verg
Joined 11 years ago
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81
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Member since
Nov 8
Recent submissions
Comment · 9 years ago
Detroit is the birthplace of Techno and Techno artists have continued to emerge from Detroit even as it's status as a city has declined. Because of this the city is idealized among Techno fans across Europe. My guess is some of this development is trying to target this European base.
Comment · 9 years ago
eh. But also filters people who are serious about work but also serious about their mental health.
I know myself well enough to know that I am less productive when I don't get sunlight. I suspect many other people are the same.
Comment · 9 years ago
Since many people on HN live in California. The single greatest thing you can do if you live in be an advocate for building more housing in California, especially in locations with public transportation. California has low heating and cooling costs, and existing public transportation networks that can be extended.
Look at the difference in per capita carbon emissions between California and say, Texas, a place where many Californian's are moving to because of high housing costs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_carbon_...
Comment · 9 years ago
The name for this is crony capitalism. Policy that benefits businesses instead of policy that benefits markets. Luigi Zingales's book "A Capitalism for the People" is a good read on the subject.
Comment · 9 years ago
If only there were some technology that would allow multiple homes to exist on a single lot...
Comment · 10 years ago
The lack of on-street parking was something I noticed visiting Japan. Streets can be much smaller when they don't have 20-24 feet of parking. In the US, a massive percentage of our most valuable land goes to subsidized vehicle storage. It's insane.
Comment · 10 years ago
This is a good interview with economist Gordon Hanson on trade, poverty and US job losses:
http://www.vox.com/2016/4/20/11466868/trade-poverty-economis...
Comment · 10 years ago
His book, Triumph of the City, is a good read on urban economics.
Comment · 10 years ago
I really love using Car2Go in Brooklyn. I transit/Bike/Walk 95% of the time, but it's great to have a one-way option when I take a trip that doesn't line up well transit lines.
Comment · 10 years ago
Yuma Az was just successfully sued for zoning laws under the fair housing act.
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/04/court-decision-on-dis...
Another group is trying to sue Lafayette, Ca http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/09/suing-the-suburbs-ove...
Edit: fixed first link
Comment · 10 years ago
Tokyo, Toronto, and Houston are all examples of large cities where it is relatively easy to build housing and housing is relatively cheap.
Comment · 10 years ago
RE parking minimums: http://graphingparking.com/2013/01/25/residential-parking-re...
A similar issue is street sizes in the US are much larger than in countries with good transit and walkability. Anecdotal, but compare image searches for "American Street" and "Japanese Street". Not only is the driving area of the streets much narrower, on street parking doesn't really exists in Japanese cities. This contributes alot to the walking experience.
"japan street" https://www.google.com/search?q=japan+street&espv=2&biw=1440...
"american street" https://www.google.com/search?q=american+street&espv=2&biw=1...
Comment · 10 years ago
Another good overview from Matthew Yglesias: http://www.vox.com/2014/6/2/5771880/us-mass-transit-construc...
Comment · 10 years ago
Costs are a major part of the problem. US rail construction costs are by far the most expensive in the world [1]. Other countries are able to build rail at costs in the $100-250 million per km range (even in dense cities). The East Side access project in NYC has costs around $4 billion per km. Los Angeles has much better costs in the $400-500 million per km range [2]. Its hard to imagine the US will be able to build much transit at those costs.
From 2012[3]: "When asked by transit blogger Benjamin Kabak about its high construction costs, Michael Horodniceanu, president of the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital construction division, gave a two-word answer: “work rules.” Citing the example of the city’s revered sandhogs, he said the MTA employs 25 for tunnel-boring machine work that Spain does with nine."
[1] https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/us-r... [2] https://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/category/transp... [3] http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2012-08-27/labor-rules...