The world's fastest growing cities
Hello all - here are my favorite tweets on urbanism from the past two days.
No way: "Taxing Rich Peoples' Empty Homes Isn't Helping the Housing Crisis" bloomberg.com/news/features/…
The last chart is the most underappreciated: vacant homes aren't the cheap apartments regular people can afford, they're single-family units worth upward of a million dollars. It's good to get them on the market, but in exactly the same way it's good to build market-rate housing.
Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome
I support vacancy taxes and removing mortgage interest deduction on secondary homes, they're marginal ways to increment housing supply espesially in low property tax states like California. But i've been clear it's not a some major solution to the problem. It's not at odds
Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome
LA has more people than belgium, in a slightly smaller area. and yet, LA has significantly higher rates of car use. Why? Let's break it down:
Belgium's population is heavily centered around Brussels and secondary cities, whereas LA's spreads outwards (except for Angeles Forest)
Furthermore, Belgium has a large, built-out intercity rail network, in addition to a S-bahn and metro in Brussels (and a light rail in Charleroi and trams in Antwerp+Ghent).
Meanwhile, LA's rail network is... limited (although expanding!)
The biggest difference though? Probably land use. Belgium has many small towns built around a train station with modestly dense housing for about a mile and agriculture beyond that.
However, LA is largely moderate-density sprawl throughout, with little variation in land use
what does that look like at the ground level? strip malls and unfavorable walking conditions in LA, vs. car-free, dense, pedestrian-friendly areas in belgium.
unfortunately, it's illegal to build almost everywhere in LA due to parking requirements, lot sizes, and setbacks
Huge delays for NYC congestion pricing: Kathy Hochul is wavering (“the pace and timing is something she will need to evaluate further”), and the MTA is about to announce that environmental review will take 16 months. Sam Schwartz thinks Albany is stalling
6 LA City council members sent a letter to planning on 8/13 to recommend rezoning for 300k new homes, which is a key ask in our housing element comment letter. 🎉
BUT, growth is to be along commercial corridors "without disrupting existing single-family neighborhoods."
This isn't nearly good enough, and yet it's about the best we can hope for from individual California cities. State action is needed because the cities aren't going to do the right thing on their own. Most will do nothing, or worse.
Abundant Housing LA @AbundantHousing
Toronto is a cycling city: a 2019 survey found 70% of Torontonians ride bikes, increasingly for everyday trips, which is an increase compared to 54% in 2009 & 48% in 1999. Visit toronto.ca/cycling to learn more about Toronto's bikeways, cycling safety & education. #biketo
The project to build a second train tunnel between San Francisco and Oakland says they're budgeting $1 billion just for environmental review.
ONE BILLION DOLLARS, to prove that adding capacity to the most crowded train line in California is good for the environment
More
Click the following two tweets to see full threads.
Headlines like this are a reminder that our nation’s history of racist city planning and underinvestment in Black communities still affects us today.
In Buffalo, we’re going to fight for common sense infrastructure improvements.
Lets talk about them⬇️
