I had never heard of the Noahopinion blog until a friend sent me a link to it the other day, specifically to a post about this book, “Emergent Tokyo.” Noahpinion characterized it, glowingly, as an empirical defense of market YIMBYism, and it very nearly put me off ordering the book despite its being highly relevant to my interests. That guy’s dumber than a bag of rocks! This book is nothing of the sort! It’s wonderful!
It’s the furthest thing from a paean to the market – my old nemesis the megadeveloper Mori Building comes in for a proper slating, in particular (though, in perfectly Japanese style, never by name). What it is is a detailed consideration of five spatial strategies – yokocho alleys, rail infrastructure infill, ankyo streets, the low-rise cell of the chome-scale neighborhood & the mixed-use zakkyo building typology – the authors think combine to produce the wonderful and distinct Tokyo urbanity.
As someone who lived in Tokyo and cherished precisely those qualities of it, yet found discourse about it overwhelmed by both Western orientalist fetishization and the grotesque domestic exceptionalism, I particularly appreciate the great care the authors have taken to see the city for what it is, and their attempt to understand how it actually works. I have no idea what book Noahpinion read, or thought he did, but this one slaps.
@adamgreenfield Noahpinion is a monstrous bloviating economist fuckstick, and avoiding all mention of him, let alone his output, is a recipe for a happier life.
@PaulGrahamRaven Oh. Well then. Duly noted. He certainly seems to have utterly missed the very clearly articulated point (and explicit intent) of this book.
@adamgreenfield That surprises me not in the least. I keep encountering him against my will, because he is also into science fiction, but his misparsings thereof tend likewise to boggle the mind
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