About Market Urbanism“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.The term “Market Urbanism” refers to the connections between free-market economics and ethics, with an appreciation of the urban way of life and it’s benefits to society.Market UrbanismMU_0922e460-430a-11eb-923e-1c942183ea00This site was founded in 2007, after Adam Hengels realized that free market advocates and urbanists actually share many objectives, despite being at odds in many spheres of the intellectual discussion.Adam HengelsAdam is passionate about urbanism, and founded this site in 2008, after realizing that free market advocates and urbanists actually share many objectives, despite being at odds in many spheres of the intellectual discussion. His mission is to improve the urban experience, and overcoming obstacles that prevent aspiring city dwellers from living where they want. He intends to pursue these objectives through this website and his entrepreneurial endeavors.Adam is the Founder of the Center for Market Urbanism and Co-founder of Parafin, a software that helps real estate developers acquire development sites by generating optimized building configurations, budgets, and financial models.Growing up in suburban Chicago, Adam suspected there was something inefficient about the land patterns and transportation of the suburbs. When introduced to urbanist ideas in freshman architecture/planning coursework, the concepts made sense, despite the paternalistic bent of the professors who presented them. Thus, he became conflicted between the urbanist instinct and the free market instinct. Through study and practice of building design, infrastructure design, construction, economics, planning, development, and urban economics Adam concluded that our problems with sprawl, congestion, and automobile dependency were largely the result of socialistic oversupply of transportation systems and top-down regimentation of land use, not due to market failures as many urbanists proclaim.In starting this conversation, Adam intended to present arguments and articles which help spread the results of his inquiry. He doesn’t expect to convince everyone to completely adopt his point of view, hopes to convince everyone that there are many cases in which better outcomes would be achieved if the government intervened less. He seeks to convince those with ambitious plans for society to be more humble in asserting how society should be laid out.Stephen SmithMy name is Stephen Smith. I graduated Spring 2010 from Georgetown undergrad, with an entirely unrelated and highly regrettable major that might have made a little more sense if I actually wanted to become an international trade lawyer, but which alas seems good for little else.Emily HamiltonI was first introduced to Jane Jacobs while working as an intern in the Planning Department of my hometown in Colorado. Her work enlightened me to the power of market forces to benefit all city dwellers without government intervention. Since then, I have become fascinated by the urban emergent order that creates our cities.I graduated with a Masters in economics from George Mason University in 2010 after finishing my undergraduate degree at Goucher College in 2008. While at GMU, I worked as a Research Associate at the university’s Mercatus Center. After a brief time working elsewhere, I returned to the Mercatus Center to write for Neighborhood Effects about state and local policy issues.Jeff FongJeff was an early stage employee at Lyft before moving to on-demand consumer logistics platform Postmates. Along the way, Jeff has become increasingly interested in urban economics and periodically contributes to housing reform efforts in the Bay Area through the region’s YIMBY organizations.Jeff is a regular contributor to Market Urbanism where he writes about the ways in which markets, institutions, and technology are reshaping our cities. He also publishes political commentary at Tech for Housing.Nolan GrayNolan Gray a regular contributor to Market Urbanism. He is also a practicing city planner, having earned a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University. His work regularly appears on Citylab and Strong Towns. He lives in New York City and is originally from Lexington, Kentucky.Vibrant and economically robust communities and regions_0922e60e-430a-11eb-923e-1c942183ea00To advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues_0922e6fe-430a-11eb-923e-1c942183ea00Market FreedomThis conversation is intended introduce free-market thought to urbanists, and introduce urbanism to market advocates in order to bridge the gaps in the discussion. These ideas have value in discussion of environmentalism, housing affordability, sociology, justice, and economicsUrbanismEnvironmentalismHousingAffordabilitySociologyJusticeEconomicsMarkets & PropertyExamine how market forces and respect for property rights enable complex, yet vibrant and economically robust communities and regions_0922e7da-430a-11eb-923e-1c942183ea00CommunitiesRegionsMarket Urbanism examines how market forces and respect for property rights enable complex, yet vibrant and economically robust communities and regions to emerge through the “spontaneous order” of the land use and transportation marketplace. When left to market forces, as opposed to intervention, land use patterns and transportation systems better reflect the diverse needs and desires of individuals in society. Such a society would be economically and environmentally more efficient and just than when imposed in a top-down fashion by government._0922e8ac-430a-11eb-923e-1c942183ea002007-12-312020-12-25https://marketurbanism.com/about/OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net