Big news for nerds: The Department of City Planning updated their city planning children's book (original was put out by the LaGuardia administration in 1937) They are giving them away at upcoming Summer Streets events across the boroughs.
Casey Berkovitz
@caseyberk.bsky.social
I talk about housing policy for a living, but I skeet about it for fun. Here for housing, politics, sports, and bad jokes. Go bears.
Watch this speech. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxR...
Mayor Mamdani Delivers Address Marking America’s 250th Birthday
YouTube video by NYC Mayor's Office
youtube.com
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo agoMamdani: "Therein lies the work of America -- a striving, a bettering, the reaching toward perfection. What a privilege each of us has to live in a nation that every one of its inhabitants can shape. What a responsibility each of us possesses to prove ourselves worthy of all those who came before."
We don't need to choose between protecting tenants and building more housing. Between fighting for NYCHA residents and homeowners. Between leading with the values that got us here and addressing the housing crisis. Block by block, we can do it all.
I went to the first Rental Rip-off Hearing of the Mamdani administration. Lots of stories about tough situations. What struck me was that so many people showed up not just for themselves, but for their neighbors and for strangers elsewhere with the same landlords. www.thecity.nyc/2026/02/26/r...
First 'Ripoff' Hearing Packed By Renters Eager to Connect Dots on Lousy Landlords
Officials met directly with New Yorkers to hear about chronic problems and to learn how much tenant associations really help.
thecity.nyc
As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today. ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.
ICE agents killed a man and are disappearing the witnesses.
Colleen Kelly@onecolleen.bsky.social · 8mo agoThe StarTribune live blog is paywall free: - The man shot by federal agents this morning has died - Several witnesses have already been transported to the Whipple building. - ICE attempted to order local police from the scene, but O’Hara refused, sources said. www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...
Mamdani reverses city hall’s opposition to Bronx supportive housing project https://gothamist.com/news/mamdani-reverses-city-halls-opposition-to-bronx-supportive-housing-project
Mamdani reverses city hall’s opposition to Bronx supportive housing project
Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a press conference to discuss the Just Home project on the Jacobi Medical Center campus. The Adams administration had urged the city council to not approve it, citing opposition from local residents. [ more › ]
gothamist.com
You probably don't know what SEQRA is - but you should know that it's slowing down the housing that we need. Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg is here to explain why reforming it is key to cutting red tape and building more housing.
The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.
Props to @srachelmay.bsky.social for pushing pro-housing legislation like this in Albany. We love to see it. www.cityandstateny.com/opinion/2025...
Opinion: Stop abusing the environmental review process to block housing
The Sustainable Affordable Housing and Sprawl Prevention Act will reform the process to promote more housing development in walkable, transit-friendly neighborhoods.
cityandstateny.com
NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
![The Government asked this Court to stay the District Court's order. After the response and reply were filed, JUSTICE BARRETT referred the application to the Court. We directed the parties to file supplemental letter briefs on an issue that the District Court had addressed but the parties' initial briefs had not: the meaning of the term "regular forces" in §12406(3). In its supplemental brief, the Government argues that the term refers to civilian law enforcement officers, such as those employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Federal Protective Service.
Respondents, echoing the District Court, maintain that the term refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-tary.
We conclude that the term "regular forces" in §12406(3) likely refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-tary. This interpretation means that to call the Guard into active federal service under §12406(3), the President must be "unable" with the regular military "to execute the laws of the United States." Because the statute requires an assessment of the military's ability to execute the laws, it likely applies only where the military could legally execute the laws. Such circumstances are exceptional: Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the military is prohibited from "execut[ing] the laws" "except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress."
18 U. S. C. §1385. So before the President can federalize the Guard under §12406(3), he likely must have statutory or constitutional authority to execute the laws with the regular military and must be "unable" with those forces to perform that function.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6h7b2i6ttw3l4t7pvbvxdith/bafkreiftbhzwvn3vgwhqsi7k2paizvdw4t26ailljvovso3chqupnmj364)
longstanding theory on this is that people who know the applicant that they don't want to hire has racial resentment offer "wish i could've hired you, but they made me hire a black woman instead!" as a let-them-down-easy cope rather than admit to them that they just didn't want to hire them.
A single phone call asking a city council member or state legislator to vote your way on a specific legislative proposal has *significantly* more political impact than a social media post with 1,000 shares.
Minus big-bucks lifelines, some U.S. transit systems are facing disaster. 🚇 🚍 But the MTA is *adding* subway and bus service, not cutting it — and has dodged layoffs. 💰 💰 “This is a remarkable turnaround just from a few years ago.” NEW STORY in @thecity.nyc www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/12/m...
As U.S. Transit Takes a Dive, MTA Enjoys a Rarity: More Service and Stable Cash Flow
San Francisco and Philly are limping along. Yet in New York, North America’s largest mass transportation authority finds itself running more trains and buses, and limiting fare hikes.
thecity.nyc
Trump 0-3 on indicting Tish James and just had his ass handed to him by Indiana Republican legislators he threatened and bullied. Also new low in AP poll at 36% approval.
It's the 160th anniversary of the United States' refounding, the ratification of the 13th Amendment.
Would you look at that: when you legalize housing, people build housing! www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/...
Housing production increases 23% in first year of City of Yes
The Adams administration has released figures on accessory dwelling units, affordable housing and more to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the plan's passage.
crainsnewyork.com
One of the many reasons that the urban left should embrace growth-machine politics is that they are structurally good for the left.
Interesting new working paper that studies chains of movers after the construction of a new apartment building in Honolulu. Paper finds that the project resulted in the opening up other, lower cost, housing on the island, benefiting the housing market overall.
uhero.hawaii.edu
This paper provides strong evidence that downzoning is associated with reduced construction and increased spatialized segregation. Don’t do it if you want a more equitable city! Read the whole thing: findingspress.org/article/1474...
Downzoning Chicago: How Local Land Use Policy Has Reduced Housing Construction and Reinforced Segregation | Published in Findings
By Yonah Freemark, George Kisiel. Downzonings were used by US cities in the postwar period to preserve neighborhood character. These land-use policies were associated with lower housing supply, higher...
findingspress.org
What happens when you downzone? Our new open-access research paper in @findingspress.org investigates effects of decades of downzoning in Chicago. Findings: —Downzoned areas added 1/7th of the new units as comparable non-downzoned areas; —Downzoned areas became more white & were more expensive.
Downzoning Chicago: How Local Land Use Policy Has Reduced Housing Construction and Reinforced Segregation | Published in Findings
By Yonah Freemark, George Kisiel. Downzonings were used by US cities in the postwar period to preserve neighborhood character. These land-use policies were associated with lower housing supply, higher...
findingspress.org
Difficult to overstate how profound a failure DOGE was. Spending in FY2025 was not only than in FY2024 – but higher than it was projected to be when Trump first took office.* The little bit of spending DOGE cut has already killed hundreds of thousands and will eventually lead to millions of deaths.
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 10mo agoBye bye, “DOGE”. It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management. @reuters.com www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
Majority support in 42 of 51 districts. An affordable housing mandate.
How Each NYC Neighborhood Voted On The Housing Ballot Measures - City Limits
A majority of New Yorkers voted to pass ballot measures that change the land use process for affordable housing. But Republican districts and neighborhoods that built less housing are still resistant ...
citylimits.org