In Mexico we have states that are more municipalist than others regarding urban planning, is that a thing in the US?

Using Gemini to lobby density increments.

My ranking of Latin American countries based on how NIMBY/YIMBY they are: Top YIMBY: 🇵🇦 🇨🇴 🇵🇪 🇨🇱 🇧🇷 YIMBYish: 🇪🇨 🇩🇴 🇸🇻 Meh: 🇬🇹 🇨🇷 Too poor to have significant projects to NIMBY: 🇧🇴 🇵🇾 🇻🇪 🇳🇮 🇭🇳 🇨🇺 NIMBY: 🇲🇽 🇦🇷 🇺🇾 🇵🇷

Saltillo has under 1% apartments. 75% of its residential land is zoned for low densities that ban multifamily. The remaining 25% has a FAR too high relative to dwelling limits that makes apartments unfeasible.

She’s actually gonna make it 😱

Someone didn’t understand the micro part of “microbuses”.

Reading about Mexico’s historical taboo. Mexicans will never accept that proper nation-building only started after the US took the half of Mexico.

What is a building code freeze? Why?

Mexico City built 4,000 units during 2025. That is less than 0.5 per 1,000 inhab. NIMBYest city in North America. www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8bW...

Mind blown by this 52 story, 471 unit tower in Monterrey. It is crazy how a poorly written ordinance for Transit Oriented Development, which freed FAR and densities, fostered so many projects.

In all my Chilango arrogance, I like telling people that I am from “La Ciudad”.

Met a Dutch guy. “Amsterdam feels more like a city than all those Mexican cities with 1 million people, and Amsterdam is not even that big!” Dutch arrogance on point.

Mexico in general has subsaharan transit systems. Mexican airports have no transit access at all.

Municipal aesthetics.

Cute tier C Mexican municipality city hall mural.

Puebla has the highest population decline of all Mexican World Heritage Historic Centers :(

I know it’s not ok to romanticize poverty, and all that. But I’ve been cycling through this (cool) informal settlement in the old rail right-of-way for ten years; and felt like sharing it.

I just results in the darkest common area possible.

Nuevo León mandates 160 sqft parking setbacks, creating weird housing designs. Most families eventually expand into this space anyway.

Three unnecessary requirements to build in Mexico City: -Every construction over 200 sqm requires a rain collection system and a dedicated cistern. -Every construction above 120 sqm requires a neighborhood notice. -A formal declaratory that the construction does not need an environmental assessment.

Latin American food outside of Mexico and Peru is quite mheg. Basically a different take on rice and beans with pork.

Trying to understand the concept of "apartment complex" in Texas border cities. Basically low density flats and multifamily spawl.

State of Mexico law requires 260 sqft land donation per unit for 30+ unit projects; i.e. a 40 apartment building on a 10,000 sqft lot would require donating the entire lot. As a result, there is basically no infill development in Mexico City Metropolitan municipalities like Naucalpan.

Naucalpan, a municipality within the Mexico City Metropolitan Area, with 830,000 inhab., approved 200 housing units during 2025. NIMBYest city in the world?

Monterrey has one of the weirdest urban forms for a city of 5.4M people. Even in 1990, before suburban housing subsidies, the city had this weird low density core, high density suburbs. Interestingly, nowadays, despite the single-family suburbanization, the city as a whole is more dense than in 1990

Riding the Metrobús from Condesa to Reforma during off-peak hour is super nice.

Fun fact: Guatemala, despite being poorer, has twice the amount of households owning cars than Peru. Apparently Guatemalans buy cheap used Mexican cars; just as Mexicans buy cheap used American cars.

Writing an article about Monterrey. One interesting thing is how 91% of Monterrey's population growth between 2000-2020 happened in Infonavit financed developments (blue). 61% in Guadalajara and 39% in Mexico City.

Guadalajara set parking maximums within their TOD zones. Develops continued to build parking, as most TOD towers were meant for upper class Mexicans. They sell the parking spaces informally (i.e. no property title for the parking space, solely de facto occupancy rights).

Surprised by the amount of towers coming up in Guadalajara.

I heard people in this social media might like a single-stair, 15-story, Guadalajara floorplan.

Planning Director of a 250,000 inhab municipality would calculate the gross floor area = lot size * BCR * FAR 😭😭😭 The guy is still one of the most knowledgeable that I have met, tho.

Compared to Chile, a country with 40% the population of Spain.

Haven’t really been aware, until recently, of the amount of PDA in Mexico City. I’d say it is more common than other Latin American countries. Also, Mexicans do it in the most cheesy overdramatic way possible.

The performative government of CDMX is trying to appease NIMBY housing advocates again, with some cheesy reform! The constitutional right to neighborhood attachment.

Chile’s reforming its national zoning ordinances to: 1) assume 2 inhabitants/unit instead of 4, increasing allowable dwelling density 2) halve parking requirements near transit 3) lower FAR bonus threshold from 5000sqm to 2500sqm, also eliminating municipal veto. NIMBYs are seething

El Salvador banned parking mandates. Most Shoupista country. www.asamblea.gob.sv/node/13621

The Peruvian election is quite unique. The vote between the urban poor and rural poor is super different. Peru being one of the few LatAm countries (with Bolivia) where the main city still draws many migrants from the rural areas.

Really funny social class cleavage in the Peruvian election. Wealthy Lima votes for the catholic right wing populist. Poor Lima votes for the fujimorist right wing populist.

Just found out Aguascalientes reformed its state law to allow municipalities to eliminate parking mandates in exchange of bicycle parking (the state is relatively cyclist).

Mexico City is the only federal entity that requires local congress approval to update municipal zoning. So politically complex, that the city is basically stucked with zoning plans from the 90s.

One thing that many Mexican municipalities do is raffle cars to incentivize people to pay their property taxes.

Aguascalientes is the only state in Mexico with a proper garbage collection system. Would really like to know how cheaper it is to operate than the impractical door-to-door system.

Really crazy that Madrid and Barcelona require 1 parking space per housing unit; even in their super dense urban cores.

Skopje’s 2010’s neoclassical architecture is based.

Send Athens recs, oomfies 🇬🇷

Need one of my Kosovar Albanian followers to explain the construction boom that is visible in EVERY Kosovo city. Is is diaspora speculative investment? Nationbuilding? Something else?

The municipalist inside me likes the sign with four different etymologies for local government.

Eastern Europe most cyclist city appreciation post.

Went to Srebrenica today. Made me wonder which genocides has the international community actually averted. Perhaps Kosovo? 🤔