New research from Pew quantifies the extent of the success of YIMBYism in Austin: after a huge run up in prices over the 2010s, the city dramatically liberalized and kicked off a building boom. Now rents are falling. www.pew.org/en/research-...
Thank you @mikeschreiner.bsky.social and the GPO for coming and hanging out with @wryimby.bsky.social to talk missing middle housing. The GPO has consistently been the leading progressive voice in Ontario for legalizing and building more affordable housing and we're thankful for their advocacy!
We can have more of these more affordable housing options if we just allow them more broadly in Ontario! It's great to see politicians passionate about allowing for more housing types. 2/2
Thank you Ontario Green Party leader @mikeschreiner.bsky.social and MPP @aislinnclancy.bsky.social for touring some missing middle and midrise housing in Belmont Village with us!
www.instagram.com/reel/DUgZ2Cj... 1/2
Are "pre-rebuttals" a thing, like "pre-zonings"?
If so, here's a pre-rebuttal from @jensvb.bsky.social and I to the latest argument that supply doesn't matter (from CCPA, sigh).
The Key: Doubling up is the demographic indicator demonstrating our shortage. homefreesociology.com/2025/07/06/h...
"a form-based zoning framework is a reasonable and measured solution to allowing more types of housing, while still not letting developers build whatever they want. It still has clear and defined guidelines, but it's just a little more permissive than before." 5/5
"If you're a homeowner you have seen rising property values and insulation from housing instability. Yes homelessness is increasing ..., but a homeowner may not feel the effects of that quite as acutely. My generation, however, will have to bear the brunt of the costs of this shortage." 4/5
Highlights from Ibrahim’s delegation:
".. Ontario ... has set up on online tracker for housing supply progress. So I took a look at it and found that Cambridge isn't even close to its targets." www.ontario.ca/page/trackin... 3/5
Per the Record: “Instead of focusing on what kind of building it is, the city will now focus on a building’s size and where it is built. This is called form-based zoning.
The city is also cutting down the number of residential zones from 16 to just four.” www.therecord.com/news/waterlo... 2/5
Congrats to Cambridge (South Galt) resident Ibrahim Tahir on his first delegation! He made a thoughtful (and nuanced) case for more housing that will hopefully be enabled by Cambridge passing the form-based zoning bylaw. youtu.be/Cjh0JLVD1Yg?... 1/5
On the first point, Edmonton shows that a lot of housing can be added without directly affecting very many properties. Here we are indebted to housing advocate Jacob Dawang, whose data crunching revealed how few Edmonton properties needed to become multiplexes to create many homes. Mr. Dawang shows that of approximately 80,000 residential properties in Edmonton's established neighbourhoods, 310 were issued multiplex permits. These developments would total about 2,300 homes. The City of Edmonton confirmed these figures.
Thanks to @theglobeandmail.com for featuring Edmonton and my data!
The magic of density is amazing in just how many homes can be built with few properties.
#yeg #yegcc
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...
Kitchener's heritage committee has decided to investigate preservation protections for a parking garage. What are some of its highlights outside of its "advanced concrete engineering", you ask?
"A report on the garage also notes... it was used in the filming of an Audi car commercial in 2008."
Text: “Our current system is complex, restrictive and a barrier to housing,” Cooper said, explaining that most residential properties currently only allow single detached homes unless the owner can afford costly planning applications. A new approach would help small property owners and non-profits, not just large developers, Cooper noted.
"Under the proposed bylaw, more housing would be permitted as of right, meaning fewer developments would require zoning amendments, public meetings or council votes." Yes to this! #CambCouncil
"Heritage Conservation Districts are powerful planning tools that must be applied selectively. When used across a large and evolving urban area, they can unintentionally discourage reinvestment, add regulatory burden, and limit the kind of redevelopment a downtown needs to remain vibrant."
Next, we must do the work to actually house the people in encampments. That means investing in housing from every level of government that can- Regional, Provincial and Federal. 4/4 static1.squarespace.com/static/5f6b5...
Such evictions only push people further from their support networks that are crucial for their health and ability to find housing. 3/4 www.therecord.com/news/waterlo...
This is not the solution to homelessness. However, it is a necessary step towards allowing those that we have failed to house the basic right of sheltering themselves without eviction when not nearly enough adequate housing exists. 2/4
We support this petition for the Region of Waterloo to adopt a Public Camping Bylaw that would allow for multiple encampment sites for unsheltered people.
For more legitimacy: Expand the signature box to include a postal code. Click on it. Add a valid postal code 1/4
www.change.org/p/demand-wat...
New housing lowers rents.
Text: Residents had their first chance to weigh in on a proposal to replace a fire-damaged Kitchener duplex with a new four-unit building.
Why? Why do we do this to ourselves? This just feels like a waste of everybody's time. Why on earth do we think we need neighbours to weigh in on this?! Just build it already. www.therecord.com/news/waterlo...
Very much looking forward to this talk in DTK tonight at 6 with some excellent co-panelists. We'll be talking about Social Development Goals (no poverty or hunger). I'll talk about how addressing our high housing costs is necessary to end poverty.-- Martin events.sdgideafactory.ca/default/Deta...
Idle thought, we all understand that dense urban infill improves the net lifecycle balance of infrastructure costs. So why do we charge high development fees on this kind of infill?
For the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Fantastic piece that avoids naivete while offering a needed defense of condo living in the national discourse. The preening condescencion from comfortably housed progressives in Canada about "shoebox" living is often insuffocating, and presumptuous about the choices they think people should make.
Despite planning dogma, “stable residential neighbourhoods” aren’t
Yesterday I sat for a lecture by 3 folks from ReHousing. Hosted by UofT's school of Arch, they detailed the history of change in Toronto, how post-war suburbs rubber-stamped neighbourhoods as repetitive as a 100 floor condo does today, horizontally, & how for half a century we've seen near no change
Yeah, it does seem familiar, unfortunately. Looks like an interesting piece.
Kitchener's Draft Official Plan is up for you to comment on! www.engagewr.ca/kitchener2051
For background, we made some preliminary comments on what we would like to see in an Official Plan- back in February last year- static1.squarespace.com/static/5f6b5...
"The convenience and choices cars provide can’t be denied, but cars also take priority over people all the time. We’ve structured our entire approach to housing around the needs of cars. In many cases, if a development can’t accommodate enough parking spaces, it can’t be built at all." -Philip Mills
