Trader Joe's is kind of an outdated bougie stereotype, a lot of their staples are often cheaper nowadays than stuff I find at Safeway or whatever.

I appreciate @agounardes.bsky.social standing strong as the ONLY Dem in the entire New York State legislature to do the right thing and vote against enshrining operational inefficiency on the NYC Subway by banning OPTO expansion. If this bill becomes law, it’ll make IBX significantly less useful

this photo makes me look like an anime character

I did not realize San Mateo County made such crazy modifications to its codes. All non-single-fam must have a 50-sq. ft. fire control room accessible via the exterior, placed at the FD’s discretion. NFPA 13R sprinklers are banned entirely, everything must be full 13. California’s gotta rein this in.

Here’s an idea for Zohran Mamdani to create more jobs in NYC: he could ask Julie Menin and City Council to relegalize the construction of new hotels, which Bill de Blasio banned citywide as a parting gift to the hotel workers union on his way out of office in 2021 www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/n...

As someone who visits NYC a couple times a year to see friends and family, I cannot pretend to be a disinterested observer here. Hotels in the city have gotten stupid expensive over the past few years and it’s nuts that more of them aren’t coming online.

Real prisoners dilemma with locally-generated traffic modeling and cost estimates under a consultant-dominated system. Either strategically misrepresent traffic & costs that will create problems later Or Be upfront and never get traction relative to projects that do strategically misrepresent.

and his opponent, Natalie Gee, is running on a platform claiming Alan Wong isn’t pro-car ENOUGH and that only she will truly put the sinister bike cabal in its place

Say what you want about AI and there’s certainly a lot of negatives, but Jesus every day there’s some “granola” ass post about data centers takes 5 points off my IQ. Like no, paper mills are actually a beautiful illustration of how people don’t understand scale when complaining about like water use

I wonder if this is the crane placing this prefabricated escalator that Schindler was posting about on its LinkedIn? In America, the union contract would require this to be taken apart on the mountaintop and put back together, to preserve work for the mechanics www.linkedin.com/posts/travel...

I get that social media hype can trick people into thinking this way, but the truth is polarization is so potent a force that even the most right wing Democrat votes wayyyy to the left of even the most left wing Republican nowadays

“There is a larger principle here. States should not outsource their housing policy to local governments that tend to have a bias toward the status quo. States should assert more control over lot sizes, multifamily zoning, permitting processes and more.” Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/o...

The biggest problem that ULA defenders have is that they do not understand the studies showing the tax is killing apartment construction, they have no one in their orbit who can produce a study to refute the claim, and most of all, do not care about empirical evidence because vibes conquer all.

"Most European countries allow single-stair buildings to reach eight stories or more – even without sprinkler requirements. South American cities are full of single-stair, mid-rise buildings and towers. Asian cities and Australian ones as well." America is beginning to catch up to our peers.😊

The median credit card balance is not $6,715. The median credit card balance is $0. Most Americans do not *have* credit card debt. The Transunion report is reporting the average (not median!!!) balance *among those who have balances*. www.transunion.com/content/dam/...

E24-24, my proposal to raise the IBC’s single-stair apartment building height limit from three stories to four, has passed the final membership vote, and will now officially make it into the 2027 IBC 🎉

datacenters use trivial amounts of water but huge amounts of electricity, and closed-loop systems -- because they have to use air chilllers -- use much more electricity, so Meta is essentially committing to waste huge amounts of power and generate carbon because people are hysterical

AB 2074 is a win-win-win: let's build lots of housing, revitalize our downtowns, and create union jobs! The revolving loan is the keystone—let's get it passed.

By nominating Ken Paxton, a strong rightwinger who will mobilize the base, rather than falling for the RINO myth that swing voters exist who he might alienate, Republicans have set themselves up perfectly to retain the Texas senate seat.

I look like I’m in the scene in a 2000s romcom here

Mayor Mamdani has announced the Affordable & Efficient Code Reform task force, to convene later this year. The housing plan says that among other things, elevator and plumbing reform will be considered. www.nyc.gov/content/dam/... (pgs. 98-99)

Ikebukoro days

I love Japan so much. What a wonderful country full of wonderful people

Keep ICE out of Dublin, CA. Anyone anywhere in the US can file a comment. June 1 deadline. More info & easy tools: tinyurl.com/IOD-EA-Toolkit @buffywicks.bsky.social @replsimon.bsky.social pls re-share.

Unfortunately this would also require the Democratic Party being more popular and they are barely even trying that so…

Because Albany will prioritize anything above housing. They wanted high affordability requirements – they got them. But development was still profitable, so the building trades looked for their pound of flesh too, and state legislators were all too happy to give it to them.

Going to be in Tokyo May 17-May 28. Any recommendations?

If you're an architect or code enthusiast in NYC, please email [email protected] at Dan Goldman's office and [email protected] at Jerry Nadler's to say you oppose the Pro Codes Act! It would reassert the ICC's copyright on the IBC (even amended version), making UpCodes illegal.

Kinda seems silly Governor Not-Hochul can’t toss her buddy Daredevil a pardon after he saved her life

This year, voters in Davis will vote on initiatives approving two projects that would collectively increase the local housing stock by 10%—enough to really see an improvement in affordability. I strongly recommend that local YIMBYs vote YES on Measure V! www.abridged.org/news/davis-i...

this is sloppy work, by the way. you're comparing Netflix's power spend to companies that own data centers. Netflix doesn't own data centers. They run on AWS. whatever the energy use is on their streaming, that's not in their purchased grid electricity, which is the 1% number you cited.

“You must leave the community because the mob has spoken. You must live a private life and abandon any public reputation you hoped to build” is absolutely a form of social exile and social control. Acting like it’s a reasonable mitigating strategy is absurd.

So I think the ability to force someone into social exile through abuse is, in fact, a really significant thing and the precise power that the abusers crave. It’s effectively the power to disappear your enemies

This was the big "Building more doesn't bring down rents" study that some left of center publications ran as a pre-print. Turns out it's got some major methodological issues!

most YIMBY skeptical work tends to be bad but this is so absurdly bad I’m amazed the Urban Institute published it

except that “renewables” includes biomass, which is literally burning wood for energy which in fact emits quite a bit of C02

bold of you to assume they read one book

The war in Iran has cost $50 billion, which was about the size of USAID’s entire annual budget before DOGE

Riders Alliance wants to cut driving in NYC by 40% by emulating Paris’s “growing toolkit of carrots and sticks” (nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/05/01/o...), so why are they supporting state legislation to require two employees on each subway while Paris is going driverless (www.amny.com/news/nyc-tra...)?

Just seems unnecessarily cruel to shiv it to someone doing an honorable thing like this

dog days

”The chassis requirement, they say, has also created an unnecessary burden for manufacturers because it doesn’t allow the frames to be removed & reused after a home is delivered — a cost of several thousand dollars that is passed onto consumers.” I keep learning new reasons why homes cost too much.

@sierraclub.org's Urban Infill Guidance says "Choosing smart growth over sprawl is one of the most powerful decisions city & other local governments can make to reduce climate emissions & air pollution..." So, will the @sierraclublp.bsky.social leaders testifying tonight support these infill homes?

Mao pretty famously built very little housing, unlike the USSR, which caused major issues of overcrowding. The whole “YIMBYs advocate for tax breaks for developers” shtick is a big tell for how ignorant you are of housing policy

Pretty wild that every single CA Governor candidate said “yes” to mandated treatment for homeless people who continuously refuse services and shelter

The price of housing is set by supply and demand. The only way to reduce rents and home prices in high-demand cities is to build a lot of new homes. Rent control only slows down price increases for incumbent tenants. It does not reduce prices for newcomers or people who want to move.

Donald Trump ordering a false flag assassination attempt in order to rally support for his ballroom would be most on brand conspiracy of all time

it is kinda annoying how any budget cut anywhere gets labeled “austerity” nowadays. we have not been in a demand side recession in awhile now (though Trump is doing his best to run it back), cutting *bad* spending (like ethanol subsidies) is a good thing that reduces inflation pressure

On Twitter I once shared that transport accounts for only 3-6% of food-related emissions, and the vast bulk of food emissions are from land use & ag production, and WHAT (eg beef) matters way more than WHERE. I woke up to hundreds of angry responses from people in the UK who produce or eat meat.