I'd like to see DMPED get more involved in this issue. Retaining residents, and not losing them to the suburbs, is economic development. Maybe through a sub-office focused entirely on family retention?

New report (with a rad cover) out today from Groundwork Collaborative: We can't deregulate our way to housing affordability. The real crisis isn't too much regulation — it's a broken financing system.

To have any meaningful odds of redevelopment, a property needs to be upzoned for *at least* double its current floor area. Thin capacity is stranded capacity. If you want housing fast, you need to allow thickly layered usable development rights open.substack.com/pub/abundancea…

A decade ago, there was no building boom in Everett, but in Chelsea next door. Chelsea is closer to Boston and has better transit connections. Then Chelsea imposed 20% IZ. There's been essentially no market rate development since, depriving them of tax revenue and homes.

Easter Sunday, South Side Chicago 1941:

The Future Land Use Map designates which parts of D.C. can be used for what purposes — high-density housing, office buildings, industrial land, park space, etc. Critics say a new version isn't thinking big enough, Martin Austermuhle reports. 51st.news/dc-flum-housin…

This is pretty clever: Outsider mayoral candidate Rini Sampath, who says her campaign is focused on improving basic services in D.C., built a new prototype 311 app.

But, also: Lewis George has specifically talked about strengthening rent control and TOPA, and voted to that end on the council. Folks in housing development I have spoken with say those two things could be barriers to further investment.

The Virginia Supreme Court will decide whether to take up the Arlington missing middle case today. If they choose not to take the case, the appellate court ruling will stand, meaning the rezoning goes into effect

In 2021, 70% of D.C.'s prolific gun violence was done by about 500 people. That's about 0.075% of the D.C. population at the time. That's basically nobody and they gave the national capital a bad reputation, and they were KNOWN TO THE POLICE!

New social housing in Paris vs. new social housing in Chicago The Paris social housing building was erected in 10 days using a mass timber kit, delivering six units and a community space at $170k/unit excluding land (but it was built on a 1000sqft lot, so land use was EFFICIENT)

As Mayor, I’ll be laser-focused on bringing investment into DC so we can shore up our budget and restore these programs that people need. Join us! riniformayor.com/donate

Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist One way to make social housing desirable is to use more masonry. Fiber cement and other cheap claddings require too much maintenance. Look at the work of Dattner Architects and their use of masonry for ideas.

D.C. mayoral candidates want to build more housing — but investors don’t wapo.st/4mpBoQ9

According to a new survey from LendingTree, Washington, D.C. is now the toughest place in the country to launch a new business. The national 1st year failure rate is 20% — in D.C., it’s 33%. wtop.com/business-finan…

Again, I think when people react to buildings like this, they are reacting yes to the boring facade, but also to perceived underlying social and economic realities of the project. With a development of this size, a single institutional developer has assembled the land at great

“Sashimi DC – located inside Rice Market on 14th Street” - PoPville popville.com/2026/04/sashim…

Great to see results in San Fran like those we have seen at Metro Forward. With our new gates fare evasion dropped over 80% collecting millions for better service, maintenance costs down & with other tools has resulted in the lowest crime we have ever had.

The real high point of media lifestyles was to be a political blogger living near U Street in 2006.