Joe Cohen
@cohenhouse.bsky.social
📤 2538
📥 192
📝 2624
Here to solve the Housing Crisis Tweets mostly about LA and CA land use and development
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Joe Cohen
Stephen Jacob Smith
1 day ago
This is
@bobbyfijan.bsky.social
’s company. There are a lot of interesting technical aspects to it for urbanists to learn from. Even if you disagree with his politics (you’re on Bluesky, of course you do), keep in mind that they’re in line with those of the typical American developer and builder.
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Joe Cohen
YIMBYLAND
2 days ago
Last year I decided I was no longer satisfied just posting about housing. So I started a company with 3 other incredible dudes with the mission to build missing-middle housing at scale. Introducing... The American Housing Corporation It’s time to rebuild the American Dream.
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Joe Cohen
Bobby Garrity
1 day ago
Yeah there's way too much of that here. Same as with all of the immature anti-AI takes
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This shit pisses me off about bsky A group of people are taking a huge risk to do something legitimately cool. The reaction on here has mostly been sarcastic cynicism. Is there a good chance they will fail? Yes. So what. Most ambitious ventures have a high chance of failure.
1 day ago
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Joe Cohen
Lawrence Vulis
2 days ago
FWIW City of San diego housing permits are down 20% or so YoY in 2025. 23/24 were 9500 units each, to get the 8700 cited here 25 was around 7400 which was cited elsewhere by Goria (can't find reference)
www.sandiego.gov/mayor/state-...
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State of the City: Mayor Gloria Reports Progress Residents Can See, Details Challenges Ahead | City of San Diego Official Website
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan. 15, 2026CONTACT:
[email protected]
: 2025 Progress Report
https://www.sandiego.gov/mayor/state-city-mayor-gloria-reports-progress-residents-can-see-details-challenges-ahead
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According to US Census data, 73,058 people work in this nondescript office building in Burbank. Did I discover a massive scam? Probably not. Turns out a payroll company is based there.
2 days ago
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The problem with "courtyard urbanism" for LA is that developers get crazy-high densities out of 6-7 story double-loaded buildings with high lot coverage. The beautiful point-access block renderings are 1/3 the density or less How do you get land costs to work?
2 days ago
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Here is a previously-released rendering of the new consulate building
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2 days ago
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A new project proposed for the Expo/Bundy neighborhood off of Pico Blvd. This project utilizes the "unlimited density loophole" in LA's CHIP program to build 40 units where the zoning only allows six.
2 days ago
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I like this one! (although the drawing is from June, so the design may have changed)
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2 days ago
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South Korea has submitted plans to build a new building for their consulate on Wilshire Blvd in Koreatown
2 days ago
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Trump says we don’t need permits now! 🥴
www.latimes.com/california/s...
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Trump signs executive order to 'preempt' permitting process for fire-destroyed homes in L.A.
Instead of going through the usual regulatory process, residents using federal emergency funds to rebuild would have certify compliance with local standards.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-27/trump-executive-order-preempt-permitting-process-fire-destroyed-homes-l-a
3 days ago
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OMG, "California Post" is going after SAJE in their inaugural issue lol
nypost.com/2026/01/26/u...
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Exclusive | How LA bankrolls lefty anti-cop, Olympics-hating activist group using $1.4M in taxpayer funds
The group is not just an activist group protesting on the steps of City Hall, it’s a paid city contractor.
https://nypost.com/2026/01/26/us-news/la-funds-far-left-anti-cop-nonprofit-as-small-landlords-get-crushed/
4 days ago
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Do I want to know what the "California Post's" solution to CA's housing crisis is?
4 days ago
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Los Angeles received funding to add bike lanes to Jefferson Blvd between Vermont and Western in 2016... These bike lanes (less than one mile) are still under construction a decade later.
4 days ago
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In a smaller city, a good city manager makes such a huge difference... In just four months, Santa Monica's new city manager was able to improve first-round permit plan check on-time completion from 51% to 93%!
4 days ago
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Anyone know what’s going on with the Target hole-in-the-ground in Koreatown? They announced that the project was fully funded months ago, but construction hasn’t resumed.
5 days ago
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I'm kinda surprised Holland Partners is moving forward with such a big project in LA in this environment, but this will be great for Echo Park. (Hopefully Taix really will return, though)
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5 days ago
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
M. Nolan Gray 🥑
5 days ago
And Los Angeles needs many tens of thousands of SRO units like it. I don't know if you've noticed, but the city is in a homelessness crisis, not an "architectural heritage" crisis. The sheer tonedeafness of NIMBYs is why YIMBYs win.
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"Upzoning is destroying LA neighborhoods" Oh yea? Here's the 1930 zoning map for this lot. It was zoned "B" aka "R4" What did R4 allow in 1930? Any residential use "without limitation on the height or area" This area has actually been DOWNZONED
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5 days ago
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AIDS Healthcare Foundation just started construction on a 250-unit affordable housing building in Miami Meanwhile in LA, AHF's 216-unit project has been stuck in permitting for three years now
5 days ago
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
M. Nolan Gray 🥑
6 days ago
I will be channeling the rage I feel today into doing everything I can over the next 10 months to ensure that Trump's goons lose control of Congress, and I urge every other red blooded American to do the same. We may not have a country if this lawlessness continues.
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Will Stancil
6 days ago
Anyone who starts a fire is working for ICE whether they know it or not.
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Stephen Jacob Smith
6 days ago
A gas explosion near the top of a high-rise NYCHA building killed one person and injured 14, one critically, in the South Bronx this morning. I would love to see the Dept of Bldgs reform our codes and standards to make it way easier to get gas out of these old buildings
nypost.com/2026/01/24/u...
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At least 1 dead in gas explosion that sparked 4-alarm blaze on top floors of NYC apartment building
At least one person was killed when a gas explosion sparked a massive, four-alarm blaze on the top floors of a high-rise apartment building in the Bronx early Saturday morning.
https://nypost.com/2026/01/24/us-news/fdny-firefighters-battle-4-alarm-blaze-on-top-floors-of-bronx-apartment/
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Nick Andert
7 days ago
Nuremberg trials or this country is done
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Adrián
6 days ago
Mexico said in the 2000s, let's make our cities completely unmanageable by building super-dense publicly-financed suburbs for the poor.
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Want to get a boom in for-sale housing construction in California? Ballot measure idea: exempt from state income tax profits from new housing sold to homeowners below 6x county moderate income, if the money is re-invested into building for-sale housing.
7 days ago
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Big ULA news in Los Angeles: The City Council introduced a motion today to put a measure to amend ULA (the “mansion” tax) on the 2026 ballot. (1/2)
7 days ago
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Nolan is wrong. The state should NOT cut off any Metro funding. Instead, they should reorganize the Metro board (which the state legislature has control over) to better reflect transit riders
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8 days ago
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Nick Andert
8 days ago
Sepulveda is worth celebrating though. Arguably the single most important rapid transit project in the nation, and it will be a sea change for transit use in LA. It’ll be SO much faster than car travel that it’ll drive a LOT of elective transit usage
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Neo-Nazis on X have crowd sourced a "$7,000" crypto bounty for a black person to say "it do be like that Mr. Stancil" to him while trailing ICE. (The bounty is only $500 for a white person to do it in blackface)
8 days ago
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The
@whstancil.bsky.social
memes are going crazy on Twitter right now
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8 days ago
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Will Stancil
8 days ago
Hard agree. It’s just wrong! There’s a reason my community is full of Latino and Hmong and Somali people, and it’s because another America does exist and has existed. A free and welcoming America we can return to
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Before and After: The 700-unit Jordan Downs housing project is being transformed into a 1,500-unit mixed income public housing community
9 days ago
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Contrary to popular belief, garden style apartments can have good urbanism
9 days ago
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Jordan Grimes
9 days ago
Los Angeles is such an unserious place
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Holy shit! California Together has a signed labor agreement. This might actually be happening?
9 days ago
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Stephen Jacob Smith
9 days ago
Not only will the administration not back up their commitment in the slightest, but even the union boss is negotiating against himself in the article. Looks like they’re ready to throw the construction trades all the way under the bus.
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Austin Beutner
10 days ago
“Austin has brought arts and music education back into LAUSD and throughout California with Prop 28. We’ve seen how Austin has brought change, and I think it’s the change that LA needs.” - JosuĂ© Louis MancĂa, Music Teacher and Arts Advocate
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The San Jose YIMBYs are being NIMBYs because this project isn’t dense enough (without knowing the details, I think Catalyze is probably wrong here, considering the location)
mailchi.mp/catalyzesili...
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Action Alert 10.1: Tell Councilmember Candelas & Mayor Mahan to Step Up
https://mailchi.mp/catalyzesiliconvalley.org/1142025pleasanthillsaacandelasmahan
10 days ago
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Building in LA is completely broken, but you should be accurate about your criticism
10 days ago
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This is generally not true any longer. Since Measure JJJ, LA City Councilmembers have very little discretion over individual development projects. And CHIP has opened up by-right pathways for a lot of projects that previously required discretionary approvals
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10 days ago
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
11 days ago
I would prefer the State to actively structure the risk profile of the market by defining - minimum scope of warranty protections, including 3rd party inspectors during construction - creating objective performance standards to clarify what constitutes a defect for condos
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
11 days ago
One of the bits that gets lost in the condo defect risk conversation in California is that the higher cost of premiums itself is not the binding constraint to production. It’s that many carriers simply won’t write the policy for GCs, subs or designers irrespective of higher premiums.
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It pisses me off so much that all of this was demolished
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12 days ago
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I wish there was a way to better link content between Twitter and here, because I'm in the trenches fighting Spencer Pratt about bus lanes, and no one here gets to see it
12 days ago
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reposted by
Joe Cohen
Brandon Istenes
13 days ago
My reproduction with ACS (using rentgrs for housing costs and incearn for earnings) is not quite as tight but still pretty remarkable
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94% of San Jose's residential land is zoned single family. Sure, SJ has a lot of permitted units that haven't been able to start construction because of cost issues, but those are mainly large projects with union labor. San Jose absolutely has a zoning problem.
13 days ago
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@hunterowens.net
I've been told you created this chart. Is that correct?
13 days ago
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What's really frustrating about CA environmental laws is that CEQA is used to block housing/transit, meanwhile Boing won a lawsuit that will allow them to leave in place the most toxic, cancer-causing superfund site in the state
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13 days ago
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