Urbanism

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/01/california-sb50-vote-affordable-housing-zoning-law-transit/605767/

So glad this bill failed. Zoning is this weird catch all with market urbanists that can’t seem to square the fact that market based responses don’t solve the housing crisis, they just move it around. The basis of the slumification post is that markets choose which places to strategically invest in(gentrification) while divesting from others, perpetually chasing profit while ignoring the fact that this does not come close to solving the housing question.

New York, you have a lot of problems. Your streets are too wide. Rober Moses put highways right on through you (rather than around you), you’re gentrifying your outer neighborhoods, your land use policy leaves a lot to be desired. But by god sometimes you pull something amazing out:

So I’m apparently the newest TOPA stan. Move over AOC, I got a new favourite NY politician and he goes by Zellnor Myrie.

https://youtu.be/_ysoAo08aHw

2 Likes

Context: I live in KC.

And yeah. The city planning here is pretty oof. Urban sprawl is pretty serious and white flight is alive and well. Tons of really nice neighborhoods are being used as empty rental properties because affluent white people think they are crime ridden. We had a really awesome proposal to expand our streetcar (free public transit) out to all parts of the metro but it was shot down because people were terrified that it would bring “the criminal element” into the suburbs.

We have so little reliable public transit. It would’ve been a huge boost to the employment and leisure options available to a ton of people. Alas…

We also have a lot of abandoned industrial areas. Some of it is being taken up in recent history by artisanal shops and such. My favorite butcher in the city is one of these. It has been pretty limited, though.

Adding to a lot of our problems, the city and state (both states, honestly) have screwed over locals by giving huge tax incentives to businesses to try and entice them to build here. I’m pretty sure taxes are paying for the vast majority of the 4+ high rise campus the company I work for is building.

1 Like

People think density means overcrowding. It’s not the same thing!

Overcrowding is too many people living in too few housing units.

Density is more housing units… which can lead to less overcrowding.

3 Likes

Considered x-posting this one in war on cars.

2 Likes

What a thread.

3 Likes

A great video on the super skinny towers on Billionaires’ Row.

1 Like

Some fun map graphs in this one:

4 Likes

He touched on this in an earlier video and it was the first time I had heard that many suburban-sprawl cities are really struggling financially (or are on track to once the initial influx of revenue from new single-family development runs its course). I wonder how widespread that knowledge is amongst city government and how they are thinking about the future. It seems like the kind of issue that could finally get city & state Republican politicians to change their tune about planning, zoning approval, and discussing the benefits of more densely populated urban zones. They won’t do it for quality of life, pollution, climate change, or because it is objectively the right thing to do but when it comes to the reality of finances there might be a small chance. Or maybe they’ll just pivot to say the government should not be running any public education at all, that’ll save some money!

Fantastic video from a channel that’s already got so many good ones.

As if it wasn’t apparently already, I think most of all this is a great illustration of the fact that capitalism, cars, climate change, economic inequality, and racial injustice are all heads of the same hydra.

If the US had gone with the dense mixed-use zoning to begin with, how much better off would all of us be in regards to every problem on that list?

2 Likes

This series is so good!

3 Likes

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-06-07/is-new-york-city-more-dangerous-than-rural-america

image

Yeah Its been a bit of a trip in Philly the last few years.

SOURCE

https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-gun-arrests-2021-convictions-vufa-20210330.html

https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-district-attorney-larry-krasner-us-attorney-william-mcswain-feds-charge-ak-gunman-20190228.html

Where did all the single room accommodation go?

1 Like

Cities getting rid of SROs is the same problem with suburbs only allowing single family homes. The population density of all the places is exceeding the housing supply and the geographic space. Cities need SRO and towns just outside of cities need apartment buildings of at least the mixed-zoning variety.

As long as housing is seen as a capital investment, as opposed to a human right, and as long as real estate law is seen as a way to control who lives where, as opposed to making sure everyone lives somewhere, this is just how it’s going to be.

1 Like

Yeah big issue in Philadelphia. Laws created to stop flophouses and brothels essentially make the bar extremely high for creating legal boarding houses providing SROs. There’s still of course large demand for that sort of affordable housing in the Big 10 Metro with the highest poverty rate so we have a ton of illegal boarding houses that have all sorts of safety issues.

It blows up in the news every few years when there’s a fire and a whole family dies because the other tenants don’t know about each other really and they don’t know to keep looking for more people. So far nothing meaningful has been achieved to help get more legalized/approved and there are whole districts of the city where they are outlawed by council member driven zone overlays for their district that ban them.

I think bringing back SROs could have a really huge impact nowadays not just for low income people and transient laborers, but for almost everyone at least at some point in their lives.

Consider that due to digitization and food delivery many affluent people do not necessarily possess that many physical durable goods. I have plenty, but if I get rid of my physical books, furniture, and everything in the kitchen, I could absolutely live in a very small space. Clothes, toiletries, transportation equipment (bicycle), and digital equipment. That’s it. Maybe equipment for a hobby or two that may or may not take up a lot of room, e.g.: a bag full of camera stuff.

I can think of so many scenarios in which an SRO would be ideal.

Remote workers who want a more frequent change of scenery rather than being locked down to one place.

Adults, mostly recent graduates, who don’t want to be stuck living in their parent’s home, but don’t (yet) have enough money to move out.

Someone who runs into a rough situation at home and needs to move out seeking safety, but can’t afford a hotel or an apartment.

Tourists who want to make a longer stay in a particular place, but would prefer their own room over a hostel.

People who might own a home out in the woods, but work in the city during the week. They could commute each direction just once a week and just sleep in the SRO just M-R nights. M-W nights if they get a four day work week.

The new-ish so-called hybrid workers who are working 5 days, but only some of them in the office. Only have to come to the office two days a week? Sleep in the SRO two days a week and at your home the other 5.

People who work unpredictable or strange hours might get an SRO to crash on occasion. Like a doctor who is on-call might want a small place very close to the hospital in addition to their actual fancy home (since they have doctor money after all).

It really would just be a huge boon to so many urban people to have a large supply of them at a reasonable price.

Sex workers can use them, and that may or may not be better and safer than using a hotel.

There are problems, though. Lots of safety concerns. Gotta watch out for criminal usage. COVID has really shown that lots of people living that closely could promote spread of disease. Meningitis loves to spread in barracks and dorms for some reason, so have to watch out for that. These are all very solvable issues, but they require some investment that is going to drive the price up. Have to balance that to keep it viable.

Plus, the more you get people in these types of situations into SRO housing they will not be competing for the smaller apartments where a small family would like to rent, which drives down rents on those units. And then so on up the chain as each group is able to better afford housing that better matches their needs/budget.

1 Like