Alex Armlovich
@aarmlovi
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Sr. Housing Analyst @niskanencenteršļø| Urban Econ šš°š | @WorksInProgMag | former @cbcny | Legalize housing. Tax land. End poverty with cash
NYC | DC
Joined May 2009
New today: The case for relegalizing single stair buildings above America's 3-story cap!. It's an intro to the reforms brought to the US by @holz_bau & popularized by @MarketUrbanism in 2021. Several US states have already acted. It's time to catch up with the developed world.
Forum: Reforming U.S. building codes to permit single-stair apartment buildings would facilitate cost-effective and higher-density housing, writes @aarmlovi.
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RT @mattyglesias: Interesting to see that regulations barring low-quality housing were, from the start, pretextual efforts to harm the poorā¦.
slowboring.com
The war on rooming houses and SROs was a mistake
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Uber is proposing a tax on ridehailing in exchange for the independent contractor status of gig work that's popular with part-time drivers. Waymo is going to reallocate most ridehail drivers to other jobs in Philly over the next decade anyway. this is an easy call! Great deal.
New: Uber pitched taxing rideshare trips as a transit funding source to top policymakers amid the ongoing budget impasse. But there's a condition: They want all app-based drivers and couriers to be made independent contractors in return.
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DC's lacks traffic enforcement reciprocity with VA & MD, yielding the most lawless streets of any big US city. People blow through red lights & violate every law. The only way to enforce DC tickets on serial VA & MD traffic offenders is vehicle impoundment. Terrible situation.
DC Police and Federal Law enforcement conducting a checkpoint on New York Avenue. One arrested and many ticketed for expired or missing tags, broken headlights and too much window tint, amongst other things.
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Old threads with receipts on WV & PA gems:.
West Virginia: Fayetteville, Morgantown, Wheeling, Harper's Ferry, Lewisburg, + many more great prewar small downtowns. All underrated for outdoor amenities, especially whitewater. Charleston should be known for outdoor sports more like Denver & Seattle.
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Pennsylvania today still has the best small-town urbanism in America . West Virginia has the most underrated small-town urbanism, with several top-tier gems that are ~unknown outside of Appalachia.
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Another grim nail in the coffin of the myth that rail service is permanent while bus service is temporary. Northstar Commuter Railālittle faster than commuter buses, far less frequent, & averaging <500 ridersāwill now close & reallocate its resources to a higher use (buses)
Met Council votes to end Northstar commuter rail in January
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We need to enable comprehensive parental controls on AI for minors. Nobody laughs off the universal ban on child drivers; we should at least let parents *regulate* the way our children speak to an immortal ass-kissing demiurge trapped in a chatbox.
Today I cover the long-term implications of what I believe is the first landmark tort lawsuit against a frontier AI developer: Raine v. OpenAI, Inc. This is a big one. To the extent there are law textbooks fifty years hence, this one is likely to be there.
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RT @Birdyword: As a housing supply zealot, you might occasionally worry that you're caricaturing the anti-housebuilding impulses among elecā¦.
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RT @ArmandDoma: check out the first episode of our new abundance podcast featuring @Scott_Wiener and @BuffyWicks talking about recent housiā¦.
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RT @aaron_renn: One time I had an Amtrak credit and so rode the Acela from Boston to Providence. It took about 35 minutes vs. and hour tenā¦.
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Today's Acela launch will drive Amtrak NEC profitability, even as the 27% capacity boost cuts dynamically priced fares. At first it seems they'll use the faster trains to "pad" existing schedules, boosting on-time performance; then eventually will shorten official schedules!
NextGen Acela is here. š. As Amtrak President Roger Harris put it, āThese trains are beautiful, they are fast, they are state of the art, and they are American made.ā. This is Amtrak 2.0 ā modern, comfortable, and ready to move more people than ever before. We canāt wait to
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We've summarized key parts of the bill before, but these 10 pages give more detail on the 300+ page megabill!. The bill gathers nearly all promising "low-hanging fruit" of bipartisan, bicameral ideas plus some bold new (still unanimously bipartisan) ideas.
Today's megabill shortlist:. Old friends:.HSFA, BMHNTA, HUD Code chassis reform, new MTW cohort, FHA Title I loan limits + ADU fix, small dollar loan reform. New friends: Kennedy-Warren CDBG carrots & sticks, NEPA reform, Innovation Fund, Section 8 streamlining, modular loan fix.
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New: Niskanen Housing's writeup of the Senate Banking megabill š. Chair @SenatorTimScott & Ranking Member @SenWarren assembled the biggest bipartisan federal housing package in living memoryāa real first step to buttress growing state & local action on the housing crisis.
The Senate Banking Committee has advanced the ROAD to Housing Actāa rare, unanimous, bipartisan package tackling Americaās housing shortage. @aarmlovi, @AWJustus, and @rohanaras break down whatās in this 310-page bill ā¬ļø
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RT @NiskanenCenter: NEW PAPER: The emerging āAbundance movementā isnāt left, right, or centerāitās a cross-cutting idea. Here are six difā¦.
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NEPA says the quiet part out loud in what it uniquely targets:. āFannie & Freddie? No NEPA veto, just an objective environmental site review. āHUD 1-family mortgages? No NEPA. āHUD multifamily mortgages + grants? "NEPA now, NEPA tomorrow, NEPA forever".
NEPA review is hilariously called "environmental review" but doesn't just review the environment. For example, Fannie & Freddie don't have to do NEPA review for housing, unlike HUD. Fannie & Freddie instead do "environmental site review" where they simply evaluate objective
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Delighted to work with Rep Friedman to cut NEPA "green tape" for infill housing. Private banksāand even federal GSEs like Fannie & Freddieādon't face NEPA proceduralism when they invest in multifamily. There's no reason to put NEPA's unique burdens on HUD, especially for infill!.
We need to get serious about making housing more affordable and getting it built faster. Thatās what my new bipartisan bill ā the Cut Red Tape for Housing Act ā is all about. š§µ
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The next surface transport reauth will be important for the nation's transit systems. Rhode Island now joins CA, MA, & DC in a temporary rescue. PA & IL remain on track to close large systems. So far New York is the only state to pass a major, permanent transit package.
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RT @maxdubler: American streets are super wide and dangerous because our firefighters insist on it so they can drive huge, expensive customā¦.
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RT @arpitrage: Big problem for gas tax funding of highways, which should ideally shift to VMT tax, more tolls, congestion pricing, or a weiā¦.
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