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CNU Salons
The Attack on Airbnb
Submitted by MLewyn on Thu, 10/23/2014 - 10:55amThe room-sharing service Airbnb has become controversial in high-cost cities like San Francisco and New York, in part because of concerns about affordable housing. In fact, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein has recently written an op-ed attacking Airbnb. (In the interests of full disclosure, I note that both I and the Senator have financial axes to grind: I am an Airbnb customer, and Sen.
Announcement: new paper on smart growth and government regulation
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 10/21/2014 - 10:58amI recently coauthored a paper on government regulations designed to promote smart growth and green building (published by the Mercatus Institute). The paper examines the prevalence of minimum density requirements, maximum parking requirements, and green building-related regulations.
We conclude that:
*Minimum density requirements are quite rare. Only two of twenty-four cities surveyed only two have such regulations.
Americans are more multimodal than some might think
Submitted by MLewyn on Mon, 10/20/2014 - 7:26amBecause most Americans drive to work on any given day, one might think that they don't use any other mode of transportation, ever. But a recent review of federal transportation surveys shows otherwise. In fact, 65 percent of American commuters take at least one non-car trip per week, and 48 percent take three or more.
Announcing....
Submitted by MLewyn on Sun, 10/12/2014 - 11:57amI am happy to announce the birth of my new site, Auto-Free in Kansas City. The purpose of this site is to help readers learn about Kansas City's neighborhoods and how to navigate them through public transit. The site links to my Kansas City photos, as well as to my "Auto-Free in...." websites I created for some other cities I have lived in (Cleveland, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Atlanta- though I note that these statistics have not been updated in years, so their bus route data is no doubt a bit outdated).
Street sense
Submitted by bkilli on Wed, 10/01/2014 - 11:41amI always love using this picture when teaching urban desing and transportation and the means by which to avoid grid lock.
cheers
Brian Killin@Toronto
Is the Creative Class Really Taking Over Cities? Verdict: Not Proven
Submitted by MLewyn on Mon, 09/29/2014 - 7:04pmIn today's Washington Post, Emily Badger uses a set of maps to prove her claim that an affluent "creative class" is taking over urban cores, and as a result "service and working-class residents are effectively left with the least desirable parts of town, the longest commutes and the fewest amenities. " But her maps don't seem to support her point.
A Myth Exploded
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 09/09/2014 - 9:40pmEvery so often I read the following argument: "We shouldn't upzone popular urban neighborhoods, because if we freeze the status quo in those areas, the people who are priced out willl rebuild our city's devastated neighborhoods." This argument has a conceptual flaw: most middle-class peoples' choices aren't limited to rich urban areas and poor urban areas, because they can always move to suburbia.
Beauty and Boredom in Kansas City
Submitted by MLewyn on Mon, 09/08/2014 - 9:39pmEvery so often, I walk forty-five minutes to work rather than taking a bus. My walk takes me through Kansas City's Brookside neighborhood, an area full of distinguished-looking old houses on gridded streets with sidewalks. Sounds great, right?
Best Practices In Sprawl: Apartments
Submitted by MLewyn on Sun, 09/07/2014 - 10:00pmWhen I visted Fargo, North Dakota, I saw a few things I liked, such as a nicely fixed-up downtown and a beautiful historic district just south of downtown.