Zoning reform: Stalled change in California
This is part of an ongoing series on the politics and economics of zoning reform. Previous posts have argued that the benefits of enabling urban development generally outweigh the costs, but that local government political dynamics may serve as a barrier to achieving those benefits.…
8 Comments Sunday reading 11 December 2016
Welcome back to Sunday reading – the second-to-last edition of the year! Two weeks hence I will be tramping rather than reading and writing things on the internet.
To start things off, here’s a great video on the history of land ownership that nicely illustrates the contentious history of any given place.…
The Auckland productivity premium
The Motu Institute recently published new research into the urban productivity premium in New Zealand, or the degree to which firms and workers in big cities tend to produce more and earn higher wages. This is an essential issue for urban and transport policy as it gets to the heart of why we have cities.…
Australian city centres: a good-news story
Last week I was in Brisbane for work. There seem to be quite a few cranes around the city, including midrise apartment developments creeping along the riverfront to the west of the city centre. The Brisbane CBD proper is still quite sterile at night after all the office workers have left – it’s an absolute pain in the neck to try and find dinner.…
Sunday reading 27 November 2016
Welcome back to Sunday reading. The most interesting article I’ve read this week explores the consequences of climate change and sea level rise for coastal property markets. Ian Urbina reports in the NY Times: MIAMI — Real estate agents looking to sell coastal properties usually focus on one thing: how close the home is to the water’s edge.…
Zoning reform: How California got into the mess it’s in
This is the latest in an ongoing series on the politics and economics of zoning reform. Previous posts have argued that the benefits of enabling urban development generally outweigh the costs, but that local government political dynamics may serve as a barrier to achieving those benefits.…
Are New Zealand cities financially sustainable?
I’ve been thinking about an interesting and provocative article by engineer and Strong Towns advocate Charles Marohn. “Interesting” because it provides a novel way of thinking about the financial trade-offs inherent in urban development, including the allocation of costs between private property owners and the public in general, and between current residents and future ones.…
How should we pursue good urban design?
I’m not an urban designer or an architect – economists are famously bad at that sort of thing – but I do pay attention to the way places are built. Some places work well for people, and some places don’t. That matters.…
Sunday Reading 13 November 2016
Welcome back to Sunday reading. This week, the US elections are over. So is the US, probably. If there’s one thing that history teaches us, it’s that countries taken over by authoritarian strongmen who are willing to subvert democratic norms and destroy public institutions to maintain power frequently don’t recover from it.…
Trademe, power tools, and “filtering” in housing markets
A discussion on Twitter recently highlighted an important – and hard-to-understand – dimension of housing markets. Namely, what is the link between new construction – which is usually expensive – and housing affordability? People who would have bought pricey new apartments instead compete for existing houses.…
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