Category Archives: Consensus

Consensus and Astroturf

Posted on 2011/12/20 by

Anthony Flint’s article in The Atlantic Cities, which compares Jane Jacobs’ protesting to current Tea Party protests against urban planning, inadvertently unmasks a serious issue in any consensus society. In drawing parallels between the near-riots of the 1960s and those … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Politics and Society | 10 Comments

Consensus and Policing

Posted on 2011/11/29 by

The recent spate of mass arrests and brutality at various Occupy demonstrations is not a matter of bad cops like John Pike or even bad politicians like Michael Bloomberg. Tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets have occurred throughout the … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Politics and Society | 16 Comments

Trust (Hoisted from Comments)

Posted on 2011/11/07 by

Robert Cruickshank’s much-anticipated reply to my posts about political versus technical transit supporters and their activism says that high-speed rail is a political issue, and therefore what’s important is to just get it done. To me, the problem comes from … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Construction Costs, High-Speed Rail, Politics and Society, Transportation | 30 Comments

Cities and Multiple Equilibria

Posted on 2011/10/19 by

A growing idea among emergent urbanists is that there’s a natural form to the city, one that maximizes activity and that thrives in the absence of regulation. In this view, any sort of urban planning, from postwar suburbia to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Politics and Society, Urban Design, Urbanism | 27 Comments

Consensus and Vision

Posted on 2011/10/11 by

The death of Steve Jobs has led to impromptu discussions about the nature of his genius, causing some to call for a Steve Jobs of transit. Human Transit quotes such calls in comments and tries to strike a balance between … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Politics and Society, Transportation, Urbanism | 19 Comments

The Option of Profitable Transit

Posted on 2011/09/21 by

David Levinson’s post saying that transit should strive to restructure and be profitable stirred much discussion on neighboring blogs, including Human Transit (which broadly agrees with the idea if not the libertarian tone) and The Transport Politic (which does not), … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Labor, Politics and Society, Transportation, Urban Transit | 15 Comments

Consensus and Immigration

Posted on 2011/09/09 by

This is the final installment in my series about consensus. For the first two posts, see Consensus and Cities, and Democratic Versus Elite Consensus. There’s a pervasive view that, far from a consequence of extreme diversity, consensus is in fact … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Politics and Society | 17 Comments

Democratic Versus Elite Consensus

Posted on 2011/09/07 by

This is part 2 of my series on consensus, following Consensus and Cities. Early-20th century America was a nation with remarkable consensus about cities. The progressive reformers, the populists, and the environmental movement all agreed that cities were bad, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Israel, Politics and Society | 9 Comments

Consensus and Cities

Posted on 2011/09/06 by

Note: this is the first post in a series of 3-4 articles about consensus urbanism. The dominant discourse on cities nowadays focuses on the role of visionary, top-down innovation. Some write about mayors who change paradigms, such as Michael Bloomberg … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Politics and Society, Urbanism | 36 Comments

Development-Oriented Transit

Posted on 2011/06/06 by

Occasionally, people faced with very high transit construction costs propose value capture, where some of the increase in land value coming from transit access is directed to the transit agency. Yonah Freemark has just brought up this issue again, in … Continue reading →

Posted in Consensus, Development, Politics and Society, Transportation, Urban Transit, Urbanism | 20 Comments