Yglesias on urbanism

Matt Yglesias wades into the debate about cities versus suburbs, and which is the future of America.

The urbanist proposal isn’t “hey, jerks, why don’t you all move to dense downtowns.” Rather, the proposal is something like “why don’t we impose carbon taxes so that things like driving long distances and heating or cooling large detached structures are priced in accordance with their social cost? Why don’t we stop having the federal government heavily subsidize driving cars as the preferred mode of transportation? Why don’t we have more areas that allow for high-density zoning, thus reducing the cost of urban housing?”