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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Are Wide Streets Negligent?, Michael Lewyn
Are Wide Streets Negligent?, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
American commercial streets are typically designed to encourage rapid automobile traffic, thus making streets unsafe for pedestrians. In the 2016 case of Turturro v. City of New York, the New York Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict against a city for failing to slow down such traffic. This article describes Turturro, but shows how limited its holding was: the Turturro court emphasized a city's failure to study traffic calming, so if a city studies its options adequately it can avoid liability even if its policies are unsuccessful.
Do You Believe In Ghost Apartments?, Michael Lewyn
Do You Believe In Ghost Apartments?, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
According to the popular press, expensive cities are being overrun by "ghost apartments"- condominiums owned by wealthy foreigners, but used as investments rather than being rented out to local residents. This article points out that such apartments are in fact a very small percentage of housing supply, even in some cities that are supposedly overran with such condos.More importantly, the existence of new “ghost apartments” does not justify exclusionary zoning policies. If a city popular with foreign investors discourages construction of new housing, investors are likely to purchase older housing units, outbidding local residents for those units. In this scenario, …
Make New York Affordable Again, Michael Lewyn
Make New York Affordable Again, Michael Lewyn
Scholarly Works
Suggests a package of zoning reforms to hold down New York City housing costs, and responds to counterarguments.