Reddit Reddit reviews The Gated City (Kindle Single)

We found 10 Reddit comments about The Gated City (Kindle Single). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Gated City (Kindle Single)
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10 Reddit comments about The Gated City (Kindle Single):

u/roboczar · 15 pointsr/urbanplanning

You can't mandate affordable housing. We tried that in the US in the 60s and 70s. What actually works is loosening of zoning restrictions and barriers to density in order to profitably and rapidly expand the housing stock. Unless you want to fully nationalize real estate and construction, you have to have policies that enable profitable construction and careful shepherding of restrictions so that they protect clean and functional living space, but do not place arbitrary limits that drive up housing costs, as is the case in most "liberal" cities.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/The-Rent-Too-Damn-High-ebook/dp/B0078XGJXO

http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-City-Greatest-Invention-Healthier/dp/0143120549

http://www.amazon.com/The-Gated-City-Kindle-Single-ebook/dp/B005KGATLO

u/yeropinionman · 5 pointsr/MapPorn

The key idea is not that tall buildings automatically result in low rents. It's that more buildings (including more tall buildings when all the land has been used up) will lower rents. So New York should also allow more building, for the exact same reason.

The reason rents are so high is that lots of people want to live in London and New York and regulations (and local neighborhood groups) prevent developers from building enough housing for all of them. Some of the regulations are worth it! Historic preservation, maintaining historic views, etc. really are worth something. But they're not free. Residents pay for it in higher rents. And people who want to move there but can't afford it pay for it in being locked out.

The concept is laid out in better writing and with more evidence in two short e-books on the subject (not written by me) here and [here](http://www.amazon.com/Gated-City-Kindle-Single-ebook/dp/B005KGATLO/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1396795981&sr=1-2&keywords=the+rent+is+too+damn+high "this guy now writes for The Economist").

u/dkesh · 4 pointsr/Austin

I don't think "everything needs to be centralized." If people want to live in the suburbs or rural areas, good for them!

But cities are really awesome and really useful. The state officeworkers probably want some places to eat. This location is literally across the street from a sandwich shop. In addition, there are dozens of other food options within a mile or so. Because there's a big cluster of people working, people have to travel less far to get lunch and they have a wider variety of options.

All the people who work there would probably like to live nearby where they work. But so would the people who work at the lunch places, and they'd both like to live near where their kids go to school, and their church, etc. If they were far outside the city, at least some of things they'd want would be very far away and harder to access.

I could go on and on, but if you're interested, I suggest reading the very short Gated City by Ryan Avent about the economic benefits of cities or much longer (and more boring) Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser.

u/eaturbrainz · 3 pointsr/Economics

LegioXIV has covered the government dynamic. Let me say something about market dynamics.

The median salary in the United States is about $26k/year. The median household income is about $48k/year (nowadays often with 2 adults working).

Now let me direct you to this book, which provides much of the detail for my point. The greater the inequality, the more you will see "bubbles" (with a long-term tidal trend) driving up the prices of productive capital assets, or indeed of simply living near productive assets.

Because remember, sellers of capital assets aren't going to sell "Wal-Mart-grade" cheaper versions of stocks or bonds or index funds. We already had a housing bubble driven by the Wal-Martization of housing and the migration away from productive cities into cheap but unproductive hinterlands (see link). And even with the new crowd-funding law, you still need a lot of money and financial knowledge to do equity investment in early-stage start-up companies.

So the purchasing power of "the rich" (really: any given wealthy individual) on capital-asset markets rises with inequality (the degree to which this individual can outbid everyone else). With increased relative purchasing power will come increased prices and increased catering by the market towards that segment of buyers, as dictated by normal laws of supply and demand.

Thus, increasing inequality allows the rich to price everyone else out of access to productive capital. In layman's terms, increasing inequality means that starting an entry-level job at $80k/year in the Boston area only allows you to live in a one-bedroom apartment or with roommates, because housing prices have gotten so high that you need a six-figure (let's call that top-20%) income to afford your own house. This happened to me. Meanwhile, the folks across the state in Greenfield can't get jobs, and dream of how they would own the entire town if they made $80k/year.

Really, I should have used Manhattan as the example par excellence, but I didn't work or live in Manhattan.

u/besttrousers · 3 pointsr/Economics

Productivity and population are also closely linked. I can't remember the exact #'s, but when density doubles producitivity of each individual goes up about 10%. The Gated City was a really good summary of this literature.

u/Bukujutsu · 1 pointr/Anarcho_Capitalism

Hey, I honestly stated it. Take it for what it is, possible flaws, things that may be cause for concern. I can't instantly gain all the knowledge I need on the subject. Fortunately I just got back from reading about their outline and it seems my concerns were correct.

www.zede.gob.hn/?page_id=2

>which are inalienable part of the State of Honduras, subject to the Constitution of the Republic and the national government on issues related to sovereignty, administration of justice, territory, national defense, external relations, electoral issues, issuance of identity cards and passports, as established in Article 329, in its seventh paragraph of the Constitution of the Republic.

>Within them, have full applicability of Articles 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 19 of the Constitution of the Republic.
http://www.honduras.com/honduras-constitution/

This is not something libertarians and ancaps in particular should be promoting right now as a test of ideology because there's a very real chance that this will turn out badly. It really isn't anywhere close to being anarcho-capitalist, it's just another state, although one that claims will be much freer. With the incredibly corrupt and harmful Honduran government available for multinational corporations to tap, along with all the problems of their structure, some listed above, it's very possible that this won't turn out well, that they'll become very unlibertarian, and their poor outcome will be paraded by the left as an example of the failure of libertarian ideology.

I'm not going to predict anything, and I don't think anyone else should either. It's best to take a wait and see approach, to state concerns, and uncertainty about whether they will actually fulfill their promise.

The main thing I hope for is that they'll be extremely economically liberal when it comes to legislation on land use, zoning, and building (heights, minimum space). Hopefully they'll allow something that follows Ryan Avent's guidelines in The Gated City (highly recommended). It would be incredible to have a city with unlimited height and density. I want to see megastructures already.
http://www.amazon.com/Gated-City-Kindle-Single-ebook/dp/B005KGATLO

u/susanasanjuan · 1 pointr/Austin

no, because of jobs. a lot of people move here for jobs, and making it difficult for lower income people to move here is going to hurt their chances of climbing the economic ladder.

highly recommend the gated city by Ryan Avent on this.

u/rarara1040 · 1 pointr/personalfinance

I agree they could if you don't live in or near a big city. I think cities provide valuable network effects which enable ones spouse to have a good career and enable employees to switch jobs without moving.
https://www.amazon.com/Gated-City-Kindle-Single-ebook/dp/B005KGATLO