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M. Nolan Gray 🥑

@mnolangray.bsky.social
22K followers 501 following 4.6K posts

the once and future city planner // chief urban planner METROPOLITAN ABUNDANCE PROJECT // AICP // YIMBY // #BBN // author of hit broadway musical arbitrary lines

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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This week, nearly bill that California YIMBY helped to passed this year was signed into law! Shout out to @gavinnewsom.bsky.social for leaving office having passed some heavy-duty pro-housing reforms in his final session. Let's run through it. 🧵
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 29/09/2026
Some professional news: @gavinnewsom.bsky.social just signed all 3 of the bills I worked on this year at @cayimby.bsky.social: AB 956 - 2 detached ADUs at single family homes SB 1116 - Starter Home Revitalization Act expansion SB 1117 - Fee relief for ADUs over 750 square feet
gov.ca.gov
Governor Newsom signs housing legislation, cementing California’s record progress to reduce unsheltered homelessness and build more homes | Governor of California
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm thrilled to share that SB 1116 was signed into law today. This represents four years of hard work by my team, across SB 684 and SB 1123, to iron out the wonky details, refine based on developer/planner feedback, and pass pro-housing reform that will get homes built. cayimby.org/legislation/...
cayimby.org
SB 1116: Strengthening the Starter Home Revitalization Act
SB 1116 will streamline the construction of smaller, lower-cost “starter” homes for home ownership by making several improvements to existing state housing law.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
New profile picture! 📸
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Some personal news.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I do appreciate it when NIMBYs just say "the thing," instead of trotting out a bunch of bullshit about imagined sewer capacity or whatever
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Dead malls blight suburbs across the United States. But what's keeping them from being redeveloped? It's more complicated than you might think—and it requires a policy fix. My latest in @washingtonpost.com: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | Dead malls dot America. Why not get rid of them?
Across the country, dead malls remain locked up by decades-old agreements with former anchor tenants.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Zillow has got to get a handle on the use of AI in listings. Using AI to mislead a prospective buyer into thinking that an attic might be useful as a living room and lounge is plainly fraud. Realtors evidently can't/won't police themselves, so the listing services should step in.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Little duplex in Roseville, California.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Every year around this time, I have two of the same thoughts: "Why is it so absurdly difficult to watch sports now?" and "Why do I bother?"
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Open thread: given that it seems like my wife and I will be in visa hell at least through 2028, and possibly beyond if the American Century of Humiliation continues, where should we move?
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Nah, the amount of money that Americans voluntarily spend on cars is just a cultural problem. In every market in the US, you can buy a <15 year-old Corolla that that will run for decades for <$10,000. The solution is more people saying "buying new luxury cars is stupid," not subsidized car loans.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Any given specific NIMBY argument—about infrastructure capacity, or home values, or aesthetics—is nearly always just a shell game masking generalized opposition to anything changing, and which is why it's a waste of time to engage with NIMBYs on details.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
It's kind of remarkable, the extent to which every aspect of this whole Venezuela debacle is openly vindicating the most extreme things any leftist has ever said about the relationship between the US and Latin America. www.yahoo.com/news/article...
yahoo.com
Oil investors need democratic Venezuela for stability, opposition leader says
BOGOTA/WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Only a "serious, democratic government" can provide the stability needed by investors in Venezuela's oil sector, opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
An interesting thing about living in Guatemala is all the things that aren't refrigerated. You can buy boxed milk and keep it for months unrefridgerated before opening. Why? It undergoes ultra-high temperature pasteurization. Ditto for eggs. Why? The natural protective coating isn't scrubbed away.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Happy birthday to former Sacramento resident Henry George!
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Some personal news: The bad news is that yesterday marked my last day as senior director of legislation and research at California YIMBY. The good news is that today is my first day as the chief urban planner of the Metropolitan Abundance Project. More here: mnolangray.substack.com/p/some-perso...
mnolangray.substack.com
Some Personal News
It turns out that pushing rocks up hills isn’t all that bad.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
They should make an anti-Yes Man film where a mid-careerist with a seemingly endless to-do list just starts saying "no" to everything. It would be cathartic for some of us.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I sent the email. Will you?
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Kirsten Bladh @kerstanley.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Mayor Bass is pushing the state legislature to put into *state law* that cities with over 2 million people (only LA) cannot reduce the # of car lanes of a road that leads into a cemetery without mayoral approval. Just to kill this desperately needed bike lane project.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
It's really weird how the US building code is this proprietary document that is constantly changed with relatively little public oversight or regular rule making process, with changes variously driven with limited actual study by individual crusaders or rent-seeking industries.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
All of the GOP candidates in 30%+ GOP 2024 Kentucky are scrambling to remove Trump from their campaign websites. MAGA is over. Vote blue no matter who.
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Ryan Hassett @ryanhassett.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This street is part of the National Highway System:
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Thanks to SB 79, a Santa Monica single-family home a block from the Expo Line is turning into 32 new homes: la.urbanize.city/post/12-stor...
la.urbanize.city
12-story residential building pitched for 1517 15th St. in Santa Monica
Santa Monica's first SB 79 project was a relatively modest proposal which would replace a single-family home near Bergamot Station with townhomes. The City's second SB 79 project aims to reshape the C...
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
"SB 1090 would convert some fire survivors’ desire to preserve Altadena’s low-density form into restrictions on other people’s rights and choices, while blocking homes the region desperately needs." www.vox.com/future-perfe...
vox.com
The most sympathetic case for NIMBYism is still wrong
Wildfires leveled thousands of homes in California. Now the state could block even more from being built.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It's interesting how many films have become extended TV shows with multi-year gaps that make only make sense as part of some broader 40 hour commitment, while many TV shows have turned into released-all-at-once 10-hour films films that you're meant to consume in a single gluttonous setting.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I wish realtors would stop doing these sorts of tedious AI modifications. The obviously fake flowers add nothing, except to make me think that I can't trust this agent. And this is a slightly better case—at least the tampering is disclosed.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The West Sacramento streetcar is getting shelved, partly in response to skyrocketing steel costs: www.abridged.org/news/downtow...
abridged.org
Streetcar from Downton to West Sacramento will have to wait, officials say
West Sacramento staffers have "suspended" new work on the planned streetcar project that would provide a connection to Downtown Sacramento.
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Muhammad Alameldin @muhammadspeaks.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
We need YOU to call YOUR representative in support of AB 1903 - construction defect reform. This is not a drill… cayimby.org/legislation/...
cayimby.org
AB 1903: Housing Construction Defect Reform
AB 1903 will tighten the standards that determine when lawyers can file lawsuits for defects in new for-sale condo projects. The stricter standards will reduce housing costs and increase opportunities...
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California YIMBY @cayimby.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
[Bill Alert] SB 1014 clears Legislature, heads to Governor. The bill requires cities to disclose infrastructure requirements within 30 days of initial application & can't add new ones after permit application, reducing project risk and costs. Thank you, Sen. Grayson. cayimby.org/legislation/...
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Three radically different visions of suburban commercial site planning in Roseville, a suburb of Sacramento.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Bluesky is so argumentative that even my attempt to point how annoying X has become elicits disagreement. Great stuff folks, it's a mystery to us all why normie use is dropping off...
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
🚨 It's go time, YIMBYs. 🚨 Years in the making, AB 1903 could make big progress on fixing frivolous litigation that has it made so hard to build condominiums in California, but it's facing stiff opposition. Now is the time to CALL and EMAIL your assemblymember and senator.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
It's cool how home-based business reform has taken off; 15 years ago, they were variously either banned, subject to arbitrary restrictions, or required to pay licensing fees; now a dozen or so states have strong protections for "no-impact" home-based businesses. www.pasenategop.com/news/rothman...
pasenategop.com
Rothman Introduces Bill to Protect Home-Based Businesses - Pennsylvania Senate Republicans
Sen. Greg Rothman (R-34) has introduced legislation, Senate Bill 1444, that will protect homeowners from outdated licensing and permitting processes that can be barriers to starting or operating a sma...
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The point of the Trump administration's immigration policy is not to make sure immigrants "do it the right way" or deport a few bad apples—it's a total shutdown of immigration, a radical departure from what the median voter thought they were supporting. apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
US set for largest mass visa revocation in history targeting up to 200,000 foreigners, officials say
If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
As a recovering SEC undergraduate myself, this discourse misses is the fact that the prototypical pudgy "average SEC couple" guy is actually high status: he's funny, widely known/liked on campus, welcome all parties, and will land in some sort of effortless executive sales job that pays well.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
It confirms all my priors that Midwest and Mid-Atlantic are the epicenter of "dead mall" interest.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A study funded by the proprietary building code industry finds that building codes are just fine and there's nothing to see here, please move along! www.housingwire.com/articles/bui...
housingwire.com
Study Finds Building Codes Do Not Raise Home Prices
Study of 2.7 million sales across 26 states finds code adoption did not raise prices consistently, and resilience can cut long-run costs.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Turbo charging employment and income growth, while blocking the housing needed to absorb all of this demand is kind of sounds what got California into a housing crisis in the first place. www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...
sfchronicle.com
California Forever housing plan sidelined as shipyard and manufacturing proposal advances
A proposed bill could speed up billionaire-backed real estate development project California Forever’s Solano Shipyard plans, while leaving its housing and manufacturing ambitions for later.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
It's sad watching environmentalists eagerly run interference for NIMBYs, blocking housing on a golf course completely surrounded by existing homes on the preposterous basis that it's habitat, but the environmental movement has always been "problematic" in this way. www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Mountain lions stall plan to build 400 residences on Woodland Hills golf course
A state housing law meant to fast-track development hit a roadblock as endangered mountain lion habitat rulings stalled plans for 400 homes at Woodland Hills Country Club.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
It's pretty remarkable how the Auckland story is almost entirely a story of townhouses and small-lot subdivision legalization. I don't think this is how many YIMBYs interpret what happened there!
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
When it comes to legalizing missing middle housing, the details matter. In Sacramento, as in many other cities, overly restrictive massing/design rules have resulted in few units getting built. My latest over on Substack: mnolangray.substack.com/p/whos-afrai...
mnolangray.substack.com
Who’s Afraid of An Exterior Stairway?
When it comes to legalizing missing middle, the devil is in the details.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
It's wild to think that the Tower Bridge, the definitive symbol of Sacramento, wasn't even yellow until 1976, and wasn't even golden until 2002!
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Two homes turn into 30 homes in Queens, New York. (2018➡️2022)
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Google Drive UX is so weird. > I use a folder literally every single day, can you have it come up at the front of Home? > No. > I've favorited a folder, can you have it come up at the front of Home? > No. > Can I manually tell you I want this folder locked to come up at the front of Home? > No.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Other than the Sun Belt suburb usual suspects, college towns are among the fastest growing cities in the US: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/r...
nytimes.com
Which U.S. Cities Are People Moving To?
Military bases, colleges, and local economies are among the factors driving domestic migration.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
It's cool how humans get obsessed with certain random, innocent things. Like there are some humans who are obsessively into birds. But then there are other humans who are freakishly into trains. It's not their job or anything. They just think about it all day.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
It's fun to watch all of these side yards in Portland, Oregon incrementally turn into tuck-under townhouses. Ironically, the only other place where you see townhouse infill that's this creative is Houston, a city I imagine many Portlanders don't view as a peer! (2011➡️2014➡️2019)
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Twenty years after the 2006 collapse, I think the evidence is pretty clear that we massively overcorrected on lending standards, punished the wrong people, and locked a lot of working- and middle-class families out of homeownership to no discernible stability benefit. www.pew.org/en/research-...
pew.org
Mortgage Lending Standards Are Too Tight
Over the last two decades, homeownership has drifted out of reach for many Americans, especially young adults, racial minorities, low- and moderate-income households, and those who live in rural areas...
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Why are dead malls a thing? Why do they sit blighted for so long? And why can you still walk around inside them? It's more complicated than you might think. In my latest blog post, I explain the private thicket of rules and constraints blocking redevelopment: mnolangray.substack.com/p/why-are-de...
mnolangray.substack.com
Why Are Dead Malls a Thing?
Read the fine print.
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