Will a "New Direction" in Housing Policy Mean a "Return to Feudalism"?

2 July 2009 - 1:00pm

John Petro counters Joel Kotkin's views that America's post-bubble housing policy should be "a renewed quest for homeownership."

In this op-ed from the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, John Petro states that "there is nothing sustainable about our current housing model" and that a "new direction" is needed. He is particularly scornful of Joel Kotkin's admonishments that a more balanced housing policy is "a way for 'new urbanists', 'big-city theoreticians', and even 'the fashion police' to force people out of their leafy bungalows and into drab apartment blocks. [Kotkin] seems to be defending homeownership, but really he's defending suburbs."

Instead, more diverse housing stock, dense living arrangements and more tenure options will "create better neighborhoods for everyone."

Source: DMIblog, July 1, 2009
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All of that only scratches the surface of what's wrong with this study. The idea that complex urban development patterns and human behavior can be meaningfully studied according to one primary criteria — density — is wrong from the start.