Jeremy Hoffman

Director of Impact @GroundworkUSA | affiliate @urichmond | board pres @scottsaddition | alum @OSUCEOAS @Augustana_IL | opinions mine; facts peer-reviewed

[Annemarie Gray @annemariegray]

Excellent stuff by NYT Ed Board:“To bring down housing costs, cities and towns need to make two principal changes. First, they should loosen zoning laws to allow more multifamily homes. …Second, cities and towns should make it easier to build where it is already legal.”

[YIMBYLAND @YIMBYLAND]

There are 0 high-cost, high housing production cities in the US.

[Aaron Lubeck @aaron_lubeck]

IZ (inclusionary zoning) is “vibes based planning”.

IZ is intended to benefit the politician proposing it at the expense of the lower income person needing it.

[Hayden @the_transit_guy]

Even in the arguably most car dependent metro in the country, there’s a clear demand for walkable spaces and dense urbanism. Stop making it legal to only build car dependent sprawl and then use that reality to say no one demands anything else.

[Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler]

These "requirements to build affordable housing" are a demand that builders rent or sell a percentage of their brand new homes at a loss. This is a tax on new housing that has worsened the housing shortage and increased housing prices in every city where it was implemented.

[Jeremy Hoffman @jer_science]

@RigganRVA left turn hardening would help so much along the Franklin St bike lane

[Urban Cycling Institute 🚲  @fietsprofessor]

If it happens ones, it can be a coincidence.
If it happens twice, it starts to be a pattern.
If it happens 40 times, we have truth!

A @EUROCITIES survey across 38 European cities found: lower urban speed limits aren’t slowing cities down. They're just making them work better!

[Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler]

That Urban Studies paper about how zoning reform only produces modest gains in housing supply was based on extremely shoddy data: of the 180 "major reforms" they examined, 60 were misidentified, 118 were misclassified, and only 2 were real.

[Hayden @the_transit_guy]

A city that treated the housing crisis like a five-alarm fire made it legal to build so much housing that it actually reduced rent by a lot. Who would’ve guessed?

[dustin Couch @Dustinkcouch]

nasa employee: oh hey u guys are back early

astronaut: moon's haunted

nasa employee: what?

astronaut: *loading a pistol and getting back on the rocket-ship* moon's haunted

[Jeremy Hoffman @jer_science]

@RVA_DOT Can you email this video to [email protected]?

[sam @sam_d_1995]

not only is congestion pricing working, it’s living proof that government can actually do things that materially improve our lives and the functioning of our society

better things are possible!

[Jeremy Hoffman @jer_science]

@ramez Dr. @rahmstorf would know!

[回 @3_under_scores_]

Reminder that there is no "magic number"/"sweet spot" for unfunded mandatory inclusionary zoning that doesn't raise rents and reduce housing supply.

From the Berkeley/UCLA report by Shane Philips in 2024. Note that the sharpest hit comes from imposing any requirement, even 1%:

[Jeremy Hoffman @jer_science]

Carytown when?

[Daniel Pearson @DPearsonPHL]

Center City District has released their report on Open Streets, it is a remarkable success.

27% increase in pedestrian activity
62% increase in in-store traffic
38% sales growth

These are remarkable numbers, the city should make Open Streets a regularly scheduled event.

[Hayden @the_transit_guy]

Housing and rent prices collapsed in Austin and people still pretend building housing isn’t the solution to affordability.

[Jeremy Hoffman @jer_science]

@scifri Check out @TODAYshow’s highlight of our microforests in Elizabeth, NJ: https://t.co/5Lwa9Ertts

[Science Magazine @ScienceMagazine]

North American bird populations are not only declining, but they’re also shrinking faster with each passing year—particularly in regions shaped by intensive agriculture, according to a new study in Science. https://t.co/Csaq2Sa0gM

[Molly @mollyfleck]

Since 2014, Sydney has carved out 79.5 miles of tunnels underneath the city to create a brand-new, fully automated metro system. North American leaders need to stop thinking so small.

[Mark R. Brown, AICP, CNU @CompletedStreet]

People don't create traffic. Cars create traffic.