Mayor Whitmire's HPD opportunity, Chicago's debt warning for Houston, Strong Towns takedown, 15-min city economics don't work, and more

[Tory]

Backlog of smaller items this week:

• Jay Wall: Dear Mayor Whitmire (Seizing the HPD opportunity edition). Mayor Whitmire has a real opportunity with a new police chief to innovate and improve the culture and operations.
• WSJ: Chicago Will Need a Miracle to Escape Its Debt Burden. A warning for Houston's debt future: Moving to Chicago comes with a $120,000+ taxpayer debt burden which will slowly bleed the city to death. 
• Bloomberg CityLab: The Questionable Economics of the 15-Minute City - The goals of this trendy urban planning model are laudable, but cities need to be realistic about their ability to place retail, services and jobs close to all residents. Excerpts:

"The economics of the 15-minute city don’t really work...

What hasn’t been said is that the economics of 15-minute city planning go against foundational principles of how urban markets function.... 

Employment markets are even less localized. The very raison d’etre of cities is as a vehicle for labor pooling and sharing — this cannot happen effectively at the neighborhood scale. Setting up an expectation where people live within 15 minutes of their place of work will at best result in bad matches between workers and jobs, and at worst no matches." 

• Bill King: Over 90% Of U.S. Population Growth Last Year Occurred Outside Of Largest Cities
• Arpit Gupta's "Contra Strong Towns" critique focuses on challenging the Strong Towns movement's assertion that suburban growth operates as a "Ponzi scheme." Gupta argues that the evidence does not support the claim that suburban development is inherently financially unsustainable. He emphasizes the need for rigorous accounting and empirical data to substantiate such arguments, which he finds lacking in Strong Towns' narrative. Hat tip to Zoabe.
• Antiplanner: "But today’s density policies depress fertility rates and the anti-immigration movement make it more difficult to compensate for those policies. Fortunately, some are getting the message that “maybe we should rethink” YIMBYism."
  • Twitter: "There's a growing consensus on YIMBY Twitter that we need to build a lot of new high density housing in the biggest cities. Maybe we should rethink that idea." Or go with the Houston free-market model: allow lots of high-density housing in the core for those that want it (typically non-families) as well as plenty of low-density suburban housing for those that prefer that (typically families). Best of both worlds.