National links: COVID-19 could force some to rethink the causes of high housing costs

You’ll often hear people blaming high housing costs on luxury apartment construction — but market changes during the pandemic might be proving them wrong. What is gained and what is lost as the pandemic cuts down on long commutes. You can’t just create a new Silicon Valley overnight.

Has the pandemic disproved a theory of gentrification? During the pandemic a rise in remote work has led to a falling demand for housing in urban areas, as demonstrated by falling rental prices in places like San Francisco and New York. These price drops could signal that theories blaming new luxury housing for high prices are wrong. (Jake Anbinder | The Atlantic)

The pandemic killed the commute: Before the pandemic, about 10% of workers were “super commuters,” with trips of 60 minutes or more each way. Many rank commuting as one of the least enjoyable tasks of their day but in the pandemic, some are missing the commute as a way to get alone time or separate work from home. (David Dudley | Bloomberg CityLab)

Austin won’t be another Silicon Valley: Texas has been attracting various companies from California due in part to a lower cost of living and lack of an income tax. But Austin won’t be taking the Bay Area’s place as the main tech hub anytime soon — the connections and institutions that made Silicon Valley can’t be recreated overnight. (Michael Agresta | Texas Monthly)

Children are intuitive urban planners: 27 children between the ages of two and five were asked to think about and map their neighborhoods in Dunedin, New Zealand. Surprising the adults, the children were future-oriented planners that had lots of good ideas and considered the holistic nature of the city and its functions. (Christina Ergler | The Conversation)

Climate change could soon curtail winter festivities: Many of the winter traditions that exist in the northern United States could come to an end as climate change reduces the number of days snow and with ice on lakes — in the Great Lakes region, that time could be shortened by a month. This could put an economic damper on the fun and draw to a close traditions such as snowmobile racing that residents of these areas have known for decades. (Keith Matheny | Detroit Free Press)

Quote of the Week

“Being surrounded by nature appears to make people walk more quickly, because it is simpler to process than the vast array of cars, buildings and flashy visual distractions in the city.”

Victoria Allen in the Daily Mail discussing a study that shows people walk slower in cities than in nature.

This week on the podcast, Carrie Makarewicz, associate professor at the University of Colorado at Denver; Prentiss Dantzler, assistant professor at Georgia State University; and Arlie Adkins, associate professor at The University of Arizona join us to talk about their paper looking at the connections between housing expenditures and location.