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Scott Beyer

Columnist

Scott Beyer is a journalist who focuses on American urban issues. He owns a media company called Market Urbanism Report, which advocates for free-market urban policy. In addition to his work for Governing, Beyer writes regular columns for Forbes, the Independent Institute and Tax Credit Advisor.


Beyer recently completed a three-year cross-country tour to study U.S. urban issues and is working on a book about his findings. He is based in New York City, and his work can be found collectively at MarketUrbanismReport.com.

He can be reached at scott@marketurbanismreport.com.

We don’t bulldoze poor neighborhoods the way we used to. But African countries are heavily into it.
In developing nations, rules written by governments and corporations alike are understood as a tool for extortion.
It takes hours to drive into the center in many developing nations' cities. Can the problem be solved? Not easily.
There’s a secret order to the way traffic moves in African cities — less regulated, more spontaneous.
A radical planning idea that is well-known in Spain is taking root in Africa and South America.
Americans can learn some valuable lessons from motorcyclists south of the border.
There’s a botany boom going on in Latin America’s most exclusive neighborhoods. It should be happening in parts of the U.S., but a difference in civic and governing culture has stymied its growth.
Some Global South cities are using escalators and cable cars to connect their hill slums with city centers, showcasing how imaginative infrastructure can improve life for residents in isolated areas.
Deregulating commerce in selected places doesn’t work everywhere. But Honduras is trying a version of economic zones with some new wrinkles.
The decision of the world’s fifth-largest city to shift road space from cars to other uses has produced increasingly vibrant urban neighborhoods.