Metropolitics

To Prevent Worsening Inequality, Put Affluent Neighborhoods on NYC Rezoning List

Moses Gates — 2015-11-17T06:00:00Z

Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning is meant to boost the affordable housing supply and create more economically integrated and more equitable neighborhoods. But in New York, it matters crucially how – and where – the program is applied. Moses Gates argues that if Mayor Bill de Blasio is unwilling to rezone affluent neighborhoods as well as poorer ones, he won't make a dent in the city's inequality problem.
In the days of our current housing crunch and focus on transit-oriented development, there

- Debates / housing, inequalities, density, New York, densification, affordable housing, zoning, inclusionary zoning

In the Paris metro, hell is other people

Luke Haywood & Martin Koning & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-01-15T05:50:00Z

In the medical field, it is not unusual for remedies prescribed to combat a particular condition to have undesirable side effects. Similarly, the example of Paris shows us that rising levels of discomfort on public transport can be considered the “price of success” of anti-car policies…
While Parisian transport policy – which primarily hinges upon the reassignment of lanes dedicated to polluting modes of transport (cars, essentially) to cleaner alternatives (buses, trams, bicycles) – has made

- From the Field / France, public space, public transportation, Paris region, well-being, Paris, density, transport, Greater Paris, public policy, mass transit, metro, subway, tube, underground, rapid transit, comfort

Coping with crowdedness in mass transportation

Martin Aranguren & Stéphane Tonnelat & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-02-26T05:50:00Z

Riding overcrowded metros, tubes or subways with dozens of strangers in varying moods is routinely viewed as a trying experience. Yet we know very little about the discreet but crucial emotional work that passengers do every day in order to facilitate the smooth functioning of urban mass transportation.
In Paris, annual metro ridership increased from 1.2 billion journeys in 2000 to 1.5 billion in 2011, or 5.16 million trips per weekday. [1] This roughly 25% growth in passenger numbers has

- From the Field / France, public space, public transportation, Paris, density, métro, mass transit, metro, subway, tube, underground, emotions, antisocial behaviour, sociabilities, rapid transit

“Soft densification” in Canada

Anastasia Touati & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-06-05T09:41:09Z

Against the backdrop of a housing crisis, a number of local authorities in Ontario, Canada, have developed policies to encourage the creation of “accessory apartments” or “secondary suites” – in other words, new dwellings within single-family homes. Anastasia Touati analyses the advantages, as well as the ambiguities, of this novel form of residential densification.
Urban densification: a range of possibilities
For the last 15 years, densification has been at the heart of sustainable urban

- From the Field / housing, density, housing estates, Canada, densification, subdivisions, crisis, affordable housing, accessory dwelling units

The Triumph of Density and the Agony of Sprawl

Richard E. Ocejo — 2011-11-23T06:00:00Z

The city is more and more often hailed as the paradigmatic form of a new sustainable development, both economic and environmental. Glaeser's book is another significant contribution to this popular awakening. Without contesting the point, Richard Ocejo shows how the arguments put forward in the book may reflect only a partial view of the city, one that misses out on its most important asset: people's actual practices and experiences.
Racial inequality, the regulation of public space, crime

- Reviews / city, sustainable development, urban sprawl, urban development, density