Decentralization of land use authority is *the most significant driver* of NYC's affordable housing crisis. A strong state that can make clear, rational decisions with input from the community needs to eliminate hyperlocal governance veto points like this. This is how good

Subjecting every new apartment building to subjective, politicized, project-by-project negotiations to extract costly concessions in exchange for permission to build is why housing is expensive in cities like New York and San Francisco.

Labor leader objects to CEQA reforms that "undermine enviro standards that are important & that give us leverage." Um, if they were actually important, they wouldn't give you leverage. 1/2

Just read Vincent Rollet's incredible paper on effects of upzoning in NYC. Wow, wow, wow! If CA were a well-governed state, we'd be offering Meta-like pay to bring folks like Vincent into California HCD & Gov. Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation. 🧵/16, with the highlights.

Though upzoning induces more development in high-price submarkets, the effect on rents is greatest at the *bottom* end of the housing market. (Incidentally, this destroys the theory of "impacts" that is the legal justification for inclusionary zoning.) /6

- Redevelopment probabilities on good sites increase ~linearly with "flow profit," above threshold ~$200/sqft. Translation: in real world, where sites have existing uses, policymakers can't charge "value capture" levies (IZ, impact fees, etc.) w/o stanching development. /12

Policymakers’ preoccupation with whether newly-built housing is affordable to poor people is misguided because new homes are a very small percentage of the housing market and because new housing will probably always be more expensive than comparable older housing.

This should be a wake-up call to Democrats fighting for the cause of urbanism and well-governed cities: if our party won’t solve the problems of drug-driven lawlessness and disorder consistent with OUR values, MAGA Republicans will solve them consistent with THEIR values. (1/2)

"Without disagreeing with anything Chris Elmendorf and David Schleicher say in favor of this option, I do want to pitch it as both/and rather than either/or," writes Matthew Yglesias.

Name a more iconic duo, I’ll wait.

Nearly every City that saw housing supply growth under 4% (mainly Northeast and Midwest) is seeing continued rent increases while cities that saw supply growth exceed 4% (Sunbelt) is seeing rents decrease.

The case in Abundance—that zoning and other rules have constrained housing development for decades— is based on an enormous amount of empirical research. The antitrust folks' argument is built on assertions in legal journals that reference assertions in blog posts that reference

If I worked really hard on a long essay, and somebody called up my citations and they all said "Derek is dead wrong, and he didn't even call me when he misused my work," I would feel bad. I've felt that embarrassment before. It's an important feeling. Feeling embarrassed about

the reason YIMBYs are winning is that time and time again, pro-housing policies simply *work*

Democrats showed a complete failure to build during my adult life. 12 years of massive capital resource allocation with little to show Imagine if they had built a useful section of California high speed rail. 100 miles of track we could use right now. Or if they had given

Andrew Sullivan: “Trump is conservatism’s actual nemesis: a wild boar — psychologically incapable of understanding anything but dominance and revenge, with no knowledge of history, crashing obliviously and malevolently through the ruined landscape of our constitutional democracy.

In San Francisco, San Jose and across the state, we’re seeing people falling through the cracks because we don’t have a system that’s set up to help our most vulnerable, acute cases. And our most vulnerable, the people who are suffering from severe addiction or debilitating

Wild idea for fellow Democrats: instead of whiny criticism, fix the one thing totally in our control — restore order and safety in our cities. Bonus: your constituents might actually enjoy living there.

Facts you won’t see on Fox News: Mississippi’s murder rate is 266% higher than California’s.

I’ve been saying this for a while now. not only does the blue state inability to build housing make rents more expensive, it’s significantly handicapping us on the federal stage. NIMBYs are sabotaging the Democratic Party