urbanSTL

Pretty sure that, if budget neutral, the Hancock amendment wouldn't be triggered. 

True, but assessment methodology is also controlled at the state level. 

See page 10 of this document. It says "Market Value, true value in money and apprised value have the same meaning under Missouri law"  The state then dictates the assessed value as a percentage of the Market Value based on its use (32% Comm/19% Res).  So you can't artificially inflate the land value and depress the improvement values, or mess with assessment rates to implement a LVT.  I think the way to do it would be to introduce a separate assessment rate for Land and adjust the assessment rates, but it would have to be done at the state level.

Why health and wellbeing should be at centre of urban planning
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/20/why-health-wellbeing-should-centre-urban-planning

My two biggest gripes about living in the city are the particulate air pollution and constant car noise (both I believe to be contributing to my high blood pressure)

Cars are the problem

Building tall with timber "does not make sense" say experts


https://www.dezeen.com/2023/03/29/build ... UNxgK3Q7VU

Trololzilla wrote: ↑

Oct 26, 2023

^ Aren't most single fams, multiplexes, and apartment buildings timber-framed, at least in America? Not sure what they mean when they say timber isn't being used at the correct building scale.

They're talking about mass-timber which refers to large engineered lumber members, not the standard 2x construction that is common

^^To be fair, the article seems to suggest that high rise mass timber buildings, even if they lose some of the benefits of building with timber, are still a good learning experience, and help to reduce resistance to using mass timber in low rise. And maybe even more importantly, help us learn how to use it better in even low rise. (More safely, more efficiently, more attractively . . . ) It seems to be a pretty pro-timber article. And at least some of the objections to mass timber high rise are objections that apply to high rise construction in general. Essentially that every floor past a certain height has a structural and infrastructural cost that can quickly begin to exceed the benefit of the additional floorspace. So low to mid-rise is probably your efficiency sweet-spot anyway. (Never ceases to amaze me that AT&T+Railway Exchange+MetSquare has more usable space than the Burj Khalifa. And the Pentagon has twice as much as that.)

Anyway, it seems to be a pretty good article, though I only read about the first half of it, I think. Seemed pretty sensible and balanced.

The Suburbs Have Become a Ponzi Scheme
A new book looks at how white families depleted the resources of the suburbs and left more recent Black and Latino residents “holding the bag.”
https://archive.ph/9Hegd

The latest plans for that from-scratch city planned in rural Silicon Valley:

https://www.archpaper.com/2024/01/new-r ... minum+fins

Richard Ontiveros gets it!  Good read.
Viewpoint: It's time for St. Louis to stop living in the glory days and ask 'what have we done lately?

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... nding.html

How about upzone already existing areas?

Streetsblog - All The Ways That Car Domination Harms Our Communities (Well, Almost All…)


https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/met ... 832b4.html

Study from the Minnesota fed on how new market-rate housing can have effects throughout the income spectrum: How new apartments create opportunities for all

WSJ on how overbuilding luxury apartments in Austin results in decreased rents (while the article narrates it primarily as not a great situation for investors and incumbent homeowners, it seems to have benefited renters and first-time homebuyers): Once America’s Hottest Housing Market, Austin Is Running in Reverse

Wired - People Hate the Idea of Car-Free Cities—Until They Live in One

https://www.wired.com/story/car-free-cities-opposition/

bridges in Missouri
Percentage of Structurally Deficient Bridges per State
https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/bridges-infrastructure/

NextSTL - St. Louis’ Sad Suburban Design

https://nextstl.com/2024/09/st-louis-sa ... an-design/

There was a post in STL Reddit today about how miserable driving on I-270 today. It's almost like that's what happens when you take tens of thousands of jobs out of Downtown STL and put them in office parks that line I-270. Everyone always asks "why would you wanna make people go all the way downtown" (even after those same people chose to move far away) but no one ever asks "why would you wanna make people go drive on I-270 everyday?"

STL mentioned!

regarding zoning:
https://theconversation.com/why-zoning-reform-wont-solve-the-housing-crisis-243421

Do people really say zoning changes will solve the housing crisis?
It is however one of the things a city can change on its own, unlike the nationwide forces at play like materials costs.  Just like how we can change our municipal fragmentation on our own, but even if we had decades ago, the forces that helped spread out places everywhere would still  have been actin upon the region. Or traffic safety, a city can put up red light and speed cameras, lower speed limits, redesign streets, etc, but can't mandate car manufacturers to lower hood heights,  put in speed governors and license, registration, and insurance verification.

I'm sure there's a South County Mall thread that I can't find, but Macy's is at South County Center is closing according to Axios.