The Problem With Building a New City From Scratch
California needs to ease its housing crunch, but establishing brand-new cities isn’t the best way to do it, says urban planner Alain Bertaud. “The trouble is: Who wants to be first?”
Brasília, the planned city that became Brazil’s capital in 1960, under construction in 1968.
Photographer: Freddie Reed/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
From California to Miami and points in between, housing costs in the U.S. are skyrocketing, bringing bidding wars in hot markets and fears of a fresh surge in homelessness as renters scramble for an affordable place to live.
The deepening housing crunch — and the intractable resistance that residents often put up when the prospect of new housing emerges nearby — has led some observers to ask: Why don’t we just make new cities?