New research shows 1 in 5 car owners want to live car-free, and a majority are open to it. The issue isn’t demand... it’s policy. Outdated zoning rules make walkable neighborhoods scarce, expensive, and often illegal to build across most communities. remainplaces.com/post/the-great…

The MBTA Communities law is working... just not at the scale our housing crisis demands. New data from Boston Indicators shows real projects, real homes & the clear limits of modest zoning reforms. The lesson here isn’t to pause reforms... It’s to do more. remainplaces.com/post/what-the-…

Cambridge City Council voted to pilot the full pedestrianization of a section of Brattle Street in Harvard Square. Noteworthy is the decision to forgo a $300,000+ study stating; "bringing in an outside group to tell us what we already know is not the best use of tax dollars."

Canada’s 4th-largest city just passed a sweeping set of zoning reforms: 🚗 minimum parking requirements eliminated 🏠 4 homes allowed on all residential lots w/ utilities 🏬 increased height on main streets 🥐 small businesses allowed in many residential neighborhoods 📍Ottawa

Marblehead’s history shows 250 years of steady evolution. It was once a town flexible enough to meet the needs of it's ever changing population... ...until March 14, 1972, when it's modern zoning code was adopted and growth effectively stalled.

the weather here is actually fantastic 90% of the year… we just really like to complain A Lot so you just hear about the 10% more

Bring back the rowhouses that once allowed middle-class families to thrive in New England.

Great thread from Marilyn Moedinger on why we don’t see wider adoption of prefab construction methods in housing production.

The damage from decades of failed housing policy in the Northeast is already here: slow population growth, a shrinking workforce, and families priced out. Every year we delay reform deepens the hollowing-out of our workforce and weakens our economic future.

The biggest demographic leaving Massachusetts... 25-44 year olds. The folks who would be starting companies here, working in our hospitals, teaching our students and eventually starting families here.

Great to join housing advocates, planners, elected officials, chambers of commerce & more to officially kick off the Legalize Starter Homes ballot campaign in MA. If approved by voters in November, it would allow single-family homes on 5,000+ sf lots with public water & sewer.

Previously, 64% of Missoula, MT allowed only single-family homes or duplexes. This week, City Council passed major zoning reforms including, expanding small multifamily housing to 89% of the city, allowing retail uses in most neighborhoods & eliminating all parking requirements.

Zoning reform is step one, not the finish line. It can legalize the “missing middle” housing that built the middle class decades ago. But without modernizing the building codes layered on since, many of these homes still won’t get built at scale across North America.

The demand for great walkable neighborhoods far outpaces the supply. It’s climate agnostic, age agnostic and income level agnostic. While not for everyone we need to greatly increase the supply of great walkable neighborhoods in North America.

Holland, Michigan boats North America’s municipally run snowmelt system with over 168mi of heated streets and sidewalks. The system, first installed in 1988, is powered by waste heat generated from the downtown municipal power plant. 📍Holland, MI

Massachusetts isn’t just moving too slowly on housing, it’s becoming a national outlier in its lack of urgency to fix the systemic barriers that make it one of the hardest, most expensive places in America to build needed new housing.

H.R. 6644, the Housing for the 21st Century Act, passed the House tonight 390–9, a rare bipartisan moment in an increasingly partisan World. The bill modernizes federal housing programs, expands financing tools & cuts red tape to help boost housing supply nationwide.

Investing in public spaces should be part of every communities housing strategy. The Corner Spot started as a small $50K investment in a temporary community space in 2016. Ten years later it’s thriving... bringing community & small business together on Main Street. 📍Ashland, MA

"When we build more, not only can more people contribute to our city, the rising cost of rent will also slow down." - Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani