The idea that we need a judge to rule on whether moving playground equipment requires environmental review is why we can’t build anything and have the worst housing crisis in the nation’s history.

ABQ nimbys talk good game about wanting adaptive reuse, infill, sprawl prevention, walkability, transit improvement, and affordability. Then scream to high heavens about any proposal that aims to help any or all of these goals

Institutional investors buy single family homes *and then rent them out to tenants who live in them.* While banning this might move some homes from the rental market into the ownership market, it will not address the housing shortage that is driving up prices.

In the U.S., the number of single-family homes built in 2024 exceeds the total number of single-family rental homes owned by the largest 25 single-family rental investors by a nearly 2:1 ratio. A lot of fuss over ~0.5% of total market. Solve the problem by building more.

it’s abundantly clear that a good chunk of people earnestly believe “gentrification” is “someone moves to or visits another place” and the solution to this is yelling at people online berate them all you want, that won’t stop your REAL enemies from making housing unaffordable

So many people hate confronting the fact that planning and designing places that force everyone to be dependent on cars is cruel. Sometimes they perform impressive mental gymnastics away from the topic, and sometimes they just make lazy deflections. Things can get better in the

> NOOOO! You can’t just build a triplex there! Won’t someone think about the character of the neighborhood!? Me:

East Palo Alto tried to impose an illegal $54,891 "affordable housing fee (no, this is not a parody) on an ADU, immediately got sued, and dropped the fee. Unfunded "inclusionary" zoning is the is the housing policy equivalent of applying leeches to a sick patient.

Excellent BIDs and city coordination with them. BIDs are so underrated. Basically the only governance innovation in the past 30 years that has unambiguously worked.

The best tenant protection: more housing. WSJ: "The renter-friendly environment in Phoenix is a symptom of the city’s enormous glut of high-end apartments ... It is a contrast to housing-scarce coastal cities like New York and Los Angeles, where renters endure cutthroat

As long as it is illegal under zoning to build homes on small, affordable lots, it will practically be illegal to build starter homes in many American neighborhoods.

⏰ Public comment sign-up is open until 3:30 PM TODAY Speak up in support of O-26-2, the pro-homes package of IDO amendments. Comment in person or on zoom, starting at 5:00pm. Sign up here: cabq.gov/council/find-y…

If this correlation holds at all, the association between larger houses and greater misery is likely driven as much by the demands of a car-dependent, drive-everywhere lifestyle as the burdens of high-maintenance housing

Important to note that this law does not apply to new apartment buildings ... yet it still killed housing production

Our firm has worked on re-spacing bus stops, as part of network redesigns, in Des Moines, Richmond, Louisville, and several other cities. Other transit agencies are terrified by the thought, but it's happening. The trick is to do it all at once rather than bit by bit.

I’m a married homeowner who’s closing in on 40. I’m just getting more YIMBY as I age because I’m tired of my friends moving away in search of homes they can afford.

Inclusionary zoning is bad policy that makes housing more expensive for the overwhelming majority of poor tenants. We should abandon it as a well-intentioned failure.

Well when outside looks like this how can you build community organically?

Rents in JC are flat between 2017 and today after adjusting for inflation, according to stats in a recent NYTimes article. Surprising given the strong regional housing pressures. Nice catch by Stephen Smith over on B*Sky. (Also thanks to u@pzonenj for pointing it out)

Found an apartment I could prolly afford in Downtown Los Angeles, and a job similar to mine that's accessible by Metro pays 20-40k more than my job in Albuquerque. It's getting harder to picture staying in New Mexico tbqh.