California's first standalone ADU sold as its own home for $530,000 — in a city where median home prices top $2 million. A 2023 law made this legal. It shows how small changes to existing rules can open a cheaper path to ownership. www.sfgate.com/realestate/a...
Austin going with Stadler. Train people: tell me what to think.
Austin light rail chooses manufacturer, transportation expert weighs in
Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) announced that it has chosen Stadler to manufacture its CityLink rail vehicles for Austin's light rail.
cbsaustin.com
On the one hand, it's awful that a major company like Waymo would routinely drive around school buses with their stop sign up. On the other hand, the fact that it's a major company is exactly how we're able to target them.
Waymo probed by National Transportation Safety Board over illegal school bus behavior | TechCrunch
The NTSB joins the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in investigating Waymo vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses.
techcrunch.com
2 point plan to eradicate homelessness: 1. Lower housing costs for the lower middle class using code reform (zoning and building) to lower building costs. 2. Shift Affordable Housing funding away from the lower middle class toward the deeply poor—shelters, PSH, mental health beds, etc
By a vote of 10-1, Austin City Council just passed Item 86, directing staff to prepare code amendments that shift 3 & 4-unit buildings from the IBC to the IRC and create a simpler, alternative IBC pathway for 5 to 16-unit buildings 🥳🎉🏬 “Houseplex” amendments will come back to Council this December
Parker Welch@parkerwelch.bsky.social · 2mo agoThere will be a council resolution on something else in the technical codes coming up sooner than that though, so keep an eye out 👀
Has anybody discussed the state/TxDOT allowing state transit agencies to self-certify federal environmental review as TxDOT is allowed in order to expedite capital projects?
One of the tough parts of housing advocacy is that there are so many layers of the onion to peel. Electeds who support housing but don't focus on it can say "we gave you what you asked for last time. Wait for another turn."
The next target for cash-out after company parking: transportation to and from the airport. When I fly for business, I never have much luggage, but I also always get my Lyft paid for.
Upzoning two levels near Austin's planned light rail would cut affordable housing subsidy costs from $8B to $5.5B because more market-rate units in the same buildings would offset affordable-unit costs. cayimby.org/blog/taller-...
System Failure: The Hidden Rot in America’s State and Local Governments
Allowing denser apartment buildings along Austin's planned light-rail lines could slash the city's affordable housing subsidies from $8 billion to $5.5 billion while meeting housing goals that…
cayimby.org
the fourth of july is an important day in the american ethos because it's the one day in the year that we can see bad folks who have died and gone to a lake of fire and fried
Apartments built since 2000 have 1.2 fire deaths per million residents vs. 7.6 in single-family homes. Modern apartments are still dramatically safer, because building codes require sprinklers and compartmentation. cayimby.org/blog/new-apa...
New Apartments Are Safer Than Detached Houses—And It's Not Even Close - California YIMBY
In 2023, four people died in apartment fires in buildings constructed since 2010, out of 8.3 million Americans in those buildings. That’s 0.5 deaths per million. Compare that to single-family homes:…
cayimby.org
I've been disappointed in the pace of pro-housing policy change in Austin these last couple years. But it's good to see we're still producing new midrise housing in central, ritzy parts of the city.
kvue.com
38 of America's 50-largest metro areas have now recovered to pre-COVID job levels Fastest: Austin (23.8%), Raleigh (19.3%), Dallas (13.5%), Nashville (12.9%), SLC (12.3%) Slowest: SF (-3.8%), Milwaukee (-2.6%), Portland (-2.6%), Boston (-2.2%), Cleveland (-1.6%)
Is increasing partisan identification downstream of decreasing religious identification?
Hotels allowed by-right near every hospital. Vancouver’s specialty care serves the entire province, but the out of towners can’t vote here so we throw them to the wolves
Brendan Dawe@dawe.bsky.social · last mo.We talk a lot about residential land use but what’s one big non-residential change that you would make to your city’s planning policies?
North Carolina State Senate just passed (44-1) H.162 the PARKING LOT REFORM/STORMWATER CONTROL bill! Costly parking mandates will be prohibited in more than 90% of the entire state starting 1/1/27 (pending an expected concurrence vote). Congratulations to everyone who put in time on this!!
It's a low bar but I appreciate that when our president started a pointless war, he declared victory despite a stunning loss before we took 1.4m casualties.
NOELREPORTS@noelreports.com · 2mo agoRussian losses per 19/06/26 reported by the Ukrainian General Staff +1370 men +2 tanks +4 ACVs +58 artillery +4 MLRS +1 AD system +1968 UAVs +4 GRCs +4 cruise missiles
Good news: Austin's office vacancy rate dropped the second most year-on-year the country's top markets (4.4%, behind SF's 5.2%) Bad news: we still have the highest office vacancy rate (24%)
Central Business Districts Feel the Brunt of Rising Office Distress
Distress rates rise as pressure builds for struggling properties, with office spaces in central business districts being most at risk.
commercialcafe.com
Another paper linking decline in fertility to smartphones, this time in the US.
Is the iPhone Birth Control? Causal Evidence from AT&T’s 2007–2011 Carrier Monopoly
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
nber.org
"So here's the idea: before anyone builds low-emission urban housing, mass transit, or renewable energy, first you have to produce enough paperwork to chop down a redwood." "And what do you call your act?" "The California Environmental Quality Act!"
Joe Cohen@cohenhouse.bsky.social · 2mo agoThis was the CEQA EIR for Playa Vista "We wanted a bulletproof EIR. Bulletproof EIR meant if you fired a bullet at one end of the document, it can't come out the other end" - LA City Councilmember Ruth Galanter
Apartment residents use electric heat and drive less, meaning they produce one-third the climate pollution as residents of detached homes. Less regulation blocking apartment construction means more housing, lower costs, and reduced pollution. www.motherjones.com/environment/...
i'm fine with people choosing bicycles as a primary mode of transportation. in fact, there are lots of benefits to doing so. all i'd ask is that they run a gas generator or something for a couple hours a day to fulfill their commitment to the carbon footprint
Golf courses use about 750 billion gallons of water per year, for reference. Over 300x more. www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...
google.com
For high cost-of-living cities like Austin, allowing more and better housing is one of our only levers to attract and retain experienced teachers and other government employees. We have very little ability to raise wages but we can make those wages go further.
@arindube.bsky.social Really enjoying your interview with Alejandro on Money and Macro
This is *also* Elevators in North America: ✅ Bespoke, region specific standards ✅ Extremely limited marketplace competition ✅ Costly maintenance contracts with few alternatives In 2027 #txlege can follow the lead of WA+@sightline.org & address expensive elevator regs & help housing affordability.
YIMBYonese Liberation Army@dingbattitude.bsky.social · 2mo agoOn the operating costs side, the growth of monopolies in the transit industry combined with bespoke US procurement requirements is absolutely devastating agency budgets because once you’ve made the capital investment you are stuck with the ongoing costs.
I hope that the AI backlash opens a window to rethink water policy more generally.
My experience with government-regulated, privately-operated pre-primary schooling doesn't leave me super excited for school choice at the primary or secondary levels.
A new @pewresearch.org study finds that infill housing near jobs, stores, and transit costs governments ~$21,000 less per home to serve, cuts long term infrastructure maintenance costs in half, and generates 13% more in annual property tax revenue per acre than sprawl.
I used to be iffy about non-technical elected officials wading into technical building codes. Then I saw the corruption and mismanagement that happens when you let unelected officials set policy.
Jason Cox@jasoncoxnc.bsky.social · 2mo agoLet’s discuss an org called Firefighter Air Coalition (FAC) and how it reflects a contrived safety-need-to-profitable-monopoly pipeline common in fire code. fFAC’s address? PyroChem, a Johnson Controls subsidiary. JCI happens to make the very expensive FARS system this "nonprofit" advocates for.
