housing delayed = housing denied

Conor's not on Bluesky, but he's got a *really* good Op-Ed in the Tribune today about teacher pensions. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/06/o...

This is a bold position for a voter guide to take

God bless a post on reforming EDSs

Over at A City That Works: A key player on the Mayor’s Cut the Tape Initiative outlines another action the city can take to cut development costs.

The sharp high income-low income border running N-S through Edgewater and Uptown just east of the lake is Broadway. That's the context for the furor over the Broadway rezoning, which has come 90% from the dark blue tracts

This one will be sure to make everybody happy.

Abundant Housing Illinois is excited to endorse Anthony Driver for U.S. Congress in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District! 🏘️

Abundant Housing Illinois is excited to endorse Daniel Biss for U.S. Congress in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District! 🏘️

Abundant Housing Illinois is excited to endorse Patrick Hanley for the Illinois State Senate in the 9th District! 🏘️

Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.

Over at A City That Works: RPM Phase 1 was a good project, and it's great that we could fund it (in part with TIF dollars). Now it's over. The TIF should be too: citythatworks.substack.com/p/sunset-the...

Over at A City That Works: Why does Chicago spend so much money on police misconduct? Justin Erb breaks down the numbers and legal rationale behind CPD's eyewatering payouts. citythatworks.substack.com/p/breaking-d...

Bus absolutely reeks of weed now. Really becoming more and more sympathetic to the entire “not everyone who skips a fare is anti-social but almost all the anti-social riders skip the fare” mentality

In sum: Lots of work, lots of good guest posts, and more impact than we expected. Plus a lot of fun.

Strongly recommend bringing a 6 month old to community meetings

This. And given the budget constraints facing our region today, if we abandon any effort to improve the productivity and efficacy of public services, we are deeply and truly screwed.

A terrific article, although I admit I'm a bit surprised at how many people when asked "if you could walk an extra block for a faster, more frequent bus, would you do it?" apparently say "no"

Per new @nikhunder.com analysis, increasing bus stop spacing "could translate into speed improvements of 14-29% depending on the route, traffic levels, and how many stops are removed. That’s a remarkable increase in speed, at minimal cost to the agency." citythatworks.substack.com/p/a-plan-for...

Read Nik’s magnum opus Make every bus an “Express” bus

One reason I like this is because spacing out bus stops would allow for more consistently co-located services. Arterial stops could be aligned with Divvy stations, L stations, larger warming shelters, grocery stores, etc.

New from me! Chicago has far too many bus stops to provide efficient service for its riders—nearly twice the national standard. I reimagined what Chicago's bus network could do to make it look like its peers. citythatworks.substack.com/p/a-plan-for...

Bus stop consolidation: $100 Dedicated lanes: $40 Multi-door boarding: $25 Electric Buses: $3,000 Transit Signal priority: $200 More operators: $800 Someone who is good at the economy help me budget this. I’m stuck in traffic.

One big takeaway from Mamdani bringing YIMBYs into his transition is that advocates can often gain a lot of power by 1.) having useful answers to questions and accurate information 2.) being reasonably polite and pleasant to elected officials 3.) understanding the actual mechanics of government

Over at A City That Works: In the mid-1990s, violence in New York City cratered, even as Chicago's murder rate remained relatively high. Peter Moskos's new book is a terrific inside look at how New York pulled it off: citythatworks.substack.com/p/book-revie...

Very upsetting that ACLU is pro-drunk driving. Requiring in-car breathalyzers for people convicted of a DUI is not "a form of racialized wealth extraction." People of all backgrounds are getting killed and maimed by reckless drivers. Let's stop the carnage! calmatters.org/newsletter/c...

what's missing in Chicago's budget talks? the short answer is "growing the tax base". Steffany describes what City Council is not addressing in City That Works.

The good news is that all the BlueSky criticism is just conjecture by amateurs, imagine if there was a monumental station just around the block from State/Lake that was constructed less than a decade ago for a quarter of the cost even inflation-adjusted, wouldn’t that be embarrassing for the city

what I'm reading today... 1. lessons [for Chicago?] from the New York City election, specifically the referenda to update the city charter to make it easier to get new housing approved citythatworks.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...

Per @davidstruett.bsky.social @chicagocta.bsky.social is purchasing hybrid buses with federal grant money. Should NITA prioritize future capital $$$ on zero emissions vehicles or should other needs take priority—e.g., BRT, station/bus stop accessibility? chicago.suntimes.com/transportati...

Over at A City That Works, I took a look at what Chicago (and other cities) can learn from New York's effort to speed housing development and weaken aldermanic prerogative. citythatworks.substack.com/p/lessons-fr...

"CTA keeps using federal funding to pay debt service, which negatively impacts the agency's ability to execute new projects. By the way, we're going to add another $1.5 billion in debt over the next five years, but don't worry, we'll pay it back with federal funding."

To the charge that it doesn't fit in: I don't think it's supposed to. Sometimes we should add new idiosyncratic, monumental buildings/spaces

Over at A City That Works, Conor's got a great new piece looking at the Mayor's new budget proposal: citythatworks.substack.com/p/budget-sea...

Over at A City That Works: Police are far more effective when deployed to the hotspots where violence is most likely to occur. But Chicago's deployments are heavily skewed towards the least-violent parts of the city. (1/4) citythatworks.substack.com/p/put-police...

And a full blown @chicagocta.bsky.social meltdown getting out, sadly.

Chicagoland’s transit agencies can’t afford to go it alone. Real reform means Metra, Pace, and CTA working together, with unified planning, fares, and goals, to build a system that truly serves the whole region. 🚇 🚂 🚍 citythatworks.substack.com/p/the-suburb...

Wrote about the Trump administration’s power grab unfolding in Chicago, and the most effective tools we have to respond.

Humpty Dumpty keeps falling off the wall, and while we’ve gotten very efficient at putting him back together each time, it’s time to start thinking about the wall as the real problem. New from me on A City That Works: The Suburban Case for Transit Reform

IMO @zyudhishthu.bsky.social nails it on mandatory minimum densities: you CAN do them right, but the benefits are so minimal & the risks so inevitable that they're not worth the trouble pencillingout.substack.com/p/can-we-boo...

City That Works author Richard Day is out with a great write-up of the current accessory dwelling unit (ADU) situation. 🏘️ His conclusion is alarming: Ald. Quinn's ADU ordinance will kill ADU construction citywide, even in current ADU pilot areas. 😠 citythatworks.substack.com/p/there-is-o...

Over at A City That Works: Harjas Sandhu has a great piece breaking down Chicago's lead pipe problem. And I think it may have already helped trigger a City Council hearing next week? citythatworks.substack.com/p/solving-ch...

A good new post about NITA in A City That Works today: citythatworks.substack.com/p/the-northe...

Come on out!

The design is still a customer experience nightmare, but at least it’s more than twice as expensive now than it was four years ago

It’s a really fun piece. airmail.news/issues/2025-...

In 2024, Illinois was almost dead-last for new housing permits on a per capita basis