Anika Singh Lemar

Anika Singh Lemar

@anikasinghlemar.bsky.social

Some of my thoughts on what community development means and my affection for New Haven here: https://bit.ly/3AawrCb

408 Followers 653 Following 145 Posts Joined Jul 2023
1 day ago

Having eminent domain'ed the land, a town is then under no obligation to build any actual housing so long as it pays an additionnal small fee eight years later.

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1 day ago

At the time a property owner files a zoning application for multifamily housing, they've secured site control and they've spent tens, more likely hundreds, of thousands of dollars on predevelopment. This bill would allow the municipality to force a sale at just 102% of land value.

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1 day ago

Self-described property rights advocates in Connecticut want to give every local government an automatic option to purchase private property if its owner has the gall to propose building affordable housing on its own land. cga.ct.gov/2026/TOB/H/P...

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1 month ago
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How the men in the Epstein files defeated #MeToo The emails show the “anti-woke” crusaders are afraid of accountability.

I wrote about the Epstein files (gift link) www.theverge.com/tech/874721/...

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1 month ago
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The hidden double standards driving our housing crisis Apartments are safer and more affordable than single-family homes. Why do we treat them like a hazard?

Apartments are safer and more affordable than single-family homes. Why do we treat them like a hazard? www.vox.com/future-perfe...

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2 months ago

feeling a little bit too seen, @rolandlemar.bsky.social

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2 months ago
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David Rafferty (opinion): More housing is just Greenwich changing with the times 'People want to live in Greenwich and we should have more options for entry-level and retirement-age buyers and renters,' columnist David Rafferty writes.

"Here’s what I don’t get. The collective gnashing of teeth over the construction of developer-initiated housing in town."

Preach, Greenwich.

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3 months ago
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The ROAD to More Federal Control: How Congress Is Misdiagnosing America’s Housing Problems Overall, it is unlikely that the policies in the ROAD to Housing Act will satisfy many critics of federal housing policy over the past few decades.

I assume this is the sortof thing that (temporarily, one hopes?) derailed Tim Scott's bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act. A nominally libertarian organization questioning the relationship between supply and demand. www.cato.org/briefing-pap...

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3 months ago
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A Wall Divides a Connecticut Town (Published 2019)

In any event, any talk of aesthetics-driven NIMBYism requires a shout out to Connecticut's own Arnold Karp: “I’ve driven by a lot of these peoples’ homes,” he said. “How do I say it? I don’t think they’re the arbiters of design in New Canaan.” www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/r...

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3 months ago
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A Wall Divides a Connecticut Town (Published 2019)

In any event, any talk of aesthetics-driven NIMBYism requires a shout out to Connecticut's own Arnold Karp: “I’ve driven by a lot of these peoples’ homes,” he said. “How do I say it? I don’t think they’re the arbiters of design in New Canaan.” www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/r...

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3 months ago

Idk, I am pretty sure that thinking it's your business whether someone else's house is ugly is NIMBYism.

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3 months ago

parts of it are good but any author who ends a book by suggesting that you can "solve" New Haven by Yale starting a center is deeply misguided and misinformed. plus there are two "other sides" of propsect and you wouldn't know it from the author's leering gare from the $$$$ side to his "other side"

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4 months ago
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Amid housing shortage, CT spends millions managing homelessness other ways Amid a housing shortage, Connecticut is spending millions managing homelessness through foster care, jails and ERs. Lawmakers say the issue can be solved.

gift link: Amid housing shortage, CT spends millions managing homelessness other ways

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4 months ago

Restaurant owners excited to serve more customers, public high school principals who see what their housing insecure students face, renters who would like to continue to live here, and homeowners who want even more people to enjoy the City we love: this is New Haven.

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4 months ago

I am reading the written testimony in support of Downtown for All, an upzoning of downtown New Haven supported by all three of its city council people and, yay, New Haven, honestly, your (our!) idealism and hospitality and just basic desire to make life better are so needed here in Connecticut.

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5 months ago
Connecticut housing crisis persists as Governor Lamont vetoes reform bill A law that would have encouraged new housing in Connecticut failed after local opponents mounted a campaign, leaving many advocates frustrated.

"Why can't blue states build housing?" asks USA Today in an article about Lamont's veto of 5002.

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5 months ago

The idea that there are talented and gifted 4 and 5 year olds is bonkers. Nothing makes people crazier than becoming parents.

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5 months ago

Justice Kavanaugh: “If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully
in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

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5 months ago

Thankfully this conversation is live and evolving, in part because thanks to YIMBY legislative wins, they are now forced to move some of their fights into the courtroom. Was really glad to be part of these conversations @yimbytown.bsky.social over the last couple of days.

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5 months ago

There is a real conversation to be had about YIMBYism and race and it's not that "the vibes are off." It's that it's taken YIMBYs a minute to connect their work to the racial justice movement that understood exclusionary zoning as a problem 75 years ago, decades before YIMBYs came to it.

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5 months ago

"The capacity of government to deliver is really important for all the flavors of abundance." Stephanie Pollack speaking to @yimbytown.bsky.social

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5 months ago
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Homelessness rises in CT as federal funding remains in flux There were 3,735 people living in shelters or outside in CT in January 2025, compared to 3,410 in January 2024. That’s nearly a 10% increase.

The good news here is that the governor knows there's a crisis and is laser-focused on getting a housing bill passed that will start to take on some of these systemic issues.

right?

Homelessness rises in CT as federal funding remains in flux ctmirror.org/2025/09/11/c...

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5 months ago

Also made a plug for local public day care. #yimbytown

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5 months ago

Unexpectedly, North Dakota Gov Kelly Armstrong just told @yimbytown.bsky.social to advocate for forming state banks to finance affordable housing.

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5 months ago

Great panel, depressing (though not surprising coming from New Eng) to hear that MBTA communities is dampening legislators' willingness to do more rather than inspiring them to iterate and continue progress. This is my fear here in CT.

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5 months ago

Yep, I am in a standing only room, at a session on building codes, @yimbytown.bsky.social. No one call the fire marshal, please.

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5 months ago

Love hearing from @billmckibben.bsky.social talking to @yimbytown.bsky.social about how it takes months to install solar panels in the US rather than days in Europe, Australia...15,000 America. municipalities, each with its own regulations and inspectors... sounds familiar!

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5 months ago

Like 150 people just booed and hissed Ned Lamont, pretty sure most of them had no idea who he was six hours ago. Totally well deserved. @yimbytown.bsky.social #yimbytown

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5 months ago

Zoning receivership is a phrase I have never heard before. Like it. @yimbytown.bsky.social #yimbytown

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5 months ago

Hearing from a Montana community land trust, originally focused on low and moderate-income households, that got YIMBY-pilled when they started getting pressure to build subsidized housing for families at 200% of median income. Sounds very familiar here in CT. #yimbytown @yimbytown.bsky.social

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