- Hurricane Harvey hit Houston over the weekend. News of the effects of the storm are widely available, but this piece from the Texas Tribune focuses on the lack of appropriate land-use and environmental regulations and their part in the fallout from the flooding.
- The density debate in Toronto got interesting when celebrated writer Margaret Atwood joined her neighbors in opposing a new 8-storey development in her neighborhood. With various debates raging left and right on Twitter, there’s a nice little breakdown of how things got to this point in a tweet-thread by the Globe and Mail’s Alex Bozikovic.
- Not a new article but something I came across this week; back in 2016 realty service Trulia published their findings on the effect of low-income housing on nearby housing values. They found that, out of 20 US metro areas analyzed, only 2 showed any negative effects on property prices from the construction of low-income housing. The key note in this analysis, though, is: “at least in cities where housing is either expensive or in short supply.” It’s a great study to keep in a back-pocket for that debate, since the overall message seems to be that in rapidly-growing urban areas the property value uplift from demographic and demand factors is so strong that the development of affordable housing is unlikely to affect it.
Musings on Metropolises 