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Will Vancouver Grow as Fast as Its Suburbs?
Vancouver is perceived throughout North America as a vanguard in refocusing growth in the urban core. But the reality is that for decades, there has been a tragic mismatch between where people want to live—Vancouver proper—and where the region has built most new housing—the surrounding suburbs. Metro Vancouver is currently updating its regional growth strategy, the official road map for how the region will grow through 2050. But while lifting...Read more » -
Eight Ingredients for a State-Level Zoning Reform
In 2019, Oregon passed a first-of-its-kind state law that ordered larger cities and the Portland metro area to rapidly legalize duplexes on all residential lots and fourplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and cottage clusters on more than half of lots. This is a short, reported history of how that law was passed in the face of fierce opposition. It was created in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, its first...Read more » -
The Eight Deaths of Portland’s Residential Infill Project
In 2021, Portland became the largest modern U.S. city to end so-called “single-family zoning.” What follows here is a history of how the residential infill project could have died but didn’t. This history was developed in partnership with Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. See also our 10 tips for zoning reformers, which serve as a short summary of the narrative below. It was January 2020. One of Oregon’s most respected...Read more » -
Yes, Other Places Do Housing Better, Case 3: Paris
Last time, I described Germany’s secret to abundant housing: financial rewards for localities. This time, I look at France’s recent success at filling greater Paris with more homes. Metropolitan Paris is not yet a world leader in abundant, affordable housing in low-carbon neighborhoods. But it might be the most improved. Paris is one of countless great cities that fell into the trap of residential lockdown—local NIMBY obstructionism stopping desperately needed...Read more » -
Washington Tries the Carrot Approach for Statewide Zoning Reform
Pro-housing state lawmakers hoping to ease Washington’s dire housing shortage tried something new this year: the offer of a financial incentive to cities if they opt to allow more homes by loosening their zoning laws. Cities embraced the approach, in stark contrast to their typical hostility to any state bills that would mandate zoning reforms. Legislators considered three bills with variations on the incentive theme and, though there was broad stakeholder support and little opposition, failed to...Read more » -
Push-Me-Pull-You: Local And Provincial Tensions In BC Housing Policy
Mayor Lisa Helps of Victoria is hoping British Columbia’s activist new housing minister will change provincial laws to make it easier to get new homes built in her city, one that is renowned for its tourist-luring British colonial architecture, its growing homeless population, and its lengthy public process to get any kind of new housing approved. Mayor Helps knows it won’t be easy. “It’s going to take bold, courageous action...Read more » -
Yes, Other Countries Do Housing Better, Case 1: Japan
Last time, I imagined an alternative political economy of housing in the United States. This time, I begin a tour of other countries’ housing regimes. “If you can’t solve a problem, enlarge it.” This oft-repeated maxim was probably not expressed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, despite Internet claims to the contrary. (Experts at the Eisenhower Presidential Library have never found evidence he said it.) Still, it’s wise counsel: expanding the scope...Read more » -
The Problem With US Housing Policy Is That It’s Not About Housing
The Problem with US Housing Policy Is That It Is Not About Housing — It’s About Real Estate Appreciation. Far from boosting equity, affordability, and homeownership, they polarize wealth, exacerbate racial inequality, cut productivity and job creation, speed climate change, and exaggerate the ups and the downs of the business cycle.Read more » -
Two Paths Emerge for Washington to Legalize More Granny Flats
Washington State lawmakers could clear a path in neighborhoods across the state for more granny flats and basement apartments.Read more » -
Verified: More Parking Puts More Cars on the Road
Do cities create greener lifestyles? Or do they just enable them? It’s very, very, very clear that people who live closer to other people drive less. But how much of this is due to the fact that people who were already predisposed to driving less—those of us who don’t particularly enjoy driving, for example—are deliberately living where parking is scarce and buses are frequent? A forthcoming academic paper finally begins...Read more »