The Urban Economics Association conference is always creative and constructive. Here are a few notes I wrote down, with apologies to the vast majority of researchers who presented work there which I didn't see. Alice Wang showed the most convincing evidence I've read on net costs of urban … [Read more...]
The benefit-cost ratio of U.S. social housing
Via The Excellent Kevin Lewis, here's a paper that tries - at least - to estimate the benefit-cost ratio of the most common types of social housing in the U.S. Edgar Olsen and Dirk Early estimate that Housing Choice Vouchers - aka Section 8 - have a respectable benefit to taxpayer cost of 77%. … [Read more...]
Would the Vienna strategy work here?
Progressives often argue that American cities should imitate Vienna's 1920s strategy of building enormous amounts of public housing while controlling rents paid to private landlords. But a look at the birth of Vienna's public housing system shows why that system is not easily replicated. A … [Read more...]
Two Cheers for PHIMBY
One alternative to market urbanism that has received a decent amount of press coverage is the PHIMBY (Public Housing In My Back Yard) movement. PHIMBYs (or at least the most extreme PHIMBYs) believe that market-rate housing fails to reduce housing costs and may even lead to gentrification and … [Read more...]
Two cheers for subsidized housing
A pure libertarian might argue that in an ideal world, there'd be no need for government-subsidized housing for low- and moderate-income households. Nevertheless, it seems to me that in the world we actually live in, even people generally opposed to the welfare state should favor more such … [Read more...]
Friday links
1. Miller-McCune (what a bad name for a magazine) has an article about a possible VMT tax, and points out that more fuel-efficient vehicles will lead to less gas tax revenue. 2. Streetsblog has an extremely unflattering profile of Republican nominee for NY Governor Carl Paladino. He made a name … [Read more...]
Weekend links
Links, links, links! 1. The Washington City Paper has a great expose on street food in DC called "Inside D.C.'s Food-Truck Wars" with the subtitle "How some of Washington's most powerful interests are trying to curb the city's most popular new cuisine." 2. Mary Newsom at the Charlotte Observer … [Read more...]