Interesting idea from the New York Fiscal Policy Institute: Turn the EDC into NYC's social housing developer. The EDC already has a lot of land, funding, and institutional capacity. Previous mayors molded it to their priorities. What more urgent task is there now than housing?

One simple way to plan for better urbanism is by promoting high-density buildings on small lots. You get architectural variety, small ground floor retail spaces, limited demolition of existing buildings, and "gradual" rather than "cataclysmic" change. benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/san-franci...

Reading through the RFK master plan, it seems like DC is promoting an aesthetic very similar to Navy Yard. It's a missed opportunity to call for more architectural ambition. This enormous, transit-accessible site could be a showcase for better neighborhood-scale urban development in the US:

Plans for completing the Atlantic Yards megaproject in Brooklyn are coming together. The next phase is slated to add another 5,600 homes, including 1,242 affordable homes. These would be in slender towers, between 450 and 800 feet tall, leaving room for 8 acres of public open space.

Love this analogy comparing the growth and development of cities to raising kids. It's natural to want to freeze a beautiful moment in time, but ultimately it's unhealthy. www.activewisconsin.org/post/reflect...

@benschneider.bsky.social's brilliant Unfinished Metropolis has the best discussion of induced demand I've seen. But beyond that, it gives a clear account of so many urban issues while making connections between them. A must read.

Where has housing development been *most concentrated* between 2020 & 2025: most housing added within a 1/2-mile area? 1—Dwtn Brooklyn 2—NoMa DC 3—Dwtn Nashville 4—Dwtn Miami 5—Long Is City Queens 6—N Liberties Philly 7—First Hill Seattle 8—Near N. Chicago Explore: www.urban.org/urban-wire/w...

Section 608 is the most successful housing policy you’ve never heard of. In the 1940s and 50s, this FHA mortgage insurance program sparked the development of nearly 500,000 apartments, and played a major role in alleviating the postwar housing shortage. 🧵 www.remappingdebate.org/node/2498

Remapping Debate's @benschneider.bsky.social up w new History for the Futureᵀᴹ interview: CUNY's Joshua Freeman on his new book, "Garden Apartments." It's an often overlooked part of nation's housing landscape with relevance for today. remappingdebate.org/node/2498 @rauchway.bsky.social (join rqt).

Very helpful level-set on LA's much talked about ED 1 policy. It's not as effective as it could have been, but it's still having a major impact. With 8,500 units under construction, the policy is helping LA produce a lot more affordable housing than it could before.

Last week’s David Wallace-Wells column on the progressive wave in big city elections was an important corrective. Pratt is a sideshow. Raman is representative of a larger trend. Leftwing mayoral candidates in NYC, Boston, Seattle, LA, and DC are running not only as progressives but as urbanists.

While much of Marin County is preserved parkland, there are plenty of places for new housing in existing downtowns, which still have many parking lots. Marin's housing shortage becomes the East Bay's problem as well - they need to do their part!

I was going to say seems cheap for this address but damn that maintenance: "The asking price is $8 million, according to Roberta Golubock of Sotheby’s International Realty; monthly maintenance is $16,741." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/r...

One of the few operational details we have about the Penn Station project is that it will include 32% more vertical circulation to platforms. How much will that speed train dwell times or improve train throughput?

Glowing (and beautifully written) early review of the Penn Station reconstruction from NY Mag's Justin Davidson. "The design that emerges from this tangle of technological, institutional, urban, and aesthetic forces is a triumph of clarity." www.curbed.com/article/trum...

Good summary of where things currently stand with transportation reauthorization. The authors speculate that "it's far more likely" the new bill won't pass until the next Congress is seated, which would be good news for Democrats+their transpo goals. www.brookings.edu/articles/bui...

AP just called the LA mayor's race. It's Bass-Raman.

It's widely recognized that the total lack of housing construction on the west side of SF is unsustainable and unfair. Less talked about is the fact that those neighborhoods are missing out on a lot of good stuff! It was great to chat with @thgoetz.bsky.social about a favorite topic:

Very interesting debate on the McDowell-Moulton amendment, which would give Amtrak more eminent domain and taxation authority around stations. Rail advocates are on both sides of this one. National groups like it, NYC-based groups don't.

British version of California Forever just dropped. Forest City is envisioned as a new city for 1 million people 20 miles east of Cambridge. Cambridge officials are worried it could disrupt their plans to double the size of the city. www.ft.com/content/e50f...

Some interesting details in Mayor Mamdani's "Block By Block" housing plan 🧵: The plan calls for two revolving loan funds, one for NYCHA, one for mixed-income housing. The NYCHA fund, SMRRT, will be used first for the Fulton-Elliot Chelsea redevelopment. www.nyc.gov/content/dam/...

School districts are facing big enrollment declines. It's a challenging situation, but is it a "crisis"? Enrollment declines are associated with higher spending per student, creating new educational opportunities. We look at the flipside of this trend: www.remappingdebate.org/node/2493

Latest report on SF's Geary/ 19th Ave. subway shows two possible alignments through downtown: one on Howard, one on 3rd. It also looks at four transit technologies: BART, electrified regional rail, light rail, and automated light metro. www.sfcta.org/sites/defaul...

Really enjoyed this interview about The Unfinished Metropolis with @terrainorg.bsky.social. It was great to be able to reflect on the most interesting frontiers of urban policy: www.terrain.org/2026/intervi...

Inbox: SFMTA plans to study an extension of the Central Subway. It will evaluate a 1-station extension through the existing tunnel to North Beach, as well as a longer extension to Fisherman's Wharf and beyond. The study would begin later this year and conclude by mid 2028.

A good and necessary project. But let's be honest, that's architecture only a housing activist can love. Better multifamily architecture and design need to be a bigger part of the housing movement.

The design is giving 1930s "stripped classicism," which is associated with the New Deal as well as totalitarian regimes abroad. gothamist.com/news/exclusi...

It's really worth watching this whole exchange. Pratt's rhetoric on homeless people is a clear ripoff of Trump's rhetoric about immigrants. Demonization, dehumanization, and dark fantasy. Instead of "build the wall," it's "bus them to Seattle."

Delightful piece on the success of the NYC Ferry. In just 9 years, it has become an indispensable part of the city's transportation system. It's also a great case study on the symbiotic relationship between transit and urban development. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Seattle Social Housing's first building acquisition:

The most detailed reporting on Halmar's winning Penn Station redesign, all subject to change: — New sunken train hall on 8th Ave, with 55ft ceilings, would replace of the Infosys Theater — Garden gets reclad w/ vertical fins — Better platform egress www.city-journal.org/article/penn...

Amtrak and USDOT have selected a developer for the Penn Station redesign. The big news: MSG will not have to move and the design will be contemporary, not neoclassical. Also notable: the plan will allow "at least limited through-running on the regional rail network."

City streets are rapidly evolving with distinct realms for cars, pedestrians, bikes and buses. It's unclear where emergency responders fit into this new order, making them hesitant to support these changes. Better protocols for emergency vehicles in bus lanes could help.

As NYC's emergency response times rise and the bus lane network grows, these lanes could serve as a traffic relief valve for emergency vehicles. But so far, city officials have barely considered how first responders can make use of this resource. www.remappingdebate.org/node/2492

Here at the launch of the Transit Priority Atlas for the Transit Costs Project. @chittimarco.bsky.social has done amazing work (using incredibly gorgeous diagrams); this is an unbelievable resource for North America! tpa.transitcosts.com

Houston is a living townhome laboratory with a huge range of styles and quality. As other cities re-embrace townhomes, they should take the best from Houston (street-fronting, engaging designs) and reject the worst (blank walls and fences facing the street.) www.planetizen.com/features/137...

4th and 5th tallest towers in LA, with 2,500 units, just proposed next to the new D Line subway extension. The project would also include 2,100 parking spaces.

This outlines Toronto Model of transit that I’ve been talking about for many years (and am working on a book about!). Basically, principle is that universal network of frequent, all-day, every day bus service is essential ingredient for genuinely useful transit. open.substack.com/pub/infrasto...

Whhhhyyy this color palette??? sfyimby.com/2026/05/form...

WMATA casually announcing plans for a transformative BRT project

I don't hate this. Downtown data centers are an interesting land use, especially if they can be incorporated into existing office towers. Clean energy sources, really good sound proofing and a vertical layout can help fix a lot of the externalities of data centers and other industrial buildings.

Check out this excerpt of @benschneider.bsky.social's The Unfinished Metropolis: Igniting the City-Building Revolution in @terrainorg.bsky.social: www.terrain.org/2026/nonfict...

Some of the benefits of automating rail lines: "[A]utomation has enabled the three Paris Metro lines to accommodate 30% more passengers than before, thanks to a reduction in minimum headways from 105 seconds to 85 seconds and the reallocation of train car space that was used by human operators."

Could the rise of robotaxis help normalize the idea of automated trains? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

One of the biggest deficiencies of the free buses idea is the fact that it would push low-income riders off of the subway and on to slower, less reliable buses. The City Council's new Fair Fares proposal corrects for this.

With the City Council coalescing around an expanded free fares program for low-income riders, Mamdani has a golden opportunity to claim victory and walk back his free buses pledge. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/n...

Glad this study on America's "transit moonshot" is getting more attention. I still think it's important to look more specifically at the projects, technologies, and operational practices that would actually give the US world-class transit. benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/what-shoul...

Great @conordougherty.bsky.social piece on housing production funds, which really could be the next big thing in affordable housing development. The concept is very elegant, but it will be important to track how different programs perform in practice. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/b...

The MTA is preparing to make like Fleetwood Mac and go their own way to pay for the Interborough Express, given the way Trump Republicans are treating New York transit projects nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/05/01/m...

If the MTA is in fact moving toward instituting all-door boarding on buses, that would be very big news. This is one of the most effective — and cheapest — ways to improve bus speeds and reliability. It's one of the main reasons behind SFMuni's bus success. www.amny.com/news/fare-ev...