(A shot of the San Diego skyline from the La Playa neighborhood / Scott Beyer)
1. This week at Market Urbanism:
4 Things Austin’s City Council Could Do Today To Fight The Housing Shortage by Dan Keshet
Central Austin needs more housing. Prices have been rising, more and more people want to live where they have short commutes, but are only able to afford homes near the periphery. We have a long-term plan to alter our land development code in a way that would help…but our need is now. What options are available today?
Spillovers: Knowledge, Beer, and Technology by Sandy Ikeda
I don’t think anyone could reasonably contest that technology has reduced the need for some kinds of proximity. It’s the tired hyperbole that “science obliterates distance” and the like that gets my goat. The gulf between “reducing” and “eliminating” is too vast.
Where Do Upzonings Happen? by Chris Bradford
What NIMBYs are really after is limiting access to neighborhood amenities, mostly by limiting the quantity of housing. Neighborhoods (at least the ones empowered politically) do their best to hold housing below the market-clearing quantity.
Book Review: The Well-Tempered City by Emily Hamilton a review of a book by Jonathan F. P. Rose
In the vein of Jane Jacobs and F.A. Hayek, Rose identifies that cities are “wicked” problems rather than engineering problems that policymakers can solve through tinkering. In spite of this recognition of the complexity of cities’ interrelated systems, Rose asserts that cities need visionaries to address problems from obesity to climate change from the top down.
2. Where’s Scott?
Scott Beyer has changed his schedule. He thought San Diego would be a pass-through stop this week on the way to Los Angeles. But he found “America’s Finest City” surprisingly dense, and decided to stay all of October. His two Forbes articles this week were about The Millennials Transforming San Antonio and The Brilliant Public Spaces of Mexico’s Border Cities
[In the U.S.] zoning codes were written to separate uses and enforce setbacks from the street. And minimum parking mandates required that space which could go for housing and commerce must instead become parking lots. Many of these laws still exist, effectively illegalizing the architectural and design motif common in Mexico.
3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group:
Stephen Smith interviewed on Economics Detective podcast with Garrett Malcolm Petersen
Susan Somers wants to know if Market Urbanists vote in local elections
Roger Valdez wrote: California Study: More Private Development Means Lower Rents
Jonathan Coppage wrote: To end the affordable housing crisis, Washington needs to legalize Main Street
Tom W Bell wants to know, “If you wanted to design a building permit system using best practices from across the globe, would you choose these?”
Emily Hamilton‘s article, “Cities and the Growth of Our Collective Brain” was translated to Portuguese (via Anthony Ling)
John Morris thinks US cities, which are usually Democrat-dominated might soon be ready for a pro-market, Urbanist party
via Susan Somers, “this group might enjoy this interview with my friend Niran.”
via Matt D. Palm: The Permanent Crisis of Housing (from Jacobin, if you need a good laugh)
via Christopher Young: New Study Finds Most Of Earth’s Landmass Will Be Phoenix Suburb By 2050 (not Jacobin, The Onion)
via Asher Meyers: A Growth-Friendly Climate Change Proposal
via Adam Lang: PHA will lay off 126 to combat huge deficit “The agency’s personnel costs are more than double those of similar-size authorities in New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, he said.”
via John Morris: The Distorted DNA of Your Community
via Matt Robare: No apparent end in sight for house stuck in South Austin street
via David Welton: Economical Housing by Design for Communities That Work [pdf]
via Anthony Ling: Population-Area Relationship for Medieval European Cities
via Tom W Bell, “Heads-up: Bloomberg-funded Harvard experts may soon be coming to a city near you, ostensibly to help it run better.“
via Robert Stark: America’s First Shopping Mall is Now Stuffed With Micro Homes
4. Elsewhere:
California Today: Silicon Valley, Housing Villain, Tries to Make Amends (Intro by Conor Dougherty, NY Times)
Sam Altman at Y-Combinator wants to build an experimental city:
A hundred thousand acres, fifty to a hundred thousand residents. We crowdfund the infrastructure and establish a new and affordable way of living around concepts like ‘No one can ever make money off of real estate.’
5. Stephen Smith‘s tweet of the week:
Amount of construction in downtown Brooklyn is unreal. If the whole city looked like this, maybe we wouldn’t have a housing crisis. pic.twitter.com/otoON3nmH8
— Market Urbanism (@MarketUrbanism) October 5, 2016
