#daniel hertz

I really like this post by Daniel Hertz talking about the inherent tension in American housing policy.

Here’s his conclusion:

We are, in conclusion, profoundly conflicted as a nation when it comes to housing: we want it to be affordable, but we also want its prices to rise fast enough to be valuable as a financial investment. That’s a contradiction we need to acknowledge if our housing policy debate—and, ultimately, our housing policy—is going to be coherent and constructive.

Of course, this situation isn’t unique to the US. Though the US does have homeownership subsidies -- such as the mortgage interest tax deduction -- that other similar countries, like Canada, do not have.

Still, I feel a similar kind of contradiction here. We worry about excess supply and housing bubbles when the reality is that both of these things are desirable outcomes if, and only if, the primary objective is to maintain housing affordability.

But I don’t think that is the primary objective in practice. At least in this part of the world, I think we worry first and foremost about making sure that home prices continue to go up and that wealth is being built. Then, we worry about providing affordable housing for those that are unable to participate.

Daniel Hertz of City Observatory recently published an interesting post talking about what makes American zoning unique compared to the rest of the world. It is based on the conclusions of a book published earlier this year called Zoned in the USA.

Here are 2 snippets that I liked from his post:

Hirt’s major claim is that what really sets American zoning apart is its orientation, explicit or implicit, to putting the single-family residential zone at the top of the hierarchy of urban land uses. Not only are single-family zones listed first in many zoning codes, but they make up significant pluralities, or even majorities, of total land area in most American cities. Interestingly, Hirt points out that this wasn’t necessarily true when zoning was first introduced: New York’s famous first zoning law didn’t even have a single-family zone at all.

As Hirt points out, Americans appear to be unique in believing that there is something so special about single-family homes that they must be protected from all other kinds of buildings and uses—even other homes, if those homes happen to share a wall. The recent revolt in Seattle over a proposal to soften that city’s single-family districts, in other words, would not be possible anywhere else in the world, not least because very few people live in single-family districts to begin with.

I don’t know if Canada is covered in the book, but we clearly share many similarities with that of the US.

What Would Reasonable Building Laws Look Like? Part I

I don’t know how to illustrate this post, so here’s a squirrel who looks like he’s interested.

by Daniel Kay Hertz

So, I write about zoning a lot. But other than “more housing, please,” I’ve never really given much of an outline of what I think cities ought to do with their zoning codes.

Part of that is intentional. Thanks to some combination of a begrudging acceptance of political realities and…

The Author of “Sprawl” Returns

by Daniel Kay Hertz

Generally speaking, I find the kind of broad “Cities: Yea or Nay?” culture-war debates pretty exhausting and pointless. And it is, for the most part, a culture war, fought by people who disdain or feel threatened by the social influence of others. Data point: the subhed on Robert Bruegmann’s recent op-ed in Politico, which reads: “Why urban yuppies have it all wrong.” It’s a…

Yes, I’m Talking about Kansas City

by Daniel Kay Hertz

In response to this post at The Atlantic Cities, a commenter objects:

[Y]our suggested remedies are housing subsidies, protections against evictions due to rising rents, and an end to caps on housing construction. In cities like Milwaukee or Kansas City (or St. Louis, Omaha, etc) those don’t match up with any problems in the local housing market.

The media’s obsession with…

Not a Single Unit of Affordable Housing Has Been Built in Lincoln Park for 35 Years

A rendering of the development at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park.

by Daniel Kay Hertz

Alternative title: Chicago’s Affordable Housing System is Broken.

But thanks to the development at Children’s Memorial Hospital, there will soon be 64 new affordable homes in the heart of Lincoln Park! And in another 35 years, maybe Lincoln Parkers will deign to build some more.

Though, actually,…

A Database of Shrinkage

by Daniel Kay Hertz

Sometimes people ask me: Daniel, how is it possible that a neighborhood like Lincoln Park – or Lakeview, etc. – can actually lose housing units?

The answer, for the most part, is that as demand to live in a neighborhood goes up, there’s a larger and larger pool of wealthy people looking for housing. And they’re not just willing to pay more for it; they’re willing to pay more…

Transit Failure in Action

by Daniel Kay Herz

There’s a lot that’s notable in the Governor’s transit task force report (one major takeaway: Metra is just the worst), but me being me, I’m going to pick out these two graphs:

We’ve seen beforethat Chicago’s zoning laws essentially create a situation where the more people want to live in a neighborhood, the harder it is to actually let more people live there. As the top…