blahblahblah333333.bsky.social
37 posts
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The level of density needed to offset this is prob a lot lower than Ideal Urbanism. Allowing townhomes in all SF zones would get us like 80% of the way there.
There's an agglomeration penalty from sprawl but it's overstated IMO. Weakly centered cities like LA can still have strong network effects.
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The other model would be small cities that only started growing recently & thus lack a freeway moat/severe job sprawl. Raleigh and Austin would fall into this bucket.
Though I'm somewhat skeptical of how severe the agglomeration penalty is for sprawl vs being a first mover on a new industry.
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There are some edge case urbanist cities that could in theory join this club but they'd need better zoning, better local economies, better transit expansions or all three.
Baltimore, Honolulu, MSP, Pittsburgh, Portland. Miami, Atlanta and LA very edgey edge cases
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Part of this is a composition effect. Middle class Californians moving to Texas increases California's GDP per capita.
Also when you adjust for CoL (mostly housing costs) coastal cities no longer have much of an income premium.
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I'm moderately hopeful that the priority extensions get done a couple years after phase 1 opens. The massive FTA contingency + the fact that there'll be multiple surface transport funding cycles between then and now makes me think there'll be money for it.
They just need to start design soon.
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Do you know if any of these were addressed in the DEIS?
bsky.app/profile/park...
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It's true that transportation ROW is relatively zero sum but
1) Improving state capacity is in a sense increasing abundance
2) There are opportunities for more private transport investment to mitigate poor planning by local transit agencies. Auctionable curb rights & open access are models
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Where do you find rezoning requests?
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1986 tax bill extending RE depreciation schedules?
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(Hot take) I think the state is doing an ~okay~ job on transportation. Supporting AVs (AV trucks esp) and drone delivery. I still have faith the Lambda Line will happen eventually. Blame the cities for poor transit.
Needs to continue to not ban new tech like cellular meat, renewables & we're gouda
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Also some valuable additions from @dukakisdude.bsky.social
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Repeated rezoning requests in an area suggests that the base zoning entitlements aren't sufficient. Old West Austin/Clarksville needs a higher density overlay
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The city should just auction long-term ground leases for these parcels and let the market take care of it.
As a bonus it'd also incentivize the city to increase entitlements on these plots to increase the auction price
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Agreed but I worry that the state could view approval voting as not in the spirit of the RCV ban and just ban approval voting in the next session.
Lege needs to meet their "owning the Austin libs" quota
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Yeah, they've had 9-2 for the last two years and expanded their margin with this election. No NIMBY backlash has materialized (so far)
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What is 4-3?
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Great list. I'd add:
-Commercial in residential
-IBC amendments
-Maximalist ETOD
-Eliminate NPCT process
-Lower affordability requirements on existing affordability initiatives
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What is DB2?
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What is your wishlist for reforms in the 2025-26 council session?
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Repeal Medicaid IMD Exclusion! Build more mental health facilities!
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Do we know if ATP is doing proof-of-payment for fares?
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Why the delay? Is the new code not ready yet?
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This could be due to transmission bottlenecks in the High Plains more than the unit economics of wind. Although IIRC wind is more expensive to build and maintain than solar.
If we eliminated the Jones Act we would be getting way more wind from offshore IMO.
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After single stair: scissor stairs up to the same height
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Yeah there's not much point to living in a 5-over-1 in Cedar Park when an equivalent apartment near Plaza Saltillo or Mueller runs for a similar price.
Hell the entire existence of 5-over-1s in Cedar Park is a huge market failure. Central Austin is not full!
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There's still decent multifamily growth in central Austin. Could be that people are moving into those units, keeping demand moderately high, while further out multifamily has plummeted in demand.
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I think after the above the priorities for '27 should be: HOME phase 3 (6-8 units citywide, lower min lot, height/FAR changes), upzone the near eastside (maybe an overlay for the I35 caps?), AISD density bonus, regulating plan for St. Elmo/Rundberg if LRT ever gets there, mini-UNO for other colleges
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Austin NIMBYs have their greatest success with the public on environmental issues. Important to preempt their messaging on that.
Water conservation is a good angle. IC caps=giant yards which guzzle up huge amounts of water.
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100% but process improvements to site plan, subdivision only need simple majority right? When we have the supermajority we should jam through as many zoning changes as possible because if we lose the supermajority who knows how long it would take to get it back
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Big central city upzoning, upzone west DT/SCW/ERC, single stair, commercial in residential, ambitious versions of UNO/ETOD.
Maybe save IC reform for 2027. What other priorities do you think a unanimous YIMBY council should tackle?
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My bet too. Important that if we go 10-1 or 11-0 we need to go BIG in 25-26. 2026 is all defense and no guarantee we can maintain the supermajority forever (or that the lege will fix valid petition)
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If Austin somehow maintains the supermajority council AND we get a bunch of pro-housing bills at the lege then Texas is going to be unstoppable. Cheap energy, cheap housing, supernova job market
We need to expand enrollment at TX universities but otherwise all ingredients for econ growth are there
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What's you prediction on the races?