This guy's the man. He specifically requested they introduce him as a "faceless bureaucrat"

The current 6-day Jeopardy champion works at a housing tax credit agency in New Jersey and for his banter with Ken he just looked directly at the camera and said "New York, California, shame on you, build more housing" and folks when I say heroes walk among us

3Ls: the NYC Department of City Planning is hiring a graduating law student! It’s a thrilling time to work at DCP. Under Mayor Mamdani and Chair Sherman, New York City is crafting ambitious plans for a more affordable and vibrant city. Learn more here: cityjobs.nyc.gov/job/agency-att…

"Zoning reform alone will not save the Rust Belt or other depopulated places, but it is nevertheless imperative for encouraging nascent revitalization efforts." papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

New paper with Brian Connolly, forthcoming @washulawreview.bsky.social: “Rezoning the Rust Belt.” Contemporary debates about zoning treat it as an issue for high-demand places. Reform is about making NYC and SF affordable, or keeping the Sun Belt affordable. But the Rust Belt needs reform too.

New paper! Have you ever noticed a sign declaring "Zoned Community" as you drive into town? (No? Aren't you the weird one...) They're a pretty unusual way of communicating about law--and especially regulations governing real property, irrelevant to passersby. What are they *really* for? (1/2)

This stretched two full miles, ending at the Big House, game traffic honking support the entire time. Ann Arbor upon Ann Arbor. It was awesome.

tzeddek32.bsky.social@tzeddek32.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Signs at the Ann Arbor, Michigan #NoKings protests.

I love #Boston #NoKings

It goes without saying by now, but these are forms of discrimination that have been upheld as FHA violations since immediately after the passage of the Act and which have specific textual grounding. They simply oppose fair housing and don't want to enforce it. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Yonah Freemark@yonahfreemark.com · last yr.

The Trump admin is systematically undermining enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, which was designed to prevent discrimination against people because of race, disability, and more. HUD’s Fair Housing office has gone from 22 to 6 lawyers since the administration took office.

Another thought on the politics here too: This is from Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott. It's not "four moderates" bipartisanship, it's the real left and right. That tells us something important about "abundance" politics.

Noah Kazis@noahkazis.bsky.social · last yr.

I finally had time to digest it, and the big bipartisan housing package looks impressive. A little of everything, from zoning and NEPA to mortgages and vouchers. Lots of smart sensible tweaks, but also a sea change getting the feds in the game on zoning reform www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/min...

I finally had time to digest it, and the big bipartisan housing package looks impressive. A little of everything, from zoning and NEPA to mortgages and vouchers. Lots of smart sensible tweaks, but also a sea change getting the feds in the game on zoning reform www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/min...

Scott, Warren Announce Markup of Landmark Bipartisan Housing Legislation from Banking Committee Members | United States Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

The Official website of The United States Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

banking.senate.gov

My old local!

Molly Knight@mollyknight.bsky.social · last yr.

Fenway concession workers on strike

I get the focus on national politics now, but in Ann Arbor our city plan is facing anti-growth pushback and needs support. Growth is good! Families *want* to live here, and we should make that possible. Learn about this cause and get involved here! www.moreneighborsa2.org?utm_source=n...

Home | Neighbors for More Neighbors A2

moreneighborsa2.org

My NYC mayor take: The best accomplishments of the Bloomberg, deBlasio, and Adams admins each came on issues where they hired great staff and gave them room to execute. Andrew Cuomo has never done that in his life. He's uniquely unsuited for being mayor -- whether you're left, right or center.

This was a very fun project to join. I got to think about how local gov will be transformed in a world of longer life spans. Think over-represented seniors at public meetings and property tax revolts over the schools. www.cambridge.org/core/books/l...

Local Government Law for the 100-Year Life (Chapter 19) - Law and the 100-Year Life

Law and the 100-Year Life - May 2025

cambridge.org

Greg Shill@gregshill.com · last yr.

🚨 Pub day for "Transportation for the 100-Year Life," my contribution to a new book about the implications of longer lifespans for legal institutions. The whole (open-access) volume is excellent and I'm deeply grateful to the editors for their feedback and support. www.cambridge.org/core/books/l...

Very happy to see this in print--and thank you to the amazing editors at the Virginia L. Rev. for getting it here. virginialawreview.org/articles/the... I argue that the Fair Housing Act uses a distinctive conception of discrimination. It questions market structures and not just transactions.

I really love this paragraph, which captures what's both valuable-to-necessary and annoying-to-dangerous about Abundance Politics (as opposed to various abundance policies)

Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · last yr.

"It’s hard to see conservatives as placing a priority on research and knowledge creation given how they’ve treated the universities." www.liberalcurrents.com/is-abundance...

This is a terrific and extremely important post by @salome.bsky.social lpeproject.org/blog/the-rig...

The Right Understands That All Governance Is Data Governance

The tech arm of Trump 2.0 isn't just reshaping government — it's consolidating control over the data infrastructure that makes modern governance possible. By centralizing data flows and gutting public...

lpeproject.org

To be clear, this eliminates the market-based demand side and market-based supply side programs. As Russ Vought himself explained, the goal is nothing to do with efficiency and everything to do with segregation

Paul Williams@pewilliams.bsky.social · last yr.

Toplines from HUD section of Trump proposed FY26 budget: Sections 8, 9, 202 and 811 all eliminated and replaced by much smaller state block grant. Elimination of HOME+CDBG. Elimination of the Pathways to Removing Obstacles program, which helped cities do zoning/permitting reform.

A final, personal note. This rule is lawless and this administration is lawless. “Why bother” is a fair question—and one I asked myself a lot when working on this. It’s pretty clear HUD doesn’t care about comments here (even if a lot of folks at HUD really do). But we just can’t think that way.

Noah Kazis@noahkazis.bsky.social · last yr.

In March, HUD declared it was “revising” (read: gutting) its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regs. That was illegal. I got mad and submitted a comment. www.regulations.gov/comment/HUD-... It’s not in the 100 worst things happening right now, but it’s still MY thing. So, thread:

In March, HUD declared it was “revising” (read: gutting) its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regs. That was illegal. I got mad and submitted a comment. www.regulations.gov/comment/HUD-... It’s not in the 100 worst things happening right now, but it’s still MY thing. So, thread:

The Trump proposal to cut and block-grant housing vouchers is as callous as you think--but also stupider. States have bad incentives on rental assistance--even the limited $ would be spent inefficiently, with less tenant choice. Conservatives should oppose this too. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u...

White House Eyes Overhaul of Federal Housing Aid to the Poor

The Trump administration has considered sharply curtailing vouchers as part of its budget for the 2026 fiscal year.

nytimes.com

I can tell you what makes me feel unsafe, as a Jew, right now: secret police, deportations and prosecutions of political opponents, eugenics. Not in my name. Proud to have signed this letter.

People should speak up, like this. www.michigandaily.com/news/adminis...

My own review of Abundance is up, at The Guardian: TLDR: It's a necessary policy intervention, right on the merits, and there's no one better at explaining this stuff. But for people quick to call others "tradeoff denialists," they are too guilty of the same. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson review – make America build again

Over-regulation has rendered progressive change impossible, argue the authors of this clear and rigorous book. But what about the tradeoffs?

theguardian.com

Really proud to have @profrrothschild.bsky.social as a colleague www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/c...

She Inspired Laws to Hold the Fossil Fuel Industry Accountable. Now She’s a Target. (Gift Article)

A conservative group is suing for emails of a law professor who helped create legislation to force oil, gas and coal companies to pay for climate damage.

nytimes.com

Plainly true. See also: the (illegal) attempts to nullify the Fair Housing Act's AFFH provision, destroy the FHIP program, reject HUD referrals to DOJ over Texas cases...

jamelle@jamellebouie.net · last yr.

the trump administrative is actively pro housing discrimination and wants to encourage it by non enforcement www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/b...

OK, the actual reason to do this was to take some stock of the discourse -- so some themes: All of this deeply sharing the basic premise that we should build more housing, transportation, clean energy. We should increase state capacity. And a lot of that requires deregulation and less process.

Noah Kazis@noahkazis.bsky.social · 2y ago

Because Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's "Abundance" is less a book than a discourse-generating machine (by design), I'm going to review the *reviews* (I also have a review of the actual book coming, I'm not a total weirdo). Roughly from worst to best:

Everyone means the exact same thing when they say “neoliberalism,” which is, “the bad policies that the elites made.”