![Urban[ism] Legend: The Free Market Can’t Provide Affordable Housing](https://i2.wp.com/marketurbanism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CityCenter_DC_-_construction_06_-_2011-12-30.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&ssl=1)
Over at Greater Greater Washington, Ms. Cheryl Cort attempts to temper expectations of what she calls the “libertarian view (a more right-leaning view in our region)” on affordable housing. It is certainly reassuring to see the cosmopolitan left and the pro-market right begin to warm to the … [Read more...]
Laneway housing in Vancouver and beyond
Vancouver holds a special place in most urbanists' heart – a sort of supercharged version of Portland, with its stunning skyline and bold embrace of density and transit. In addition to the glassy forest of skyscrapers, it also passed a law enabling laneway housing under former mayor Sam Sullivan's … [Read more...]
Links: “At least they’re being honest” edition
1. NY Governor Cuomo promises the "most aggressive" strengthening of the state's (read: NYC's) rent laws.2. Bronx <3 parking: "This community wants a moratorium on any more building until we get a parking lot." "We don't want any bigger buildings and we want parking space for everyone."3. … [Read more...]
The Little-Known History of “Light and Air”
"Light and air" is a very common excuse that people give for why we must have basic zoning laws, and while nowadays a lot of people mean it simply in an aesthetic sense – another way of saying "I like to be able to look out a window and not see another skyscraper 50 feet away" (though for some … [Read more...]
Links
1. NYT A-1 headline! Number of new single-family homes sold in February was at its lowest point since data was first collected in 1963, but multi-unit sales are up.2. Lydia DePillis with an example of some abhorrent NIMBYism from DC.3. Anti-laneway housing propaganda from Vancouver. It looks … [Read more...]
How important really are skyscrapers?
Mary Newsom, in a review of Ed Glaeser's new book, makes some arguments about skyscrapers that I've never heard before: In his eyes, skyscrapers are the height of green living. But as architect Michael Mehaffy and others have pointed out, tall buildings can be less energy-efficient than shorter … [Read more...]
Is O’Toole right that California is too dense to matter?
Remember my response yesterday to Randal O'Toole's Cato article on parking, when I said that I could easily write a three-part series? Not a joke! (Though I might spare you and leave the trilogy unfinished. Maybe.)Today, I'd like to take on O'Toole's comments on California, which he argues is … [Read more...]
Has Wendell Cox ever heard of India’s license raj?
Wendell Cox, in his ongoing crusade to prove that everyone hates cities, writes about the suburbanization of Mumbai at New Geography. After reviewing all the statistics, he concludes: Mumbai: Penultimate Density, Yet Representative: The core urban area (area of continuous urban development) of … [Read more...]