In print now in the stacked April issue of @prospect.org.

In December 1984, a white New Yorker stepped onto a downtown 2 train and shot four black teenagers after one asked him for $5. The shooting signaled a new mood of urban exclusion, following decades of crisis. I wrote about two books on the legacy of the incident. prospect.org/2026/04/09/a...

The legacy of Bernie Goetz, the so-called subway vigilante, reveals how a 1980s shooting reflected the race-fueled rightward lurch of Reagan's America that lives on today. I reviewed two new books on the incident for @prospect.org. prospect.org/2026/04/09/a...

A few days before Christmas of 1984, the self-employed electrical engineer stepped onto a graffitied downtown 2 train and shot four Black teenagers after one asked him for $5. The shooting signaled a new mood of urban exclusion, following decades of crisis.

The legacy of Bernie Goetz, the so-called subway vigilante, reveals how a 1980s shooting reflected the race-fueled rightward lurch of Reagan's America that lives on today. I reviewed two new books on the incident for @prospect.org. prospect.org/2026/04/09/a...

There are two new books out on Bernhard Goetz, the subway vigilante. Why does a tabloid incident in the 1980s have such resonance? To reviewer Michael Friedrich, it prefigured the race-fueled rightward lurch into Trump's America. prospect.org/2026/04/09/a...

By our count at @prospect.org they have killed at least 28 people since Trump's second term started.

"We neoconned our way into this mess and we're going to neocon our way out of it."

I have a new piece out today in Phenomenal World, on the economics of a freeze in NYC regulated rents. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/aft...

thinking we need to suspend Godwin’s Law for the foreseeable future

It turns out that data shows the negative impacts of luxury construction that low-income tenants constantly point out based on experience. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/r...

I went on @marketplace.org to talk about my @bloomberglp.bsky.social story on how community-led tool libraries, founded on the principles of mutual aid, are increasingly becoming a resource during climate disasters. www.marketplace.org/story/2026/0...

It turns out that data shows the negative impacts of luxury construction that low-income tenants constantly point out based on experience. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/r...

By the way, for those of you not in MN: Homan’s strategy was to withdraw some agents, so it felt like we were in the denouement of the crisis, and then escalate hard against observers. They’re being incredibly aggressive with observers now. National media may not want to check out just yet

In this economy, every story is a housing story.

I traveled home to Minnesota to report on the rolling fallout of Operation Metro Surge. Both the occupation and neighborhood responses was breathtaking in scale. History in the making. www.nybooks.com/online/2026/... Thanks to the @economichardship.bsky.social for support

Gentrification, without lots of long-term affordable housing in place to maintain diversity, is likely to lead to resegregated exclusion and NIMBYism. Example #3496 (Kirkwood is a mostly gentrified, formerly predominately-Black neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta.)

In this economy, every story is a housing story.

Honored to be quoted in new article: Storm Recovery? That’s a Job for a Tool Library TL;DR: As federal emergency assistance dries up, community tool-lending programs have emerged as a hyperlocal way to fill the gap and improve climate resilience www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

As climate change spurs more frequent and damaging natural disasters, the Trump administration has retreated from providing relief. In this context, tool libraries have grown into more than just an asset for DIY home projects. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

When emergencies arise, coming together to lend and fix tools can represent a radical act: caring for each other where the state has fallen short. I wrote for @bloomberglp.bsky.social about how community tool libraries are responding to climate disasters. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

When emergencies arise, coming together to lend and fix tools can represent a radical act: caring for each other where the state has fallen short. I wrote for @bloomberglp.bsky.social about how community tool libraries are responding to climate disasters. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

I was at bankruptcy court for three hours yesterday and listened to more of the hearing online after that. The lawyers for my current landlord and the presumptive buyer were SO mad about organized tenants so I personally think every rent-stabilized building should form a union :)

For @thenation.com and @typeinvestigations.org, I looked into American Landmark, a major landlord filing evictions far more than the national average. I found they are owned by an Israeli company with ties to the IDF, including during the Gaza genocide. (1/10) www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Today's must-read by @thomasbirm.bsky.social: a major corporate landlord is fueling homelessness across the U.S. *and* the mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. The Israeli company owns tens of thousands of apartments in the South, filing evictions at nine times the national average.

Many Jewish institutional leaders have spent the past few months promising that New York Jews will be in danger if Zohran wins. We’re about to see exactly how wrong they were. Will they admit it? empty-brain.ghost.io/will-jewish-...

Under Trump, the draconian future of homelessness policy is coming into focus: mass internment. Utah is building a 16-acre site to detain up to 1,300 homeless people inside locked "accountability centers." This is profoundly alarming. Vital reporting from @ellenbarry.bsky.social and Jason DeParle:

Published my first Op-Ed w/ Professor Ed Goetz on how the national narrative about Minneapolis misses how zoning and market rate housing are necessary but not sufficient to help lower-income renters 🧵 www.startribune.com/twin-cities-...

Nobody wants it as a story but I have multiple NYPD sources who voted for Mamdani, are eager for his win in November, and who say their colleagues quietly feel the same. They like that he wants NYPD to focus on crime, not quality of life enforcement.

A group of tenants with rent debt are refusing to pay Equity Residential, one of the largest corporate landlords. The campaign’s goals are to win debt cancellation and spur regulatory action to hold corporate landlords accountable. Michael Friedrich reports: prospect.org/infrastructu...

Rent Debtors Strike Against Abusive Corporate Landlord The Debt Collective is leading the charge against the real estate behemoth Equity Residential prospect.org/infrastructu...

Real this lovely essay on Krasznahorkai by @luriethereal.bsky.social

Well it’s not long sentence, but I did get to write this essay for @newrepublic.com! I strongly encourage you to join us. newrepublic.com/article/2015...

Imagine real estate-backed securities, but on the blockchain and totally unregulated. What could go wrong?

Many Americans racked up rent debt during the pandemic, often due to corporate landlords’ predatory practices. Now, strikers argue that their debts to Equity Residential are uncollectible under consumer protection laws. Read my report at @prospect.org. prospect.org/infrastructu...

A group of former tenants has organized the first rent debt strike in U.S. history. They are refusing to pay back unjust debts to Equity Residential, a corporate landlord accused of widespread misconduct. I wrote about their campaign for @prospect.org. prospect.org/infrastructu...

Atlanta has been been rapidly gentrifying for years & seen tremendous growth in property values since 2011. Yet the public schools starve. And now Mayor wants to extend its tax increment districts, which include some of city’s hottest areas, for 25 years, diverting more $ from schools. #AtlantaWay

A group of former tenants has organized the first rent debt strike in U.S. history. They are refusing to pay back unjust debts to Equity Residential, a corporate landlord accused of widespread misconduct. I wrote about their campaign for @prospect.org. prospect.org/infrastructu...

there is no question in my mind that rfk jr is the most dangerous person in this administration and that his eugenicist ideology threatens the lives of millions of people www.advocate.com/politics/dem...

The Trump administration has deployed armed troops and masked paramilitaries to brutally kidnap people from U.S. streets. That is why, as a Democratic member of Congress, I am proposing a bill that provides these agents with a free subscription to the Headspace meditation app.

In the 1970s, landlords burned their buildings for profit, displacing thousands of tenants in poor neighborhoods. For @thebaffler.com, I wrote about @benchansfield.bsky.social's excellent “Born in Flames” and the consequences of the arson wave. thebaffler.com/latest/ring-...

“Born in Flames” investigates the wave of arson that swept across the Bronx in the 1970s—and the landlords who were often behind it. @mfriedrichnyc.bsky.social reviews the history of white-collar criminals run amok.

I wrote about “Born in Flames,” a new history of 1970s arson-for-profit, financialization of housing, and the consequences for tenants, for @thebaffler.com.

So grateful for this very sharp review of Born in Flames in @thebaffler.com Thank you @mfriedrichnyc.bsky.social ! !

“There are, of course, some experiences that you just cannot realize without the paternalism of private enterprise.” @mfriedrichnyc.bsky.social‬ puts out park conservancies to pasture in NYRA no. 46/47. nyra.nyc/articles/cen...

In the 1970s, landlords burned their buildings for profit, displacing thousands of tenants in poor neighborhoods. For @thebaffler.com, I wrote about @benchansfield.bsky.social's excellent “Born in Flames” and the consequences of the arson wave. thebaffler.com/latest/ring-...

In the 1970s, a wave of arson swept across the Bronx. As @mfriedrichnyc.bsky.social writes in a review of “Born in Flames,” it helped pave the way for today’s highly financialized, boom-and-bust real estate cycles.