“In the past half century, by investing in transit and allowing development, Tokyo has added more housing units than the total number of units in New York City. It has remained affordable by becoming the world’s largest city. It has become the world’s largest city by remaining affordable.” 🎁

There's broad agreement that transit-oriented development—TOD—is good. But the financing isn't always in place to make it feasible. In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, we investigate factors that make TOD financially feasible, and point to opportunities for states to move the needle.

I don't think it's fully appreciated, just how much the sudden end of ~two centuries of extensive and reasonably straightforward daily reporting on every neighborhood/town/city in the US, in a standardized and searchable format, is going to screw up future historical research.

Another insane move from the Trump regime. One of NCAR's contributions to climate science is the development of the Community Earth System Model (CESM), which is used by researchers worldwide. Here's a simulation of air-sea CO₂ fluxes from CESM.

One of the biggest reasons why better cities are hard to achieve is the powerful proven psychology of “status quo bias.” No matter how bad an idea was in the first place, once it’s in place, our “loss aversion” means we will fight irrationally hard to protect it from any change to something better.

Rep John Inglis released memos today for 3 bills on housing policy: 1. Building more Homes Near Transit Stops 2. Duplex, Triplex, and Quadplex Housing Single-Family Designated Areas 3. Removing Barriers to the creation of Accessory Dwelling Units All three sound awesome!

I know not everyone is down for free trade and open immigration, but separate from the particulars, it's both sad and scary to me that every day Earth's countries seem to be closing the doors. There's plenty to complain about with the post-WWII order, but also so many good things taken for granted.

Strip District could get long-awaited grocery store as part of a 464-unit mixed use development on Railroad Street www.axios.com/local/pittsb...

NEWS: Pittsburgh City Council will consider a bill to raise the city's property tax rate by 30% for 2026 as members race to form a balanced budget by year end. That % could shift, and unclear if there are enough votes for any increase www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-c...

Why are many U.S. cities building less? Why have they insisted on a "thicket" of regulations that make housing hard to build? In a new #EconJMP with Beau Bressler (beaubressler.github.io), we study how much of the answer lies with a forgotten federal program that taught cities to restrict growth

This is a fascinating new paper (and thread) on the way that a federal planning program in the 1970s ended up encouraging many cities to permit less housing in decades the followed ⬇️

I changed my discord about me to a quote from @josephpolitano.bsky.social that I love and I always forget about it and am incredibly amused every time I open my profile

No-strings-attached, zero-means-testing, no-questions-asked cash payouts have been proven, over and over again, to be the most effective form of charity/aid going. It gets people in housing, and it saves the state money. We know this. It's fact, not theory.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Energy transitions can happen faster than we think: In 2000 almost 90% of Denmark's electricity was from fossil fuels. In 2024 less than 10% of Danish electricity was from fossil fuels.

me: towers are good them: no, we need nice 4-6 storey, human scale buildings me: we do! let’s rezone the city so we can get 4-6 storeys everywhere them: oh no, not like that

If what Miller says is true, why does research consistently show that immigrants (including the undocumented) commit fewer crimes than U.S.-born citizens?

A very good piece on bike share and tourism. As a Lyft Pink subscriber I get member pricing on bike share in NYC and Chicago, so I mostly got around by bike when I visited. Boston, on the other hand, charges high daily and per-trip rates to tourists; so I took a lot of ride-hails instead.

many YIMBYs i know are actually quite explicit about working against their own financial interest

Goddammit this is dumb

the astonishing thing about this wave of denialism is that we have more or less decidedly hit the point where clean energy is the *cheaper* option by some distance

Join us for our next General Meeting this Thursday with guest speaker Scott Bricker of @bikepgh.bsky.social! We are big fans of BikePGH’s work and we’re looking forward to hearing about their experiences getting involved in the city. We hope to see you there!

While I don’t ride or die for Pete Buttigieg, the vitriol directed at him is completely insane. “When I was younger I wished that I could have taken a pill to turn me straight; but I have accepted and embraced my identity now” is an *extremely* common sentiment from Millennial and older gay people!

It can be hard to do math in your head, while standing up, on national television. Nerve-wracking, too. But even so, in twenty seconds on the air, I did a better job than the President in costing his latest idea and figuring out whether his new idea of a $2,000 rebate check will work. (It won't.)

By this time next week, the estimated deaths due to the illegal destruction of USAID and the shuttering of its aid efforts will breach 400,000. More than 260,000 will be children. Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...

Last night’s election was big for housing ⬇️ —NIMBY NJ Gubernatorial candidate lost decisively. —Mamdani, promising to pause rent increases & develop 200k affordable units, won NYC decisively. —All pro-housing referendums in NYC passed. —Housing funding measures passed in Columbus & Denver.

Wow shocked 2 learn Tariffs Not Only Impose Immense Economic Costs but Also Fail to Achieve Their Primary Policy Aims and Foster Political Dysfunction Along the Way

First off, it's a province, not a state second, and most importantly, the *Ontario ad* didn't "roil" the trade relationship. Trump tore it up, like he did with literally every country on the planet. Wtf is this copy.

no kings motherfucker

Exciting housing policy news in Pittsburgh! The Housing Needs Assessment Bill has now been amended, so now it will: 1. Remove Parking Minimums 2. Allow ADUs 3. Provide tax breaks and density bonuses to projects that include affordable housing www.prohousingpgh.org/blog/afforda...

Appears the Trump admin’s reduction in force has hit housing hard this evening. Reports that all CDFI fund staff have been let go. HUD appears to have lost 442 staff. Yet another federal cut that will make providing affordable housing in the US all the more challenging.

The problem is that Trump has exempted data center *computers* from tariffs, but has not exempted *the necessary power infrastructure* from tariffs High tariffs on batteries, solar panels, transformers, & copper wire are turbocharging the electricity price pressures caused by AI

If H‑1Bs “took jobs,” you’d expect lower wages for U.S. grads. The best available studies show the opposite: 1990–2010 H‑1B inflows raised wages of American college grads by 4.2% and non‑college by ~2%, with native employment unchanged. Think complements, not substitutes.

Fewer international college students means reduced revenue for schools and therefore higher tuition prices and fewer US-born students

We worked late tonight coming up with this handy pocket guide to send to NPR. It doesn't address road design issues, but if we're going to educate road users, we should include drivers.

Tattoo this map of greenhouse emissions on his forehead.

i don't think anyone has ever hated the american economy more than this guy

The Fed’s stuck: tariffs mean weaker growth (cut rates?) and higher inflation (raise rates?). With this one simple trick you can solve both problems: Scrap the tariffs.

When the facts are available and their meaning obvious, people who want power over you must eventually demand that you ignore what you see, what you know. "Freedom", wrote Orwell, "is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."

New high of Americans saying immigration is good for the US

Man, four stories really does scare NIMBYs everywhere, huh?

While many were 3-day-weekending, a few were scrambling to prevent the federal gov't from stealthily deporting Guatemalan minors, including some housed in Pittsburgh, @jamiewiggan.bsky.social and @quinnglabicki.bsky.social reported www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-a...

This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Amidst chaotic immigrant purges in the United States, is there a top expert designing constructive immigration policy for the future? Yes. @marcelaescobari.bsky.social—second to none in brilliance+influence—draws new & pragmatic lessons from honest, unflinching analysis of the last Administration.

Why is the rent so damn high in LA? Simple economics: the demand for housing is extremely high and our housing supply is extremely low.

A careful study of every populist episode since 1900 finds catastrophic consequences, which play out slowly. On average, incomes fall behind by nearly 15% over 15 years. For the U.S., this is a cost of about $13k per person per year. Over a lifetime, that's million bucks.

This is bad.

“Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” — Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address as CA Governor, Jan. 5, 1967. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

'A NSFW ban won't negatively affect me, I don't draw or post porn!' You sure? Here's how it went down when tumblr did it:

It was the job of senate republicans to remove & disqualify this lunatic after January 6 and they chickened out. It was Garland's job to put him in jail for doing crimes in broad daylight, and he dragged his feet. It was SCOTUS' job to disqualify him under the 14A, and they hid under their desks.