Denver’s Housing Boom Outpaces Growth, Prices Drop
Building housing works. Denver has absorbed 150,000 new residents since 2010, nearly a 25% population increase, yet they built so much housing that prices are actually falling. https://t.co/jbeGFJEaas
Thurmond's Outdated Housing Fix: Down‑payment Aid, Surplus Land
Getting caught up on the debate: "What would you do differently on housing?" Thurmond: Down-payment assistance, use surplus government land. Feels like a very dated answer.. https://t.co/OWDtxXNhGu
YIMBYs Support Single-Family Homes via California's Starter Act
It's just not true that YIMBYs are ignoring single-family homes. Examples: (1) In California, we've spent the last few years building out the Starter Home Revitalization Act, focused on single-family homes. https://t.co/1tKVLyHp1X
Paradise Near Jobs, Yet Santa Cruz Loses Residents—Build Housing
Santa Cruz is a literal paradise within commuting distance of one of the most productive labor markets on Earth and yet it's losing population. We need to build more housing.
Avoiding Safety Upgrades Will Cost LA Billions
The city's silent strike over Measure HLA, on the basis of the allegedly unbearable cost of voter-demanded accessibility/safety improvements, is going to cost Los Angeles billions of dollars in deferred maintenance, and that's before the liability claims start rolling in.
Samsung Updates Cause 48‑hour Battery Drain
Incredibly annoying how Samsung Galaxy updates basically brick your phone with extremely rapid battery drain for 48 hours after an update. https://t.co/Kw6H7hW6Al
YIMBY Policies Turn Mall Parking Into 174 Homes
In Arden-Arcade, a Sacramento suburb, the full stack of YIMBY reforms help to turn a mall parking lot into 174 homes: AB 2097 allowed the mall to carve off parking, SDBL granted a 20% bonus, and HAA guaranteed entitlements. h/t...
Voters Ban AHF's Taxpayer-Funded Ballot Initiative Abuse
For about a decade, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation used many millions of taxpayer dollars to fund a series of ridiculous ballot initiatives reflecting their CEO's personal beefs before voters in 2024 made this illegal. You think you know how weird...
Houston Suburb Dodges 25% Lot‑size Hike, Averting Housing Squeeze
Is Texas on the California trajectory? A large Houston suburb very narrowly avoided arbitrarily increasing minimum lot sizes by 25%, which would have made it even harder to build affordable single-family homes. https://t.co/T8TzIvzdwg
Guatemala City Traffic Unusually Light, Benefits Visitors but Raises Concerns
I don't think I've seen traffic this light in Guatemala City in my 10 years of visiting. Nice for visiting friends and restaurants across the city, but potentially quite harmful if the situation persists. https://t.co/QU2iYKVGCy
LA Street Decay Isn’t About Ramp Costs, It’s Political Spin
Los Angeles streets are not crumbling because it's just impossibly expensive to pave wheelchair ramps on sidewalks or paint bicycle lanes, and the coordinated conservative campaign to promote this narrative is sufficiently facially dumb that you should doubt those promoting...
Superstar Cities Thrive While Others Face Steep Decline
Japan is an advanced case of trends present in nearly every developing country and it seems like: (a) superstar cities will be fine, (b) second tier cities/regional hubs will struggle, and (c) everything else -- smaller cities, towns, rural areas...
Media Giant Dedicates Desk to Harassing Santa Monica
It's kind of weird how one of the world's largest media empire seems to have an entire desk dedicated to beating up on Santa Monica specifically. What's going on here? https://t.co/C2Qceg8Qoi
Mormon Culture Instills Lasting Optimism and Community Values
How do you replicate the social virtues of Mormons without Mormonism? Maybe you can't. Or maybe: two parent households, zero drugs/alcohol, intense focus on community life/service, a respect for lawn maintenance, family board game night, aversion to dark/mean-spirited media...
Canada Embraces Tall Towers, California Limits to Midrise
While Canada is fine with high-rise residential even in otherwise low-slung residential areas, California insists on chunky midrise even in other highly urban areas. What explains this? https://t.co/2L7ha4W3Uw
Stop Overthinking Loneliness—Join Community Groups Today
Go to them. Clubs, churches, lodges, etc. This stuff all still exists. It's a bunch of old people who will be thrilled you showed up. Bring a friend if you're nervous. You guys have to stop intellectualizing the "loneliness crisis"...
Shoup’s “High Cost of Free Parking” Is a Brilliant Distillation
I think a lot of people who haven't read "The High Cost of Free Parking" cover to cover, which I fear is many of you, don't realize what a strange and wonderful book it is. The ideal of a book:...
LA Developers Battle NIMBY, End up Blocked Entirely
Los Angeles real estate bros will go to the mat for the biggest NIMBY on city council, and then be surprised when they're not allowed to build anything.
YIMBYism’s Early Wins Signal Hopeful Momentum
Lately, there has been a lot of frank discourse about what YIMBYism has accomplished in California. I think this impatience, even after big wins, is good and healthy—but it misses the early signs of success in front of us. In...
Zoning Rules Shape Typology, Not Design Trends
I think single-stair discourse has habituated a lot of oneweirdtrick thinking among urbanists. Yes, the five-over-one typology exists because of zoning, building codes, and financing. But they don't explain design trends.
Housing Shortage, Not Money, Solves California Homelessness
If we just keep throwing money at the California homelessness crisis without addressing the underlying issue, which is severe shortage of housing, voters are eventually going to get fed up over the lack of results and stop voting to throw...
Minimum Lot Sizes Compel Larger Homes in Texas Suburbs
In co-authored research we found that minimum lot sizes had a clear binding effect, forcing lot sizes to be larger, across Texas suburbs. https://t.co/ZA8OZLGXlY
California's Homeownership Decline Calls for Massive Housing Build
California has the second lowest homeownership rate in the US after New York, and we've lost ground over the past 20 years. This is not healthy. We need to build a lot more housing and create the next generation of...
San Jose Cuts Fees, Mandates to Revive Development
He slashed fees and unfunded mandates in San Jose, two policy changes that were controversial among the left locally but that reflected common sense, evidence-based reforms to get the city building again. Is that an acceptable answer?
Beyond Zoning: Cost, Materials, Tastes Drive City Designs
I think regulatory explanations are slightly overstated here. Of course, zoning/building codes contribute to design. But it's also cost and availability of materials, consumer tastes, etc, as has always explained why cities build the same typologies at the same time.
Arthurian Legends: Mostly Myth, Not Medieval History
Picked up this book thinking I would learn about King Arthur, and perhaps pick up a little about British history. But a third of the way through, I'm learning that historians agree that it's almost completely made up, the 1100s...
Human Inquiry Skills Gain Value in AI Era
The rise of AI will massively increase the value on being able to generate new information that isn't yet available in digital form. Can you call people and ask questions? Can you observe things in a systematic way? Can you...
East Coast Urban Corridor Deserves Japan‑Style High‑Speed Rail
It seems pretty reasonable to me that the dense urbanism that extends from Boston to Miami should be connected by high-speed rail, as in Japan. https://t.co/oPwSqixSot
Adopt California ADU Model, Create National Market
Illinois should align their ADU framework with California's highly successful ADU framework. We need a national common market for manufactured ADUs in particular to really drive costs down. This is theoretically something the federal government might coordinate, but, well...
California's Costly Fees Stifle Projects, Drain Tax Revenue
More high-cost California cities need to be slashing fees and unfunded mandates. Slapping six-figures in costs on projects such that nothing pencils, thereb6 losing millions in possible tax revenue, is penny rich, pound dollar poor policy.
Inclusionary Zoning Halts Construction Without High Market Rents
This is kind of the problem though, right? (I) Even in the best of cases, inclusionary zoning locks in high market rents. The moment market rents aren't high enough to bear the cross subsidy, construction stops until they are...
Require Cost‑Benefit Review for All Building Code Changes
Every change to the building code should come with a rigorous cost-benefit analysis, and we should to this analysis of the entire existing code. (And then ban arbitrary local amendments that make the code more restrictive.)
From Global Planning Leader to Six‑Figure Bench Costs
America was once a global leader in city planning: we planning out thousands of street grids and civic centers, building the world's largest transit and park networks, inventing new genres of architecture, etc. Now we can barely install a park...
Sacramento's Best Eats: Farm‑to‑Table New American
Part of the mental reset of living in Sacramento has been realizing that it's the first city I've ever lived in where all the best restaurants are farm-to-table New American.
AB130 Exposes the Decline of CEQA NIMBYism
This piece on one of the first Sacramento projects to benefit from the AB 130 CEQA infill exemption ends up being a really interesting profile into the shadowy (dying) wold of CEQA NIMBYism, and the deluded people who engaged in...
Questioning Proven AV Safety Is Irresponsible, Like Vaccine Skepticism
The data on AV traffic safety improvements is so clear and overwhelming that I think it's a bit unethical to run stuff like this. It's basically the transportation planning equivalent of vaccine skepticism.
SB 2074 to Streamline High‑Rise Housing Near Transit
California YIMBY is proud to be sponsoring SB 2074 with @MattHaneySF, a bill that will make it easier to build high-rise residential in the transit-rich downtowns of our state's largest cities. In this thread, a little context. 🧵 https://t.co/cCGoKcLwkl
California Cities Split: San Diego Vacancies Rise, SF Rents Surge
California cities: progress toward RHNA... San Diego: 29% ... highest vacancy rate in 15 years, rents falling Los Angeles: 18% ... San Francisco: 5% ... rock bottom vacancy rate, fastest rising rents in the country https://t.co/dcF33RmwJ2
SB 79 Tackles NIMBY Politics with YIMBY Reform Allies
I understand that the political incentives in this district push align around NIMBYism. (Hence why SB 79 is needed.) And you'll find allies among the YIMBYs on fixing ULA, reforming building codes, and reducing fees. (We're the only ones doing...
Japanese Art Captures Christianity Better than Many Western Works
Since this English-Japanese Twitter cambrian exchange is happening around Easter, I feel I should point out that Japan has produced the two fictional works that I think most understand Christianity: the novel "Silence" by Shusaku Endo and the film "Tokyo...
Earth: Our Oasis Spaceship in the Cosmic Void
"You're on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe. In all of this emptiness ... you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together." Sethian Gnostics,...
Red Metros Outpace Blue in Both Infill and Sprawl
I don't think so. Red state metros (Houston, Charlotte, Orlando) build a lot more infill per capita than blue state metros, in addition to sprawl. "Do you support sprawl or infill?" isn't how this issue plays out in the real...
60% Gas Hike Threatens Collapse in Vulnerable Nations
Under normal circumstances, a 60% increase in gas prices is the sort of thing that can easily cause political/economic collapse, a lost decade, and many thousands of lives lost in a place like Guatemala or Thailand.
Push Immediate Central Valley High-Speed Rail Launch
A dumb idea you're all going to hate: at this point, they should just prioritize opening this as operational Central Valley high-speed rail as soon as possible. The extension from Merced to Stockton/Sacramento is easy, and at least as useful...
Midwest Replaces Freeways with Multimodal Linear Neighborhoods
This is great. The Midwest built some truly insane urban freeways, and is now taking the right approach on removing them: don't replace them with a giant dead park, or a dangerous boulevard, but a multimodal corridor surrounded by a...
Pasadena Seeks Exemption From Transit‑friendly SB 79 Amid Rising Rents
Even as rents rise, Pasadena is trying to get carved out from SB 79, a bill that would make it easier to build apartments near transit. https://t.co/8Ku8qFkpZW
Revive Prohibition‑Era River Cruises for Nighttime Jazz Trips
America should bring back Prohibition-era river cruises. I'd totally take a 10-hour overnight ride from Sacramento to San Francisco full of cocktails, jazz, and gambling. https://t.co/eLcJb4fYtl
Legalized Missing‑Middle Housing Stalled by Over‑Restrictive Design Rules
The trouble is that even erstwhile advocates of missing middle legalize it, but then subject to such restrictive design and massing standards that it can never actually get built. That's what's happening right now in Sacramento.
Yearning for K Line Extension to Ditch Traffic, Pricey Parking
Can't wait to someday take the K Line from Midtown to the Hollywood Bowl with my fellow crackheads, instead of sitting in hours of traffic and paying $100 for parking.
California Cities Show Surprisingly Permissive Building Permits
Okay, fine, I'll write my YIMBY hopepill piece. I think the commentariat is underrating the fact that the permitting profile of a non-negligable number of California cities looks like this. https://t.co/dm0ayGhSuO