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Zak Yudhishthu

@zyudhishthu.bsky.social

3.7K followers 1.1K following 1.3K posts

Sidewalk enthusiast and former St. Paulite. I like to write about housing policy, especially in the Twin Cities. Nowadays I’m an economics research assistant in Chicago https://pencillingout.substack.com/

pencillingout.substack.com

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · Jan 15

From 2010-2020, North Center was the Chicago neighborhood with the fastest growth in children. But surprisingly, its housing stock actually declined over that period!

In my new post, I take a look at Chicago's hottest neighborhood for families and think about some important housing dynamics.

Family growth, deconversions and housing supply in North Center

What we can learn from Chicago's hottest neighborhood for families

pencillingout.substack.com

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 3d

Okay heres an interesting mention of that exact purpose in this @zachmortice.bsky.social story on Worker’s Cottages
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 3d

I’m not totally sure, the book doesn’t have much to say about that

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 3d

Meanwhile here’s what the block looks like today. Still some original cottages it looks like?

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 3d

Via this interesting book

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 3d

An 1889 ad for newly-built workers’ cottages in McKinley Park: “for the price, the handsomest, best-built brick cottages in the City.”

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Reposted by Zak Yudhishthu

Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth @leniann.bsky.social · 5d

This is Berwyn, my red line station ❤️
Imagine instead of this city block wide jewel parking lot, we instead see more storefronts with entrances facing the sidewalk and housing built on top

Strip mall in background. Jewel parking lot. Berwyn red line station in foreground

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 6d

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 6d

therealdeal.com/chicago/2025...

How multifamily missteps set stage for big South Side immigration raid

A landlord, the court system and local officials had chances to intervene at a troubled South Shore Drive building before it became the subject of national controversy.

therealdeal.com

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 6d

www.understandingai.org/p/human-driv...

Waymo has had dozens of crashes—almost all were a human driver's fault

Human drivers keep crashing into Waymos that aren't even moving.

www.understandingai.org

Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 6d

Haha, this is the only positive response I’ve seen so far. I definitely think this is a waaaay under recognized point.

Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 6d

Agree with that!

I feel like they’d start with a Lyft scooter-style seasonal approach, taking the fleet off the road once it snows

Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 6d

Plus, co-chairs of the House transportation committee have signaled openness to the idea

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 6d

Well, here it comes: @toreyvanoot.bsky.social reports that Waymo has hired lobbyists in Minnesota and been talking to state lawmakers, looking for legislative approval to operate in MN

www.axios.com/local/twin-c...

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Reposted by Zak Yudhishthu

Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 6d

I can't stop thinking about this. We're pursuing zero fire risk in multifam, while tolerating much more in single-fam. People respond by building and living in single-fam, where they're exposed to not only one of the highest fire death risks in the developed world, but also TONS more car crash risk

Emily Hamilton @ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 6d

Love this new report on buildings' relative fire safety from @alexhrwtz.bsky.social and Pew colleagues.

www.pew.org/en/research-...

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 9d

I always called it “the Brooklyn of Saint Paul”

Reposted by Zak Yudhishthu

Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 9d

IMO @zyudhishthu.bsky.social nails it on mandatory minimum densities: you CAN do them right, but the benefits are so minimal & the risks so inevitable that they're not worth the trouble pencillingout.substack.com/p/can-we-boo...

In Minneapolis’s downtown, development must be 10 stories tall with a 4.0 FAR, while different transit-adjacent areas have minimum heights ranging from 2 to 10 stories.

This policy has come into play a couple of times in the past few years. For example, in 2023, a developer wanted to build a seven-story, 135-unit building next to Minneapolis’s Prospect Park Green Line stop. However, the lot was zoned for a 10-story height minimum and city staff refused to grant a variance for a seven-story building. The development was rejected, and no new construction has occurred on the lot.

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 10d

Imagine waking up from a coma, out cold since 2016, to learn that “the governor of California is giving a non-response about statewide upzoning on a Fortnite stream”

Metamodernism @metamodernism.bsky.social · 11d

It’s funny how after several days of people nervously posting about whether or not Newsom will sign SB 79, the best insight we’ve gotten is from Gavin himself on a Fortnite stream

Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11d

Well I absolutely agree with that!

It sucks that SFHs can outbid a three flat, but the deck is stacked. And honestly, those SFH purchasers should be forced to compete not just with 3-flats but with far denser development (ie should upzone much more)

Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11d

I was gonna post about that but I think that instance is the best counterexample to my argument! That’s really crazy and I get why it angers people. It’s also an extreme case in a pretty particular neighborhood.

But ultimately I think that zoning broadly for more density is a lot more important

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11d

At the end of the day, housing markets are complex things, and I’m hesitant about the role of prescriptive regulatory policy in successfully tackling our problems. Reasonable urbanists could disagree, but beware the pitfalls of using zoning to restrict less-dense development.

Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11d

Even w/o harming development, someone is worse off with these policies. Eg. deconversions in Chicago’s North side seem to supporting strong growth in the number of families.

Affected households are likely richer, so the tradeoff might be worth it. But the tradeoff does exist.

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11d

But I’m not sure how easy it is to pull off this strategy without accidentally hurting development. In Minneapolis, a 10-story height minimum led to no development at all after rejecting 7 stories. Store owners rebuilding after 2020 are struggling to meet 2-story minimums!

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11d

What does this strategy accomplish? In some places, people with a lot of willingness (and ability) to pay for certain housing, like a SFH, can outbid a denser development that is otherwise feasible. Zoning for minimum density can box these people out, getting to more density.

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11d

Or see Portland’s 2020 zoning reforms: the city implemented a FAR limit where none had been before, seeking to zone out “McMansions”. In exchange, the FAR gets larger with more units, so 4plexes can be larger than a SFH.

The explicit goal is to (dis)favor certain housing types

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11d

As another example of this policy, Minneapolis’ 2040 Plan also implemented minimum FAR and buildings heights in various districts of the city, explicitly zoning out development that they don’t thing is dense enough.