Ep127: Urbanist Anxiety

I can’t talk about Mass Transit without continuing to talk about cities and housing policy, which touches many areas, so I focus in on zoning and regulations, uses of urbanism, and of course some capitalism bashing. Seguing over from Transportation with an addendum on the Ghent Plan from last time, I jump into the partisan split concerning walk-ability. I Then cover the Democrat incentives for raising housing density, but also the effect of doing so without market or rent controls. In the 2nd Half I read a column from a community builder in Philly as he tears urbanism as a buzzword a new one; and explore how bring back public housing can be done without continuing the segregation our system maintains even now.

Music Used: Build the Cities, by Karma Fields

Sources

The Details of the Ghent Plan to cut cars from the city
https://www.eltis.org/sites/default/files/c1_scheirs_mobility_policy_ghent.pdf
Support for walkability falls along political lines more than others.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx5az9/walking-places-is-part-of-the-culture-wars-now
Liberal Take and call for Zoning Reform
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/opinion/biden-zoning-social-justice.html
General Result of Liberal zoning reform
https://48hills.org/2021/08/study-new-housing-for-the-rich-leads-to-more-evictions-for-the-poor/
Call out of (liberal) urbanism
https://whyy.org/articles/is-urbanism-a-fantasy-of-racialized-capitalism/
Social Housing without doing more racism;
https://shelterforce.org/2018/12/07/decommodifying-housing-without-reproducing-american-apartheid/
An architect Rants about the terrible and corrupt shape of the industries involved with housing
https://www.treehugger.com/america-architecture-construction-industry-broken-5179337