City Engineer
@cityengineer.bsky.social
PE. Dengineer. Transportation and Engineering. Safe network builder for people walking, in wheelchairs, cycling & driving. Train lover. Selectboard member. Longer form here : https://bit.ly/4d0YNTj
If you care about large, durable, system-level reductions in car use, excepting the very few high density cities that developed before zoning in the early 20th century, the only path that will ever work at scale is major land use zoning reform.
November 20, 2025 at 2:19 AM
If you care about large, durable, system-level reductions in car use, excepting the very few high density cities that developed before zoning in the early 20th century, the only path that will ever work at scale is major land use zoning reform.
New Road Sign 😊
November 19, 2025 at 9:45 AM
New Road Sign 😊
The bogeyman is looking at us in the mirror on housing affordability
November 17, 2025 at 3:40 AM
The bogeyman is looking at us in the mirror on housing affordability
It’s to distract them from a system that denies the dignity the housing affordability given the Boomers by the Greatest Generation in 1970. Can you blame them?
November 17, 2025 at 1:31 AM
It’s to distract them from a system that denies the dignity the housing affordability given the Boomers by the Greatest Generation in 1970. Can you blame them?
Not many votes but wisdom prevails
November 16, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Not many votes but wisdom prevails
Our 6:1 housing multipliers are designed so that 40% of Americans, mostly older, already-housed owners win big, while everyone else pays for it.
A sane 3:1 system would flip that: roughly three-quarters of the country would be better off, including almost every worker under 50 and every renter.
A sane 3:1 system would flip that: roughly three-quarters of the country would be better off, including almost every worker under 50 and every renter.
November 15, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Our 6:1 housing multipliers are designed so that 40% of Americans, mostly older, already-housed owners win big, while everyone else pays for it.
A sane 3:1 system would flip that: roughly three-quarters of the country would be better off, including almost every worker under 50 and every renter.
A sane 3:1 system would flip that: roughly three-quarters of the country would be better off, including almost every worker under 50 and every renter.
In 1977, the U.S. median home cost about 2.8× the median wage; by 2023, it’s roughly 6.5×.
As wages rose to $75K, housing costs rose far faster to nearly $500K, decoupling of shelter from labor income. The “dream” of owning a home through steady work, now requires dual earners or inherited capital.
As wages rose to $75K, housing costs rose far faster to nearly $500K, decoupling of shelter from labor income. The “dream” of owning a home through steady work, now requires dual earners or inherited capital.
November 9, 2025 at 3:11 PM
In 1977, the U.S. median home cost about 2.8× the median wage; by 2023, it’s roughly 6.5×.
As wages rose to $75K, housing costs rose far faster to nearly $500K, decoupling of shelter from labor income. The “dream” of owning a home through steady work, now requires dual earners or inherited capital.
As wages rose to $75K, housing costs rose far faster to nearly $500K, decoupling of shelter from labor income. The “dream” of owning a home through steady work, now requires dual earners or inherited capital.
Housing abundance is letting a homeowner put an apartment above their garage, an apartment in her house, allowing ADUs by right, making the duplex the by right base in some districts, allowing multifamily housing by right near transit. What is being “removed” other than unnecessary restrictions ?
November 7, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Housing abundance is letting a homeowner put an apartment above their garage, an apartment in her house, allowing ADUs by right, making the duplex the by right base in some districts, allowing multifamily housing by right near transit. What is being “removed” other than unnecessary restrictions ?
Housing scarcity and high multipliers make up
arguably the single most fundamental political issue in America today. It’s just disguised and reframed as separate discrete crises: affordability, inequality, stagnation, crime, homelessness, polarization, culture wars
#BackTo3
arguably the single most fundamental political issue in America today. It’s just disguised and reframed as separate discrete crises: affordability, inequality, stagnation, crime, homelessness, polarization, culture wars
#BackTo3
November 1, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Housing scarcity and high multipliers make up
arguably the single most fundamental political issue in America today. It’s just disguised and reframed as separate discrete crises: affordability, inequality, stagnation, crime, homelessness, polarization, culture wars
#BackTo3
arguably the single most fundamental political issue in America today. It’s just disguised and reframed as separate discrete crises: affordability, inequality, stagnation, crime, homelessness, polarization, culture wars
#BackTo3
That giant sucking sound Ross Perot went on about in 1992 is actually setup over America quietly sucking money out of local economies nationally. The higher the multiplier, the more money is getting extracted out of pocketsIt’s mostly not oligarchs but localigarchs.
eml.berkeley.edu/~moretti/gro...
eml.berkeley.edu/~moretti/gro...
October 26, 2025 at 1:09 PM
That giant sucking sound Ross Perot went on about in 1992 is actually setup over America quietly sucking money out of local economies nationally. The higher the multiplier, the more money is getting extracted out of pocketsIt’s mostly not oligarchs but localigarchs.
eml.berkeley.edu/~moretti/gro...
eml.berkeley.edu/~moretti/gro...
You can also bring bike infrastructure to the edges of commercial area with good bike parking like they do often in Netherlands and Copenhagen. An extra 30 seconds or a minute on a quieter route should be considered if it’s nearly as convenient and a route more would use
October 26, 2025 at 12:18 PM
You can also bring bike infrastructure to the edges of commercial area with good bike parking like they do often in Netherlands and Copenhagen. An extra 30 seconds or a minute on a quieter route should be considered if it’s nearly as convenient and a route more would use
Loved it but you need to connect need for cars to zoning and affordability clearly.
October 23, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Loved it but you need to connect need for cars to zoning and affordability clearly.
Once upon a time America was built on upward mobility and shared opportunity. Our housing was plentiful. Over the last 50 years we have instead become master builders of regulated cartels of scarcity with lawyers at the ready.
October 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Once upon a time America was built on upward mobility and shared opportunity. Our housing was plentiful. Over the last 50 years we have instead become master builders of regulated cartels of scarcity with lawyers at the ready.
Maybe regional by right zoning floors make sense
October 19, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Maybe regional by right zoning floors make sense
Wall Street’s interest in housing follows multipliers. Once p/i move to 5×+, the transition from local good to a financial asset comes. Turn the clock back & give our kids and grandkids the market the boomers were gifted. Gov’t housing and rent caps will not lower market housing costs.
#BackTo3
#BackTo3
October 18, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Wall Street’s interest in housing follows multipliers. Once p/i move to 5×+, the transition from local good to a financial asset comes. Turn the clock back & give our kids and grandkids the market the boomers were gifted. Gov’t housing and rent caps will not lower market housing costs.
#BackTo3
#BackTo3
Zoning vs no zoning
October 3, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Zoning vs no zoning
needed more characters....
September 28, 2025 at 8:26 PM
needed more characters....
As it gets darker earlier - people need be more careful walking, biking and especially driving. Slow down, be seen and use care.
Halloween sees more fatalities of people (kids!) walking than any other day. See link, a resource from Norway where they see much more darkness in winter. rb.gy/ggnm0z
Halloween sees more fatalities of people (kids!) walking than any other day. See link, a resource from Norway where they see much more darkness in winter. rb.gy/ggnm0z
September 27, 2025 at 11:31 PM
As it gets darker earlier - people need be more careful walking, biking and especially driving. Slow down, be seen and use care.
Halloween sees more fatalities of people (kids!) walking than any other day. See link, a resource from Norway where they see much more darkness in winter. rb.gy/ggnm0z
Halloween sees more fatalities of people (kids!) walking than any other day. See link, a resource from Norway where they see much more darkness in winter. rb.gy/ggnm0z
How any true progressive won’t speak to the need for an incremental return to 3:1 housing multipliers the Boomers were gifted with when first buying and that existed for most of the 20th century. It does need to be at the state level… locals will never do it in their own. Progressives blind spot.
September 27, 2025 at 7:39 PM
How any true progressive won’t speak to the need for an incremental return to 3:1 housing multipliers the Boomers were gifted with when first buying and that existed for most of the 20th century. It does need to be at the state level… locals will never do it in their own. Progressives blind spot.