The BS asymmetry principle: The amount of energy needed to refute BS is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. Thank you to every science communicator who is doing the almost impossible work of countering misinformation every day. Every single one of you is saving lives!

First homebuyer problems in Van… it’s pretty sad that about 70% of the housing options I can afford would basically require me to also get a car to commute to work 🙃 and it’s allegedly a buyer’s market! I have more options than usual…

This is so disappointing. This means us poorer folks that can’t afford luxury detached housing is still artificially blocked from nice quiet streets by archaic city zoning.

When house owners talk about how they bought houses due to the "small neighborhood feel" what they mean is "a place where I don't have to see or tolerate renters" because renters are relegated to busy, filthy arterials outside those "small," "quaint" neighborhoods where they own property.

The Climate Systems Engineering initiative (CSEi) at the University of Chicago is seeking postdoctoral researchers interested in marine carbon dioxide removal to start in a year. 🌊🧪 Annual salary: $90,000/year Research and travel funding: $10,000/year Relation assistance: $3,000

I really hate the “housing prices are disconnected from local incomes” framing because people immediately jump to “must be NON-LOCALS with more wealth that’s the problem.” When the problem is largely that we haven’t built enough. Higher local/regional income households are outbidding you.

Just a general reminder that homelessness is hard to solve at the best of times, and basically impossible during a housing supply shortage.

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

Knowing it needed to adapt to survive the challenges of the 21st century, Alkmaar’s main shopping street of De Laat has undergone an extraordinary revitalisation; engaging the community in a reimagining process that introduced lush vegetation, water features, pedestrian priority, and ample seating.🧵

oh my god in whom i don't believe THIS IS HUGE WOW

Wow. This is extremely suspicious behaviour by VPD leadership. And excellent persistent reporting. Give it a read, and also does anyone know how to apply public pressure onto them to comply with FOIs? Write to police board and AG?

It really grates my gears when high income people living in luxury homes at the top of this graph call small condos luxury and pretend those are the problem. For some reason they’re very often fucking landscape architects??? Wtaf is happening at UBC SCARP.

I truly believe in everyone having access to adequate housing, but I often wonder how difficult it must be for frontline workers of SROs and shelters. My apartment has had a few “hard-to-house” folks living in it. One fellow had a trash collection problem and caused constant cockroach infestations.

At best, inclusionary zoning is a tax on housing to pay for subsidized housing (that would still be better as a subsidy from a general tax pool since it would be less susceptible to market cycles) At worst it’s a really regressive tax on the poor~middle income folks who live in higher density homes

You wonder why it's so hard to build actual, capital-A affordable housing, and then you realize this kind of story is repeated many times per day across the country. Many people-regular folks-who claim to value it, when push comes to shove, simply do not. www.newhavenindependent.org/article/cons...

i want to see as many people calling as loudly for the elimination of SUVs, which are literally physically destroying the planet, as call for regulation of e-bikes

The Federal government needs to demand much better zoning or their pre-fab investments will be a waste. Even the TOAs in Metro Van allow only small, 200m circles @ >12 storeys, and BC does not require zoning proactively even within those small areas.

I get very sick of people saying that local governments can’t do anything about global problems. Most car trips in cities are under 3 miles - we could absolutely get more people using bikes or riding transit at the local level!

Also true in US. Subsidizing wealthy homeowners is both an inefficient use of public resources and highly regressive.

Something I find that homeowners just can’t wrap their heads around is that they don’t get taxed on their rental income. They seem incapable of grasping they are both tenant and landlord and just how tax-advantaged they are bc of that.

It's hard to not think we'd be better off as a country if more higher income people were renters who didn't care how much their home was worth. "Be careful what you wish for," of course, but the current tax policy outcomes seem bad, among other things.

Gonna unpack this a bit. There are at least two groups of left-leaning folks here that @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social is mixing up. 1)left-leaning housing policy folks like @cwhitzman.bsky.social, Alex Hemingway who want tenure neutrality because housing (and tax) policy should be equitable to renters

I don't think that this is true but, setting that aside, one reason that renting is not viewed as a "proper" choice by certain groups of people is that it really sucks during a shortage. The last 6ish months of higher vacancies and lower rents have seen a small power shift and renting feels better.

The lights and fog all works! 🥲 time to finish construction and start painting soon. Sorry for the lack of urbanism content, been very busy crafting!

A man coughing up blood. Men zip-tied face down on a wet floor. CCTV turned off. Men forced to eat off of a chair like animals while handcuffed. Solitary confinement if you complain. This is just three paragraphs from a new report.

Always and forever

Cars are deadly weapons. Cars are deadly weapons. Cars are deadly weapons. P.S. To reporters covering this story - the vehicle didn’t ram into the crowd on its own. A DRIVER rammed the car into a crowd.

Just joined a friend’s gaming Disc channel and so far just there to spread the urbanism gospel. I’m such a nerd 🤓

There is always an option to fix things, but we shouldn't keep heritage if no one puts up their hand to actually restore it. Just like with the Gordon Wilson Flats it will sit empty for years and years, taking up precious city land which could actually have housing that people can live in.

City planning is so ridiculous. In one policy they’ll make it hard to build small, modest studio and 1-bedroom homes because they want more “family-sized” homes. Then with the next policy they limit the number of bedrooms for multiplexes, while ignoring the room count for McMansions.

Ending the apartment ban would ease housing shortages, lower costs for non-profit housing, reduce tenant displacement in existing apartment areas, open up quiet side streets to renters, bring down household transportation costs, decrease air and climate pollution, and lower infrastructure costs.

It's a housing crisis. Why is Vancouver still banning apartments on the vast majority of residential land? This suppresses both non-market and market housing creation, exporting the city's shortage to rest of the region and province. BC should put its foot down. www.sightline.org/2024/10/09/v...

drivers thinking “just this once!” or “i’ll sneak in” don’t understand that they’re often the fourth or fifth person to obstruct or threaten you on a single walking trip. i’m at my wits end here with drivers — but they know there’s no consequences, so why do anything differently?

I’m so tired of drivers that confidently block the entire crosswalk trying to turn right on red. As if pedestrians are less than an afterthought. Can we ban right turns on red already 🚨

This is a good summary of Vancouver's broken planning system (by planning staff!). 871 site-specific zoning districts (27 new ones every year), 3-4 years to get a property rezoned and get a building permit council.vancouver.ca/20250722/doc...

Ohhh when do we get all nonmarket housing exempt from zoning restrictions BC-wide @christineboyle.bsky.social 👀 Also, congrats! Couldn’t have been a better successor to Ravi, who’s been great too.

“We know from past experience that many reports end up sitting on the shelf, said Jennifer Charlesworth, Representative for Children and Youth. "We owe it to Colby not to look away.” My latest for @indiginews.bsky.social.

I make no bones about being a car guy and enjoying driving. But I resent being forced to drive everywhere for everything because of poor planning and chronically under funding public transit. Multi model forms of transportation is the best thing for everyone especially for those who need to drive!

We need so many role models of women biking for transportation in cities! Young women, older women, with children, without, you name it! I’m happy to see more and more active on BlueSky

Progress on my next cosplay…

My oped on why Berkeley should pass Middle Housing and why you must comment on Thursday either in person or on Zoom. Its the final vote! www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

10/10, left-YIMBYs/urbanists take note! @1alexhemingway.bsky.social is a gem

If someone moves every five years for anything from a new job to because they got married / had kids / are now empty nesters, and it takes two months to turn around an apartment from exit to new entry, the base vacancy rate is three percent. 🙃

Not to pile on this random dude at all, but this is too perfect an example to pass up. It’s funny to me how so many people Problematize perfectly normal vacancy rates. 100 units in 4 towers in Chicago with 2346 units is 4% vacancy rate. People need a vacant unit to move into, folks!

Change in benchmark prices from the Metro Vancouver Housing Data Book metrovancouver.org/services/reg...

The “empty luxury condos only for investors” myth is omnipresent in the housing discourse. No matter that 1) they’re not empty, 2) they’re not luxury, and 3) they’re not only bought by investors. This myth causes so much harm, largely by providing policymakers (especially progressives) a scapegoat

About today's public transit discourse: I believe that riding public transit is a spiritual good for increasing your empathy and practicing minding your own business. It also helps you internalize that most people mind their own business, e.g. no one is looking at you.

Nice to see @saanichbc.bsky.social @tealepb.bsky.social pushing for euro elevators. This is the other leg of the stool, along with #singlestair code changes, and small lot multi family zoning. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I live in one of the rare apartment buildings that faces a park. It's amazing, the park works as our front yard. More people should get to experience that, so we should build more apartments next to parks

please write in your support !!! or call it in or graffiti it on a wall or Anything Please just do something