jacobs, one of the most celebrated urbanist intellectuals. Sanford Ikeda's FEE lectures [mp3] have inspired me to learn more about Jane Jacobs from a Free Market Urbanism point of view. … [Read more...]
Links and Weekend Listening
I've been swamped in my day job, but want to share the following:The blog, Agents of Urbanism recently gave praise to Market Urbanism. Thanks Matthew! Please check out Agents of Urbanism and Life Without Buildings, who followed up on Agent of Urbanism's praise. I enjoy both blogs.Carl … [Read more...]
Video: Driven to the Brink
I enjoyed this short video that compares Chicago's Lincoln Square, where I have lived and Buffalo Grove, which is a suburb similar to where I grew up.The video was produced by CEOs for Cities, a Chicago based organization that advocates for cities. Their website gives this description: A new … [Read more...]
Neighborhood Walkability Scores
A recent Wall Street Journal blog post refers to a website called Walk Score. Walk Score will let you know the walkability of a neighborhood based on the address you type in. The site also features ranking of cities and neighborhoods.Here are the city rankings: 1. San Francisco, CA 2. New … [Read more...]
$5 Gas and Commuting Costs
Environmental and Urban Economics - Commuting Cost ArithmeticWhen people work in the suburbs, will they save many gallons of gasoline if they move to the center city? Yes, they will be closer to their center city friends and stores but they will still need to reverse commute by car to their … [Read more...]
Krugman: Stranded in Suburbia
Paul Krugman wrote an op-ed this morning how the US living and transportation patterns will not cope with high oil prices as well as European cities: Changing the geography of American metropolitan areas will be hard. For one thing, houses last a lot longer than cars. Long after today’s S.U.V.’s … [Read more...]
Video: Gridlock
Drew Carey discusses private alternatives to socialized highways that promote sprawl. … [Read more...]