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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...." we... read more »
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 ame... read more »
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' ... read more »
Too Early To Declare Victory on Affordability
Submitted by MLewyn on Mon, 08/25/2014 - 7:37pmI just read numerous discussions about how high-cost cities really are cheaper than you might think, based on a study by New York's Citizens' Budget Commission purporting to show that when housing and transportation costs are combined, New York is actually one of the most affordable cities in ... read more »
Mr. Kotkin Talks About What "People Really Want"
Submitted by MLewyn on Fri, 08/22/2014 - 10:15amJoel Kotkin recently wrote in the Washington Post that unspecified urban planners want "to create an ideal locate for hipsters and older, sophisticated urban dwellers" rather than focusing on the needs of "most middle-class residents of the metropolis." He claims that these people want "home owners... read more »
What Ferguson Tells Us About Working-Class Suburbia
Submitted by MLewyn on Thu, 08/14/2014 - 10:07pmRecently, Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, has received lots of attention because of a police officer's questionable decision to shoot an unarmed civilian, followed by demonstrations, followed by some even more questionable decisions by police (such as arresting journalists and tear-gassing the... read more »
The "Chains Are Ruining Our City" Myth
Submitted by MLewyn on Mon, 08/11/2014 - 12:32pmI recently read about a blog complaining that New York was "suburbanizing" due to the "disappearance of small stores and restaurants" and their alleged replacement by national chains.
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The Toxic Results of NIMBYism
Submitted by MLewyn on Mon, 08/04/2014 - 9:54amAn article in today's New York Times discusses population growth patterns over the past several years, and suggests that population growth is fastest in the inland Sun Belt-places combining relatively warm weather and cheap housing.
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Don't Blame the Rich for High Rents
Submitted by MLewyn on Wed, 07/23/2014 - 2:44pmOne common explanation for the high housing costs of New York and San Francisco is that the wealthy are pricing everyone else out of the market. According to this narrative, there are so many obscenely wealthy people in such cities that developers are only building housing for the rich, thus m... read more »