Oops. Narrative violation. www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quo...

Grovenor residents (a super minority of them) aren't against bike lanes, but these ones don't make sense (so they say). edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n... Sadly, this isn't a bike lane project at all. It's just traffic calming and the city is using money from the $100m to fund it. #yegbike

Soon to be Edmonton with our townhouse boom?

After aggressive land use reforms aimed at increasing supply, 20% of New Zealand townhouses resales are now at a loss www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

14,303 on the bike counters yesterday! 👏👏

I did some quick math. I have biked 500km this month. I have spent $0 for fuel. If I were driving a gas vehicle, I would have spent $50-100 filling up for the same distance driven. This is where the future lays: human powered transportation over two tonne body armour.

Edmonton changed its zoning and, voi la, it's working. (Your city could do this!)

And equally important, after it became clear that it is working Edmonton (for the most part) did not give in to the inevitable NIMBY backlash. Unlike some other cities. (Big thanks to @jacobdawang.com for carefully documenting how all these changes in Edmonton play out on the ground.)

Sunday, May 17, ↑11.6°C ↓1.1°C, 1.9mm rain Total: 7,061 #YEGBike Terwillegar Park Footbridge: 561 High Level Bridge West: 538 Buena Vista Bridge: 519 83 Avenue W of 99 Street: 480 MacKinnon Ravine: 383 Belgravia Rd Foot Bridge SUP: 383 83 Avenue W 106 Street: 374 110 Street N of 86 Avenue: 336

Love this initiative by @jacobdawang.com 🙌

Saturday, 16 May, ↑9.1°C ↓0.0°C Total: 4,881 #YEGBike High Level Bridge West: 466 83 Avenue W of 99 Street: 344 Terwillegar Park Footbridge: 341 83 Avenue W 106 Street: 296 110 Street N of 86 Avenue: 267 102 Avenue E of 121 Street: 230 Buena Vista Bridge: 185 Belgravia Rd Foot Bridge SUP: 183

Friday, 15 May, ↑13.9°C ↓4.0°C, 0.6mm rain Total: 8,173 #YEGBike High Level Bridge West: 804 83 Avenue W of 99 Street: 708 83 Avenue W 106 Street: 612 102 Avenue E of 121 Street: 514 110 Street N of 86 Avenue: 503 Belgravia Rd Foot Bridge SUP: 404 100 Avenue E of 107 Street: 343

People use bike lanes in Edmonton! I created a bluesky bot that will (hopefully) post daily counts of people on bikes going by the counters that are on bike lanes. Give it a follow! #YEGBike.

I wanted to take a moment to say a few things as directly as I could. Wanting to legalize apartments in the West Side of Vancouver isn't radical. A status quo built on exclusion is. If we want to move the needle at all, we'll need councillors committed to big ideas and real change.

Fascinated to learn that some Toronto councillors are concerned about the fact that garbage bins might block the sidewalk and affect accessibility. New information to me. If anything, a building with a property manager seems less likely to do this.

These people - Poilevre, local Liberal MPs - are literally twisting themselves into Laurentian elite caricatures with this nonsense. They like the idea because it makes it easy for them to easily jet in and out to either their home ridings or political/business events. Simple as that.

NEW BLOG POST: Visualizing Alberta's switch to permanent daylight time. Later sunrises and later sunsets. But, what will that actually mean on the ground, on a daily basis during the winter? 👇 www.jacobdawang.com/blog/2026/al...

It’s official: I am registered to run for Toronto City Council in Ward 11 University–Rosedale. Thank you to all of my friends, family and — most importantly — Ward 11 constituents who came out to celebrate with me! I’ll see you in the neighbourhood. Pledge to donate at gabrielblanc.ca/donate 🚀

We should build a High Speed Rail (HSR) Network for Southern Ontario. Today I argue in @thestar.com that for the price of Ford's Highway 401 Tunnel Vision, we can! www.thestar.com/opinion/cont... But more than write an article, I've put together a proposal for what it can look like, and cost. 👇👀

I need Toronto's councillors to talk amongst themselves and decide whether the Reserve Funds are: (a) rainy day funds that are not allocated and are intended for unforeseen circumstances, or (b) all allocated to projects and about to be spent so no need to worry that they've grown into the billions.

Is it bad to feel a little personally insulted at this after looking at ask that edmonton has accomplished with and for its HAF funds? www.edmonton.ca/programs_ser...

Cities like Edmonton that are truly stepping up should be pissed that the feds caved on Calgary. The HAF was "intentionally designed to incentivize the most ambitious housing reforms and reward municipalities that agree to implement them."

My takeaways from the SSMUH legislation is that if you are going to force municipalities to allow housing you should not give them the opportunity to water it down and nerf the requirements. Otherwise munis will do just that, either from the get-go or after learning from neighbouring munis.

Edmonton is one of the most progressive cities on the continent for housing reform and deserves more recognition. Luckily, Canadian gems @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social cover it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lobl... And @nerd4cities.bsky.social profiles the city here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlAV...

NEW BLOG POST There's been a lot of speculation as to how much MLI select has been driving small-scale infill in Edmonton. With an ATIP request, here is a good guess. 👇 www.jacobdawang.com/blog/2026/ml... #yeg #yegcc #yimby

Edmonton is the most affordable major city in Canada and we are continuing to make progress. The City has accelerated permitting, reduced approval timelines, expanded services, and simplified processes so builders can move from application to construction quickly. https://bit.ly/4ttrlfn

Interesting how the "neighbourhood character" argument never comes up with some of these rebuilds. #yeg

Mark Carney came into power with a promise that he was going to build homes at levels not seen in decades, and so far what we've gotten is his government refusing to hold some of our largest cities accountable for deliberately breaking agreements they signed on regulatory reform.

If the mayor’s framing is true this marks the end of the HAF as a way to encourage zoning change In a meaningful way. Feds just completely caved

Fire Gregor Robertson.

At least it was all done for an understandable policy reason: keeping other people from living where they want because I personally don't like the type of building they would have chosen to live in.

RIP Housing Accelerator Fund, 2023-2026.

Throwing good money after bad

This completely defeats the purpose of the HAF. The cash incentive was a carrot to get the city to address the highly-restrictive zoning laws that got us into this mess in the first place.

Oh my god. The success of the housing accelerator fund depended on the federal government holding municipalities to their word. Gregor Robertson has singlehandedly destroyed this policy initiatives if this is true. 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦

Kandavel keeps saying he supports housing in the abstract but then it turns out he opposes every actual proposal in his ward. Who could have foreseen?

I feel like the abolition of parking requirements is a really instructive example of why developers often aren't all that useful for identifying pro-growth reform. 🧵

Unfunded IZ presupposes a permenant housing shortage: the moment rents fall too low to cross-subsidize the unfunded mandate, development stops until rents rise again. It's housing policy pseudoscience.

Toronto, as always, ruined this for everyone by asking for a bunch of extra tax powers, getting them, promptly cancelling the vehicle registration tax, then taking in money the land transfer tax in good times before complaining about its volatility when tides turned. Then asking for more tax powers.

It’s wild how the G&M’s position on housing has shifted even in the past five years. And Holly’s right, we will regret this…

Edmonton's status as Canada's YIMBY capital remains rock solid

I'd be very curious to know how Regina compares to these numbers coming out of Edmonton. jacobdawang.com/blog/2026/q1... #yqrcc

This small, old, rotten single-family home is going to be replaced with 9 brand new ones. Steps from NAIT, two schools, a hospital, Kingsway mall, LRT, and the restaurants on 118 avenue. What a huge win for Edmonton!

Great analysis from Jacob (as usual) on the continuing success of Edmonton to create an environment where it’s easy to build the housing people want.

Looking at Edmontons continued success in ramping up missing middle and think about how Halifax could’ve done more

Jacob is extremely good on this beat, and I believe instituting Edmonton reforms in the suburbs of the GTA (Toronto probably needs more ambition) would alleviate pressures on the entire country. High prices in Halifax are partly a result of NIMBYism in Markham.

Edmonton, like Auckland, seems to be proving that in many North American/Australasian contexts if you legalize townhouses in lots of places, they will meet a lot of housing demand. Dispersed rowhomes reduce pressure on how much housing you need to get out of larger apartment buildings

#Edmonton is getting some things completely right, in spite of the loudly right... #yegcc #yeg