Land-Use Manifesto 2013
Here is the second of my statements of principles for the New Year. 1. The Property-Rights Principle: Government should not regulate land uses except to prevent trespasses or nuisances. People should be allowed to use their land in any way they see fit provided their use does not harm others (such as through air, water, […]
What’s Wrong With TIF
Many people see the problems with tax-increment financing and think that TIF laws need reform. But in fact, no reforms will work; tax-increment financing should simply be abolished. The Antiplanner attempted to explain why in Boise last week, and here is a summary what I said. (Click any of the charts for a larger view.) […]
State & Local Corporate Welfare
State and local governments spend $80 billion a year trying to attract businesses away from each other, reports the New York Times. This is a giant zero-sum game, the paper suggests, and in fact may even slow growth in some areas by increasing the tax burden. The Times even admits that it has received $24 […]
State & Local Corporate Welfare
State and local governments spend $80 billion a year trying to attract businesses away from each other, reports the New York Times. This is a giant zero-sum game, the paper suggests, and in fact may even slow growth in some areas by increasing the tax burden. The Times even admits that it has received $24 […]
Playing the Numbers Game
Planners for Metro, Portland’s regional planning agency, are playing an interesting game. They did a travel survey in 1994, when gas prices were low and the economy was booming. Then they did another survey in 2011, when gas prices were high and the economy was in recession. They found that Portland travelers in 2011 are […]
Cities Growing Faster Than Suburbs–NOT!
A few months ago, several news outlets reported that new census data showed that the cities were growing faster than the suburbs. This brought comfort to those urban planners who believe that inner cities are better than suburbs and that most people would prefer to live in them if only they understood all the benefits. […]
Reviving TIF in California
Last year, California Governor Jerry Brown persuaded the state legislature to shut down redevelopment districts whose use of tax-increment financing was eating into school and other local budgets and, by turn, into the state budget which was forced to make up for school losses to redevelopment. This year, the legislature has quietly been sneaking TIF […]
The Antiplanner’s Library: Spreading the Wealth
Subtitled “How Obama Is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities,” this book sounds like it is right up the Antiplanner’s street (since my home fortunately doesn’t have an alley). Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, argues that Obama intends to forcefully implement the smart-growth agenda in his […]
Planning Is Destroying Britain
The Economist reviews housing prices in London, one of the most expensive cities in the world, and what do you know, it finds that high housing prices are due to urban planning. “The biggest constraint on development in London is the Green Belt,” says the magazine that calls itself a newspaper. “Tt runs (with perforations) […]
Does Transit Promote Urban Development?
Back in 1995, the FTA asked transit advocates Robert Cervero (of the UC Berkeley planning school) and Samuel Seskins (of Parsons Brinckerhoff) whether transit let to changes in urban form. After reviewing the literature, they concluded that “Urban rail transit investments rarely “create” new growth, but more typically redistribute growth that would have taken place […]
Innovative (Meaning Insane) Land-Use Policy
The Belgian Port of Antwerp needed to expand. But Belgium has a policy that any greenfield development must be offset by set-asides of already developed land. So the residents of an entire town were forcibly evicted and their town declared a “new nature preserve.” The buildings in the town were not leveled, and instead planners […]
Declares or Declared?
“California Declares War on the Suburbs,” reports Wendell Cox’s op ed in the Wall Street Journal (or at least the headline so reports). This has led to all sort of supporting commentary in the conservative blogosphere, along with articles from the left that claims Cox is full of it. All the Antiplanner wants to know […]
