This is a must-read from @aarmlovi.bsky.social. A real path for substantial expansion of housing and transit in the city that can deliver on the promises of @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/a-h...

Calling all NYC lovers and nerds: REALLY interesting conversation about housing. Even I — who has been following NYC housing since I wrote papers in college about it 40 years ago — learned a lot. Interesting ideas. LISTEN! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

Want to learn more about the housing megabill the Senate just passed? New Statecraft podcast with @willpoffwebster.bsky.social and @brianpotter.bsky.social on key highlights 👇 We recorded before it passed, so you can enjoy vetting our forecasts here open.substack.com/pub/statecra...

🚨🚨The Senate has passed the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act as part of the NDAA! This is a historic level of bipartisan cooperation to expand Americans' access to housing. @aarmlovi.bsky.social, @awjustus.bsky.social, and @rohanaras.bsky.social unpack what's in the 310-page bill. ⬇️

The deadline to sign SB 79 and legalize more housing near transit in California is coming up. This is a hugely important bill both for ending the state's housing crisis and for securing its climate future. Please join me in urging @gavinnewsom.bsky.social to sign!

NY is wisely leveraging factory-built manufactured housing for community development & affordable housing upstate They're locking in deed-restricted affordable housing on vacant public Land Bank sites for the future—2 or 3 steps ahead of market-led redevelopment—for just $100k/unit of subsidy

Bright spots in US transit: After opening its 3rd basic Bus Rapid Transit route for just $10M/mile, Albany didn't just exceed pre-pandemic ridership They just set an all-time CDTA ridership record. Never been a better time for transit in Albany than now BRT is the future

Everyone take a moment to gloat over the FinTwit folks who claimed labor & supply chains make quantum leaps in multifamily housing production impossible "What about teh lumber", they said. "What about teh labor", they said Then NYC simply exploded to completion levels unseen since 1965

Photos from a lively @yimbytown.bsky.social discussion on how data-driven research can shape effective policy with (L-R): @andersem.bsky.social, @david-garcia.upforgrowth.org, Arthur Gailes, @skarlinsky.bsky.social, @aarmlovi.bsky.social & @muhammadspeaks.bsky.social.

🏙️ Niskanen staff represented at YIMBYTOWN! @aarmlovi.bsky.social, Andrew Justus, Kaj Gumbs, and Rohan Aras presented on a "Federal Policy Roundup" panel (alongside minority staffer Madeleine Marr of Senate Banking and David Garcia of Up For Growth).

thx @aarmlovi.bsky.social for the link to this Charter Commission report (from this year) it looks like NYC gaining aldermanic prerogative severely repressed the addition of more homes www.nyc.gov/assets/chart...

This from @aarmlovi.bsky.social is the best path forward with AVs. It's also @johnericson.me thought iirc. Labor, congestion, vehicle utilization, and safety are all constraints on mobility (and hence growth). Let's use automation to tackle all and enhance our transit systems.

We have a big opportunity with Mr. Molinaro to refresh CIG I'm increasingly convinced the STOPS ridership model should be upgraded to capture most of the extra scoring variables people care about Ridership is the ultimate principal component of walkability, land use, mode integration, etc etc

It turns out the tilting feature on the new Acelas hasn't passed safety testing yet, so they have to take curves *slower* than the legacy fleet with authorized tilting That's the other reason they're running so slow at first 😔 It'll get better eventually. But still a bummer

Train YIMBYism means the price decline will be in the regionals the capacity increase is actually much larger than 23% as they end up running far more service than right now. Remember regional ridership is up substantially from 2019, Acela ridership is flat due to capacity.

Today's Acela launch will drive Amtrak NEC profitability, even as the 27% capacity boost cuts dynamically priced fares At first it seems they'll use the faster trains to "pad" existing schedules, boosting on-time performance After observation they should be speeding up the official schedules!

New: Niskanen Housing's writeup of the Senate Banking megabill 👇 Chair Scott & Ranking Member Warren assembled the biggest bipartisan federal housing package in living memory, with proposals from the whole committee—a real first step to buttress growing state & local action on the housing crisis

Thanks again to the whole Chicago crew. Great to meet you all and look forward to helping next session!

Meetup tonight at Off Color Brewing, 1460 N Kingsbury St 5 pm

Coming to Chicago today through early Wednesday morning 🌭🍕 If any Chicago housing or transit accounts want to meet I'll be around! @stevevance.net @danielkayhertz.bsky.social @mclean.bsky.social @danielcomeaux.bsky.social

It's not clear why Mayor Bass tweeted out this self-portrait of what she thinks about LA Metro—the riders, the pandemic ridership recovery, & Metro's farebox revenue If I were the mayor of Los Angeles I would simply not declare war on my brand new metro system!

Flexing the easy-to-flex federal highway pots like CMAQ & STP is an apolitical, technical process Believe it or not, it's true of SEPTA's 2026 budget as well! SEPTA gets $40M of CMAQ flex highway cash this year even with all the cuts. And nobody is mad or thinks it's political

A can't-miss conversation between @aarmlovi.bsky.social and Cardiff Garcia on the ROAD to Housing Act, and much more! eig.org/newbazaar/is...

In this podcast we cover the new Senate Banking megabill (ROAD to Housing), but also fun questions like: -Why do skyscrapers exist? -How do we know where people would build more if they could? -Are there actually gaping holes in the simple version of the Homevoter Hypothesis?

Pleased to join Cardiff Garcia on @innovateeconomy.bsky.social's show, on the new ROAD to Housing megabill that passed Senate Banking 24-0 It's a promising 1st step, led by Chair Scott & Sen Warren with ideas from every member—and their 1st housing markup in almost 20 years eig.org/newbazaar/is...

The entire substance of the Senakw zoning bylaw is less than half a page partii-partiii.fng.ca/fng-gpn-ii-i...

Hopefully this breaks the logjam

One of the things that’s great about allowing & building an abundance of homes is that, even when those new homes are high-end & high-priced, they have the biggest positive impact on the housing most likely to be attainable to lower-income folks. New housing helps everyone!

The empirical evidence is clear and overwhelming: new market rate housing reduces rents *at the bottom of the market,* making housing more affordable for those who struggle the most.

Fresh research confirming chain-of-address filtering is as powerful in Class A residential as the "flight-to-quality" Class A office phenomenon 👇 New housing supply lowers rents the most in *Class C old buildings*, not the rents in other new Class A buildings! x.com/PewStates/st...

Folks, the Housing markup is actually really good. It’s not at all bleeding edge, but there are some good, meaningful things in here, including fixes for financing of ADUs, chassis reform for modular homes, and improvements to NEPA for housing.

This bill is a miracle In conventional wisdom Congress isn't "supposed" to work this well & in such good bipartisan faith anymore. It all came together more like "Schoolhouse Rock" than like "House of Cards" The Senate's legendary collegiality came back in full bloom here

Senate Banking has just passed the housing megabill out of markup 24-0 First housing markup in almost two decades, and we're including almost every bipartisan housing idea on the Hill in SB jurisdiction!

Fantastic article on Nicole Nosek's work spearheading major housing reform in Texas: www.texastribune.org/2025/07/23/t... It features @aarmlovi.bsky.social and @cityjane.bsky.social

Thrilled to announce today @RepScottPeters, @RepBlakeMoore, @brianschatz, & @Jim_Banks are reintroducing the bipartisan Build More Housing Near Transit Act! The bill protects taxpayers & transit riders alike from federal transit grants to cities that ban housing near transit👇

very funny to read walter lippmann capture the basic dynamic of 21st century housing politics in 1922

“Manufactured housing quietly provides deeply affordable starter homes at an average construction cost under $90,000, but is easily excluded by some communities.” @niskanencenter.bsky.social @aarmlovi.bsky.social www.niskanencenter.org/manufactured...

The omnibus empowers CTA, Metra, and PACE to become real estate developers! This is how its done in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore Value capture! @aarmlovi.bsky.social

Also appears to enable transit operators to be TOD developers (Section 5-905)

As the author admits here, the whole New Deal thing is a red herring. Abundance in fact harkens back to key aspects of the older order, in contrast the contemporary hegemony of lawyers, but neo-Brandeisians are committed above all else to the class politics of lawyers.

Nobody panic--Amtrak's procurement & project management teams are on it Acela II might be half a decade late, but they promise it'll be here in "Spring 2025" The haters of course will note that meteorological Spring 2025 is over But astronomical Spring 2025 technically doesn't end til June 21st!

Is there anyone in this country doing more for public housing ops, efficiency, & reputation than the Philly Housing Authority? PHA's success shows Faircloth discourse has been a misleading excuse for inaction by Left-NIMBY keyboard warriors PHA is dominating the Philly multifam market right now💪

Excellent piece on nascent capital reforms at the New MTA Dave had to use my negative quote on the Old MTA bc it was funny But to be clear: The new "CBTC-centric" digital signalling pivot is a huge win for global best practice reform, cutting costs ~50% This is legit cause for MTA praise! 👏

If cities need motivation to rethink building codes that prohibit single-stair buildings, @aarmlovi.bsky.social has a great framing: relegalize Mrs. Maisel's apartment.

When housing researchers asked Seattle fire officials about their unique building code that permits single-stair buildings, they were met with a shrug. "It was this emperor’s no clothes moment," @aarmlovi.bsky.social said. www.vox.com/housing/4101...

Even by Left-NIMBY standards this story shocks the conscience: 100% affordable housing, built by the Public Housing Authority, delayed 6 years. Costs spiking despite cutting the project to just 57 homes And now the "Equity Groups" linked to the councilmember liken these 57 homes to Tuskegee

It's wild to call this quote market-oriented I've called for RGB rents set at costs regardless of supply & demand—that's decommodification, not markets! I deliver my statutory duty: At-cost rents, stably set regardless of market forces When did strict, at-cost rent controls become "the market"?

I'm hearing our California housing champions are now just 1 vote shy in their Senate Housing Committee push on #SB79 SB79 is the Transit-Oriented Development successor to the legendary SB827 & SB50, legalizing apartments near transit statewide This is a pivotal moment in CA history 👇

Asked my cat why America would voluntarily end the US-led global order and to her credit she gave it some real thought

NEWSDAY's The Point: "The report, by transit writer Nolan Hicks, provides a long-needed updated and comprehensive look at what electrifying the LIRR would cost and what the impact would be." -- www.newsday.com/opinion/the-...