Triumph of the City

by Edward Glaeser

  156 height limit of 83 feet in central Paris: Sutcliffe, Paris, 185.

  156 close to 40 million square feet of commercial space: Urban Land Institute, Award Winner Project.

  157 small apartments sell for a million dollars: For instance, on the real estate Web site www.frenchentree.com, I found a 968-square-foot apartment in the sixth arrondissement selling for over $1.25 million.

  158 three people each day were pushed out of that train to their death: Blakely, “17 People Die Every Day Commuting to Work in Mumbai, India.”

  158 Average commute times in Mumbai: American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for the United States, generated using American FactFinder; and Beniwal, “Commuting Time in Mumbai.”

  159 maximum floor area ratio of 1.33: Sridhar, “Impact of Land Use Regulations.”

  159 three of the six buildings in Mumbai that rise above 490 feet: Emporis.com, www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=102037&bt=2&ht=2&sro=0.

  160 about 30 square feet per person: The China figure is from Shanghai. Sridhar, “Impact of Land Use Regulations.”

  CHAPTER 7: WHY HAS SPRAWL SPREAD?

  165 The Houston metropolitan area had a million . . . after Atlanta and Dallas: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates, “Combined Statistical Area Population and Estimated Components of Change: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2009,” www.census.gov/popest/metro/metro.html. Fastest growth is based on total population added, not percentage growth.

  165 Twenty-four million people visit: Simon Malls, “About the Houston Galleria,” www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=805.

  165 modeled on hallowed urban space: Swartz, “Born Again,” 48.

  166 average single-family home in 2008 sat on more than an acre: U.S. Census Bureau, Residential Construction Branch, Characteristics of New Housing, “Lot Size of New Single-Family Houses Sold (Excluding Condominiums),” www.census.gov/const/C25Ann/malotsizesold.pdf.

  166 only 13 percent of the nation is in that age category: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for the United States and the County of New York, generated using American FactFinder.

  168 Pack animals . . . human geography: Lay, Ways of the World, 7.

  168 Pack animals made cities possible: Bairoch, Cities and Economic Development, 11-14.

  168 Wheels seem to have originated in Mesopotamia: Lay, Ways of the World, 27.

  168 The Incas never developed the wheel: Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 248.

  168 Paving returned . . . since the Roman era: Lay, Ways of the World, 62, 112.

  168 breeding and training... elite transport technology: Ibid., 20.

  169 father of the bus: Ibid., 128.

  169 the paving and the population: Ibid.

  169 first public transit in New York City: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham; and “New York City Transit—History and Chronology,” Metropolitan Transit Authority, www.mta.info/nyct/facts/ffhist.htm.

  169 the omnibus easily doubled that range: Glaeser et al., “Why Do the Poor Live in Cities?”

  169 An omnibus ride may have cost . . . so they kept walking: Gin and Sonstelie, “The Streetcar and Residential Location in Nineteeth Century Philadelphia,” 92-107.

  170 around masses of horse-drawn vehicles: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 420-21.

  170 Before the bus: Folpe, It Happened on Washington Square, 6-7.

  170 built the first functioning train in 1804: Lay, Ways of the World, 137; Mason, Matthew Boulton, 63-65.

  170 underground rail system: Fischler, Subways of the World, 10.

  171 invested in elevated rail networks: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 1053-55; and Donald L. Miller, City of the Century, 268-70.

  171 of 12 miles per hour to jobs downtown: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 1054.

  171 suburbs built on steam: Conn, Metropolitan Philadelphia, 125, 175-76.

  171 powering an urban train with electricity: Lay, Ways of the World, 134.

  171 streetcars that ran down the Passeig de Gràcia: “Barcelona,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

  172 four-stroke internal combustion engine . . . Motorwagen: Lay, Ways of the World, 152-53.

  172 had 23 million cars: Suits, “Demand for New Automobiles.”

  173 soaring speed of 25 miles per hour: Lay, Ways of the World, 194, 314.

  173 Federal Highway Act of 1921: Ibid., 118, 314.

  173 along the “Mother Road”: Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath.

  173 forty-six thousand miles of roads: (as of 2000) U. S. General Accounting Office, Report to the Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives, GAO-02-571, Status of the Interstate Highway System, Highway Infrastructure: Interstate Physical Conditions Have Improved, but Congestion and Other Pressures Continue, May 2002, www.gao.gov/new.items/d02571.pdf, p. 8.

  174 Income and population growth have been significantly higher in those metropolitan areas: Gilles Duranton and Matthew Turner, “Urban Growth and Transportation,” 2010, http://individual.utoronto.ca/gilles/Papers/GrowthTransport.pdf.

  174 “reduces its population by about 18 percent”: Baum-Snow, “Did Highways Cause Suburbanization?”

  174 William Levitt: Gans, Levittowners.

  175 fits of literary condescension: Ibid., 8.

  175 “first and foremost functional for his daily needs”: Ibid., 186.

  175 possibly apocryphal story: Aaseng, Business Builders, 62.

  175 twenty-six separate steps: Ibid.

  175 thousands of homes quickly in one area: “Line Forms Early in Sale of Houses,” New York Times, Mar. 7, 1949, p. 21, repr. in Nicolaides and Wiese, eds., Suburb Reader.

  176 splurging on housing subsidies: Gans, Levittowners, 13-14, 22.

  176 GI Bill . . . for middle-income buyers: U.S. Government Printing Office, Congressional Research Service, A Chronology of Housing Legislation and Selected Executive Actions, 1892-2003, Mar. 2004, www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CPRT-108HPRT92629/html/CPRT-108HPRT92629.htm.

  176 the McMansions of their day: Hayden, “Building the American Way,” 276.

  176 disproportionately to middle-class enclaves: U.S. General Accounting Office, Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division, House of Representatives, Community Development: The Extent of Federal Influence on “Urban Sprawl” Is Unclear, Apr. 30, 1999, GAO/RCED-99-87 Research on “Urban Sprawl,” www.gao.gov/archive/1999/rc99087.pdf.

  176 overwhelmingly single-family houses: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Census 2000, Data Profile for the United States, Summary File 3, generated using American FactFinder.

  177 half of the jobs . . . away from the city center: Kneebone, “Job Sprawl.”

  177 inverse connection between density and car usage: Glaeser and Kahn, “Sprawl,” 2499-2500.

  177 Accord... a hundred square feet on its own: According to Honda’s Web site, a 2010 Honda Accord has a length of 194.1 inches and a width of 72.7 inches, for an area of 98 square feet: http://automobiles.honda.com/accordsedan/specifications.aspx?group=dimensions.

  178 typical parking space: Parking regulations in Massachusetts, for instance, require parking spaces to measure at least 9 feet by 18 feet, or 162 square feet: www.mass.gov/Cago/docs/Municipal/sb_parking.rtf.

  178 structured parking, which can cost more than $50,000: Marshall and Emblidge, Beneath the Metropolis, 181.

  178 average gas tax in France: Glaeser and Kahn, “Sprawl,” 2499-2500.

  178 Comparing seventy cities ... 40 percent: Glaeser and Kahn, “Sprawl.”

  178 Today, 84 percent of passenger transport: European Road Federation, European Road Statistics 2009, table 6.3: “Inland Transport Modal Split by Country in EU-27,” p. 43.

  178 In Italy ... 5 and 5.66: European Automobile Manufacturing Association, Automobile Industry Pocket Guide, “Trends in Motorisation,” p. 4, www.acea.be/images/uploads/files/20090529_motorisation.pdf.

  178 there are 7.76 cars for every 10 Americans: Ibid.

  178 European Environment Agency . . . “low density residential areas”: European En
vironment Agency, Urban Sprawl in Europe, fig. 2, p. 12.

  179 in the United States . . . forty-eight minutes: Glaeser and Kahn, “Sprawl,” 2499-2500.

  179 That time cost . . . for buses and subways: Glaeser et al., “Why Do the Poor Live in Cities?” 12.

  180 The Woodlands: General history of The Woodlands from Galatas and Barlow, The Woodlands.

  180 on twenty-eight thousand sylvan acres: The Woodlands. http://www.thewoodlands.com/masterplan.htm.

  180 over ninety-two thousand people live in The Woodlands: The Woodlands Development Company. The Woodlands, Texas Demographics, January 1, 2010. http://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=667.

  180 Levittown . . . three times as dense as this Texas suburb: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2006-2008 Data Profile Levittown Census Designated Place, New York, generated using American FactFinder.

  180 About 28 percent of The Woodlands: The Woodlands. http://www.thewoodlands.com/greenspace.htm.

  181 more than doubled . . . over 40 percent between 2000 and 2008: The Woodlands Development Company. The Woodlands, Texas Demographics. January 1, 2010. http://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=667.

  181 More than half of the adults . . . given their income levels: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2006-2008 Data Profile for the Woodland Census Designated Place, generated using American FactFinder; and The Woodlands Development Company. The Woodlands, Texas Demographics. January 1, 2010. http://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=667.

  181 average home value there is about $200,000: Ibid.

  182 Almost half of The Woodlands’ households have children under eighteen: The Woodlands Development Company. The Woodlands, Texas Demographics. January 1, 2010. http://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=667.

  182 average commute time in The Woodlands as 28.5 minutes: Ibid.

  183 Fifty-six percent of the jobs in Houston . . . city center: Kneebone, “Job Sprawl Revisited: The Changing Geography of Metropolitan Employment.”

  183 more than a million other people: The calculations in this section first appeared in Glaeser, “Houston, New York Has a Problem,’” City Journal; U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates, “Combined Statistical Area Population and Estimated Components of Change: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2009,” www.census.gov/popest/metro/metro.html.

  183 In Wayne County... $60,000: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for Wayne County, Michigan, and Harris County, Texas, generated using American FactFinder.

  184 unemployment rate . . . 13.2 percent: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Unemployment Rates for States, Monthly Ranking, Seasonally Adjusted, June 2010, www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm.

  184 Houston . . . above 90 degrees: National Climatic Data Center, “Mean Number of Days with Maximum Temperature 90 Degrees F or Higher,” http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/online/ccd/max90temp.html.

  184 American family earned about $60,000: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2006 Data Profile for the United States, generated using American FactFinder.

  184 average registered nurse . . . $50,000 in New York: Author’s calculations using Ruggles et al., Microdata Series.

  184 average retail manager ... $28,000 in New York: Ibid.

  185 average owner-occupied housing unit in the Houston area: $119,400, to be exact. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2006 Data Profile for Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, and 2006 Data Profile for City of Houston; both generated using American FactFinder.

  185 three quarters of the homes in the city: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2006 Data Profile for city of Houston, generated using American FactFinder.

  185 median price of a Houston home sold: National Association of Realtors, “Median Sales Price of Existing Single-Family Homes for Metropolitan Areas,” www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/497de980426de7ccb96eff03cc9fa30a/REL10Q1T_rev.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=497de980426de7ccb96eff03cc9fa30a.

  185 In 2006, the Census . . . in New York City as $496,000: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2006 Data Profile for City of Los Angeles and City of New York, generated using American FactFinder.

  185 on Staten Island for about $340,000: Realtor.com, searched Aug. 31, 2010.

  185 New Brighton . . . $375,000: Ibid.

  185 These houses don’t have ... square feet of living space: Ibid.

  185 condominium with two or three bedrooms: Ibid.

  185 If the family can muster... (for a $160,000 home): Author’s calculations, assuming a 30-year fixed interest rate of 6.75 percent.

  186 Houston residents . . . property taxes . . . for a $160,000 home: Author’s estimates, using TAXSIM.

  186 In New York . . . state income and city income taxes: Ibid.

  186 up to $8,500 per year on transportation: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2006, www.bls.gov/cex; and personal communication, Oct. 2007.

  186 average Houston commute is 26.4 minutes: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for City of Houston, generated using American FactFinder.

  186 In Queens, the average commute is 42.7 minutes: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for County of Queens, NY, generated using American FactFinder.

  186 In Staten Island . . . multimode marathon: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for County of Richmond, NY, generated using American FactFinder.

  186 The ferry ride itself... Manhattan destination: From the official Web site, www.siferry.com.

  187 people dislike time spent on mass transit: Small and Verhoef, Economics of Urban Transportation.

  187 biggest price gaps are in groceries: ACCRA Cost of Living Index for Houston and Queens: 88 and 149.4.

  187 A T-bone steak . . . in New York: Ibid.

  187 real income of the Queens residents is a little less than $19,750: Ibid.

  187 The same figure for Houston . . . is $31,250: Ibid.

  187 even without a brilliant child, the Houston resident: Houston Association of Realtors, School Finder, School District Detail, Spring Branch ISD, generated at www.har.com/school/dispDistrictDetail.cfm?id=101920.

  188 bizarre doubling of home prices in Las Vegas: Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, July 21, 2010.

  188 two thirds of the variation in metropolitan prices . . . by 3 percent: Author’s calculations using U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000, County and City Data Book 2000, table C-7, “Cities—Government Finances and Climate,” www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/00ccdb/cc00_tabC7.pdf.

  188 For every $1.00 . . . by $1.20: Author’s calculations using U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000.

  188 California’s Santa Clara County . . . pay plenty to live there: Santa Clara average $116,079, median $88,846; U.S. average $71,498, median $52,029. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for County of Santa Clara, California, and for the United States, generated using American FactFinder.

  188 close to $800,000, more than four times the U.S. average: Ibid.

  189 remained the most expensive place in the continental: Only Honolulu was more expensive. National Association of Realtors, “Median Sales Price of Existing Single-Family Homes for Metropolitan Areas,” www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/497de980426de7ccb96eff03cc9fa30a/REL10Q1T_rev.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=497de980426de7ccb96eff03cc9fa30a.

  189 only about sixteen thousand new single-family homes: U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturing, Mining and Construction Statistics, Residential Building Permits, www.census.gov/const/www/permitsindex.html.

  189 less than one third of the U.S. average building rate: Ibid.

  189 If Silicon Valley . . . would be about 40 percent lower: Santa Clara County today has about 390,000 homes, so an extra 200,000 homes would be a 50 percent increase in the housing stock. Typically, estimates of the elasticity of housing demand are around −.7; see Polinsky and Ellwood, “Empirical Reconcilia
tion of Micro and Grouped Estimates of the Demand for Housing,” which implies that a 50 percent increase in housing supply would be associated with a 40 percent reduction in housing price.

  189 did permit more than two hundred thousand new single-family homes: U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturing, Mining and Construction Statistics, Residential Building Permits, www.census.gov/const/www/permitsindex.html.

  189 household income in Detroit . . . half the U.S. average: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for City of Detroit and for the United States, generated using American FactFinder.

  190 peak of the recent bubble ... rose by 64 percent: Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (July 21, 2010).

  190 In Dallas, prices rose by only 8 percent: Ibid.

  190 three years that followed the bubble’s peak . . . only 5.5 percent: Ibid.

  190 prices in Houston have stayed remakably constant . . . $153,100 in 2009: National Association of Realtors, “Median Sales Price of Existing Single-Family Homes for Metropolitan Areas,” www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/497de980426de7ccb96eff03cc9fa30a/REL10Q1T_rev.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=497de980426de7ccb96eff03cc9fa30a.

  190 Harris County . . . cushioned the drop: U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturing, Mining and Construction Statistics, Residential Building Permits, www.census.gov/const/www/permitsindex.html.

  190 From 1996 to 2006 . . . least supply-constrained cities: Glaeser et al., “Housing Supply and Housing Bubbles.”

  190 In the boom of the 1980s . . . in the elastic places: Ibid.

  190 Texas builders . . . $75 a square foot: Gyourko and Saiz, “Construction Costs.”

  190 Texas and California... more than 1,600 square feet of land: U.S. Census Bureau, State and County Quickfacts, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states; and U.S. Census Bureau, International Database, World Population Summary, www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.php.

  190 America’s abundance of land . . . physical costs of construction: Gyourko and Saiz, “Construction Costs.”

  191 construction costs are . . . more expensive in Los Angeles: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2006-2007 Data Profile for the City of Houston and the City of Los Angeles, generated using American FactFinder; and Gyourko and Saiz, “Construction Costs.”