Great piece Ryan. This is just another reminder of the negative effects of overzealous zoning regulations. Essentially, we can think of zoning regulations as a subtle means of transferring wealth from those who own property to those who do not.
Local boards and city governments become captured by landowners/homeowners who have every incentive to design the rules to inflate the value of their properties. This is not optimal for a number of reasons, it exacerbates the cost of housing, widens wealth inequality, and weakens our ability to take advantage of the scaling benefits that cities provide: https://www.lianeon.org/p/let-a-thousand-skyscrapers-bloom
Keep giving us examples, I am sure they are endless.
Our 2 year election cycle never gets us the long term well thought out plans to deal with the infrastructure problems that come with more dense populations.
The affordable housing usually means government subsidized. The ratio of affordable to luxury housing is always a delicate balance. It happened in the town I grew up in. There was nothing luxurious about the housing but “affordable” took over. Once the social and economic problems reared their ugly heads home prices took a nose dive and the dominos started falling.
Negotiating with the politicians, developers, and the communities take a special person….sounds like a business opportunity! I enjoyed the article, thank you!
Great piece Ryan. This is just another reminder of the negative effects of overzealous zoning regulations. Essentially, we can think of zoning regulations as a subtle means of transferring wealth from those who own property to those who do not.
Local boards and city governments become captured by landowners/homeowners who have every incentive to design the rules to inflate the value of their properties. This is not optimal for a number of reasons, it exacerbates the cost of housing, widens wealth inequality, and weakens our ability to take advantage of the scaling benefits that cities provide: https://www.lianeon.org/p/let-a-thousand-skyscrapers-bloom
Keep giving us examples, I am sure they are endless.
Thank you! The well is deep on this topic, unfortunately. The good news is that we are showing it is possible to break free of capture.
You missed the obvious, and epic, pun: "Baby Got Back(Yard)"
Haha! I'll save it for a follow-up piece.
Interesting - keep them coming!
Our 2 year election cycle never gets us the long term well thought out plans to deal with the infrastructure problems that come with more dense populations.
The affordable housing usually means government subsidized. The ratio of affordable to luxury housing is always a delicate balance. It happened in the town I grew up in. There was nothing luxurious about the housing but “affordable” took over. Once the social and economic problems reared their ugly heads home prices took a nose dive and the dominos started falling.
Negotiating with the politicians, developers, and the communities take a special person….sounds like a business opportunity! I enjoyed the article, thank you!
Thanks for highlighting the various ways in which planning and zoning regs shape or distort how our cities develop