It's pretty amusing to me that liberals today are still whining about being called "socialists," considering the charge is at least a century old. Here one example from Robert Fogelson's excellent Downtown chapter on height restrictions around the turn of the century: The Post voiced especially … [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...]
Seattle’s land use liberalization
It's not often that I find a plan that I can wholeheartedly agree with, but this one from Seattle sounds damn near perfect, at least in terms of marginal change (my emphasis...apologies to Publicola for stealing their content!): 1. Instead of the current generic land-use standards, the new … [Read more...]
A question and a link list
Hey guys, before I start this link list, I wanted to ask: Has anybody had trouble posting comments here with Disqus lately? Either you can't post them, or once you do they disappear? I've gotten two complaints in the last few days, so if you've been experiencing any problems please don't hesitate … [Read more...]
Empirical evidence that anti-density zoning breeds racial segregation
With nothing quick to blog about and not being in the mood to write something long, I dug into the Google Scholar pool for some interesting empirical work, which is something this blog hasn't featured in a while. This paper shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but it's interesting empirical work … [Read more...]
New York City links
There are a couple of NYC-related links that I've been saving up, so here they are:1. Stephen Goldsmith, former mayor of Indiannapolis and NYC's new deputy mayor, appears to be interested in privatizing New York City's parking meters in order to balance the city's budget. We're more interested … [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...]
Weekend links
Links, links, links!1. The Washington City Paper has a great expose on street food in DC called "Inside D.C.'s Food-Truck Wars" with the subtitle "How some of Washington's most powerful interests are trying to curb the city's most popular new cuisine."2. Mary Newsom at the Charlotte Observer … [Read more...]