Christian Britschgi

“You say the ICE agent is bleeding internally. Doesn't everyone do that? Usually it's only a problem if the blood’s on the outside”

The year of the starter home Lawmakers across the country are introducing bills that would make it easier to build smaller single-family homes on small lots.

Big year for stater home bills.

Florida’s bill caps min. lot sizes at 1,200 square feet (!) and apply strict scrutiny to zoning laws (!!).

Mass. has a starter home ballot initiative that would cap lot sizes at 5k square feet. Internal polling shows 65% support!

reason.com/2026/01/13/t...

Video shows border patrol threaten legal observer in Key Largo for following him Every federal circuit court that has considered the issue has upheld a First Amendment right to monitor and record the police.

Latest: A Border Patrol officer threatened a legal observer in Key Largo, Florida with arrest today for following him. Exchange captured on video.

I interviewed the observer, too. reason.com/2026/01/12/v...

Link to the tracker: flhousingc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboa...

Florida’s Live Local Act flew under the radar when it passed in 2023. Almost 3 years later, there’s 52,000 Live Local units in the pipeline per Florida Housing Coalition’s tracker. Obvs pipeline units are just that. Even so, that’s got to make it one of the most productive YIMBY bills ever.

The contradictions of supply-side socialism Mamdani promises faster housing construction while backing rent freezes and tenant activism, exposing tensions in supply-side socialism.

I think there's a pretty obvious tension between wanting to encourage more private development and staffing up your administration with communists who despise anyone who makes money off said development reason.com/2026/01/06/t...

My wrist hurts, just because

“The proposed amendments would mandate new S.B. 840 apartments with an outdoor Olympic-sized swimming pool, pedestrian trails, and masonry walls of between eight and 10 feet tall.” 😳

In California, cities like to thwart new housing with affordable housing mandates.

Texas cites thwart new housing with luxury housing mandates.

The result is the same; less construction, higher prices.

The ways that Texas NIMBYs are finding to make apartments more expensive to build are are funnier than what coastal NIMBYs come up with reason.com/2025/10/14/t...

by @christianb.bsky.social

The Constitution does not allow the president to unilaterally blow suspected drug smugglers to smithereens If the Trump administration wants to use military power, it should seek authorization from Congress, says Sen. Rand Paul.

If the Trump administration wants to use military power, it should seek authorization from Congress, says Sen. Rand Paul.

Yes

No

"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break; it can only become stairs. There would never be an 'escalator temporarily out of order' sign, only 'escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'" — Mitch Hedberg

Dinesh D’Souza too

As Reason has consistently covered, most such "middle housing" reforms —whereby single-family-only zoning is replaced by zoning that allows duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes— typically yield at most a few hundred new units in their first years. That's because these reforms only allow a few extra units to be built per property. In some cases, these reforms haven't even allowed for more buildable floor area, meaning a new triplex would have to be no larger than a single-family home it would replace. Often, "missing middle" reforms still retain other rules about setbacks, parking, and impact fees that limit them even further. If a reform only allows a little more housing to be built, one would expect that only a little bit more housing does get built. Low-yielding "middle housing" reforms aren't, therefore, proof of a failure of deregulation. They're a failure to deregulate.

@christianb.bsky.social on whether YIMBYism or post-neoliberalism is needed to get housing built reason.com/2025/08/19/a...

N: Anchorage
E: Guam
W: Oahu
S: Queenstown, NZ

So far there’s been 7 applications for SB 9 projects in the Palisades. For Newsom and Bass, that’s dangerous overdevelopment.

Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass declare NIMBY martial law to stop duplexes in the Palisades California Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass are ensuring no new net housing is created during rebuilding of wildfire-ravaged neighborhoods.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass declare NIMBY martial law to prevent wildfire-ravaged properties from being turned into duplexes.

One big beautiful housing supply bill Congress considers a bipartisan housing supply bill, while the White House executive order cracks down on the homeless.

I wrote up the supply portions of the new Senate housing bill for the newsletter. Basically it’s a bill of a million tweaks, with many of those tweaks focused on shifting existing federal grant spending toward higher-growth jurisdictions reason.com/2025/07/29/o...

Look at what they did to my big brutalist boy.

I’m very supportive of speed cameras in the abstract but cities do also just use them as ATM machines

Seattle property owners challenge program that charges 'affordable housing' fees for building new homes The lawsuit claims that the city's Mandatory Housing Affordability program unconstitutionally penalizes property owners just for trying to build housing.

they're trying reason.com/2025/07/17/s...

Evaluation of Minneapolis’ reducing zoning constraints in suggests that deregulation reduced housing costs by 15-23%—even without adding a lot of new units, because density alone may reduce construction costs. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This is democracy manifest

“What was everyone’s favorite cartoon character from when the oceans were still alive?”

If you’re ever traveling between DC and Baltimore, the MARC train is still BYOB

This is a war crime

For sure, both I’m sure are a factor. Better tech for tipping, new incentives for tipping

I think the tipping explosion was because of inflation. It’s one way restaurants could keep sticker prices down.