1. This week at Market Urbansim:
Private Neighborhoods And The Transformation Of Local Government by Sandy Ikeda
In Private Neighborhoods and the Transformation of Local Government, Robert H. Nelson effectively frames the discussion of what minimal government might look like in terms of personal choices based on local knowledge. He looks at the issue from the ground up rather than the top down.
Thoughts On Today’s Emily Hamilton Vs. Randal O’Toole Cato Discussion by Michael Lewyn
O’Toole said high housing prices don’t correlate with “zoning” just with “growth constraints.” But the cities with strict regionwide growth constraints aren’t necessarily high cost cities like New York and Boston, but mid-size, moderately expensive regions like Seattle and Portland.
2. MU Elsewhere
Emily Hamilton wrote Rules that wreck housing affordability for the Washington Times, analyzing the White House report on housing affordability
President Obama deserves credit for recognizing a serious economic problem that is escaping our attention. What’s happening in Takoma is happening in every expensive city in the country, resulting in lost opportunities for the people who need them the most. Reforms to city land-use regulations would not only improve the lives of local renters, but could also improve economic growth for the whole country.
Emily‘s debate with Randal O’Toole is also up at Cato
3. Where’s Scott?
Scott Beyer is in Los Angeles, and this weekend will be hanging around the California beach towns of Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Manhattan Beach, Long Beach and so on. His three Forbes articles this week were: ‘Friendsgivings’ Are A Growing Urban American Tradition…Could The Fair Housing Act Be Used To Abolish Restrictive Zoning?…and Nativism: The Thread Connecting Progressive NIMBYs With Donald Trump
These and countless other examples show the cognitive dissonance of some urban progressives, who blast Trump supporters for their supposed xenophobia and racism, while practicing their own brand of exclusion.
4. At the Market Urbanism Facebook Group:
Adam Millsap wrote at Forbes: Local Governments Can Lay The Foundation For Economic Prosperity But They Can’t Build It
Roger Valdez wrote at Forbes: How Trump Might Drain The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Swamp
Michael Lewyn wrote Two Arguments Against Home-Sharing
Dan Bertolet and Alan Durning wrote: Inclusionary Zoning: The Most Prominsg—Or Counter-Productive—Of All Housing Policies
Brendon Harre wrote “15 stories mostly about affordable housing from a NZ perspective“
Stephen Verdon ponders, “If Buchanan is correct, and I think he is, then it means that there is no way for planning to replicate the market process.”
David Welton asks, “What would a market-based Urban Growth Boundary look like?”
via Nolan Gray: Bob Poole on what Trump means for infrastructure
via Michael Lewyn, “So much for insatiable demand:” Rents are plunging in the most expensive markets
via Vinay Natu: Zaha Hadid’s successor: scrap art schools, privatise cities and bin social housing
via John Morris: Someone Needs to Stop the Dallas City Council’s ‘Nanny’ Committee and “Dallas does seem to have a booming outdoor dining trend, some residents seem willing to fight for. There is even a hashtag, #SavethePatio”
via Malia Kristina: “ongoing exhibit of interest in NYC: New York and Zoning 1916-2016” at the Museum of the City of New York
via Robert Scott: NTSB: Metro knew of potentially dangerous track conditions more than a year before July derailment
5. Stephen Smith‘s tweet of the week:
The neighborhood you’ve dedicated your life to preserving was built almost entirely before zoning https://t.co/6TKynuHIym
— Market Urbanism (@MarketUrbanism) November 29, 2016
