One of the core data sources for understanding homebuilding in the U.S. is the Census Bureau's Building Permit Survey. But a disturbing number of large cities and counties are lax in providing the monthly data that make the survey useful. The resulting lower-quality data impacts federal products, … [Read more...]
Do cities have too much public space?
My sense is that parks and similar forms of public space tend to be far less controversial than housing or industry. But an interesting paper by Israeli architecture professor Hillel Schocken suggests that a city can have too much public space. He begins by asking: why do cities exist? He … [Read more...]
Why another book about cities?
The starting point for Jacobs’s analysis and the focus of much of her thought is the city, its nature and significance. There are plenty of books out there that in some way celebrate cities. Many describe cities as engines of economic development, wellsprings of art and culture, and incubators of … [Read more...]
Book Review: The Public Wealth of Cities
The Public Wealth of Cities by Dag Detter and Stefan Fölster proposes a series of reforms to improve municipal finances. The authors lay out guidelines for creating urban wealth funds (UWFs) and argue that financial stability is key to societal success. Detter and Fölster first call for … [Read more...]
Ant Cities Don’t Have a Planning Department
Ants are a lot like humans in some ways. Look what ants can achieve without any top down management: [hat tip: Cafe Hayek] … [Read more...]
link: Medieval Cities
I have little expertise in Medieval Cities and have little input, but thought it was interesting: Marginal Revolution - Medieval cities: Europe vs. the Arabic world also, Econlog - Producer and Consumer Cities Cities in the Arab world were on average much larger than those in Europe, … [Read more...]
Journalists and Cities
Here's a link to an interesting article by Scott Page at Planetizen called A Journalistic View of Cities Scott discusses how mainstream journalists are poorly equipped to write appropriately on urban issues aside from than architecture. I was reading the New York Times Magazine special … [Read more...]