1. This week at Market Urbansim:
‘Who better to determine local needs than property owners and concerned citizens themselves?’ by Michael Hamilton
Instead, land-use regulations can, and often are, used as cudgels against disfavored groups or individuals. Issues of personal taste—yard size, material choices, building design, amount of parking—can be weaponized when turned into regulatory requirements and greatly decrease a plot of land’s value.
Donald Shoup Takes San Francisco by Sandy ikeda
As I said before, to do market pricing correctly, well, you need markets. What the San Francisco approach does is to try to mimic what it is thought a private market would do. But the standard of “at least one empty parking spot” is arbitrary – like mandating that every ice-cream cone have two and only two scoops of ice cream. The Shoup-inspired San Francisco solution is I think a step in the right direction, but only a step.
This week on the Market Urbanism Podcast, I chat with Samuel Zipp and Nathan Storring on the wonderful new volume Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs. From Jacobs’ McCarthy-era defense of unorthodox thinking to snippets of her unpublished history of humanity, the book is a must-read for fans of Jane Jacobs. In this podcast, we discuss some of the broader themes of Jacobs’ thinking
America’s Progressive Developers–Silver Ventures by Scott Beyer
Foremost among these is the Pearl Brewery, a 22-acre former industrial site that is north of downtown. “The Pearl” is now viewed by locals as San Antonio’s leading urbanist destination—as opposed to the touristy downtown—but it wasn’t always this way.
2. Where’s Scott?
Scott Beyer spent week 4 in San Diego. His Forbes article was about how Uber Has Revolutionized Transit More In 7 Years Than The Government Has In 7 Decades
There will likely always be a need for public transit, since there will be people who, for financial or health reasons, can’t access the private market. But to think that a government agency should be the default provider—while private options are discouraged—is utterly backwards.
3. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group:
David Welton ask how to reverse the “greedy developer” stigma
Mark Frazier on how developers are considering desert cities that would provide freedom to refugees
Bjorn Swenson on San Francisco developer Patrick Kennedy’s micro-unit projects
Malia Kristina on a new Transportation for America initiative
via Mark Frazier Stimulating Community Enterprise: A Response to Fiscal Strains in the Public Sector
via Asher Meyers Closing Cali’s Housing Gap
Robert Stark shares his latest podcast on the Bay Area
Roland Stephen invites us to a Nov. 15 Bay Area event: The Future of Transportation: Freeways or Flyways?
Anthony Ling has an idea on how to increase FAR
4. Elsewhere:
Y Combinator’s New Cities Project Gets Curiouser and Curiouser after hiring Ben Huh (meme website founder) to lead the Y-C project to “Build Cities” (via Planetizen)
The Houston Chronicle on The Reeducation of Richard Florida. His take on urban libertarians: “they drive me fucking nuts!”
5. Stephen Smith‘s tweet of the week:
Really nice, rare 2-fam homes in Houston (aff hsg project, I believe). And behind, the reason nobody builds them… https://t.co/IvtbQtx6iU pic.twitter.com/PawOpjx99E
— Market Urbanism (@MarketUrbanism) October 23, 2016
