Shane Phillips
@shanedphillips.bsky.social
Housing guy. Researcher at UCLA Lewis Center, host of UCLA Housing Voice Podcast, author of The Affordable City, resident of Los Angeles.
I'm playing around looking at median family income data and noticed that Washington DC has a way higher median than other large metros (chart 1) but a pretty run-of-the-mill 80% MFI (chart 2). Also, note how 80% MFI increased a lot faster than MFI in LA and NYC (chart 3 + 1). What's the deal?
In this week's UCLA Housing Voice podcast reading list, we talk about research into conditions most likely to lead to redevelopment, infrastructure costs for urban vs. suburban housing, early impacts of a major Los Angeles zoning reform, and more. uclahousingvoice.substack.com/p/ucla-housi...
UCLA Housing Voice Reading List (7/29/26)
Investigating which conditions are most likely to lead to redevelopment, comparing infrastructure costs for urban vs. suburban housing, checking in on a major Los Angeles zoning reform, and more.
uclahousingvoice.substack.com
In this week's UCLA Housing Voice podcast reading list, we talk about research into conditions most likely to lead to redevelopment, infrastructure costs for urban vs. suburban housing, early impacts of a major Los Angeles zoning reform, and more. uclahousingvoice.substack.com/p/ucla-housi...
UCLA Housing Voice Reading List (7/29/26)
Investigating which conditions are most likely to lead to redevelopment, comparing infrastructure costs for urban vs. suburban housing, checking in on a major Los Angeles zoning reform, and more.
uclahousingvoice.substack.com
generally when you're in a war with a foreign nation, you want to at least pretend to do the "we're here to liberate the people of iran from their tyrannical dictators" thing and not the "we're here to steal all their natural resources and loot them" thing
Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · last wk.Trump to press on Airforce One: “We are taking billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela. “That will happen with Iran too.”
I was intrigued enough by this measure to do some further analysis, including looking at national data going back to 1940 and at a bunch of metro areas since 2005. I wrote about it here: domainexpansion.substack.com/p/an-easy-an...
An Easy and Useful Way to Measure Housing Supply Shortages
How many homes are there per single adult and adult couple? The ratio has been declining nationally since 1980, suggesting that Americans aren't forming new households like they could in the past.
domainexpansion.substack.com
Ryan Moulton@moultano.bsky.social · 2w agoI'm actually astonished at how clean this graph looks as a diagnostic for our housing ills. Note how close it is to 1 at the start. Houses per single adult or married couple.
This is how the SHUT UP Act would work here:
Fietser@americanfietser.bsky.social · 2w agoA motorist in Amsterdam was pulled over for being a public noise nuisance with his car. Noise measurement tests were done and the car was found to be in violation. The driver had to continue his journey on foot and the car is not allowed on public infrastructure until the exhaust is properly muffled
Ontario, what is going on with these very straight long roads? Across the border in Michigan and New York at the same scale for comparison. Is it topographical (fewer mountains and hills requiring indirect routing)?
This is a genuinely shocking contrast. www.latimes.com/california/s...
Street homelessness went up in Los Angeles. In Nithya Raman's district, it was nearly cut in half
Street homelessness — people living outdoors or in their vehicles — went down by 49% in Raman’s district compared to the previous year, she said at a press conference Friday.
latimes.com
Before (2019) / After (2026) Rue Ternaux in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. One line of car parking spots was removed and trees were planted in 2024.
I'm actually astonished at how clean this graph looks as a diagnostic for our housing ills. Note how close it is to 1 at the start. Houses per single adult or married couple.
This week on the UCLA Housing Voice podcast, Matthew Mleczko shares his research on how exclusionary zoning in more affluent communities increases material hardship for residents of impoverished neighborhoods nearby. lewis.ucla.edu/2026/07/22/1...
Episode 120: How Exclusionary Zoning Hurts Poor Neighborhoods with Matthew Mleczko
When cities adopt exclusionary zoning, their housing stock becomes scarcer and less affordable over time. Matt Mleczko shares research suggesting that the impacts extend beyond exclusionary jurisdicti...
lewis.ucla.edu
This is amazing www.instagram.com/reel/DYpuVNO...
Nithya Raman on Instagram: "POV: It’s the future and your crush wants to take public transit with you. Turns out, a city with reliable transit and city services is Nithya Raman’s love language. #nith...
16K likes, 295 comments - nithyaforthecity on May 22, 2026: "POV: It’s the future and your crush wants to take public transit with you. Turns out, a city with reliable transit and city services is Nit...
instagram.com
This week on the UCLA Housing Voice podcast, Matthew Mleczko shares his research on how exclusionary zoning in more affluent communities increases material hardship for residents of impoverished neighborhoods nearby. lewis.ucla.edu/2026/07/22/1...
Episode 120: How Exclusionary Zoning Hurts Poor Neighborhoods with Matthew Mleczko
When cities adopt exclusionary zoning, their housing stock becomes scarcer and less affordable over time. Matt Mleczko shares research suggesting that the impacts extend beyond exclusionary jurisdicti...
lewis.ucla.edu
Duuude now I'm trying to take the A Line* from Lincoln Heights toward downtown to the E Line and we've been waiting for 10-15 minutes despite real time saying it was 3 minutes, then 9, etc. This transit system is such a frustrating disaster. And on the day of the World Cup final! We're gonna be late
Shane Phillips@shanedphillips.bsky.social · 3w agoOn the E Line home + spent ~5 minutes above the 101 stopped and waiting to pull up to Union Station. Amazingly, we still waited another 5 minutes for them to change operators once we got there. How is the operations management *this* bad? Driver should have been ready. @metrolosangeles.bsky.social
On the E Line home + spent ~5 minutes above the 101 stopped and waiting to pull up to Union Station. Amazingly, we still waited another 5 minutes for them to change operators once we got there. How is the operations management *this* bad? Driver should have been ready. @metrolosangeles.bsky.social
The most elegant tense in English, the Law Enforcement Exonerative
Hamilton Nolan@hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 3w agoNews organizations should periodically stop and look in the mirror and ask themselves “Have we internalized copspeak to the point that our headlines indistinguishable from police department email subject lines?”
"Demand can't grow if there's no accommodations for them" ... brother let me introduce you to a place called California, USA
Adam Fisher-Cox@adamfishercox.com · 4w agoFamously, people decide whether or not they want to go somewhere based on local hotel construction policy, and not building them stops any desire to visit.
This is crazy and should be repealed. America is too rich of a country to be able to afford on-site staff in small buildings. Labor is too expensive and America is safe enough to not need this. When something really goes wrong anyway in an apartment building, you need a plumber, not a "manager."
Coba Weel@weel.bsky.social · 4w agoWhy exactly does CA require an on-site manager for a building over 16 units? Is this the kind of thing we need back the old country also, or the kind of thing that's silly here also, or some sort of consequence of some non-obvious difference?
Were these design standards written by a drop of water trying to get inside?
Joe Cohen@cohenhouse.bsky.social · 4w agoLA's new proposed "objective design standards" for historic districts are horrific. They're going to result in it essentially being illegal for new buildings to match the historic character of these districts.
What does the best evidence say about the impacts of building more housing on affordability? How has our understanding improved over the past 6-7 years? Where are the remaining gaps? Those questions are the focus of our latest pod with Vicki Been of NYU: lewis.ucla.edu/2026/07/08/1...
Episode 119: Responding to Supply Skepticism with Vicki Been - UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Supply skeptics don’t believe that building more homes improves affordability. Vicki Been tells us what the latest research says about their main arguments.
lewis.ucla.edu
It would be very good if there was a law that would put law enforcement officials in prison for 10+ years when they lie under oath. Nothing is more corrosive to a society than police corruption.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · last mo.Last year ICE said a man tried to murder a female ICE officer while she was trying to arrest him. They swore under oath he grabbed her by the neck and tried to choke her to death. He was even indicted for attempted murder. Problem is, it never happened! Bystander video unraveled the lie.
Here are the prices of all the recently sold homes within a half-mile of my office at UCLA.
David Shere@davidshere.net · last mo.Hey I love Tibet Junk and Luxury Bread
Incredible photo-realistic depiction of every single college town in America.
The most corrupt president in history and it's not close: "Trump reaped a stunning windfall in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, a new filing shows"
Trump Pulled in at Least $2 Billion After Returning to the White House
nytimes.com
Hey! I'm excited to elect Nithya Raman as LA's next mayor, and I'd encourage anyone to contribute to her campaign before the month ends. If you're an LA resident, donations up to $257 will be matched by the city six-to-one, turning into $1,542. www.nithyaforthecity.com
Nithya for Mayor
Nithya Raman is running for Mayor of Los Angeles.
nithyaforthecity.com