In my last post about the geometry of cities and the importance of downtowns, it looks like I understated the extent to which Downtown Brooklyn was built up during New York's market-driven boom during the turn-of-the-century. Quoteth commenter Alon Levy: I think you are essentially correct, but … [Read more...]
Downtown and the geometry of cities
Matt Yglesias and Lydia DePillis have been having an interesting discussion about the DC commercial real estate market that I have some thoughts on, so I thought I'd weigh in. I apologize for the length of this post, but I think it's a really important point that shouldn't be underestimated.Matt … [Read more...]
Even a HUD project in a high-density Bronx neighborhood can’t escape the parking minimum
This should come as no surprise to anyone who's taken a look at America's absurdly restrictive minimum parking requirements, but Streetsblog has come up with a really great example of really bad parking policy in action: The HUD-sponsored project, located on Bathgate Avenue between 183rd and 184th … [Read more...]
Links
1. China's high-speed rail scandal. So much for Obama's State of the Union shout-out.2. Boston, Philadelphia, and DC are all moving towards parking reform – both of minimum off-street requirements (unfortunately to be replaced with maximums in most cases) and of underpriced curb parking – but … [Read more...]
Jamaica, Queens upzoning was great, but don’t forget the parking minimums
In Next American City, Aaron Barker discusses the failure of NYC's massive rezoning in the highly transit-dependent black and immigrant neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens: One of the centerpieces of [NYC's] initiative to house an expected 1 million new arrivals in the coming decades was the Jamaica … [Read more...]
Links
1. A shameless story of rent control in NYC. Glad to see that the city is forcing developers to subsidize wealthy Manhattanites' Eat, Pray, Love-like dreams of moving to Paris.2. The travails of getting a bus lane on a busy LA street where "[m]ore people already travel by bus than by car along … [Read more...]
Bloomberg pokes (again) at hornet’s nest of entitled drivers
The New York Daily News broke the story yesterday that New York lawmakers are once again trying to push congestion pricing through the state legislature, a task at which Mayor Michael Bloomberg failed in 2008 after meeting fierce resistance from outer borough and suburban drivers. Learning from his … [Read more...]
Links
1. Systemic Failure praises Gov. (again) Jerry Brown's efforts to do away with California's redevelopment agencies and "enterprise zones" (there's a euphemism if I've ever heard one), which the author claims promote autocentric development with public funds. He then cites a few examples of … [Read more...]