Jackson Moore-Otto

Transpo policy @PubEnterprise, also fighting for abundant housing and transit in Massachusetts. Views own.

[Jackson Moore-Otto @jmooreotto]

if this continues as is, it's not just a likely poison bill for regional rail in MA, but a really bad look for nascent attempts at passenger rail leasing in the US

[Chris Friend @friendchristoph]

the #MBTA costs are out for the BEMUs. they’re the most expensive rolling stock ever procured. but not just that—at roughly $25m/car ($525m npv over 21 usable cars), they are 2x more expensive than any other rail cars ever bought

[Chris Friend @friendchristoph]

I initially thought the BEMU pilot was a good idea, but at these costs it no longer makes sense. The T should take the $750m they’re planning to spend renting these vehicles over the next 15 years to wire Fairmount, Providence, build full high platforms and buy EMUs

[Chris Friend @friendchristoph]

the #MBTA costs are out for the BEMUs. they’re the most expensive rolling stock ever procured. but not just that—at roughly $25m/car ($525m npv over 21 usable cars), they are 2x more expensive than any other rail cars ever bought

[Clyve Lawrence @ClyveLawrence]

We can build things quickly with the right incentives and political will.

[Benjamin Schneider @urbenschneider]

Very interesting debate on the McDowell-Moulton amendment, which would give Amtrak more eminent domain and taxation authority around stations.

Rail advocates are on both sides of this one.

It's understandable that NYC pols are wary of giving up control and tax revenue around Penn, especially given the current administration.

But giving Amtrak more financial tools would be genuinely beneficial to the railroad as it tries to pull off major station renovations in NYC and beyond.

[Burhan Azeem, Cambridge Vice Mayor @realBurhanAzeem]

Facebook was born in a Harvard dorm. Microsoft's first code was written in a Harvard computer lab. MIT invented the fusion reactor now being built in Virginia.

Massachusetts: where great companies are born and never raised.

We face a deep recession, so let's invest in growth

[Asad🗽🍎 @AsadFromNYC]

"Studies have analyzed how improved lighting can drive down crime. In NYC, researchers identified 80 public housing developments with high crime and installed temporary lights in half. The new lights reduced crime by 35%, without any increase in arrests." https://t.co/x0KI9vNMfY

[Mike Bird @Birdyword]

We should more seriously consider the merits of a progressive consumption tax

[Ankit Gupta @agupta]

Bunch of NIMBY losers want to block a big housing opportunity in Davis. I live in this neighborhood and would welcome it.

Having 500 more families living here would make the square even more bustling and vibrant, attract new restaurants, and lower the cost of living for everyone else

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

Seems like if we're really concerned that capital will displace labor, we should start by closing the 16 percentage point tax advantage capital enjoys over labor.

[Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi]

NYT continues its pro-housing run. @MaraGay's tour-de-force housing column years ago proved deep expertise & we see it here

This ballot measure legalizing homes on small lots in cities won't 100% fix MA. But it's a chance for voters to tell Beacon Hill they want deeper reform!

[Randy Clarke @wmataGM]

👇Why fare enforcement is so important. Safety of our customers and staff is the primary focus of all we do. Great transit has to be safe.

Great job as usual by our hard working MTPD team & partners and quick use of our extensive video system. It’s why record low crime rate.

[Jarrett Walker @humantransit]

Once a very large historic city has a strong radial metro network, trams or light rail often make sense on long orbital paths. Both London and Paris use them this way. So I really like this New York City project.

[Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi]

Transforming spending to maximize public value is one of the biggest challenges in public policy

Mayor Mamdani has assembled a crack team--if anyone has a shot at pulling this off, they do

More evidence this admin is a watershed in American urban politics

[Chris Friend @friendchristoph]

More and more this procurement feels like a frankenstein cobbled together so the T doesn’t have to think about infrastructure. 1/4 cars is just a battery. the bilevels look like they have the same capacity as a single level.

[Nicholas Bagley @nicholas_bagley]

What are public sector unions for, exactly? What problem are they trying to solve? And what does the evidence show about whether they solve it?

I dig into those question in my latest for @TheAtlantic (link below).

[Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist @UrbanCourtyard]

No urban revival without stair reform.

Great cities need middle housing -- ie MANY small multifamily buildings that allow many households to share expensive urban land. But those homes still have to be good enough that a wide range of households want to live in the. Not just twenty somethings.

Current egress rules have made multifamily housing ESPECIALLY awful in the US because they push developers to double-loaded corridor layouts: long, hotel-like hallways with apartments lined up on both sides. These buildings are extremely expensive to build and not great at creating "life-cycle" housing.

Families often want a home with a “front” and a “back”: one side connected to the street and the life of the neighborhood, and another quieter side facing a courtyard, garden, yard, or shared green space. They want cross-ventilation, daylight from more than one direction, a place for children to play, and some sense of threshold between public and private life. Double-loaded corridor buildings make that impossible, because units are facing either the back or the front.

The more home-like form of multifamily is enabled by single-stair reform, sometimes called “smart stair” reform and closely related to the point-access block. instead of accessing units from a long corridor, apartments are arranged around a central stair. This allows smaller buildings, shallower floorplates, more dual-aspect units (they don't all need to be, but some of them should be), better light and air, and a much closer relationship between the home, the street, and the yard.

Single-stair reform is a keystone reform for rebuilding family-friendly urban neighborhoods. It will make it significantly easier to build the fine-grained, middle housing neighborhoods that everyone wants but no one builds anymore (because we made it illegal)

[Rep. Josh Harder @RepJoshHarder]

We’re seeing pro-growth policies gain traction with liberals and conservatives alike because scarcity is rampant in every community in America. So cool to see New York making building a priority!

[Will Poff-Webster @willpoffwebster]

On https://t.co/jZiT21xab7, the housing bill is now at the "resolving differences" stage.

My dream would be:
-Take the House's approach on build-to-rent homes, protecting new housing supply for renters
-Add back the Senate's Build Now Act to start making federal money go to places that legalize new housing
-Include disaster recovery authorization and other good parts of the Senate bill
-Pass it soon to start addressing the #1 cost for Americans

But good news is the latest bill is already great on its own- if enacted without any changes it'd be a big win for housing affordability

[Jill Filipovic @JillFilipovic]

Teen births are way down. Unintended pregnancy rates have also dropped substantially, especially among teenagers and women in their early 20s. By contrast, intended pregnancies among women in their late 30s and 40s have jumped to record highs. More women are using contraception, so they’re having children when they want them. More women are delaying having children because more of them are finishing high school, going to college, and working for pay. They can afford to be pickier about partners, and so divorce rates are down, too.

THIS IS ALL GOOD.