Favorites May 18 2021

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

In one of the perhaps more robust indicators of "getting back to normal", restaurant traffic in the US is now 90-100% of its pre-pandemic baseline. opentable.com/state-of-indus…

Woo hoo! Vaccinations!

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Great new research brief from @ajc730, @benconomics, @emilyweisburst, and @morgancwilliam5 on the impact of police staffing —  "every 10-17 officers hired abate one new homicide per year" with a larger impact on saving Black victims.

niskanencenter.orgWhen cities add cops, Black residents could have the most to gain — and the most to lose - Niskanen CenterWhile most white Americans are generally satisfied with the police service they receive, among Black Americans there is considerably greater concern that the costs of policing are too high and that the benefits are not as large as they ought to be.

Interesting tidbit: more police mean *fewer* arrests because of less crime.

Patrick Collison @patrickc

On the elasticity of the supply of entrepreneurs: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

This finding is wild. We should probably find a better method of encouraging entrepreneurship than using recessions to accomplish this.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

I’m getting some subtle hints that Biden would rather talk about electric cars which unite his party and divide the opposition rather than about Israel/Palestine which unites the opposition and divides his party.

Seung Min Kim @seungminkim

Via pooler @AlexThomp, as Biden test-drives a Ford F-150: The pool asked the president if we could ask a question about Israel. The president said “no, you can’t. Not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it. I’m only teasing”.

Look, I think the Biden admin should live up to its promise to stop wasting our time/money on the middle east, but I have to admit that strategically, not commenting on it is the way to go.

David Lieb @dflieb

When my Bump cofounder @andyhuibers (one of the founding engineers on this) first showed me the demo, it was (and still is) the single most amazing tech demo I’ve ever seen. Congrats @claybavor and the entire team!

Clay Bavor @claybavor

This is Project Starline. Years in the making, it works like a magic window, bringing you together with friends, family, and coworkers, even when you're cities (or countries) apart. https://t.co/mtisR5xVhT https://t.co/CtNmBoHhRm

Lieb knows a good product when he sees one. The video is incredible.

Market Urbanism @MarketUrbanism

Everybody's saying Houston, but it's actually Seattle. Seattle's zoning code is loose enough that it now has had a much higher housing stock growth rate than Houston, and what it builds is dramatically more transit-oriented

YIMBY Tehran ییمبی تهران 🥑🕌🏙 @TehranYimby

Which American city has the ~best zoning?

Seattle builds a ton of homes, and they've actually brought down rent, one of very few metro areas to do that. Look at these graphs! By the way, YIMBY Tehran has some cool looking buildings recently.

YIMBY Tehran ییمبی تهران 🥑🕌🏙 @TehranYimby

New residential development in Tehran, Iran. 🧱

The building is in Iran, but I think the person who runs the account is in Los Angeles.

Our buildings in California are interesting, but there’s always room for improvement.