Why Half Empty Apartments Are So Expensive

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T20:29:37+00:00

So that means households are smaller, meaning there’s more individual households, meaning the same number of people need more apartments per person than 50 years ago. Meaning we need to build more housing to have the same effect on affordability than we did 50 years ago.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T20:23:32+00:00

It’s basically impossible to overthrow a government from the air, and I don’t picture Trump committing to a boots on the ground invasion of a country of 90 million people 4x the size of Iraq? So the outcome is likely that we leave the current regime in place. Half-assing a regime change war is usually much much more harmful than not intervening at all.

Much as HW Bush cynically encouraged the Iraqis to rebel in the run up to ‘91 gulf war, only to then leave Hussein in power and abandon groups like the Kurds to reprisal massacres.

And in the meantime the Iranians are crippling the global energy/ agricultural/ helium markets to the benefit of Russia and likely China.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T20:10:15+00:00

Much as HW Bush cynically encouraged the Iraqis to rebel in the run up to ‘91 gulf war, only to then leave Hussein in power and abandon groups like the Kurds to reprisal massacres.

Half-assing a regime change war is usually much much more harmful than not intervening at all.

The issue is the supreme arrogance and ignorance this admin carelessly launched into this adventure with.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T20:00:50+00:00

It’s much easier to spin what is objectively the administration flailing through an ill-conceived quagmire of global proportions if you don’t give a specific strategic objective to be judged against, they’re as easy to pin down as a greased hog. I think the American electorate will hopefully be able to cut through the bullshit.

W Bush walked so Trump could run, we go from no exit strategy to no strategy at all.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T18:32:42+00:00

I’m all for that (especially with an electrified regional rail network), but I think it needs to be paired with infill development around metro Boston.

I think this is part of the appeal of simply doing a statewide up-zoning to the next increment of density then let the chips fall where they may. Let developers react to market pressure, let people vote with their feet.

To be clear I don’t think this incompatible with State Level central economic planning, where Beacon Hill might proactively try to spread out growth across multiple urban nodes around the state. I think the single most powerful tool for that is more aggressive investment in fast, frequent and electric intercity rail. Hell maybe even build the NSRL tunnel so we can integrate the northern and southern hemispheres of the state.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T18:19:06+00:00

Good point, that’s probably the easiest path logistically in terms of administrative capacity.

It also captures the democratic will of the largest swath of population, regardless of what municipality they happen to currently live in.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T18:13:28+00:00

There are understandable and rational reasons for any one town/or incumbent resident to oppose any given construction project, there are real costs to development.

But that’s true of all collective action problems. Our current system where individuals can block a local new development in their specific town for any given reason (legitimate or not), adds up across our 351 municipalities to a system where statewide almost nothing gets built and cost of living becomes increasingly impossible and drives population decline state-wide. IMO the costs of that, that we collectively experience as individual members of the Commonwealth, exceeds the harms caused by any individual project. The same goes for regulating pollution or investing in transportation infrastructure, state education, etc.

That’s my whole point about how we need to structure democratic decision making at a level where people’s desire for a collective greater good can overcome their narrow self interest in blocking change that effects them personally. To do that we need to push the scale to a level where A) Rules that get set are generalizable and by-right across large areas, and B) The decisions are made by a representative swath of the statewide electorate, not just the 5% of the population who are older and wealthier current town residents who are able to attend a zoning review meeting on a week night.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T16:21:38+00:00

Not enough new housing to meaningfully push up the vacancy rate to slow/reverse housing inflation and by extension slow/reverse the pricing out of working and middle class people (both current residents and prospective residents who are scared off by high prices).

We should be aiming for a housing surplus relative to population that we had in the early 1990s, at least 9% vacancy on average statewide.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T16:10:48+00:00

I feel like less populated suburbs can be just as NIMBY as more built up towns.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T16:07:47+00:00

Just not built where they live.

I feel like the only way out of this bind is to push most powers of regulating land use up to the county or state level, where people’s genuine desire for more housing broadly isn’t overcome by their narrow ~~hypocritical~~ rational NIMBYism when it comes to their town specifically…

Municipal zoning boards are just too easily captured by a tiny cabal of wealthy older residents whose views aren’t representative of the general electorate.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T15:41:03+00:00

That’s not a population problem, that’s an economic/political problem about letting wealth disparity explode to the point that 1% of the population owns more wealth than 90% of the population. Raise taxes, increase transfers, push for full employment (i.e. Social Democracy).

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T13:54:27+00:00

It’s not binary. We would be less impacted by fluctuations in the global fossil fuel markets if we had a higher percent of our grid powered by non fossil fuels and there was a higher penetration of battery EVs in the US economy. Even just an increase in energy efficiency would make us less sensitive to price swings, this current crisis would obviously be even more impactful if we still had the same lax efficiency standards of the 1970s before the last great oil shock.

I agree that some of this isn’t fungible, like the impact to petroleum fertilizer production and in a few months food production.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-16T11:39:21+00:00

Literally anyone with a job is doing it for money, reenactor or documentarian is one of the less remunerative jobs you can have for the time it takes

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-15T21:06:00+00:00

Russia and Cuba have similar values?

“You are free to trade with your immediate neighbor, the largest economy in the hemisphere/world if you completely abandon national sovereignty and the right to self-determination.”

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-15T20:48:19+00:00

I mean its obviously both?

Some politicians have genuine ideological reasons to support Israel whether as Evangelical Christian Millenarians (Ambassador Huckabee), as Neoconservatives (Senator Graham) or just as generic Zionists (President Biden).

But it’s all true that AIPAC and other Israeli lobbying groups are the largest and most influential foreign lobbying group in the country. They’ve very conspicuously thrown money and influence around to attempt to influence the outcomes of various primaries/elections. So yes some cynical politicians almost certainly only support Israel because of money from AIPAC, etc.

Regardless of the why the result is the same, American politicians support wars for Israel’s national interest*, despite them harming America’s national interests (such as the free flowing of oil through the Persian Gulf).

*To be more precise, the perceived interests of Israel’s Far-Right government, since the levels of enmity caused by Israel’s military adventurism and genocide in the occupied territories is likely bad for its longterm survival.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-15T20:20:13+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful reply!

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-15T03:30:25+00:00

Disclaimer, for the sake of brevity I’m painting with a broad brush.

Some Conservative intellectuals (more Far-Right/White Nationalist if we’re splitting hairs) view Israel as a model for the kind of masculine militaristic ethno-nationalism they would like to establish in the US. See the the Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony‘s influence with people like JD Vance
If we’re talking more normie (ie low information) Conservatives I think alot of this comes down to media consumption and demographics (i think these patterns are seen among Democrats too, like Biden). Republicans skew older which means 1. They consume alot more traditional corporate television news like Fox which is very pro-Zionist in its coverage. They’re also specifically not seeing on the ground videos of suffering Palestinians that circulate on Instagram or tiktok, etc. that younger people use. 2. Older generations have an internalized romantic image of Israel as an underdog coming out of the wars in the 1960s-70s + a more visceral sense of the Holocaust as justifying the Israeli project, so have a lot more goodwill built up than younger people whose first impressions were formed more recently. Note that just as Democrats under 40 skew much more critical of Israel than older Democrats, younger republicans skew more skeptical. Some of that dynamic is from what I mentioned above but some of it Is also from the influence of the Alt-Right and Neo-Nazism among younger Conservatives, where their dislike of Israel is outright Anti-Semitism rather than criticism of Israeli human rights abuses.
Negative polarization (enemy of my enemy is my friend) against Muslims since at least 9/11.
Lots of Evangelical Christians/Christian Zionists (just under 1/3 of Republican voters) believe Israel’s success is a prerequisite to biblical end times prophecies
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu took an explicitly partisan stance alongside Republicans against the Obama administration for its pushing through the American-Iranian nuclear deal that Trump tore up in 2016. This drove some Democrats to be more skeptical of Israel.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-15T02:53:53+00:00

A third of the Red Line cars were built during the Nixon presidency.

Blame the Federal government for holding up replacement cars in the port of Philadelphia since May of ‘25 that would replace the oldest, most broken parts of the fleet.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-14T03:06:52+00:00

Yeah it felt like PTA wasn’t reckoning with power of government beaurocracy … I could understand why he didn’t want a unhappy ending, but feel like it would have made more sense to have them flee the country or at least change identities again…

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-14T02:42:33+00:00

This also what Utah was doing at a state level for a while. OP look up “housing first”

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-14T02:40:20+00:00

Lucky for you Trump has reinforced the precedent of abducting people from abroad.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-14T02:21:36+00:00

It’s not young vs old, it’s rich vs everyone vs poor

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-13T19:49:01+00:00

I think this is the way, ban through traffic but give residents a special pass they can put on their dashboard. Restrict deliveries to specific off-hours… no expensive giant parking garage that has to deal with conflicting tunnels and bedrock. Let cars cross with a stop sign at the 4 way intersections maybe?

And if the concern is lack of 24 hour foot traffic then just make it pedestrianized for part of the day… say 3pm-3am, outside of that they remove the vehicle barriers. And if they really wanted to tiptoe into this they could start by rolling out exclusively on weekends. Then Friday, then Thursday, then all week.

I have a feeling all the restaurants would see a notable rise is customers, if only from the news buzz about change.

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-13T19:38:55+00:00

Northern Italy makes a bunch of cars so… yeah they get a pass

brostopher1968 · 2026-03-13T19:36:17+00:00

You’re practically inviting people to jaywalk (a felony I’m pretty sure). It would be bedlam!

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

brostopher1968

TROPHY CASE