Would anyone argue that the city’s architects couldn’t set density levels well enough themselves? It seems to me like that’s a pretty simple problem and that urban planners are mostly already solving correctly?
Alain Bertaud, author of “Order without Design”, would very much like to argue that. If you haven’t read the book, I’d recommend looking at it.
I can’t summarize a book in a single comment, but I think the gist of his argument is that while it might seem like an easy enough problem, in practice, when central allocation has been tried, it has been even less responsive to changes in demand than the existing market mechanism, and tends to create obviously suboptimal uses of land.
Alain Bertaud, author of “Order without Design”, would very much like to argue that. If you haven’t read the book, I’d recommend looking at it.
I can’t summarize a book in a single comment, but I think the gist of his argument is that while it might seem like an easy enough problem, in practice, when central allocation has been tried, it has been even less responsive to changes in demand than the existing market mechanism, and tends to create obviously suboptimal uses of land.
This book sounds very relevant, thanks for the recommendation.