If the Trump administration wants to use military power, it should seek authorization from Congress, says Sen. Rand Paul.

"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break; it can only become stairs. There would never be an 'escalator temporarily out of order' sign, only 'escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'" — Mitch Hedberg

@christianb.bsky.social on whether YIMBYism or post-neoliberalism is needed to get housing built reason.com/2025/08/19/a...

So far there’s been 7 applications for SB 9 projects in the Palisades. For Newsom and Bass, that’s dangerous overdevelopment.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass declare NIMBY martial law to prevent wildfire-ravaged properties from being turned into duplexes.

I wrote up the supply portions of the new Senate housing bill for the newsletter. Basically it’s a bill of a million tweaks, with many of those tweaks focused on shifting existing federal grant spending toward higher-growth jurisdictions reason.com/2025/07/29/o...

Look at what they did to my big brutalist boy.

I’m very supportive of speed cameras in the abstract but cities do also just use them as ATM machines

Evaluation of Minneapolis’ reducing zoning constraints in suggests that deregulation reduced housing costs by 15-23%—even without adding a lot of new units, because density alone may reduce construction costs. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This is democracy manifest

Didn’t realize until writing this piece but Seattle’s inclusionary zoning policy has no minimum threshold. Even if you’re adding just one unit of housing, you could end up having to pay affordable housing fees. Even if IZ were constitutional, that’s insane reason.com/2025/07/17/s...

@zyudhishthu.bsky.social, @christianb.bsky.social & others have shown how Minneapolis legalized triplexes but only built ~35 in its first 3 years. Portland built 8x faster. Why? Size. Minneapolis said triplex homes on a standard lot could average no more than 833sqft.

your Reason headline of the day reason.com/2025/05/21/p...

Two New Jersey business owners are having their properties (a tire shop and a 4plex) taken by the city of Perth Amboy b/c both are allegedly blighted. The city's evidence of blight? Its own mismapped property lines, litter on adjacent city land, and too little parking reason.com/2025/05/13/n...

Two New Jersey business owners are having their properties (a tire shop and a 4plex) taken by the city of Perth Amboy b/c both are allegedly blighted. The city's evidence of blight? Its own mismapped property lines, litter on adjacent city land, and too little parking reason.com/2025/05/13/n...

Pending the governor's approval, Montana will have made it legal to build six-story, market-rate apartments without parking in downtown commercial zones by-right. Meanwhile, some California lawmakers are still struggling with basic economic literacy. My latest newsletter: reason.com/2025/04/29/b...

Hawaii Co. tells Shahzaad Ausman all permits are good to go on the house he's buying. A year later it says “oops the home has been illegal for decades. Move out or get fined.” Even after a court ruled his permits valid, Ausman tells me the county is still threatening fines reason.com/2025/04/15/h...

This is wild ✅Developer proposes 254 affordable housing units ✅Town tells developer "actually we're gonna seize your land for a town hall" ✅Developer sues, saying this a sham taking ✅The town secretly transfers the property title to itself then tells developer to gtfo reason.com/2025/03/18/t...

The acronym makes no sense here Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education (FURRIES) Act? If it's unlawful, isn't it already forbidden? it bans representation of roleplaying, as opposed to just roleplaying? where does the 'S' come from?

Obviously the feds shouldn't have power over local/state govts tolling their roads, but it is amusing that the Trump admin's rationale for yanking congestion pricing was that it was really just about funding transit, not traffic reduction and Hochul's message is this? Everyone involved is a clown

Gavin Newsom's latest "streamlining" order gives builders fake relief from rules requiring low-income housing destroyed in the L.A. fires be rebuilt as new affordable housing reason.com/2025/02/18/b...

Free markets give people want they want at the price they're willing and able to pay. It's a setup that respects people's freedom while sorting out their preferences in the aggregate. - @christianb.bsky.social reason.com/2025/02/11/w...

There's definitely a curse at work

In R.I., a developer uses a new state density bonus law to propose 252 unsubsidized affordable units. Local mayor vows to stop the project. A few weeks later he's proposing to seize the developer's land for a new town hall that had never been publicly discussed before. reason.com/2025/02/04/t...

For the latest issue of @reason.com I wrote about how the Fair Housing Act has been interpreted to guarantee a right to emotional support parrots reason.com/2025/02/02/y...

Good points from @christianb.bsky.social: re-legalizing 4plexes & "middle housing" is more about housing *choice* than about housing supply. (He doesn't mention desegregation, but that too.) To get lots more homes, we need lots of good ol apartment zoning too! reason.com/2025/01/28/m...

Looking at some new data from Spokane & Austin, it seems fair to say that the modal missing middle reform will boost yearly production by at most 5 percent. That’s not going to lower citywide housing costs. But it does give people more choice in where they want to live. reason.com/2025/01/28/m...

While I do think AOC's comments on zoning have improved, her conversion on this issue is also much exaggerated. reason.com/2024/09/24/c...

Reporting on the L.A. fires had me wondering how well the rebuilding efforts on Maui have been going since the August 2023 fires. Of the 2,000 homes destroyed or severely damaged, a grand total of 3 have been rebuilt. That's a rate of one home rebuilt every six months. reason.com/2025/01/22/1...

Austin and San Francisco getting the same amount of money in the second round of "YIMBY Grant" awards says a lot about how well-conceived this program is

California's regulations around zoning, insurance, public land management, are all bad and desperately in need of reform. But I don't think any of these had more than a marginal impact on the severity of the L.A. fires. reason.com/2025/01/14/t...

Boston bragging about how a third of the pitiful amount of housing it builds is “affordable” irritated me enough to write this week’s newsletter all about just how misguided that view is. reason.com/2025/01/07/w...

A HoCo man built a backyard go-kart track for his son. Without a single permit. Neighbors want to make him tear it down. The man says his neighbors "suck" and are against one of the few biracial families in the area. @jessmnocera.bsky.social has the tale. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

We have new permitting data on the results of Austin's 'missing middle' reforms. Over 200 individual units permitted 6 months after implementation. That would make it more productive than Minneapolis', PDX's missing middle reforms were even a year out.

It’s actually not good news that a third of Boston’s new units are income-restricted. That's a sign that a huge share of development is dependent on subsidies and/or smaller, marginal projects where market-rents can't absorb affordability mandates getting taxed/regulated out of existence

Bedard's points are all pretty benign, generally in favor of COVID interventions, and mostly add up to "public health officials should communicate their own uncertainty about interventions" better. I'm not really sure what the freakout in the comments is about.

My 2 takeaways from the latest HUD report showing a record 20% y-o-y increase in homelessness: 1) The increase is almost all migrants moving into big city shelter systems 2) minus migrants, people sleeping on the street is still climbing, and still at record levels reason.com/2024/12/31/u...

People like free money, who knew. www.planetizen.com/news/2024/12...

Startling topline figure from this year's homelessness census. Almost the entire increase in homelessness over the past 17 years occurred between 2023 and 2024. Obviously, that masks a lot of annual ups and downs, but still

After almost 4 years, the PA Supreme Court denied the appeal of the objectors and finally allowed this long-vacant former gas station in Chestnut Hill to be a mixed-use grocery store/33 residential units.

Jimmy Carter was such a weird 70s mash-up of degrowth and deregulation. He'd finger wag about consuming less to curb inflation, but also signed major deregulation of transportation, energy, brewing, etc. RIP. reason.com/2024/12/29/r...

The NR article is the typical combo of sensible critiques of green-coded central planning and half-baked opposition to free market policies like eliminating parking minimums and mileage fees. Cons should get smarter on this issue if only to deflate cynical liberal trolling about property rights.

From now on, if you want to downzone in NC, you have to get the express, written permission of affected property owners. Downzoning is defined as any reduction in density, any restriction on permitted use, and any change that makes a existing use or lot non-conforming. reason.com/2024/12/17/n...

What a surprise. Another local government uses its land use regulations to harass a local church trying to help the homeless.

Reflect harder.

NBD North Carolina is just over here banning all downzonings👀

So this is kind of wild. Slipped in on the last page of the North Carolina GOP's big omnibus bill to fund hurricane relief and strip the incoming Dem gov and AG of a lot of powers, is small provision effectively banning local govts from making zoning more restrictive. reason.com/2024/12/17/n...

St. Paul is going to spend $100,000 to figure out if it's application of rent control to new construction is reducing new construction. It's good they're trying to get to the bottom of this. www.axios.com/local/twin-c...

This week's newsletter is about Bryan, Ohio's yearlong quest to shut down a local church's homeless ministry. This past week the church's pastor, Chris Avell, stood trial on criminal charges the city brought against him over alleged zoning violations. reason.com/2024/12/10/p...

NYPD officials say a massive, citywide hunt for overtime pay is underway.