2018December
"Steel Modules Speed Construction"
“…San Francisco developer and ULI member Patrick Kennedy’s firm, Panoramic Interests, recently completed an all-steel module complex at 2711 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, California. Shattuck Studios is a 22-unit, four-story, 30-module structure that Kennedy says he undertook…”
...More"2018 Was the Year of the YIMBY"
A milestone upzoning plan in Minneapolis capped a year that saw pro-housing forces duel NIMBYs in cities nationwide.
A few weeks ago, Minneapolis made zoning history when its city council endorsed a comprehensive plan that would enable denser housing development across the city.
...More"The Insane Battle To Sabotage a New Apartment Building Explains San Francisco’s Housing Crisis"
Bob Tillman has spent nearly 5 years and $1.4 million trying to convert his laundromat into new housing.
...More"Despite housing crisis, San Francisco’s number of new homes plummets in 2018"
“…This year, developers delivered just under 2,263 homes in new multifamily buildings…
That is less than half of what came on the market in 2016 when 4,895 homes were completed and just over half of 2017’s count of 4,270 homes…”
...More"The limits of Nieman Marcus environmentalism"
Conspicuous non-consumption is really faux environmentalism; climate change is a social problem, not a personal one
We’re in the midst of the holiday shopping season, a potent reminder of how consumerism dominates so much of our lives.
...More"How Cities Design Themselves"
Urban planner Alain Bertaud’s new book, Order Without Design, argues that cities are really shaped by market forces, not visionaries.
Housing Supply:
“I compare it to food: You can’t solve a famine by simply mandating that everyone eat 2,000 calories a day. That’s absurd. You have to bring in more food. In the same way, cities like San Francisco have to increase the supply of floor area, and let consumers determine the size of units.”
"Minneapolis Strikes a Blow for Affordable Housing by Slashing Zoning Restrictions"
Zoning rules that severely restrict home construction cut off millions of poor people from jobs and affordable housing. The Minneapolis reform is the most extensive reduction in zoning achieved by any major American city in a long time.
Yesterday, the City of Minneapolis struck a major blow for both property rights and affordable housing by enacting the most extensive reduction in zoning restrictions adopted by any major US city for a long time. Henry Grabar of Slate summarizes this welcome development:
...More"PROPERTY LINES Can Minneapolis’s radical rezoning be a national model?"
Here’s what a plan to tackle climate change, density, and affordability looks like
…Minneapolis 2040 believes the solution is simply more: more construction, more high-rises, and more triplexes
…the plan would allow triplexes to be built across much of the city—and allow even denser developments in transit zones
…the new rules would allow developers in most residential areas to build four stories high.
...More
