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Current Paris looks the way it does because of central planners who had a vision for the city. In my opinion, it’s beautiful. I don’t know what it’s like to liv

Current Paris looks the way it does because of central planners who had a vision for the city. In my opinion, it’s beautiful. I don’t know what it’s like to live there, but as a visitor walking though all those brownstone buildings? I love it. Central planning is a risky move - you’re essentially putting all your eggs in one basket. When it works well, we all benefit. When it works badly, we all suffer for it.

yubblegum 1y ago
"brownstone" buildings in Paris?
Spooky23 1y ago
The mansard roofs, etc are a consequence of tax policy. End of the day, design can be from architects imposing their views or tax collectors and road engineers doing theirs. The worst design comes from the genius planners, the best usually from people working with well defined constraints of money, taxes and build expense. The state of American architecture and life is almost completely based on tax policy and allocation of resources to roadways. Our cities of vacant office towers are almost completely a tax story.
- sgt101 1y ago
  >Our cities of vacant office towers are almost completely a tax story. Also a financial leverage story. Rendering the true market value of these towers would create balance sheet issues at quite a few institutions. No one is keen to rock that boat.
- paulryanrogers 1y ago
  There's more to it than taxes. Fear of the other (racism), tradition (farming cosplay), and abundant land are also big factors. Without the tax incentives people would still have left the biggest cities.
  - Spooky23 1y ago
    Commercial real estate is all about financial shenanigans. For housing, the Feds both directly subsidized construction and indirectly by changing capital gains rules and having a plethora of goodies for developers. My parents bought their first home in NYC for $19,000 in 1977. They sold it in 1993 for $500,000, and that owner sold it in 2024 for $2.8M. Nobody paid capital gains.
    - paulryanrogers 1y ago
      I don't dispute taxes are a big factor, just not the only or even most significant one in residential real-estate. Thanks for calling out commercial. That's something I'll have to study more.

yubblegum 1y ago

"brownstone" buildings in Paris?

Spooky23 1y ago

The mansard roofs, etc are a consequence of tax policy. End of the day, design can be from architects imposing their views or tax collectors and road engineers doing theirs. The worst design comes from the genius planners, the best usually from people working with well defined constraints of money, taxes and build expense. The state of American architecture and life is almost completely based on tax policy and allocation of resources to roadways. Our cities of vacant office towers are almost completely a tax story.

sgt101 1y ago
>Our cities of vacant office towers are almost completely a tax story. Also a financial leverage story. Rendering the true market value of these towers would create balance sheet issues at quite a few institutions. No one is keen to rock that boat.
paulryanrogers 1y ago
There's more to it than taxes. Fear of the other (racism), tradition (farming cosplay), and abundant land are also big factors. Without the tax incentives people would still have left the biggest cities.
- Spooky23 1y ago
  Commercial real estate is all about financial shenanigans. For housing, the Feds both directly subsidized construction and indirectly by changing capital gains rules and having a plethora of goodies for developers. My parents bought their first home in NYC for $19,000 in 1977. They sold it in 1993 for $500,000, and that owner sold it in 2024 for $2.8M. Nobody paid capital gains.
  - paulryanrogers 1y ago
    I don't dispute taxes are a big factor, just not the only or even most significant one in residential real-estate. Thanks for calling out commercial. That's something I'll have to study more.