Restaurant sheds have been a lingering point of Covid controversy in New York City, and this item in the free tabloid papers from Schneps Media ought to be reason for further debate. The sheds were allowed on public streets to save the eateries during the indoor restrictions of the pandemic. Many of them remain inContinue reading “Dining Out on Taxpayers in NYC”
Category Archives: Newsfeed
Bedroom Reform for Today’s Housing Crisis
Long Island, N.Y.’s East End has a housing price/supply crunch, like the United Kingdom. So it might want to look at an earnest argument out of the UK for addressing the scarcity by restricting or reallocating bedroom supply. (See this derivative blog post.) The scholars there found no actual shortfall of home square-footage in theContinue reading “Bedroom Reform for Today’s Housing Crisis”
Tipplers Tax: How NY Hamstrings ‘Big Grocery’
The antitrust-activist Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under the Biden administration and chair Lina Khan moved earlier this year to block a merger between grocery oligarchs Kroger and Albertsons. Its motivation is to preserve competition (such as it is) in traditional food shopping. There’s a whole debate about whether choice in supermarkets is so relevant whenContinue reading “Tipplers Tax: How NY Hamstrings ‘Big Grocery’”
Empty or Illicit? NYC Shops for a Solution
New York City, like many urban areas, has suffered vacant storefronts in recent years. The causes are likely many: online shopping, property crime, difficulty in hiring low-wage staff or paying the going rents. An article at politicsny.com this week notes that some city councilmembers are on the case and, as often, blaming landlords. Even aContinue reading “Empty or Illicit? NYC Shops for a Solution”
Dictator, Not Democracy, Initiated Korean Miracle
The most interesting aspect of yesterday’s discussion at the Korea Society in New York concerned Park Chung Hee, the transformative autocrat who ruled from Seoul for most of the 1960s and 1970s. He was an army general who seized power in 1961 and maneuvered, sometimes brutally, to maintain it until he was assassinated in 1979.Continue reading “Dictator, Not Democracy, Initiated Korean Miracle”
The Housing Issue Begins to Bite
As we’re reminded constantly, the U.S. is an increasingly polarized society, politically and otherwise. It is getting ever more so “otherwise” in the housing market, where many enjoy rising property values and easy mortgage payments while others are pressed for shelter anywhere near their desired locations. This affordability issue has gained steam, and is causingContinue reading “The Housing Issue Begins to Bite”
A Dollar Store with a Difference
A few months short of its 42nd birthday, the California-based sundries-and-more chain 99 Cents Only is going to die. An Orange County columnist for the Los Angeles Times delivers this fond obituary while visiting a store in Santa Ana that I used to patronize, and captures much of the appeal. He doesn’t mention the long-running,Continue reading “A Dollar Store with a Difference”
YIMBY Can Populate Conference Halls
This weekend’s New York Times article marvels over the apparent embrace of New Urbanist notions of densified and commercially active housing corridors by a seemingly fresh breed of market-oriented libertarians. They have come together under various banners of YIMBY–Yes In My Back Yard–to address a scarcity of “affordable” homes in many areas of the country.Continue reading “YIMBY Can Populate Conference Halls”
Chase Is Happy to Be ‘Just Another Bank’
This Wall Street Journal article of the past week spotlights the unusual (for today) strategy of opening numerous bank branches by the nation’s largest such financial institution, J.P Morgan Chase. It comes at a time when most other banks are retreating from the branch ubiquity approach, something many had embraced in urban areas not 15Continue reading “Chase Is Happy to Be ‘Just Another Bank’”
Losing the Virtue of Volunteerism
The Wall Street Journal last week published this ungenerous review of Chris Anderson’s new book, Infectious Generosity. And I can’t say the critic was wrong to zing the boss of TED Talks for “embarrassing naivete” in his plea for more universal kindness. But after reading the work and listening to Anderson make his case toContinue reading “Losing the Virtue of Volunteerism”
Tim W. Ferguson 