Top all-time · #16583
Sam Deutsch
Personal blog · bettercities.substack.comeconomicspolitics
Sam Deutsch writes Better Cities, a personal blog at bettercities.substack.com about economics and politics. Since 2023, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 4 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite it on urban policy: congestion pricing and local retail, transit infrastructure costs compared across countries, and NIMBYism in transit and housing. The comments link it as support, without judging the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A pragmatic approach to better urban policy and politics.
Most-linked posts?
- /p/americas-infrastructure-costs-are2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-05-05
What Hacker News says?
The objection that pricing will damage local retail, in aggregate retail has thrived from pricing. https://bettercities.substack.com/p/congestion-pricing-is-a-...
Comment linking /p/congestion-pricing-is-a-policy-miracle?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true
on “NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by a fifth in six months”Submitted Congestion Pricing Is a Policy Miracle as a story · 175 points
HN discussionThe US is another good example of being “too rich.” For example, consider American infrastructure costs. The US spends >5x on infrastructure versus other developed countries [0]. NYC spent $2.6 billion dollars per mile to build the 1.2 mile Second Avenue Subway extension. Meanwhile, Paris spent $450M/mile [1]. A 500 mile high speed rail line connected LA and San Francisco is conservatively projected to cost $89-128…
Comment linking /p/americas-infrastructure-costs-are
on “Can a Country Be Too Rich? Norway Is Finding Out”Not building transit is also a political choice that suffers from a lot of NIMBYism, just like housing: https://bettercities.substack.com/p/americas-infrastructure-...
Comment linking /p/americas-infrastructure-costs-are
on “Urban Density and Home Prices”