Quote:
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Speaking to the Free Press on Sunday, study author Wendell Cox of St. Louis had a message for Winnipeg homeowners still not sold on their city.
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remember that he has his own agenda when he's putting out 'studies' like this
here's a link to
the study , which is basically devoted to bashing land use planning and restrictions as the source of affordibility problems in cities.
He really oversimplifes the problem in order to further his agenda. A lot of the 'affordable' markets are mainly that way because of the decline in manufacturing and auto plant closures.. massive unemployment is going to lower land values or for poor climate(and his #31 affordable market, Ottawa, isn't exactly known for free market land development policies) . Some of them are cheap because they do follow his sorts of policies; but that has led to massive auto use and huge amounts of low-density sprawl ... which in Wendell Cox's world is a good thing.
A lot of the least affordable cities have the most desirable climates in their respective country, or are the major and most populous city. Others are some of strongest economically in the country. Many of them have to manage land use sustainably because unrestricted growth would be chaotic. Other cities are more attractive because their land use policies have created better cities and have increased the land values in these areas... wouldn't it be better if more cities were like that (not according to Wendall Cox)? People
want to move to these cities, which have been made more desirable partly because they are some of the few cities that have used land use restrictions to make the city a better places to live, but Cox doesn't recognize that.