Recent Blog Posts

Archives: Posts From July 2008

An Alternative to Monopolistic Public Transport
By Sandy Ikeda | Wed, 30 Jul 2008 at 1:06 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: After the MTA's breathtaking proposal last week for not one but two more subway-bus-and-toll fare increases — which would make that three increases in about as many years (read about it here) — it may be time to re-visit the whole issue of municipal ...

And the 22nd Most Expensive City in the World Is…
By Sandy Ikeda | Sun, 27 Jul 2008 at 5:32 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: One guess.The only North American city to make the top 50, New York City fell seven spots. ...Read the Crain's New York article here and find out which city is No. 1. Hint: It's also currently the city with the most billionaires.(Hat tip again to JW ...

Robert Bruegmann Writes Sensibly About "Sprawl"
By Sandy Ikeda | Thu, 24 Jul 2008 at 7:28 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: According to Robert Bruegmann, after discovering a paucity of non-polemical literature on the history of urban sprawl, he basically went out and wrote one himself. In his 2005 book, "Sprawl: A Compact History," Mr. Bruegmann aims "to look at this issue ...

Rent Regulations Advantage the Well-Connected
By Sandy Ikeda | Tue, 22 Jul 2008 at 9:03 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: Basic economics teaches us, and historical evidence demonstrates time and again, that rent control and rent stabilization — regulating what a landlord can charge for a unit — tend to harm the very people they are supposed to benefit.The Swedish economist ...

Ken-Ichi Sasaki on Urban "Tactility"
By Sandy Ikeda | Sun, 20 Jul 2008 at 11:29 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: One of the most striking things about the Tokyo skyline, at least for me, is how striking it isn't. Viewed from afar — e.g., from its very-expensive-to-use elevated expressways (Narita Airport is too far from the city center to afford a decent panorama ...

Battery Park City on a Weekday Evening
By Sandy Ikeda | Fri, 18 Jul 2008 at 2:35 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: Among New York's mega-projects-in-progress, I'd thought that Brooklyn Bridge Park on Brooklyn's East River waterfront was doing okay financially. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, all is not so well, according to a Daily News article that appeared ...

William H. Whyte on 'Broadway Boulevard'
By Sandy Ikeda | Fri, 11 Jul 2008 at 4:06 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: The pedestrian is a social being; he is also a transportation unit, and a remarkably efficient one. … Most transportation experts, however, scant the pedestrian and his potential; millions are being spent in research on new kinds of people-movers but ...

Spinning: SCOTUS on Atlantic Yards, and a Skyscraper
By Sanford Ikeda | Sat, 5 Jul 2008 at 7:45 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: The last time I blogged about Atlantic Yards, a group of local residents in the footprint of the project had petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the use of eminent domain to evict them from their property, on the grounds that the proposed complex is not ...

Learning From the WTC Rebuilding Fiasco
By Sanford Ikeda | Fri, 4 Jul 2008 at 1:07 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: So the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has finally come clean and publicly confirmed what most of us have suspected: that the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site is distressingly behind schedule and seriously over budget.The Sun reports ...