Daniel Herriges

Policy Director @Parking_Reform. Writer @StrongTowns. Co-author, "Escaping the Housing Trap" with @clmarohn: . Tweets are my own.

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

Let's gooooooo! 🤞

[Nathaniel Barrett @ncoxbarrett]

Today is the day for advancing positive change in Dallas: City Plan Commission should vote on whether to advance parking reform (including full elimination of minimums) to City Council.

It's been 5 years since we first discussed at committee. Let's see it through!

[Devon ☀️ @devonzuegel]

Great urbanism is about proportions, not specific architectural styles

There is a correlation between walkability & traditional architecture, but that's simply because that was the default pattern before the car

You can have great urbanism with contemporary architecture, too!

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

@jmassengale @theurbaneist @mattyglesias @the I think there's another tier of cities, including all the big Midwestern and Southern ones, where the pressure-release valve for affordability has so far been greenfield sprawl, and urban zoning reform is necessary for healthy central-city growth w/o pricing huge populations out.

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

@jmassengale @theurbaneist @mattyglesias @the Places where extreme demand for well-located housing (not way out in suburbia) has driven the price of land skyward precisely because the vast majority of lots are *not* legally developable to that missing-middle / mid-rise walkup density you talk about.

[Daniel Kay Hertz @DanielKayHertz]

A lot of discourse problems would be ameliorated by everyone working as some sort of practitioner, preferably at least some of the time in the public sector, in a field relevant to that which they would like to discourse about

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

@jb_reefer I remember the first time I heard about an apartment building having a golf simulator... I asked the speaker to repeat herself in case I'd misheard.

But what you're saying about awkward spaces actually makes some sense. Find a way to turn it into a selling point.

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

It's a common belief that high-end amenities are driving up the price of new apartments.

The reality is high rents are driven much more by fundamentals: a low number or available rental units and high construction costs.

There's an interesting nuance, though.

[Austin Tunnell @AustinTunnell]

Debate time! New episode out with Chuck Marohn from @StrongTowns and Nolan Gray with @cayimby. I found them disagreeing here on X—which surprised me as I assumed they’d be on the same side—so I asked them on the podcast to hash out their ideas.

It’s a great (and friendly) episode. Though for better or worse, I started out by reading their disagreement on X out loud, which is probably a painful experience to hear your own words in a heated moment repeated back. Nolan said it felt like he just went through a deposition. Having just been through a real life deposition myself the week before, I felt kind of bad. Sorry guys :) but to be fair, it does set the stage for a good convo! And a friendly one at that.

Each of these guys have made significant contributions to the built environment via real policy changes and shifting culture and conversation.

Thanks for coming on @clmarohn and @mnolangray

Check out their latest books Arbitrary Lines and Escaping the Housing Trap.

Trailer below:

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

If the only thing you can build profitably is a building whose rents are only affordable to the top 20%, then you will market that building to the lifestyle and expectations of the top 20%.

But that's downstream of the basic development cost problem.

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

If we had lower land, construction, and financing costs, it would become more viable to build new apartments targeting modest-income tenants.

And the marketing and amenities would also target those tenants.

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

The psychological distance from South FL to Atlanta is way more aligned with the actual distance if you make the drive in the winter, because there's a pronounced temperature drop.

In the summer the same trip just feels interminable for no reason.

[Hunter📈🌈📊 @StatisticUrban]

What if I told you Atlanta was closer to Canada than Miami?

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

@salimfurth Probably, all else equal. Obviously lots of other things factor into antisocial behavior, but I suspect at a micro level (one block to the next) it becomes pretty determinative. The inverse of the well-known observation that vacant properties are a magnet for drug/crime activity.

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

Front porches are pro-social but it's important to recognize how. It's not that they encourage you to befriend your neighbors—lots of suburbanites with big front-loading garages will do that anyway.

It's that they induce serendipitous, friendly interaction with *strangers*.

[Jason, @jasonc_nc]

Great article on this from @tomgreenewrites

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

When I've lived in suburbia and driven for all my errands, I could go a week where every interaction I had was either with someone I knew, or a retail / business transaction.

Much harder to fall into that when you ride the bus and walk your neighborhood habitually.

[Daniel Herriges @dpherriges]

And the reason it does that is because it generates spontaneous, pleasant, low-stakes interaction with *strangers*.

Not with people you've made an effort to befriend and who have made an effort to befriend you, which can happen among neighbors anywhere.