Thanks to Stephen Smith, I recently ran across an interesting database: HUD data on building permits by municipality. So I decided to find the number of permits per 1,000 for a wide variety of cities, focusing on (1) multifamily permits (because rising rent is a bigger problem in most places than … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2017
Of Maps and Modernism
This year, for the first time since 1979, New York City has revamped its subway map. A quick glance shows a change in the background tinge from light tan to light green – most pleasant. To my relief, however, on closer inspection nothing essential has changed from the last version. Thank goodness … [Read more...]
The “Foreign Buyers” Argument
A common argument against new housing supply is that in high-cost cities such as New York, demand from foreign buyers is so overwhelming as to make new supply irrelevant. A recent study (available here) by two business school professors suggests otherwise. The study does show more foreign … [Read more...]
Addressing Local Knowledge
Four years ago my wife and I decided to take our son to a special and slightly unusual restaurant to celebrate his birthday. We were in Tokyo at the time and gave the taxi driver what we thought was the address for the restaurant – it had names and numbers on it. Cabbies in Tokyo, and in Japan in … [Read more...]
Market Urbanism MUsings March 3, 2017
1. Announcement Another reminder, if you're a Los Angeles resident, to vote "no" on Measure S on Tuesday, March 7th. More info on the anti-housing initiative can be found here. 2. This Week at Market Urbanism Yglesias Gives Best Tweetstorm Ever by Michael Lewyn Governing The Traffic Commons by … [Read more...]
World City Profiles: European Villages Are Showcases Of Old Urbanism
There is always the lurking suspicion that great urbanism is a museum piece, something we cannot recreate. We have to console ourselves with guarding what’s left. Even then, some feel it unfit for ‘modern life,’ that humans cannot live as their recent ancestors had. Urbanists tend to celebrate … [Read more...]