G.L.C. at Amateur Economist wrote an informative article on zoning, an issue which always gets attention at Market Urbanism - Why Zoning Laws Are No Longer a Benefit to U.S. Home BuyersVirtually every town in the United States has zoning laws which affect land use, lot size, building heights, … [Read more...]
How to Obscure Reality to Make Planners Seem Important
Regular reader, Bill forwarded this article from the New York Daily News calling it an "outstanding collection of anti-density and anti-market propaganda presented (as always) as objective journalism." The article is riddled with misconceptions (aka Urbanism Legends) about zoning and development … [Read more...]
Urban[ism] Legend: Zoning Creates Density
This post will be the first of many of an ongoing feature at Market Urbanism entitled Urbanism Legends. (a play on the term: "Urban Legends" in case you didn't catch that) In many public forums and in the blogosphere, I consistently encounter myths about land development and Urban Economics. These … [Read more...]
Demographics + Transportation Costs + Lower Crime = More Urbanization
WSJ: Suburbs a Mile Too Far for Some Demographic Changes, High Gasoline Prices May Hasten Demand for Urban LivingMessrs. Boseman and Wells embody trends that are dovetailing to potentially reshape a half-century-long pattern of how and where Americans live: The drivable suburb -- that bedrock … [Read more...]
EcoDensity: Scary Name, but Not-so-Bad
Vancouver's City Council has approved an "EcoDensity" policy.How is EcoDensity different from regular density, which already comes pre-equipped with environmental benefits?Well, its just an environmental-sounding catch-prefix and comes with less bureaucracy for green … [Read more...]
Want Density? Turn the Free Market Loose
Matthew Yglesias - What Price Density The solution, as Ryan Avent says, is to build denser communities. We ought to build more transit infrastructure, of course, but it's cheaper to use what we already have more intensively. And, of course, it's more practical to build new infrastructure if there's … [Read more...]
A Recipe to Destroy Affordability in Any City.
Austin Contrarian discusses an article that describes how Seattle has become less affordable in recent years. He prescribes a recipe for Austin to become what he calls a "Superstar City" such as New York, Boston, San Francisco, or Seattle. By "Superstar City", I assume he means an ultra-hip place … [Read more...]
Should the Government Build the Cars or the Roads?
I tend to agree that there is some hypocrisy in the conservative/libertarian world when it comes to transportation, which is part of the reason I started this blog. A more free-market transporation system would certainly lead to a more urban land use pattern; something between pre-auto, … [Read more...]