From me: Pressure is mounting to replace _embattled_ CTA President Dorval Carter

Here's a look at what elected officials and other media outlets have said about the issue recently.
chi.streetsblog.org/2024/04/19/pre…

.Brightline West is set to break ground on its 218-mile Las Vegas-Southern California high-speed rail line on Monday reviewjournal.com/local/local-la…

thinking about how wildly different quality of new 1-BR units are in US v. germany...

seattle (l): double loaded corridor. 800 sf. 36' deep. windowless BR. 1 window (!)

munich (r): point access block. 650 s.f. windows for BR/bath, k/d/l. ~16' deep. + 110 sf balcony.

Illinois Governor may be finally trying to shake up Chicago's CTA, which has faced years of challenges providing frequent & reliable service on its rail & bus lines. But Chicago mayor controls majority of CTA board seats...

I went to Cairo, Illinois, the capital of the fastest-shrinking county in America, and wrote about why in the future, much larger parts of America are likely to lose population: economist.com/briefing/2024/…

New factsheet out. We've underappreciated gov't as an employer in econ. dev. Nearly 1/3 (31%) of jobs 'publicly driven' in avg. big city. We find a large publicly driven sector can be helpful--but also not necessary or sufficient for growth. Brady Meixell urban.org/research/publi…

This semester I've been teaching 'Economic Inequality and Growth' at UC Berkeley. This is a thread with some of my favorite graphs.

First, the headline everyone's-seen-it graph: falling then rising income inequality in Anglophone countries.

“To truly tackle housing affordability issues in the US, policymakers from multiple levels of government should collaborate to link zoning reforms with increased housing subsidies for the lowest-income households.” 🏗️🏢 Yonah Freemark Urban Institute
urban.org/urban-wire/no-…

lieber says the congestion pricing infrastructure (cameras/payment systems) is ready to go, noting that it is 'all powered and connected to a 5G network. We have outreach teams in the field directly engaging with the public as part of our larger education campaign'

“What if we rejected the basic assumption that getting around Austin requires sacrificing the health of kids and seniors in our city?”

(This is the project that the Feds just provided $105m to put lipstick on)

interesting: David Millstone, a maaaaajor supporter of Ron DeSantis who donated at least $1 million to his superPAC last year, is now running for a seat on the board of Yale University. (It's a 2-person election that all Yale alumni can vote in in coming weeks.)

“American communities added nearly nine times as many housing units far away from transit stations from 2000 to 2019 as they did near those stations.” Yonah Freemark 🚉🏢 Dan Vock Route Fifty
route-fifty.com/infrastructure…

'CTA has blamed challenges on attracting conductors, but other transit agencies seem to have gotten over that problem,' Freemark said.
'Chicago's excuses don't add up anymore.'

Is there a housing supply shortage in the US?

In a new article in Housing Policy Debate, I investigate this question, arguing that:
—Increasing housing supply is a core path to improved housing conditions
—More supply is associated with less housing cost growth

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

“The U.S. has faced decades of increasing housing costs and declining construction. Additional supply is necessary to combat inadequate availability. Increasing supply is positively associated with lower housing cost growth.” 🏗️🏢 Yonah Freemark Housing Policy Debate
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…