MLewyn's blog

Today, I read a blog post by Joel Kotkin asserting, for the umpteeth time, that famlies with children prefer suburbs.  But at the bottom of the post is a chart comparing the child population (as a percentage of total population) for dozens of cities and their suburbs.

A few weeks ago I posted an entry on transit ridership under several Republican governors who might be running for President; since most governors are judged based on one or two high-profile decisions (e.g.

My review of Emily Talen's book City Rules is now online.   To briefly summarize the book: in addition to explaining how land use and street design regulations promote sprawl, Talen shows how those regulations have become stricter over time.  In addition to addressing oft-discussed issues like single-use zoning, Talen discusses issues like curb radii (the measurement of the edge of a block).

While walking around I occasionally see the "Coexist" bumper sticker, showing the symbols of various religions in order to suggest that it would be nice if they all coexisted peacefully.

I just finished watching all nine Best Picture nominees, and thought I would discuss what the front-runners should be from an urbanist perspective.  Which films occur in an urban or walkable environment?  Which films present such environments favorably (or at least not unfavorably)?

I have written about how local comprehensive plans sometimes favor sprawl over urbanism.  But a recent book by planning scholar Carlton Basmajian, Atlanta Unbound, shows that regional planning can suffer from similar defects. 

In view of the recent scandal involving the politically-motivated closing of some bridge lanes in New Jersey, I thought I would start to take a look at how New Jersey Gov Christie's record compares with those of some other governors who might be running for President.  But rather than going program-by-program, I thought I would look at actual transit ridership.  (Statistics here). 

In numerous blog posts (most extensively here) I have pointed out that despite the enormous amount of writing about suburban poverty and urban gentrification, cities still have a disproportionate share of regional poverty.  

Because Houston has no formal zoning code, one might think that infill is easier there than in other cities.  But a few neighborhood activists may create a new obstacle to infll: nuisance law.

A recent op-ed in Canada's Globe and Mail argued that yes, you can build your way out of congestion by building more roads, because after all, Phoenix built lots of roads and they don't have that much congestion.  The author invoked the Texas Transportation Institute's report on Phoenix  to show that government spending on highways reduces congestion.  However, he should have read the TTI report more carefully: between 1982 and 2011,