In the last 7 years, there's been lots of attention to *residential* parking mandates.
Which makes sense! When you require people to pay for parking whether they need it or not, you block housing near transit & make low-car cities impossible.
But...
Jan 5 • 20 tweets • 8 min read
Confession time: I've been typing the word "duplex" almost nonstop for 5 years. It's been going pretty well!
But...I'm starting to think the word misses a more important goal: a detached backyard home that can be sold separately.
sightline.org/2022/01/05/bac…
Since I became obsessed with re-legalizing duplexes, 4plexes & so on, I've heard three very good critiques over and over:
Dec 14, 2021 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
It's hugely disappointing to me that the whole Portland City Council (@tedwheeler, @DanRyanPDX, @CommRubio, @JoAnnPDX, @Mingus4Portland) has decided to do as these folks urge & keep giving landowners (but not tenants) special power to block nearby housing.
Under Oregon's unusual laws, NR districts are a uniquely undemocratic way for landowners to block nearby housing. This makes them dangerous.
Short thread & how you could help:
Aug 1, 2021 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
This morning, after years of work by hundreds of Portlanders, 4plexes, mixed-income 6plexes, double ADUs, big group homes & backyard RVs became legal almost everywhere in town.
CA's SB 35 legalized no-parking buildings near transit and 1/unit elsewhere in its "streamlined" housing approval track for cities the state identifies as underbuilding. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavC…@sarabronin@desegregateCT@Sightline Oregon's HB2001 explicitly struck down all parking mandates for ADUs themselves, and subsequent rulemaking also capped parking mandates for 2-4plexes depending on lot size. (2 total spaces/lot for lots <7k sqft, etc) sightline.org/2020/12/14/ore…
Apr 7, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
important question: is the flying thing at the end of Harrison Bergeron
a) a Borgesian rock and roll "AND AS WE WIND ON DOWN THE ROADS" type thing, or
b) a big reveal that the whole thing has been a satire and ahktually it's television, not communism, that creates mediocrity
web.archive.org/web/2018010219…
Feb 25, 2021 • 20 tweets • 10 min read
Oregon bill that would strike down bans on 3-story attached homes within 1/8 mile of light rail & BRT stops has 1st hearing tomorrow.
1/8 mile = 3 blocks. It's a VERY modest bill. League of Cities had been quiet but just said it'll oppose because it heard from a city (Eugene).
Cool things in HB2558:
- mandatory bonus (1 extra floor) if below-market homes are included
- gives cities option to instead allow bigger buildings on a smaller share of the station area
- backed by @1000oregon, @OregonSmart, Welcome Home Coalition
I am obsessed with what a big deal a federal monthly credit of $250-$350 per child would be for housing sightline.org/2021/02/12/a-f…
A few years ago, the heroic folks at @OCPPnews made the case for Oregon to fund a state housing voucher program.
I found it hugely persuasive. It was also seen as so expensive that it could take a decade to win. If we were lucky.
Good morning especially to @juliefahey & @MarkoLiias, cross-Cascadian housing champs sponsoring bills in both OR & WA to strike down local bans on the number of "unrelated" people who are allowed to share big houses.
sightline.org/2021/02/10/it-…
These local bans on shared homes may already be illegal under the US Constitution's right of free association and/or state fair housing laws.
It's 2021! The zoning code isn't allowed to decide who does and doesn't count as a "family." sightline.org/2017/06/12/goi…
Dec 14, 2020 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
No law should require someone to pay for parking spaces they don't need.
Oregon just slashed parking requirements statewide. First state-level action of its kind in US history ❤️🌎🏘️
sightline.org/2020/12/14/ore…
The rule applies specifically to "middle housing": duplexes, 3plexes, 4plexes, townhomes & clustered cottages.
In most states that'd be a sweet change, but wouldn't matter too much.
But in Oregon, the same law legalized middle housing on almost every urban lot in the state. So.
Dec 24, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Hoo boy here it comes - the long-awaited national realignment on yimbyism.
In OR, even with D supermajorities, we needed a few votes of rural market-fundamentalist Rs to get the bill past Ds from rich exclusionary burbs.
If VA's duplex bill passes, I think that door closes.
This is a photo of the status quo in Portland rush hour. Can you spot the bus?
We're so accustomed to this that we fail to see how deeply unjust it is.
Jun 4, 2019 • 21 tweets • 9 min read
This is sort of a crazy chart from @OregonDEQ that can be summed up as "detached housing seems to be bad for the environment by every metric we could think of" oregon.gov/deq/FilterDocs…@OregonDEQ Seriously, I do not currently expect to start wearing a button that says "lawns cause cancer" but there you have it
May 20, 2019 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
18% of Astoria homes are in a duplex, triplex or fourplex. Hood River: 14%. Grants Pass: 13%. Portland: 10%.
Why do smaller cities build so much middle housing?
Same reason big cities would if it were still generally legal there: it’s less expensive
In it, @samanthamatsu & @DaveMillerOPB paraphrase Albany Mayor Sharon Konopa as seeming to call middle housing a "Portland solution."
It isn't!
May 7, 2019 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
In this thread & post from last fall, I wrote about how unbelievably stupid it would be to spend $168 million on 5 new parking garages along TriMet's next rail line (2x the dedicated funding for affordable housing)
My post was harsh; when it came out, it got a lot of pushback from @trimet on various grounds. One of their main substantive points was that a 5-garage scenario was unlikely. (Cool, I replied, but there it is in the documents...)
Now they may be delivering on that implication.
Feb 14, 2019 • 19 tweets • 8 min read
Happy Valentine's Day!
I am celebrating with the following thread about the craziest & maybe most important thing going on right now on my favorite subject: PARKING
Seriously we're on the cusp of a potentially earth-shaking federal policy shift.
BUT
it needs your help
Here's the full scoop (and I think this is indeed the first coverage of this particular angle): sightline.org/2019/02/14/bel…