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Alex Armlovich

@aarmlovi.bsky.social
3.5K followers 285 following 459 posts

Housing Program Officer, Abundance & Growth Fund @ CG | Sr. Fellow @niskanencenter🏗️ | Urban Econ 🌐🔰🚋 | @worksinprogress contributor | @opennyforall member | @yimbytown alum | former @cbcny | Legalize housing. Tax land. End poverty with cash

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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It's very hard to know what the future holds But it's also important to check: "If my reforms win, will they do anything?" It's fine when you're starting to work on messaging bills and half-loaf victories! But your long-run goal has to be SB79 etc. A
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
CG's surrogate endpoint for social BCA on housing advocacy is indeed the expected # of housing units unlocked in metros with the biggest "Glaeser Wedge" estimates A naive approach to this would indeed be naive. But I will write before YIMBYTown on what the non-naive approach looks like!
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David Schleicher @profschleich.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
❗New Article❗ The Great American Property Tax Freakout! Since 2024, many states have radically reshaped their property tax systems.The changes are an example of a national trend of carving out influential groups from taxation, in this case a majority group: homeowners papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Great American Property Tax Freak Out
There has been a lot of news over the last two years, so it is understandable that neither the mass media nor the legal academy has focused on what is happening
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
New AGF blog: Transit-Oriented Development is a surprisingly underrated way to end America’s housing problems Physically realistic capacity near rail alone is >30M homes. Financially plausible capacity is ~6M to 13M. TOD is not just a boutique or niche idea! open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
open.substack.com
Transit-Oriented Development is a surprisingly underrated path to ending America’s housing problems
America’s rail systems are still recovering from 2020, and robot cars are coming. Legalize apartments first.
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Reed Schwartz @reed-schwartz.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Great article in @nyc.streetsblog.org on using land value taxes to fund the IBX. Check out the full report @aarmlovi.bsky.social and I wrote on the value capture mechanism and how much it could raise ($1-3+ billion) here as well: www.niskanencenter.org/new-york-sta...
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
If a hot person sends you this meme does that mean they like you or
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Sacramento is also *the* poster child for the power of direct state zoning: The city simply accepted the state-authored SB79 code! No huge planning staff time, little implementation capacity needed. One of way to solve the local implementation capacity problem is to just *write the code for them*
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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
It's unusual for me to find a politician that's more YIMBY than I am, but Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek's administration is proposing to essentially replace local zoning on most parcels in the state with the last 4 pages of this document www.oregon.gov/lcd/LAR/Docu...
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
There was a planning panic over retail banks taking up urban storefronts in the 2010s. Cities started banning them, and Capital One responded by putting cafés in their locations, beginning in Boston in 2014. I learned this from @aarmlovi.bsky.social
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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 04/06/2026
How much housing is located near the nation's transit? 45% of units are located within a 1/2 mile of bus or rail. But only 10% is near frequent service... and 6% is near a rail station. Our new data tool @urbaninstitute.bsky.social allows you to investigate in detail! www.urban.org/data-tools/h...
Urban Institute's Tracking Transit-Oriented Housing Development tool: https://www.urban.org/data-tools/housing-development-near-transit-by-state-and-urban-areaData on the share of housing within a half mile of urban rail transit, by stateAccess to bus or rail transit in urban areas in FloridaChanges in housing supply, and demographics for Florida urban areas
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
One part of Single Stair's unbelievably fast success since 2021 is that it re-legalizes everyone's favorite old buildings. New "break-up-the-massing" double loaded buildings so often try to emulate them with fake facade divisions and other visual deception But we can just legalize the real thing
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Adrian Pietrzak @zoningwonk.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Was this bill specifically written for @aarmlovi.bsky.social?
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
When I started wearing Uniqlo socks as color accents with Chacos & Tevas with flannels or other "LL Bean Boyfriend" outfits, I got a mix of side-eye & compliments Now I'm a pioneer
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 29/05/2026
E24-24, my proposal to raise the IBC’s single-stair apartment building height limit from three stories to four, has passed the final membership vote, and will now officially make it into the 2027 IBC 🎉
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
I am suddenly struck by the conviction that a contemporary dance mix of this song would absolutely rip We are overdue for a Hot 90s Summer youtu.be/4QwZi9-7i5s?...
youtu.be
I Want You
YouTube video by Savage Garden - Topic
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Reed Schwartz @reed-schwartz.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The LVT was authorized under Cuomo, but it's never been used. Very few people wrote about it before @aarmlovi.bsky.social's article for @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social, with one exception: Then-Assemblymember @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social praised value capture and § 119-r in a Jacobin interview in 2022:
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Reed Schwartz @reed-schwartz.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
New York State just authorized a land value tax that could generate billions of dollars for new transit. For the @niskanencenter.bsky.social, @aarmlovi.bsky.social and I wrote about how the renewal of § 119-r in the FY27 budget could unlock a virtuous cycle of infrastructure delivery in NYC.
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Mayor Mamdani's housing plan is live! There's big sweeping YIMBY stuff: -Aggressive TOD upzoning -Major permitting reform -Rescuing & transforming NYCHA They're also looking at finer details, like fixing the FDNY inspections that so often delay CofO issuance (& invite petty corruption)
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
New movement & negotiations on the federal housing bill this afternoon... x.com/i/status/205...
x.com
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
What an excellent editorial building on the academic urban economics literature to translate for the general public. Kudos @maragay.bsky.social & the whole NYT board
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Not yet a *deal* on federal housing bill, but a bipartisan House response to the Senate version! It includes fixes to the Build To Rent ban and avoids eliminating key bipartisan provisions like the Build Now Act We will see what the Senate response is but it's a provisional sign ROAD is back!
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
New AGF blog: Tokyo is the world's most affordable megacity--and they're still permitting homes at many times the pace of NYC, London, Paris Yet land prices are still very high! A 1-acre suburban home in Chiyoda would cost over $100M before you nail the first board open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
open.substack.com
Tokyo land is still >$85 million an acre
What will happen to the highest-priced metro housing markets after YIMBYs achieve realistic housing abundance?
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
New housing episode with Jamie Rubin! This headline is more negative than the content--we talk about everything the mayor's extremely talented housing team is doing right, too Click for the doombait, stay for the optimism 👇 www.vitalcitynyc.org/alex-armlovi...
vitalcitynyc.org
The Cost of Freezing the Rent
The limits and distortions of Mamdani’s core housing cost control strategy
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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 22/04/2026
Housing policy 🤝 climate policy Research from earlier this year shows that legalizing ADUs, allowing TOD, and ending parking mandates create greener cities & towns.
cayimby.org
The Most Bipartisan Climate Policy is Housing Policy - California YIMBY
The average American spends 170% more time stuck in traffic today than in 1980, and a new report argues that this is because uncoordinated state and local zoning decisions have made car dependence…
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Protect Bridgeport Bicyclists @stevevance.net · 19/04/2026
A lesser known part of the BUILD plan in Illinois is to stop requiring parking for smaller and medium size homes (regardless of transit proximity), adaptive reuse into housing, and ground floor businesses in mixed use developments Read Jonathan’s 🧵 about why doing that matter so much
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
┳┻| ┳┻| ┻┳| ┻┳| ┳┻| ┳┻| ┻┳| ┻┳| ┳┻| ┳┻| ┻┳| ┳┻| ┻┳| ┳┻| _ ┻┳| •.•) (Yonah is back) ┳┻|⊂ノ ┻┳|
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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 17/04/2026
This research provides concrete evidence that, as @aarmlovi.bsky.social has argued, large-scale upzonings—enabling very substantial density in areas with high demand—can indeed attract very large amounts of new housing, beyond what we would expect otherwise.
abundanceandgrowth.org
Zoned Capacity Is Like an Artificial Oil Deposit
Why cities can claim they have room for thousands of new homes on paper and still not build them
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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 17/04/2026
When NYC rezoned Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood to allow high-density residential uses along a cleaned-out canal, it hoped to attract thousands of new housing units. That's exactly what it got, new research comparing upzoned areas to similar, non-upzoned areas shows: www.urban.org/research/pub...
New residential buildings in Gowanus. Source: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/boom-times-continue-major-new-gowanus-projects/Upzonings in New York City produced substantial increases in housing supply. Source: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/how-big-upzonings-affect-housing-supply
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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 15/04/2026
How do upzonings impact housing supply? In brand-new research published today @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, we show that big upzonings in New York City & Philadelphia had large, statistically significant effects on supply & permitting with several years of reforms. www.urban.org/research/pub...
Neighborhood scale upzonings increased housing production in many NYC neighborhoods Upzoned block faces saw significant increases in housing unit permits in Philadelphia
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I'm less than a quarter Hungarian but when you do the haircut...
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Chris Elmendorf @cselmendorf.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Are you a researcher or policymaker working on housing, energy, or transportation issues? Welcome to the BUILD Research Network! A project of @ssrc.org w/ support from @arnoldventures.bsky.social, BUILD is a new platform for strengthening the research-to-policy pipeline. build.ssrc.org 🧵/9
build.ssrc.org
BUILD Research Network - Better Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Land-use Decisions
The BUILD (Better Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Land-use Decisions) Research Network connects researchers, policymakers, and funders working to improve housing, energy, and transportation systems.
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Our AGF blog is new but we have great readers! Deputy Mayor Bozorg already knew the thesis--she knows how zoning & feasibility work--but I'm honored to see it shared as a useful explainer Mayor Mamdani is laser focused on housing supply & his team is leaving no stone unturned
https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/s/MTyW0kclfo
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
If you're mad about DC's awful draft plan, and want to connect the dots across why every missing middle "Plex" bill of the 21st century has failed, while Missing Massive towers are marching forward? Check out our new AGF post on the "zoned capacity illusion" open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
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Markus Johnson @markusja.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Oh this is a good one! Hits many of things I'd love to see more strongly integrated into the next phase of Seattle's land use planning
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
New Abundance & Growth Fund team blog: Come for the broadside on the "zoned capacity delusion", stay for Missing Massive jokes & cheeky footnotes Megacity housing production reform will require slow, wide-area incrementalism *and* fast, targeted Missing Massive open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
open.substack.com
Zoned Capacity Is Like an Artificial Oil Deposit
Why cities can claim they have room for thousands of new homes on paper and still not build them
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Attention @stephenjacobsmith.com and other pro-NIST building & materials science hopers
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Neoliberalism is bad What we need is some kind of new Classical Liberalism--taking the best ideas from Enlightenment from Locke to Smith to JS Mill--and updating them for a post-imperial open society with updated views on gender & social equality We could call it New Liberalism
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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 25/03/2026
We need to stop prioritizing parking lots over people. Today, I assembled a roundtable to discuss our Building Up Illinois Developments Plan — and the consensus was that we need to act fast. Looking forward to passing it and getting to work in our neighborhoods.
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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
The economics of decking outside of Manhattan are……. 😬😬😬😬😬
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Public policy can seem dry--like it or not, it's like being in grad school forever But then sometimes a big special interest group puts on the hot dog costume & says "Yes, we're toxic to multifamily. But Mayor Bass already killed multifamily. So it's impossible to say if we're bad or not" 🌭🌭🌭
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
A puzzle: -Modern affordable housing sets AMI-based rents -Modern rent control set rents with CPI or similar Why isn't there AMI-based rent control? Imagine if units >40yrs old got CPI controls til they fall to 80%AMI...after which they get AMI-based increases like all other affordable housing
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
It was already bonkers to duplicate Sounder commuter rail + express buses with a new LRT "regional spine" that's slower than the existing alternatives But it's even worse to prioritize that duplication while shredding the better elements This is a disaster for rail planning credibility in Seattle
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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 18/03/2026
A 19% drop in inflation-adjusted rents? That's nothing to sneeze at. 🤩 Pew's latest data on Austin's zoning reforms is a must-read.
pew.org
Austin’s Surge of New Housing Construction Drove Down Rents
After decades of explosive growth, Austin, Texas, in the 2010s was a victim of its own success. Lured by high-tech jobs and the city’s hip reputation, too many people were competing for too few…
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
YIMBYs have proudly rooted our analysis in academic econ + common sense ("housing bans tend to ban housing") But proposals like §901 go far beyond academic literature, leaving us with think tank guesses Today's Urban Institute paper claiming the loopholes aren't actually good enough is concerning
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Big investors can keep deploying SFR capital if they meet the industrial policy goals accompanying HUD Code chassis reform Disciplining big capital can spook its animal spirits, but that's a risk with industrial policy & market shaping Not my laissez-faire approach. But not a hard ban either!
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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I got to welcome lots of great colleagues in 2025. @mattsclancy.bsky.social brought on a solid chunk of my feed as team members of the Abundance and Growth Fund, including @dylanmatt.bsky.social, @aarmlovi.bsky.social, and more. They have a great blog: abundanceandgrowthblog.substack.com/
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Missing Massive Transit-Oriented Development 🏗️ Are you tired of your watered-down triplex bills not producing much? Are you trying to downzone townhouse FAR to artifically force 'plexes to pencil? Consider upzoning for 1,000 units per acre on top of a subway stop instead
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rohan aras @rohanaras.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Our explainer for the original senate bill has a large overlap with this one too. The major difference to note is that both Build More Housing Near Transit and Housing Supply Frameworks were removed from this new version
niskanencenter.org
The ROAD to housing: Tim Scott's housing bill marks a bipartisan breakthrough - Niskanen Center
The bill seeks to confront the nation’s affordable housing crisis by reforming decades of ineffective federal housing policies.
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
The Senate has just gotten 84 votes for cloture on the federal bipartisan housing package! ROAD has all-but-passed once more, this time with key House additions from the House package It's not over yet, but it's real bipartisan momentum (+ White House support 👀)
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Alex Armlovich @aarmlovi.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Our latest Abundance & Growth Fund blog has extra special housing links! Pause from doomscrolling for a timeline cleanse: Pride of place for the new Soltas & Gruber blockbuster on how the "market" for housing permits proves a key part of the YIMBY thesis 👇 open.substack.com/pub/abundanc...
open.substack.com
What we’re reading, February 27, 2026
Immigration debates, Tokyo’s housing lessons, and betting against DOGE
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