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Stephen Jacob Smith

@stephenjacobsmith.com
13K followers 1K following 24K posts

Executive director of the Center for Building in North America (centerforbuilding.org), stephen@centerforbuilding.org. Personal account. Brooklyn, NY.

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Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
John Lansing @pipedreaming.bsky.social · 3h
I just learned from a German engineer that the Messeturm tower in Frankfurt, the 3rd tallest building in the EU, was built with single stack drainage configurations in every bathroom serving all 63 floors. The stack diameters are 8-inches and all vent piping is eliminated except at the top floor.
en.wikipedia.org
Messeturm - Wikipedia
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 3h
“The Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants the Trump administration to exempt New York City’s purchases of new subway cars and buses from tariffs to avoid $1 billion in added fees on the nation’s biggest transit system.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
MTA Seeks to End $1 Billion of Tariffs on Subway Cars, Buses
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants the Trump administration to exempt New York City’s purchases of new subway cars and buses from tariffs to avoid $1 billion in added fees on the nation’s...
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 3h
@paulbarter.bsky.social has noted that as countries develop, cities shift from being oriented around motorcycles to transit. Unfortunately NYC is backsliding: people are shifting to e-micro-mobility because transit options are poor, and with that sometimes comes death www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/n...
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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 4h
Reupping very cool MTA openings!
The MTA wants *you* to apply
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 3h
Crazy how much of a powerhouse NIST (formerly NBS) used to be in building code research. Pretty much every topic you'd want to know about up until certainly the 1970s and in some cases the early 2000s, they did some of the highest-quality research there is. And now, almost nothing.
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 4h
The bus lanes, cameras enforcement, congestion pricing, and maybe even redesigns are working – MTA buses are traveling faster than they have since 2022 nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/09/29/w...
nyc.streetsblog.org
Wheels Up: City Bus Speeds Hit Four-Year High Under Mayor Mamdani - Streetsblog New York City
Citywide bus speeds hit 8.5 mph in August, which is the quickest buses have moved through the city in four years
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Truthout @truthout.org · 18h
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the oldest member of the Senate, has said that he worries Iowa may elect a Democratic governor because that person would pick his replacement if he dies while in office. Grassley will be 95 when his term expires in January 2029.
buff.ly
Chuck Grassley, 93, Laments a Democrat Could Replace Him If He Dies in Office
The remarks come as Sen. Mitch McConnell, 84, faces calls to step down over health- and age-related concerns.
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Carey @careylikemariah.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"For six years, I’ve sat in the center of what many call Brooklyn’s political game of thrones — a place where power is coveted, alliances shift overnight, and battles erupt without warning. Some joked I was the Mother of Dragons, holding fire in one hand and strategy in the other." LOL WHAT
nydailynews.com
I’m turning over the Brooklyn Dems’ reins
For six years, I’ve sat in the center of what many call Brooklyn’s political game of thrones — a place where power is coveted, alliances shift overnight, and battles erupt without warning. Some joked ...
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 19h
There is still work to be done. But we have built out the foundation of a statewide framework for streamlined small lot/townhouse/cottage court subdivisions in California. This framework will form the basis of a boom on the scale of ADU reform, but for homeownership.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 19h
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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Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 19h
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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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 21h
The firefighter air replenishment system manufacturers' astroturf group is clearly on the free tier of ChatGPT mailchi.mp/aircoalition...
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 29/09/2026
This is the problem with the urban left: they base housing policy on how they "feel" about developers' "pain." This is not about feelings, it's about building housing! www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/24/b...
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 29/09/2026
The city needs get out of the business of being a landlord to the city’s grocery wholesalers, since it’s clearly very bad at it. Other industrial districts (northern Brooklyn, Maspeth, South Bronx, Sunset Park, West Shore of SI) should be upzoned for modern warehouses, Hunts Point should be sold off
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 28/09/2026
What on earth does a food bank need with 10 acres of land??
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 28/09/2026
One ADA suit in NYC has undone another: in installing the audible ped signal for blind people as part of the latest judgement, they ripped up the street and created more unevenness in the roadbed for people in wheelchairs than the curb ramp deficiency that the prior $1.5bn ADA settlement “corrected”
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 28/09/2026
If something increases 13x, it’s a sign that it started at a very low level. The most helpful context here would be: the net profit margin of the service is 10.8% (www.nyc.gov/html/dot/dow...), which is slightly above average for the US economy (pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/Ne...).
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 28/09/2026
Wow, they’re selling 30 condos on public land. In NYC, City Council has effectively banned any *private* land rezoned since 2014 from being sold as condos, through MIH. It’s really frustrating at a city so deferential to owners of existing homes is so hostile to more homeownership opportunities.
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Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Clem Tillier @ctillier.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I always thought under-slung BART wouldn’t fit through the Golden Gate Bridge towers, but it turns out BART is small and the bridge is huge. Here is a mockup in 1/100 scale, BART fits easily.
A photo of a 1/100 scale model of a tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, showing a paper cutout of a cross section of a BART line under the road deck. It fits easily.
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 28/09/2026
If Anthropic releases a report about all of the amendments that California suburbs make to the California construction codes without any real justification, then that would actually be great because idk if we’re ever going to finish it and we would appreciate the help
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 28/09/2026
Funny bit to get upset about a lack of alt text on an Instagram post by a bar located down a literal flight of stairs
Last Ditch, a basement bar down a set of concrete steps, beneath a Mexican restaurant, drew news coverage in Europe and the United States this week after a Boston Globe story about the bar's plan to lift its Covid mask requirement on Saturday
nights went viral.
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Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Jason Rabinowitz @airlineflyer.net · 27/09/2026
They also converted much of the original elevated Maglev test track into a linear solar farm youtu.be/u5TYGhSOaLo?...
youtu.be
Japan Built These Maglev Train Tracks and Left It Behind
YouTube video by Tanner
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 27/09/2026
The whole sidewalk has had its pavers destroyed by cars loading and stopping on the curb because the politics of NYC are unable to tell a street of townhouse owners that their street is too narrow for parking
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 27/09/2026
“Golf courses, which multiplied in Japan during the boom years of the 1980s, are some of the last tracts of open land available…About 9% of Japan’s utility-scale solar capacity is on former golf courses, according to an analysis…that includes arrays with capacity of 0.9 megawatts or greater.”
bloomberg.com
Japan Has No Space for Solar Farms Apart From Old Golf Courses
The perfectly manicured fairways at Minohara Country Club wind through the forested hills of Gunma Prefecture about two hours from downtown Tokyo. In a few years, they’ll disappear under row-upon-row ...
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 27/09/2026
Well at least they all comply with the 2% cross-slope standard
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 27/09/2026
Eight-year-olds are so weird…like what do you mean you want me to tell you about all of the negative behavioral effects of CTE?? Eyes bulging, smile as wide as could be. “Go deeper! And creepier!” Girl, chiiiiill‼️
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Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Adrián @elenoam.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Crazy the debacle of housing production in Mexico City: 2006: 18,000 units 2016: 13,000 units 2025: 2,000 units
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 27/09/2026
Janno Lieber, at 21:00, is remarkably noncommittal about whether faster bus speeds translate into operational cost savings. Big issue with the MTA CEO is that he doesn’t really understand transit! open.spotify.com/episode/6Oeg...
open.spotify.com
$897 million, with MTA CEO & Chair Janno Lieber
What's The [DATA] Point · Episode
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 27/09/2026
Janno Lieber likes to blame Mamdani’s free bus campaign and Covid for muddying the waters and worsening bus fare evasion. Meanwhile, Lieber’s own buses are confusing riders in multiple ways (this bus is not going to Court Sq!) by flashing a “FARE REQUIRED” message on a free subway replacement bus
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Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Damien Moule @damienmoule.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The requirements for generators in low rise buildings in Ontario and recommendations on how to adjust it: neptis.cdn.prismic.io/neptis/L1DmK...
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 27/09/2026
Gotta find a way to get all of these anti-data center candidates to care about the codes forcing diesel generators into ordinary apartment buildings www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Data Center Opposition Spawns a Surge of First-Time Candidates
Activists who cut their teeth fighting data center projects in their towns are now riding a wave of AI tech pushback to seek office in local elections.
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Simon @simon514.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Saw it two years ago at Innotrans, and today I travelled on the exact same train (6526 005) for real: the Stadler Flirt Akku BEMUs 🔋 entered service this week! :) 44 of these will run on various unelectrified lines in southern Palatinate replacing DMUs, starting with (Karlsruhe-) Landau - Neustadt
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Adrián @elenoam.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Writing a report about exclusionary zoning in Mexico City; so I made this cute map of the existing stock vs. the permitted. No surprise this city barely builds anything.
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 26/09/2026
Missed this earlier this month, but Mamdani and the YIMBYs won and City Council approved John Mangin as BSA chair on September 10 citylimits.org/city-council...
citylimits.org
City Council Approves Mamdani's Nominee for Key Housing Post, Despite 'Reservations' - City Limits
Lawmakers approved John Mangin to chair the Board of Standards and Appeals, following a tense nomination hearing where some criticized him as dismissive to local residents' concerns about new developm...
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Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 25/09/2026
I have a distinct memory of Andy Byford saying, “That shouldn’t happen, we’ll fix that” about the 10-sec pauses at terminals before opening the doors, but I can’t find it now. Idk if it was on Twitter or something? Or maybe I hallucinated it. @2avesag.as, @ndhapple.bsky.social, do you remember this?
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Jason Linkins @dceiver.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"We're told some of the attendees were shocked the former Republican governor would host Raman, a democratic socialist. But after hearing her pitch for tackling L.A.'s problems, some who came in skeptical walked away impressed." www.tmz.com/2026/09/25/a...
tmz.com
Arnold Schwarzenegger Introduces L.A. Mayoral Candidate Nithya Raman to Power Players
Arnold Schwarzenegger is opening doors for Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman ... bringing her face-to-face with some of the city's biggest power players, TMZ has learned.
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 25/09/2026
I actually don’t want random institutions to pay ex-FBI officers to do this every time there’s a semi-high-profile speaker? Americans – notably including Charlie Kirk – decided that we should all be a trigger-pull away from death every time we step into public, and so we are. So what’s the issue?
The school also ceded key decisions to Kirk's organization, Turning Point USA, and didn't properly assess the likelihood of a rooftop shooter, according to an independent security review released Friday. The university commissioned the review of security procedures at its campus in Orem, Utah, which hosted Kirk the day he was assassinated.
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Mo Zhu @moinmybackyard.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
omg this didn't sound true. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...
sfgate.com
SF fire chief bans helmet cameras in wake of crash
San Francisco's fire chief has explicitly banned firefighters from using helmet-mounted...
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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The only way the math works on a walkable neighborhood without relying on stairs is if some of the buildings around have a) multiple stories b) one particular 150-year old technology that I have learned a *lot* about in the last year (more in a bit)
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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
My colleague @trufahey.bsky.social sent me this on Instagram a few months ago. Nice visual illustration of this "trap" of aging...but the creator missed the crucial fact that if you actually want local amenities, stair-free homes can't be one-story homes. They've gotta be a few homes stacked.
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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Townhomes are great for all sorts of people & neighborhoods, like these charming 20something homebuyers in Concordia. Here's the thing: none of us are 20somethings forever. And every townhouse is built around something that doesn't work for everybody. A staircase.
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Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I have a confession to make. The townhomes I & others spent most of a decade trying to legalize are popping up all over Oregon & elsewhere...and I love that...but they're a problem in one big way. (get ready for a twisty thread about the housing report @sightline.org just published)
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 25/09/2026
Why does the MTA not enable CBTC when pulling into the 8th Ave. terminal on the L? It’s noticeably slower and jerkier than the rest of the ride, I have to assume because it’s driven manually by somebody who’s not getting much practice.
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 25/09/2026
What are these statistics on the SFFD website? Calls per month? Per year? Weird to put such exact data with no description in such a prominent place. sf-fire.org/fire-station...
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 25/09/2026
Really unfortunate that the EU is trying to push anti-China protectionism on the UK. But what about Norway and Switzerland, which have no tariffs on Chinese cars? Are they getting the made-in-Europe designation that the UK is looking for here? giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
EU urges UK to raise tariffs on Chinese cars to avoid ‘made in Europe’ barriers
London has lobbied intensely to secure equal treatment for British products but continues to rule out a customs union
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Sam @samd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The fact that a bunch of lefty state legislators signed onto this ridiculous anti-nuclear fearmongering letter is unbelievable Cuomo teamed up with RFK Jr. shut down a nuclear plant and it caused NY emissions to skyrocket!
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 24/09/2026
Pres. AOC/Buttigieg/Ossoff should turn this into an actual Office of Remigration that tracks down former immigrants to the US ejected by the Trump administration and offers them visas to return
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 24/09/2026
PS 47 in Queens in the lede is legitimately hell by transit. My great-aunt used to live nearby and visiting her by transit from 12 miles away in Brooklyn took almost two hours. The outer boroughs need much better transit to break the auto dependency. Regional rail, bus priority, new subway lines.
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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...
So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 24/09/2026
Aren’t the white grandmas actually the landlords to the immigrants in Spain??
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