Market Urbanism

Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up

“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.

Systemic Failure on HSR

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One of many reasons why high-speed rail in America is doomed, from Systemic Failure: When DB or Renfe or even SNCF needs to buy a high-speed train, they simply call up Siemens (or Alstom or Talgo) and order some trains. Simple as that. Customization consists of painting a logo on the outside, and … [Read more...]

Vancouver shows how seeking community amenities from developers can go horribly wrong

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A lot of time I hear liberal urbanists claiming that trading development rights for community amenities (I'd definitely include affordable housing mandates here) is a win-win situation, but there's a real danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg, as appears to be happening in … [Read more...]

DC link list

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I didn't mean for these all (except the last one) to be about DC, but it looks like it turned out that way... 1. Matt Yglesias on lot occupancy rules in DC. I have a feeling, though, that these are more or less irrelevant in the face of other, stricter limits on density. 2. The feds, along … [Read more...]

Japanese transit and what it can teach us

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For a libertarian urbanist blogger, I've always felt kind of embarrassed by my lack of knowledge about East Asian transit, considering that it's the only place left on earth with a thriving competitive private transportation market (they even have profitable monorails!). I've heard good things about … [Read more...]

Downtown Brooklyn’s $2 million affordable apartments (correction)

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Inclusionary zoning is a bad enough idea, but at least it doesn't cost taxpayers anything directly. But New York State's Housing Finance Agency is taking the worst of both worlds – affordable housing mandates and public subsidies – and plopping them down in new luxury construction in the heart of … [Read more...]

The “Systemic Failure” of US transportation policy

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Today I stumbled upon a blog that's gotta be the best one I've found in a while. It's about US transportation policy by a blogger who seems to be based somewhere in the Bay Area, and it's called, fittingly, Systemic Failure. The post that first got my attention was this one about London's bike … [Read more...]

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