Market Urbanism

Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up

“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.

Do We Need “New Urbanism” To Fix “Unwalkable Sprawl”?

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At Volokh, Ilya Somin discusses a recent piece in the American Prospect (also linked from here) that favors “New Urbanism” to prevent “unwalkable” sprawl.  Somin favors “voting with your feet” as the preferred method of satisfying location preferences.  Unfortunately, voting options have … [Read more...]

Rothbard the Urbanist Part 1: Public Education’s Role in Sprawl and Exclusion

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I’ve been meaning to address the public education system’s complex role in land use patterns, and found that Murray Rothbard does a better job in his 1973 manifesto, For a New Liberty than I ever could.  In summary, locally-funded public education is an engine of geographical segregation, which … [Read more...]

How Pricing Tolls Right Eliminates Congestion

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Chris Bradford over at Austin Contrarian has been making some solid points in favor of congestion pricing. (here, here, here and here)  Chris’s core argument in favor of congestion tolling is that: congestion pricing does more than relieve congestion.  Congestion pricing tells us when a road needs … [Read more...]

The Nation’s mass transit hypocrisy

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by Stephen SmithI was heartened to see an article about the need for mass transit in the pages of The Nation, though I was severely disappointed by the magazine's own hypocrisy and historical blindness. The article is in all ways a standard left-liberal screed against the car and for mass … [Read more...]

Urban[ism] Legend: Is Houston really unplanned?

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by Stephen SmithIt seems to be an article of faith among many land use commentators – both coming from the pro- and anti-planning positions – that Houston is a fundamentally unplanned city, and that whatever is built there is the manifest destiny of the free market in action. But is this true? … [Read more...]

Urban[ism] Legend: Creating Jobs With Infrastructure

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This post is part of an ongoing series featured on Market Urbanism called Urbanism Legends. The Urbanism Legends series is intended to expose many of the myths about development and Urban Economics. (it's a play on the term: “Urban Legends” in case you didn’t catch that)Last week … [Read more...]

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