Sam Alcorn
@samalcorn.bsky.social
Housing abundance. Urbanism. Zoning abolitionist. Accessibility Compliance expert. YIMBY. Located in Tovaangar. #OverturnEuclid
The question of “Why are enviros so temperamentally eager to say no to things but so unable to say yes to things” is easier to understand when you realize that they built themselves completely around an advocacy focused on hyperlocalized impacts on ecosystems
hey chris remember how basically none of the designs from the LA low rise competition are feasible? single stair solves that. there's a reason it's the median building, new and old, the world over - outside the US and canada.
this sentiment really belongs more on twitter than here, but I would be happy never hearing from the single-stair obsessives ever again
Put another way in the last 35 years the oceans have accumulated enough heat to power current global energy demand for 400 years
Zack Labe@zacklabe.com · last mo.Upper ocean heat content (0 to 700 m depth) also set a new record high with the latest data update to start 2026. 🌊 Graphic shows anomalies and is produced by www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/globa...
Environmental review at the urban level has become a farce.
Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · last mo.The project on the left is completely through environmental review and is approved to move into construction and the project on the right needs more environmental analysis, everything is working great.
When suburbs restrict apartments, rents in nearby poor neighborhoods rise by ~$54/month, and the share of rent-burdened households increases by 2%. Exclusionary zoning in wealthy suburbs raises costs for low-income renters across the entire metro. cayimby.org/blog/suburba...
Suburban Apartment Bans May Be Making Poorer Neighborhoods’ Rents Increase - California YIMBY
When suburbs block apartments, rents in nearby poor neighborhoods may rise by about $27 a month, according to a new national study. Most research on exclusionary zoning has focused on costs within…
cayimby.org
Possibly the first SB79 project in existence is a proposal to turn an old motel on .38 acres of land near the California Avenue Caltrain Station in Palo Alto into a 76 apartments. 200 units per acre, on a parcel where housing was not previously allowed. We absolutely love to see it!
Before the invention of exclusionary single-family house zoning, great neighborhoods — housing thousands of people from all walks of life — grew up around great universities. We should make that legal again.
Shane Phillips@shanedphillips.bsky.social · 2mo agoHere are the prices of all the recently sold homes within a half-mile of my office at UCLA.
Happy SB 79 day to all who celebrate!! But especially @hanlon.bsky.social and @scottwiener.bsky.social who had the vision and held onto it against massive odds. cayimby.org/legislation/...
July 1, with SB 79 (partially) going into effect, cannot come soon enough.
Why so much focus on TOD? Why so much focus on “Affordable” (read: subsidized) housing? We need to allow apartments and no parking everywhere. Not in some places. Everywhere. accessmagazine.org/fall-2015/do...
Does Transit-Oriented Development Need the Transit?
Download the PDF. Most planners think #TODs lead to less driving, but what if it’s not because of rail? #Parking Urban planners have invested a lot of energy
accessmagazine.org
Trump is blocking a bipartisan housing bill to attach a voter suppression act over a "problem" that only affects 130 people a year, while 745,000 Americans sleep outside. Bad math, and even worse priorities. #UNFTR for @meidastouch.com. Watch the full video: youtu.be/MCPjytZiWnA
US zoning codes are so labyrinthine that grasping their implications takes months of study, or feeding hundreds of pages into an LLM. The complexity isn’t a bug to power through; it’s the point. The purpose of a system is what it does. These codes seem to exist so nothing ever changes.
If you aren’t listening to “Look Both Ways with David and Wes,” I’d strongly suggest you add it to your podcast feed.
Wes Marshall@wesmars.bsky.social · 2mo agoIn addition to talking about renowned historian Gordon Wood on @lookbothwayspod.bsky.social, @davidzipper.bsky.social also talked a lot about Fabio...
A new RAND study of impact fees finds that a 25% reduction in such fees would increase the number of feasible housing developments by 20%, and pay for itself via increased taxed revenue. www.rand.org/pubs/researc...
Understanding How Impact Fees Shape Housing Development Feasibility
As California cities face growing pressure to build more housing, high development costs remain a major barrier. RAND researchers examines whether reducing impact fees could help make more housing pro...
rand.org
Exceptionalism and resistance to learning what works and doesn’t for other places must be eliminated from public discourse. “What works in this other place won’t work here! This is [insert place name], not there!”
End apartment bans everywhere. Not in some places. Everywhere.
Can someone please explain to me how Traci Park ended up with over 60% of the vote in my former council district in LA, CD11?
Living in the real world and voting for Trump for US President, Pratt for Mayor of LA, Paxton for US Senate, et c., is conceptually identical to residing in the Batman universe and voting for The Joker for Mayor of Gotham.
normalize calling your city council member to tell them your rent went up and complain about the lack of housing production
