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Detroit is the birthplace of Techno and Techno artists have continued to emerge from Detroit even as it's status as a city has declined. Because of this the city is idealized among…

eh. But also filters people who are serious about work but also serious about their mental health. I know myself well enough to know that I am less productive when I don't get sunl…

Since many people on HN live in California. The single greatest thing you can do if you live in be an advocate for building more housing in California, especially in locations with…

The name for this is crony capitalism. Policy that benefits businesses instead of policy that benefits markets. Luigi Zingales's book "A Capitalism for the People" is a good read o…

If only there were some technology that would allow multiple homes to exist on a single lot...

The lack of on-street parking was something I noticed visiting Japan. Streets can be much smaller when they don't have 20-24 feet of parking. In the US, a massive percentage of our…

This is a good interview with economist Gordon Hanson on trade, poverty and US job losses: http://www.vox.com/2016/4/20/11466868/trade-poverty-economis...

His book, Triumph of the City, is a good read on urban economics.

I really love using Car2Go in Brooklyn. I transit/Bike/Walk 95% of the time, but it's great to have a one-way option when I take a trip that doesn't line up well transit lines.

Yuma Az was just successfully sued for zoning laws under the fair housing act. http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/04/court-decision-on-dis... Another group is trying to sue Lafaye…

Tokyo, Toronto, and Houston are all examples of large cities where it is relatively easy to build housing and housing is relatively cheap.

RE parking minimums: http://graphingparking.com/2013/01/25/residential-parking-re... A similar issue is street sizes in the US are much larger than in countries with good transit a…

Another good overview from Matthew Yglesias: http://www.vox.com/2014/6/2/5771880/us-mass-transit-construc...

Costs are a major part of the problem. US rail construction costs are by far the most expensive in the world [1]. Other countries are able to build rail at costs in the $100-250 mi…

The cheap housing created by new construction isn't the new construction itself. It's a result of reduced demand for older housing stock. http://cityobservatory.org/what-filtering-…

1. What do you mean by safely improvable? 2. Hong Kong, one of the densest cities in the world, is built on land much steeper than SF.

You will never be able to outbuild what Facebook, Google, and the like can pay their workers. NYC 1921-1929 (prior modern zoning): "The total of 658,780 new dwellings averaged 73,1…

SF is half as dense as Brooklyn. The major supply constraint is not geographic, its land use regulation.

Food can be a part of the culture without everyone being a cook. See Thailand. Street food is very cheap and owning a kitchen is expensive, so most people eat out. Obviously low la…