Madrid tripled the length of its metro system in just 12 years, faster and cheaper than almost any other city in the world.

Left: in 1994
Right: after 2007

Cost per mile: £64–91 million

(around 7x cheaper than London's Jubilee & Northern line expansions & 14x cheaper than Toronto's Ontario line)

I'm thankful for all the cool people all over the world working to build better cities. 👍🦃

In this working paper that was published today, Matthew Maltman and I review some of the economic evidence on the effects of ✨upzoning✨in Auckland in 2016.

tldr: We find remarkably robust evidence that upzoning led to more housing and lower rents in Auckland. Wow!
www.motu.nz/our-research...

Of the 10 of us in my main 'University of Auckland friends' group chat, only two will be living in New Zealand next year (both in public-sector jobs). The human capital flight from NZ is unbelievable

Brutalism is tight but we need to be lairmaxxing in 1980s-90s High Tech buildings.

Every day in Tallinn now is colder than the coldest day I ever experienced during a New Zealand winter. It snowed this morning.

It is such an indictment of NZ's housing stock that I can sit in my apartment in shorts - something that was never possible in the house I grew up in

Building off my AusCities feed, I've put together a starter pack of urban thinkers, advocates and journalists across Australia and New Zealand.

Daytrip to Helsinki. I am going into the lucrative Christmas lights business

I live in a six storey apartment block with ground floor retail, a housing typology that is essentially nonexistent in New Zealand and still difficult to build cheaply

I know they're passé, but I'm a single issue voter on building The Tunnel

Great video from Josh Chapman, a Kiwi Builder, about why infill housing is important and why he builds it. 🏠

Thanks for sharing Coalition for More Homes. Source; X

youtu.be/ky8zguKcq-k

AU/NZ suggestions: me, @grugstan.bsky.social @jonobri.bsky.social @pleasedontatme.bsky.social @abundanthousing.org.au @greatercanberra.org.au @sydney.yimby.au @yimbymelbourne.bsky.social @greaterbrisbane.bsky.social @oscarsims.bsky.social, @urbanistfromwhk.bsky.social @greater-otautahi.bsky.social

Kia ora! I created a starter pack to help those new to Bluesky find our local urbanists!
go.bsky.app/nsUdi6

tram post, please ignore