Paul Joice

English survey flyer

Spanish survey flyer

How can Chicago be more transparent, equitable, and effective when it comes to speed cameras? Where should the revenue go? Take the Equity in Enforcement Working Group’s Community Priority Survey and weigh in on 20 draft reform recommendations. Survey open until 8/25. bit.ly/ASE-survey

And yeah, I think that the DOGE folks at agencies kind of had unilateral decision making authority in a way that's kind of scary because they both had the we should come into government and do common sense things mindset without realizing that the most common sense things are actually the hardest to accomplish for very specific reasons.

Coding interviews from people who left government earlier this year, and this is a fantastic quote in response to a question about what DOGE tech folk don't understand.

1. Twenty-five years ago, the Chicago Housing Authority launched the Plan for Transformation, a 10-year strategy to demolish, rebuild, or rehabilitate 25,000 public housing apartments across the city.

Hanging out at a*real beach* in *Chicago* where the air temp is 78 and the water temp is 72. 😎

Senate Banking Committee unanimously approved the ROAD to Housing Act yesterday. Incredible. It has a lot of good and important ideas. But it's going to be a huge implementation challenge for HUD, having just shed 1/3 of our staff (mostly very capable, experienced staff).

Vital City | Is Modular Part of New York’s Housing Solution? Cara Eckholm discusses how innovative construction techniques can cut costs — and what their limitations are.

Fantastic discussion on the ever-elusive holy grail of construction productivity, off-site construction. We need scale and cooperative local govt for this to work, but it could do so much to address the housing crisis.

www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/is-...

In case you're wondering how big of a deal this is, it applies to almost any parcel in a "transit-served" location. And that includes most of the city!

“The main, gigantic elephant in the room is that a 36-story high-rise does not belong in Old Town,” said Gene Murphy, the attorney representing the condo association.

A ludicrous statement, given that the people suing live half a block away, in a tower that has 42 stories!

Lol, shout out to my wife, the voice of reason!

4-flats are starter homes. Triple-deckers are starter homes. Duplexes and townhouses are starter homes. Condos are starter homes (yes, even “luxury” condos). Legalize them all, everywhere.

There's so much more the city could do. I live in a 4-flat. It was an affordable entry point to homeownership and we love it. But it's 130 years old. We should legalize them citywide and build more new ones!

I don't know much about the Marcey project, but I do know that one alderman shouldn't block a development that meets the city's goals for affordable housing and will have broad benefits for the city as a whole.

Parking requirements make new housing more expensive and prevent some projects from getting built. We should get rid of them citywide, but doing it near transit is a good start. If people want to pay for parking, developers will build it. No more arbitrary city requirements.

Allowing ADUs citywide is a modest proposal. It probably won't produce a ton of units, but that also means it won't transform single family neighborhoods, as some fear. This would be great for families like mine, with young kids and aging grandparents ("granny flat").

Building creates economic activity and tax revenue. It directly increases property value/taxes, which reduces the burden on everyone else.

Building more housing, of any kind, improves affordability. Some people doubt this. I don't know any credible expert who does. On its own, it's not enough, but it helps.

Chicago has a growing housing affordability crisis and budget crisis. We can make progress on both fronts, without spending a dime of public funds, by making it easier to build more housing.

I'm planning to attend my first Chicago City Council committee meeting tomorrow (zoning) in support of 1) allowing ADUs citywide, 2) eliminating minimum parking requirements near transit, and 3) anything else that gets housing built, like the proposed Marcey development.

I thought IZ was pretty great 10-15 years ago, if paired with upzoning to increase # of units, developer profit, and make the cross subsidy work. One reason it's less appealing now is bc of how far the Overton window has shifted on zoning reform.

Show up for Broadway upzoning at Chicago Zoning Committee Come to the Chicago Zoning Committee meeting to support allowing more housing through proactive upzoning along Broadway

ADUs, Broadway, Marcey, oh my! 🏘️

The July 15th Zoning Committee meeting is shaping up to be a big one for abundant housing in Chicago, and we need your support!

If you're interested in giving public comment in person at City Hall, please RSVP today!

www.eventbrite.com/e/show-up-fo...

This whole thread is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

Support ADUs citywide in Chicago What's going on? Currently, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are only legal in five pilot areas in Chicago, which were established May 1, 2022. Since the pilot areas were established, 106 permits…

the results of this ADU support petition will be given to the Chicago zoning committee on Monday morning, so sign it and ask three fellow Chicagoans to sign it by Sunday night. #AccessoryDwellingUnits #BuildMoreHomes

"We think we should always err on the side of more housing. ... If we increase the supply of housing, we’re going to lower the cost, and ADUs is one way to do it with the land we already have.” 💯🏘️

How to make social housing work in Chicago, part 1 Explaining our new affordable housing tool

Last but not least, another great City that Works 2-part piece from Bo McMillan about social housing and how to make it work in Chicago. (It will be hard!) I learned a lot from this! citythatworks.substack.com/p/how-to-mak...

Richard also does a great job of summarizing the strengths and challenges of the voucher program, drawing on a lot of HUD-funded research I've been involved with. The latest NYU work, showing success rates near 50%, is very alarming.

It takes 130 days to use a Chicago Housing Authority voucher If you’re lucky.

Daniel points out that capital subsidies help rental subsidies stretch farther. @rsday.bsky.social makes a similar point about housing supply in this great piece on vouchers in Chicago. Lower rents -> lower subsidy per unit -> more people get subsidies. citythatworks.substack.com/p/it-takes-1...

Interesting that Daniel calls out European housing *allowances*. Not just semantics, there's a big difference between allowances and vouchers! I should write a book about it. 😉

... and if they go out of business or lose the property to foreclosure, that just means someone else will end up with a property that they can't afford to maintain. We need to reduce prop taxes (land tax, please!?) or insurance, or find more efficient maintenance practices.

This part really grabbed my attention. It's incredible (and I think correct, though I'd like to see a detailed budget) that operating costs alone are so expensive. We need to grapple with this. In a YIMBY utopia, private landlords at the low end of the market will feel this same pressure...

Some great Chicago-focused housing content in the past week or so! First, this great piece by @danielkayhertz.bsky.social about capital subsidies and rental subsidies for affordable housing. Presents a compelling case for why we need both.
daniel-kay-hertz.ghost.io/how-to-get-d...