Starting to think more deeply about subsidized housing and I'm increasingly of the mind that cities ought to get back in the business of turning a profit.

Demand side macro-determinism www.urbanproxima.com/p/inescapabl...

and now for some actual good news: the yimbys are getting good enough at suing the suburbs that they don't even need to sue anymore! they got a building improved in a very bougie burb just by sending nastygrams signed "sonja trauss"...

Next up in the state leadership vs local control discourse

Had a winding conversation on urbanism and the idea of progress in China - this included Moses-esque urban renewal and the story of ... Chinese Municipal Elon Musk?

When the sewer socialist is better at talking about licensing reform than a libertarian...

The Senáḵw development in Vancouver, BC is, IMO, the most under-reported story is North American Urbanism today. There's the obvious YIMBY angle, but there's also a Georgist one, something about regulatory arbitrage, something about placemaking, and even a bit about the politics of reconciliation.

Please do not meme yourself into thinking that communist countries defunded their police forces.

YIMBY Action x Abundance Network

Sat down with Pablo Sepúlveda to learn how zlvas (pronounced zel-vuhs) is productizing the entire NYC zoning code. As we move forward, we're going to see more and more attempts to represent laws, regulations, and ordinances as structured data (exactly what zlvas is doing for NYC land use)

Middle Housing rezoning goes to #Berkeley city council vote tonight. Big question is how many homes per lot. Will it be a handful of large 2,000 sq ft+ houses, or will a larger number of smaller starter homes or flats also be allowed. For best results we want flexibility for either. 1/ #berkmtg

I dunno if the person who used to take care of this on the old app made it here, but... ...an lvt would fix this

as it turns out, standing up a YIMBY chapter is not unlike a doing a new market launch

Infill Friday. Edmonton edition. One house hiding in the trees to... Fourplex!

all part of the process...

The most important graph you'll see today. As large blue-state metros choked off growth with zoning, red-state metros kept building cheap suburban housing. But now, that's changed, as homeowners in those states have mastered the art of blocking development, too. The result? Prices are spiking.

Curing NIMBYism The proximal cause of American NIMBYism is a small-c conservative aversion to change. We need to reacclimatize people to the idea that growth is good and development is normal — missing middle housing will help us do that. More than anything, we're fighting status quo bias.

Sat down with New York State Senator and NYC Mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie. It was one of the better conversations I've ever had with an elected, both on the what as well as the why.

Recently took a ride on Austin's CapMetro Red Line. Overall verdict?

Did one of those "things that have been trapped inside my head for years" posts. Hoping the metaphor of draconian pizza regulation is a good stand in for minimum lot sizes.

Absolutely enormous news.

For politicians: obfuscation > actually lying

One of the joys of writing a book is finding out all the things that resonate with readers in unexpected ways

Recently finished Stuck by @yappelbaum.bsky.social It's a good read and great contribution to the conversation; it also spoke to me on a weirdly personal level.

CITY STATE: Seven writers exploring autonomous governance through an essay series and print pamphlet. You can support the project by collecting the digital and print version via @metalabel.bsky.social: elysian.metalabel.com/city-state Here's every essay in the series:👇🏻🧵

I am once again begging people who write about YIMBYism for D.C. publications to look at actual YIMBY activism and policymaking instead of gathering everything secondhand from their fellow D.C. magazine writers resnikoff.beehiiv.com/p/the-abunda...

Sounds like familiar vaporware, too: www.urbanproxima.com/p/urban-larp...

Abundance is in a race with the forces of entropy

Sorry but New York is for everyone.

“If we want our transit systems to be financially sustainable, they need riders—and that means housing near transit,” said @mnolangray.bsky.social “You can’t pour billions into rail and then zone the surrounding area for single-family homes. It’s bad policy and bad economics.”

Lurid stories from my past as Lyft Customer Service agent #12 (and what they mean for self driving cars)

Only 3% of all land in the U.S. is urbanized, so I am not buying this ers.usda.gov/sites/defaul...

“without powerful, clear and guaranteed enforcement, cities have little reason to thoroughly comply with state laws" This is how Oregon’s housing needs law could be better than CA’s, depending on rules the @tinakotek.bsky.social administration is writing now

California has adopted a lot of great housing laws in recent years. RHNA is not recent or great, but for some reason lots of other states are just now deciding to pick up this approach that has failed California for decades 🤯

In Practice tells the story of the /politics/ behind housing policy reform. This first long(er) form post explains why goal setting laws like California's RHNA fail (and how we navigate the politics they create to get something out them while simultaneously building momentum for deeper reforms).

Why HUD is worth saving inpractice.yimbyaction.org/p/why-save-hud

Yes. Next question.

I’m not saying a genocide is going to happen under Trump’s watch, but you can start to see the outlines of how something like that might play out when you think about the large new immigrant population in the U.S. and what might happen if their home countries won’t take them back

What do crypto and urbanism have to do with one another? Nothing. Absolutely Nothing. www.urbanproxima.com/p/urban-larp...

Thoughts on building new cities w/ a look at California Forever and Ciudad Morazán

An explainer on charter cities, startup cities, and competitive governance. Part 2 of 4 in Urban Proxima's series on building new cities from scratch.

An interview w/ Andrew Miller, former Associate Director of Mobility at Sidewalk Labs, on Google's ill-fated attempt to re-develop a neighborhood in Toronto. Part 1 of 4 in Urban Proxima's ongoing series on the theory and practice of city-building.