New and Old #130
Friday roundup and commentary
Arlington County’s Missing Middle housing debate illustrated how TOD can be distorted into an ideal that NIMBYs and, more consequentially, some elected officials use to argue against building housing away from transit. In other words: against new housing in most places.
Quoting a study:
“Auto ownership, commuting, and grocery trip frequency were substantially lower among households living in new housing near rail stations … but rail access does little to explain this fact,” stated Chatman. “Housing type and tenure, local and subregional density, bus service, and particularly … parking availability, play a much more important role.”
In other words, the idea that we should densify housing around transit stations (generally meaning rail stations, not a bus stop) can easily become “Don’t build anywhere else.”
Now I can hear people saying, “See, first you said you wanted ‘transit-oriented development,’ and then when you got that, it wasn’t enough. The only way to stop this overreach is to fiercely oppose everything you people want.”
My answer to that is, that’s the wrong way of looking at it. What’s “enough” is not up to you or us—it’s when ordinary people can afford to live closer than an hour from the city. It’s when the job market is reconnected to the housing market. I don’t want to develop your countryside or small town; I want to preserve it! But the idea that you can keep a simulacrum of the countryside forever in one of the nation’s fastest-growing metro areas is unreasonable.
Conservative Urbanism?, Flâneurism, Alberto Della Torre, September 7, 2023
The subhead here is “Why urbanism and traditional conservatism are not as disparate as they seem.” If you read this newsletter, you’ll be familiar with my argument that they’re not disparate at all, and that genuine conservativism really should embrace urbanism. So it’s nice to see this argument being made, because it isn’t made enough.
He goes on emphasize fiscal efficiency and productivity, and community. Of course, these don’t belong to conservatives, but they’re things conservatives should be concerned about.
This in particular is a good point: “conservative urbanism can be a key instrument in the revitalization of small-town America.” There are so many small towns and cities that need growth and people and entrepreneurs—and are very classically urbanist. I’d love to see people—anybody—resettle these places and help revitalize them, including, of course, for the people still there. Imagine if that were an actual priority of the American conservative movement.
No More Smuggling: Many Cured Italian Meats Coming To America, NPR, Sylvia Poggioli, May 16, 2023
Up to now, only a few Italian pork products were approved for import to the U.S.: prosciutto di Parma and prosciutto di San Daniele, as well as mortadella — which was also banned until 2000.
Starting soon, as long as they receive USDA approval, hundreds of artisanal products will arrive on American tables. It's not yet clear, however, what standards the producers will have to meet and what the costs will be. But even without a ban, Italian cured meat producers must pay hefty fees as part of the process of getting certified for importation.
So, some good and some bad. I really wonder how much of this stuff is about safety or concerns about pests/disease, and how much is essentially trade policy by other means, i.e. effectively tariffs or import bans. With uncertainty like this, you still don’t want to risk getting caught with salami in your suitcase. But it sure would be cool to find some never-before-seen Italian classics at the supermarket.
A great, fun nostalgic piece about old retail, with lots of links. Check it out!
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On the other hand, transit-oriented development is an effective long term political strategy for building a more urban voting bloc. Toronto politics seem to have essentially flipped from being dominated by NIMBY suburbanites, to being dominated by people who live packed in high rises around transit. From that position, it’s way easier to expand transit, build bike lanes, and continue to reform zoning.
Sure, do it all at once if you can. If you can’t though (which is the case in most North American metros), doing transit oriented development first is what gives you the best chance of being able to do the rest later. If you want an urbanist voting majority, you can either try to convince a bunch of suburbanites, or you can just build a hell of a lot more housing around the expectation of an urban lifestyle.