I related to this particular post by Michael Lewyn at Planetizen, Why I fight: Occasionally, someone familiar with my scholarship asks me: why do you care about walkability and sprawl and cities? Why is this cause more important to you than twenty other worthy causes you might be involved … [Read more...]
Cul-de-sacs – Privatize ’em
Daniel Nairn at Discovering Urbanism brings up a great point about cul-de-sacs. Are they public goods, or truly unnecessary "socialism in its most extreme form"? Take the standard cul-de-sac that serves a handful of households. The purpose of this design is to exclude the general public from … [Read more...]
Another On “Conservatives” and Urbanism
While I sympathize with the theme and agree with regards to roadway spending and "conservative" hypocrisy, a recent article in the progressive The American Prospect takes a narrow-minded view of politics and urbanism, while throwing around broad generalizations about evolution and global warming to … [Read more...]
Weekend Reading: Jane Jacobs, Agglomeration, Farms, NIMBY Songs
During my early college studies in Architecture and Urban Design, I became loosely familiar with the ideas of Jane Jacobs, one of the most celebrated urbanist intellectuals. Sanford Ikeda's FEE lectures [mp3] have inspired me to learn more about Jane Jacobs from a Free Market Urbanism point of view. … [Read more...]
Links and Weekend Listening
I've been swamped in my day job, but want to share the following: The blog, Agents of Urbanism recently gave praise to Market Urbanism. Thanks Matthew! Please check out Agents of Urbanism and Life Without Buildings, who followed up on Agent of Urbanism's praise. I enjoy both blogs. Carl … [Read more...]
Conservatives and Urbanism
Matthew Yglesias - Straight Talk on Gasoline on drilling and how conservative deviation from free-market principles has hurt the environment: Meanwhile, take something like the accessory dwellings issue. Here you have a bunch of regulations that make it illegal for people to live more densely. … [Read more...]
Urban[ism] Legend: Density is Bad for the Environment
This is a topic I want to cover more thoroughly, but for now I present a one hour documentary video on green buildings for you leisurely viewing. I came across the snagfilms website from a recent Wall Street Journal article. Most of the documentary videos lean towards "progressive" tastes, but … [Read more...]
How to Obscure Reality to Make Planners Seem Important
Regular reader, Bill forwarded this article from the New York Daily News calling it an "outstanding collection of anti-density and anti-market propaganda presented (as always) as objective journalism." The article is riddled with misconceptions (aka Urbanism Legends) about zoning and development … [Read more...]