Crosspost x Collab: Building Better Cities
with Kate Gasparro and Yonah Freemark!
I’m trying hard to help others as I help myself, and was lucky enough to be invited onto1 Kate Gasparro’s excellent podcast and platform, which she so aptly named “Building Better Cities.”
It’s an open-ended statement because it means different things to different people. Citybuilders, practitioners, citizens, nomads, everyone refuels here, some lay their heads here, and there are millions of us who call a different place “home.” Kate’s (ehem, Dr. Gasparro!) premise is straightforward, but no less complex than the topic deserves. She brings on experts (and me) to help work through questions she’s grappling with. It’s an excellent way to break barriers and demonstrate that, while less exasperated than I am, we’re all working toward the same goals.
Part I: Why Zoning Reform Isn’t Solving the Housing Crisis
with Yonah Freemark
It’s worth noting that Yonah is also one of this country’s preeminent scholars and communicators about building better cities.2 So this conversation was a delight to hear. From the description:
In this episode, we discuss:
Why upzoning doesn’t guarantee housing gets built—and the market conditions that actually drive development
How land values absorb the gains from rezoning before construction ever happens
The role of interest rates, developer equity, and financial feasibility in urban housing production
Why no single land use policy will solve the housing crisis, and what a more complete urban planning toolkit looks like
All super good questions with non-intuitive answers. I especially enjoyed point #2’s brain tickle: why indeed.3
It’s worth 23 minutes of your time, but really, I could have listened to this conversation over many episodes and, oh, wait…
Part II: Why transit investment is really a city-building decision
With Yonah Freemark and Sam Sklar
I joined this conversation halfway through to add some alternative perspective to Yonah’s and Kate’s. We also did a lil bracket of top transit projects for your pleasure.
From the description: in this episode, we discuss:
Why transportation infrastructure is land use — and how the space cities dedicate to roads, and highways shapes what’s possible for housing density, walkable communities, and sustainable urban development
Why transit-oriented development alone won’t save struggling transit agencies
Our March Madness bracket of transit investments reshaping American cities
This one has me! Listen if you want to be learned some knowledge or love my surprisingly deep voice as you go to sleep!
Shout out to Kate, who also has a consulting practice. Learn more here:
And Yonah, who leads a deeply insightful practice for the Urban Institute and also maintains a fantastic resource on transit projects with commentary here:
And me! Make sure you’re following along for content, mostly weekly if not more:
I didn’t not invite myself. Thanks Kate!
No relation.
If you didn’t immediately jump to a Land Value Tax aka Georgism, I recommend: https://progressandpovertyinstitute.org/the-basic-fundamentals-of-georgism/ as a primer.