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sprawl
Too Much Open Space An Interesting Paper
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 04/21/2015 - 10:15amProf. Robert Ellickson of Yale Law School has an interesting paper up on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) website. He critciizes widespread popular support for open space, pointing out that too much open space reduces population density and thus accelerates sprawl and reduces housing... read more »
New York's problem (or more broadly, the problem of medium density)
Submitted by MLewyn on Wed, 06/18/2014 - 11:37amAfter reading yet another blog post talking about how New York is losing migrants to other cities, I had an extremely insightful date. My date was with a woman who lived in Flatbush, at the outer, more car-oriented edge of Brooklyn. She drives everywhere. When I told her about my y... read more »
Cities, Suburbs and Commute Length
Submitted by MLewyn on Thu, 05/08/2014 - 5:20pmI recently discovered a fun tool: the Census Bureau's Census Explorer, which is full of maps about all kinds of things. In particular, I spent some time exploring commute length.
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Two Cheers For Negative Thinking
Submitted by MLewyn on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 10:41amI recently read an article suggesting that Cleveland's problems were in part due to "negative thinking"- some fuzzy "vibe of negativity" that discourages people from moving to Cleveland. I am skeptical of this claim for two reasons.
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Suburbia Not Always Cheaper
Submitted by MLewyn on Fri, 04/04/2014 - 9:28amA story from a coworker of mine: Mr. X (the coworker) and his family move from Queens to Long Island to take advantage of the allegedly better public schools. As a result, they are able to save money by pulling their children out of Catholic school. Were they better off? Appa... read more »
Mini-Book Review: Regional Planning can be Pro-Sprawl Too
Submitted by MLewyn on Fri, 01/17/2014 - 2:28pmI 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.
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How The Sprawl Lobby Is Totalitarian
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 09/24/2013 - 11:08amI recently read the following comment justifying sprawl-oriented policies: "people still want the freedom of choice, privacy and flexibility a car affords."
I have often seen this sort of argument; it seems to me to endorse the following chain of logic: (1) an unspecified number of "people" (p... read more »
Is Sprawl An Example of Libertarian Paternalism?
Submitted by MLewyn on Thu, 08/29/2013 - 10:38amOne widely-publicized attempt to find a middle ground between laissez-fair and overregulation is "libertarian paternalism": the idea that (in the words of New York Times columnist David Brooks), "Government doesn’t tell you what to do, but it gently biases the context so that you find it ea... read more »
Use Sustainability Standards to Meet Millennials' Needs
Submitted by Mary Vogel on Thu, 08/22/2013 - 6:07pm
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Responding to Kotkin's Attack on Density
Submitted by MLewyn on Mon, 08/12/2013 - 11:23amIn Forbes online, Joel Kotkin came out with a ringing attack on those who dare to challenge sprawl, asking "How Can We Be So Dense"? I thought this was worth responding to, and so here are a few of his points (with my responses).
I. Social mobility and sprawl
Kotkin: "More recently densi... read more »