Favorite Rejects 2022-06-21

Binyamin Appelbaum @BCAppelbaum

"Simsbury, CT, which is 87 percent white, just finalized a sale of nearly 300 acres to a land trust—killing an affordable-housing project in the process—on the premise that the site is historically significant because MLK once worked there."

theatlantic.comWhat Historic Preservation Is Doing to American CitiesLaws meant to safeguard great buildings and neighborhoods can also present an obstacle to social progress.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Does not seem ideal.

Liam Dillon @dillonliam

It now regularly can cost more than $1 million to build one apartment for low-income families in California https://t.co/LbMiD2A8cH

Scott Simpson @scottsimpson

Saw the new Top Gun but never saw the first movie—I assume they cover the backstory on how these big machines can just… fly?

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Something I always wonder about is how big could Greater New York get in a YIMBYtopia? In theory there is supposed to be some balance point between agglomeration benefits and congestion disamenities, but real wages are already higher in Boston & DC so I’m a little skeptical.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Given that the United States has so many more people than Japan, I think unconstrained New York should probably grow to be meaningfully larger than Tokyo — more than doubling the current population of the metro area.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Japan’s transportation infrastructure is a lot more sophisticated than ours which might hold us back, but even with current infrastructure NYC has a lot of unused subway capacity.

pedestrianobservations.comNew York City Zoning and Subway CapacityI got a bunch of accolades and a bunch of flaming replies over a tweetstorm imagining a bigger, better New York. Some people complained about my claim that subway trains in Brooklyn are underfull; …

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

For monetary policy purposes, it seems like a mistake to calculate inflation based on average rents rather than spot rents. I’ve been trying to think of something really tedious to write about for Thursday’s post so maybe this will be it. https://t.co/xFCoG3nyRW

Breaking News | FinancialJuice @Financialjuice1

FED'S BULLARD: THE RECENT RENT RISES COULD INDICATE INFLATION WILL STAY HIGHER FOR LONGER.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I hate to say that English people are right about anything, but calling the stuff you put in your cars "petrol" instead of "gas" is useful for avoiding ambiguity as to whether you're talking about gasoline or natural gas.

James Medlock @jdcmedlock

Incredible how quickly the narrative has gone from "no one wants to work anymore" to "we need to use public policy to put people out of work because unemployment is too low"

Jeff Stein @JStein_WaPo

Larry Summers -- who the president said he spoke with today -- publicly saying a 5% unemployment rate is necessary to combat inflation. To state the obvious, a 5% unemployment rate would mean devastating joblessness for millions of poor American workers https://t.co/wsSB9zmBy9

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

If this is accurate, it means Ukraine is inflicting 3 to 1 casualties on the Russians. Russia has a 4 to 1 population advantage, but due to limited mobilization it probably doesn't have a 3 to 1 military manpower advantage right now.

Michael Weiss 🌻🇺🇸🇮🇪 @michaeldweiss

"There is new evidence of some senior level Russian military commanders estimating their KIA number at 42,000. This is considerably more than any previously reported number even by the Ukrainians."