Scott Markley
@snmarkley.bsky.social
Studying racially uneven sub/urban development with GIS, maps, #rstats, #rspatial https://scottnmarkley.github.io
Love to see this. One of my biggest frustrations with the Wharton Index over the years--and one motivation for taking on this project--is that it was restricting my ability to see what was plainly in front of me. Once you dispense with it, all sorts of things start to make more sense!
Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com · last wk.This finding from NZA ⏬ on issues with some national zoning indices is useful; it helps explain my findings earlier this summer (free pre-print: www.urban.org/research/pub...), which show that infill housing supply growth has been faster in liberal places—the opposite of what Wharton would predict.
This finding from NZA ⏬ on issues with some national zoning indices is useful; it helps explain my findings earlier this summer (free pre-print: www.urban.org/research/pub...), which show that infill housing supply growth has been faster in liberal places—the opposite of what Wharton would predict.
The Paradox of Housing Supply Growth: Conservative Sprawl and Liberal Infill in the 21st-Century United States
Housing affordability is declining in the United States. To explain this phenomenon, many scholars and policymakers point to slowing construction, which they argue is particularly troublesome in co...
tandfonline.com
Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com · last wk.The National Zoning Atlas team is out with a blockbuster paper identifying major flaws with the Wharton Index, which has historically been the tool used by economists to make claims about zoning (e.g. Glaeser & Gyourko's 2002 paper on zoning & affordability, with >1200 citations, is based on it...)
The National Zoning Atlas team is out with a blockbuster paper identifying major flaws with the Wharton Index, which has historically been the tool used by economists to make claims about zoning (e.g. Glaeser & Gyourko's 2002 paper on zoning & affordability, with >1200 citations, is based on it...)
It's time to retire the Wharton Index
Empirical research on land use regulation has a credibility problem. For two decades, studies linking regulation to housing costs, residential segregation, and
papers.ssrn.com
So many papers I have reviewed rely on the Wharton Land Use Regulatory Index as a measure of #zoning restrictiveness. I saw @snmarkley.bsky.social present this paper at the Urban Affairs Association this spring. It is certainly damning (of the index). It’s time to stop using it.
It's time to retire the Wharton Index
Empirical research on land use regulation has a credibility problem. For two decades, studies linking regulation to housing costs, residential segregation, and
papers.ssrn.com
Newly published housing research! We find that the effects of new construction on rents varies by the quality of the existing housing. In the first 5 years rents went up 4.4% near low quality buildings and went down 1.7% near high quality buildings (1/x) 🧵 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This man is from St Simons and is talking about “we.” They couldn’t find anyone within 200 miles to put their name on this
Glad to see the last remaining chapter of my dissertation officially out now in *Urban Geography*! 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Race and value in space and time: a critical narrative cartography of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation's Area Descriptions
The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation’s (HOLC) Residential Security maps were created in the late 1930s to capture the ostensible investment risk posed by urban neighborhood characteristics. To generat...
tandfonline.com
Authoritarianism in the digital age by @kylzjarrett.bsky.social, @robkitchin.bsky.social, Jing Hiah and @steelecat717.bsky.social in @dialoguesdigsoc.bsky.social. Intro to special issue with 48 papers on the topic. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Authoritarianism in the digital age - Kylie Jarrett, Rob Kitchin, Jing Hiah, Catherine Knight Steele, 2025
journals.sagepub.com
A new study shows rents for low-wage Atlanta tenants are rising *9 times* faster than for wealthy renters. The affordability crisis is everywhere: housing, healthcare, food, electricity, survival itself. And the party that won big on "affordability" last week just turned around and surrendered it.
Study: Rents for low-wage Atlantans rose 9 times faster than for high earners
Rents for suburban workforce housing in the metro Atlanta region increased by almost 20%, while rents for luxury units increased by 2%, a study said.
ajc.com
Today is the official publication day for CRACKED FOUNDATIONS!! 🏠🥳🎉 For the next month, Penn is offering a discount of 40% off using the code UHA25. Which brings the price down to $20.97. A screaming deal! www.pennpress.org/978151282822...
Glad to see this new piece on quantification, counter-data, "evidence," and what we call "authoritarian counting" out now in @dialoguesdigsoc.bsky.social with @itspangler.bsky.social, @emtl.bsky.social, and @marxist.af! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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journals.sagepub.com
Fantastic new historical mapping resource on the FHA's Section 608 multifamily rental housing program from @brentcebul.bsky.social, Mike Glass, and their team. Complete with downloadable data! Incredible work buildinginequality.us
Building Inequality
buildinginequality.us
Mike Glass and I argue for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social that we’ve tried the #abundance incentive-based approach to housing crises before. But lack of oversight + incentives produced fraud, profiteering, and inflated rents -- and the Trump family fortune. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/add...
Adding Value | Phenomenal World
Mortgage insurance has traditionally been the method the federal government has used to induce investment in owner-occupied housing. But for multifamily rentals, the history of mortgage-insurance prog...
phenomenalworld.org
An update on the future of the Allmaps project: Sadly, on April 17, 2025, we learned that the federal government terminated many NEH grants, including ours. The notification stated that our grant’s termination was “necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government.”
Voters: can you pay 50 cents more in taxes to pay for vegetables for children and agree not to defraud the elderly on their electrical bills Wall Street Guy: OH LIKE THE KILLING FIELDS?!?! LIKE THE KHMER ROUGE?!?!
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · last yr.WATCH: “What about the rich? Do they get shot? It’s like they’re making Wall Streeters walk out onto the ice in the East River… class warfare… eat the rich.” @cnbc.com hosts Joe Kernen & jim cramer hilariously struggle to process Zohran’s win — made inevitable by the greed they exalt.
📣 The last article from my dissertation is out! In this piece, coauthor Anne Bonds and I dive deep into the contents of HOLC’s Area Description sheets. 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The complete eradication of Rafah - a city with a quarter of a million residents - should and will be remembered as a crime against humanity, amongst the worst modern urbicides
rubber bullets fly by my face. tear gas fills my lungs. a line of federal troops is marching toward me. i fire off an email to my focus group asking what i should do as a baton lands cleanly on my skull.
Atlanta is the most surveilled city in the United States. But because the Atlanta Police Department claims that releasing the locations of these 60,000+ cameras will lead to terrorism, we’ve not been able to map their locations... Until now. Read more 👇👇
City of Cameras
Atlanta is the most surveilled city in the United States. With 124.14 surveillance cameras per 1,000 people, we not only lead the country, we have more than twice as many cameras per capita as 2nd …
mappingatlanta.org