zoning « City Block

Prescriptive urbanism vs. market urbanism

San Francisco skyline w/ crane. CC image from Omar Omar

Tales from two cities:

San Francisco: From Ilan Greenberg in The New Republic – San Francisco’s Gentrification Problem isn’t Gentrification. Greenberg compares the public debate (often writen, and discussed previously here) in San Francisco compared to more the more familiar narrative in other cities.

Here, the debate is

Continue reading Prescriptive urbanism vs. market urbanism – the tension between demand for more housing and the desire to curate great cities

Perspective on pop-ups

Recently, everyone in DC has been hopping on the bandwagon to bash an extensive redevelopment of a 2-story rowhouse into a 5-story condominium. Headlines make liberal use of middle finger references, with photo angles to match the description.

In the comments of one PoPville post on the house, a representative from DC’s

Continue reading Perspective on pop-ups

What would happen without parking requirements? Part 2 - Process

CC image from Joe Philipson

Following up on the previous post…

Matt Yglesias links to Michael Manville’s paper, also highlighting the dual areas of inflexibility with zoning parking requirements: that the requirement is fixed at a level above market demand, and that the parking must be provided on site. On top of the rules themselves, the

Continue reading What would happen without parking requirements? Part 2 – Process

What would happen without parking requirements?

Downtown Los Angeles. CC image from Nadia Kovacs.

The paper of the day, from Michael Manville: “Parking requirements as a barrier to housing development: regulation and reform in Los Angeles”

Abstract: Using a partial deregulation of residential parking in downtown Los Angeles, I examine the impact of minimum parking requirements on housing development. I find that

Continue reading What would happen without parking requirements?

Managing on-street parking: zoning is not the way

Park sign. CC image from Pixel Jones.

We don’t manage our limited parking resources very well. However, that leaves us lots of room to improve our policies.

A recent Freakonomics podcast entitled ‘Parking is Hell’ provides a nice entry-level synopsis of the challenges involved in using market forces to better manage this valuable resource. The podcast

Continue reading Managing on-street parking: zoning is not the way

'Snow' links: finding the right level of regulation

Mush on my windowsill.

I’m sitting in DC, looking out a window at a mushy, mostly liquid ‘snow’ storm named after an obscure federal budgetary procedure. There’s a joke in there somewhere about failing to meet the hype. But instead, I’ll offer some links to articles of interest over the past few weeks.

Regulatory challenges. Slate blogger

Continue reading ‘Snow’ links: finding the right level of regulation

Middle class in Manhattan?

Manhattan. CC image from sakeeb.

Breaking news! Last week, the New York Times reported that it is expensive to live in Manhattan. The Times frames the question through the lens of the middle class, asking what the definition means in the context of they city’s densest borough.

In a city like New York, where everything is

Continue reading Middle class in Manhattan?

Density - the limitations of zoning

San Francisco. CC image from C1ssou

A few days ago, Charles Marohn posted “It’s so much more than density” on his Strong Towns blog. In it, Charles pushes back against the idea that density is good, arguing that the reality of great places is more complex. Marohn’s conclusion is spot on, but throughout his post

Continue reading Density – the limitations of zoning

Parking tradeoffs - on-street and off-street

Requiring developers to build off-street parking is expensive. That’s the key takeaway from a City of Portland study on the impacts of parking requirements on housing affordability. (This study was linked to in a previous post) To illustrate the point, the city looks at a hypothetical development and considers a number of different scenarios for

Continue reading Parking tradeoffs – on-street and off-street

Parking, misunderstood

CC image from Atomic Taco

Let’s take a trip up and down the Northeast Corridor and look at recent parking news. All three show some misunderstandings about parking, cities, and markets. Time for some Shoup reading assignments!

New York: Looking to discuss changes to the zoning code parking requirements in downtown Brooklyn, the New York Times comes

Continue reading Parking, misunderstood

The business of bike sharing - The Washington Post 2013/05/20
I'm not sure why people focus on commuting via Bikeshare. The major benefit to bikeshare is one-way trips, adding another layer to the other transit modes.
San Francisco upzone: Vulcan logic. 2013/05/20
Star Trek and NIMBYism.
PATH/Fail: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Train Station | Observer 2013/05/16
Infrastructure investment goes off the rails.
Check Out the View From the Top of the Washington Monument: DCist 2013/05/15
helmet cams for ironworkers...
Development above the new Fairfax Metro stations: Should preparation begin now? 2013/05/14
Air rights - not a bad idea. However, the depiction here just seems like another suburban pod, isolated from the rest of the land next to the toll road ROW.
Chupacabra Becomes Latest Taco Trucks to Open Restaurant - Young & Hungry 2013/05/13
A nice list of DC-area food trucks that have translated the concept into a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The truck allows for proof of concept, and lower barriers to entry than otherwise required to start a storefront business from scratch.
Red Transit Lanes on Church Have Made Muni Faster and More Reliable | Streetsblog San Francisco 2013/05/13
Lessons for any city planning a streetcar line...
Cluck Zoning Board Meeting Monday | Providence Daily Dose¬es 2013/05/11
Zoning - yikes. Parking - yikes. This is not the kind of outcome we want for cities.
2035 Predictions for Washington Avenue Offer Precision Without Accuracy | streets.mn 2013/05/10
The perils of projections.
War of Addition: In Defense of Residential Pop-Ups - Housing Complex 2013/05/09
A growing city needs space to grow.

By Web Design Company

What’s wrong with ‘Metro Brown?’ (1)
- City Block: puts Metro’s recent discussions about moving away from...
Norman Foster’s aerotropolis (5)
- Alex Block: For more on those photos from Boston dealing with their...
Capacity on the Northeast Corridor (2)
- Alex Block: So, FRA is trying to reassure everyone that this is OK:...
- Alon Levy: The FRA rule changes are mostly about cant deficiency and are...
Towards a DC S-Bahn, part 2 (3)
- City Block: are needed to allow for a combination of increased intercity...
Metro’s ‘station of the future’ – why mess with what works? (1)
- Michael: “Metro Brown” works well with the red tiles and...
Disasters: the more things change, the more they stay the same (1)
- Kenny: When I was in New Orleans for a conference a few weeks ago, I...
Managing on-street parking: zoning is not the way (6)
- RTA: Just because a developer provides parking doesn’t mean all...
What would happen without parking requirements? (2)
- benschon: Evidence abounds that zoning mandates to put in parking...
- Streetsblog.net: on the Network today: City Block shares a new report...

@GeorgetownMet @amorrissey No, they knew they would never get in, hence why they joined another, lower-level league. Burned too many bridges - 7 hours ago
@JGluckman great point - we can go (and grow) taller while still feeling horizontal. - 3 days ago
RT @JGluckman: Barcelona and Paris have densities 4 times DC's while still feeling horizontal. - 3 days ago
RT @JGluckman: @HTinWDC suggests Paris and London as models for national capitals that are as much/more known for business and culture. #He… - 3 days ago
RT @JacksonCarnes: Pierre L'Enfant, father of DC urban planning, provided no limit or suggested limit on height. L'Enfant Plan created in 1… - 3 days ago
RT @enf: Graphic illustrations of how much space required parking eats up graphingparking.wordpress.com via @tranlib @urbandata @svrdesign - 3 days ago
Wow. Score one for the common loon. #Birds slate.com/articles/healt… - 3 days ago
RT @BeschlossDC: This is the future Times Square NYC, 1878, altho it almost looks like an intersection in a frontier town: http://t.co/EAjI… - 3 days ago
@GeorgetownMet yeah, that's exactly how I read the initial statistic. Maybe I stare at census data too much. - 5 days ago
@EricFidler were they thinking of Sunday-only back-in angled parking? - 5 days ago

City Block

Prescriptive urbanism vs. market urbanism

Perspective on pop-ups

What would happen without parking requirements? Part 2 - Process

What would happen without parking requirements?

Managing on-street parking: zoning is not the way

'Snow' links: finding the right level of regulation

Middle class in Manhattan?

Density - the limitations of zoning

Parking tradeoffs - on-street and off-street

Parking, misunderstood

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