For a libertarian urbanist blogger, I've always felt kind of embarrassed by my lack of knowledge about East Asian transit, considering that it's the only place left on earth with a thriving competitive private transportation market (they even have profitable monorails!). I've heard good things about … [Read more...]
This is how gentrification happens: Northwest DC and the height restriction
Lydia DePillis wrote the Washington City Paper's cover story on the case for Congress overturning DC's height limit, which should be very familiar to readers of this blog. It's got some interesting history in it (DC's height limit was apparently influenced by George Washington's personal aesthetics, … [Read more...]
Environmentalism vs. density, Clean Water Act edition
I know I've kind of beaten this horse dead, but this environmentalism vs. density stuff just enrages me too much to relegate it to a link list. Here are some excerpts from an article about how the EPA's proposed new rules for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay could impede dense, … [Read more...]
Livechat invitation and more thinktank responses
As promised, I want to reprint the responses I got from Wendell Cox and Randal O'Toole, but first I wanted to invite everyone to a livechat that's being organized by Tim Lee. Tim used to write for Cato, but now he's pursuing a PhD at MIT and doing freelance writing on tech policy. He organizes … [Read more...]
Marc Scribner at CEI on Seattle’s land use regulation
A few days ago I wrote about inner Seattle's residential density liberalization, and I mentioned that I'd emailed a few land use writers at libertarian think tanks to get their reaction. I'm happy to report that all of them responded, and throughout the week I'll post links to/reprint their … [Read more...]
How local property taxes discourage density
In yesterday's post about a proposal in Philadelphia to mandate adherence to certain "visitability" standards in new residential construction, but only for multifamily units, I asked if anyone knew of any other burdens that are heaped unfairly on apartment-dwellers. Regular commenter Alon Levy rose … [Read more...]
Empirical evidence that anti-density zoning breeds racial segregation
With nothing quick to blog about and not being in the mood to write something long, I dug into the Google Scholar pool for some interesting empirical work, which is something this blog hasn't featured in a while. This paper shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but it's interesting empirical work … [Read more...]
Mandates that fall only on multifamily development
So I'm reading a PlanPhilly article about a proposal to mandate half-baths on the ground level and front doors without steps for new residential units ("visitability," they call it), and while I don't think that it's a bright idea to begin with, this part struck me as particularly dumb, albeit very … [Read more...]