Urbanexus Update - Issue #13
Urbanexus Update - Issue #13
Please scroll down for my weekly collection of information and opinion about real estate and community development.
The economy in the USA
How good Is the economy, really? — www.nytimes.com It depends on whether you look at the level, the direction or the rate of change — three concepts that are often conflated.
Small business optimism Index — www.calculatedriskblog.com
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index increased in May 2018, to the second highest level in the NFIB survey's 45-year history.
Homelessness
A Bold approach to homelessness — medium.com
London Breed, who will take office as Mayor of San Francisco in July 2018, has outlined an approach to dealing with homelessness.
City of Seattle reversal on head tax for homelessness — m.seattlepi.com
Seattle's city council on Tuesday rolled back its so-called "head tax" on big businesses to fund homeless services, less than a month after it unanimously approved the compromise deal..
Fed up in Seattle — www.city-journal.org
Don’t believe the hype that “Amazon killed the Seattle head tax,” the new levy that the city recently passed on businesses to fund programs to address homelessness.
Blame for Seattle’s head-tax debacle misplaced — www.seattletimes.com
The Seattle City Council acknowledged its head-tax plan was a loser when they repealed it. But they couldn't admit it, instead blaming about everyone else in Seattle for the fail.
Community planning and development
Empty ground floor retail — www.strongtowns.org
Why all these new storefronts are sitting vacant?
Why cities can’t stop offering economic incentives — www.nytimes.com
Tax incentives to lure companies tend to help politicians, but they don’t really make economic sense.
How downzoning kills affordability & drives gentrification — letsgola.wordpress.com
We often talk about zoning in the abstract, making it hard to understand just how restrictive zoning destroys affordability. Here’s an example, this time near Sunset Junction in Los Angeles.
Re-legalize family-friendly housing — medium.com The belief that detached housing is the best option for families is dated — and frankly, privileged.
Toward dynamic zoning codes — www.strongtowns.org A small change to zoning codes could help overcome some of the forces stifling growth in American cities and avoid displacement of long-term residents at the same time.
Vancouver, B.C., tries again to thwart foreign real-estate speculators — www.seattletimes.com
The effectiveness of the so-called 'speculation tax' on some British Columbia real estate is unclear.
Green and resilient in New Jersey A transit-oriented, mixed-use, mixed-income development includes public and civic uses and innovative stormwater management features.
Parrothead community ranked #1
Latitude Margaritaville in Daytona Beach, Florida is the most popular active adult community in the USA per 55places.com.
Battle for housing in Mongolia — www.thisisplace.org
Authorities in Ulaanbaatar have vowed to invest billions in affordable housing. But campaigners say residents rights are not being protected and many of them are left homeless in the over-crowded city.
The US home building industry
Size is fueling home builder acquisitions
Home building's biggest players in the USA are consolidating as data, operational tools and processes, capital investment, supply chain logistics, and labor capacity combine with local economic jobs, household formation, and housing demand to both allow and require that builders do more with less.
CEO compensation — lsc-pagepro.mydigitalpublication.com
Chief executives at the twenty highest volume builders earned an average of $6.5 million.
Real estate transactions in Southern California
Taft Building in Hollywood sold for $70 million — labusinessjournal.com
The seller bought the 12-story, 126,000-square-foot building in 2011 for $28 million and invested $15 million in renovations. The Taft was built in 1923 and its most recent renovation prior to 2011 occurred in 1987.
Office park sale — labusinessjournal.com
A five-building, 574,000-square-foot, 27-acre campus in Torrance, CA, sold for $124 million, or $216 per square foot, nearly double what its sellers paid for it in 2016. Prior to the sale, the seller invested $30 million in renovations to the campus.
Urban transportation and parking
Uber Express Pool — www.newgeography.com
An option where users walk a short distance, perhaps a couple of blocks, at the beginning and end of their journey.
Bike share shaking up Seattle — www.wired.com Residents are divided over whether the city's dockless bike share program is revolutionizing transit—or creating an unwieldy, dangerous mess.
Cities with "Goldilocks" parking fees — www.reinventingparking.org
What is the right price for parking? For on-street parking, the best answer is the LOWEST price that does the trick of keeping a few spaces open. This lowest price will vary from place to place and time to time.
The free parking City of Palo Alto to build a parking structure
Cost estimated at $49 million to replace a surface lot with a net increase of 326 spaces--$150 thousand per incremental vehicle parked.
Parking space for $760,000 — www.cnn.com A single 16.4 by 8.2 feet (5 by 2.5 meter) parking space has sold for $760,000 (HK$6 million) in Hong Kong.
Natural lands managment
After Malheur, side effects of extremism linger — www.hcn.org But in Harney County, Oregon, collaboration around public lands grows.
Technology
Policies for robots and jobs — www.nytimes.com Some big ideas are starting to percolate. But less dramatic ones might work, too.