Alright Chicago Bluesky which of you are here tonight

I used to be a constant music-listener while walking or taking transit, but nowadays I almost never do. It's fun to be a part of the public!

Explaining walkable cities to an American: okay so imagine a burger

Bucktown on this foggy evening

“He’s looking at me, and said: ‘What are you talking about? If there was another stair, there wouldn’t be any room for the homes.’” - @holz-bau.bsky.social

Do you feel the single stair-mentum? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/b...

Ah, well..

Final weekend of canvassing before the election on March 17th means we go the extra mile. Thank you to all volunteers who came out to canvass in Lakeview for both my campaign and Mac LeBuhn running for IL State Rep. @chicagogrowthproj.bsky.social #chicago #illinois #election #vote #urbanism

I’m trying to write a review of this book, but I’m running into the problem that there are too many interesting things in the book. So my post is running way too long

It kind of feels like the downtown/office building hit from COVID “already happened.” But I didn’t realize that things might still be getting worse — the delinquency rate on office loans is higher than ever before www.wsj.com/real-estate/...

The Loop is looking good

2026: The Year We All Get Really Into Municipal Pride Jackets

Discussing some Chicago history at the zoning hearing

Chicago can be so beautiful

My rating of this book: extremely good ✅✅✅

It turns out there is already a German word for YIMBYism?

Haven't seen it on Bluesky yet: a nice paper is making the rounds, estimating that the cost of housing permits in LA can explain 1/3 of the gap between construction costs and housing prices. That is: LA's terribly slow housing permitting is extremely costly!

Falling rents, from both more supply and weaker demand, sounds very much like Minneapolis in 2024-2025 — perhaps DC residents should look to what’s happened over there. pencillingout.substack.com/p/is-minneap...

I was not aware that the National Association of State Fire Marshals cited "active shooter situations" as a potential reason why we can't have taller single-staircase buildings in the US... uh... www.pew.org/en/research-...

TAQUERIA SAN JUANITO in Albany Park: highly recommended

Look at all the pro-housing voices in the paper of record 🔥

Per Axios, in 2025 Minnesota reversed a trend of domestic out-migration since 2020. On ICE resistance, a guy who just moved back said "I see it as a positive thing that the community is fighting back, and I think it's going to attract more of the right people" www.axios.com/local/twin-c...

One potential concern w upzoning: it could accelerate gentrification, bc new housing is expensive. A new JMP suggests this isn't the case. After incentivizing TOD in LA, in-migrants were disproportionately white, but out-migrants were mixed among races. Potentially n'hood growth w/o displacement?

I have some similar experiences being amazed at what Claude Code can do for data analysis projects. I also agree with this (highly subject to change as the tech changes): it helps me be much quicker and leave fewer stones unturned, but it doesn't pick the interesting stones without more guidance.

“Pritzker’s office says the measure will call for relaxed restrictions on the development of multi-unit housing, allowing homeowners to build “granny flats” and cutting other forms of red tape that have slowed homebuilding in recent years.” capitolnewsillinois.com/news/pritzke...

BIG LOON Argus C3 on Kodak 400TX No idea about aperture or exposure.

Working through the Minnesota study on single-stair buildings and fire safety Since 2000, 0 fire deaths in MN have been caused by fires in corridors, stairwells, or ramps. 75% of deaths happen in the same room that the fire originates --- seemingly not a matter of whether there are 1 or 2 stairways

Great words from @rsday.bsky.social this morning on the strange, and damaging, concern that building taller high rises in West Loop would be a bad idea citythatworks.substack.com/p/against-sm...

Just got a pączki from the alderman, this is huge

Becca Rothfeld, a former critic at the Washington Post, on the death of the paper’s books section. www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

Alright which Bluesky Chicagoan knows where i just ate this sub

Cool Sun-Times article on increasing racial diversity in Chicago suburbs. Lotta change in the last 30 years chicago.suntimes.com/2026/02/05/s...

ATTENTION: the of this property is 🔫

One of the finer buildings in Wicker Park

The Chicago Theatre is a wild place

Much like “AI can’t draw human fingers”, I worry that “self-driving cars don’t work in snow” is something that will soon be fixed, and thus a distraction from more important questions about how to regulate these things.

Great system for approving housing we have here: “The meeting occasionally became contentious, with some opponents to the two larger building proposals at one point demanding attendees show their IDs to prove they live close to the property.”

This endorsement of Kaegi had a few unusual-sounding turns of phrase, and ummm... Pangram's AI detector thinks it is completely AI-written

Chicago is actually really bad at building TOD. There are only 34 'L' stations in the entire city where the average surrounding building height is greater than 30 feet, and 16 of them are in the Loop.

Wow. It’s awful that things have to be this way. But I very, very much admire the many people fighting back www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/u...

They’re weird, but I don’t hate these guys. Enforce some reasonable regulations on how many operate at a time, maybe slap a little tax on em for the externality of taking up sidewalk space, and call it a day blockclubchicago.org/2026/02/03/s...

It’s great for Bruenig to critique the privatization of MN’s public programs in a national venue, but note that @ehbinmn.bsky.social made EXACTLY this argument in @minnesotareformer.com *18 months ago* More broadly, it’s weird to watch MN’s fraud blow up years after it was already known locally

Marathon week 2025 was once again the busiest week for CTA rail. St. Pats (3/15: 569,090) was the highest individual day.

Big group turned out today for canvassing! Come join us by signing up for an upcoming shift now through March! www.mobilize.us?org_ids=45662

Andersonville pleasantness

The kindest parking lot I’ve ever seen

People saying "Housing can't be both affordable and an investment" are kind of correct, but if, since 1987, housing prices had grown as fast as the rest of the economy *plus an extra one percent*, mortgages today would be 25% cheaper. good policy over a long period helps a lot!

In the early 1900s, there was quite a moral panic over the concern that skyscrapers — at the time, uniquely American — would overcrowd downtown. Even before zoning, this led to many efforts to institute height limits. Here’s a funny Chicago Tribune cartoon about the Monadnock building…

As a side note, is “fare evasion is already really high, so why bother charging at all?” a common argument for free transit? I haven’t heard of that before

Creepy deep dive into ICE technology. sahanjournal.com/immigration/...