If the worst single-family house in your n’hood costs over $1 million, then your n’hood should be zoned for apartment buildings. (It’s pretty much that simple)

On the theme of, "American planners regulate the wrong things," we should have much stricter regulations on noise-proofing apartments. It's the sort of issue regulation is meant to handle: it's difficult for most consumer to assess it before making a decision, and it really impacts qualify of life.

US building codes requiring two stairs in multifamily buildings: not only worse living environments, but also more dangerous in fires! What a combination.

No such thing as an "Orphan Lot" any more. Single stair stacked flats can fit on small lots (like this 50x70 corner lot). This could be 12 small 1Br, or six family size flats. Just allow 50% lot coverage and 3FSR and away you go.

Your home value appreciation is someone's housing costs

California YIMBY is thrilled to announce our first round of endorsements for the 2026 Assembly election, which are in this thread by district number. If you want to support our political work, please donate to the California YIMBY Victory Fund, which you can do here:

We came pretty close to significantly reforming the commercial portion with 2020's Prop 15, and it's probably about time to try again.

Just got a push poll for CA 2026 governor election… for Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat??

San Francisco just upzoned the Sunset, the Richmond, North Point, and a bunch of the Marina. I truly never thought I'd see the day. Huge congratulations to the local activists at @sfyimby.bsky.social who worked so hard to make this happen.

It’s incredible how innocuous all these ED1 buildings are. Karen Bass really is chasing ghosts by blocking these.

You wanna know what’s safer, more affordable, better for the climate, and more space-efficient than a driverless car? A bus.

tax the empty (lots)

I love how the firefighters union, when confronted with data about the safety of single stair, argue “Well New York and Seattle have good firefighters, unlike here in California where we suck ass at our jobs”

at this point, Los Angeles is the most NIMBY city in the country. I am not a socialist myself, but give me a socialist YIMBY like Zohran or Katie Wilson over a liberal NIMBY like Karen Bass any day of the week.

There’s a wide open lane in the upcoming LA mayoral election for someone is determinedly pro-housing and anti-ICE.

amusing chart. it turns out New York City built more housing units in the 1920s than in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s put together www.nyc.gov/content/plan...

Yesterday's other big theme, besides how much the electorate hates Trump, is that voters really want more housing built.

one of portland's first downzonings happened on robert moses's recommendation in the 1930s, via a report that argued that banning apartments and limiting density would increase single family home values www.portlandmercury.com/images/edito...

Happy Middle Housing Day in Berkeley. As of today, multifamily housing up to 3 stories at 70 units per acre is byright and ministerial on all Berkeley lots in the flatlands and foothills for the first time in history, stretching from Kensington to Oakland.

By popular demand, @aceckhouse.bsky.social and I have put together a deep-in-the-weeds explainer on SB 79. Enjoy! substack.com/home/post/p-...

MAJOR NEWS: @GavinNewsom signed SB 79, my bill allowing more housing near public transit — rail, subway, rapid bus. It’s a huge step for housing in California. It’ll create more homes, strengthen our transit systems & reduce traffic & carbon emissions. Thank you, Governor!

Ladies and gentlemen, we did it. SB 79 has been signed.

America is not building enough housing and Americans are facing sky-high housing costs as a result. Today, the Senate took a historic step to change that. The ROAD to Housing Act will help communities – urban, suburban, and rural – build more housing and bring down costs.

Probably dumb as hell to publish this on a Friday afternoon, but the clock is ticking to get @gavinnewsom.bsky.social to sign SB 79. Please share — and, if you're a Californian, please call the governor's office at (916) 445-2841 to ask for his signature. publiccomment.blog/p/newsom-s-f...

Rumor is @governor.ca.gov is getting *tons* of pressure from rich donors to veto SB 79. If he caves, we'd be condemned to a permanent housing crisis — and lose 3-5 electoral votes in 2032. Call and tell him you have his back. Our democracy is more important than rich people's views! 👇 #SB79

If California is going to continue leading the nation on climate, we need to legalize dense, sustainable housing near our high quality transit. @gavinnewsom.bsky.social please do the right thing and sign SB 79.

[BILL ALERT] SB 79, which broadly legalizes more homes near high quality transit stops, has passed the Assembly floor! The bill now goes to the Senate for concurrence, then the Governor’s desk. cayimby.org/legislation/...

Best thing California could do to fight fascism is build more housing.

Every dot on this map is a parcel that has been redeveloped in the past 15 years. Yellow is single-family* Green is duplex Red is apartment building Notice something? In single-family zones, a massive number of homes have been torn down and replaced with mansions

BIG news: The California Democratic Party just endorsed @scottwiener.bsky.social’s landmark housing bill #SB79, which legalizes multifamily homes near major public transit statewide! This marks a major shift in state politics: California Dems are *finally* embracing a party that builds!

It's 2018. The LA City Council is opposing SB827 because it overrides local control. Rent is $1,663 It's 2019. The LA City Council is opposing SB50 because it overrides local control. Rent is $1,791 It's 2025. The LA City Council is opposing SB79 because it overrides local control. Rent is $2,625

San Franciscans: “But we can’t build more housing! We have to protect neighborhood character!” The character:

Amazing exchange between North Americans on a Vienna junket and Viennese housers.

“86% of LA respondents support building apartments in one or more of a [wide range] of areas. That number isn’t a typo. This level of agreement is unheard of in politics and should be enough of a reason to build more housing immediately.“ — @zacharyst.bsky.social escholarship.org/content/qt4m...

Amazing example of gentrification without redevelopment. This 6BR duplex, built in 1909 last sold for $90k in 1995 ($192k in today's dollars), got a gut rehab, and is now listed for $1.7M! That's 9x the last sale price for the same house, but now with nicer amenities!

Great report by Valerie Wilke, @edmendoza.bsky.social, and @muhammadspeaks.bsky.social on the double duplex, an LA typology that is bringing back the SRO through a series of code hacks www.mercatus.org/research/pol...

I wrote about LA’s 23-bedroom apartments, which are legal, profitable, and spreading like crazy slate.com/business/202...

This has been a really significant year for state-level housing policy - over 100 bills preempting local zoning authority enacted just since January! I wrote about some highlights, plus a huge table of all of them, here, including: -California -Texas -Montana and Washington, again -parking reform!

A new paper by Vincent Rollet at MIT replicates Li's 2022 finding that new construction reduces rents within a 500-foot radius in NYC vrollet.github.io/files/city_s...

NIMBYs will fight anything, even… a school. Sigh.

And we're live! It's the last policy hearing for SB 79, a California YIMBY co-sponsored bill to legalize multifamily housing near transit. I'm excited to share that at least a third of the audience is volunteers activists who made the trip out to speak in favor! 💪🏘

CM Kesarwani is making a motion! It would allow up to 70 units/acre, an effectiveness analysis report being triggered after 2 years or 25 projects, and a few other add-ons. And folks, it's unanimous! After more than 6 years, Berkeley has *finally* eliminated single-family only zoning!!!

Today the CA legislature revealed transformative changes to the housing development approval process that will go into effect as soon as Monday... 🧵⬇️ (1/15)

This is a misunderstanding of YIMBYism. YIMBYs do indeed have a philosophy; sometimes it’s explicit but other times they don’t yet have the language to describe it. The concept is that just because people “own” land doesn’t mean they should be allowed to hoard it. That is, it’s Georgism.

Sepulveda EIR is live! I'll be going through this today and will post any interesting findings in this thread

If Gavin Newsom were a pro-housing governor, almost every city in CA right now would have its zoning regimes overridden by the Builder’s Remedy.

The City of Los Angeles could largely solve its $1 billion budget shortfall by allowing more homes to be built near its transit stations, according to a new report out today from Streets For All. Read the report here: data.streetsforall.org/blog/sb79_zo...