Let’s lower the rent! As mayor, I will triple housing production by cutting red tape, lowering costs, and eliminating pointless bureaucracy.

Talking Headways Podcast: Civil Rights, Civic Transport usa.streetsblog.org/2026/04/02/t... via @usa.streetsblog.org and @theoverheadwire.com

New #TalkingHeadways podcast! We're chatting with Laurel Paget-Seekins @laurelintransit.bsky.social about how the Trump administration is looking to gut civil rights enforcement for transportat projects. Also transit agency power dynamics and public sector capacity - link.theoverheadwire.com/jg34x

Rooftop solar has come out of nowhere and is now 20% of Puerto Rico's energy generation mix -- more than natural gas.

Always a pleasure to talk with Jeff @theoverheadwire.com! (Less a pleasure to hear my own voice recorded.) Thanks for having me on to highlight the threat to civil rights protections in transportation. Watch this space for updates on the pending US DOT rescission of Title VI regulations.

New #TalkingHeadways podcast! We're chatting with Laurel Paget-Seekins @laurelintransit.bsky.social about how the Trump administration is looking to gut civil rights enforcement for transportat projects. Also transit agency power dynamics and public sector capacity - link.theoverheadwire.com/jg34x

It appears that the White House's Office of Management and Budget is failing to apportion roughly $4.9 billion in transit capital grants, despite the Congress approving them: openomb.org/file/1147715... The 2nd Trump administration has failed to fund a single new transit line ⏬

This rips. Hint to fellow planners: always talk to disability advocates first, you’ll make better plans for everyone.

"To top it all off, there was Ottobock, a cost-free center open 12 hours a day where anyone with a Paralympic credential could get their prosthetic or wheelchair repaired on the spot."

Wednesday's Most Read # 1 - The Paralympic Village Was Proof That Truly Accessible Cities Can and Should Exist link.theoverheadwire.com/jwkg8 @teenvogue.com

Wednesday's Most Read #2 - How To Fix The Broken Gas Tax link.theoverheadwire.com/yukab @usa.streetsblog.org

Wednesday's Most Read # 3 - Texas saw a $50B future in clean energy. Then the political winds shifted. link.theoverheadwire.com/d36tb @grist.org

Democrats need to run hard against this until November 2028 - and then deliver

Just in case you were <still> wondering why Rahm should just disappear.

This is a good question by Dave because it elicited such a stupid answer. "He came up with something nobody else has." It's a fucking tunnel for an imaginary train! Thank you Mr. Serious Presidential Man

Is there a place where we can see upcoming book releases for city and city adjacent or related books?

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

skyscrapers for cars instead of a car-free ecodistrict man US urbanism is bleak AF

In this short, Ross Chapin and I discuss how the hardware, our built environment, either supports or twarts our sociability and connectedness. youtube.com/shorts/uzoxB...

Tuesday's Most Read # 1 - No, your city doesn't need another dashboard link.theoverheadwire.com/jpfcu @routefifty.bsky.social

Tuesday's Most Read # 2 - Multiscale Analysis of Pedestrian Crossing Distance link.theoverheadwire.com/kd64c Journal of the American Planning Association

Tuesday's Most Read # 3 - A School District Tried to Help Train Waymos to Stop for School Buses. It Didn’t Work link.theoverheadwire.com/by36m @wired.com

This is an urbanism impact we don't talk about much. When monopolies thrive and drive up prices, they disrupt the economics of cities. In this case, loss of a restaurant supplier means small businesses are impacted as is your ability to stay within a food budget. Quality likely suffers too.

There's a lot of incumbent money floating around trying to suppress this message, but yes, a war over fossil fuels is having exactly the effect you'd think it would:

“It stings because we failed the streetcar as much as the streetcar failed us. DC was simply not ready to do this… the DC Streetcar… taught us that if we want strong transit, we must care enough to actually make transit strong. We are still here, dreaming.”

Transport Solutions to the Energy Crisis by @transportist.org "There are short-term emergency measures, which can buy time in a fuel shock...The emergency measures must be done because we didn’t do enough no-regrets measures the last time we wasted an emergency." open.substack.com/pub/transpor...

Been trying to organize thoughts lately and while housing sprawl has been a historical focus, I find commercial sprawl impactful and less discussed. I talk a little bit about it here: theoverheadwire.com/2026/03/the-...

Vehicles have agency now. Pay no attention to the human behind the wheel.

Monday's Most Read # 2 - Report: Nearly Half of U.S. Households Are Not Economically Secure link.theoverheadwire.com/vadqj Governing

Monday's Most Read # 3 - New study identifies shared mathematical principle linking how cells, companies, and cities diversify link.theoverheadwire.com/7bkvn @mitsloan.bsky.social

In Austin, Waymo robotaxis keep driving past stopped school buses with their lights flashing. The school district bent over backwards to help Waymo fix the problem. Nothing worked, and Waymo won't comment. Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence about AV safety. www.wired.com/story/a-scho...

Great discussion about spreading investments to all neighborhoods equally.

He's so good at this. Making it cool to care about fixing things, even small things, is a version of leadership we need to see more of these days.

New #TalkingHeadways podcast @usa.streetsblog.org - We’re joined by Stephen Crim, director of policy and analytical reporting for the New York MTA’s Central Business District Tolling Program. link.theoverheadwire.com/cebfx

"...in 1989, Japan’s legislature tried something new. Rather than seize land, a blunt option that breeds resentment and lawsuits, it passed a special law to build the rail corridor through a system known as “land readjustment."

Talking Headways Podcast: Congestion Pricing Data Collection usa.streetsblog.org/2026/03/26/t... via @usa.streetsblog.org and @theoverheadwire.com

Also in tomorrow's newsletter, a really fascinating item in Noema Magazine @noemamag.com on mechanism design in creating policies that have positive outcomes for those who participate. Transfer of development rights, one of my favorites, is discussed in detail - link.theoverheadwire.com/u9yxb

... need to move several notches down the scale toward *mercenary*. You want votes? You want people to rally & fight for you? Show that you genuinely want the things you say you want, that you'll pursue them with ferocity, that you will not be scared off by the scolding of reactionary centrists!

This thread has me thinking about mayors that talk about process when trying to stall positive change on transportation.

I still can't believe I'm going to be riding a light rail train across I-90 later today.

Some good research in this story on how to design for neighborliness (very much parallels my story on courtyard housing) thewalrus.ca/cramped-cond...

Delivery trucks shouldn’t be taking up whole bus stop bulb outs. @sfmta.bsky.social

🎵 corn is a shitty solar panel 🎶 leahy.substack.com/p/how-solar-...

They should at least have a computer lab with Macintosh SEs and Oregon Trail/MathBlaster installed.

We need to stop prioritizing parking lots over people. Today, I assembled a roundtable to discuss our Building Up Illinois Developments Plan — and the consensus was that we need to act fast. Looking forward to passing it and getting to work in our neighborhoods.

Also in tomorrow's newsletter, a really fascinating item in Noema Magazine @noemamag.com on mechanism design in creating policies that have positive outcomes for those who participate. Transfer of development rights, one of my favorites, is discussed in detail - link.theoverheadwire.com/u9yxb

Wednesday's Most Read # 1 - This rail line would get you to the Grove, the Beverly Center and Cedars-Sinai. Is it L.A.’s ‘missing link’? link.theoverheadwire.com/u93cw @latimes.com

Wednesday's Most Read # 2 - Modelling car dependence: Pathways to sustainable urban mobility link.theoverheadwire.com/w8qeg Cities: The International Journal of Policy and Planning