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The "don't forget to pull up the ladder behind you" method

They don’t care. You can talk to them all you want about people moving to the sun belt and what it means economically and politically and they will ignore It.

If they’re willing to force their own children to live 3 states away rather than stomach a 5-over-1 nearby, they’re DEFINITELY willing to endure a worsened electoral college allocation.

A cousin to KCs model (have to beg the city for tax breaks to pencil in)

“It’s okay, they mostly leave in winter to avoid freezing to death”

It’s climate - Boston has to be better about sheltering people, otherwise there’d routinely be people freezing to death on the sidewalk.

Can't believe he's still there. The BRA still going strong.

It’s easier for Shen to say this when he makes almost $230k a year and can probably afford to live almost anywhere in the city.

What happens when you put architects in charge.

All evidence suggests that developers aren't going to pay a premium to build in Boston.

The best form of land value capture is LVT.

FWIW when I looked at building permits per capita across US cities since 1970 the outliers with lowest rates over the five decades were SF and Boston. So this is a longstanding commonality between the two cities not new

@namitomoon.bsky.social wtf

Wait til you hear my idea for farms and food insecurity…

“I believe in place” I don’t know what this means but my Communist Geographer alarm is flashing red.

Something like just charging a flat 5%, waiving all codes except those literally protecting health... Then take the 5% and build public housing. Only 0.22% are homeless, if 5% of housing were public you could house them and have a lot leftover.

There are a ton of things that will help; but no silver bullets. I do think we should replace the fractured and privately-run building code with a simplified and rigorous nationwide code overseen by a public agency with a dual mandate for safety and cost-effectiveness.

you're assuming that "punishing developers and wealthy homeowners" is not the *goal*

I think we've had this conversation before, but it IS possible to strike a balance that eventually leads to a more affordable rental market with a slower increase in rents - as usual I'm talking about the Silver Spring area in MD.

Mandatory inclusionary units in for profit buildings are fine… if the government covers the percentage of costs that those units add to the building.

Wishes are free. If anti-affordability voices put their shoulders to the wheel on making public funding a reality, I would have more faith in their prescriptions. Not seeing it though.

Nobody should do what SF does. Nobody.

Just like Goofus was a model of behavior and conduct.

[unprintable expletives]

Wouldn’t it be simpler and more efficient to just cut the middleman and have statutory zoning waivers for BMR set-asides