WASHINGTON – David Paitsel, 42, a former FBI agent, and Brian Bailey, 53, a D.C. real estate developer were sentenced today on bribery and conspiracy charges for their role in schemes involving confidential information held by the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development United States … [Read more...]
Congressional Housing Subsidies Won’t Lower DC Housing Prices, But Liberalizing Zoning Will
During his last days in office, former Representative Jason Chaffetz must have forgotten he is supposed to be a fiscal conservative. His recent comments that members of Congress need $2,500 stipends to afford housing in DC reflect a complete ignorance of both the reasons for high housing prices and … [Read more...]
Market Urbanism MUsings: Feb 5, 2016
1. This week at Market Urbanism: Nolan Gray's second article at Market Urbanism: Return to Sender: Housing affordability and the shipping container non-solutionthe belief that these projects could address the growing affordability crisis hints at a profound misunderstanding of the nature of … [Read more...]
A Public-Private Shopping Mall
Forest City Enterprises recently received approval from Arlington County to redevelop its Ballston Common Mall. The deal is a public-private partnership in which the county will pay for $10 million in infrastructure improvements around the mall and provide $45 million in tax increment financing for … [Read more...]
An interview with David Block-Schachter, Chief Scientist of Bridj
Public transportation service provision is changing. As I already have mentioned in this post at Caos Planejado, microtransit services are growing in many cities around the world and one of the forefront companies on this field is Bridj, operating in Boston since June 2014 and Washington DC since … [Read more...]
The Renewed Debate on Inclusionary Zoning
Stephen Smith and I co-wrote this post. In case you haven't been following Stephen elsewhere, he's also been writing at The Atlantic Cities and Bloomberg View. This year, some of the first apartments and condos subject to inclusionary zoning laws in DC are hitting the market, stoking … [Read more...]
How Europe Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Skyscraper
I often hear from people who are defending Washington, D.C.’s height limit argue that the restriction gives the city a “European” feel. I disagree with this for a number of reasons – the city has much fewer historic downtown buildings, and the ones it does have are much younger … [Read more...]
“Cockamamie” Neighborhood Zones
Thanks to loyal reader, DBM for the tip on the photo link.David Weigel - Highway to the Neighborhood Zones refers to DCist - Police to Seal Off D.C. Neighborhoods The Examiner has the scoop on a controversial new program announced today that would create so-called "Neighborhood Safety Zones" … [Read more...]