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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?

Book Review: The Making of Urban Japan

April 28, 2022 By Salim Furth

If you read one book about Japan this year, it should be the beautiful, new Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City by Jorge Almazan and his Studiolab colleagues, including Joe McReynolds. But if you read two books about Japan, as you should, the second one should be André Sorensen's … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Review, Culture & Books, Places & Spaces, planning, sprawl, Uncategorized, Urban[ism] Legends, World Tagged With: Andre Sorensen, japan, planning, tokyo

How YIMBYs used Ostrom to recruit conservatives

February 10, 2021 By Tom Spencer

A major barrier to the market urbanist’s ability to make the case for building more housing is the question of aesthetics. When you refer to density in cities, it’s easy to picture large brutalist towers and the slum-like conditions that can be seen in much of the developing world. Of course, this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: housing, NIMBYism, planning, Uncategorized, World Tagged With: Ostrom, planning, UK

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

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