The market on its own will ruin cities. Unless you're enamored with Houston.
Classic tragedy of the commons problem. In an actual literal sense in this case, as we all have to share "the commons" in cities.
Classic tragedy of the commons problem. In an actual literal sense in this case, as we all have to share "the commons" in cities.
It's not like those last 2 million people are what prevented it from being a 1000 year old, bike-friendly northern european hamlet or something.
But with that said, a knee-jerk cry of "deregulate" isn't going to be much better. The right answer is to figure out a more thoughtful system that enables the market to be channeled properly.
Which basically all modern successful cities have figured out.
Uh... housing costs in NYC are pretty ridiculous. Commute times as well. The furor over the subway wouldn't be as pronounced if everyone had relatively short commutes.
But NYC has a lot of options and many of them are affordable, there's much more to it than just Manhattan and gentrified Brooklyn. It has the ability to actually build, so there's somewhat of a pressure relief valve. And though it's problematic by European standards it clearly has a far more effective and comprehensive mass transit system than any other city in the western hemisphere.
There are reasons why the retired and most families end up leaving NYC fairly quickly. And those reasons are often rent and accessibility of the transit (subways don't have elevators, generally).
NYC is affordable for professionals without kids. It's very expensive in time, money, or both to live in NYC with a blue-collar income.
Pity about the climate though.
Of course it does lack many of the things people consider essential for modern urban living, and is highly bound to the automobile.
https://urbanedge.blogs.rice.edu/2015/09/08/forget-what-youv...