Do we want an economy where the working class can live, form households, and take risks, or one where they’re permanent renters feeding asset appreciation?

Do we want an economy where the working class can live, form households, and take risks, or one where they’re permanent renters feeding asset appreciation?

Finally the attention it deserves …. www.boston.com/real-estate/...

Finally, yes. I hope much more small stuff ADUs, sfh conversions, duplex, rowhouse becomes by right across metros and that multipliers can start a slow return to 3 and that homes are less thought of as investments like in the past. x.com/_murphy_dan/...

Note the lower density places with higher car free are due in significant part to poverty. Also note higher fatality rates of people walking in those cities.

Note the lower density places with higher car free are due in significant part to poverty. Also note higher fatality rates in those cities.

Hope to see more of this in future #BackTo3

The only serious “downside” of #BackTo3 is political, not economic, it slows the growth of paper wealth of current owners. Do we want an economy where the working class can live, form households, and take risks, or one where they’re permanent renters feeding asset appreciation?

Highest car free cities USA

Sedan / walking crash deaths rose. Bloat does not explain …

The big post-2011 rise driver in deaths of people walking in US is not vehicle type alone , it’s strongly tied to where/when (urban arterials, dark) and exposure. www.colorado.aaa.com/sites/defaul...

The big post-2011 rise driver in deaths of people walking in US is not vehicle type alone , it’s strongly tied to where/when (urban arterials, dark) and exposure. colorado.aaa.com/sites/default/… @DavidZipper

NEW // Sunday Video: The 15 Million Home Vacancy Conspiracy Theory Debunked Sunday video: www.theurbanist.org/2026/01/04/s...

Why is capitalism not allowed to make housing cheaper where demand is high. Why did project 2025 resist single family home conversions? “Localities…must have the final say in zoning laws and regulations, and a conservative Administration should oppose any efforts to weaken single-family zoning.”

I think the separation between the lines is primarily explained by lack of mixed use in US and high petrol taxes in Europe

Tragic. www.boston.com/news/local-n...

Once state allowed locals to make housing discretionary via zoning after 1926 housing development was mostly re-routed to suburbs and greenfield where much less restricted. Rail died as low density car centrism became the mandate and was subsidized at all levels of government.

The left (which I am part of) goes on and on about oligarchs getting pols to do their bidding to restrict markets yet wants the state to maintain the highly regulated housing scarcity that steals much more from the bottom 1/2s paychecks. We must unite for better outcomes for the working class.

NEW: This is very interesting — Seattle City Council has allowed 8-unit buildings up to 3 storeys, or 10 apartments up to 4 storeys (they call them “stacked flats”) if they add green features (like bioswales or green roofs) or preserve trees, in all residential zones across the entire city!

I think the separation between the lines is primarily explained by lack of mixed use in US and high petrol taxes in Europe

Just a snap shot but we have way more busy arterials here, mostly due to the low density land use we’ve mandated

Outliers

Stop thinking of homes as investments. Start thinking of places as communities for homes for families.

Legalize mixed use off the arterials. If neighborhood interiors can have small retail/services, fewer trips require crossing the commercial arterial stroads. It shouldn’t be grandfathered rights that disappear.

With a nod to @jeffspeck.bsky.social Maybe the North Star should be Walk”Afford”ability It’s easier to grasp than #BackTo3 #WalkAffordability

He gets it like few others and is willing to actually speak publicly about it.

Stop thinking of homes as investments. Start thinking of places as communities for homes for families.

The way to get people out of cars is to allow them to afford places where they can live much more of their lives with out cars.

I can’t understand upper middle “progressive” homeowners against more market housing supply. The north star is to give the kids what the boomers got in 1970 incrementally. Dignity, not lotteries. @davidsirota.com @samseder.bsky.social @emmavigeland.bsky.social @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social

Highway road noise at about 500’ West Asheville NC Hanover St @ncdot.bsky.social

An online creator in Illinois who struck and killed a pedestrian with her car during a livestream she was hosting on TikTok was charged this week with two felonies, the police said.

High multipliers are injustice and the silence is deafening. youtube.com/shorts/fAfeP...

Why should a home appreciate any faster than. Inflation? #BackTo3

I can’t understand upper middle “progressive” homeowners against more market housing supply. The north star is to give the kids what the boomers got in 1970 incrementally. Dignity, not lotteries. @davidsirota.com @samseder.bsky.social @emmavigeland.bsky.social @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social

Cameras will catch you running red lights soon in CA with tickets sent www.the-sun.com/motors/15623...

Why should a home appreciate any faster than. Inflation? #BackTo3

But it wasn’t always this way. Small business used to thrive. Entrepreneurship is way down because multipliers suck away all of the excess $$ of the bottom 1/2 of earners.

Places that developed pre zoning are better mostly - the walkable neighborhoods out of reach for many because everything around is forced to be low density

He gets it like few others and is willing to actually speak publicly about it.

High multipliers are injustice and the silence is deafening. youtube.com/shorts/fAfeP...

Derek Thompson (journalist; The Atlantic; “Abundance” coauthor) Core claim: the housing problem is fundamentally about shortage + obstacles to building; he’s a prominent “build more / pro-supply” voice pushing an “abundance” framing.

Paul Krugman (Nobel-winning economist; columnist) Core claim: rich, high-productivity places should build more housing; restrictive land-use policy “strangles growth,” and more building is central to affordability (and helps with homelessness and opportunity).

Jason Furman (economist; former Chair, White House Council of Economic Advisers) Core claim: housing supply restrictions reduce affordability and mobility, which then drags on growth and entrenches inequality (because people can’t move to opportunity).

Edward Glaeser (Harvard economist) Core claim: restrictive zoning/land-use controls are a dominant driver of high housing costs, so loosening constraints + building more is key to affordability.

Ezra Klein (journalist; NYT; “Abundance” coauthor) Core claim: America’s crisis follows from “refusing to build sufficient housing” (their framing), and the fix is largely enabling more supply (zoning/approvals/permitting reform). 

Shame. www.boston.com/news/local-n...

watching my favorite christmas movie and what is possibly the great american comedy about class and race

Housing appreciation that systematically beats inflation due to scarcity youtu.be/_zOjRlVpAOQ?...

The question progressives need to answer is whether they support a continued rise in housing multipliers or an eventual return for our kids and grandkids to the less than 3 multipliers these metros, the country and Boomers got in 1970?