Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Las Vegas City Neighborhoods Fare Worse Than Suburbs

April 25, 2012, 5:00pm

Baruch Feigenbaum

Much of the hype from the Great Recession has focused on how exurbs are losing population while closer in neighborhoods are gaining population. In reality the opposite is often true. At last week’s American Planning Association conference in Los Angeles, Alan Mallach of the Brookings Institution highlighted that in Las Vegas the suburbs and exurbs have survived the recession while the older parts of the city have not fared as well.

Romney's Transportation and Land Use Policies may be Little Different than Obama's

April 25, 2012, 1:54pm

Baruch Feigenbaum

One of President Obama’s landmark “smart growth” initiatives known as the Partnership for Sustainable Communities was also based on a Romney program. When Romney was governor of Massachusetts he fought sprawl and encouraged density. Romney’s administration worked to concentrate development in town centers, construct housing near transit stations, and improve existing roads instead of expanding them.

Livable Centers Initiative Grant Program Needs to be Refocused

April 6, 2012, 11:00am

Baruch Feigenbaum

The Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is intended to promote urban regeneration in metro Atlanta communities. But the projects it has funded have had little success in creating any sustained new economic activity. If ARC wants to continue with the LCI program, and if other cities want to follow the model, two simple rules should be followed: first, it should be funded locally; second, it should focus on activities that have been shown to actually underpin economic development, such as the construction and maintenance of roads –especially if it is funded by gas taxes.

Livable Centers Initiative Program Needs to be Refocused

Atlanta Program Uses Federal Fuel Tax Revenues for Non-motorized Transportation and Economic Development Projects

April 6, 2012

Baruch Feigenbaum

The Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is a grant program intended to promote urban regeneration in metro Atlanta communities. But the projects it has funded have had little success in creating any sustained new economic activity. Moreover, the program is supported by federal gas taxes that are supposed to be dedicated to national highways. Nonetheless, other cities around the country, from Albany to San Francisco are using it as a model.  If ARC wants to continue with the LCI program, and if other cities want to follow the model, two simple rules should be followed: first, it should be funded locally; second, it should focus on activities that have been shown to actually underpin economic development, such as the construction and maintenance of roads –especially if it is funded by gas taxes.

No Such Thing as a Free Parking Space

March 16, 2012, 4:12pm

Harris Kenny

While the benefits of market pricing are readily accepted for items like consumer electronics, it’s difficult for people to accept the value of pricing on things they think should be free to the user (i.e. parking, road use, etc.). To adapt Milton Friedman’s famous maxim: there’s so such thing as a free parking space. There are in fact a myriad of problems associated with underpriced and zero-priced goods.

Miami Stadium Shows Complexity of Crony Capitalism

March 13, 2012, 10:20pm

Samuel Staley

Miami-Dade built the baseball stadium for the Miami Dolphins, and leases the parking spaces out to the team so it can re-sell them for a profit. When the county wanted them to pay property taxes, since the purpose was now private, the Florida legislature passed a bill exempting the facility from property taxes.

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