Waterloo Region Yes In My Backyard
@wryimby.bsky.social
Waterloo Region Yes in my Backyard, also known as WR YIMBY, is a grassroots community group that urges the cities of Waterloo Region to adjust their zoning to allow for more housing, especially affordable housing. https://www.wryimby.com/
@ericlombardi.ca, founder More Neighbours Toronto and current candidate for Ontario Party leadership is joining us as a special guest at our 7pm meeting this Thursday!– dm us or rsvp below for the online link. www.meetup.com/waterloo-reg...
Special Guest Eric Lombardi , Thu, May 28, 2026, 7:00 PM | Meetup
Our May 28th Waterloo Region Yes in My Backyard meeting will have a special guest: Eric Lombardi. Eric founded More Neighbours Toronto and is running for Ontario Liberal Le
meetup.com
This week! I'll be at Toronto Tech Week, speaking on Education in the Age of AI, at the Digital Asset Summit, and on housing with @wryimby.bsky.social. Or, you can catch me in Oakville and Georgetown. Looking forward to seeing everyone! Details and RSVP: luma.com/ericforolp
Jane’s Walks are next weekend! @philmarfisi.bsky.social and I are gonna reprise my Northdale walk from last year. Come with us to look at what some* are calling the most interesting urban transformation in the country. janeswalkwr.com *me
New research from Pew quantifies the extent of the success of YIMBYism in Austin: after a huge run up in prices over the 2010s, the city dramatically liberalized and kicked off a building boom. Now rents are falling. www.pew.org/en/research-...
Thank you @mikeschreiner.bsky.social and the GPO for coming and hanging out with @wryimby.bsky.social to talk missing middle housing. The GPO has consistently been the leading progressive voice in Ontario for legalizing and building more affordable housing and we're thankful for their advocacy!
Thank you Ontario Green Party leader @mikeschreiner.bsky.social and MPP @aislinnclancy.bsky.social for touring some missing middle and midrise housing in Belmont Village with us! www.instagram.com/reel/DUgZ2Cj... 1/2
Mike Schreiner on Instagram: "There are so many stories of people like the Premier saying NO to housing. @aislinnclancykc and I met up with one of the groups saying YES to more homes that people can a...
9 likes, 1 comments - mikeschreinergpo on February 8, 2026: "There are so many stories of people like the Premier saying NO to housing. @aislinnclancykc and I met up with one of the groups saying YES ...
instagram.com
Are "pre-rebuttals" a thing, like "pre-zonings"? If so, here's a pre-rebuttal from @jensvb.bsky.social and I to the latest argument that supply doesn't matter (from CCPA, sigh). The Key: Doubling up is the demographic indicator demonstrating our shortage. homefreesociology.com/2025/07/06/h...
Housing is a Housing Problem
Co-authored by Jens von Bergmann and cross-posted at MountainMath. The main housing problem in Canada is that there is not enough of it. We can see this by looking at prices and rents, but also by …
homefreesociology.com
Congrats to Cambridge (South Galt) resident Ibrahim Tahir on his first delegation! He made a thoughtful (and nuanced) case for more housing that will hopefully be enabled by Cambridge passing the form-based zoning bylaw. youtu.be/Cjh0JLVD1Yg?... 1/5
Council Meeting - February 3, 2026
YouTube video by City of Cambridge
youtu.be
Thanks to @theglobeandmail.com for featuring Edmonton and my data! The magic of density is amazing in just how many homes can be built with few properties. #yeg #yegcc www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...
Kitchener's heritage committee has decided to investigate preservation protections for a parking garage. What are some of its highlights outside of its "advanced concrete engineering", you ask? "A report on the garage also notes... it was used in the filming of an Audi car commercial in 2008."
Kitchener’s spiral garage: Heritage gem or Brutalist eyesore?
Is a distinctive Kitchener parking garage with a spiralling ramp a heritage gem or a Brutalist eyesore?
therecord.com
"Under the proposed bylaw, more housing would be permitted as of right, meaning fewer developments would require zoning amendments, public meetings or council votes." Yes to this! #CambCouncil
"Heritage Conservation Districts are powerful planning tools that must be applied selectively. When used across a large and evolving urban area, they can unintentionally discourage reinvestment, add regulatory burden, and limit the kind of redevelopment a downtown needs to remain vibrant."
Serious Concerns Regarding Proposed Galt Core Heritage Conservation District
mailchi.mp
We support this petition for the Region of Waterloo to adopt a Public Camping Bylaw that would allow for multiple encampment sites for unsheltered people. For more legitimacy: Expand the signature box to include a postal code. Click on it. Add a valid postal code 1/4 www.change.org/p/demand-wat...
Why? Why do we do this to ourselves? This just feels like a waste of everybody's time. Why on earth do we think we need neighbours to weigh in on this?! Just build it already. www.therecord.com/news/waterlo...
Very much looking forward to this talk in DTK tonight at 6 with some excellent co-panelists. We'll be talking about Social Development Goals (no poverty or hunger). I'll talk about how addressing our high housing costs is necessary to end poverty.-- Martin events.sdgideafactory.ca/default/Deta...
SDG Talks: No Poverty & Zero Hunger
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm How can we build a future where no one is left behind? Join us for a powerful evening exploring the goals of SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). ...
events.sdgideafactory.ca
Idle thought, we all understand that dense urban infill improves the net lifecycle balance of infrastructure costs. So why do we charge high development fees on this kind of infill?
Brent Toderian@brenttoderian.bsky.social · 10mo agoWATCH: If you really STILL don’t understand how car-dependent suburbia is HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED by downtown & all the urban parts of your city, please watch this EXCELLENT video by #NotJustBikes helped by #UrbanThree & @StrongTowns.org. And then please SHARE it as much as possible. youtu.be/7Nw6qyyrTeI
For the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Navneet Alang: Condos get a bad rap. Here’s why they should be part of the Canadian dream
My parents bought their first home for 11,000 pounds (approximately $20,000) in 1974. It was an ordinary small row house on a dour street in East London. Now, more than
thestar.com
Fantastic piece that avoids naivete while offering a needed defense of condo living in the national discourse. The preening condescencion from comfortably housed progressives in Canada about "shoebox" living is often insuffocating, and presumptuous about the choices they think people should make.
Navneet Alang@navneetalang.com · 10mo agoFor the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Despite planning dogma, “stable residential neighbourhoods” aren’t
Alex Bozikovic@alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 11mo agoAlmost everywhere in the City of Toronto has fewer people that it did 50 years ago
Yesterday I sat for a lecture by 3 folks from ReHousing. Hosted by UofT's school of Arch, they detailed the history of change in Toronto, how post-war suburbs rubber-stamped neighbourhoods as repetitive as a 100 floor condo does today, horizontally, & how for half a century we've seen near no change
Kitchener's Draft Official Plan is up for you to comment on! www.engagewr.ca/kitchener2051 For background, we made some preliminary comments on what we would like to see in an Official Plan- back in February last year- static1.squarespace.com/static/5f6b5...
Kitchener 2051
Help write Kitchener's new Official Plan. Share your voice. Shape our city.
engagewr.ca
"The convenience and choices cars provide can’t be denied, but cars also take priority over people all the time. We’ve structured our entire approach to housing around the needs of cars. In many cases, if a development can’t accommodate enough parking spaces, it can’t be built at all." -Philip Mills
therecord.com
Anyone concerned with encampment evictions in Cambridge and the lack of shelter space (despite denials) should follow @reganbrusse.bsky.social's work here: www.mymothernamedmesunshine.ca?fbclid=IwY2x...
Welcome!
Where our Federal and Provincial aids hold gaps, we must persist. Where our local government needs time to change, we must loudly be patient. Loudly, so they feel our support for change. Loudly so th...
mymothernamedmesunshine.ca
For real though, the stage 3 Waterloo route would connect the 4 largest growth areas outside Uptown. The only thing is it would be ludicrous to not rezone the Boardwalk for mixed use, because it's actually the perfect candidate for retrofitting sprawl* *it's ludicrous we haven't done it yet period
We'll be discussing @cwhitzman.bsky.social's book Home Truths on November 23rd, 2pm, downtown Kitchener. DM us for the address if you'd like to join this book club!
Waterloo Region Yes In My Backyard@wryimby.bsky.social · 11mo agoTo do this, housing experts @cwhitzman.bsky.social and Priya Perwani call for the creation of “at least 4.4 million affordable homes" to meet the target of 20 percent of our housing stock being affordable. maytree.com/publications...
With the federal budget introduced on November 4, it’s worth highlighting the opportunity Canada has to significantly increase its social housing stock through Build Canada Homes. This can help us end homelessness. 1/5
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New housing stops landlords from raising rents—take it from the CEO of AvalonBay, one of NYC's largest landlords: "We're well-positioned… we face significantly less new supply. Land entitled for multifamily is hard to come by, the amount of time it takes to get those entitlements… sets us up well.”
Open New York@opennewyork.org · 11mo agoIt's amazing that housing supply deniers will say "new housing doesn't lower rents" and meanwhile real estate investors openly write stuff like "thanks to low housing production, there's less competition and we can raise rents!"
