The rent is too damn high! Tomorrow night FPI chief economist @emmurpheis.bsky.social joins @aarmlovi.bsky.social and Sam Mellins at Judson Memorial Church to discuss housing under Mamdani

Proportional representation systems can't be gerrymandered. Don't believe me? Give it a try! I made a gerrymandering simulator with an imaginary state under either single-member districts or multi-member proportional districts. How much can YOU gerrymander? claude.ai/public/artif...

After Gov Hochul rescued the MTA, I was working on an op-ed on how (once congestion pricing launched) she was the most pro-transit governor in the country The congestion pricing pause came in the middle of edits. I "paused" the op-ed, but I didn't lose faith or go nuclear etc. I knew we'd be back

Whatever else is happening in politics, I want to note that Sen Warren has been a great advocate of housing abundance It's been my pleasure to work with her staff as they've co-developed the Build Now Act with Sen Kennedy—with endorsement by Ed Glaeser himself!—in Sen Scott's ROAD package

I took two trains at 3:30-4 on Wednesday that were so crowded that people got left on the platform. The MTA absolutely should not be placing any more orders for new trains that are not open gangway, the trains are way too crowded for them to drag their feet like this.

One regret: I wish I'd searched law literature for cites on how STV solves Voting Rights Acts electoral minority inclusion *and* avoids the toxic district-based remedy that California has (disastrously) pursued I treated it as common knowledge but it needs proof & there are great cites!

My colleagues @awjustus.bsky.social and @aarmlovi.bsky.social have a new article out connecting electoral design to local housing politics. They show how proportional representation in Cambridge has sidestepped the pitfalls of both district based and traditional first-past-the-post councils

One Weird Trick to defeat councilmanic prerogative

You may've heard that at-large city councils represent citywide interests but violate the Voting Rights Act, dooming us to single member wards with "member deference" But! Cambridge's "Single Transferable Vote" system, a type of citywide RCV, eliminates member deference without violating VRA!!

wonder if mamdani tried to single stair pill him single stair, folks. you’re hearing it more and more. single stair. it’s a beautiful term. makes wonderful homes - and we love a lot of beautiful, affordable homes. i think i probably just coined it. i’m not sure. but you’re hearing it more and more.

Excited to share I'm joining @openphil.bsky.social under @mattsclancy.bsky.social as the housing program officer for the Abundance & Growth Fund! Launching Niskanen's housing team has been a blast, & I'll remain a Senior Fellow with them But I'm thrilled to start supporting housers everywhere!

Thanks to @stefanoschen.bsky.social and @nytimes.com for picking up our report on global transit operations. It’s clear that the rest of the world has moved toward more automated and leaner operations without the sky falling. Legislating ops from Albany is overreach: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...

Getting texts that Paperboy Prince and Vickie Paladino have both QT'd my "end socialism for parking to fund social democratic liberalism for our children" tweet at length...but I can't see it bc of the huge Twitter 2FA glitch/outage If you see something funny post it here 👀

@aarmlovi.bsky.social is right. R12 next to the subway is the way to NYC’s next million people.

A really good column on housing and the Mamdani mayoralty by Alex Armlovich, who is on the Rent Board -- www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/a-h...

One way to reduce condo defect liability: stop forcing architects to design buildings that leak. HCD’s “objective design standards” guide *encourages* making building envelopes more complex, heightening leak and therefore defect lawsuit risk cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/Ap...

The marquee Mamdani policy, 4 years of 'freeze the rent', will take a lot to pull off. Here, @aarmlovi.bsky.social lays out the playbook of what it will take to get his vote (he serves on the Rent Guidelines Board that will vote on Mamdani's agenda) www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/a-h...

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!