Development planned for long-vacant downtown L.A. site

A large parking lot across the street from the Los Angeles Convention Center is zoned for development.

SEATTLE (AP) — Developers in Seattle have been leading the U.S. in building hundreds of tiny apartments — some about the size of a generous parking spot — to cater to solo young workers, retirees who prefer city living, students and others looking to downsize.

Imperial Oil is on the move. Now Canadian Pacific Railway. The big question is who is next to make the jump from downtown Calgary as prices escalate and tenants look for better rents away from the core. “You add them together and you get 1.2 million square feet and that’s a big chunk,” said Ross Moore , head of research with CB Richard Ellis Canada, in referring to the two companies. “There is a limit to how high you can push rents.”

Sares-Regis Group has acquired a 1.74-acre parking lot at 2nd and San Pedro streets in downtown L.A.

Tyler Cowen recently did a column lamenting mandatory parking regulations which prompted a bizarre-but-predictable retort from Randall O’Toole who thinks libertarians shouldn’t worry about this kind of regulation. Which wouldn’t be so noteworthy except that O’Toole is the only person who does transportation policy at two different flagship institutions of American libertarianism.

A full-floor apartment at the Rosario Candela-designed 778 Park Avenue has hit the market for the first time in 70 years with an asking price of $22.5 million, according to listings website Streeteasy.com.

In New York City real estate, space is more prized than a perfect parking spot (or at least AS prized as that). If you're looking for the most amount of space for the least amount of money--and are willing to tolerate some potential downsides in exchange for the ability to turn around without bruising your elbows--here are a few places to look: 

One great example of how much politics is about identity is the spectacle of libertarians like John Stossel doing things like defending sprawl. They note that “smart growth” environmentalists disparage sprawl and want to regulate what people can build and where, and they know that libertarians don’t like environmentalists, so they write in defense of sprawl. But as Austin Bramwell points out at The American Conservative sprawl is also central planning: