Greg Smith

All about solving the housing and homelessness crisis. Join me at

[Gregg Nunziata @greggnunziata]

This is absolute poison. Again, we felt this way after Roe, and we had a far better case! Tearing down the legitimacy of the Court because you don't like its decisions is tearing down the Counstituion, the rule of law, and the country we share.

[Jonathan Berk @berkie1]

99% of Boston’s residential parcels do not conform to zoning.

This triple-decker in Dorchester, nearly identical to neighboring triple-deckers, required multiple zoning variances to be built.

When the housing that defines a neighborhood is illegal, the rules are the problem.

[Greg Smith @macdiehard]

Will LA take notice? Not likely.

[YIMBYLAND @YIMBYLAND]

Believe it or not, it really is possible to meet housing demand through supply-side reforms in California and San Diego is proof.

[Logan Bowers 🏗️ 🏘️ @loganb]

Sanders saw Trump and his most corrupt administration in history nationalizing companies and said, “yes let’s do more of that.”

[Jay Parsons @jayparsons]

Feels like a pivotal moment when even The New York Times editorial board is acknowledging what the science makes clear: Rent control backfires on the very people it's intended to protect.

"Artificially low rents make it harder for developers to recoup the costs of building. Rent control has not solved the housing problems in New York City, and it will not solve them in Massachusetts."

[Greg Smith @macdiehard]

No starter homes in your area? Blame local officials https://t.co/rPeMN2JyZ6

[Armand Domalewski @ArmandDoma]

something like 99%+ of economists agree that building market rate housing reduces rents. Connie Chan's views on housing are equivalent to believing the world is flat

vote @Scott_Wiener

[Apple Lamps @lamps_apple]

“So let me get this straight, while the Islamic Republic was massacring our own people, our own students, our own young people, massacring them, raping them and killing them and torturing them on the streets in the daylight, you kept your mouth shut. As soon as there's an attack from the US or Israel on the Islamic Republic, on the regime, NOT the people, you come out saying that they're attacking schools and hospitals. This is IRGC propaganda and if you would like to be on the right side of history, shut the fuck up, do your research and know that Israel and the US is not attacking schools or hospitals, it's the Islamic Republic and the regime themselves.”

[Greg Smith @macdiehard]

@Euphoric696 @asymmetricinfo @grok Seattle’s largest paper, The Seattle Times, stoutly resisted more housing. And still does.

[Michael Wiebe @michael_wiebe]

Condon: "Land value increases with density. Period."

Meanwhile, land values in a mansion-only district increased 5x. Landscape architects are not economists.

[Michael Wiebe @michael_wiebe]

https://t.co/DaJbsJ2fCj

[Masih Alinejad 🏳️ @AlinejadMasih]

Hello @AOC, while you smiled in a hijab at a New York event, I was in Federal Court facing the 4th hitman hired by the Islamic Republic to assassinate me, for campaigning for Iranian women to have the same freedom you performed for a photo op. Will you come to court with me in August when I face the 5th hitman? Or does solidarity only work when it doesn't offend the Islamic regime?

You wore hijab voluntarily in New York. Women are killed in Iran for taking it off.

You are the very woman who, at every opportunity, protests against violence against women, decries gender segregation, and champions "inclusion." Yet here you stand, smiling and wearing a hijab, at an event in New York, in the heart of the West, where men and women are strictly separated. To me and millions of Iranian women, this does not look like a choice. It is no longer "My body, my choice," but rather "My body for votes."

They who claim to fight for women's self-determination in the name of feminism voluntarily embrace an ideology that mandates our women cover their hair simply because they are women. They enjoy the prosperity, freedom, and privileges of the Western world, where they may live as autonomous individuals , yet they simultaneously accept that other women should not be afforded the same rights.

#LetUsTalk

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

The progressive idea of "Let's make everyone equal at math by just not making anyone learn math" is going just about as well as you'd expect

[Greg Smith @macdiehard]

I just wrote a @theactionnet letter: Prioritize Ballard to Westlake and Provide a Status Quo Timeline. Write one here: https://t.co/d5qfkwKfpE

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

Yale fully reinstates its pre-pandemic SAT/ACT requirement in admissions.

“These test scores are strong predictors of a student’s future Yale academic performance, and there is evidence that they are less subject to bias than other elements of an application.”

[Sandeep Kaushik @skaushik100]

In Feb. 2020 a comprehensive analysis commissioned by the University of California system found both that SAT scores were a better predictor of college success than high school grades, and that test scores were a primary means by which admissions officers in the UC system identified poor and minority students (who tended to have lower grade point averages) who merited admission to the system’s more selective colleges.

Completely ignoring the findings of its own report, in May 2020 the University of California regents voted unanimously (23-0) to eliminate the SAT requirement. That vote is one of the most glaring and spectacular examples of how culturally cosmopolitan elites’ stampede to adopt woke ideas in that era was rooted not in rationality but in emotion and self-congratulatory groupthink.

https://t.co/2s0fnbtTWw

[Daniel Di Martino @DanielDiMartino]

Abolishing private property in 2 easy steps

Step 1 - Rent control: Rent is lower than costs and taxes so you can't do maintenance.

Step 2 - Seizure: You don't have the money to do maintenance and the state uses it as an excuse to take your property.

[Neetu Arnold @neetu_arnold]

University of California STEM professors want standardized tests back due to severe math deficiencies among students:

“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle school mathematics”

“The current admissions metric, based primarily on GPA & essays, can no longer reliably distinguish readiness for university-level STEM majors in an era of severe grade inflation & AI assisted application essays”

[Captain Allen @CptAllenHistory]

On This Day — May 25, 1948

They put a bullet in the back of his head.

The man they executed that day was Witold Pilecki — the only person in history who voluntarily walked into Auschwitz.

In 1940, this Polish cavalry officer deliberately got himself arrested during a Nazi roundup in Warsaw. Using a false identity, he entered hell as prisoner #4859.

For two and a half years, Pilecki lived as a starving skeleton in striped rags while secretly building a resistance network inside the camp. He smuggled out the first detailed eyewitness reports of the Nazi death machine to the Allies — gas chambers, selections, medical experiments, and the systematic murder of Jews.

While he was there, more than 1,000 Jews per day were being gassed and burned. At its peak in 1944, the killing rate reached more than 6,000 per day.

He saw it all.
He documented it all.
He risked everything so the world would know.

In April 1943, Pilecki escaped by overpowering a guard at a bakery outside the wire. He rejoined the fight, battled in the Warsaw Uprising, and later resisted the Soviet occupation of Poland.

For his courage, the communist regime tortured him, staged a show trial, and executed him on May 25, 1948.

One of the great heroes of the 20th century.
Remember his name: Witold Pilecki.

[Logan Bowers 🏗️ 🏘️ @loganb]

If Seattle were built-out at triplex density instead of SFH but kept the same population, we could have a ~30sq mi nature preserve in the city.

If you like the majesty of the PNW, density is the solution.