How to tell when zoning is *not* a binding constraint: when you upzone one more parcel, its land value stays the same (ie. 'land lift' =0). So if upzoning a parcel does increase its land value, then you know zoning is a constraint on housing supply. 1/

in the last decade there has been a lot of positive response to the call for more infill housing from planners and politicians but all too often the response has been to try and run the machine faster "we need more housing, so we have to plan harder'

Basic fallacy in this Groundwork report: it treats profitability and zoning as separate constraints on new housing. But zoning constrains supply *precisely by* making projects unprofitable! Strict zoning -> scarce apartment-zoned land -> expensive apartment-zoned land -> lower profits. 1/🧵

"The panic now visible in British Columbia is not evidence that reconciliation has gone too far. It is evidence that reconciliation has begun to have material consequences." @khelsilem.bsky.social in @macleans.bsky.social: macleans.ca/politics/can...

The opposition is wrong. Schools can and should be redeveloped into new buildings that combine schools with housing. toronto.citynews.ca/2026/03/21/t...

Time to break out the fuel crisis clothing

If developers always build up to the maximum (density, height, etc.) that’s allowed in your city, that’s a sign that your zoning rules are substantially restricting housing supply.

My favourite blocks have a mix of styles and some houses that are weird and ugly. It’s so much better than Prozac Urbanism where the lows are raised up, the highs are rounded down, and everything is pleasantly and boringly un-offensive.

The thesis of Patrick Condon's next book, probably

here’s a crazy fact: under congestion pricing, NYC subway ridership grew by more than the *total* number of riders on BART last year

I'm not saying BC's population hasn't shrunk at all, but I'm skeptical they can really doubt the changes happening in real time all that well. Certainly the drop won't last. dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc...

Join me on a FREE walking tour! 16th Avenue: Yesterday & Tomorrow Sun March 29, 2 pm RSVP at Eventbrite link below From the amalgamation of Vancouver in 1929 to the Broadway Plan, this area can teach us a lot about the roots of the housing crisis..and what we can do about it!

New research from Pew quantifies the extent of the success of YIMBYism in Austin: after a huge run up in prices over the 2010s, the city dramatically liberalized and kicked off a building boom. Now rents are falling. www.pew.org/en/research-...

They said it would take 193 years to clean London’s air. We did it in nine. 💨 London has now met legal limits for nitrogen dioxide air pollution.

You're welcome Sweepthestrait.com

"He pointed out the sector had an increase of 10,400 jobs year-over-year in February." Many, many headlines should just be "Monthly data is noisy."

Do it Vancouver (especially: Photo Enforced)

For 5 weeks, Oakland's new speed cameras have been issuing warnings. Starting March 15th, tickets will be mailed to people exceeding the speed limit by at > 10 mph. So far the 18 locations have seen 140k instances of speeding. Most people were sent one warning. 11 people have been sent 30+.

The condo was America's last affordable path to homeownership. We've spent 15 years systematically destroying it at the state and federal levels. @mnolangray.bsky.social and I's new piece in @theatlantic.com on why — and how to fix it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Increasingly feeling like replacing US index funds with heavily factor-tilted, still cheap funds like DFA Vector is the move going forward. Maybe I'm over-estimating the relevance of giant IPOs, but stuff like this certainly feels like scamming indexers, or attempting to.

I was wondering if the term "night owl" is redundant, but turns out there are day owls too. Even the burrowing owl dabbles in daytime. www.livescience.com/56146-are-al...

Where a bunch of Vancouver-based housing talking heads advocate for bringing back the quota system of the residential floorspace cartel where Metro Vancouver organizes the member municipalities to keep housing artificially scarce... 😬😬😬 housingreset.ca/2026/02/25/c...

This seems like a great way to respond to the whiny Metro Van mayors (which isn't all of them). Consistently build at the rate of 20-year housing need and you don't have to do multiplexes, etc. The result would surely be less fair than BC's neighbourhood-blind approach, but nobody's meeting...

You probably know about my thoughts on housing and Vancouver, but I want to hear from YOU! That's why I'm starting Meet Peter, a regular small group virtual chat. Every Tuesday and Thursday at noon. Register here! scheduler.zoom.us/peter-waldki...

Might have been a different Pete Fry.

Funded inclusionary zoning is great. Unfunded inclusionary mandates are a tax on new housing.

yes, the likely result of this may well be to make everything more inconvenient for everybody, and especially for people who depend upon digital services. The vision of an internet entirely ruined and uninhabitable by humanity comes depressingly closer.

We’re back, baby!

These photos are a great example of how unsustainable asset management is with single family zoning of this scale. There is no way to reasonably expect current rates of property taxes to fund the massive scale of infrastructure debt looming in communities everywhere. You can't refute the real data.

ooh, B.C. is raising taxes on homes worth over $3 million, as well as the interest rates on property tax deferrals — two changes sure to aggravate many homeowners! time to ring the bell again: thewalrus.ca/homeowners-r...

BC's population is forecast to drop 51k by July (YoY), and only half of that is non-institutionalized people over 15? What if this is just wrong?

I'll be clear that I'm fine with paying slightly higher income taxes at this point. Heck, if it happened before i bought my home it might not even make a difference to me. But it's not the best tax to raise, as we've known for 2 centuries now. BC should do the smart thing sometimes.

Some pretty smart changes here but I think they stopped short, could have had even a small land value tax shift (away from taxes on improvements) & had land bankers chip in a little more without distorting the economy like other taxes.

It’s pretty sad that it’s still much faster for me to walk 400m to an Evo to get downtown than to catch the Rapidbus 100m away at Renfrew. It might not be true at rush hour but without all day bus lanes and more frequent service, it's true the rest of the day.

If you live or work in Vancouver, you can join OneCity for $1 to vote in the progressive primary, today only. www.onecityvancouver.ca/jointheprogr...

Single stair wood looks good at 13 storeys.

Cederhusen, Stockholm. 245 apartments in 10-13 storey cedar-clad buildings, with a cross laminated timber structure. Designed by General Architecture. A thread 🧵

A (small) land value tax would solve this!

The BC government says the budget has to be "tough" to tackle large deficits. But we can’t talk about deficits without talking about revenues. And BC’s revenue as a share of our economy is much lower than it was before the deep tax cuts of the early 2000s. #bcpoli #BCBudget2026

Happy Valentine’s Day to people who love their cities and want to share them with more neighbors. ❤️

A reminder that Victoria implemented a permit fee holiday for the next 12 months. *All* building-related fees are waived, including plumbing, electrical, development, etc. Meant to offset high costs and account for changing regs. It’s covered by our dev. reserves. www.victoria.ca/city-governm...

New literature review post! I discuss research showing what happens to housing prices, rents, and displacement when demand increases faster than supply, and what happens when supply is allowed to keep up. 1/

Vertical sprawl is what happens when you build towers on the outskirts of Langley and not in Shaughnessy.

I'm glad to see that the EV subsidies will at least be phasing out over the 5 year program. I hope they keep it that way. It makes no sense to be mostly subsidizing imports, & this is unfair to the many people who don't drive much or at all. tc.canada.ca/en/road...

oops already overtaken by a new favourite: "stabbing murders" in the general vicinity of this proposed school, a concern that buries the lede about the impacted view from a condo that the letter-writer "paid a lot of money for"

By a 41-7 vote, the Washington Senate just directed the state's building code council to adopt updated regulations for elevators in buildings with up to six stories or 24 units, "minimally sized to meet federal accessibility requirements." The final version: lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/202...

Attention all you World War 2 buffs: Danger 5 is now available on Kanopy (access through your local library). It's kind of like Valkyrie but with a group of international spies. www.kanopy.com/en/vp...

I think it's pretty clear that the City is a major, maybe the biggest, part of the problem here. 1st, they keep changing a policy document because it is in fact not clear, and claim they are not changing anything when they are... thetyee.ca/News/2026... 1/6

From the people that brought you "Where are the schools for all these new homes?" Coming soon to a public hearing near you "We should build less school"

Reminder, the NIMBYs are complaining that a 4 storey school HERE is too big. 😒