nyc

3. If you want good cheap infrastructure, build up state capacity

America has a big problem building infrastructure. Our roads and trains cost much more per mile than other rich countries. There are a number of reasons why this is the case, including land-use regulation, NIMBYism, and broken government contracting processes. But one reason is simpl... See more

I write this to you from New York City, where we are governed by Democrats and we pay the highest taxes in the country, but that doesn’t mean we receive the best government services. Our transportation agencies are black holes for money, unable to deliver on their capital plans despite repeated increases in the dedicated taxes that fund them, becau

... See more

Permitting reform is really important. Basically, anything you want to build — housing, factories, infrastructure, energy, you name it — needs to be built on land. And since the 1970s, America has implemented a byzantine system of land-use permitting restrictions that make it very hard to build anything at all. NEPA and similar state laws, which al... See more

MAS members have benefitted from a wonderful set of experiences over the past month that illuminate the complicated ways that the city has been shaped over the decades. The Department of Design and Construction hosted a hard-hat tour of the Eastside Coastal Resilience Project recently. The ECRP is the result of the lessons learned from Superstorm S... See more