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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.

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  • What Should I Read to Understand Zoning?

The Disillusionment of the American Planner, or How We Became Mark Brendanawicz

February 12, 2018 By Nolan Gray

Mark Brendanawicz of NBC's Parks and Recreation

Spoiler Warning: This post contains minor spoilers about Season Two of Parks and Recreation, which aired nearly 10 years ago. Why have you still not watched it?Lately I have been rewatching Parks and Recreation, motivated in part by the shocking discovery that my girlfriend never made it past … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, history, Jane Jacobs, planning Tagged With: city planning, high modernism, Jane Jacobs, leslie knope, liberal planning, Mark Brendanawicz, parks and rec, parks and recreation, peter hall, planning, ron swanson

Is Zoning Popular? Reevaluating the Evidence

January 25, 2018 By Nolan Gray

New Brunswick, NJ Zoning Map

In my regular discussions of U.S. zoning, I often hear a defense that goes something like this: “You may have concerns about zoning, but it sure is popular with the American people. After all, every state has approved of zoning and virtually every city in the country has implemented zoning.”One … [Read more...]

Filed Under: history, planning, Urban[ism] Legends, zoning Tagged With: Chicago, euclidian zoning, history of planning, Houston, new york, planning, racial segregation, scpea, St. Louis, szea, zoning

The Progressive Roots of Zoning

November 24, 2017 By Adam Hengels

by Samuel R StaleyBefore the twentieth century land-use and housing disputes were largely dealt with through courts using the common-law principle of nuisance. In essence if your neighbor put a building, factory, or house on his property in a way that created a measurable and tangible harm, courts … [Read more...]

Filed Under: history, Law, planning, Policy, zoning Tagged With: Edward Bassett, history, New York City, planning, progressivism, zoning

Urban Design and Social Complexity

September 20, 2016 By Sandy Ikeda

This week’s column is drawn from a lecture I gave at the University of Southern California on the occasion of the retirement of urban economist Peter Gordon.One of my heroes is the urbanist Jane Jacobs, who taught me to appreciate the importance for entrepreneurial development of how public … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture and Design, Author: Sandy Ikeda, Jane Jacobs, planning Tagged With: eminent domain, Friedrich Hayek, Jane Jacobs, nyc, planning

How Houston Regulates Land Use

September 19, 2016 By Nolan Gray

Uptown Houston

If you regularly read about cities, you might notice that Texas cities rarely seem to come up. We make cases for why Detroit is definitely coming back—just you wait! We come up with elaborate theories of how cities can become the next Silicon Valley. We spend hours coming up with a solution to New … [Read more...]

Filed Under: planning Tagged With: Houston, land-use regulation, planning, restrictive covenants, Texas, zoning

Why No Micro-Apartments in Chicago?

April 15, 2016 By Adam Hengels

 Several cities have jumped on the bandwagon of building Micro-apartments, a hot trend in apartment development.  San Francisco and Seattle already have them. New York outlawed them, but is testing them on one project, and may legalize them again. Even developers in smaller cities like … [Read more...]

Filed Under: housing, parking, planning, zoning Tagged With: affordability, affordable housing, Chicago, housing, micro-apartments, planning, SRO

Some Inspiration from Guatemala

November 8, 2010 By Adam Hengels

Turn the lights down, and the volume up. It's time for some Market Urbanist media, courtesy of some future urbanist leaders who's ideas may one day liberate our cities from yesterday's unenlightened technocrats.Architecture students at Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala participated … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economics, planning, video, zoning Tagged With: Dynamic Urban Planning, Gonzalo Melian, planning, University Francisci Marroqui, Urban Planning, video

Video: Sandy Ikeda on The Unintended Consequences of “Smart Growth”

December 13, 2009 By Adam Hengels

I came across this video interview of economist Sandy Ikeda by the Mackinac Center. Sandy currently blogs at thinkmarkets and has contributed guest posts to Market Urbanism. I thought Sandy did a great job discussing many of the topics we cover in this site. Sandy is particularly insightful when … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economics, planning, video, zoning Tagged With: Author: Sandy Ikeda, automobile, highways, Intervention, planning, smart growth

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