The "health and safety" pretext for zoning is nonsensical today because it was never more than a Jim Crow assertion of Black neighbors as unsafe and unhealthful. It's how zoning was legitimated as a police power after antecedants—segregation ordinances, racial covenants—proved legally ineffectual.

Diagramming this fucking sentence.

I am the mouse and the architect of my maze. The giver of my own pleasure and torment. I desire. I desire desiring. I desire being desired. I desire desire itself.

Be forewarned: You may also encounter maps of major downzonings. Such is life. Beauty and sorrow coexist. They must.

Single-Stair Sickos might like to learn that a lot of European cities used to produce detailed books on their built environment, including complete floor plans. Here's a snippet from Hamburg und Seine Bauten (1914)

Right-wingers are afraid of everything except looking stupid in public.

Peak Gustavo Petro

The problem with single-stair in the U.S. is that, in all but a fraction of <10 metros, these units would be unmarketable without filling the site with structured parking, which a 2.0 FAR cannot financially support. And 2.0 FAR can't pay for the land in the fraction without huge parking ratios.

If only the White House was a mass produced builder-grade ranch house in the 78th most notable mid-century sprawl subdivision in Nashville, Tennessee. USAmerican historic preservation is the fakest thing humans have ever devised.

"Urban Planning" has become an exercise in gilding vibes with a veneer of empirics. Just a remarkable lack of rigor in 99% of work product from this industry.

More than a century into the American Zoning Experiment, we have the first example of application for its stated purpose: to regulate nuisance land uses.

🚨 NEWS: Colombian President Gustavo Petro accuses U.S. government officials of murder and violating Colombia’s sovereignty and says the Trump-ordered strike of a boat in the Caribbean killed a fisherman named Alejandro Carranza.

When planners promote DADUs while preserving provisions that make them unfinanceable—owner-occupancy requirements, separate-sale prohibitions, etc.—they are planning for a wider privilege gap. Only rich households can benefit from DADU income, giving their kids a leg up, saving on elder care, etc.

When I hear folks talk about bringing smallplex construction back to American cities, I ask for their take on the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Nobody ever has a take. We aren't bringing smallplex construction back to American cities.

Not covered here: suburbanization of poverty and rising homelessness. (And the fusion: many cities have moved services for the unhoused further afield to "clean up downtown") Data is difficult for mass analysis, but anecdotes are abundant for those who follow pedestrian deaths in their localities.

Broker Math never fails 👌

Aside from the murder, crimes against humanity, etc.—it's remarkable how bad he is at this act a decade into it. A real hillbilly would not g-drop "fishing" here. It's a stressed syllable. He got so caught up talkin' and comin' and whatnot, he forgot to be doin' proper velar nasal alveolarization.

Pack it up, y'all. Nobody will do it better.

Wow, I can't believe @seanforfive.bsky.social threatened to email the zoning administrator to find out if eating ass is a permitted use in the RM40 zoning district

There is a German TV show called "Unser Supermarkt" which is like a reality TV show about a supermarket except the drama is just supermarket employees talking about missing barcodes and where to stack the Kartoffeln and very normal checkout processes. It is peak German culture.

Euclid and its consequences. 800 words not sufficient, but local governments' virtually limitless land use powers—in a nation of otherwise severely limited gov't powers—leads local governments to use the land use hammer for every nail. Progressive politicians should roll it back. Laugh meanwhile:

This is a totally fascinating deep dive into one of those European social housing projects that goes mini-viral in North American housing circles because it's so pretty and cheap--and it turns out to be a lot more complicated. brendanwhitsitt.substack.com/p/24-does-eu...

On one hand, it sucks that we have a system that allows a small number of cranks to delay public goods and force the public to spend tons of money on frivolous legal defenses. On the other hand, it's fun to watch the worst person you've ever encountered lose over and over and over again.

West Nashville (now The Nations) under the original 1933 zoning code was Residence B and Industrial A zones. Residence B allowed 4 units/lot—equivalent to the density proposed in this rezoning. Industrial A had no residential density limits. This remains a colossal down-zone from 100 years ago.

Sebald did it a whole lot more better.

This is good art-crit

Historic ruling in Colombia as Uribe becomes first former president convicted of a crime. Now faces prison time. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Because I assume few on this website have, or know anyone who has, a WSJ subscription:

Theoretically, I believe U.S. governments (esp. local) are too constrained. But as a practical matter, I believe governments should not be allowed to use word processors.

Architecture is my passion

I have been in six different buildings so far this week and every one of them has had an out-of-service/malfunctioning elevator.

Gross. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that around 4,600 children are abducted by strangers each year; a small fraction of those abductions are by undocumented residents. ICE has abducted at least 6,166 children into detention already this year. Source:

Because I assume few on this website have, or know anyone who has, a WSJ subscription:

North America has progressed beyond a need for single-stair architectural competitions. North America now needs single-stair pro-forma competitions; single-stair construction debt product competitions; single-stair management services model competitions; condo finance/liability reform competitions.

Strong Towns should be understood first as a Catholic (derogatory) organization. No further explanation. Fellow former cultural-Catholics will understand.

I swear to god nobody reads my fucking articles. www.yellowbrickurban.com/popular-arti...

Consider a different perspective

Gotta hattip Google on this one.

Correct. IZ is an economic integration program that has, over time, become mistaken for an affordable housing production program—it does not do that well, because it does not move up the bid-rent curve well. It only works where low-density residential is the only viable development option.

@charlescgardner.bsky.social and @yellowbrickurban.com cover how Nashville developers did the same thing prior to the city legalizing detached duplexes: www.mercatus.org/research/res...

Wow, I had no idea he said this. We cannot allow this man to destroy our Great American Cities with his Big Government discrimination.

My brother-in-law pays €1400/mo. all expenses included for a one-bedroom with "condo-quality finishes" in this complex, a block from a tram stop and adjacent to a supermarket.

Your fave left-of-center local elected took the guided tour with the council travel budget. Real Sozialwohnungsbaukopfen paid their way to drop their wives off at a pool to spend a few hours reading in The Original German and taking photos to share on an app that turns them into Web 1.0 thumbnails.

One cool thing about not allowing a private industry consortium to write absurd density diseconomies into the building code: cities can create U-Bahn-accessible downtowns on former airfields at the urban edge, instead of building streetcarless streetcar suburbs on former airfields in the urban area.

I love that Austrians have a German sense of humor.

Books!!! I'm so grateful to Matt Lassiter, Richard Rothstein, @eherbin.bsky.social‬‬, @judithkafka.bsky.social‬, @nrooks.bsky.social‬, @tracylsteffes.bsky.social‬ & @trounstine.bsky.social‬ for their thoughtful and generous words of support... 🗃️ @uncpress.bsky.social, @sonyabonczek.bsky.social‬ ‬💐

Coulda drunk a hundred waters with how hot it's been in Vienna these days

JaneJacobsism: anti-government liberalism for conservatives