Urban Development

Before getting to Swan's Picks for this week, here is a suggested reading from Gregory Shill, University of Iowa College of Law, on some ways that second-best interventions may pick up quick gains on transportation safety policy. Drawing from economic theory, "second best" interventions are self-consciously designed to reach for the best policy that can be achieved quickly. See more on what Shill has to say here , including suggestions for more bollards, better streetlight

As an academic, one reads a fair amount of texts. Very few of them give you sheer pleasure throughout the process of reading, while at the same time causing you to rethink and reimagine themes and concepts that you have been otherwise engaged with for years. Co-Cities by Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione is one of these rare gems. Sheila and Christian, two dear friends and colleagues, brilliant scholars, and truly engaged citizens of cities and the world, have written an in

Co-Cities by Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione is a tour de force. They provide a rigorous empirical analysis of more than 200 global cities, and over 500 case studies within those metropolises, to reconceptualize “the city” for the contemporary age. (p. 24) While many scholars theorize or hypothesize “the city,” Foster and Iaione use surveys, qualitative interviews, detailed case studies, fieldwork, and geo mapping to derive a new and informed urban governance theory. Co-C

At their core, Michelle Wilde Anderson’s poignant and expertly crafted narratives in "The Fight to Save the Town" are tales of localities in decline. The communities she visits and the people she interviews alternate between resilience, disappointment and despair.  The reader comes away from the book with a deep understanding of what caused the deterioration of the four localities Anderson has studied, but also with admiration for the individuals and organizations that have

Minneapolis ordered to cease implementation of 2040 plan - StarTribune.com New map highlights home deeds with racist language in Ramsey County | MPR News Florida Abortion Ban Violates Jews' Religious Freedom, Lawsuit Says | U.S. News® | US News Abortion protections in New York fortified ahead of SCOTUS ruling - POLITICO New Jersey aims to lure Georgia firms by warning of ‘dangerous’ anti-abortion policies (ajc.com) Rural America Reels From Violent Crime. ‘People Lost The

DeSantis goes after Disney’s special government status in Florida City leaders threatened employees who wanted to publicly speak on sexual harassment problems in the police department Homeowners fight back against corporate landlords in Charlotte Problems with Opportunity Zones in L.A. Miamicoin and the brave new world of cities and crypto-currency

Wealthy donors want to dictate what happens in the public space of Washington Square Park Local Governments Fight Over Water in Arizona New Orleans Residents Won $75 Million Settlement Against The City and Housing Authority After Living On Toxic Landfill A novel pathway in NJ to police misconduct records. Will other states follow? Utah’s Walkable ‘15-Minute City’ Could Still Leave Lots of Room for Cars

The Little-Known Violence Prevention Tool Cropping Up in Cities Across the Country Barbershop Confrontations, Profane Signs and Despair: Pro-Biden and Alone in Rural What’s Wrong with Privately Funded ‘Post-Industrial’ Parks? America 25% of Missouri School Districts Now Provide Education Only Four Days A Week Also in Missouri, a “lawmaker seeks to stop residents from obtaining abortions out of state” And Idaho is using a similar tactic in its recent anti-trans bill, whic

The Perils of Land Use Deregulation , my intervention in the land use/housing debate, has now been published by the University of Pennsylvania Law Review . This article has already attracted some critical attention , including by others on this blog , and—as with all things housing-related these days—the disagreement can be sharp. No one will mistake an 80-page article on land use for a tweet. But I suspect hot takes are inevitable because I challenge the anti-zoning consensu

In some academic circles, the phrase “local economic development incentives” has become an oxymoron along the lines of “military music” or “jumbo shrimp”. The urban economics literature is chock-a-block with studies that demonstrate that economic results of subsidies are at best mixed , and often reveal that state and local subsidies targeted at specific firms systematically overpay relative to the value that the attracted firms add to the local economy, underwrite locationa

The pandemic lockdowns shed light on the state and relevance of our sidewalks. When we could go nowhere, we could walk, exercise, play, paint with chalk, dine, and more on them. Some sidewalks suddenly stop and lead to nowhere, although the streets continue. Others would lead somewhere, if they were not in complete disrepair. Others, while needed, do not exist. While we have paid little attention to sidewalks, they are key to making us healthier, greener, wealthier, and more

Late last month, observers erupted in fury when San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted down a proposal to build nearly 500 new homes -- many affordable -- on a downtown site now being used for valet parking. The Board’s vote came short on the heels of a major Court of Appeal decision upholding the state’s Housing Accountability Act (HAA), which the Legislature has greatly strengthened in recent years. The HAA usually requires cities to approve housing projects that a r

Inspired by Nick and David’s posts on law school classes with local government themes, I thought I would mention a seminar that I co-taught last year at NYU with economist Paul Romer. The seminar had the simple title of “Cities”. As readers of this blog are well aware, the study of urban areas is inherently interdisciplinary. One cannot understand cities today, or the law that restricts or enables them, without understanding more than a bit of urban history, urban sociology

American state and local government has gotten its share of criticism in recent years, including on this blog. Instead of being “laboratories of democracies,” as Justice Brandeis once famously called them, the states – especially red states – are often seen as agents of “vote suppression,” promoters of dysfunctional policies, and oppressors of women and minorities. In addition, the nationalization of state politics has led to a variety of flaws in state and local elections, i