I wasn’t getting the bang for my buck in my red-state redoubt. But if I hadn’t moved, I might never have found out how good it could get.
Community Wealth Building — Urban Affairs Review
Scholars of urban politics have long debated the issue of what cities can and should do to promote the economic well-being of their residents. As the of election Zohran Mamdani illustrates, urban residents are increasingly demanding that city governments do more to address the increasingly exorbitant costs of housing, childcare, and transportation. One obvious solution is to raise taxes on the private holders of wealth. By the same token, his election has prompted handwringing on the right about the “inevitable” flight of capital out of New York City. Scholarship that runs the gamut from the public choice school associated with the “city limits” perspective (Peterson 1981) through to Marxian accounts (Logan and Molotch 1987) all recognize that the private ownership of wealth and the mobility of capital puts cities in a bind, especially in a context of highly circumscribed levels of federal urban spending. Though several scholars (Logan and Swanstrom 1990; Kantor and Savitch 1993; Schragger 2016) have demonstrated that cities have greater latitude to promote egalitarian public policies than these perspective allow, few would argue that the deep structural problems of economic and social inequality can be fully resolved by tax-and-spend liberalism (Imbroscio 2010).
Replication Data for: Public Infrastructure and Economic Development: Evidence from Postal Systems
While postal systems have been central to statebuilding efforts around the globe, their contributions to development are largely unclear. We argue that the post office affected economic development in both the short and long terms. To test our argument, we combine original data on the cross-national distribution of postal systems from 1875 to 2007 with granular county-level data in the U.S. from 1850 to 2000. In both country- and county-level analyses, we show that the spread of postal systems affected economic outcomes and persisted over the long term. The results are robust across dependent variables, model specifications, and estimation strategies. We provide additional evidence that suggests these effects were generated by reducing transaction costs and strengthening social capital. Our findings highlight the role of public infrastructure in promoting economic growth, documenting a channel through which state institutions precede growth, and suggest that statebuilding efforts have longstanding effects on relevant communities.
NYC: can this city-state be completely self-reliant? | Aeon Essays
Green living in NYC need not be simple living – think skyscraper farms, meat-production towers and revamped aqueducts
New housing reforms could save more than $40,000 per home
Under Governor Gavin Newsom's new housing affordability reforms, several state housing financing programs will now be brought together under one roof.
Yes, a Land Value Tax Is Possible in Washington State | Sightline Institute
A new report modeling a property tax building exemption in Spokane rebalances incentives toward community goals, encouraging homebuilding and discouraging in-city vacant land speculation.
Yeah, We're Going to Have to Tax the Middle Class
What If California Is the Most Regressive State in America?
California ranks dead last in cost-of-living-adjusted poverty among all 50 states. A native Californian makes the case that Prop 13, NIMBY housing policy, and stroads make it the most regressive state in America.
Delaware C Corp
33 votes, 65 comments. Hello everyone, I recently applied to two funds (YC and Hustle) and received feedback that I wasn't accepted because my…
Delaware C Corp
33 votes, 65 comments. Hello everyone, I recently applied to two funds (YC and Hustle) and received feedback that I wasn't accepted because my…
Delaware C Corp
33 votes, 65 comments. Hello everyone, I recently applied to two funds (YC and Hustle) and received feedback that I wasn't accepted because my…
The Hidden Tax on Blue-Collar Workers and Building in America
The unemployment insurance system has a design flaw that penalizes the construction industry, leading to fewer workers and lower productivity. Over time, that means less – and more expensive – housing.
Welcome Back to the Office. You Won’t Get Anything Done | The Walrus
Return to office mandates aren’t about output. They’re about asserting control
Cash Works. Place and Amount Matter.
Two excellent new reports from our friends at the Economic Security Project make a strong case for direct cash — and reveal why rural, county-level research matters. Right on Time argues that cash is particularly effective during major transitions: * having a child * losing a job * leaving foster care or incarceration
Thanks to @dholms.at for his awesome blog on locality. I keep thinking about things on the edges, and in particular what happens when we throw real monetary incentives into spaces.
The Edge of Space(s)
chrispardy.leaflet.pubNYC in 1880 (!) '[Martí] recoiled at the mix of commercial materialism and libertarian individualism that he thought was driving the United States toward madness. A nation is not a “wild horse race”; people must be “harnessed together” by something other than self-interest' (from America, América)
