Here’s a list of various articles and books that are good references to learn about what’s driving the housing crisis, and how to fix it.
- End Bend’s minimum parking requirements
- The people who are truly harmed when cities say no to new housing – explains who suffers when cities say no to growth. Hint: it’s not the wealthy.
- How the housing market works and The Process of Urban Change – nice explanations of some of the nuances of how the housing market works.
- How Anti-Growth Sentiment, Reflected in Zoning Laws, Thwarts Equality – the famous “we don’t want any more jobs” piece, describing Boulder, Colorado, which has some things in common with Bend.
- Who Plans?: Jane Jacobs’ Hayekian Critique Of Urban Planning – you can plan some infrastructure, but cities also evolve organically.
- The Disconnect Between Liberal Aspirations And Liberal Housing Policy Is Killing Coastal U.S. Cities – one of the interesting things about the movement taking on the housing crisis is that it’s not strictly a “party lines” battle.
- How Denver pushed rents down citywide – they built more apartments. See, that was easy!
- Everyone knows we have a traffic problem – great overview of traffic issues. Building more and more larger roads is generally not the answer.
- The immutable laws of affordable housing – how we can produce housing that’s cheap.
- We need complete neighborhoods – the closer you live to everyday needs, the easier it is to get to them.
- The older, denser part of our towns pays for sprawl: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/2/1/the-surprising-relationship-between-retail-taxand-property-tax – this article includes sales tax in their calculation and we don’t even have those in Oregon.
- Reforming Land Use Regulations – great article by Ed Glaeser, author of Triumph of the City.
- Why are developers only building luxury housing? – insightful article explaining why newer housing (like new cars) is more expensive.
Books:
- The Rent Is Too Damn High: What To Do About It, And Why It Matters More Than You Think – great high-level eBook outlining the problem. Also available at the Deschutes Public Library.
- The Gated City – similar to the above book, with a bit more detail.
- Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation – an extremely detailed (and sometimes dry) look at the history and economics of urban land use regulation in the United States.
- Zoned in the USA: The Origins and Implications of American Land-Use Regulation – an interesting comparison of land use regulation in the US and other countries, along with some historical perspective on how it developed in the US. Also available at the Deschutes Public Library.
Other Groups:
- Strong Towns – focused on building good, financially sustainable places.
- Market Urbanism – leans very libertarian, but they have some good discussions and some interesting articles shared.
- SFYIMBY – these are the people fighting for more housing “in the trenches”, in the Bay Area, which is a significant source of people moving to Bend. They’re well worth supporting!
- http://yimby.wiki/wiki/Main_Page – YIMBY wiki with lots of links.