Jess Rem

Three towers from Phase 1 of Sen̓áḵw nearing completion pictured from Vanier Park, with the squat "Vancouver Academy of Music" in front

The Three Towers of Phase 1 of Sen̓áḵw nearing completion! senakw.com

Pictured from near the Vancouver Academy of Music in what is now Vanier Park, but what was once yet another part of the old village of Sen̓áḵw and former Kitsilano 6 Reserve.

Nobody said that firing federal workers would be solely responsible for causing a recession. I said it would be one factor contributing to worsening employment, along with tariff volatility, and slashing private-sector jobs through contracts and funding.

80k employees in one industry losing their jobs in one month will obviously noticeably affect monthly employment data. It doesn’t need to meaningfully affect the unemployment rate. That’s not why Trump fired the commissioner, they’re trying to hide any poor performance

I mean you can look at the BLS data. The biggest monthly and YOY job losses have been in industries impacted by tariff volatility (manufacturing, construction) and those impacted by federal job and funding cuts (federal employment, scientific research, consulting).

Not to mentions the tens of thousands of workers who took the severance payout aren’t even included in unemployment numbers yet. Let’s see how the jobs report gets manipulated to ignore this when the money runs out in October

It’s not just the tariffs, Trump has also eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs through all the federal workers, contracts, and funding they slashed. They’ve flooded the job market and crippled hiring for entire industries: scientific research, international development, renewables, contracting

Back To Basics On Small Towns And Urbanity Americans really do love cities, but don't have the language for it

"Old Town Alexandria, historic Savannah, historic Annapolis—these 'cities' are built in almost the exact same pattern as American 'small towns.'" Cities and towns are different intensities and sizes of traditional urbanism. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/back-to-ba...

I trained my facebook algorithm to only show me insane skyscraper parkour so that I wouldn't watch it but I became numb to the danger and started leaving comments like "me and my friends are 13 and we do this for hours. We may die but we are the new generation" and now I get dozens of angry replies

flagging a correction to this: Florida's housing development overall *is* very similar to arizona and texas, but i misspoke about Miami specifically. Miami has also been building quite a lot per capita (but not as much as the star cities in the article)

Looking at the suburbs that have significantly densified would be an interesting next project

Jersey City absolutely deserves a shoutout too! I didnt include it in the chart since the pattern isnt as clear on a state level. But it's building nearly as much per capita as seattle, dc, and atlanta, while also being much denser.

bsky.app/profile/matt...

It's national density ranks, which explains why, say, so little of Texas' development is happening in "downtowns", even though Austin is one of the fastest-growing metros in the country. Most of their 'downtown' homebuilding has been in relatively sparser neighborhoods by national standards

hi! I wrote this piece. Florida looks very similar to Arizona and Texas actually, with slightly more greenfield/rural development. Miami is, perhaps surprisingly, not much better than NYC when it comes to per capita new home development

Incredibly amazing post by @jessrem.bsky.social with an important point about American housing—NY/CA build nothing, TX/AZ sprawl, but only a few American cities like Seattle, Atlanta, & DC are actually building lots of new dense housing in their core neighborhoods

Not Just Suburban Sprawl — Dense Places Can Still Build Learning from DC and other Downtowns

substack.com/home/post/p-...

pretty incredible that some cities are building as much per capita in their downtowns as the suburbs of texas, florida, and arizona. seattle and atlanta lets gooooo

(credit to Dennis)

We need Populism in the streets but Abundance in the sheets

The political theory behind IRA was roughly as follows: We have lost control of the information landscape and can no longer win rhetorical or purely political battles; however, if we make substantive policy progress that directly touches voters' lives, they will notice and reward us.

For sure, it’s a nitpick with the headline writers. they are contributing to the misunderstanding a lot of people have where they don’t believe mom-and-pop landlords qualify as investors

Sure but people renting out houses are still using them as investments. You don’t need to be a corporation to be an investor

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are trying to use their “budget” to actually strip courts of their ability to enforce contempt citations for violating orders or injunctions. Basically eliminating the fundamental tool, potentially making many future rulings meaningless.

What’s the German word for equal parts anger and respect. I admire that you sew these but I’m mad I can’t buy them myself 😭

legitimately sad that NIMBYs have managed to turn parents who sacrifice and strive to get their kids a better education into the villains of their narrative

When I was in high school my dad moved us to an apartment in a development that was built to fulfill Princeton’s Mt Laurel obligations. We moved so I could attend the excellent public schools. This seemed to be common, as a bunch of my neighbors were also classmates.

I think the story of media, particularly online media, in the last couple decades is basically “market becomes more efficient, society realizes inefficiency was load bearing ”

Thanks Luca 🎉