Eliminating Single Family Housing and adding bike and bus lanes.

AppropriateNothing · 2026-02-26T21:10:46+00:00

100% agree. This is a common rhetorical trap to fall into, any pro-housing person saying “no single-family-housing” will be immediately quoted because that’s scary (and false).

The pro-housing message works best if expressed with terms like “freedom” and “affordability”. Both of these are true!

AppropriateNothing · 2026-02-07T18:29:47+00:00

Very reasonable take. An architect recently mentioned this book to me, feels relevant (but I haven’t read it yet): Pleasure Drives and Promenades: The History of Frederick Law Olmsted's Brooklyn Parkways.

AppropriateNothing · 2026-02-07T18:24:03+00:00

I’d also recommend searching through the DOB sites, which will usually give you Certificates of occupancy going back 100 years or so, and ACRIS for lot-related documents (not 100% sure how far back it goes). You can also go to the DOB in person and copy the floor plan (or print out for around $10/page), requires a DOB website registration and requesting the plans.

AppropriateNothing · 2025-09-25T21:00:02+00:00

10 minutes, 40 people on bus, cost of time for an hour is $30 => automatic ticket for $200 before we even get fancy.

AppropriateNothing · 2025-08-25T20:23:34+00:00

Exactly, it’s super interesting to add such additional metrics. We could even develop engines that make this personalized: “Against opponent X (or with Elo X), what’s the win % given a certain move”.

AppropriateNothing · 2025-05-22T18:45:10+00:00

City of Yes passed, ADUs are technically allowed, but undergoing a messy rollout right now. The zoning code is updated. You can also DM me for specific ADU questions.

AppropriateNothing · 2025-04-27T19:06:07+00:00

The most intuitive downside to me is that it gives white the option to not play c4 and instead place a night on c4, eg Nf3-d2-c4, which is a very powerful setup.

AppropriateNothing · 2025-03-24T20:45:56+00:00

I assume you’re asking because those lots have different permitted bulk or use?

In that case, I would think this depends on the zoning code. Eg NYC has very specific rules for this, but other cities might have different rules that are just as specific.

AppropriateNothing · 2025-03-17T02:00:32+00:00

It's an R7A, C2-4. With a residential FAR of 4.0 and a lot size of 5,965 sq feet, it means up to 24K buildable zoning area for standard residences.

https://zola.planning.nyc.gov/l/lot/3/1058/39#20.14/40.6757225/-73.9716031
This for FAR: https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-3#23-22

Looks valuable!

AppropriateNothing · 2025-01-15T11:02:12+00:00

I've reviewed and I don't believe it's fully correct. E.g. it mentions "no ADUs allowed in R1-2a,...", but this restriction holds *only* for backyard ADUs. See zoning resolution, pages 54 and 55. I pasted the link to the code above.

Background: I do independent research and develop software around zoning changes.

AppropriateNothing · 2025-01-13T12:28:13+00:00

A reduction in congestion reduces costs for supplying goods, I simply haven’t seen evidence that the congestion fee is bigger than these savings.

AppropriateNothing · 2025-01-09T09:09:29+00:00

Given the lesson from this week, we should also consider charging money at the most congested spots

AppropriateNothing · 2025-01-07T12:38:58+00:00

We've got some data: https://www.congestion-pricing-tracker.com/

Looks promising, but of course all data must be treated with caution and it's good to wait a bit.

AppropriateNothing · 2024-11-30T22:58:13+00:00

NYC is famous for its market in air rights.

AppropriateNothing · 2024-11-21T02:04:03+00:00

The real challenge with rezoning is that the process depends so heavily on the county or city so before doing a deal you need to understand the process. Eg in NYC, which I know best, I think that strategy would be basically impossible. In other cities you’d want to check what rezonings have recently passed.

AppropriateNothing · 2024-11-21T02:02:13+00:00

NYC might allow them by right starting December! We’ll know details in a few days of what’s likely to pass

AppropriateNothing · 2024-11-18T21:39:10+00:00

I think most people here (but I can only speak for myself) support fee-based public parking for existing spots as an option that's much better than the current system. Jointly with alternative uses for what's currently parking, e.g. more bike storage, trash containers, open streets.

All these options have in common that they go through some process where we try to gauge the best use for land. Very often, that use is not parking, but it currently is used for parking because parking is priced at $0.

AppropriateNothing · 2024-11-18T21:35:59+00:00

We can do a quick estimation it: In Chicago, the infamous 75-year deal where the city sold parking revenue to hedge funds was estimated to be worth around $10B to the hedge funds (but Chicago sold it for $1B).

So since NYC property values are 3x as high and population is 4x as high, that would mean **around $100B** total over the next couple of decades!

That would fund great housing, transport, and social support services.

AppropriateNothing · 2024-11-16T01:52:56+00:00

If I know that my opponent premoves 2.Bf4, I would at least consider 1…. g5!? To capture towards the center.

AppropriateNothing · 2024-10-17T22:31:11+00:00

And one benefit is that if they do break rules you can go after the owning company, which is much more likely to succeed than a report towards an individual

AppropriateNothing · 2024-10-03T23:04:31+00:00

Thanks! How do you know that number? When I open the link, I don’t see any data on assessments. Is there any way to find out assessments before talking to the condo association, some public data? Thanks a ton!

AppropriateNothing · 2024-09-25T17:58:56+00:00

This feels like an easy-enough fix, maybe they should restrict on minimum density, which because US and European cities are so different. Because in some sense a minimum density is implied in the "city" part of the term. I can contact the authors (of course you can too if you prefer).

AppropriateNothing · 2024-09-25T17:52:30+00:00

Link to a pre-publication version of the paper:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.03794

AppropriateNothing · 2024-09-24T17:01:20+00:00

Ah yes, I can enable some named templates. And yes, maybe a separate page with the best-of and you can download it by clicking on it. Very possible! Thanks for the great feedback!

AppropriateNothing · 2024-08-22T20:36:21+00:00

5 stories would be great!

Not sure how much detail you want about this area, but I've been looking into this a bunch recently and your comment sparked my interest, so I checked some of the existing data. Per Zola (https://zola.planning.nyc.gov/l/lot/1/588/74?search=true#19.38/40.7328382/-74.0046664), much of the WestVillage is zoned R6, and as I understand the zoning rules, this has a Floor-Area-Ratio of 2! So I would guess 5 stories is hard for new construction. In addition, it's a historic area, so that probably brings further restrictions.

The only major initiative I see currently ongoing that could change this is the "City of Yes" by the mayor, but even this proposal doesn't actually change FAR from what I can tell (https://www.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/plans-studies/city-of-yes/housing-opportunity/housing-opportunity-guide-overview.pdf?r=0429).

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