“Apparently I’m an idiot.” Woman at Pennsylvania gas station who voted for Trump rips into him, calls him “a worthless pile of sh*t”.

"BYD, which recently surpassed Tesla in electric sales, said early this month that its newest charging stations can charge an EV with the company’s updated 'Blade' battery from low to 70% in five minutes. In nine minutes, it can be almost fully recharged." www.wsj.com/business/aut... (gift link)

Ken Cofflin, retired SF fire marshal, previously wrote SF’s controversial and costly fire sprinkler mandate for pre 1974 high rise condo owners. Now he’s offering services as a consultant to help owners demand exemptions or scope reductions to the ordinance. www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/h...

The Trump administration is considering paying a private wind developer $1 billion in taxpayer money to give up their leases for wind farms off of New York and North Carolina, and invest in natural gas production and plants in Texas instead www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/c...

About 200,000 immigrant truckers will begin to lose their commercial driver’s licenses under a Trump administration rule that takes effect today, straining the industry responsible for moving goods across the U.S. as energy costs surge amid the war in Iran. https://wapo.st/40ALq6V

Okay in his defense this winter I tried to report illegal dumping on Flushing Ave. under the BQE, and the 311 system would not accept anything that wasn’t a building address, and no matter how I described it, DSNY kept saying they couldn’t find the huge amount of trash I passed by four times a week

since this study comes up a lot, and it looks like most people haven't read it, let me do a quick walk through on how the study works (and doesn't). the upshot is that they grab a bunch of numbers from the economics literature, plug them into a formula, and look at how new supply affects prices.

“The defense minister, Israel Katz, said the operation would be similar to the Israeli campaign in Gaza, where some cities were almost entirely flattened, and his comments suggest Israeli troops could hold on to a chunk of Lebanese territory for an indefinite period.” www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Does this make Seattle the second major city after San Francisco to have citywide all-door boarding? What kind of inspections are they going to do?

Interesting write-up of a "Type E" project in Germany, which stands for "simple" (einfach) or "experimental," and involves loosening some non-safety-related standards around, e.g., sound attenuation. You can translate it in your browser www.baunetz.de/meldungen/Me...

The Netherlands similar planning, market, and demographics to Belgium, Germany, and France, but because of its building code (single-stair limited to five stories), it gets tons of double-loaded corridors with small units while the others do not. It really is the codes www.baunetz.de/meldungen/Me...

YIMBYs are pretty upset with Sara Bronin’s op-ed about how Illinois needs to collect better zoning data (which is what she does with the National Zoning Atlas) before passing land use reforms www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/comm...

“While she once unapologetically championed bike and bus lanes and other street safety improvements, [Mayor Wu] has since substantially slowed, or entirely stalled progress on many, by requiring her personal approval on most transit and road safety projects...” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/15/m...

It’s the labor costs, probably disproportionately things other than the basic hourly wage (benefits, work rules, overtime, etc.). SEPTA won a lot in its 1983 strike. The conductor system is still very inefficient and needs to go, but at least they can pay closer to market-clearing compensation.

I’m really skeptical of this claim that more institutional operators like REITs are the ones buying up rent stabilized buildings in NYC. My sense is that it tends to be ballsier local buyers from newer immigrant groups than the Italian/Irish sellers. www.wsj.com/real-estate/...

It’s interesting that this article barely mentions masking and enforcement of it. It’s mostly about legal liability.

No citation for this claim, just trust the trial lawyer that the trial lawyers are working in your best interest! Meanwhile, for those who like actual numbers, here are reports of suspected car insurance fraud by insurers in NYS: www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/docs...

“The faltering economics of running a national vending machine empire were exposed when DyDo, Japan’s third biggest operator, this month said it would scrap almost 7.5 per cent of its network of 270,000 units after posting its largest ever annual loss.” www.ft.com/content/a0e8...

If paid actors for ads regarding lawsuits are your red line, then boy do I have some bad news for those opposing auto insurance reform… atra.org/study-trial-...

Now that US export markets are opening up for Quebec hydro, are prices going up in Quebec (which were historically so low that they heat homes with cheap but inefficient baseboard resistance heaters)? Or are Quebec households still guaranteed below-market prices? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/n...

“This bathroom has been in purgatory with design changes and legal reviews…Meanwhile construction costs are going up, and there’s still no bathroom at this location.” www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/16/p...

The MTA says it could save $50 million each year in insurance, attorney fees, and settlements for spurious collision claims with auto insurance reform www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/13/b...

"Thoughtful guidance would be a win-win for both affordability and accessibility," @stephenjacobsmith.com and Allie Cannington write. https://wapo.st/4rrEvYG

Wish this addressed the mechanics of Trump’s H-2A changes better. He lowered the wages employers have to pay, but did he also increase the number available? Or was the binding constraint the wage so that increased uptake? And how many more workers are now using it? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/u...

One of my biggest issues with the MUTCD is that it'll often claim things by claiming 'studies show' but then never cite the study. It becomes really difficult to answer definitively why the manual says one thing or another, we are often left filling in the gaps with assumptions and 'rules of thumb'.

The greek temples that inspired neoclassical architecture were all loudly painted

Waiting for the El at City Hall (hub of Philly’s whole regional network) for almost 10 mins, fire alarm BLARING. Everybody’s ignoring it, no alerts, trains running normally, no FD activity. Crazy how fire protection spends billions in transit construction cost, only to be treated like a joke.

President Donald Trump told Speaker Mike Johnson in a private conversation this week that “no one gives a [bleep] about housing,” according to four sources who heard the speaker recount the conversation. punchbowl.news/article/hous...

There AI reply guy bots suck. And they are also scabs for my real reply guys, who I love and cherish.

The team effort should be evicting the US military from our bases around the region so that we can’t fuck things up again for everybody

This one gets into the mechanics of the geography of West Bank ethnic cleansing and settlement

Literally half of the ads in this subway car are for personal injury lawyers. Ironically, driving up costs for MTA construction through the Scaffold Law. The trial lawyers in New York State have to be reined in, this is ridiculous.

The fact that the developer stuck an elevator in for just six units, unheard of in the US, suggests condo buyers reeeally don’t like walk-ups. Glad the elevator is viable for this project, but places without the Berkeley-level prices to pay for a North American stretcher elevator deserve condos too.

Just reading about Oman and…what the fuck? You’re telling me the gay sultan ended slavery in 1970 after he deposed his father?

Choosing the alignment with 26% more travel time on the most important transfer segment but only 18% more trips, 10 more construction years AND the worst B/C ratio. Serving jobs is great but the network has to make sense, and this will preclude the ideal scenario of a dedicated SM Blvd line

🚨Replication alert🚨 I'm pleased to announce that my replication of Moretti (2021) is now accepted as a comment at AER. I find ten issues in the paper. My comment focuses on two major problems; in the appendix, I document eight (relatively) minor problems. 1/

Basically admitting they'll never have the cost discipline to build a separate Santa Monica Blvd line

Drunk ass alignment lol.

Has anybody in the US or Canada ever tried to put an elevator in a building in a mostly single-family area that didn’t have three-phase power and get hit with a huge quote from the utility to do it?

Over at A City That Works: Asian and European transit agencies are run by subject matter experts. American ones are run by local elected officials and community advocates. If we want the new Illinois transit reforms to succeed, we're going to look outside the US.

Mexico's dispersed sprawl makes transit in periurban social housing estates so inefficient that employers are the ones who provide transportation. Basically, those communities are isolated on weekends when workers aren't commuting.

It's pretty remarkable how policy goals of YIMBYism in California went from being a bundle of untouchable "third rail" ideas to being the bipartisan consensus of the gubernatorial field in a span of like 10 years. www.sacbee.com/news/politic...

Not only does NYC not use tower cranes on basically any mid- and even many high-rise projects like other cities do; we also use fewer tower cranes when we do use them. Lots of sites in Miami with multiple cranes – something you rarely see in NYC. From floridayimby.com cc: @floorarearatio.bsky.social

Could somebody with a subscription send to me (email in bio)?

Insane thread. Reading through it I got to the part where he’s talking about how often the CBTC alarm went off and was like “wow what a nerd, how can he even tell” and then I watched the video and was like…lol oh, the whole neighborhood can tell

Really disappointing

This is a sideways reminder that states have more power to curb car characteristics that they don't want than most states think they do.

It’s good to see Sound Transit posting actual nominal deceases in public cost estimates. The MTA has never done that on its projects – none of its purported savings or efficiencies have ever resulted in a number lower than what was previously released to the public.

Wow, that market rent data in Austin. The oldest/cheapest apartment buildings have almost completely reversed their post-pandemic rent spike, without even adjusting for inflation

How to be a housing pundit.