Reddit reviews Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities (The MIT Press)
We found 3 Reddit comments about Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities (The MIT Press). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Order Without Design is perhaps the best book I've read about cities.
Alain Bertaud is perhaps the most experienced urban planner to have ever lived, working everywhere from post-Revolutionary Algeria, to Communist China, to New York, to Sana'a, to Hanoi. The man does exemplary work synthesizing urban economics and urban planning, laying out a comprehensive framework that explains city formation and growth, and the respective roles of markets and planners in shaping cities. He uses his personal experiences to illustrate urban economics.
https://www.amazon.com/Order-without-Design-Markets-Cities/dp/0262038765/ref=sr_1_1?crid=CW7UGDYUNJ2S&keywords=order+without+design&qid=1563777118&s=gateway&sprefix=order+with%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-1
That’s not really backed up by the evidence though. The study I linked (which is actually a study of studies) shows that zoning and land use regulations have a negative impact on economic development, housing, and rent prices.
It’s not really a free for all because developers still have to attract customers: if their offerings aren’t appealing to people willing to pay for them they will go out of business. Honestly they will likely not ever leave the planning phase because they will be unable to get investors who are keep to see a return and unlikely to risk their money on a project that can’t sustain itself.
In addition to that link here is a great book on the topic:
https://www.amazon.com/Order-without-Design-Markets-Cities/dp/0262038765/ref=nodl_
Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities
It's an exploration of the ways in which urban economists fail to find avenues for their work that translates to effective practical action, and the ways in which urban planners fail to consider economic consensus when attempting to force cities to look or grow a certain way through top-down policy and design, resulting in urban failures and cascading inefficiencies that drive wealth inequality, job loss, economic stagnation, etc...completely unnecessarily.