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Blockers and Pillars come from Up for Growth’s housing framework.

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May 28, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Building near transit pencils out for cities

Where a home is built changes what it costs a city to serve it. The fiscal math on infill and the housing math point in the same direction.
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May 28, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

New market-rate housing is not just for rich renters

New apartments are routinely described as luxury. Denver’s numbers test that assumption, and raise the harder question of what new market-rate supply does for rents further down the market.
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May 28, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Wisconsin shows the ROAD Act's affordability case

Three provisions, three different theories of what makes housing expensive: who buys existing homes, how long review takes, and whether local governments can plan past one appropriations cycle.
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May 25, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

The road to more housing still runs through permitting

Transportation money is one of the few levers Washington can pull on local land use. The design problem is calibration: incentives too soft change nothing, too blunt and the politics collapse.
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February 27, 2026 SPEAKING | KEYNOTE

Federal housing policy and the states

Remarks at the Council of State Governments East housing event on the emerging federal housing supply agenda, what is moving in Congress, and why state action remains decisive.
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April 11, 2025 WRITING | ESSAY

Housing isn't just an affordability crisis

America's housing shortage is not just about affordability. It is a production failure with consequences for public health, equity, transportation, and economic opportunity.
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June 12, 2020 WRITING | ESSAY

The downstream impacts of the rental crisis

I follow missed rent payments through owners, workers, lenders, local governments, and future development to show how a rental shock propagates.
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April 1, 2020 WRITING | ESSAY

Housing is where jobs go to sleep at night

Why economic development policy is increasingly intertwined with housing — how a nationwide shortage of homes became a drag on jobs, GDP, and regional competitiveness, and the local barriers most responsible for it.
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January 17, 2020 WRITING | ESSAY

New Rochelle, New York: A case study in how focusing on transit can increase housing options

I recount how New Rochelle rezoned its downtown around its train station, and why the Build More Housing Near Transit Act aimed to encourage that approach.
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April 25, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

The Cautionary Tale of Portland’s Inclusionary Housing Policy

Noel Johnson and I examine Portland's permit data after inclusionary housing took effect and argue the policy was reducing housing production at most income levels.
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March 15, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

Housing is the environmental issue of our time

I connect housing, transportation, land use, and environmental outcomes, asking how where we build homes changes travel, land consumption, and emissions.
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