1. "Experts have proposed increasing road taxes for Moscow drivers six or seven-fold in an effort to alleviate the Russian capital's notorious traffic congestion." 2. Moscow Mayor Sobyanin wants to regulate taxis, of which over 80% (!) are current unlicensed. Racial undertones abound ("They … [Read more...]
Almost-Thanksgiving list
Unfortunately, none of these things are really things to be thankful for: 1. 81% of Americans disagree with Kelo v. City of New London in a 2009 survey, with the wording being quite generous to the pro-takings side. 2. Who possibly could have thought this was a good idea? It's like they took … [Read more...]
Sobyanin’s horrific plan for Moscow
It's been a few months since longtime Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov was fired, so I figured it would be a good time to check in on the city. In spite of Moscow's infamous traffic and "perversely-sloped" population density gradient, the former mayor's plan to build 100 km of new metro tracks and over … [Read more...]
The economics of redevelopment and the shape of socialist cities
Earlier today I read an article by Daniel Garst about Bejing's awkward population distribution that reminded me of a journal article about the general shape of socialist cities that I read a while back. Garst talks about Beijing being a "circus tent" when it comes to density, with population … [Read more...]
More links!
Why didn't I catch onto this whole linking thing earlier? Are these link lists boring for you guys? 1. Human Transit has a great post on "density" and all the different ways to measure it, with a cool picture of sprawling apartment buildings that illustrates why transit use in the Las Vegas … [Read more...]
Exporting (sub)urbanism: Kuala Lumpur and the communist world
by Stephen Smith Adam Martin at William Easterly's development blog Aid Watch has a post up warning about the tendency among developing nations to adopt Western styles wholesale, even if such styles are not even efficient in their countries of origin. He posits this as a sort of developmental … [Read more...]