Matt Edens
@scruffycities.bsky.social
Downtown dweller. True crime writer. Transplanted Tennessean.
Just when you thought the week couldn't get any weirder:
big bugs bunny getting elmer fudd to marry him vibes in the white house currently i see
November 21, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Just when you thought the week couldn't get any weirder:
"In moments of stress — rising rents, political polarization, shifting cultural values — the figure of the “transplant” becomes a convenient target. It allows people to express frustration with change without confronting what’s actually driving it."
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Who Made Mamdani Mayor?
Stop obsessing about transplants; it was the whole city. Anyway, transplants are people too!
substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:06 PM
"In moments of stress — rising rents, political polarization, shifting cultural values — the figure of the “transplant” becomes a convenient target. It allows people to express frustration with change without confronting what’s actually driving it."
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by Matt Edens
I agree that most Americans want a detached single-family house in the abstract, but current policy that skews development toward this one type suffer. Under current policy, people have to pay a premium for walkability and density, holding house size constant: www.mercatus.org/research/res...
November 19, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I agree that most Americans want a detached single-family house in the abstract, but current policy that skews development toward this one type suffer. Under current policy, people have to pay a premium for walkability and density, holding house size constant: www.mercatus.org/research/res...
Metaphor alert:
President Trump walking past the flag at the Whitehouse which has fallen to the ground
November 18, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Metaphor alert:
"I shared your concern about the nasty nature of some of the online comments made by readers..." says the guy who regularly accused me of being "on the developer's payroll."
www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/lett...
www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/lett...
Online comments promoted community discussion
I was a customer of your paper for 40-plus years, writing many letters to the editor and commenting on issues of the day.
www.fredericknewspost.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:36 PM
"I shared your concern about the nasty nature of some of the online comments made by readers..." says the guy who regularly accused me of being "on the developer's payroll."
www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/lett...
www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/lett...
If I had a dollar for every time someone said I was on the developer's payroll I could actually make money off housing advocacy.
Some thoughts on the rarely-explicitly-articulated idea that favoring new housing/development in your community makes you a bad neighbor, a traitor, or sort of by definition not a real member of the community at all thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/hi-its-the...
Hi, It's "They," We're The Problem
Living in a place does not require that you gatekeep it
thedeletedscenes.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:31 PM
If I had a dollar for every time someone said I was on the developer's payroll I could actually make money off housing advocacy.
Reposted by Matt Edens
It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points
November 7, 2025 at 12:02 PM
It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points
People love to hate 'em, but: "the Five-Over-One is the workhorse of dense, walkable, affordable market-rate housing."
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
In Defense of Five-Over-Ones
The Workhorse Solution to Our Housing Shortage
substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:43 PM
People love to hate 'em, but: "the Five-Over-One is the workhorse of dense, walkable, affordable market-rate housing."
substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com/home/post/p-...
"If we redevelop just 20 percent of the country’s underutilized commercial corridors to mixed-use sites with ten housing units per acre, we could add more than one million homes."
"First, residential development should be allowed by-right in commercial zones.... If a site is already zoned for commercial use and has basic infrastructure like water and sewer connections and it’s all up to fire code and safety regulations, housing should simply be permitted."
How to Take Mixed-Use Zoning From Cool Concept to Reality
It’s Residential in Commercial
www.therebuild.pub
November 6, 2025 at 3:11 PM
"If we redevelop just 20 percent of the country’s underutilized commercial corridors to mixed-use sites with ten housing units per acre, we could add more than one million homes."
Reposted by Matt Edens
Contrary to the article, "The old hippie with a pottery kiln in her basement" is still in Tacoma - and she shows up at every planning commission meeting to bitch about new development....
Zoning doesn't shape our buildings, it shapes our culture. When you can only build one big house per lot, you get only people who can afford one big house per lot.
A quirky Takoma Park needs quirky zoning
View this post on ggwash.org
ggwash.org
November 4, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Contrary to the article, "The old hippie with a pottery kiln in her basement" is still in Tacoma - and she shows up at every planning commission meeting to bitch about new development....
Reposted by Matt Edens
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess...”
Per Danny Kemp via press pool
Trump is at the Halloween party at MAL
“Official theme is Gatsby and ‘a little party never killed nobody’, we’re told.”
Trump is at the Halloween party at MAL
“Official theme is Gatsby and ‘a little party never killed nobody’, we’re told.”
November 1, 2025 at 3:09 AM
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess...”
This is the way...
Everybody's talking about Dem strategy, so here's something to add to the mix.
I start with this premise: The best and most reliable indicator of whether someone will vote red or blue is the density of the place they live. More dense, more likely to be blue, & vice versa.
I start with this premise: The best and most reliable indicator of whether someone will vote red or blue is the density of the place they live. More dense, more likely to be blue, & vice versa.
October 29, 2025 at 9:23 PM
This is the way...
"When we optimize places for cars, they end up not working well (or working at all) for any other mode. They become car-only places..."
postsuburban.substack.com/p/the-geomet...
postsuburban.substack.com/p/the-geomet...
The Geometry Problem
Suburbia doesn't scale
postsuburban.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 3:17 PM
"When we optimize places for cars, they end up not working well (or working at all) for any other mode. They become car-only places..."
postsuburban.substack.com/p/the-geomet...
postsuburban.substack.com/p/the-geomet...
Remember when Cracker Barrel changed their logo and a bunch of people got mad?
October 22, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Remember when Cracker Barrel changed their logo and a bunch of people got mad?
Nazis vs. NIMBYs:
Gotta hand it to the NIMBYs on this one www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/u...
To Fight ICE, Portland’s Leaders Turn to What They Know Best: Zoning
www.nytimes.com
October 20, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Nazis vs. NIMBYs:
Reposted by Matt Edens
You know what’s one of the great things about the No Kings protests today?
No one is going to storm the U.S. Capitol.
No one is going to storm the U.S. Capitol.
October 18, 2025 at 2:14 PM
You know what’s one of the great things about the No Kings protests today?
No one is going to storm the U.S. Capitol.
No one is going to storm the U.S. Capitol.
America's land use pattern underpins a lot of problems:
"Curbside car rentals thrive in dense, walkable cities where residents don’t already own cars and where demand is steady within a few blocks... "
millennialdream.substack.com/p/the-failur...
"Curbside car rentals thrive in dense, walkable cities where residents don’t already own cars and where demand is steady within a few blocks... "
millennialdream.substack.com/p/the-failur...
The Failure of Curbside Car Rentals
Why this Business Model fails again and again in the US
millennialdream.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:30 PM
America's land use pattern underpins a lot of problems:
"Curbside car rentals thrive in dense, walkable cities where residents don’t already own cars and where demand is steady within a few blocks... "
millennialdream.substack.com/p/the-failur...
"Curbside car rentals thrive in dense, walkable cities where residents don’t already own cars and where demand is steady within a few blocks... "
millennialdream.substack.com/p/the-failur...
Reposted by Matt Edens
So for-profit AI companies have trained on the world's largest collaborative volunteer project and a precious free resource, to make money for their for-profit enterprises. They have crushed traffic to the volunteer project, starving it of donors and volunteers
www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors
“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”
www.404media.co
October 17, 2025 at 2:28 PM
So for-profit AI companies have trained on the world's largest collaborative volunteer project and a precious free resource, to make money for their for-profit enterprises. They have crushed traffic to the volunteer project, starving it of donors and volunteers
www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
Pardon me?
Mike Johnson: "They berated a Capitol police officer, screamed at him. He was merely standing his post. It shows, again, their disdain for law enforcement, the Democrats, screaming, assaulting officers."
October 15, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Pardon me?
Reposted by Matt Edens
At the Planning Commission meeting for the Galleria and a couple commissioners got uptight about the parking requirements for the restaurant space - one parking space per four seats in the dining room "wasn't realistic."
We're talking downtown mixed-use project, not an Applebees at the mall.
We're talking downtown mixed-use project, not an Applebees at the mall.
October 13, 2025 at 11:39 PM
At the Planning Commission meeting for the Galleria and a couple commissioners got uptight about the parking requirements for the restaurant space - one parking space per four seats in the dining room "wasn't realistic."
We're talking downtown mixed-use project, not an Applebees at the mall.
We're talking downtown mixed-use project, not an Applebees at the mall.
ICE isn't just upending lives in Portland, Chicago, LA and DC.
Every small victory should be felt in a big way.
This woman's story should be shared nationally. It was a crime to detain her after being victimized for so long.
www.thebanner.com/western-mary...
This woman's story should be shared nationally. It was a crime to detain her after being victimized for so long.
www.thebanner.com/western-mary...
Hagerstown nail salon owner freed after five months in ICE custody
Melissa Tran, a Hagerstown mom and nail salon owner, was freed five months after being detained by ICE and jailed in Washington state. A federal judge ruled that U.S. officials had no basis for prolon...
www.thebanner.com
October 13, 2025 at 5:41 PM
ICE isn't just upending lives in Portland, Chicago, LA and DC.
Reposted by Matt Edens
Is 20% of this building set aside for income-restricted housing?
A Pacific Heights mansion on San Francisco’s Billionaires’ Row sold off market for $42 million, becoming the city’s priciest home of 2025.
San Francisco’s priciest home of 2025 sells off market for $42M on Billionaires’ Row
A Pacific Heights mansion on San Francisco’s Billionaires’ Row sold off market for $42 million, becoming the city’s priciest home of 2025.
bit.ly
October 11, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Is 20% of this building set aside for income-restricted housing?
Reposted by Matt Edens
cry havoc and let slip the frogs of war
October 11, 2025 at 12:32 AM
cry havoc and let slip the frogs of war