Comments for The Bellows

Comment on About Ryan Avent by The Audience Voted, and You Know They Picked a Winner

The Audience Voted, and You Know They Picked a Winner — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:54:53 +0000

[...] debate between me and Bob Gordon hosted by The Economist ended yesterday, and today moderator Ryan Avent announced that the winner was…. me (woo [...]

Comment on About Ryan Avent by The cartography of peevishness [UPDATED] | Blog Post Directory

The cartography of peevishness [UPDATED] | Blog Post Directory — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:45:55 +0000

[...] would be better versed in the "social science basics." Would Mitter have expected, say, Ryan Avent or Matthew Yglesias to have ferreted out Reinhart and Rogoff’s Excel error, for example? [...]

Comment on About Ryan Avent by The cartography of peevishness | Blog Post Directory

The cartography of peevishness | Blog Post Directory — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:17:18 +0000

Comment on About Ryan Avent by What SimCity Tells Us About America's Metropolitan Optimism

What SimCity Tells Us About America's Metropolitan Optimism — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:18:55 +0000

[...] younger writers like Ryan Avent and Matt Yglesias (both former SimCity obsessives) the quest to grant more people access to these [...]

Comment on Permits by Ed Neuhaus

Ed Neuhaus — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:03:24 +0000

I never realized that Cali lost so many people.

Comment on Making Affordable Housing Affordable by aj devine

aj devine — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:55:19 +0000

housing is, at the risk of seeming contrarian, not housing but simple economics. if we, as a nation, focused on growing the economy increasing minimum wage and re-investing in infrastructure, housing would take care of itself. people would make more money, then be able to afford to purchase rather than rent their homes.

Comment on Making Affordable Housing Affordable by tracy L avent-costanza

tracy L avent-costanza — Tue, 22 May 2012 05:50:41 +0000

Not only am I also an econ major, I am also an Avent. I found your link at the same time as one for Peggy Avent, an MFT psychologist in the San Antonio area. I am a descendant of Benjamin Avent of Oxford MS, and of Francis Marion Avent of Old Somerset (Bexar-Atascosa county) who died there in about 1888.
Are you familiar with any of these Avent names? thanks
Tracy
Los Gatos california

Comment on Density: Too Dangerous to Mention by Jim

Jim — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:49:16 +0000

While searching for information about zoning being used to preserve a community from becoming too dense thereby forever altering the allures attracting its current residents, I ran across this site.

Curious that, in the small sample of content I read, that no one envisions a point at which no more density is possible much less desirable

The latter is subjective, admittedly, but the former is not.

Just as a glass can hold only finite amount of amount of water, or a road only so many cars, so too does it follow that cities can effectively house only so many people unless, that is, cities are prepared to become so dense that even the most liberal recognize that each additional person packed into a confined space reduces the quality of life of everyone else

Comment on Making Affordable Housing Affordable by Jan Wiklund

Jan Wiklund — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:14:56 +0000

The solution to the problem in Scandinavia from the 20s through the 70s was public investments like hell, according to the recommendations of Keynes. That is – the municipality builds a lot of houses; this gives jobs to many people and raises their incomes while also raising the supply of buildings causing the rents to go down, according to the laws of the market.

This model went off rail when the municipalities began to discard quality in the 60s, when immigration to the cities went up to new highs. The blocks built then were so bad that the whole idea of municipal building lost public favour.

But the model worked well for two generations. It should do it again, now when immigration is manageable and quantity doesn’t need to trump quality.

Comment on Making Affordable Housing Affordable by Dan Keshet

Dan Keshet — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:14:16 +0000

I’m one of those liberals who doubts that liberalizing housing markets will be enough to have affordable housing for everybody. And I’m not sure how well cutting checks will work out at the municipal level. But I see liberalizing the markets as a necessary precondition to any other kind of housing assistance. As long as supply is so heavily restricted, affordable housing programs are worthless; every poor resident you help will simply displace somebody else who wanted that unit.

Also, I think cities mixing market-oriented approaches to some things with progressive spending for others is becoming more of a norm. Look at how San Francisco is leading the way in both market-oriented parking solutions and subsidized health care. Congestion pricing is seen very much as a progressive policy, in the same way that public transportation is.