On my last post about Ayn Rand's views on cities, I received feedback in the comments that obviously she loved cities and on Twitter that obviously she did not. I think I come down on the side that she likely saw cities, and particularly skyscrapers, as embodiment of human achievement. However Frank … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2012
Ayn Rand on Urbanism
Ayn Rand's recent appearances in the news made me think about her position on urban issues. Some of her novels suggest that she is anti-city, believing that individualism can only be achieved by living in remote areas. In Anthem, for example, her protagonist lives in a type of dorm where people are … [Read more...]
Selling the Rights to Greater Density
At Next American City, Mark Bergen has an interesting long-form piece on municipal infrastructure financing. He argues that the property owners who benefit from public policies, such as infrastructure investment, should be required to fund these policies. He suggests infrastructure improvements … [Read more...]
The High Cost of Free Parking Preface and Afterword
This is the last post in the series on Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking. Previous can be found here:Chapters 1 - 4Chapters 5 - 9Chapters 10 - 14Chapters 16 - 18Chapters 19 - 22PrefaceIn these two chapters, which Donald Shoup added for the paperback edition of … [Read more...]
Anthony Ling on private buses
A guest post from Market Urbanism's Brazil correspondent, Anthony Ling, who blogs in both Portuguese and English at renderingfreedom.blogspot.com...For a long time I’ve been thinking about why collective transportation is a synonym to public transportation. Is there anything special about the … [Read more...]
The Zoning History of Barcelona’s Eixample
Server glitch wiped the last few articles, so here's a repose of the Barcelona one. Also, comments should be working now, should you deign to leave one...Somehow I managed to visit Barcelona a few years ago and not learn about the history of the city’s Eixample (x pronounced sh in Catalan), or … [Read more...]
The High Cost of Free Parking Chapters 19-22
This post from the series on The High Cost of Free Parking is reposted from last week because the site's database caused recent posts to be deleted.Chapter 19: The Ideal Source of Local Public RevenueIn this chapter, Donald Shoup makes the case that passing up the potential revenue source of … [Read more...]