Scott Beyer Author Archives

At a time when large developers matter because of their impacts on cities, LDS should be a bigger part of America’s urbanist conversation.

Just as U.S. cities have become bastions of disparity, so too are their neighborhoods. Particularly in this era of spatial dispersion, when rich people settle in centrally-located areas and poor people in the suburbs, it isn’t hard to pick out the right and wrong sides of town.

Oakville, WA—In the space between Portland and Seattle lies a unique rural character that, perhaps even more than those two great cities, defines the Pacific Northwest.

When it comes to housing, the reports now emerging from Canada ought to sound familiar. Our northern neighbor has several cities that have jumped full throttle into the globalization race, growing and modernizing quickly.

The Phoenix metro area may seem distant from Canada—both geographically and in other ways—but the two are interconnected. According to Glenn Williamson, CEO of the Canada Arizona Business Council, Canadians began moving en masse into the area in the 1960s, while seeking second homes for the winter.

Perhaps I’m biased, but my hometown of Charlottesville has to be one of America’s most beautiful areas. The 49,000-person city, which regularly makes lists of best places to live, is nice inside and out. Within the core are various World Heritage sites and quality public spaces that create a charming feel. This continues when driving out to the countryside, where lush farms and forests lead up into the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Seattle, WA—The rise of micro apartments in urban America’s strongest real estate markets is often branded as a hot new trend. But really, it is a reenactment of the way U.S. cities have long worked.

High housing costs are an urban American problem, and there is boundless debate on how to address it. Should developers be allowed to build unfettered, or be restricted on the prices they charge and number of units they erect? Should individual buyers compete in open markets, or get government subsidies? Should public officials be Yimby or Nimby?

If U.S. Senators weigh in on America’s housing crisis, they need to understand the complexity of the issues. Of course we need more affordable housing almost everywhere, but the problems go beyond that.

Walk by any construction site in a major U.S. city, and you’ll hear one of the great instruments in the symphony that is modern urban American life. It seems that no matter the day or the hour—it could be 6am on a Sunday—these unfinished structures will emanate with the cacophony of boots stomping, saws cutting and nail guns popping.

San Francisco, CA—Before entering San Francisco, I’d heard that high housing costs were forcing even six-figure-salary techies into cramped apartments.

In 2015, San Francisco approved the largest conversion of government housing into private ownership in American history.