Jake Wegmann

Urban planning academical egghead. Former housing developer. Husband and dad. YEG-NH-DEN-Cambridge (MA)-SF/OAK-AUS

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

@WalkableAustin @DonnaHowardTX @GinaForAustin @SherylCole1 @jamestalarico @BucyForTexas @RANewsTX And this kind of thing actually works. CA's pro-ADU reforms in 2016 and 2017 led to more than a 4X increase in annual ADU production--a rare bright spot in their housing crisis. https://t.co/6nRCnnqPqN

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

@salimfurth @MaryJoWebster @HousPolDebate @mikejcorey Congrats Salim! Great to see the final version out in print.

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

@austinrants @juliogatx Honolulu is the only US city trying to build a similar system. It has not ... cough cough ... been going well.

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

@austinrants @juliogatx Their entire system (Skytrain) is elevated and automated. That allows the trains to be extremely frequent (because no labor costs). That in turns allows the stations to be very small (short platforms), which saves a ton of money.

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

@austinmobility @PeteGilcrease This came out beautifully and I have personally benefited from it numerous times already (it was a massive improvement even before the signal went in). Great work and keep it up!

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

Rigid bollards in Edmonton, Alberta. A simple way of keeping people on foot from getting crushed to death by errant cars on a busy road. Why exactly don't we do this in Austin?!

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

I spent years being frustrated at how hard it was to safely cross Lamar from the Triangle. And now it's been fixed! Dozens of small changes like this plus the explosion of e-bikes could transform how people get around Austin.

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

@nvironmntcarol Can't hurt! But there would have to be a real and credible threat from the feds to not chip in to PC which I would have to think otherwise looks like a pretty attractive set of projects from their metrics. We shall see.

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

THREAD: City Council’s proposed compromise to allow more housing on the corridors makes me want to tear (what’s left of) my hair out. 1/X https://t.co/ZWpZRSUHju

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

I’m normally a “take the half a loaf” kinda guy, but this proposal is borderline insulting to all of the people here who need relief from a brutal housing market. City Council, do better. FIN

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

Single-family houses would STILL emit a force field from 100s of ' away that would magically lop off the tops of any would-be apt bldgs with the temerity to be tall enough to take advantage of billions of $’s worth of planned bus, light rail, bike lane, and sidewalk upgrades. 5/X

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

Best journalistic treatment of "valid petitions" in Austin I've yet seen. With some great big-picture quotes from @ConnollyJoao and @DanKeshet https://t.co/xiKGQn4vIE

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

I mean, I was expecting Austin to be bonkers, but having it be ahead of all of the other tiny metros in the data set but one shocked me. Austin is to the 2020s what Los Angeles and Detroit were to the 1920s.

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

So I just pulled ZHVI data from Zillow on home prices for 902 US metros, comparing right now to Feb 2020. Austin is the NUMBER TWO metro, with a 65% (!!) increase. #1 is tiny (Kalispell, +74%). The runnerup large metro is Phoenix (+52%). Jaw. On. Floor.

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

Even though we're months away from Halloween, I still talked about ghost dwellings with @ShaneDPhillips and @MichaelManvill6 on the UCLA Housing Voice podcast.https://t.co/S3K4edgK9a

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

"Austin's Land Development Code: keeping Missing Middle missing since 1984."

[Jake Wegmann @JakeWegmann]

In case you're wondering what Austin's current Land Development Code (1984) did to missing middle development--it kneecapped it. (Graphic from @courtney_banker)