Asymmetrical Information

Neighborhoods benefit from a mix of small bars, resturants and small stores. The proprietors have a natural interest in a safe enviroment, and are strongly motivated to pick up the telephone and notify the police in the event of a disturbance.

Nothing is more frightening than a city block of empty office buildings at night. The worst I have experienced is the Trenton NJ downtown after 6pm, with its large empty office towers and proximity to astonishingly awful slums.

It's been a long time since I was in that neighborhood, but I seem to remember a (vinyl; dating myself) record store with a great, great, jazz and blues section. Other than that, though, I can't remember much commerce. As I was always passing through, I never gave it much thought.

I can't remember the restaurants, but I remember the book stores on this small street by the hospital. That experience for me was sobering and rather freightening. Perhaps I overreacted. The whole place just reminded me of my school too much. I did manage to pick up someone's thesis on Friedman though. At the time I thought it'd be kitchy. Quote:

"This is a consequence of logician's definition of 'truth' which leaves no room for exceptions; one falsifying instance makes the hypothesis false. Falsification, on the other hand, does not involve conjecture. When truth is defined this way, one falsifying instance is enough to show for certain that a hypothesis is false...Thus, while Humer's observation, on which Popper's falsification doctrine rests, has value in showing that we must always leave rooom for doubt....Friedman certaintly seems sensitive to this."

It was marked down from $52 to $5.

The article about zoning that Jane linked is interesting, but, with one huge, shocking exception, not surprising. I had heard much of the story when I was an undergraduate. The article fills in many details, e.g., the reason 55th Street is so berift of stores and resturants. In the days of Richard Daley Sr. (who was so powerful that he could raise the dead to vote for him) making some bargins with the Democrat Party Machine was necessary for all major Chicago institutions. The University of Chicago was no exception. The huge, shocking surprise is that Jimmy's was closed for a year and a half. What did people do during the time it was closed? At least it has reopened. I remeber the time I was there and ...

Just goes to show you: when there's something puzzlingly, inexplicably wrong, you need generally look no further than the government to find out what's causing it.

We already have a Jane's Law. Can we call this Jane's Other Law?

Government employees are just like the rest of us, only more powerful (at least in their own minds), less accountable and frequently more arrogant. Thus, it is unrealistic to expect them, or the government they represent, to make better decisions than we would make on our own. Arguably, it is reasonable to expect them to make worse decisions, because they can and because they ultimately bear no responsibility for the results of their decisions and suffer no inconvenience because of their outcomes.

It is very interesting to note that, when "managed" markets fail, the failure is always perceived to be the responsibility of the markets and never the responsibility of the "managers". The market impacts of zoning are an interesting study in this regard, as are the market impacts of rent control. Unmanaged markets are ruthless and their short term effects are frequently ugly, but they are effective and efficient. This is more than can fairly be said for government.

An excellent book on the stupidness of zoning (plus a background of exactly how things got this way) is Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck.

It's not a blame game, and doesn't talk about the environment very much. Instead, it's pragmatic and presents the issue merely as determining what is the best way to build places for people to live. Thus, it's also very non-partisan (unlike that other book the title probably reminds you of).

No, you call it Jane's Second Law. Seeing as how you can't say for sure she'll stop at just two.

I'm glad to see that Jimmy's (Hyde Park's answer to the CroBar) is back. I knew that the Iggle and the Gill's microbrewery were gone, but the loss of Jimmy's would have been too much.

Mmmmmm... the Pancake House. Don't you know some of us are trying to cut down on carbs!?

No, you call it Jane's Second Law. Seeing as how you can't say for sure she'll stop at just two.

Not sure it can really be attributed to Jane. It's a deontological first-principle of libertarian world view (albeit one with a good deal of supporting evidence).

By 'that caribbean place', you wouldn't by any chance be referring to 'Nathan's Taste of Jamaica', would you? I loved that place ($3.50 patty melt combo!), but, despite the name, I think it hardly qualifies as caribbean.

Is "the Pub" in the basement of Ida Noyes still open? I used to drink there 4-5 nights a week back in the B-school days.

"the Carribean place" is probably not Nathan's, but Calypso, where Medici on Harper used to be. Good stuff. For that matter, Medici on 57 should certainly be on the "decent low end restaurant" list, and there used to be Thai worth eating at two out of the three storefront Thai places.

For true depth of Hyde Park lameness, however, you need to look not at the restaurants, but at the grocery stores.

The bookstores deeply rule, though.

fling93,

While describing Suburban Nation as "non-partisan" is true, that's not nearly the same thing as saying its unbiased. The authors are arguing from a fairly distinct viewpoint, i.e. that of city planners who are leading proponents of "New Urbanism". Instead of the current zoning system we have, they advocate a different, newer, better system. Essentially, they would like to swap the current zoning system for something that would allow them to institute their set of preconceptions about how a city/town/community should be. Either way, you're under one set of rules or another.

Isn't there also a great deal of arrogance in 3 people deciding what is the "best way to build places for people to live". It's pretty much a one-size fits all model, isn't it? If you like living in the 'burbs, as I do, you're pretty much screwed, aren't you?

Just on the topic of dysfunctional neighborhoods caused by governments, try the Washington Mall after dark in the winter.

I was once working on a project for the USDA, in an office near the Bureau of Printing and Engraving (and now the Holocaust Museum). Nice enough office neighborhood (tho I don't remember what I did for lunch). But I made the mistake of working till 6:30 one evening in January. My three block walk to the Smithsonian Metro stop was completely devoid of other humans. (I also remember it being pitch black, but there must have been _some_ street lights.) Odd to see the Washington Monument and the Capitol in such a situation.

"the Carribean place" is probably not Nathan's, but Calypso, where Medici on Harper used to be. Good stuff.

You know, I vaguely recall that place being constructed just as I left ('99). What I remember about Medici on Harper was $0.10 wings on Monday nights. And yes, I did rank Hyde Park restaurants according to their the calories/$$$ ratio:

1. Medici on Harper - 10 cent wings on Monday nights
2. Harold's - 9 chicken nuggets plus fries for $2.50
3. Jimmy's - $1.50 cheeseburger, $1.00 for small fries, $4.00 pitchers of MGD. Sweet.
4. Nathan's - $3.50 patty melt, fries, and drink combo
5. Salonica - $2.95 bowl of chilli with unlimited crackers (I rate this last because, despite a theoretically infinite calorie count, you can really only have so many crackers before your stomach explodes).

On the subject of schools in bad neighborhoods: I went to b-school at NYU Stern ("Graduate School of Business Administration" or "GBA" at the time) way back when it was located on Trinity Place and various other buildings in the downtown area. The library was only upon until 11pm during the week and not open at all on Sundays. It was on the 4th floor of a dingy old office building and hopelessly incomplete. The classrooms were windowless in the ugliest buildings imaginable. I don't know if it had to do with zoning or not, but it was a barren wasteland after 5pm and that neighborhood still is from what I can see from my office window. Talk about being scared to study after dark, then take the 4/5 train home! Thank God they moved the campus to the Village where the rest of NYU resides but it ticks me off when I get mail asking for desperately needed $$ to fund desperately needed renovations when I had to put up with bad zoning and a yucky neighborhood for my MBA. Maybe I would have studied longer hours had the environment not been so depressing!

T: While describing Suburban Nation as "non-partisan" is true, that's not nearly the same thing as saying its unbiased.

I never said it was. The only words I used to describe it were "non-partisan" and "pragmatic."

The authors are arguing from a fairly distinct viewpoint, i.e. that of city planners who are leading proponents of "New Urbanism". Instead of the current zoning system we have, they advocate a different, newer, better system.... Either way, you're under one set of rules or another.

And they advocate this because they believe this to be the most pragmatic and effective way to move things in the right direction in terms of improving the way people live. And they cite evidence of their progress by pointing out successful mixed-use communities that they've built.

Isn't there also a great deal of arrogance in 3 people deciding what is the "best way to build places for people to live". It's pretty much a one-size fits all model, isn't it? If you like living in the 'burbs, as I do, you're pretty much screwed, aren't you?

No, because they aren't advocating tearing down suburbs. Their focus is on future construction, and their pitch to builders is that, if you build these things, a lot of people will want to buy them, they'll be happier, and you'll make out like bandits.

It will still have to compete with neighborhoods using other systems in the free market. But even in your worst-case-scenario, if their model works better and becomes widespread, you should be able to find plenty of cheap housing in the suburbs and as a bonus, your traffic will be greatly reduced.

And they aren't stopping you from getting your no-zoning communities built. Indeed, their successes should make your job easier. Too many people assume strict zoning is a fact of life.

Y' know, when I hear " laws" like this, I often wwonder why sucxh people dont vociferously advocate that we:
1.dismantle the Defense Department( home of a galaxy of boondoggles at any given moment) , disband the armed services , and entrust the defense of the country to private armies and intelligence services.Wouldnt that be the right libertarian thing to do?After all, the 2nd Amendment was specifically written as part of a scheme to entrust the national defense to MILITIAS, not standing armies, so the NRA crowd should jump right in with this...
The solution to this is not no zoning, but right zoning.No libertarian REALLY wants to buy a house, then have someone open a strip joint next to it.
HP was zoned like it was, because persons unknown thought that all residential zoning was better than having a mix of residential & commercial. They were wrong about that. But no zoning isnt a solution either

No libertarian REALLY wants to buy a house, then have someone open a strip joint next to it.

Carib, that's the usual argument. The problem is, the zoning officials work for the local government, so they have no problem with putting a fire station next door to your house, even while they keep "commercial" construction away. At least strip joints aren't very busy during the week, and stop making noise by 4 am or so...

Seriously, there are lots of places in this country where zoning is minimal or nonexistent. If memory serves, the city of Houston doesn't do zoning, for example.

I recently went to my reunion at U of C after getting a BA in the '70s and a PhD in the '90s. I have never seen Hyde Park looking better. Its entirely possible that the nightlife has not really improved over those earlier times. I didn't check this out. But the social life can't be worse than it was in the 1970's or most of the '90s. I was very much impressed by what I saw.

No libertarian REALLY wants to buy a house, then have someone open a strip joint next to it.

Well, it would save me the trip.

Zoning is the use of govt force to replace market forces. Govt only intervenes in the marketplace when they have received a clear indication that they can reward and punish competitors with little risk and great reward to themselves.

Zoning, Medicare, Social Security, Minimum Wage, Farm Subsidies are examples of govt intervention to annoint winners and punish losers to the benefit of politicians.

The internet arose too quickly for govt regulation to choose winners and losers. The courts are faster and have chosen that role. Politicians have not found a way to annoint, award and punish to their personal benefit. That day will come and we will have a regulated internet.

Houston is famous for its lax zoning laws. The marketplace has rewarded the nimble and adventurous. There is no shortage of variety of uses nor shortage of people and jobs.

Why is the City of Houston so lax in getting its politicians a lifetime sinecure and access to unlimited wealth?

Our idealistic models of political process do not reflect the greedy, grubbing, corruption that has existed through out human history. We are not better people than those of the past, just better dressed, better smelling, healthier and much more full of ourselves. We cloak our processes in idealist bull but still respond to corruption, power and force the same way.

Study history and then look for the difference between this cycle and the past. They are small but significant. We evolve on those changes.

Just to comment on a couple of posts above:

It is possible that the night life hasn't improved.

Good lord, the Tiki is closed. The nightlife has to be worse.

In terms of calories per $$, Valois has to be on the list--and who could forget their chicken pot pie.

Andy: Govt only intervenes in the marketplace when they have received a clear indication that they can reward and punish competitors with little risk and great reward to themselves.

In many cases, it's directly due to some savvy competitors with deep pockets lobbying government heavily to get the rules tilted in their favor, as was the case for zoning and farm subsidies. Highways were paid for by taxpayer dollars because the auto, car, and tire companies lobbied for this. This resulted in most of the costs of driving being subsidized, hiding them from consumers.

Thus Suburban Nation's pitch to get the builders on board by pointing out that property values in the mixed-use communities are soaring compared to the surrounding areas. You then have a moneyed interest more aligned with that of the populace. Note that builders will actually find it easier to follow the book's mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly guidelines in those lucky places with no zoning.

It has been more than 30 years since my undergraduate days in Hyde Park. I gather that little has changed. I do recall that Hyde Park was not a lot of fun and that the mechanics of daily life were kind of a pain. Things got better when I turned 21 and bought a car. We started to explore Chicago which turned out to be a great fun city.

Some years later, after we married we lived just south of Columbia U. (no institutional connection just the only place in Mannahatten we could find an appartment for less than $100,000 in those days). The bookstores were appalingly bad at that time, but there were plenty of places to buy food, get your laundry done, bank, etc -- even numbers parlors. At that time there were not a lot of fancy restraunts in the area, but there were plenty of places to eat. It was New york, unlike Hyde Park you wouldn't starve.

My 2 older children have gone to college in Metro Chicago, but at Northwestern. Evanston is a lot more fun than Hyde Park. The commercial area is large and is adjacent to the south end of campus. The liquor ban was lifted some years ago and there are plenty of bars and restaurants.

"Nothing is more frightening than a city block of empty office buildings at night. The worst I have experienced is the Trenton NJ downtown after 6pm, with its large empty office towers and proximity to astonishingly awful slums."

You have obviously never been in Southeast Washington, DC after 5:00 pm.

Downtown Washington or La Defense or LA may well be boring and uninteresting, but as places go, they are certainly not frightening and I have spent many hours in all of those places.

On the other hand, the mixed use neighborhoods in the the Southeast quadrant of Washington DC are terrifying for most people anytime after 5:00 in the evening. If you are dressed as a worker as I often was it was only moderately terrifying. If you were in your late model car and some decent clothes you were a TARGET. Some of the most intense real fear that I have ever known happened in a neighborhood of small businesses, apartments and local bars.

It's always about the people, people.

Evanston was still a snoozer while I was at Northwestern five years ago but I understand that things have picked up a bit. Now there's a movie theater within walking distance of south campus! A few more bars too, ones where students have actually been seen. I wonder how the Mark II Lounge in W Rogers Park is doing.

Another thing hurting U of C is that the el just barely misses it and it's a six block hike to the Metra station. I'll agree with the points about the local machine being so predatory in its zoning regulations. Is it possible for Hyde Park to secede from Chicago?

Though things have picked up ever-so-slightly in HP in the past couple of years (the requisite Starbucks and Borders -- or is it a Barnes and Noble? -- have made their appearance) it does remain pretty ... well, sucky, for reasons already noted. There is now, however, a quite wonderful high-end French restaurant there. It's called La Petit Folie, and it's in the same strip mall as the Co-Op, across from the Metra tracks. It opened about five years ago, I think, and is excellent.

And hey, don't forget Ribs-n-Bibs!!!

Y' know, when I hear " laws" like this, I often wwonder why sucxh people dont vociferously advocate that we: 1.dismantle the Defense Department[sic]

Houston indeed has little or no zoning to speak of, and it's wonderful. As a result there is no single residential, commercial, or industrial district, just fluid clusters here and there that tend to shift quickly over time. There's no rotten core of concentrated poverty and crime like in most big cities. Sure, there are places you don't want to be at night, but they're small and spread out, and usually bordered by upper-class neighborhoods. I like to take out of towners to some of the places where upscale lofts are going up next to clearly crime-ridden areas. They always ask the question "who would want to live in a loft next to a crack house?!", and the answer is--plenty of people, when they realize that in five years that the crime and crack will be run out of the neighborhood by all the other upscale lofts.

PJ: I thought working late on a government project just wasn't allowed. 8-)

Chris: Point well taken. Evanston is not scintillating. Yes the new movie theater is a big plus, but the ghost of Frances Willard still stalks the streets.

OTOH, Evanston is a lot more livable than Hyde Park. A student can get to a drug store in less than an hour. Fancy French restaurant next to the Co-op. IIRC, the Co-op was a good long walk from campus.

Very good point about transit access. The only time I could get to the METRA (Back then it was the Illinois Central and Dinosaurs roamed the earth) was when I lived at 55th and Cornell. Which was good because I was working downtown. Evanston has better access to mass transit.

I have just met you and now I'm in love with you.

PJ: I thought working late on a government project just wasn't allowed. 8-)

Markm, you probably think you're kidding! Why do you think there was no one else around at 6:30 pm?

Actually, I was a sub- (sub-) contractor, so I think my occasional 50 hour weeks were lost in the noise. Looking back, that was a nice contract, as I was paid for travel time to downtown, so even working 9-5 I billed for 9 hours... aah, the '90s...

PJ: I worked for a defense contractor for a couple of years. Overtime (even for a salaried engineer) took so many approvals that whatever crisis prompted the need would be long over before you got it. That's not to say that sometimes we'd forget to record the time put in after 5:00 pm, but we were in a little rented office in Warrenton, VA, where no one would notice the lights burning late. (As for why we did this - if you staff a company entirely with veterans and put them on a project that can clearly save a few Army lives now and then...)

Hmm...As a homeowner, I can't say I disagree with the idea of zoning. Its implementation in HP, if it is as Jane describes, sounds terrible. However, I will take exception to Tom's point about Houston. I have been there many times, and, as a resident of another Texas city, I can honestly say that the LACK of zoning is a major turn off for Houston. I have never seen such a bizarre assortment of gas station, nice house, lousy restaurant, condo, strip club, gas station, lousy restaurant, strip club anywhere. It really is not pleasant, and the traffic jams at three in the afternoon on a Sunday don't do much for the city either.

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