M. Nolan Gray 🥑

The new Delta LAX terminal (Terminal 3) is a real master class in poor airport design and sonic programming. I've noticed they've turned down the Top 40 a bit, which is nice, but there are still no tables with plugs near gates, and gate announcements nearly always blur together.

I'd flag, LLA is a sesame seed bagel, and not even that really. Projects must include workforce housing, but it's funded via a property tax abatement.

None that I've seen, just dozens of anecdotes about hundreds of projects from my Florida network.

California ADU Reform: A Retrospective - California YIMBY Dive into in-depth research reports commissioned by the California YIMBY Education Fund on housing policy, advocacy, and legislation.

In 2016, state legislators fed up with local "solutions" set up a statewide framework for ADUs. Did it take time for planners/builders/financiers/homeowners to figure it out? Yes. But guess what? State law made figuring it out non-negotiable and now we have 100,000+ ADUs.
cayimby.org/reports/cali...

We don't have to speculate as to who's right. In 1982, California adopted Strong Towns' preferred approach on ADUs. Cities were asked to plan for them, but in any way they liked, and if they really didn't like ADUs, they didn't have to allow ADUs. What did that get us? 40+ years of no ADUS.

"Build trust." It's honestly unsettling seeing what was once a subversive, outsider organization debase itself with planning consultant blather, and in service of a message opposing the state reforms that force cities to plan seriously for ADUs in the first place.
bsky.app/profile/stro...

This article was just lying to you. California builds 25,000 ADUs per year because of state preemption. There are tens of thousands of homes built with state ministerial streamlining. There are now *hundreds of thousands* of homes that would not otherwise exist because of state preemption.

This is completely off the mark. Everyone knows about the success of e.g. California state-level ADU and parking reforms, so I'll give another: Florida's state-level Live Local Act has probably facilitated around 100,000 new residential units in commercial areas by this point.

Individual problems with the building code are symptoms of the problem. We need institutional reforms to how building codes are written and adopted.

Locals report a lot of grumbling about these, but yes, clearly not enough of a revolt to roll back the policy.

They allow single stair buildings though! We toured a few point access blocks. My sense is that a big issue is that it's an extremely small market that hasn't build multifamily at scale basically ever.

A testament to New Zealand virtue: I left my bag at an event last night, and came back to retrieve it untampered with! Nobody stole "The Venezuela-Guyana Border Dispute: Britain's Colonial Legacy in Latin America," as tempting as it must have been!

Incidentally, this is the sort of infill development we're trying to encourage in California with SB 684-1123. Builders and planners are already getting excited about it, and even more clean up/expansion may be on the way next session!

If you liberalize zoning, a lot of housing gets built. If a lot of housing gets built, housing costs taper off.

I knew that townhouses were a big part of the Auckland YIMBY success story, but I didn't realize that they're basically the entire story.

The left has a lot of extremely wealthy people who throw money at far dumber causes and candidates than purchasing, endowing, and opening up high status legacy outlets.

Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens

I was going to send this story to a Trumpy relative who knows and likes my immigrant wife (still waiting on a visa) and may change his views based on story, but it is of course paywalled, and this is not a relative who is going to mess with Javascript or Archive.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

There's a weird cognitive dissonance about the importance of traditional media on the center left. On the one hand, my sense is that most Democrats view the mainstream media as an important bulwark against misinformation. On the other hand, they run these institutions and they all paywall them.

Arbitrary Lines by @mnolangray.bsky.social is an engaging and controversial argument against zoning laws.

The Divided City by Alan Mallach offers new insights on racial and economic inequalities in industrial cities.

Get BOTH for just $40 (shipping included!) islandpress.org/2for40

Urbanist Holiday Happy Hour Come meet and have a drink with your fellow Denver Urbanists, and celebrate all our collective achievements this year!

Reminder: Come out Thursday for our Urbanist Holiday Happy Hour and celebrate wins for safer streets, better transit, and more housing. Invite a friend and RSVP at the link so we can plan ahead!
www.eventbrite.com/e/urbanist-h...

The scourge of fentantyl feels like something that is enormously salient with normal people but is only very abstractly an issue for elites, ceding the policy space to fringe actors.

My Spotify Wrapped has essentially become an annual reminder of the music I will be working to until the end of time.

Let Neighborhoods Work: Bans on Home Businesses Are Out of Control | The Daily Economy Building a business out of your garage is a quintessentially American origin story. In many places, it's also against the law.

thedailyeconomy.org/article/home...

Outright zoning bans on home-based businesses are surprisingly common, but even more common are permits and mandates that throw many harmless HBBs into legally ambitious territory.

Three cheers to Flagstaff for––as of a few minutes ago––becoming the first city in Arizona (and maybe the entire southwest?) to legalize fourplexes on every residential lot citywide.

And congrats to Flagstaff for Affordable Housing & @azneighborhood.bsky.social for leading the charge!

Ex-official explained this in a way that will stick with me forever: Within fire departments, the EMTs are overworked and underpaid and don’t have time to advocate for policy. The fire chiefs, on the other hand, have a lot more time on their hands. So fire response, not medical, dictates policy.

Philanthropy Needs to Pick a Side on the Housing Construction Debate Despite California’s severe housing shortage, foundations are still funding on the wrong side of the housing fight there, guest author Ned Resnikoff writes.

"Program officers who oversee grants related to housing should... track the legislation that their major grantees support/oppose, and press grantees to explain themselves when they lobby against pro-housing bills."
www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/philant...

"In the far away Isles of Caliph, the three-eyed locals celebrate Christmas by grilling out. Ho ho!"

"When it's summer in the northern hemisphere, it's winter in the southern hemisphere" feels like the sort of quaint nonsense you would read in a 1532 scholarly tome, except that it's actually true.