A lot of people shudder when they see growth projections of the Houston metro area from the current 6.5 million to 9 or even 10 million people over the next couple of decades. If traffic is this bad now, how can we possibly handle it? Is there any way this can be handled gracefully, or at least … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2016
Market Urbanism MUsings May 13, 2016
1. This week at Market Urbanism: Brent Gaisford contributed his first article, High Rent Sucks. Let’s Build More Houses and launched a new website: LA Rent Is Too Damned HighLet’s upzone our cities and build more houses. And not just a few. A lot. Let’s build a lot more houses.Jeff Fong … [Read more...]
Are Billionaires To Blame?
One common argument I have read in various places is that the high rent of New York and other large cities is a result of globalization and inequality (English translation: rich foreigners). According to this theory, rich people have created a surge of demand so overwhelming that no amount of … [Read more...]
Suburban Market Gardening
I filmed this video about Whisper Farms in suburban Pasadena, California. It’s an ordinary home that’s been pressed in to service as a for-profit market garden. My friend Kirsten Dirksen was kind enough to edit it in conjunction with her website www.faircompanies.comThis sort of small scale … [Read more...]
Planning As A Question Of Scale
This post was inspired by Nolan Gray’s “Jane Jacobs’ Hayekian Critique of Urban Planning” and the discussion it recently sparked over at Strong Towns. ... In Jane Jacob’s Hayekian Critique of Urban Planning, Nolan Gray argues for the futility of trying to master plan something as complex as an … [Read more...]
High Rent Sucks. Let’s Build More Houses.
LA rent sucks. It’s way, way too damn high. Let’s fix it.If you rent, you’re probably already on board. You gotta pay the man on the 1st of the month, every month, and that sucks. But what if you are the man? You’ve got the sweet house, the trophy husband, the picket fence. Even then, you should … [Read more...]
Market Urbanism MUsings May 6, 2016
1. This week at Market Urbanism: Emily Washington ties Adam Smith's ideas to urbanism in Mercantilist logic and land-use regulationAdam Smith taught the world that mercantilism impoverished 18th-century nations by erecting barriers to trade and reducing opportunities for specialization and … [Read more...]
Zoning, Buildings Codes, And Low-Quality Housing
Emily Washington recently wrote for Market Urbanism about the need for low quality housing, attributing some of the high cost of housing in U.S. cities to building codes that increase construction costs. Some provisions of building codes were encouraged by social reformers and reflect middle-class … [Read more...]