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5 months ago

in Urban[ism] Legend: Positive NPV Infrastructure on Market Urbanism
Awesome post. I was recently thinking about whether or not quality infrastructure even matters, because I read that as efficiently as Beijing was able to build a humongous new airport and numerous rail lines, all the growth that led up to its ability to develop all this infrastructure occurred before this infrastructure existed. I think this came from Fareed Zakaria's new book, in which case I must be massively butchering his words.

7 months ago

in A Valid Point In Support of Auto Bailouts? on OpenMarket.org
I'm sorry, but I don't think I would buy a Ford whether or not the company was in Chapter 11.

And I'd still be paying for their bailout.

7 months ago

in Links to Interesting Articles on Market Urbanism
Personally I'd rather see more commentary -- the links are good but 50% of them are from things I subscribe to already. Though either way is fine. I can't find another blog out there that is simultaneously focused primarily on urban issues and pro-market, so if you do all the work and aggregate individual posts that fit this description that's nice already, even if you aren't adding any new content. Anyway I won't ask too much as I'm totally just free riding off your work.

10 months ago

in Weekend Reading: Jane Jacobs, Agglomeration, Farms, NIMBY Songs on Market Urbanism
I suppose I belong in the group of people with an unread copy of Death and Life on their bookshelves. However, I think The Economy of Cities is one of the most brilliant, insightful books I've ever read... not to mention Ed Glaeser and others cite it a lot.
1 reply
MarketUrbanism Thanks! I’ll check that out too…

11 months ago

in Lame Excuse for Welfare: Bogus Food Stamp Challenge on OpenMarket.org
wait maryland raised taxes recently? sorry for asking such an ignorant question... but until i read this i was actually considering moving to maryland *because* of the income taxes.

1 year ago

in Ikea Provides Private Transportation, Santiago-Style on Market Urbanism
This is awesome and it is blowing my mind. You call this "for-profit transportation" but is it really? Why is it free? Does it accomplish advertising any better than the stupid glass furniture trucks they drive around town? If the law were the only thing preventing them from charging, why do they bother driving at all? What are they getting out of this? Someone help me out here...
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MarketUrbanism The transportation itself isn't "for profit" since they aren't charging for the ride. However, by providing transportation, it brings more customers to the stores, which they hope will boost sales.

Ikea needs large pieces of land for it's stores, and there aren't many large pieces of land in New York City. So, they chose a part of Brooklyn where there are large pieces of land available.

This area of Brooklyn, called Red Hook, is very close to the expressway, but not very accessible to public transportation. Since most of Ikea's target customers (at least in NYC) use public transportation, they decided it makes sense to provide buses to encourage customers to shop at their store. I'm sure it is worth it for Ikea. Plus, as you noted, it doubles as a mobile advertisement. NYC is probably the only place in the US where it makes economic sense to do this on such a large scale.

If they charged, I don't think they would charge Ikea customers very much. But, it may be profitable to charge non-customers if it's so popular. I'm not sure if there is a law that prevents them from charging, but I'm willing to bet that they would have to pay some huge surcharge like the Supper Shuttles from the airport.
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