Earlier this year, I spent some time in Oakland following around James Jacobs, owner of ASAP Squatter Removal, as he and his men used swords to reclaim properties taken over by squatters. It was a fascinating window into one extreme corner of California’s housing crisis. reason.com/2026/05/18/s...

Samurai vs. squatters: On the street with the hired swords reclaiming California property owners' stolen homes

California has failed to protect private property from squatters. Desperate owners are turning to katana-wielding enforcers to reclaim their homes.

reason.com

“You say the ICE agent is bleeding internally. Doesn't everyone do that? Usually it's only a problem if the blood’s on the outside”

Big year for stater home bills. Florida’s bill caps min. lot sizes at 1,200 square feet (!) and apply strict scrutiny to zoning laws (!!). Mass. has a starter home ballot initiative that would cap lot sizes at 5k square feet. Internal polling shows 65% support! reason.com/2026/01/13/t...

The year of the starter home

Lawmakers across the country are introducing bills that would make it easier to build smaller single-family homes on small lots.

reason.com

Latest: A Border Patrol officer threatened a legal observer in Key Largo, Florida with arrest today for following him. Exchange captured on video. I interviewed the observer, too. reason.com/2026/01/12/v...

Video shows border patrol threaten legal observer in Key Largo for following him

Every federal circuit court that has considered the issue has upheld a First Amendment right to monitor and record the police.

reason.com

Florida’s Live Local Act flew under the radar when it passed in 2023. Almost 3 years later, there’s 52,000 Live Local units in the pipeline per Florida Housing Coalition’s tracker. Obvs pipeline units are just that. Even so, that’s got to make it one of the most productive YIMBY bills ever.

I think there's a pretty obvious tension between wanting to encourage more private development and staffing up your administration with communists who despise anyone who makes money off said development reason.com/2026/01/06/t...

The contradictions of supply-side socialism

Mamdani promises faster housing construction while backing rent freezes and tenant activism, exposing tensions in supply-side socialism.

reason.com

“The proposed amendments would mandate new S.B. 840 apartments with an outdoor Olympic-sized swimming pool, pedestrian trails, and masonry walls of between eight and 10 feet tall.” 😳

Emily Hamilton@ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 10mo ago

The ways that Texas NIMBYs are finding to make apartments more expensive to build are are funnier than what coastal NIMBYs come up with reason.com/2025/10/14/t... by @christianb.bsky.social

In California, cities like to thwart new housing with affordable housing mandates. Texas cites thwart new housing with luxury housing mandates. The result is the same; less construction, higher prices.

Emily Hamilton@ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 10mo ago

The ways that Texas NIMBYs are finding to make apartments more expensive to build are are funnier than what coastal NIMBYs come up with reason.com/2025/10/14/t... by @christianb.bsky.social

The ways that Texas NIMBYs are finding to make apartments more expensive to build are are funnier than what coastal NIMBYs come up with reason.com/2025/10/14/t... by @christianb.bsky.social

If the Trump administration wants to use military power, it should seek authorization from Congress, says Sen. Rand Paul.

The Constitution does not allow the president to unilaterally blow suspected drug smugglers to smithereens

If the Trump administration wants to use military power, it should seek authorization from Congress, says Sen. Rand Paul.

reason.pub

"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break; it can only become stairs. There would never be an 'escalator temporarily out of order' sign, only 'escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'" — Mitch Hedberg

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 11mo ago

Maria Bartiromo: "The escalator stopped as soon as he and the first lady stepped on it. Look at how great Melania was. She's unphased. She walks on it ... but this could've been a massive, massive issue. The president being frozen there in one place makes him vulnerable."

@christianb.bsky.social on whether YIMBYism or post-neoliberalism is needed to get housing built reason.com/2025/08/19/a...

So far there’s been 7 applications for SB 9 projects in the Palisades. For Newsom and Bass, that’s dangerous overdevelopment.

Reason Magazine@reason.com · last yr.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass declare NIMBY martial law to prevent wildfire-ravaged properties from being turned into duplexes.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass declare NIMBY martial law to prevent wildfire-ravaged properties from being turned into duplexes.

Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass declare NIMBY martial law to stop duplexes in the Palisades

California Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass are ensuring no new net housing is created during rebuilding of wildfire-ravaged neighborhoods.

reason.com

I wrote up the supply portions of the new Senate housing bill for the newsletter. Basically it’s a bill of a million tweaks, with many of those tweaks focused on shifting existing federal grant spending toward higher-growth jurisdictions reason.com/2025/07/29/o...

One big beautiful housing supply bill

Congress considers a bipartisan housing supply bill, while the White House executive order cracks down on the homeless.

reason.com

Look at what they did to my big brutalist boy.

Neil Flanagan 🧱🗃️@jgbollard.bsky.social · last yr.

It is amazing how many people look at all the boxy buildings downtown DC and decide the solution is to simply have more boxes.

I’m very supportive of speed cameras in the abstract but cities do also just use them as ATM machines

Will Saletan@saletan.bsky.social · last yr.

I FOIA'd DC to find out when its camera was adjusted to enforce the new limit. The answer came back: some time in the 18 days starting a day *before* new speed limit signs were posted. DC didn't want to alert drivers. It wanted to hit them with tickets before they knew the limit had changed. (4/6)

Evaluation of Minneapolis’ reducing zoning constraints in suggests that deregulation reduced housing costs by 15-23%—even without adding a lot of new units, because density alone may reduce construction costs. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This is democracy manifest

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · last yr.

A Chuck E. Cheese employee in full costume was arrested by Tallahassee officers for credit card fraud www.tallahassee.com/story/news/l...

Didn’t realize until writing this piece but Seattle’s inclusionary zoning policy has no minimum threshold. Even if you’re adding just one unit of housing, you could end up having to pay affordable housing fees. Even if IZ were constitutional, that’s insane reason.com/2025/07/17/s...

Seattle property owners challenge program that charges 'affordable housing' fees for building new homes

The lawsuit claims that the city's Mandatory Housing Affordability program unconstitutionally penalizes property owners just for trying to build housing.

reason.com

@zyudhishthu.bsky.social, @christianb.bsky.social & others have shown how Minneapolis legalized triplexes but only built ~35 in its first 3 years. Portland built 8x faster. Why? Size. Minneapolis said triplex homes on a standard lot could average no more than 833sqft.

Mapping Minneapolis’ Post-2040 Plan Duplexes and Triplexes

A geographic visualization of new duplexes and triplexes since the Minneapolis 2040 Plan passed shows what can work — or not — with local regulatory policy.

streets.mn

your Reason headline of the day reason.com/2025/05/21/p...

Two New Jersey business owners are having their properties (a tire shop and a 4plex) taken by the city of Perth Amboy b/c both are allegedly blighted. The city's evidence of blight? Its own mismapped property lines, litter on adjacent city land, and too little parking reason.com/2025/05/13/n...

New Jersey town says small setbacks, stray cats allow it to seize private property

Business owners say the city of Perth Amboy is using exceedingly flimsy allegations to take their property.

reason.com

Two New Jersey business owners are having their properties (a tire shop and a 4plex) taken by the city of Perth Amboy b/c both are allegedly blighted. The city's evidence of blight? Its own mismapped property lines, litter on adjacent city land, and too little parking reason.com/2025/05/13/n...

New Jersey town says small setbacks, stray cats allow it to seize private property

Business owners say the city of Perth Amboy is using exceedingly flimsy allegations to take their property.

reason.com

Pending the governor's approval, Montana will have made it legal to build six-story, market-rate apartments without parking in downtown commercial zones by-right. Meanwhile, some California lawmakers are still struggling with basic economic literacy. My latest newsletter: reason.com/2025/04/29/b...

Back to basics

Plus: California zoning bill survives powerful lawmaker's economic illiteracy, Montana legislators pass simple, sweeping, supply-side housing reforms, and Washington passes rent control.

reason.com

Hawaii Co. tells Shahzaad Ausman all permits are good to go on the house he's buying. A year later it says “oops the home has been illegal for decades. Move out or get fined.” Even after a court ruled his permits valid, Ausman tells me the county is still threatening fines reason.com/2025/04/15/h...

Hawaii County tells homeowner his 38-year-old house is actually illegal

Shahzaad Ausman has had to sue the county to confirm that he can continue to live in his own home.

reason.com

This is wild ✅Developer proposes 254 affordable housing units ✅Town tells developer "actually we're gonna seize your land for a town hall" ✅Developer sues, saying this a sham taking ✅The town secretly transfers the property title to itself then tells developer to gtfo reason.com/2025/03/18/t...

Town secretly seizes developers' property then threatens them with trespassing citation

Happy Tuesday and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. This week's newsletter focuses on some shocking updates to a Rhode Island eminent domain case

reason.com

The acronym makes no sense here Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education (FURRIES) Act? If it's unlawful, isn't it already forbidden? it bans representation of roleplaying, as opposed to just roleplaying? where does the 'S' come from?

gwen howerton@kissphoria.bsky.social · last yr.

The "F.U.R.R.I.E.S ACT" bill from Stan Gerdes (R-Smithville) would prohibit "non-human behavior" in Texas schools, including but not limited to: -Litterboxes -Tails -"Leashes, collars, other accessories designed for pets" -"Barking, meowing, hissing, or other animal noises" -"licking oneself"

Obviously the feds shouldn't have power over local/state govts tolling their roads, but it is amusing that the Trump admin's rationale for yanking congestion pricing was that it was really just about funding transit, not traffic reduction and Hochul's message is this? Everyone involved is a clown

Streetsblog NYC@nyc.streetsblog.org · last yr.

“The next time your train is delayed … I want you to think of this,” Hochul says, pulling out the graphic of Trump as king posted by the admin today.

Gavin Newsom's latest "streamlining" order gives builders fake relief from rules requiring low-income housing destroyed in the L.A. fires be rebuilt as new affordable housing reason.com/2025/02/18/b...

Bad to worse

From insurance to affordable housing mandates, California's regulatory noose tightens over wildfire rebuilding efforts.

reason.com