Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 26/09/2026Spotted a "NATIVE" license plate on a Benz, behind a cover obscuring the plate from law enforcement. 1. Anyone who cares about where they live should welcome the consequences of your actions. 2. Plus my usual complaints about people who think their birthplace gives them mystical seniority rights 1140
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 25/09/2026My bit is celebrating Metro line extensions with pub crawls, and doing up old-timey flyers for them. 2434
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 21/09/2026This is actually one of the state DOT's ideas to "improve" this very intersection, in a drawing dated 12/2025 www.ncdot.gov/projects/i-4... 370
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 21/09/2026oh my, they have new and even wilder ideas since I last made this joke. what is even happening here??? 130
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 21/09/2026NCDOT: we heard your concerns about Glenwood Ave loud and clear, and we're prepared to offer you a thrilling new tangle of zig-zag off-ramps, oh but wait because we somehow ran out of money because we spent it all on off-ramps somewhere else www.ncdot.gov/projects/i-4... 250
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 17/09/2026Whew, it's sticky and drizzly out. Inside lower bar has two Festbier choices 120
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 11/09/2026Amused that I spent so long reprogramming my IG algorithm to show me cute animals (rather than half-naked men) to avoid unrealistic body images... only for the thirst-trap guys to show up on my *LinkedIn* feed instead. 3150
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 27/08/2026Noticed lots of new construction ongoing in Philly this weekend; they are now permitting more units than DC, despite lower prices. Big apt towers don't pencil in either city. Rowhouses still pencil in both, but only Philly zones abundantly for them. fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1XWmF 020
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 03/08/2026This 1899 political cartoon is an example of how urban Americans (in this case, New Yorkers) viewed the transit companies at the time. 1113
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 26/07/2026Different shot, different day. Also, hello to Chicago's magic road! @ericallixrogers.com 0150
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 24/07/2026I'd noticed that Canadian cities have a lot of slabby apartment blocks, but still surprised that Canada built more multifamily than single-family from 1963-1973 www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-63... 091
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 22/07/2026Even the worst-transit-served block in DC has better transit and lower VMT than this corner of Loudoun County. Following the logic of TOD, DC should allow this RF-1-style density everywhere. Yet it doesn't - because it's applying TOD logic to exclude, not include. 142
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 22/07/2026"By suppressing less-costly “middle housing,” the grand bargain of TOD restricts middle-class families to either sprawling suburbs or older, less safe homes, and burdens lower-income residents with high rents and overcrowding — or pushes them out of the region entirely." 040
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 22/07/2026I get why this is a thing, but it's truly annoying that Substack by default allows other people to opt you into emails support.substack.com/hc/en-us/art... 161
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 22/07/2026Which is fine, but long-term land values don't grow spectacularly. Again from Hoyt, a land speculator in the frontier village of Chicago who watched the city balloon to 3M+ residents… might as well have bought a 6% bond. So, uh, hooray for avoiding a 0.6% annual rent increase? 170
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 21/07/2026Analogy: this block at Canal Park has DC-"zoned capacity" for 5 food trucks. That in no way guarantees a food truck will be there. "It is legal to sell here" & "enough people will buy here to make business worthwhile" are entirely different things that OP has confused. 020
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 16/07/2026I jokingly call vintage Chicago courtyards "1.5-stair PABs" ultralocal.blogspot.com/2011/03/typo... 131
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 12/07/2026Your experience belongs on the YIMBYtown stage! The pro-housing movement's best ideas come from organizers, planners, architects, elected officials, developers, researchers, tenants, advocates, communicators, and neighbors who are on the ground making policy change. Full details at yimby.town 292
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 25/06/2026Thank you, outhouse expert: cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/24/w... “Those vaults and tanks will develop a bit of a crust on top, or the toilet paper will act as a lily pad,” [Adam] Fink said. “You might see something you dropped sitting right at the surface, but that doesn’t mean that’s the bottom.” 162
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 24/06/2026Their theory vs. every single property crash in history (and original Chicago School sociology, attempting to impose empiricism upon social phenomena when theory is much tidier) extension.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-... 010
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 15/06/2026How did the pool survive without filtration until the 2000s? Because Canada geese weren't spreading tons of fertilizer into stagnant ponds and pools across the eastern US until the 2000s. www.allaboutbirds.org/news/canada-... 2335
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 11/06/2026She timed the market correctly, but many others didn't. Another comparison: these two 1960s Levittowns have the same houses the same distance from DC, yet very different outcomes westnorth.com/2015/07/06/h... 010
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 27/05/2026Though notably, the HDB touts actually substantially increased construction labor productivity?! www.hdb.gov.sg/hdb-pulse/ne... 020
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 24/05/2026Also, this is an unhinged way to divide New Jersey into three parts. NOAA: Yes, Central Jersey exists, it's from Perth Amboy to Millville 131
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 19/05/2026Dominion is having an unusual day. Power in NoVa (Ft. Belvoir highlighted) selling >$3000/kWh, while at Surry nuclear plant in SE VA it's -$60. If only there was some way to move those electrons... 150
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 07/05/2026Wind energy in the US is highly concentrated on the Great Plains, in states that largely elect Republicans. 070
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 06/05/2026This also matters with today's infrastructure. Data centers cluster in the mid-Atlantic because it has the best fiber and electrical connections to the northeast, midwest, and southeast (plus good access to trans-Atlantic cables, and superior reliability) 121
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 06/05/2026We're conditioned to think of the Northeast Corridor as stacked north-south, but it's closer to west-east. Boston, New York, and Philadelphia are all further east than north of Washington DC; e.g., NYC's bearing relative to DC is 50.75°. 45° would be true NE, 45-90 is ENE. 281
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 04/05/2026Alexandria began annexing outside the DC diamond not long after it was ceded, but most of its area outside DC (i.e., most of the Fairfax annexes, vs. Arlington co.) was added in 1952 tropicsofmeta.com/2013/03/14/t... Virginia began restricting annexations shortly thereafter 121
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 27/04/2026Goldman Sachs: 3/4 of today's data centers are *NOT* AI, and 53% of data centers built in 2025-26 are *NOT* AI www.goldmansachs.com/insights/art... 140
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 16/04/2026DC's strict solar-rights laws have predictably been weaponized to prevent taller housing, e.g. the 9-story bldg proposed for this vacant lot. I'm developing a surface parking lot right now; it won't get a solar canopy b/c future ADUs above it would have a much greater carbon impact. 261
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 16/04/2026These are *not* small structures; they have welded steel bracing and concrete footings. Cost is 40% more, energy and carbon footprint is 2-4X larger (concrete = lotsa CO2). link.springer.com/article/10.1... Ground/roof-mount systems can just drill prefab studs in. 4140
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 13/04/2026US "traction" (streetcar) companies were local conglomerates, often controlling electric power; they were the first to run power lines into new suburbs. Anti-monopoly advocates of the day pushed to break up these businesses, triumphing in 1935. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_... 120
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 13/04/2026Japan's land readjustment policy allows private RRs to leverage their existing land holdings w/ neighbors' land, lead urban redevelopment, and share returns. RRs want to maximize long-term ridership growth & their consistent cash flow reduces borrowing costs for the higher risk/return dev't biz. 230
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 07/04/2026Screen cap from a local PBS doc on Marshall Fields highlighting 11 foreign "buying offices... scores of buyers... go abroad to seek merchandise" www.pbs.org/video/the-cu... 010
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 06/04/2026sO MuCh WiNNiNg!!!!!!! No wonder Donald has an ironic online nickname in China: "Trump the Nation Builder," for his monumental efforts at advancing China's global interests at America's expense. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0... 040
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 05/04/2026When a 1-unit house is replaced with ONE larger house, the new house is ~3X pricier. When replaced by 5+ houses, each new house will be (on avg) cheaper than the original house. www.aei.org/research-pro... Change is part of the deal. Will we choose greater physical change, or greater price change? 416458
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 04/04/2026"Incremental growth" sounds like a nice theory to change-averse planners, but doesn't bear much resemblance to redevelopment reality. vrollet.github.io/files/city_s... "New buildings in NYC are 3.4 times larger than the building they replaced," far above Strong Towns' 1.5X suggested limit. 3448
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 30/03/2026The bus is basically free if you also buy a connecting flight. Same day as your search: PHL-MSP is $618, ILG-PHL-MSP is $617. But instead of advertising this as "complimentary shuttle bus for our customers," they list it as a flight because the airline's ticketing system lists things as flights. 2251
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 27/03/2026Fat cat Friday (this was Sox, a resident at Catty Corner in Leesburg, VA) 070
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 27/03/2026Almost all of them. I can count two in the very far back that are primarily office. Here's a map of current listings roughly within view of this photo... for under $400K (~median US house price) 2170
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 24/03/2026Just saw this 2024 poll result from Fannie Mae. Sure, Americans prefer SFHs, but - the % of Americans who *would* buy condos is ~3X current market share! "Clearly, consumer demand for this particular housing type appears to far outstrip supply" www.fanniemae.com/research-and... 020
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 23/03/2026NPS just dropped a social video touting "!! SaFeTY !!!!!" at this year's festival (read: it'll be crawling with troops and rifles) while removing PROVEN safety measures 150
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 19/03/2026Graph of NYC new housing production by decade below. The 1960s were the most recent decade when NYC built ~1% of its housing stock annually - an int'l benchmark that assumes (a) every housing unit will last 100 years and (b) no net growth in households 021
Payton Chung @westnorth.com · 13/03/2026The median DC housing unit has pretty much never been a SFH; it's always been a rowhouse city. The median home price is >$1M in only 0.5% of the nation's counties. Manhattan's is <$1.2M, four Bay Area counties ~$1.5M. $600K is filthy rich EVERYWHERE. www.nar.realtor/research-and... 131