If a hot person sends you this meme does that mean they like you or
Alex Armlovich
@aarmlovi.bsky.social
Housing Program Officer, Abundance & Growth Fund @ CG | Sr. Fellow @niskanencenter🏗️ | Urban Econ 🌐🔰🚋 | @worksinprogress contributor | @opennyforall member | @yimbytown alum | former @cbcny | Legalize housing. Tax land. End poverty with cash
Sacramento is also *the* poster child for the power of direct state zoning: The city simply accepted the state-authored SB79 code! No huge planning staff time, little implementation capacity needed. One of way to solve the local implementation capacity problem is to just *write the code for them*
M. Nolan Gray 🥑@mnolangray.bsky.social · 3w agoThanks to a pro-growth local culture and advocacy by YIMBY groups like @sacyimby.bsky.social, California's last great middle-class metropolis will not be going down the inequality-and-stagnation doom loop of the coast. www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/n...
It's unusual for me to find a politician that's more YIMBY than I am, but Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek's administration is proposing to essentially replace local zoning on most parcels in the state with the last 4 pages of this document www.oregon.gov/lcd/LAR/Docu...
There was a planning panic over retail banks taking up urban storefronts in the 2010s. Cities started banning them, and Capital One responded by putting cafés in their locations, beginning in Boston in 2014. I learned this from @aarmlovi.bsky.social
How much housing is located near the nation's transit? 45% of units are located within a 1/2 mile of bus or rail. But only 10% is near frequent service... and 6% is near a rail station. Our new data tool @urbaninstitute.bsky.social allows you to investigate in detail! www.urban.org/data-tools/h...
One part of Single Stair's unbelievably fast success since 2021 is that it re-legalizes everyone's favorite old buildings. New "break-up-the-massing" double loaded buildings so often try to emulate them with fake facade divisions and other visual deception But we can just legalize the real thing
Protect Bridgeport Bicyclists@stevevance.net · 2mo agoQ: why does single stair matter to Chicagoans? - bring down building costs - build more homes
When I started wearing Uniqlo socks as color accents with Chacos & Tevas with flannels or other "LL Bean Boyfriend" outfits, I got a mix of side-eye & compliments Now I'm a pioneer
E24-24, my proposal to raise the IBC’s single-stair apartment building height limit from three stories to four, has passed the final membership vote, and will now officially make it into the 2027 IBC 🎉
I am suddenly struck by the conviction that a contemporary dance mix of this song would absolutely rip We are overdue for a Hot 90s Summer youtu.be/4QwZi9-7i5s?...
I Want You
YouTube video by Savage Garden - Topic
youtu.be
The LVT was authorized under Cuomo, but it's never been used. Very few people wrote about it before @aarmlovi.bsky.social's article for @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social, with one exception: Then-Assemblymember @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social praised value capture and § 119-r in a Jacobin interview in 2022:
Reed Schwartz@reed-schwartz.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew York State just authorized a land value tax that could generate billions of dollars for new transit. For the @niskanencenter.bsky.social, @aarmlovi.bsky.social and I wrote about how the renewal of § 119-r in the FY27 budget could unlock a virtuous cycle of infrastructure delivery in NYC.
New York State just authorized a land value tax that could generate billions of dollars for new transit. For the @niskanencenter.bsky.social, @aarmlovi.bsky.social and I wrote about how the renewal of § 119-r in the FY27 budget could unlock a virtuous cycle of infrastructure delivery in NYC.
Mayor Mamdani's housing plan is live! There's big sweeping YIMBY stuff: -Aggressive TOD upzoning -Major permitting reform -Rescuing & transforming NYCHA They're also looking at finer details, like fixing the FDNY inspections that so often delay CofO issuance (& invite petty corruption)
Stephen Jacob Smith@stephenjacobsmith.com · 2mo agoMayor Mamdani has announced the Affordable & Efficient Code Reform task force, to convene later this year. The housing plan says that among other things, elevator and plumbing reform will be considered. www.nyc.gov/content/dam/... (pgs. 98-99)
New movement & negotiations on the federal housing bill this afternoon... x.com/i/status/205...
x.com
What an excellent editorial building on the academic urban economics literature to translate for the general public. Kudos @maragay.bsky.social & the whole NYT board
Jonathan Berk 🏠@berkie1.bsky.social · 3mo ago"Americans are rightly frustrated about the high cost of housing. Fortunately, the country has decades of evidence about how to bring down those costs: We need to build more homes." - @nytimes.com Editorial Board www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Not yet a *deal* on federal housing bill, but a bipartisan House response to the Senate version! It includes fixes to the Build To Rent ban and avoids eliminating key bipartisan provisions like the Build Now Act We will see what the Senate response is but it's a provisional sign ROAD is back!
Michael McLean@michaelmclean.me · 3mo agoFederal housing deal seems to be reached, with fixes to allow “build to rent” housing via @aarmlovi.bsky.social punchbowl.news/hr6644_res4_...
New AGF blog: Tokyo is the world's most affordable megacity--and they're still permitting homes at many times the pace of NYC, London, Paris Yet land prices are still very high! A 1-acre suburban home in Chiyoda would cost over $100M before you nail the first board open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
Tokyo land is still >$85 million an acre
What will happen to the highest-priced metro housing markets after YIMBYs achieve realistic housing abundance?
open.substack.com
New housing episode with Jamie Rubin! This headline is more negative than the content--we talk about everything the mayor's extremely talented housing team is doing right, too Click for the doombait, stay for the optimism 👇 www.vitalcitynyc.org/alex-armlovi...
The Cost of Freezing the Rent
The limits and distortions of Mamdani’s core housing cost control strategy
vitalcitynyc.org
Housing policy 🤝 climate policy Research from earlier this year shows that legalizing ADUs, allowing TOD, and ending parking mandates create greener cities & towns.
The Most Bipartisan Climate Policy is Housing Policy - California YIMBY
The average American spends 170% more time stuck in traffic today than in 1980, and a new report argues that this is because uncoordinated state and local zoning decisions have made car dependence…
cayimby.org
A lesser known part of the BUILD plan in Illinois is to stop requiring parking for smaller and medium size homes (regardless of transit proximity), adaptive reuse into housing, and ground floor businesses in mixed use developments Read Jonathan’s 🧵 about why doing that matter so much
Jonathan Berk 🏠@berkie1.bsky.social · 4mo agoEliminating parking minimums is not about eliminating parking. It's about moving beyond outdated, 1-size-fits-all mandates, originally based on flawed 1900s formulas, that no longer reflect how people live & that drive up the cost of housing in walkable, transit-oriented areas.
┳┻| ┳┻| ┻┳| ┻┳| ┳┻| ┳┻| ┻┳| ┻┳| ┳┻| ┳┻| ┻┳| ┳┻| ┻┳| ┳┻| _ ┻┳| •.•) (Yonah is back) ┳┻|⊂ﾉ ┻┳|
Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com · 4mo agoWhen NYC rezoned Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood to allow high-density residential uses along a cleaned-out canal, it hoped to attract thousands of new housing units. That's exactly what it got, new research comparing upzoned areas to similar, non-upzoned areas shows: www.urban.org/research/pub...
This research provides concrete evidence that, as @aarmlovi.bsky.social has argued, large-scale upzonings—enabling very substantial density in areas with high demand—can indeed attract very large amounts of new housing, beyond what we would expect otherwise.
Zoned Capacity Is Like an Artificial Oil Deposit
Why cities can claim they have room for thousands of new homes on paper and still not build them
abundanceandgrowth.org
When NYC rezoned Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood to allow high-density residential uses along a cleaned-out canal, it hoped to attract thousands of new housing units. That's exactly what it got, new research comparing upzoned areas to similar, non-upzoned areas shows: www.urban.org/research/pub...
How do upzonings impact housing supply? In brand-new research published today @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, we show that big upzonings in New York City & Philadelphia had large, statistically significant effects on supply & permitting with several years of reforms. www.urban.org/research/pub...
I'm less than a quarter Hungarian but when you do the haircut...
Are you a researcher or policymaker working on housing, energy, or transportation issues? Welcome to the BUILD Research Network! A project of @ssrc.org w/ support from @arnoldventures.bsky.social, BUILD is a new platform for strengthening the research-to-policy pipeline. build.ssrc.org 🧵/9
BUILD Research Network - Better Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Land-use Decisions
The BUILD (Better Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Land-use Decisions) Research Network connects researchers, policymakers, and funders working to improve housing, energy, and transportation systems.
build.ssrc.org
Our AGF blog is new but we have great readers! Deputy Mayor Bozorg already knew the thesis--she knows how zoning & feasibility work--but I'm honored to see it shared as a useful explainer Mayor Mamdani is laser focused on housing supply & his team is leaving no stone unturned
Alex Armlovich@aarmlovi.bsky.social · 4mo agoNew Abundance & Growth Fund team blog: Come for the broadside on the "zoned capacity delusion", stay for Missing Massive jokes & cheeky footnotes Megacity housing production reform will require slow, wide-area incrementalism *and* fast, targeted Missing Massive open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
If you're mad about DC's awful draft plan, and want to connect the dots across why every missing middle "Plex" bill of the 21st century has failed, while Missing Massive towers are marching forward? Check out our new AGF post on the "zoned capacity illusion" open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
Josh Jacobson@districtjosh.bsky.social · 4mo agoDC has a once-in-a-generation chance to fix its housing crisis through the 2050 Comp Plan rewrite. OP's current proposal squanders it. I built a tool so you can see exactly where they're falling short: dc2050.org 1/4
Oh this is a good one! Hits many of things I'd love to see more strongly integrated into the next phase of Seattle's land use planning
Alex Armlovich@aarmlovi.bsky.social · 4mo agoNew Abundance & Growth Fund team blog: Come for the broadside on the "zoned capacity delusion", stay for Missing Massive jokes & cheeky footnotes Megacity housing production reform will require slow, wide-area incrementalism *and* fast, targeted Missing Massive open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
New Abundance & Growth Fund team blog: Come for the broadside on the "zoned capacity delusion", stay for Missing Massive jokes & cheeky footnotes Megacity housing production reform will require slow, wide-area incrementalism *and* fast, targeted Missing Massive open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
Zoned Capacity Is Like an Artificial Oil Deposit
Why cities can claim they have room for thousands of new homes on paper and still not build them
open.substack.com