The current 12-game Jeopardy champion works at an affordable housing finance agency in NJ, and shamed New York for not building more housing: "NJ's doing really well, we're ahead of NY, CT, PA. If you're from one of those states, shame on you, build more housing."

🚨MA Sen. Sean Maguire files S.4012, the "Nonconforming Conformity Act." The bill would make Massachusetts legal to build in Massachusetts again. Towns would calculate what they actually built before zoning existed, lot sizes, setbacks, density, and make that the new baseline.

@massgovernor.bsky.social @kimdriscollma.bsky.social this would be a straightforward boost to housing production, along with permitting reforms like a municipal review shot clock and licensed third-party reviews and inspections.

Lexington schools have lost 550 students and face a $4.7 million gap. Staff cuts are coming. Those 1,600 apartments some are fighting will bring at least $7mil in revenue & maybe 250 students. That new housing is not a burden. It's a desperately needed bailout. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/27/m...

1. Here’s a thread on #NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) and the challenges of change in cities: First off, although it might feel that way, NIMBY isn’t unique to your city, and it’s (probably) not worse in your city than anywhere else. It’s also not surprising, since it’s largely about human nature.

Los Angeles’ housing crisis is self-inflicted.  For decades, city leaders have taken deliberate actions to limit new housing. Today, we announced our plan to fix this and triple housing production.

Across the country, the balance between local control & state action on housing has played out very differently. Montana & Texas have acted boldly at the state level while MA, CT, and NY continue to lag. A recent poll shows MA voters support stronger statewide action on housing.

It's happening! BUILD OR DIE: HOW AMERICA IS SUFFOCATING ITS CITIES AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT, coming from Princeton University Press on December 8. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

This new Pew study finds the biggest rent decreases from building multifamily go to lower income renters in the least expensive apartments, which directly prevents displacement and homelessness. Exactly our goal in #CambridgeMA!

We’ve spent decades making walkable neighborhoods like these nearly impossible to build today. Beacon Hill v. Federal Hill Old Montreal v. Old Quebec But which ones are the best? 40 iconic neighborhoods. 1 champion. 🇨🇦🇺🇸 Round 1 voting ends March 25 www.remainplaces.com/walkable

Never let anyone tell you politics doesn't matter. Change is unimaginable until it's inevitable.

The Senate just passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. I worked with colleagues on several of the bills in this bipartisan package to help boost housing supply and make it easier for families to find an affordable place to live. https://youtu.be/Es1IWoMprbA?si=Owf3Xgxvc8pVj1Mt

The folk morality around housing type and tenure in American cities:

Excellent speech from @schatz.bsky.social Schatz on the importance of fixing anti-build-to-rent provision in the ROAD to Housing Act (h/t @pewilliams.bsky.social) (1/3)

Over the past decade, The City of Austin, Texas has permitted more housing in a typical year than the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 2022 alone, Austin approved 24,227 units, about 1.5× the number permitted across Massachusetts that year.

I’ve had people laugh saying 'A better Massachusetts is possible' sounds underwhelming. But do you actually believe it? That fixing the T, solving the housing crisis, making childcare affordable is around the corner? Or is believing that we can have a government that delivers genuinely radical.

Great piece to share with the NIMBYs in your life.

Cambridge should consider a shift toward taxing land more than improvements/buildings!

Single-stair gets the New York Times treatment. @holz-bau.bsky.social reminds us why they call the last line the kicker: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b... (gift link)

As we in #Brookline begin the discussion over this override, this is the shape of the debate:

Cambridge councilor @votejivan.bsky.social introducing a policy order to advance a ‘Snow Corps’ for better sidewalk-shoveling www.reddit.com/r/CambridgeM...

I was *already* excited to read this and then I got to "...local land-use planning." 😍

Check out the *incredible* campaign kickoff video from @burhanazeem.bsky.social and his team!

"The reality is that when homes are scarce, high and middle-income earners can trade down into lower-income neighborhoods to find housing, but low-income households have nowhere to turn, so they end up having to compete for their own homes and wind up paying higher rents."

Adding homes lowers rents for low-income tenants, even if they do not move into the new homes. Policies that impede the construction of homes - even those marketed as luxury housing - hurt tenants. Design Review is hostile to low-income tenants.

TL;DR: Adding housing actually cuts costs for those who need it most. 📉 Didn't think we needed it, but still grateful for the solid data (again).

So little bit a surprise but we also sent out a little mailer to almost every voter in the district today, both announcing the campaign and getting input! The first responses are coming in! Fill it out at voteburhan.com/survey

Can we get @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social to speak about housing to some folks in Boston? fxtwitter.com/NYCPlanning/...

Great to hear from @planning.boston.gov last night. The AB Community Plan is a generational opportunity to set the neighborhood on a path to build more housing, support local businesses, and invest in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. Hope to see folks at the Wed. meeting and ABHA after-party!

@kevinerdmann.bsky.social just discussed the terrific paper by MIT PhD student Vincent Rollet, who was on the @somervilleyimby.org and A Better Cambridge panel on Zoning for Affordability last October.

Every homeowner commenting against new housing at city council meetings

@massgovernor.bsky.social @kimdriscollma.bsky.social we can’t wait until the late 2030s!

FYI, fellow Cambridge City Council agenda reviewers

How do we fix America's housing crisis? Check out my plan at the link below. www.gallego.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

We have the #cambma City Council 2026-7 committee assignments! cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/Det... Notably, as to chairs: Ordinance is MM+JSW. Housing is BA+JWS. New member AAZ gets Public Safety and co-chairs Finance, Human Services. New member TF co-chairs Economic Development, Transportation.

In-law suites, granny flats, backyard cottages – whatever you call them, you can now build ADUs without special permits. In the first half of 2025, homeowners filed almost 1K applications. We're making it easier and cheaper to build housing that works for your family.

Thank you to everyone who wrote to the Cambridge City Council and gave public comment in support!

New housing stops landlords from raising rents—take it from the CEO of AvalonBay, one of NYC's largest landlords: "We're well-positioned… we face significantly less new supply. Land entitled for multifamily is hard to come by, the amount of time it takes to get those entitlements… sets us up well.”

You may not believe that building new housing lowers rents, but your landlord does:

🌳 From 2018–2024, Cambridge's tree canopy experienced an overall increase of 5%! 📈 The Department of Public Works' updated tree canopy assessment is now available, thanks to aerial imagery & LiDAR data. 📝 Read the full report: https://camb.ma/48LMGJh

YIMBY avengers assemble! Can someone provide good debunking on the "corporate landlords hoard vacant apartments" urban legend? I met someone tonight who holds fast to this and we agreed to exchange sources, but my main source is "this makes no economic sense"

This will be a crucial race for addressing our housing shortage and high rents. We need a Senator laser-focused on abundance and affordability!

On a favorable rec. for Mass Ave, 6-2-1: ba y mm y PN y SS y JSW y PFT y AW n CZ n EDS (absent) And for Cambridge St., 7-1-1. BA y MM y PN y SS y JSW y PFT y AW y CZ n EDS (absent) This allows the full Council to pass it to a 2nd reading — failure to do so would've have stopped them.

What happens when you downzone? Our new open-access research paper in @findingspress.org investigates effects of decades of downzoning in Chicago. Findings: —Downzoned areas added 1/7th of the new units as comparable non-downzoned areas; —Downzoned areas became more white & were more expensive.

Massachusetts and communities across the country are facing a housing crisis. Instead of offering support, the federal government is placing unlawful conditions on permanent housing and project renewals that our most vulnerable residents rely on to survive. We're suing.

Great to have directly across the street from the Porter T stop! Two 15-story buildings could hold a lot more than 100 apartments—and more is necessary given that JAS had 2100 applicants for its 100-apartment building on New Street!

The Cambridge Historical Commission barely, begrudgingly approved a Bluebikes station in West Cambridge last night, yikes.

I’m so proud of all the work @abciepac.org volunteers put into the Cambridge City Council election—and proud we got right back to work fighting for affordable housing, with four of us participating in last night’s meeting to support this AHO proposal by Just-A-Start! www.justastart.org/240-broadway/