Land and the City

This book from the Lincoln Institute's 2014 Land Policy Conference examines issues of land use policies and their impact on sustainable urbanization. By 1960, one-third of the world’s population lived in urban areas, and in 2007 the world’s urban population passed the halfway mark. All projected world population growth through 2050 will be urban, by which time two-thirds of the worlds people will depend on urban environments to meet their social, economic, and housing needs. The extent to which these needs will be met depends in many ways by the character of future urbanization defined in large part by land policies, ranging from planning for development or climate change, to the provision of affordable housing or other opportunities for the advancement of urban residents.

The land beneath our cities—and the policies that regulate it—shape the character of human settlements. This is critical awareness for a rapidly urbanizing planet. Above all, the editors of this volume hope that these studies will help policy makers and urban citizens alike recognize the profound ways in which land policies shape not only the cities we build but also the lives of those who reside in them.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction, George W. McCarthy and Samuel A. Moody

Urban Planning

2. Demographic Change and Future Urban Development, Dowell Myers and Hyojung Lee

Commentary: Ann Forsyth

3. Monitoring the Share of Land in Streets: Public Works and the Quality of Global Urban Expansion, Shlomo Angel

Commentary: Michael B. Teitz

4. Climate Change and U.S. Cities: Vulnerability, Impacts, and Adaptation, William Solecki

Commentary: Matthias Ruth

Taxation

5. The Past and Future of the Urban Property Tax, Grant Driessen and Steven M. Sheffrin

Commentary: John Yinger

6. Local Government Finances During and After the Great Recession, Adam H. Langley

Commentary: Michael A. Pagano

Housing Finance

7. Foreclosures and Neighborhoods: The Shape and Impacts of the U.S. Mortgage Crisis, Dan Immergluck

Commentary: James R. Follain

8. A Realistic Assessment of Housing Finance Reform, Laurie S. Goodman

Commentary: William Apgar

9. An Evaluation of China’s Land Policy and Urban Housing Markets, Joyce Y. Man

Commentary: David Geltner and Xin Zhang

Housing Policy

10. Housing Policies and Urban Development: Lessons from the Latin American Experience, 1960–2010, Eduardo Rojas

Commentary: Stephen Malpezzi

11. The Relationship Between the Rise of Private Communities and Increasing Socioeconomic Stratification, Evan McKenzie

Commentary: Gerald Korngold

12. Socioeconomic Segregation Between Schools in the United States and Latin America, 1970–2012, Anna K. Chmielewski and Corey Savage

Commentary: Tara Watson