Andrés Duany, leader of the New Urbanism movement, comes out against LEED standards: He said that high-density development in urban locations which entail less reliance on private cars should get a free pass on energy efficiency or energy generation standards. "Don't make apartment dwellers … [Read more...]
David Alpert calls out Virginia Tea Party group as land use statists
David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington has been on top of a story out of Virginia about a Virginia Tea Party group and its bizarre and seemingly anti-free market opposition to a state law forcing local governments to make room for dense growth.The law – which was passed a few years ago by … [Read more...]
The roots of anti-density sentiment
Matt Yglesias, Kevin Drum, and Ryan Avent have been discussing the political economy of anti-density regulations, and I have a lot of comments, but I'm not sure I have the time (or, really, the patience) to air all of them. So, we'll see how long this post gets.First of all, I think all this … [Read more...]
This is how gentrification happens: Northwest DC and the height restriction
Lydia DePillis wrote the Washington City Paper's cover story on the case for Congress overturning DC's height limit, which should be very familiar to readers of this blog. It's got some interesting history in it (DC's height limit was apparently influenced by George Washington's personal aesthetics, … [Read more...]
Some Inspiration from Guatemala
Turn the lights down, and the volume up. It's time for some Market Urbanist media, courtesy of some future urbanist leaders who's ideas may one day liberate our cities from yesterday's unenlightened technocrats.Architecture students at Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala participated … [Read more...]
The economics of redevelopment and the shape of socialist cities
Earlier today I read an article by Daniel Garst about Bejing's awkward population distribution that reminded me of a journal article about the general shape of socialist cities that I read a while back. Garst talks about Beijing being a "circus tent" when it comes to density, with population … [Read more...]
A comment on NYU’s proposed superblocks
Benjamin Hemric left an interesting comment about my remark about NYU's expansion plans in Greenwich Village. First of all, I should admit that I was lazy and got NYU's plans totally wrong – they are going to add towers to the three that I. M. Pei already built, not tear them down, and they're … [Read more...]
Zoning blighted Manhattanville before Columbia did
Something that always annoyed me about discussions of the state of Manhattanville and Columbia's blight study is the fact that they usually leave out restrictive zoning as the original sin. We're certainly no fans of eminent domain or Columbia's plans for the West Harlem neighborhood, and while … [Read more...]