Bryan Caplan asks us to think about ending zoning, while Manville, Monkkonen & Lens (2019) advocate for ending single-family zoning. I share these priorities, but I think they sound disruptive. Here are five propositions about housing and construction that, I hope, sound more agreeable.
If a single-family home is ok, a duplex, triplex, in-law suite, or cottage court are all probably ok too.1
Cities with a wide variety of housing are fun to walk around.
Neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens or Park Slope, with short commutes and medium density, are lovely.
It would be fantastic for public health if most Americans had compliant, safe, and dignified walking paths to a third place and a shopping center.
- Our most productive regions — the San Francisco Bay, Dallas Fort-Worth, and the Northeast megalopolis — can all become clean, safe, and easy to get around.
I dream of a cluster of tiny homes near a lake somewhere where my friends and I can hear frogs at night and be within walking distance of the Seth’s Six Essential Amenities: Trader Joe’s, cafe, restaurant, brewery, climbing gym, and movie theater. (Indie and mainstream movie theaters if I am being greedy.)↩︎