🚨New Pod!!🚨Sam Moyn and I kick off a new season of Digging a Hole by talking with the great Bob Bauer about the law and politics of executive power podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

Who isn't at those community board meetings where people line up to oppose developments? @profschleich.bsky.social explains why NIMBYism is so successful: it's about who attends versus who is actually impacted. This is democracy meets housing policy. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/loc...

Out today: The Fall of Affirmative Action, by Justin Driver www.amazon.com/Fall-Affirma...

Justin Driver's new book is out today -- as smart and spicy a set of arguments as you'll find anywhere. One of our most essential public intellectuals. A must, must, must read. www.amazon.com/Fall-Affirma...

"This brazen gambit should fail — for two reasons. First, the ballot language is plenty clear. Second, the BOE has no power to reject proposed charter revisions."

I think the commonwealth desperately needs procedural simplification to help upzoning stick in addition to the legal perseverance @profschleich.bsky.social recommends: www.theargumentmag.com/p/yimbys-bea...

The complex interpretations of the NBA Constitution, evidentiary issues, and concerns about bias make the case for taking interpretative responsibility out of the hands of the Commissioner and putting it in the hands of a private-Court like institution papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I have a new column out in @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social about the forces and people who will make or break a Mamdani administration www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/mam...

I have a new column out in @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social about the forces and people who will make or break a Mamdani administration www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/mam...

Gross. It is far, far, far easier to understand what these ballot measures will do than it is to know anything relevant about city council candidates!

Also, two more examples for @profschleich.bsky.social www.bisnow.com/washington-d... citybuildernc.org/p/raleighs-m...

This morning, OG YIMBY @profschleich.bsky.social argues that the pro-housing movement needs to focus more on the problem of state trial court judges.

I have a new essay @theargument.bsky.social on the increasingly challenging problem of NIMBY state trial court judges.

Filtering happening in real time in Jersey City

Someone just asked about this piece of mine about how land use regulations will limit and shape the benefits of self-driving cars and other transportation technologies. It's nearly 10 years old, but I think it holds up!! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Local government has been on HTC’s side so hard that one mayors ago NYC banned basically all new hotels at their request, the current mayor with a pretty different ideological disposition hasn’t tried to end the ban, and now we’re getting a third who probably won’t either!

My latest scholarship roundup up for @statecourtreport.org covers interesting new work on state constitutions, state courts, federalism, and more. (Sorry to report that it’s the back-to-school edition!) statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

Really interesting @alonlevy.bsky.social essay trying to explain not only the explanations for high infrastructure costs, but the underlying reasons for them...

🚨New Paper🚨I have a new paper out today, discussing how Congress can reduce the costs of building infrastructure, despite the huge political roadblocks to doing so. Meet "The Priority List." It's a @brookings.edu @americanenterprise.bsky.social project. Hope you enjoy! www.aei.org/research-pro...

@cselmendorf.bsky.social and @profschleich.bsky.social are two of my faves and this is right. But voltsman worries too much in his thread, imo. It is not a hard political line to draw to say that we can talk aesthetics once we have the space to, which necessitates legalizing more housing.

Honest to goodness trying to figure out what “corporate power” is supposed to mean in this context

Short Circuit is coming to @yimbytown.bsky.social! A live podcast recording w/ @profschleich.bsky.social @andrewdfine.bsky.social Ari Bargil & @ijsanders.bsky.social in New Haven, CT on Sept 15. We'll highlight recent housing cases & where courts are on allowing people to build housing. yimby.town

This is bizarre framing since Essex Street Market is not a city run or city owned grocery store. It’s a bunch of private vendors operating on city controlled property gothamist.com/news/zohran-...

What a weird framing! “Limits on entry help incumbent firms” www.wsj.com/real-estate/...

Would love to hear more about this from people who know Montgomery County. As I understand it, its rent control doesn't apply to units until they are 23 years old. montgomeryperspective.com/2025/07/11/m...

I thought this Brian Potter essay on selling federal land for housing production--tldr, most federal land can't/wouldn't be built on even if it was sold, but there are a few places where it makes sense--was very sensible and well argued (with handy maps) www.construction-physics.com/p/should-the...

Just posted: new Essay for the state con law club. It examines the states that actually enabled takings for *private use* in the late 19th century, and some of the interesting themes that emerge from debates over the provisions (on "necessity," on nonlawyer drafters) papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Leaving aside this woman’s absurd catastrophizing, let us note that this building’s attractive and understated design, which fits with the local vernacular building style, did not prevent the neighbors from going all out in their attempts to block it.

Shame on Governor Ned Lamont for vetoing this excellent pro-housing bill. Housing costs are the number one issue facing Nutmeggers. His veto of HB 5002 lets the crisis fester for yet another year.

Great, substantive discussion of the policy issues in the NYC mayoral race with @profschleich.bsky.social, Jamie Rubin and Ed Glasser. Spoiler free summary: they weren't too impressed with any of the candidates' platforms. Spoilers in the summary 🧵below

I have a new essay about the Charter Revision Commission report in @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social. Check it out! www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...

Daily reminder to read @nbagley.bsky.social and @profschleich.bsky.social fantastic piece on how state and local governments are where government lives. www.niskanencenter.org/the-state-ca...

New Pod!! Jamie Rubin, Ed Glaeser, and I talked about the policy platforms in Mayoral race. Really fun conversation! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Always read @noahkazis.bsky.social. This one is …. Sobering

New Pod!!! Richard Primus came on the pod with @samuelmoyn.bsky.social and me to talk about his great new book about the constitutional law of "enumerationism" www.diggingaholepodcast.com/episodes/pri...

My former student Jamie Piltch has a spicy new paper out now on why legislative redistricting should not use "neutral criteria" like county or city boundaries or compactness because it creates partisan and other political bias wlr.law.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...

Really excited about this online convening May 19-20 to better understand the contemporary challenges and opportunities of Democratic governance in blue trifectas. Important for housing, climate, inflation, and so much more -- especially today! Register: t.co/Pm4bIJHn1O

"The electorate has plenty of reasons to be unhappy with the quality of American governance. Housing shortages, crumbling infrastructure, climate change — feckless government is implicated in all of them." @profschleich.bsky.social @nbagley.bsky.social www.niskanencenter.org/the-state-ca...

This is very good. hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/what-left-...

Single family zoning artificially depresses urban land values by outlawing the construction of many smaller, lower cost homes on prime land. In this way, it acts as a subsidy for rich people who are then able to buy detached single family homes that they could not otherwise afford.

Great piece David, but one quibble—I'm not sure what the Bloomberg source says, but I can clarify that Minneapolis completely eliminated car parking minimums in the same comp plan where single family zoning was shifted to triplex zoning.

This from @profschleich.bsky.social is very good. "Does it make sense to use abundance ideas to address every policy problem? No. Can abundance-based reforms be a part of the solution in many areas? Yes." hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/what-left-...

. @profschleich.bsky.social kicks things off: “Abundance isn’t a full economic program—but it’s a sharp, power-aware vision of political economy.”

I have two essays in the new issue of @niskanencenter.bsky.social's Hyper-Text. They've appeared before, but you should check them out -- and the rest of the great issue on the "Law of Abundance" -- now.

The housing section of the NYC Charter Revision Commission staff report is *terrific,* one of the best government reports in recent memory. Its analysis of NYC land use politics and procedure is spot on www.nyc.gov/assets/chart...

10/10. No notes.

An annoying aspect of the discussion of housing in the @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social Zephyr Teachout podcast is that big business wants more housing to be built. More housing in NY would allow, say, JP Morgan to pay workers less in nominal terms. It’s not big business that is standing in the way

okay sure so it worked in Denver and in Austin and it worked for downtown Oakland and for Sacramento and yes, it’s worked for decades in Tokyo but how can we be *sure* that building a lot more homes will make California a more affordable place to live??

A few people sent this to me. On first read, it is the exact same set of moves as their previous work. I responded, vigorously, here. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers..... In particular....

In an alternate universe, this would be the biggest story of the day -- driverless trucks seem very likely to have a huge effect on economic growth, urban form, employment, and much else. www.axios.com/2025/04/23/t...