Bill Hudnut at the Urban Land Institute wrote a post that attracted some attention at Austin Contrarian and Overhead Wire. Hudnut discusses a different approach to taxing land: How about restructuring the property tax across America to install a two-tiered system? More tax on those horizontal … [Read more...]
The Story of I’On: Struggles of a New Urbanist Project
I recently googled upon a post at a blog called "Rub-a-Dub" that mentioned a land development project in Mount Pleasant, SC called I'On. I imagine the developers of the I'On "Traditional Neighborhood Development" (TND) community are sympathetic with Market Urbanism, as they named … [Read more...]
Euclid’s Legacy
While well intentioned, like many progressive interventions of the eary 1900s, zoning has contributed to sprawl (which has begun to be demonized by progressives over the recent decades) and served to inhibit the vitality and diversity of urban neighborhoods. The triumph of the core philosophy behind … [Read more...]
Dealing With NIMBYs
NIMBYism is the biggest obstacle to the evolution of vibrant urban communities, but the incentives for some to use public forums to impose restrictions on neighboring properties are great. Local politicians often bow to the most vocal residents, often with minority opinions, to avoid making waves, … [Read more...]
Urban[ism] Legend: Greedy Developers
This post is part of an ongoing series featured on Market Urbanism called Urbanism Legends. The Urbanism Legends series is intended to expose many of the myths about development and Urban Economics. (it's a play on the term: “Urban Legends” in case you didn’t catch that) We've all heard it said … [Read more...]
Carroll Gardens, Choose Only One: Setback or Height Restriction?
NY Times - Carroll Gardens: The Big Front Yards That Rob the Streets Although the yards serve as leafy margins to the streets, creating ample open space between the rows of brownstones arrayed on either side, they also put those streets into the “wide” category for zoning purposes. This means … [Read more...]
Bribery for Property Rights: Federal Charges in Chicago
NBC5 has an update listing the people involved and video here: New Corruption Charges Hit Building, Zoning Departments Chicago Tribune: U.S. to announce charges against 15 in city bribe-taking probe (thanks to Dan M. for the tip) Federal authorities are set to announce charges Thursday against … [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...]