Mathieu Helie has been writing at a blog he calls Emergent Urbanism. His most recent post is the first part of a series that will be published as an entire article entitled “The Principles of Emergent Urbanism” at International Journal of Architectural Research. This first part of the … [Read more...]
Stadtluft Macht Frei (city air makes one free)
Thomas Schmidt wrote a great article for LewRockwell.com that covers a lot of urbanist ground, with some help from a broad selection of Jane Jacobs’ work. Here’s a snippet: Though you might blame any number of obvious villains and historical processes for this, the name Ebenezer Howard would … [Read more...]
Books for Beginner Urbanists
Over at Where, Dan Lorentz identified the top 5 books that he considers “the basics of urbanism”, as well as a “Tall Stack of Other Suggestions”: Based on that library visit, on posted comments from readers, on behind-the-scenes advice from Where contributors and my interpretation—from my own … [Read more...]
Taxing Land Speculation
Bill Hudnut at the Urban Land Institute wrote a post that attracted some attention at Austin Contrarian and Overhead Wire. Hudnut discusses a different approach to taxing land: How about restructuring the property tax across America to install a two-tiered system? More tax on those horizontal … [Read more...]
The Story of I’On: Struggles of a New Urbanist Project
I recently googled upon a post at a blog called "Rub-a-Dub" that mentioned a land development project in Mount Pleasant, SC called I'On.I imagine the developers of the I'On "Traditional Neighborhood Development" (TND) community are sympathetic with Market Urbanism, as they named … [Read more...]
President Obama on Jane Jacobs and Cities
Without getting too political on inauguration day, I'd like to share a positive video featuring our new President that urbanists should appreciate, regardless of political persuasion:Let's hope President Obama keeps Jane Jacobs' lessons of spontaneous order from The Death and Life of Great … [Read more...]
Weekend Reading: Jane Jacobs, Agglomeration, Farms, NIMBY Songs
During my early college studies in Architecture and Urban Design, I became loosely familiar with the ideas of Jane Jacobs, one of the most celebrated urbanist intellectuals. Sanford Ikeda's FEE lectures [mp3] have inspired me to learn more about Jane Jacobs from a Free Market Urbanism point of view. … [Read more...]
Links and Weekend Listening
I've been swamped in my day job, but want to share the following:The blog, Agents of Urbanism recently gave praise to Market Urbanism. Thanks Matthew! Please check out Agents of Urbanism and Life Without Buildings, who followed up on Agent of Urbanism's praise. I enjoy both blogs.Carl … [Read more...]