WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.740 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. I want to start 00:00:02.740 --> 00:00:04.719 today by asking you to do something a little 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:07.160 bit uncomfortable. I want you to audit your life 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:09.539 for a second. Okay, I'm ready. Visualize your 00:00:09.539 --> 00:00:12.980 average Tuesday. You wake up, you grab coffee, 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:15.400 you go to work, maybe that's a commute, maybe 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:17.140 it's, you know, a walk to the living room these 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:20.920 days. You go to the gym, you buy groceries. Now, 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:24.960 here's the question. How much friction is between 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:28.250 those points? Are you hopping in a car for 20 00:00:28.250 --> 00:00:31.149 minutes just to buy a carton of milk? Or sitting 00:00:31.149 --> 00:00:33.810 in gridlock to get to a gym that's in some concrete 00:00:33.810 --> 00:00:36.509 industrial park? Exactly. And that friction, 00:00:36.609 --> 00:00:39.780 that... That texture of your day, it isn't accidental, 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:42.880 is it? No, not at all. It's engineered. And how 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.140 you move between those points, whether you are 00:00:45.140 --> 00:00:48.060 walking or sitting in traffic or hopping on a 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:50.759 train, that really defines the texture of your 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:53.399 day. We just accept it as just how things are, 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:56.200 but it's actually the result of a very specific, 00:00:56.479 --> 00:00:59.539 very intentional operating system running underneath 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:02.460 our cities. A kind of invisible code. Totally. 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.659 And today... We're looking at the code behind 00:01:05.659 --> 00:01:08.079 that operating system. It determines the whole 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:10.579 rhythm of a city. It's a concept that sounds 00:01:10.579 --> 00:01:13.180 incredibly dry. Honestly, it sounds like the 00:01:13.180 --> 00:01:15.459 title of a pamphlet you'd find in a dusty basement 00:01:15.459 --> 00:01:18.140 at City Hall. It really does. But it is actually 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:22.379 the secret recipe for vibrant neighborhoods versus 00:01:22.379 --> 00:01:26.000 those soulless, sprawling ghost towns. We are 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.939 talking about. mixed use development. It does 00:01:27.939 --> 00:01:29.859 sound like homework. I'll give you that. But 00:01:29.859 --> 00:01:32.400 if you peel back the zoning jargon, this is actually 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:35.099 the story of why some neighborhoods feel alive 00:01:35.099 --> 00:01:38.659 and vibrant and why others just feel sterile. 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:41.640 Right. It explains human behavior, local economics, 00:01:41.900 --> 00:01:44.359 and as we'll get into, even how different cities 00:01:44.359 --> 00:01:46.400 weathered something like the pandemic. And we 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:48.340 have a massive stack of sources today. I mean, 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:50.599 we've got comprehensive urban planning strategies. 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.819 We've got these deep dives into zoning classifications. 00:01:53.900 --> 00:01:56.709 And some really fascinating global case studies 00:01:56.709 --> 00:02:00.150 from the high rises of New York to like the laneways 00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:02.310 of Sydney and the neighborhoods of Toronto. So 00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:05.430 the mission today is to really unpack how blending 00:02:05.430 --> 00:02:08.150 these different spaces where we sleep, where 00:02:08.150 --> 00:02:10.909 we shop, where we work actually changes the way 00:02:10.909 --> 00:02:13.909 we live. Yeah. And we need to figure out if this 00:02:13.909 --> 00:02:16.650 is the utopia that planners are always promising 00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:19.750 or if it's just, you know, a buzzword for expensive 00:02:19.750 --> 00:02:22.590 condos. I feel like it's a bit of both, honestly. 00:02:22.770 --> 00:02:24.759 Yeah. But to understand that, we have to start 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:27.060 with the basics. Let's just let's unpack this. 00:02:27.159 --> 00:02:29.439 Yeah. First things first. We need a definition. 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:32.159 What are we actually talking about when we say 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:34.539 mixed use development? OK, good place to start. 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:36.900 Because in my head, I just picture an apartment 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:40.060 building with like a Starbucks on the ground 00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:43.020 floor. Is that it? That is the cliche. Yes. And 00:02:43.020 --> 00:02:45.879 it's not wrong, but it's incomplete. Based on 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:47.860 the source material, the definition is actually 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:50.120 quite specific. It's not just random buildings 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:53.180 near each other. Mixed use development is a type 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:55.500 of urban development, design, or zoning that 00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:58.560 blends multiple uses into one space. And we're 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:00.699 talking about a whole mixed residential, commercial, 00:03:01.060 --> 00:03:03.860 cultural, institutional, or entertainment. So 00:03:03.860 --> 00:03:07.139 it's the mashup. The intentional mashup. It is 00:03:07.139 --> 00:03:09.560 the mashup, but with a really important caveat. 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:12.580 The key characteristic here is that these functions 00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:15.819 have to be, to some degree, physically and functionally 00:03:15.819 --> 00:03:18.919 integrated. And critically, they have to provide 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:21.300 pedestrian connections. That pedestrian part 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:24.060 seems huge. Integrated feels like the load -bearing 00:03:24.060 --> 00:03:27.020 word there. Because if you have a massive mall 00:03:27.020 --> 00:03:29.219 next to a massive apartment complex, but there's 00:03:29.219 --> 00:03:31.639 a six -lane highway and a chain -link fence between 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:35.060 them, that doesn't count. Exactly. That is what 00:03:35.060 --> 00:03:38.960 planners call... adjacent use not mixed use mixed 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:42.180 use implies integration it implies that you can 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:44.319 flow from one to the other without getting in 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:46.500 a car it's about the flow it's all about the 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:50.159 flow yeah and the scope can vary wildly it can 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:52.259 be a single building we call that a vertical 00:03:52.259 --> 00:03:55.400 mix like your starbucks example or it could be 00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:58.300 a whole block or an entire neighborhood but the 00:03:58.300 --> 00:04:00.780 dna is the same the functions are blended together 00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:03.919 on purpose okay so that's the what but here is 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:05.699 where it gets really interesting for me. The 00:04:05.699 --> 00:04:09.500 why now or maybe more accurately, why did we 00:04:09.500 --> 00:04:11.960 ever stop doing this? Because if you think about 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:14.939 history, I mean, didn't we always live like this? 00:04:15.379 --> 00:04:18.579 The research points to this idea of. Great divergence. 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:21.339 That is the crucial context, because you're right. 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:24.220 Historically, human settlements were always mixed 00:04:24.220 --> 00:04:26.399 use by default. It was the only way. There was 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:29.879 no other option. None. If you go back to, say, 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:34.459 the year 1700, a blacksmith didn't commute 45 00:04:34.459 --> 00:04:37.480 minutes to an industrial park. He lived above 00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:40.139 the forge. The baker lived above the bakery. 00:04:40.220 --> 00:04:42.639 The apprentice slept in the back room. There 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:46.139 was no zoning. The city was just this organic 00:04:46.139 --> 00:04:48.939 mashup. People lived where they worked because 00:04:48.939 --> 00:04:51.319 they had to. Transportation was limited to your 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:53.860 feet or maybe a horse. And then everything changed. 00:04:54.019 --> 00:04:57.019 Then we hit the great divergence. Industrialization. 00:04:57.180 --> 00:05:00.439 Ah, right. The factories. The smoke. Suddenly, 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:02.800 work wasn't just baking bread or shoeing horses. 00:05:02.899 --> 00:05:05.500 It was heavy manufacturing. It brought smoke. 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:08.930 noise, pollution, dangerous machinery. You couldn't 00:05:08.930 --> 00:05:11.069 live above that. It would literally kill you. 00:05:11.110 --> 00:05:13.050 So for the first time, separating where you work 00:05:13.050 --> 00:05:14.910 from where you live became a matter of life and 00:05:14.910 --> 00:05:17.050 death. And that's where the government steps 00:05:17.050 --> 00:05:19.250 in and says, OK, hold on. We need to separate 00:05:19.250 --> 00:05:21.990 these things. Precisely. Governments introduced 00:05:21.990 --> 00:05:25.149 zoning regulations specifically to separate functions. 00:05:25.569 --> 00:05:28.689 The original motivation was public health and, 00:05:28.769 --> 00:05:30.670 you know, the protection of property values. 00:05:30.949 --> 00:05:33.790 You separate the negative externalities, that's 00:05:33.790 --> 00:05:36.569 the planner speak for air, noise and light pollution, 00:05:36.730 --> 00:05:39.569 from where people sleep. Which makes total sense. 00:05:39.829 --> 00:05:42.250 I mean, you don't want a steel mill next to a 00:05:42.250 --> 00:05:44.269 nursery school. That's a good idea. It is a good 00:05:44.269 --> 00:05:46.189 idea. But it feels like we took that one good 00:05:46.189 --> 00:05:48.490 idea and then just really ran with it, especially 00:05:48.490 --> 00:05:50.410 in North America. We applied it to everything. 00:05:50.589 --> 00:05:52.949 We did. We applied it to an extreme. And this 00:05:52.949 --> 00:05:55.329 is where the divergence between North America 00:05:55.329 --> 00:05:58.490 and Europe becomes so stark. In the United States, 00:05:58.689 --> 00:06:01.250 zoning for single -family residential use became 00:06:01.250 --> 00:06:04.939 a powerful tool. A tool for what, though? Not 00:06:04.939 --> 00:06:07.939 just safety. No. Yes, it was about health, but 00:06:07.939 --> 00:06:10.339 the sources are very clear that it was also constructed 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:13.139 because of racial and class tensions. Okay, that's 00:06:13.139 --> 00:06:15.560 a heavy layer to add to zoning codes. It wasn't 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:17.699 just about keeping smoke away. It was about keeping 00:06:17.699 --> 00:06:19.860 people away. Correct. Think about it. If you 00:06:19.860 --> 00:06:22.300 zone an area strictly for single -family homes 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:25.839 on large lots... You artificially inflate the 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:27.939 price of entry. You price people out. You price 00:06:27.939 --> 00:06:29.680 people out. You keep out the boarding houses, 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:32.379 the small apartments, the duplexes, and by extension, 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:34.720 the lower income workers who would live in them. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.040 It became a tool for exclusion. And then culturally, 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:40.860 you have this powerful narrative of the American 00:06:40.860 --> 00:06:43.680 dream layered on top of it. The white picket 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:46.870 fence. After World War II, that dream became 00:06:46.870 --> 00:06:50.449 just, inextricably linked to private property 00:06:50.449 --> 00:06:54.250 and the 1950s suburban home. The lawn, the fence, 00:06:54.509 --> 00:06:57.970 the two -car garage, the separation? Yes, the 00:06:57.970 --> 00:07:00.509 separation itself became a status symbol. We 00:07:00.509 --> 00:07:03.170 started to view success as the ability to separate 00:07:03.170 --> 00:07:05.750 yourself from the chaos, the noise, the diversity 00:07:05.750 --> 00:07:08.060 of the city. Meanwhile, Europe just... didn't 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:10.120 go down that same road. Not to the same extent 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:12.839 at all. Europe remained mixed use by default 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:15.240 for the most part. The sources give this fascinating 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:17.839 example. In England, hotels are classified under 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:19.980 the residential umbrella. Wait, really? A hotel 00:07:19.980 --> 00:07:23.230 is a business. It's commercial. To us, yes. But 00:07:23.230 --> 00:07:25.410 in their zoning logic, people sleep there so 00:07:25.410 --> 00:07:28.009 it sits with residential uses. Whereas in the 00:07:28.009 --> 00:07:30.350 U .S., a hotel is strictly commercial. It's a 00:07:30.350 --> 00:07:32.569 totally different mindset. That's wild. What 00:07:32.569 --> 00:07:35.149 about other places? In France, much of Paris 00:07:35.149 --> 00:07:38.149 is simply zoned general urban. That allows for 00:07:38.149 --> 00:07:41.189 a huge variety of uses side by side. It's a permissive 00:07:41.189 --> 00:07:43.509 zoning, not a restrictive one. So it's about 00:07:43.509 --> 00:07:46.129 what you can do, not what you can't. Exactly. 00:07:46.329 --> 00:07:49.329 And even in Germany and Russia, the zoning codes 00:07:49.329 --> 00:07:51.060 often don't distinguish between... different 00:07:51.060 --> 00:07:53.220 types of housing. They didn't have that cultural 00:07:53.220 --> 00:07:56.139 and legal obsession with single family exclusivity. 00:07:56.259 --> 00:07:58.759 So while Europe kept mixing, the U .S. went full 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:01.019 separation. And I feel like there's a specific 00:08:01.019 --> 00:08:03.879 villain in this story, or at least a very controversial 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:06.060 figure when it comes to American cities. Oh, 00:08:06.100 --> 00:08:08.339 yeah. We have to talk about the Clash of Titans. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:11.079 You are thinking of Robert Moses versus Jane 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:13.839 Jacobs. This is the heavyweight title fight of 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:16.600 20th century urban planning. The man who loved 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:19.220 a superhighway versus the woman who loved a sidewalk. 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:21.800 It's almost poetic. Robert Moses was the New 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:23.980 York City Parks Commissioner, but really he was 00:08:23.980 --> 00:08:26.319 the master builder. He was the absolute champion 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:29.860 of this separation philosophy post -WWII. You 00:08:29.860 --> 00:08:32.350 saw the city as a machine. A machine that needed 00:08:32.350 --> 00:08:35.409 to be organized and segmented. He pushed for 00:08:35.409 --> 00:08:38.149 superhighways specifically to break up functions 00:08:38.149 --> 00:08:41.070 and neighborhoods, to move cars efficiently from 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:43.730 the bedroom zone to the work zone and back again. 00:08:43.870 --> 00:08:46.850 He wanted to slice through neighborhoods to build 00:08:46.850 --> 00:08:49.889 expressways. He looked at a crowded, messy street 00:08:49.889 --> 00:08:53.480 and just saw chaos. He saw blight. That was his 00:08:53.480 --> 00:08:55.360 word for it. And on the other side of the ring, 00:08:55.419 --> 00:08:58.259 you have Jane Jacobs. She was the complete antithesis 00:08:58.259 --> 00:09:01.340 to Moses. She wasn't a planner. She was an activist 00:09:01.340 --> 00:09:03.659 and a writer living in Greenwich Village. She 00:09:03.659 --> 00:09:05.679 was a local. She was a local who was paying attention. 00:09:06.039 --> 00:09:09.220 And she argued that this so -called chaos, this 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:12.039 mixed -use fabric, was essential for organic, 00:09:12.259 --> 00:09:15.000 diverse, and vibrant streetscapes. She looked 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:17.799 at that same crowded street and didn't see chaos 00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:20.490 at all. She saw ballet. That's her famous metaphor. 00:09:20.950 --> 00:09:23.490 She saw the shopkeeper sweeping the sidewalk, 00:09:23.730 --> 00:09:25.750 the kids playing, the residents watching from 00:09:25.750 --> 00:09:28.850 their windows. She argued that this mess was 00:09:28.850 --> 00:09:31.850 actually a complex, self -organizing system that 00:09:31.850 --> 00:09:34.450 kept people safe. Right. She coined the term 00:09:34.450 --> 00:09:37.649 eyes on the street. That's her. The idea that 00:09:37.649 --> 00:09:39.830 a well -used street is a safe street because 00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:41.769 people are always watching. It's the classic 00:09:41.769 --> 00:09:44.129 battle. The top -down planner with the grand 00:09:44.129 --> 00:09:46.889 vision versus the grassroots observer saying, 00:09:47.110 --> 00:09:49.529 hey, wait a minute, you're destroying something 00:09:49.529 --> 00:09:52.250 that actually works. And for a long, long time 00:09:52.250 --> 00:09:55.210 in the U .S., Moses was winning. We built the 00:09:55.210 --> 00:09:57.909 highways. We built the suburbs. We sprawled. 00:09:58.070 --> 00:09:59.809 We're still living with the consequences of that. 00:09:59.950 --> 00:10:02.549 Absolutely. But the source material notes that 00:10:02.549 --> 00:10:05.230 since the 1990s, the pendulum has really been... 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:08.059 begun to swing back toward Jacobs. Mixed use 00:10:08.059 --> 00:10:11.019 is now seen as the tool to combat urban sprawl 00:10:11.019 --> 00:10:13.779 and bring that economic vitality back to our 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:16.440 cities. We realize that the machine city is actually 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:19.340 kind of miserable to live in. We did. It's inefficient, 00:10:19.700 --> 00:10:21.919 it's isolating, and it's environmentally disastrous. 00:10:22.460 --> 00:10:25.509 So let's fast forward to today. If we are swinging 00:10:25.509 --> 00:10:28.230 back to mixed use, what does that actually look 00:10:28.230 --> 00:10:29.830 like? Because I feel like I see it in different 00:10:29.830 --> 00:10:32.350 flavors. It's not always just a Brooklyn brownstone 00:10:32.350 --> 00:10:34.970 or a historic European village. No, absolutely 00:10:34.970 --> 00:10:37.529 not. That's a great point. The sources identify 00:10:37.529 --> 00:10:40.669 several distinct contexts where we are seeing 00:10:40.669 --> 00:10:43.289 this crop up. It's like a menu of options depending 00:10:43.289 --> 00:10:45.070 on where you are. Okay, let's run through the 00:10:45.070 --> 00:10:47.509 menu. What's the first option? First, you have 00:10:47.509 --> 00:10:50.110 traditional urban neighborhoods. This is often 00:10:50.110 --> 00:10:53.899 described as infill development. Infill. So filling 00:10:53.899 --> 00:10:56.679 in the gaps. Exactly. You take a neighborhood 00:10:56.679 --> 00:10:59.580 that's already there, maybe it has some gaps, 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:01.759 some old parking lots, some underused buildings, 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.580 and you upgrade them or build new things that 00:11:04.580 --> 00:11:06.519 fit in. Okay, that makes sense. The sources mention 00:11:06.519 --> 00:11:09.139 places like Barracks Row in Washington, D .C. 00:11:09.159 --> 00:11:12.360 or East Liberty in Pittsburgh. You're taking 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:15.539 existing fabric and weaving in new uses, making 00:11:15.539 --> 00:11:18.580 it denser and more vibrant. It's like urban dentistry. 00:11:18.940 --> 00:11:20.679 You're filling the cavities in the city smile. 00:11:20.940 --> 00:11:22.860 I like that. That's a good way to put it. Then 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:25.980 you have my personal favorite, which is the suburbs 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:28.960 trying to invent a downtown from scratch. Yes, 00:11:28.980 --> 00:11:31.649 the traditional suburbs context. Places like 00:11:31.649 --> 00:11:34.370 Bethesda, Maryland, or St. Louis Park in Minnesota, 00:11:34.649 --> 00:11:36.389 these are places that were billed as bedroom 00:11:36.389 --> 00:11:39.610 communities, strictly residential, and now they 00:11:39.610 --> 00:11:41.970 are realizing they have no center, no heart. 00:11:42.110 --> 00:11:44.409 No there there. No there there. So they are adding 00:11:44.409 --> 00:11:46.990 these dense, mixed -use developments to create 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:49.809 a center of gravity, a downtown feel where there 00:11:49.809 --> 00:11:52.289 wasn't one before. That always feels a little... 00:11:52.920 --> 00:11:55.559 uncanny to me. Like you drive past miles and 00:11:55.559 --> 00:11:57.779 miles of cul -de -sacs and then suddenly you 00:11:57.779 --> 00:11:59.860 hit a four block radius of density that feels 00:11:59.860 --> 00:12:02.179 like a movie set. It can feel artificial for 00:12:02.179 --> 00:12:05.139 sure. A little bit Truman Show. But for the residents 00:12:05.139 --> 00:12:07.679 it provides amenities and a walkable space they 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:09.919 never had before. Fair enough. But then there's 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:11.940 the one that always fascinates me. The Greenfield 00:12:11.940 --> 00:12:14.299 or Edge City development. This is when they just 00:12:14.299 --> 00:12:16.240 build a whole city out of thin air. This is the 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:18.200 build it and they will come model. That seems 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:22.080 so risky. It's hugely risky. This is new construction 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:25.480 on previously undeveloped land. In the 2010s, 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:28.080 these started getting labeled as urban villages. 00:12:28.379 --> 00:12:31.279 The example given is Avalon in Alpharetta, Georgia. 00:12:31.419 --> 00:12:33.379 Right. You drive out to the edge of the metro 00:12:33.379 --> 00:12:35.940 area where it's mostly trees and highways. And 00:12:35.940 --> 00:12:38.139 then suddenly, boom, there's this perfectly curated, 00:12:38.379 --> 00:12:41.720 dense, walkable, mixed -use center. It's like 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:44.590 a little island of urbanism. A lifestyle center. 00:12:44.970 --> 00:12:47.889 Surrounded by a sea of sprawl. It's a very strange 00:12:47.889 --> 00:12:50.309 juxtaposition. But there is one more context 00:12:50.309 --> 00:12:52.570 that I think is becoming super relevant lately, 00:12:52.710 --> 00:12:54.330 especially with all the economic shifts we're 00:12:54.330 --> 00:12:58.039 seeing. The dead mall. Oh, yeah. The retail apocalypse. 00:12:58.419 --> 00:13:00.899 This is a huge driver for mixed use right now. 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:03.379 It has to be. Shopping malls are losing their 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:05.240 anchor stores. I mean, department stores are 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:07.220 folding left and right. They can't rent the space. 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:09.720 So what do developers do? They have to get creative. 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:12.000 They intensify development around the mall or 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:15.000 even repurpose the mall itself. They add residential 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.159 units next to the old Macy's or in some cases 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:20.659 inside the old Macy's. Which makes perfect sense. 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:22.299 If the shoppers aren't driving there from 10 00:13:22.299 --> 00:13:24.059 miles away anymore, you just move the shoppers 00:13:24.059 --> 00:13:26.309 onto the property. You create. a captive audience. 00:13:26.590 --> 00:13:29.549 Exactly. You create a built in customer base 00:13:29.549 --> 00:13:33.149 for the food court and the remaining shops. It's 00:13:33.149 --> 00:13:36.309 a survival strategy for these massive failing 00:13:36.309 --> 00:13:39.389 properties. So within these contexts, the zoning 00:13:39.389 --> 00:13:42.190 itself gets pretty specific. I didn't realize 00:13:42.190 --> 00:13:45.429 there were so many types of mixed use. It's not 00:13:45.429 --> 00:13:48.710 just apartments over shops. No, that's the classic 00:13:48.710 --> 00:13:50.669 one. And it's called Main Street residential 00:13:50.669 --> 00:13:53.570 commercial. Usually two or three stories shop 00:13:53.570 --> 00:13:56.309 on the bottom living on. top, but the menu is 00:13:56.309 --> 00:13:58.789 much, much larger. Okay, so what else is there? 00:13:58.870 --> 00:14:00.509 Give me some other flavors. Well, you have live 00:14:00.509 --> 00:14:03.330 work. This is distinct because the resident is 00:14:03.330 --> 00:14:06.029 actually operating a small business in their 00:14:06.029 --> 00:14:08.289 dwelling. Oh, so it's not just living above the 00:14:08.289 --> 00:14:10.570 shop. The shop is in your home, like the potter 00:14:10.570 --> 00:14:12.509 or the blacksmith we mentioned earlier. Exactly. 00:14:12.509 --> 00:14:14.789 Or, you know, an accountant with a front office, 00:14:14.870 --> 00:14:18.190 a therapist, a graphic designer. The unit itself 00:14:18.190 --> 00:14:20.809 is the hybrid. That feels like a real return 00:14:20.809 --> 00:14:24.179 to the old way. It is. Then you have something 00:14:24.179 --> 00:14:26.879 a bit grittier. studio light industrial where 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:29.700 artists or makers live and work in the same spot 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:33.080 think of like loft conversions for welders or 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:36.139 furniture makers it's crucial for keeping that 00:14:36.139 --> 00:14:38.559 kind of production inside cities instead of pushing 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:41.000 it all out to the exurbs right and on the much 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:43.299 simpler side there's something called convenience 00:14:43.299 --> 00:14:46.440 zoning was that which is huge for livability 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:50.360 but sounds so small that's just allowing a single 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:53.139 convenience store or a bodega or a little cafe 00:14:53.139 --> 00:14:56.110 in an otherwise strict residential area. Oh I 00:14:56.110 --> 00:14:58.370 love that. It seems like a minor thing but being 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:00.870 able to walk to get milk or a coffee completely 00:15:00.870 --> 00:15:03.549 changes the traffic patterns and the social fabric 00:15:03.549 --> 00:15:06.230 of a neighborhood. It creates a node. A place 00:15:06.230 --> 00:15:07.970 where neighbors actually bump into each other 00:15:07.970 --> 00:15:09.750 instead of just waving from their car windows. 00:15:09.909 --> 00:15:11.629 That's the whole idea. So we know what it is 00:15:11.629 --> 00:15:14.350 and we know where it's happening. But now I really 00:15:14.350 --> 00:15:17.289 want to get into the why. Why do we want this? 00:15:18.009 --> 00:15:20.330 Because developers don't just do things for fun, 00:15:20.409 --> 00:15:23.590 and cities don't rezone for no reason. There 00:15:23.590 --> 00:15:25.429 has to be a pretty compelling benefit package 00:15:25.429 --> 00:15:28.210 here. There is, and the research breaks it down 00:15:28.210 --> 00:15:31.389 into a kind of three -pronged stool. Social benefits, 00:15:31.789 --> 00:15:34.409 environmental benefits, and economic benefits. 00:15:34.629 --> 00:15:36.809 Okay, let's start with the social side. We mentioned 00:15:36.809 --> 00:15:39.590 Jane Jacobs earlier, this idea of live, work, 00:15:39.649 --> 00:15:42.009 play. Right. One of the biggest social shifts 00:15:42.009 --> 00:15:44.210 is moving from what's called an eight -hour district 00:15:44.210 --> 00:15:47.269 to an 18 -hour community. Let's define that for 00:15:47.269 --> 00:15:49.019 me. Because I think of an eight -hour district 00:15:49.019 --> 00:15:52.620 as just a place for work. Exactly. Think of a 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:55.059 traditional central business district in any 00:15:55.059 --> 00:15:58.740 major city. From 9 .00 a .m. to 5 .00 p .m., 00:15:58.740 --> 00:16:01.340 it's bustling. Suits everywhere, delivery trucks, 00:16:01.559 --> 00:16:04.820 food carts. But what happens at 6 .00 p .m.? 00:16:04.820 --> 00:16:07.559 It's a ghost town. Tumbleweeds. Complete ghost 00:16:07.559 --> 00:16:10.320 town. And that is an incredibly inefficient use 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:13.299 of infrastructure. You have sewers, roads, and 00:16:13.299 --> 00:16:15.240 power grids that are being used at capacity for 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:17.620 one third of the day and are then basically abandoned. 00:16:17.899 --> 00:16:19.580 And it feels creepy at night. It doesn't feel 00:16:19.580 --> 00:16:22.389 safe. Exactly. When you introduce mixed use, 00:16:22.450 --> 00:16:25.149 you add residential buildings, cafes that stay 00:16:25.149 --> 00:16:28.690 open late, bars, nightclubs, theaters. You extend 00:16:28.690 --> 00:16:30.850 the life of that street. People are there in 00:16:30.850 --> 00:16:32.830 the morning getting coffee. They are there working 00:16:32.830 --> 00:16:35.330 during the day. And they are there socializing 00:16:35.330 --> 00:16:37.590 at night. You get an 18 -hour city. And that 00:16:37.590 --> 00:16:40.269 links back directly to safety. Right. The eyes 00:16:40.269 --> 00:16:42.649 on the street. 100 percent. The sources mentioned 00:16:42.649 --> 00:16:45.070 that perceived safety increases dramatically 00:16:45.070 --> 00:16:47.370 when there are people around for longer hours. 00:16:47.570 --> 00:16:49.730 It just makes intuitive sense. It does. And it 00:16:49.730 --> 00:16:51.909 fosters community because you have employees, 00:16:52.250 --> 00:16:55.250 residents and visitors all sharing the same sphere. 00:16:55.529 --> 00:16:58.149 You don't need a cop on every corner if you have 00:16:58.149 --> 00:17:00.649 a grandmother watching from a window and a bartender 00:17:00.649 --> 00:17:03.309 watching from a door. I feel safer walking down 00:17:03.309 --> 00:17:05.369 a street with open restaurants and people on 00:17:05.369 --> 00:17:08.250 patios than I do walking past a block of dark. 00:17:08.650 --> 00:17:11.109 monolithic office buildings. Precisely. Everybody 00:17:11.109 --> 00:17:13.230 does. Okay. What about the environmental side? 00:17:13.430 --> 00:17:15.430 This is the one that's tricky for me because 00:17:15.430 --> 00:17:18.630 usually development sounds like bad news for 00:17:18.630 --> 00:17:21.569 the environment. But here, the argument is about 00:17:21.569 --> 00:17:24.329 efficiency and resilience. It is. And it's about 00:17:24.329 --> 00:17:26.730 reducing carbon emissions through behavior change. 00:17:27.069 --> 00:17:29.769 The most striking example in the research comes 00:17:29.769 --> 00:17:33.049 from the COVID -19 pandemic. Oh, interesting. 00:17:33.289 --> 00:17:35.289 How so? Well, if you look at a city like New 00:17:35.289 --> 00:17:38.480 York, The retailers that were on long, commercially 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:42.039 zoned only blocks suffered severely. I mean, 00:17:42.059 --> 00:17:44.279 they were wiped out. Why? Because they relied 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:47.019 entirely on passersby commuters coming into the 00:17:47.019 --> 00:17:50.039 office and tourists. When both of those vanished 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:52.869 overnight, their customer base disappeared. The 00:17:52.869 --> 00:17:55.230 businesses died. OK, that makes sense. But the 00:17:55.230 --> 00:17:57.789 mixed use districts, they had a built in population. 00:17:58.049 --> 00:18:00.109 The residents were still there. They were working 00:18:00.109 --> 00:18:02.970 from home and they still needed food and coffee 00:18:02.970 --> 00:18:06.309 and services. Those neighborhoods showed much, 00:18:06.470 --> 00:18:09.769 much more economic resilience. That's fascinating. 00:18:09.910 --> 00:18:12.210 So the mix actually acts as an insurance policy 00:18:12.210 --> 00:18:15.289 for the local businesses. It protects them from 00:18:15.289 --> 00:18:17.309 external shock. It absolutely does. And then, 00:18:17.369 --> 00:18:18.829 of course, there's the big one, transportation. 00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:20.960 Right. Getting people out of their cars. There 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:23.380 was a study from Guangzhou, China, that found 00:18:23.380 --> 00:18:26.059 that taxis in mixed -use regions had greatly 00:18:26.059 --> 00:18:28.880 reduced traveling distances. Because everything 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:31.019 is closer. You don't need to take a cab across 00:18:31.019 --> 00:18:34.279 town. Yes. The trips are shorter. And shorter 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:37.380 distances support what planners call micromobility. 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:40.160 Walking and biking. Walking, biking, scooters. 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:42.619 If your grocery store is three blocks away, you 00:18:42.619 --> 00:18:45.420 might walk. If it's three miles away, you're 00:18:45.420 --> 00:18:49.069 getting in the car. It's as simple as that. Mixed 00:18:49.069 --> 00:18:51.589 use promotes the density that makes walking a 00:18:51.589 --> 00:18:54.690 viable option. But wait, I saw a counterpoint 00:18:54.690 --> 00:18:57.789 in the notes about something called hybrid metropolises. 00:18:58.349 --> 00:19:00.670 What's that about? Because we have to be careful 00:19:00.670 --> 00:19:03.309 not to just greenwash this and say all density 00:19:03.309 --> 00:19:05.869 is good. That's a really important nuance. A 00:19:05.869 --> 00:19:08.089 hybrid metropolis, and you can think of really 00:19:08.089 --> 00:19:11.309 massive, tall buildings that mix public and private 00:19:11.309 --> 00:19:13.410 interests, almost like a city in one building, 00:19:13.529 --> 00:19:16.210 did not necessarily show a decrease in carbon 00:19:16.210 --> 00:19:18.470 emissions. Why not? If everything is in one building, 00:19:18.569 --> 00:19:20.730 shouldn't it be super efficient? You'd think 00:19:20.730 --> 00:19:23.529 so. But the theory is that they become such powerful 00:19:23.529 --> 00:19:25.950 destinations, or magnets, that they actually 00:19:25.950 --> 00:19:28.369 attract a huge amount of car traffic from visitors 00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:30.950 coming from far away. Oh, I see. So while the 00:19:30.950 --> 00:19:32.769 residents who live there might walk downstairs 00:19:32.769 --> 00:19:35.410 to the grocery store, you have thousands of other 00:19:35.410 --> 00:19:37.829 people driving to the complex to shop or eat 00:19:37.829 --> 00:19:40.769 or stay at the hotel, completely canceling out 00:19:40.769 --> 00:19:42.910 the carbon savings. That is a really critical 00:19:42.910 --> 00:19:45.529 distinction. It's not a magic bullet. You can't 00:19:45.529 --> 00:19:48.230 just build a magnet for cars and call it sustainable. 00:19:48.769 --> 00:19:51.430 Density doesn't automatically equal sustainability 00:19:51.430 --> 00:19:54.289 if you are still designing it to be accessed 00:19:54.289 --> 00:19:57.190 by car. Exactly. The design of the surrounding 00:19:57.190 --> 00:19:59.589 network matters just as much. Okay, let's talk 00:19:59.589 --> 00:20:02.690 money. Economic incentives. This is the real 00:20:02.690 --> 00:20:05.269 driver. This is what gets developers to the table. 00:20:05.369 --> 00:20:07.829 For them, it's a portfolio diversification strategy. 00:20:08.309 --> 00:20:10.890 How so? Well, think about it. If you own a big 00:20:10.890 --> 00:20:13.009 office building and the market for office space 00:20:13.009 --> 00:20:16.410 crashes, as we've seen recently, you are in serious 00:20:16.410 --> 00:20:18.569 trouble. You're toast. But if you own a building 00:20:18.569 --> 00:20:22.109 that is 30 % office, 30 % retail, and 40 % residential, 00:20:22.410 --> 00:20:25.309 you have a buffer. If one market goes down, the 00:20:25.309 --> 00:20:28.029 others might hold steady or even go up. It's 00:20:28.029 --> 00:20:30.390 basically diversifying your investment, but physically, 00:20:30.529 --> 00:20:34.230 in concrete and steel. Correct. Plus, developers 00:20:34.230 --> 00:20:37.490 can often repurpose undervalued land -old industrial 00:20:37.490 --> 00:20:41.109 sites, rail yards, waterfronts, and dramatically 00:20:41.109 --> 00:20:43.990 increase the land value. And critically for cities, 00:20:44.210 --> 00:20:47.140 it increases housing variety. More apartments, 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:49.680 not just single -family homes. Exactly. You get 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:52.420 multifamily units, which increases density and 00:20:52.420 --> 00:20:55.319 provides more housing options. It helps to balance 00:20:55.319 --> 00:20:58.039 the supply and demand of both jobs and housing 00:20:58.039 --> 00:21:00.779 in one specific area. So it sounds like a win 00:21:00.779 --> 00:21:03.299 -win -win. Socially vibrant, environmentally 00:21:03.299 --> 00:21:07.180 better, economically sound, but... I know it's 00:21:07.180 --> 00:21:08.859 not that simple. Nothing in urban planning is 00:21:08.859 --> 00:21:10.759 ever that simple. No, it is definitely not. So 00:21:10.759 --> 00:21:12.640 let's get into the drawbacks and the controversies. 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:15.319 Because when I look around at some of these new, 00:21:15.380 --> 00:21:17.619 shiny, mixed -use developments, especially the 00:21:17.619 --> 00:21:20.000 big new ones, I have to ask the hard question. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:22.799 Who is this actually for? That is the equity 00:21:22.799 --> 00:21:25.359 issue. And it is by far the biggest and most 00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:27.839 valid criticism of modern mixed -use projects. 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:30.079 It just feels like it's often very, very high 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:32.390 -end. That's what the research calls the luxury 00:21:32.390 --> 00:21:34.950 trap. The sources explain that these projects 00:21:34.950 --> 00:21:37.650 are incredibly speculative and risky to build. 00:21:37.910 --> 00:21:40.710 And because they're so risky, developers need 00:21:40.710 --> 00:21:43.210 a very high return on investment to justify the 00:21:43.210 --> 00:21:45.259 loan from the bank. So they have to aim for the 00:21:45.259 --> 00:21:47.980 wealthiest customers. They have to. They target 00:21:47.980 --> 00:21:50.900 high -end residential tenants and what's called 00:21:50.900 --> 00:21:55.539 Class A office space, basically the newest, fanciest, 00:21:55.539 --> 00:21:58.420 most expensive office space on the market. So 00:21:58.420 --> 00:22:00.380 you end up with a mixed -use building that's 00:22:00.380 --> 00:22:03.240 a luxury condo on top of a SoulCycle, a high 00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:05.720 -end boutique, and maybe a really expensive organic 00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:08.859 grocery store. Exactly. And a study by the Journal 00:22:08.859 --> 00:22:11.259 of the American Planning Association highlighted 00:22:11.259 --> 00:22:13.660 a really troubling outcome of this. We found 00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:16.119 that a focus on homeownership in these zone -selling 00:22:16.119 --> 00:22:18.720 condos versus building rentals predominantly 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:21.160 excludes the very people who work there. The 00:22:21.160 --> 00:22:23.359 service workers, the people who staff those shops 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:25.480 and gyms. Right, the teachers, the tradespeople, 00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:28.140 the baristas, the retail clerks, the manufacturing 00:22:28.140 --> 00:22:30.819 workers. They are completely excluded from living 00:22:30.819 --> 00:22:33.660 in the amenity -rich centers that they help service. 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:36.200 So they have to commute in from further and further 00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:39.539 away, which completely defeats the whole short 00:22:39.539 --> 00:22:41.440 commute environmental benefit we were just talking 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:44.650 about. It creates a deep and troubling paradox. 00:22:45.309 --> 00:22:48.190 You build a walkable neighborhood that the people 00:22:48.190 --> 00:22:51.309 who work there can't afford to walk to. It becomes 00:22:51.309 --> 00:22:54.410 a theme park for the wealthy, serviced by a commuting 00:22:54.410 --> 00:22:57.069 underclass. And what about things like density 00:22:57.069 --> 00:23:00.730 bonuses? I hear that term a lot. Cities let developers 00:23:00.730 --> 00:23:03.069 build taller if they include some public benefits. 00:23:03.349 --> 00:23:06.390 They do, but affordable housing often isn't prioritized 00:23:06.390 --> 00:23:09.210 enough to make a real dent. It's often a token 00:23:09.210 --> 00:23:11.890 gesture, a handful of units in a... tower of 00:23:11.890 --> 00:23:14.430 hundreds. And even then, affordable can be a 00:23:14.430 --> 00:23:16.569 very slippery term. And then there's the financing 00:23:16.569 --> 00:23:19.029 side itself. Yeah. You mentioned risk. Is it 00:23:19.029 --> 00:23:21.029 just fundamentally harder to get one of these 00:23:21.029 --> 00:23:23.890 things built? Much harder, yes. Financing a building 00:23:23.890 --> 00:23:26.410 with multiple different types of tenants is extremely 00:23:26.410 --> 00:23:29.349 complex. The risks for commercial retail are 00:23:29.349 --> 00:23:31.509 different from the risks for residential apartments. 00:23:31.849 --> 00:23:34.210 And a bank has to underwrite all of that. Right. 00:23:34.309 --> 00:23:37.029 A bank looks at an apartment building and knows 00:23:37.029 --> 00:23:39.579 the risk profile. They look at a shopping mall 00:23:39.579 --> 00:23:42.299 and know that risk profile. When you mash them 00:23:42.299 --> 00:23:45.039 together into one project, the math gets messy 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:47.940 and the bankers get nervous. Speaking of messy 00:23:47.940 --> 00:23:50.940 math and nervous bankers, we have to talk about 00:23:50.940 --> 00:23:53.299 Hudson Yards in New York City. The elephant in 00:23:53.299 --> 00:23:55.920 the room, the death star of mixed -use development. 00:23:56.099 --> 00:23:58.880 It is the ultimate mega mixed -use project, and 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:01.730 the numbers are just staggering. It's built on 00:24:01.730 --> 00:24:05.049 a platform over a massive active rail yard on 00:24:05.049 --> 00:24:07.369 the west side of Manhattan. It cost New York 00:24:07.369 --> 00:24:11.589 City over $2 .2 billion in taxpayer money, mostly 00:24:11.589 --> 00:24:13.730 through infrastructure extensions like the Seven 00:24:13.730 --> 00:24:16.170 Trains subway line. But the controversy isn't 00:24:16.170 --> 00:24:18.690 just the price tag, right? Yeah. It's how it 00:24:18.690 --> 00:24:21.190 was funded. It's a bit sneaky. It's very controversial. 00:24:21.230 --> 00:24:23.430 They use TIFs, right, tax increment financing. 00:24:23.789 --> 00:24:26.250 Can we explain that simply? Because it sounds 00:24:26.250 --> 00:24:29.299 complicated. I'll try. Simply put, the city says 00:24:29.299 --> 00:24:31.720 this area is blighted and generates basically 00:24:31.720 --> 00:24:34.200 no tax money right now. If we help you build 00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:36.740 this shiny new thing, it will generate a lot 00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:39.460 of tax money in the future. So we will let you, 00:24:39.539 --> 00:24:42.319 the developer, keep that future tax money to 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:44.900 pay back the loans for the construction costs. 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:47.079 So the developer gets to use the future taxes 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:49.140 generated by their own building to pay for their 00:24:49.140 --> 00:24:51.299 own building. Effectively, yes, it's a subsidy. 00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:56.420 Critically, in New York, this mechanism bypassed 00:24:56.420 --> 00:24:59.099 the traditional city budgeting process. It didn't 00:24:59.099 --> 00:25:00.940 require voter approval, which is a huge deal. 00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:02.859 And then there was the visa thing. They used 00:25:02.859 --> 00:25:05.279 the EB -5 visa program. What was that about? 00:25:05.619 --> 00:25:08.180 Yes, this is often called the visas for sale 00:25:08.180 --> 00:25:10.660 program. It provides green cards to overseas 00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:13.279 investors in exchange for them putting a minimum 00:25:13.279 --> 00:25:16.200 of $500 ,000 into a U .S. real estate project 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:18.599 that creates jobs. But isn't that program supposed 00:25:18.599 --> 00:25:21.359 to help? like struggling rural areas or places 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:23.839 with high unemployment? It is. It's supposed 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:26.839 to be for poverty alleviation. But Hudson Yards 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:28.440 is in one of the wealthiest parts of Manhattan. 00:25:28.859 --> 00:25:31.500 So how did they qualify? They gerrymandered the 00:25:31.500 --> 00:25:33.660 map. They drew a district that connected Hudson 00:25:33.660 --> 00:25:36.420 Yards via a thin, nonsensical strip of land all 00:25:36.420 --> 00:25:38.759 the way up to Harlem, a high unemployment area, 00:25:39.059 --> 00:25:41.420 just to qualify for the funding. That is deeply 00:25:41.420 --> 00:25:44.579 cynical. It's technically legal, but highly, 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:46.519 highly controversial. So you have all this public 00:25:46.519 --> 00:25:49.279 subsidy, all this creative financing. And what 00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:51.900 was the result? Did it create the economic boom 00:25:51.900 --> 00:25:54.380 they promised? Oh, did it? That depends entirely 00:25:54.380 --> 00:25:57.640 on your definition of create. A study by JLL, 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:00.640 that's Jones Lang LaSalle, a massive real estate 00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:03.740 firm, found that 90 % of Hudson Yards office 00:26:03.740 --> 00:26:06.640 tenants didn't move there from out of state or 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.079 out of the country. They just relocated from 00:26:09.079 --> 00:26:11.380 Midtown. So they just moved a few blocks west. 00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:14.559 Basically. They moved from 42nd Street to 34th 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:17.819 Street. It raises the fundamental question. Did 00:26:17.819 --> 00:26:20.559 this project create new economic activity for 00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:22.880 New York City? Or did it just shift it from one 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:25.099 neighborhood to another? And was it worth billions 00:26:25.099 --> 00:26:27.420 in taxpayer subsidies just to shuffle the deck 00:26:27.420 --> 00:26:30.160 chairs on the Titanic? That is the multi -billion 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:32.640 dollar question. And it highlights the intense 00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:34.940 debate over whether public money should be used 00:26:34.940 --> 00:26:37.180 to support these kinds of mega projects that 00:26:37.180 --> 00:26:39.519 primarily benefit private developers and luxury 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:42.539 tenants. That is a perfect segue into our global 00:26:42.539 --> 00:26:45.130 case study section. Because Hudson Yards is one 00:26:45.130 --> 00:26:48.630 way to do it. The top -down, mega -project, publicly 00:26:48.630 --> 00:26:52.089 subsidized way. But the rest of the world is 00:26:52.089 --> 00:26:54.069 tackling this too, often with very different 00:26:54.069 --> 00:26:56.589 priorities. Right, there are other models. Let's 00:26:56.589 --> 00:26:59.000 start with Australia. Sydney provides a really 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:01.200 interesting counter narrative to the American 00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:03.460 sprawl we talked about earlier. Yeah, Sydney's 00:27:03.460 --> 00:27:05.660 approach is really instructive. Historically, 00:27:05.720 --> 00:27:08.539 way back in 1968, they launched something called 00:27:08.539 --> 00:27:11.599 the Sydney Region Outline Plan. That's early. 00:27:11.740 --> 00:27:13.660 They were ahead of the curve. They saw the population 00:27:13.660 --> 00:27:16.380 booming and said, wait a minute, we cannot just 00:27:16.380 --> 00:27:18.819 let this sprawl endlessly into the bush. It's 00:27:18.819 --> 00:27:21.819 unsustainable. So they made a plan to decentralize. 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:24.740 So instead of one giant congested blob in the 00:27:24.740 --> 00:27:27.640 center. They plan for multiple centers. Exactly. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:30.680 They plan for growth corridors along transit 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:32.759 lines. And if you look at the modern results, 00:27:32.920 --> 00:27:35.720 you can see it's working. 2021 data from the 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:38.400 Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that mixed 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:41.980 zoning now accounts for over 9 % of all new housing 00:27:41.980 --> 00:27:44.420 approvals. That sounds really significant. It 00:27:44.420 --> 00:27:47.640 is. And they are actively prioritizing the revitalization 00:27:47.640 --> 00:27:50.279 of inner city industrial land. They are taking 00:27:50.279 --> 00:27:52.980 those old factories and warehouses and turning 00:27:52.980 --> 00:27:55.819 them into vibrant mixed use hubs, densifying 00:27:55.819 --> 00:27:57.839 the center so people don't have to drive everywhere. 00:27:58.039 --> 00:28:00.059 And they're doing it along the train lines, which 00:28:00.059 --> 00:28:02.180 is key. That's the crucial part. It's integrated 00:28:02.180 --> 00:28:04.660 with their public transit. network. Okay, let's 00:28:04.660 --> 00:28:08.000 hop over to Canada, Toronto. There's a specific 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.720 project here that sounds a lot friendlier than 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:15.339 Hudson Yards. Mirvish Village. Mirvish Village 00:28:15.339 --> 00:28:18.240 is a fascinating case study. In many ways, it 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:20.779 feels like the anti -Hudson Yards. It was built 00:28:20.779 --> 00:28:23.279 on the site of a very famous, very kitschy, iconic 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:26.460 store called Honest Ed's. I've heard of Honest 00:28:26.460 --> 00:28:29.000 Ed's, the big, crazy flashing sign. The gig sign. 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:32.160 23 ,000 light bulbs. It was a local landmark. 00:28:32.460 --> 00:28:35.160 So replacing a cultural icon like that is always 00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:37.220 tricky. People were terrified that it would just 00:28:37.220 --> 00:28:39.940 become another generic glass condo tower. That 00:28:39.940 --> 00:28:42.099 would be too. But what the developers did was 00:28:42.099 --> 00:28:44.740 really unique. First, and most importantly, it's 00:28:44.740 --> 00:28:46.660 a rental -focused development. It's not just 00:28:46.660 --> 00:28:49.380 condos for sale. Oh, that directly addresses 00:28:49.380 --> 00:28:51.980 the equity and accessibility issue we just discussed. 00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:54.839 Partially, yes. It creates more stability for 00:28:54.839 --> 00:28:57.240 long -term tenants and offers a different entry 00:28:57.240 --> 00:28:59.839 point than a million -dollar mortgage. It also 00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:02.259 includes a public market and a lot of small unit 00:29:02.259 --> 00:29:04.839 retail. Why does the size of the retail unit 00:29:04.839 --> 00:29:07.960 matter so much? This is key to creating character. 00:29:08.559 --> 00:29:12.079 If you build a giant 10 ,000 square foot retail 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:16.240 space, only a bank or a chain drugstore can afford 00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:18.779 the rent. Right. If you build a bunch of small 00:29:18.779 --> 00:29:22.140 500 square foot units, then small businesses, 00:29:22.299 --> 00:29:25.299 local booksellers, barbers, independent cafes 00:29:25.299 --> 00:29:28.400 can actually afford to set up shop. It keeps 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:30.559 the business and the money local. And didn't 00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:32.279 they keep some of the old houses on the site? 00:29:32.440 --> 00:29:35.400 This is the best part. They preserved 23 of the 00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:38.039 27 heritage Victorian houses that were on the 00:29:38.039 --> 00:29:40.940 site. They physically lifted them up, built the 00:29:40.940 --> 00:29:43.359 underground parking, and then put them back down, 00:29:43.539 --> 00:29:45.519 integrating them right into the new development. 00:29:45.740 --> 00:29:47.690 See, that sounds like soul. That sounds like 00:29:47.690 --> 00:29:49.369 keeping the flavor and the history of the neighborhood 00:29:49.369 --> 00:29:52.349 while still increasing density. It's not a tabula 00:29:52.349 --> 00:29:54.990 rasa approach. Not at all. And the zoning reflects 00:29:54.990 --> 00:29:58.069 that. It's zoned commercial residential, which 00:29:58.069 --> 00:30:00.670 in Toronto is a very flexible category that allows 00:30:00.670 --> 00:30:04.190 parks, institutions, and homes all to exist together. 00:30:04.369 --> 00:30:06.869 It's a much more holistic, community -focused 00:30:06.869 --> 00:30:08.750 approach. Finally, let's bring it back to the 00:30:08.750 --> 00:30:10.890 U .S., but let's go to the other coast, Portland, 00:30:11.029 --> 00:30:13.420 Oregon. Portland has been the poster child for 00:30:13.420 --> 00:30:15.880 this kind of planning since the 1990s. Their 00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:19.799 strategy was explicit and decades long. Use mixed 00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:22.660 use zoning to fight car oriented development. 00:30:22.700 --> 00:30:25.339 And their weapon of choice was light rail. Right. 00:30:25.380 --> 00:30:28.809 The MAX. the Metropolitan Area Express. It is 00:30:28.809 --> 00:30:31.970 the absolute spine of the city. Their zoning 00:30:31.970 --> 00:30:35.069 code aggressively encourages high density, specifically 00:30:35.069 --> 00:30:38.390 near these transit stops. It's the classic transit 00:30:38.390 --> 00:30:40.630 -oriented development model. It is. The goal 00:30:40.630 --> 00:30:42.710 was to create what they call main street corridors 00:30:42.710 --> 00:30:45.150 that serve as gathering places. So instead of 00:30:45.150 --> 00:30:47.289 a highway strip mall with a giant parking lot, 00:30:47.369 --> 00:30:49.829 you get a dense, walkable corridor where the 00:30:49.829 --> 00:30:52.069 train drops you off right in the middle of shops, 00:30:52.250 --> 00:30:54.549 apartments, and offices. It fundamentally changes 00:30:54.549 --> 00:30:57.369 the geometry of the city. To favor the pedestrian 00:30:57.369 --> 00:30:59.970 over the car. It's a completely different way 00:30:59.970 --> 00:31:02.670 of thinking about how a city should grow. So 00:31:02.670 --> 00:31:04.410 we've traveled from the Industrial Revolution 00:31:04.410 --> 00:31:07.490 to the luxury canyons of New York to the preserved 00:31:07.490 --> 00:31:10.670 heritage homes of Toronto. What does this all 00:31:10.670 --> 00:31:13.960 mean when we put it together? I think if we synthesize 00:31:13.960 --> 00:31:16.519 all of this, the biggest takeaway is that mixed 00:31:16.519 --> 00:31:20.480 use isn't some new radical invention. It's a 00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:23.079 return to tradition. It's how we used to live 00:31:23.079 --> 00:31:26.160 before the car and the factory split our lives 00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:28.980 into these neat, separate boxes. We're just trying 00:31:28.980 --> 00:31:31.200 to glue our lives back together, basically. That's 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.319 a good way to put it. It offers that 18 -hour 00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:36.140 life, the vibrancy, the walkability, the economic 00:31:36.140 --> 00:31:39.200 and social resilience. But... and this is the 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:41.759 big but, it comes with these significant risks 00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:43.779 we've talked about. As we saw with the contrast 00:31:43.779 --> 00:31:46.299 between Hudson Yards and Mirvish Village, the 00:31:46.299 --> 00:31:48.640 execution matters more than anything. Absolutely. 00:31:48.839 --> 00:31:51.740 There is a very real danger of gentrification, 00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:54.819 of creating these luxury islands that actually 00:31:54.819 --> 00:31:57.980 worsen inequality by excluding the service class 00:31:57.980 --> 00:32:00.319 that makes them run. It's such a delicate ecosystem. 00:32:01.069 --> 00:32:03.630 The sources mention that preconditions for success 00:32:03.630 --> 00:32:06.410 are employment, population and consumer spending. 00:32:06.769 --> 00:32:09.289 You can't just change the zoning and hope people 00:32:09.289 --> 00:32:12.009 come. The economic fundamentals have to be there. 00:32:12.130 --> 00:32:14.190 Correct. You need the people and you need to 00:32:14.190 --> 00:32:16.890 be designing it for people, not just for capital. 00:32:17.089 --> 00:32:20.150 So here is the so what for you, the listener. 00:32:20.250 --> 00:32:22.670 The next time you walk out your front door, I 00:32:22.670 --> 00:32:25.279 want you to look around. Look at your own neighborhood 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:28.039 with these fresh eyes. Is it zoned for sleep? 00:32:28.279 --> 00:32:30.900 Is it just rows and rows of houses where nothing 00:32:30.900 --> 00:32:33.480 happens until everyone drives home at 6 p .m.? 00:32:33.480 --> 00:32:36.140 Or is it zoned for life? Can you accomplish multiple 00:32:36.140 --> 00:32:38.440 parts of your day without getting in a car? And 00:32:38.440 --> 00:32:40.420 ask yourself about that friction we talked about 00:32:40.420 --> 00:32:42.900 at the very start. How hard is it for you to 00:32:42.900 --> 00:32:45.319 get a loaf of bread or a cup of coffee? Because 00:32:45.319 --> 00:32:48.299 that difficulty level, that friction, is a direct 00:32:48.299 --> 00:32:50.740 result of these zoning decisions made decades 00:32:50.740 --> 00:32:53.779 ago. And they can be unmade. Exactly. So we want 00:32:53.779 --> 00:32:55.779 to leave you with one final, maybe slightly provocative 00:32:55.779 --> 00:32:59.220 thought to mull over. We know mixed use creates 00:32:59.220 --> 00:33:02.319 efficiency. We know it can create vitality. But 00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:04.180 as we look at the contrast between a project 00:33:04.180 --> 00:33:06.660 like Hudson Yards, funded by overseas investors 00:33:06.660 --> 00:33:09.460 and filled with corporate tenants, and a project 00:33:09.460 --> 00:33:11.740 like Mirvish Village, focused on rentals and 00:33:11.740 --> 00:33:14.259 local markets, the real question isn't if we 00:33:14.259 --> 00:33:16.799 should mix uses. We probably should. The real 00:33:16.799 --> 00:33:19.460 question is, who are we mixing them for? Are 00:33:19.460 --> 00:33:21.920 we building communities? Or are we just building 00:33:21.920 --> 00:33:24.599 vertically integrated investment vehicles? Something 00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:26.319 to think about the next time you see a construction 00:33:26.319 --> 00:33:28.680 crane go up in your city. Thanks for listening 00:33:28.680 --> 00:33:30.180 to The Deep Dive. See you next time.