by Stephen SmithBLDG blog has a cool post about a book by two architects about "minor development," or small construction projects that don't require planning permission – things like sheds, garages, and extensions. It talks about recent legal changes in Europe that have encouraged this sort of … [Read more...]
Food deserts and zoning
by Stephen SmithThe other day I put up a post detailing the restrictions that small-scale restaurants and food carts face, but I should mention that grocery stores and supermarkets also face similar restrictions. Like restrictions on restaurants, they end hitting poor, urban, black … [Read more...]
Deregulating food
by Stephen SmithUrban planners like to discuss heavy things – roads, buildings, cars, trains. Food, though an integral part of humans' lives, generally doesn't enter into the equation as more than a footnote. This may be because food service is governed by different departments than buildings, … [Read more...]
Toronto’s new zoning code
by Stephen SmithMatt Yglesias points to an article about Toronto's new zoning code. The story is short on details, although the lowering of parking minimums near transit and overall simplification of the code seem like appealing features to Market Urbanists. I did, however, find a blog post … [Read more...]
Even Midtown Manhattan not immune to anti-density NIMBYism
by Stephen SmithIn general, I think of Manhattan below Central Park as perhaps the freest place in America in terms of land use restrictions. There are no minimum parking regulations, zoning variances are relatively easy to get, and FAR restrictions are relatively generous. Historical … [Read more...]
Must Read: The Demand Curve for Sprawl Slopes Downward
Sandy Ikeda's latest article at FEE's "The Freeman" is a great summary of the libertarian sprawl debate.There has been a lot of Internet chatter lately about what libertarians ought to think about urban sprawl and its causes, including pieces by Kevin Carson, Austin Bramwell, Randal O’Toole, and … [Read more...]
Zoning as a Tool of Class Exclusion
In regards to zoning, Discovering Urbanism has a nice post up about early 20th century urban planner Charles Mulford Robinson and his planning textbook. It includes the following corrective to the notion that zoning originated as a way to separate polluting industry from places of residence and … [Read more...]
Yglesias Has My Head Spinning…
In his last two urbanism-related posts, Matthew Yglesias makes great points only to dissolve them in a vat of unrelated statements posed as conclusions. His logical inconsistency seems to invalidate his otherwise pretty good blogging on urbanism.A couple days ago, Matthew blogged about … [Read more...]