Ed Mendoza
@edmendoza.bsky.social
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Senior Research Associate at
@cayimby.bsky.social
reposted by
Ed Mendoza
Saad Asad
about 15 hours ago
Cities that block housing near transit shouldn't get federal transit money. Workers are paying twice â once in rent, again in commute time. Congress can fix this. Reward cities that build, not ones that don't.
thehill.com/opinion/cong...
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Transportation policy is incomplete without housing
Congress has a rare opportunity to address both the housing and transportation crises by updating transportation funding formulas to reward housing growth, prioritizing projects that increase accesâŚ
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/5738417-build-housing-near-transit/
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Patrick Siegman
about 14 hours ago
How does
#Switzerland
, where the average annual wage is HIGHER than in the US, manage to build apartments for just $300K per gross sq. ft.? Is it by cutting corners on fire safety? Nope. Americaâs fire death rate is five times higher than Switzerlandâs.
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kyle tear down that highway lucas đłď¸âđ
about 20 hours ago
ICE as TSA again making the case for high-speed rail. Transportation is not a niche issue, and the left needs to start taking it seriously. So many transportation systems we have set up are foundational to the division, suppression, and collapse that we are witnessing.
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Sean Jursnick
about 18 hours ago
Great single stair article on Fast Company today highlighting Seattle and the broader movement around the country to change building codes
www.fastcompany.com/91513043/the...
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The building code rule that lets Seattle turn forgotten lots into housing
Rethinking the building code to allow single-stairwell buildings brought more small-lot, mid-rise apartments to the cityâand sparked a wider reform movement.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91513043/the-building-code-rule-that-lets-seattle-turn-forgotten-lots-into-housing
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Sam
about 17 hours ago
I love when NIMBYs accuse me of having âdone no researchâ on housing as if I didnât literally work in the senate on housing policy and write extensively on this exact topic
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Patrick Siegman
1 day ago
California has TWO building codes. One is very strict, but the other? Not so much. The very strict one applies to commercial & multifamily (except duplexes). The lax one applies to single-family houses & duplexes only. Thatâs why we build light wood frame houses in extreme fire hazard zones!
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Modern Multifamily Buildings Provide the Most Fire Protection
A large body of research has demonstrated that apartment buildings and other types of multifamily housing can provide many benefits to a community, especially when built in high-demand areas where hou...
https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2025/09/modern-multifamily-buildings-provide-the-most-fire-protection
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Mike Eliason
2 days ago
every one of these homes is a 3-bedroom. served by a single stair. with daylight on opposite sides. no windowless bedrooms no dozens of units on the same floor more privacy not looking into homes 10-15' away and 100% illegal in ever city in the US our building codes are *trash*
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Max Dubler đłď¸âđ
2 days ago
Mary Fong Lau, the 80 year old woman who killed four people including a baby and a toddler after crashing into a bus stop going 75mph the wrong way down a 25mph street, has been sentenced to probation and will not permanently lose her drivers' license. This is a despicable miscarriage of justice.
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West Portal crash: S.F. judge says driver who killed family of 4 will get probation
Mary Fong Lau, 80, will face no jail time according to remarks from San Francisco Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan. She must complete 200 hours of community service and undergo probation.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/mary-fong-lau-west-portal-family-crash-sentence-22080184.php
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Max Dubler đłď¸âđ
3 days ago
Everyone who owned the first Velvet Underground record started a band. Everyone who read Stephen Smith's Elevators report is running legislation on it.
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Patrick Siegman
7 days ago
âFirst of all, American engineers receive almost no academic training about traffic, and even less training about safety. A student can graduate college with a civil engineering degree and pass a licensure exam while having taken no courses related to transportation (p. 307).â
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Book Review: Killed By A Traffic Engineer
In a new book, engineering professor Wes Marshall explains why American roads are so unsafe.
https://www.planetizen.com/features/130964-book-review-killed-traffic-engineer
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Liam Dillon
14 days ago
From the weekend: Why it makes sense that housing is where Trump and Mamdani can find common cause and how Mamdani and LA's Nithya Raman and seeking to upend a half century of urban housing politics and a decade-long fight on the left.
www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
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The leftâs housing civil war is ending
For a decade, progressives argued over whether greedy landlords or blocked construction caused the housing crisis. Zohran Mamdani and Nithya Raman say the answer is both.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/07/mamdani-nithya-raman-housing-socialism-abundance-00817314
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Matt Hutchins AIA CPHD
14 days ago
If youâre pushing housing in lowrise nâhoods, eliminating useless sideyards is the unlock for the urban design everybody says they want. In exchange for sideyards that no one uses, you get better units, lush interior courtyards, space for trees and play, higher density and lower energy use.
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Aaron đď¸đ˛đ˛đ
17 days ago
loved this quote from Senator Pham: âI believe in inclusionary zoning as a mechanism to economically integrate neighborhoods, not as a tax on all new housing.â
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Michael Andersen
17 days ago
Yesterday, Oregon's legislature voted to ban underfunded inclusionary zoning from the Portland metro area. It's a big turnaround, and I hope a path forward for other states too.
www.sightline.org/2026/03/05/o...
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Oregonâs New Path to Inclusionary Housing: Fully Funded and Flexible | Sightline Institute
An environmental justice champion led the push to end counterproductive, unfunded mandates.
https://www.sightline.org/2026/03/05/oregons-new-path-to-inclusionary-housing-fully-funded-and-flexible/
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Anna Fahey
24 days ago
R U
#elevator
pilled yet? Cecelia Black: "I have navigated the housing market from a wheelchair...in 15 yrs as a renter, I never found an accessible apt in a bldg w/ fewer than 6 stories" It's no oincidence; itâs a design failure of WAâs codes" Attn:
#WAleg
www.seattletimes.com/opinion/miss...
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Missing in the middle of WA's middle housing: Elevators
A bill still in play in the Washington Legislature would make elevators easier and less expensive to install in "middle housing" developments.
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/missing-in-the-middle-of-was-middle-housing-elevators/
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Henry Grabar
28 days ago
new from me: a story about VACANCY CHAINS, the idea that underlies the argument that more housing is good even if you can't afford it
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
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High-End Construction Really Does Help Everyone
A new rung at the top of the housing ladder permits people lower down to climb up.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/housing-crisis-rich-poor-building/686086/
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Fietser
2 months ago
How to identify American fascists as stated by our own US government in March of 1945.
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John Lansing
2 months ago
Operation Breakthrough, a HUD project in the 1960s, produced some significant advances in prefabricated building construction methods and also exposed the need for building code reform.
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How an American Dream of Housing Became a Reality in Sweden (Published 2024)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/08/headway/how-an-american-dream-of-housing-became-a-reality-in-sweden.html
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Ed Mendoza
2 months ago
Wow - again, if you build separated, protected bike lanes, people will use them. The better and more connected the routes are, the more ridership increases.
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Alex Baumhardt
2 months ago
A friend in Minneapolis just sent me this video. Looks like thousands have come together for a vigil after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. This was my neighborhood for several years before coming to Portland.
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Jordan Grimes
3 months ago
Just an annoying reminder that the unquenchable American thirst for oil, and the conquest and subjugation of other nations in futile attempts to satiate it, is brought to you in large part by our land-use patterns
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Michael Andersen
3 months ago
The Americas see about 3% of global elevator installations as of 2020. The U.S. & Canada: even less. But we've stuck with our own unique set of elevator codes, as if elevator companies still have no choice but to beat a path to our door. Nope! "Everywhere else" is a bigger common market now.
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Terrible Maps
3 months ago
Countries that have adopted the International Building Code
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Patrick Siegman
3 months ago
In many advanced nations that have better fire safety records than the United States and Canada, construction costs per square foot do NOT increase as density increases. If US planners want to make housing more affordable, they should fix our mediocre building codes.
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Max Dubler đłď¸âđ
3 months ago
*staring directly into the camera*
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Shane Phillips
3 months ago
This week UCLA Housing Voice is joined by
@muhammadspeaks.bsky.social
to talk about construction defect liability, a consumer protection law that can create big barriers to condo development, taking one of the most affordable ownership options off the market.
www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/12/17/1...
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Episode 104: Why We Don't Build Condos with Muhammad Alameldin (Incentives Series pt. 7) - UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Why do many U.S. states build so few condos? Muhammad Alameldin explains the role of construction defect liability laws â and how to fix them.
https://www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/12/17/104-why-we-dont-build-condos-with-muhammad-alameldin-incentives-series-pt-7/
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Mike Eliason
3 months ago
the compactness of point access blocks means that even on tiny sites, you can fit affordable family-sized homes with daylight on multiple sides and ability to cross ventilate.
www.espazium.ch/de/aktuelles...
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Ein Neubau nach altem Muster | Espazium
Das Wohnhaus deux chevaux von kollektive architekt im Basler Lysbßchel-Quartier beschränkt sich auf das Wesentliche: Kompakte Wohnungen, vielseitiges Raumprogramm und gemeinschaftliche Flächen schaf...
https://www.espazium.ch/de/aktuelles/basel-lysbuechel-volta-kollektive-architekt-deux-chevaux
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Parker âAustin Needs Approval Votingâ Welch
3 months ago
You can look at all the finalists for the National Single-Stair Competition's Austin Award here:
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
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Austin Award 45x135' - Google Drive
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UaJa-rmy44QQxsMde-9KYaJg2WXeBsGT?usp=drive_link
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Tara Goddard
4 months ago
I'm so fucking tired of so many people being killed in traffic crashes. I'm so fucking tired but I'm also so, so fucking angry. I use obscene language because what is obscene is over 40,000 people/year dying in preventable crashes in the US, 7,000 or so who are merely walking, and society just đ¤ˇđťââď¸
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Stephen Jacob Smith
4 months ago
âIn medical research, thereâs a practice of ending a study early when the results are too striking to ignoreâŚWhen an intervention works this clearly, you change what you do.â
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
(đđ)
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Kevin Erdmann
4 months ago
Really thorough history. Why the West was downzoned
www.worksinprogress.news/p/how-the-wo...
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Why the West was downzoned
In the space of a few decades, nearly every city in the Western world banned densification. What happened?
https://www.worksinprogress.news/p/how-the-world-downzoned-itself?r=2pxsw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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Max Dubler đłď¸âđ
4 months ago
âBetween 2010 and 2022, structural fires in Berkeley injured an average of 2 people per year, while between just 2017 and 2022, traffic accidents injured or killed an average of 694 people annually.â
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Mike Eliason
4 months ago
new south wales (sydney) govenment's pattern handbook - which fast tracks permitting applications - features 4-7 story single stair buildings
shop-pattern-book.planning.nsw.gov.au/collections/...
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Corner Lot Apartments 01 by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer
Corner Lot Apartments 01 by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer is a 4 - 6 storey shop-top housing or residential flat building. The design places dwellings above a flexible ground floor, which can be used for comm...
https://shop-pattern-book.planning.nsw.gov.au/collections/mid-rise/products/corner-lot-apartments-01-by-tonkin-zulaikha-greer
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David Broockman
4 months ago
NEW PAPER w/
@cselmendorf.bsky.social
&
@jkalla.bsky.social
: An under-appreciated reason why voters oppose dense new housing, especially in less-dense neighborhoods: they think it looks ugly and want to prevent that, even in other neighborhoods. Some of what we think is NIMBYism might not be!
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Jenny Schuetz
4 months ago
Relegalize SROs. Relegalize single stair buildings to enable larger, family sized homes. Legalize townhomes everywhere. Legalize ADUs everywhere. Legalize apartment buildings in more places. Yes to all the homes.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/n...
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The âNewâ Solution for the N.Y.C. Housing Crisis: Single-Room Apartments
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/nyregion/sro-apartments-nyc.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
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Mike Eliason
5 months ago
in q&a, the kelsey's allie cannington mentions they are excited about single stair and elevator reform - and mention how it can help get elevators into smaller projects. wow. cc
@edmendoza.bsky.social
@stephenjacobsmith.com
@markasaurus.bsky.social
thekelsey.org/learn-center...
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Single-Stair Reform and People with Disabilities - The Kelsey
Single-stair reform can increase housing supply, reduce construction costs, and improve accessibility for people with disabilities. Learn why cities across the U.S. are adopting this approach to creat...
https://thekelsey.org/learn-center/single-stair-reform-people-with-disabilities/
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Mike Eliason
5 months ago
our solar costs are significantly higher our infrastructure costs are significantly higher our elevator costs are significantly higher our healthcare costs are significantly higher our housing costs are significantly higher (for far lower quality) i wonder if we'll ever address this
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Abigail Larson
5 months ago
Guillermo del Toro on wealth: "a wealthy man is a man who has enough, not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite someone for a beer? You're rich. If you have a yacht, planes, islands, and you still need more? You're not rich."
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Mike Eliason
5 months ago
the 3-bedroom apartments in this 46-home project w/ a kindergarten and 5 commercial spaces rent for $2,200 in zuerich no windowless bedrooms. dual aspect - can cross ventilate, daylight on multiple sides. kitchen separated from living. balconies. shading.
www.nimbusarch.ch/portfolio/ne...
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Stephen Jacob Smith
6 months ago
Pew finds something that everybody in codes and standards knows but few will say out loud: we apply far stricter fire safety standards to apartments than to houses.
www.pew.org/en/research-...
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Melissa & Chris Bruntlett
6 months ago
The wait is FINALLY over! Our new book âWomen Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformationâ is NOW AVAILABLE worldwide through RIBA Publishing wherever fine books are sold. From Paris to Bogota, from Manila to Montrealâwhen women lead, cities thrive:
www.modacitylife.com/women-changi...
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Oren Hadar
6 months ago
I was shocked when I heard Scott Wiener say LA City Council's divided SB 79 vote helped convince state reps to vote yes on the bill. So I mapped it - sure looks like he's telling the truth! The only state reps from LA who voted for SB 79 overlap with city councilmembers who supported the bill. A đ§ľ:
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Oops! City Council helped pass SB 79
...and in the process showed both our ugly segregationist past and our promising prohousing future.
https://futureis.la/p/oops-city-council-helped-pass-sb-79
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Ed Mendoza
6 months ago
The world is divided between supply skeptics who believe high hard costs are an intractable problem and those that have looked at US codes and buildings in other developed countries.
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Muhammad Alameldin
6 months ago
SB 79 now stands as the largest pro-housing land-use legislation in this nationâs modern history.
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Katie Cardie
over 1 year ago
A uni in Aus did a study that showed that over 50% of drivers see âcyclistsâ as less than human. We use âpeople on bikesâ to try and help humanise them. Thereâs a fair way to go!
www.monash.edu/news/article...
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Face off - Cyclists not human enough for drivers: study
A new study by Monash University and QUT has found that more than half of car drivers think cyclists are not completely human.
https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/face-off-cyclists-not-human-enough-for-drivers-study
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Mott Smith
7 months ago
The coalition behind Measure ULA just released a report attacking UCLA research on the tax. Theyâre claiming it âdebunksâ the research. It doesnât even come close. đ§ľ
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Mike Eliason
7 months ago
'more homes were purchased last year by the Silent Generation (aged 79 to 99) than by Gen Z' also i hate that the rent image is an apartment - when the 'buy' image could be too.
www.newsweek.com/gen-z-rentin...
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Gen Z is renting, not buyingâHere's what it means for the country's future
Gen Z is reshaping the American dream, as they increasingly look at renting as a smarter financial option than buying a home.
https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-renting-not-buying-what-means-country-future-2120726
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Senator Scott Wiener
7 months ago
Not building housing screws young people, pushes them out & tanks future economic success. We need to make it easier & faster to build the homes we need for a bright future. Our current vetocracy need to change & weâre working to change it.
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Joe Cohen
7 months ago
Jon Lovettâs face when LA City Councilmember Imelda Padilla said she forced an affordable housing project to go down from six stories to three stories and add in EV charging spaces
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