Ed Mendoza

Missing in the middle of WA's middle housing: Elevators A bill still in play in the Washington Legislature would make elevators easier and less expensive to install in "middle housing" developments.

R U #elevator pilled yet?

Cecelia Black:
"I have navigated the housing market from a wheelchair...in 15 yrs as a renter, I never found an accessible apt in a bldg w/ fewer than 6 stories" It's no oincidence; it’s a design failure of WA’s codes" Attn: #WAleg
www.seattletimes.com/opinion/miss...

High-End Construction Really Does Help Everyone A new rung at the top of the housing ladder permits people lower down to climb up.

new from me: a story about VACANCY CHAINS, the idea that underlies the argument that more housing is good even if you can't afford it www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

How to identify American fascists as stated by our own US government in March of 1945.

How an American Dream of Housing Became a Reality in Sweden (Published 2024)

Operation Breakthrough, a HUD project in the 1960s, produced some significant advances in prefabricated building construction methods and also exposed the need for building code reform.

Wow - again, if you build separated, protected bike lanes, people will use them. The better and more connected the routes are, the more ridership increases.

A friend in Minneapolis just sent me this video. Looks like thousands have come together for a vigil after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. This was my neighborhood for several years before coming to Portland.

Just an annoying reminder that the unquenchable American thirst for oil, and the conquest and subjugation of other nations in futile attempts to satiate it, is brought to you in large part by our land-use patterns

The Americas see about 3% of global elevator installations as of 2020. The U.S. & Canada: even less.

But we've stuck with our own unique set of elevator codes, as if elevator companies still have no choice but to beat a path to our door.

Nope! "Everywhere else" is a bigger common market now.

Countries that have adopted the International Building Code

😂😂😂🙌🏽🙌🏽

Museum of Jurassic Technology is a true gem!

In many advanced nations that have better fire safety records than the United States and Canada, construction costs per square foot do NOT increase as density increases. If US planners want to make housing more affordable, they should fix our mediocre building codes.

*staring directly into the camera*

Episode 104: Why We Don't Build Condos with Muhammad Alameldin (Incentives Series pt. 7) - UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies Why do many U.S. states build so few condos? Muhammad Alameldin explains the role of construction defect liability laws — and how to fix them.

This week UCLA Housing Voice is joined by @muhammadspeaks.bsky.social to talk about construction defect liability, a consumer protection law that can create big barriers to condo development, taking one of the most affordable ownership options off the market.
www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/12/17/1...

Ein Neubau nach altem Muster | Espazium Das Wohnhaus «deux chevaux» von kollektive architekt im Basler Lysbüchel-Quartier beschränkt sich auf das Wesentliche: Kompakte Wohnungen, vielseitiges Raumprogramm und gemeinschaftliche Flächen schaf...

the compactness of point access blocks means that even on tiny sites, you can fit affordable family-sized homes with daylight on multiple sides and ability to cross ventilate.

www.espazium.ch/de/aktuelles...

You can look at all the finalists for the National Single-Stair Competition's Austin Award here: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

I'm so fucking tired of so many people being killed in traffic crashes. I'm so fucking tired but I'm also so, so fucking angry.

I use obscene language because what is obscene is over 40,000 people/year dying in preventable crashes in the US, 7,000 or so who are merely walking, and society just 🤷🏻‍♀️

So far, other autonomous vehicle companies don't report or report incomplete data. Waymo, by contrast, published everything I needed to analyze the data: crash statistics with miles driven that allow accurate comparison to human drivers in the same locations.

“In medical research, there’s a practice of ending a study early when the results are too striking to ignore…When an intervention works this clearly, you change what you do.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o... (🎁🔗)

Why the West was downzoned In the space of a few decades, nearly every city in the Western world banned densification. What happened?

Really thorough history.

Why the West was downzoned
www.worksinprogress.news/p/how-the-wo...

“Between 2010 and 2022, structural fires in Berkeley injured an average of 2 people per year, while between just 2017 and 2022, traffic accidents injured or killed an average of 694 people annually.”

Corner Lot Apartments 01 by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Corner Lot Apartments 01 by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer is a 4 - 6 storey shop-top housing or residential flat building. The design places dwellings above a flexible ground floor, which can be used for comm...

new south wales (sydney) govenment's pattern handbook - which fast tracks permitting applications - features 4-7 story single stair buildings

shop-pattern-book.planning.nsw.gov.au/collections/...

NEW PAPER w/ @cselmendorf.bsky.social & @jkalla.bsky.social:

An under-appreciated reason why voters oppose dense new housing, especially in less-dense neighborhoods: they think it looks ugly and want to prevent that, even in other neighborhoods.

Some of what we think is NIMBYism might not be!

The ‘New’ Solution for the N.Y.C. Housing Crisis: Single-Room Apartments

Relegalize SROs. Relegalize single stair buildings to enable larger, family sized homes. Legalize townhomes everywhere. Legalize ADUs everywhere. Legalize apartment buildings in more places. Yes to all the homes.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/n...

They have started to stack at our complex

Single-Stair Reform and People with Disabilities - The Kelsey Single-stair reform can increase housing supply, reduce construction costs, and improve accessibility for people with disabilities. Learn why cities across the U.S. are adopting this approach to creat...

in q&a, the kelsey's allie cannington mentions they are excited about single stair and elevator reform - and mention how it can help get elevators into smaller projects.

wow.

cc @edmendoza.bsky.social @stephenjacobsmith.com @markasaurus.bsky.social

thekelsey.org/learn-center...

🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

Been looking for this building for a long time, glad you found it for me!! haha

our solar costs are significantly higher
our infrastructure costs are significantly higher
our elevator costs are significantly higher
our healthcare costs are significantly higher
our housing costs are significantly higher (for far lower quality)

i wonder if we'll ever address this

Guillermo del Toro quote "...think about wealth for me for example. A wealthy man that has enough..."

"not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite somebody to beer..."

"...you're rich. If you have, whatever-"

"- yachts and planes and islands and you STILL need more? You're not rich."

Guillermo del Toro on wealth: "a wealthy man is a man who has enough, not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite someone for a beer? You're rich. If you have a yacht, planes, islands, and you still need more? You're not rich."