Economist Nick Rowe at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative has a provocative piece asking whether housing demand curves might actually slope up. He puts his argument in abstract mathematical terms (again, he’s an economist), but the germ of the idea is that “everybody wants to live near everyone else, … [Read more...]
Middle Aged NIMBYs, Young YIMBYs
Today, CNU Nextgen, a group of younger members of the Congress for New Urbanism, retweeted a New York Times story about the evils of NIMBYism in Boulder.Why did I find this noteworthy? Because on the Pro-Urb listserv, dominated by middle-aged CNUers, a very different conventional wisdom … [Read more...]
ReasonTV on SF’s YIMBY Movement
Last week, Reason.tv (the multimedia outlet of Reason Magazine) published a video about San Francisco's YIMBY movement. The video describes the decades of underdevelopment in San Francisco as the result of community activism intended to limit the supply of new construction. As a result, San … [Read more...]
Shell Games in NIMBYism
Yesterday the Cato Institute hosted an event featuring William Fischel's discussion of his new book Zoning Rules! with commentary by Mark Calabria, Matt Yglesias, and Robert Dietz. Fischel explained his theory that zoning was an effective tool for minimizing nuisances between land uses through the … [Read more...]
Death and life in a changing neighborhood
A controversy in DC's Columbia Heights neighborhood exemplifies the common clash between NIMBYism and the achievement of Jane Jacob's ideals. Some residents are opposed to a new proposed diner, Margot's Chair, that would be open 24 hours a day. The owners already have three well-loved restaurants in … [Read more...]