San Rafael Shifts From 30-Year Housing Freeze to Rapid Build
San Rafael, a city that hasn't permitted 1,600 homes over the past 30 years combined, is on gearing up to build ~1,600 homes in the next two or three years alone. https://t.co/XNcGIGM2zZ
California Dominates Renting Crisis; Remove Homeownership Barriers
Four of the top five metropolitan areas where families are stuck renting are in California—we've got to remove the additional hurdles facing homeownership projects and fix this. https://t.co/dFa0tWCiSh
California Housing Boom Fuels Odd Mixed‑use Projects
He's joking, and this is an absurd example, but expect to see more weird mixed-use development as it gets easier to build housing in California and harder to build anything else. I'm aware of one self-storage project that added ~30...
NYC Moves From ADU Bans to Supportive Website
Eight years ago, I was a city planner in Central Queens. One of the worst part of the job was having to tell homeowners that it wasn't legal to build an ADU. Now New York City has a whole website...
Future K Line Riders Reap Benefits of This Week's Efforts
Many millions of future K Line riders will benefit from the hard efforts of those who held the line this week.
Donald Shoup’s Idea Sparks Chicago Parking Reform Hurricane
A butterfly named Donald Shoup flaps his wings in 1999 and 27 years later a hurricane of parking reform hits Chicago. https://t.co/g1LTjVy6jw
SB 79 Coverage Clarified: New HCD Memo Details
A new HCD advisory memo clarifies various aspect of SB 79's coverage. In a new blog post, we explain some of the key details. The law takes effect on July 1. https://t.co/72OC7L9k4K
LAPD Calls Pedestrian Ticket Sting ‘Education,’ Not Enforcement
It's not a "set up" or a "trap," it's vanilla traffic enforcement along a corridor where reckless drivers regularly strike and kill pedestrians using crosswalk.
Zoning Flexibility Key for Commercial‑to‑residential Conversions
A necessary, if not sufficient, condition for commercial to residential conversions is to provide maximum zoning flexibility, e.g. the exemptions on parking mandates provided for by AB 2097. I provide comment: https://t.co/O3dF26SHCm
Top Gear Mocked Prius, Now It's Mainstream Reliability
Remember in the late 00s/early 10s when the Top Gear guys would endlessly joke about how the Prius was an unreliable car, reliant on untested technology? I remember.
ADU Preemption Law Drives 100,000 New Homes.
California's ADU preemption law—of the sort Michigan is considering this year—has directly led to the construction of over 100,000 housing units that would have been illegal prior to 2017. https://t.co/dtgk8BfnNT
Assuming 100% Development Underestimates Needed Zoning by 5x
This assumes that the probability of development of zoned capacity is 100%. That's unrealistic. Let's math it out: DC needs 120,000 units by 2050. Assume a high p(dev) of 5% every 5 years. DC would need to zone for 622,100...
California's Insurance Could Vanish Within a Decade
It's wild to think that insurance as we know it today might not existing in California in 10 years, and yet it remains a somewhat fringe policy area. https://t.co/LA9JJ0AORm
Google Docs AI Misjudges Its Own AI Usage Guidelines
Ironic that the Google Docs AI provided bad style feedback on the section of an assignment prompt setting out my standards for AI use. https://t.co/QOZtxgEU2Z
California Dream Fades, Yet Solutions Begin Emerging
"For many, the California dream has started to slip away," California YIMBY's Nolan Gray said. "But we're not here to talk about problems. We're here to talk about the beginning of a solution." https://t.co/qf01WgUEly
Sacramento’s Suburbs Grow Northeast, Southeast, Not Toward Bay
Why did Sacramento's suburbanization extend the to the northeast and southeast, rather than to the north, west, or southwest—toward the prosperous Bay Area? (1/2) https://t.co/fYIcWzLEsu
Advocating Middle-Class Housing Amid Low-Income Subsidy Push
Spot on. We try to fill this niche: in a building where every special interest wants their chunk of flesh, and every ideologue only wants subsidized/income-verified/low-income rentals, we're out here fighting to get housing built for normal, middle-class California families.
Forgotten Victims: Forced Sterilizations in India Ignored
Where's the obituary for the millions of poor Indians who were forcibly sterilized by international programs directly inspires by Ehrlich's work? Or would that story be "premature"?
Sierra Foothills Feel Like an Alien, Signal‑free Planet
Driving up the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevadas is the closest I've ever felt to being on another planet. Extremely isolated, extremely visually striking, no signal.
Office Spaces Often Feel Soul‑destroying, Questioning Return‑to‑office
I'm generally pro-return to office, but I acknowledge that one of the stronger arguments against this view is the fact that the typical American office space is one of the most soul-destroying spaces in the developed world. https://t.co/ruIzNYxOYy
Short‑term Rentals Barely Affect Sacramento Housing Supply
The share of Sacramento's housing stock that is a fully dedicated to short-term rentals is a rounding error, a fraction of a percent. This isn't about housing affordability and it's funny how many people involved are pretending like it is....
Institutional Buying Doesn't Hike Prices; Building New Homes Lowers Them
It's not actually that complicated: 1️⃣ There's no evidence that institutional purchases of existing single-family homes drives up prices. 2️⃣ Institutional financing, building, and ownership of new single-family homes expands the housing supply and drives down prices.
Density Bonuses Outpace Inclusionary Zoning in Affordable Housing
It's a strange thing: density bonus laws have created orders of magnitude more affordable housing than inclusionary zoning laws, which evidence suggests may reduce overall housing production. Yet the latter remains more popular, I suspect because NIMBYs recognize its utility.
Financing Rules and Lawsuits Have Halted U.S. Condo Construction
Over the past 20 years, America has basically stopped building condos. Owing to a mix of restrictive financing regulations and endless defect litigation, the most viable path to urban homeownership has largely disapprared. In my latest for @TheAtlantic, we explain...
Hyperion's Vivid Scenes Linger Long After Author's Death
Wow, I didn't know he passed. I think about Hyperion on like a daily basis. There are fictional scenes from that book that are seared into my brain.
California's “Prohousing” Label Ignores Actual Building Results
The trouble with California's prohousing designation is that it only recognizes policies adopted—and not the outcome of interest, which is more housing getting permitted and built. Too many "prohousing" cities aren't really doing much to build housing. https://t.co/tjn6bDrDRd
Explore a City by Riding Its Commuter Train Outward
I once asked Alain Bertaud, how do you learn about a new city upon your first visit? He said, I get on a commuter train in the central city and ride it out as far as it will go.
Radio DJs Once Recorded Bumpers on Sony Minidiscs
When I was an on-air radio DJ in the early 2010s, all of our bumper spots were recorded on Sony minidiscs. The technology of a forgotten future, and the sort of thing that's everywhere in Japan. https://t.co/3ITnIGzgW1
Democrats Push Stricter Hair‑braiding Licensing than Republicans
In Louisiana, the Democratic hair braiding licensing bill would require 600 hours of training at a licensed cosmetology school, an annual exam, and a fee. The Republican bill would require an annual 20-question health and safety exam and a fee....
Mass Truck Driver Layoff Panic Was Overblown
Remember 10 years ago when there was a minor panic over what we were going to do about the imminent mass layoffs of truck drivers? That was weird. https://t.co/DLQmJBUiDt
Add Lush Foliage to Brutalist Architecture for Impact
I think the missing element is plants, i.e. ecobrutalism or tropical brutalism. A stern, sober structure standing amid lush, mature foliage produces a nice aesthetic effect. https://t.co/uyXl3oKDMO
Sun Belt Housing Crisis Threatens Young Families' Homes
This is going to wreck housing production in a lot of Sun Belt cities, and leave many young families without access to a single-family home.
Cut Email Length in Half with Claude
Free professional advice: If your email is longer than 100 words, paste the draft into Claude, ask it to reduce the word count by 50% without abridging substantive content, review it, and then send it.
Suburban Chicago Letter Against Zoning Reform Reads Like Parody
I was originally going to dunk on this suburban Chicago letter to the editor opposing Illinois' state-level zoning reforms, but this must surely be parody, right? https://t.co/jdAAyhY21g
House Sacramento Co-Hosts Fundraiser for Safe Streets Ballot
This Saturday, House Sacramento will be co-hosting a fundraiser to support the safe streets and transit ballot initiative. See you there? @SacYIMBY https://t.co/nlkXHa4T4Y
Freedom of Movement Remains Core American Value, YIMBY Book Shows
There's actually a whole YIMBY book wrestling with this question—it's called Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum and it's fantastic—and the answer is that freedom of movement is a core value of American political life.
Pro‑Homes Backs ‘Golden Girls’ Bill Protecting Bedroom Rentals
Pro-Homes Connecticut is backing SB 399—dubbed the "Golden Girls" bill—would protect the right of homeowners to rent out bedrooms of their home. It's moving to the senate. https://t.co/oRyGglGZa2
Previewing California YIMBY's 2026 Legislative Agenda
On Thursday, I'll be walking through California YIMBY's excellent 2026 legislative agenda. See you there? https://t.co/3KTPbOnoos
Build-to-Rent Ban Threatens Catastrophic Harm to Housing Bill
If the build to rent ban isn't removed from ROAD to Housing, the bill could do catastrophic harm.
SB 684-1123 Bypasses SB 9 Owner-Occupancy Limits
Yet more SB 684-1123 projects starting entitlement in Sacramento. In this case, it's being uses to do the exact sort of thing intended by SB 9. Why did it work? Doesn't have the SB 9 owner-occupancy poison pill. https://t.co/mXfsiuKvEJ
California's Development Boom: New Opportunities Unleashed
Release the Kraken. A lot of new development opportunities are about to open up across California...
Excited for Bill, Building Revolving Loan Fund Boost
I'm excited about this bill. We're working concurrently to establish the revolving loan fund needed to make it pencil, but it's going to be a lift.
SB 1216 Rewards Cities Actively Building Housing
All of the bills we're sponsoring are great, but I'm especially excited about this one: after years of state mandates to plan and adopt policies, SB 1216 will recognize cities that are actually building housing and afford them warranted flexibiltiy/grace...
Institutional Home Ownership Boosts Rental Diversity, Not Affordability
The only empirical finding I've seen on the effect of institutional ownership of single-family homes is that it makes neighborhoods slightly more diverse, to the extent that rentals are more accessible to more households. The issue is an affordability red...
Freezing California's Building Code Prevents Stricter Updates, Chaos
Some YIMBYs were mad mad that California froze the building code through 2031, on the idea that it would block hypothetical good code updates like single stair. But the reality of annual code updates is actually just an ever-stricter code...
SB 79: Infill Housing Near Transit, A Missed Environmental Victory
SB 79, which legalized hundreds of thousands of new infill homes within walking distance of transit, is perhaps the biggest environmental win of a generation, yet the old guard of environmentalism can't even recognize it as such.
Vermont's Statewide Pre‑approval Needed; Local Opt‑in Hampers Scaling
This effort in Vermont to establish statewide pre-approved plans is a step in the right direction—key to the scalability needed for affordable infill housing, especially modular/manufactured housing. But making it a local "opt in" kind of undermines that. https://t.co/RxlmZXG3iY
Unfunded Inclusionary Zoning Perpetuates Exclusion; Fund Affordable Housing
Unfunded "inclusionary" zoning is a recipe for permanent exclusion. It presupposes that rents/prices will always be high enough to cross-subsidize a tiny number of lottery-assigned affordable units. If you actually want affordable housing at scale, you have to fund it.
Superstar Cities Retain Elite, Middle Class Shifts South
Thanks to the logic of agglomeration economies, America's superstar cities will always centers of elite talent and the FOTB immigrants who serve them, but the middle class has moved en masse to the South and they've taken a lot of...