Last week the Brookings Institute released a study by Jonathan Rothwell on the relationship between exclusionary zoning and school performance. He points out that this is the first study linking zoning to educational outcomes. The findings demonstrate that cities with stronger exclusionary zoning … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2012
2012 Market Urbanism Meetup
Readers,We are going to have a reader meetup on May 5. It will be a format similar to last year. Market Urbanism friend, Sandy Ikeda will be giving a tour of Brooklyn Heights as part of the Jane Jacobs Walk program that celebrate's the life and legacy of urbanist Jane Jacobs. Sandy's tour was so … [Read more...]
Height Limit Links
1) Yesterday, two pieces on Congressman Darrell Issa's proposal to relax the federal limits on DC's buildings heights got a lot of coverage. At City Block, Alex Block makes the key point that outside of downtown, DC's density is limited by zoning, rather than the height limit. He supports allowing … [Read more...]
Mandating attractive urban design
The most recent installment of the American Enterprise Institute's series Society and Culture Outlook features a piece about the role of urban design in how people use cities. The article "A plea for beauty: a manifesto for a new urbanism" by Roger Scruton is a deviation from AEI's typically … [Read more...]
Detroit’s Financial Future
After flirting with Chapter 9 bankruptcy or a state takeover of its finances, Detroit has reached a deal with the state of Michigan that will allow it to remain independently managed with a requirement for state oversight. The Detroit Free Press reports: The city has seven days to create the … [Read more...]
Cities and the Market Process: Part 4
This series looks at some of the ways that people organize themselves to live alongside each other in cities. Part 1 looks at inherent problems with top-down planning, and this part will expand on this issue with the specific problems of pricing government-owned land.Prices are an emergent order … [Read more...]