Stephen Jacob Smith
@stephenjacobsmith.com
Executive director of the Center for Building in North America, [email protected]. Personal account. Brooklyn, NY.
Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Thanks to @stefanoschen.bsky.social and @nytimes.com for picking up our report on global transit operations. It’s clear that the rest of the world has moved toward more automated and leaner operations without the sky falling. Legislating ops from Albany is overreach:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...
Does the Subway Still Need Train Conductors?
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Thanks to @stefanoschen.bsky.social and @nytimes.com for picking up our report on global transit operations. It’s clear that the rest of the world has moved toward more automated and leaner operations without the sky falling. Legislating ops from Albany is overreach:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...
Weird request: anybody in Minneapolis want to take a field trip and look at a stairway for me? 630 Cedar Ave. S. had a big fire, and has scissor stairs. The state report about the fire implies that the stairways were open to one another (no wall separating them) – I'd like to confirm that was true.
November 14, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Weird request: anybody in Minneapolis want to take a field trip and look at a stairway for me? 630 Cedar Ave. S. had a big fire, and has scissor stairs. The state report about the fire implies that the stairways were open to one another (no wall separating them) – I'd like to confirm that was true.
After 42 years, Berkeley is kicking street festivals off of Telegraph Ave. because the fire department has decided on a new, stricter interpretation of the fire code that does not allow 26-ft. fire lanes required next to buildings of 30+ ft. to be blocked even by a street festival
New city fees, fire safety policies threaten future of 2 beloved Berkeley events, organizers say
Berkeley's Juneteenth Festival and Telegraph Holiday Fair can't stay in their longtime locations, according to city.
www.berkeleyside.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:39 AM
After 42 years, Berkeley is kicking street festivals off of Telegraph Ave. because the fire department has decided on a new, stricter interpretation of the fire code that does not allow 26-ft. fire lanes required next to buildings of 30+ ft. to be blocked even by a street festival
Race/gender prefs in procurement really do narrow bidder pools and raise prices, so it’s maddening that rather than just end them, govts switch to some other pref. Not just in reaction to Trump – Calif cities did the same after Prop 209. They don’t care who benefits, they just HAVE to drive up costs
Philly shifts from diversity targets in procurement and contracting to prioritize “small and local” www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...
Philadelphia is halting the use of some diversity targets in city contracts as national DEI backlash grows
The changes made by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker's administration represent a major shift in the city’s diversity initiatives and come as such programs are under attack nationwide.
www.inquirer.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Race/gender prefs in procurement really do narrow bidder pools and raise prices, so it’s maddening that rather than just end them, govts switch to some other pref. Not just in reaction to Trump – Calif cities did the same after Prop 209. They don’t care who benefits, they just HAVE to drive up costs
I didn’t realize the Midea units they’re installing (or…were…looks like they’ve stalled…) are so close to actual mini-splits. At this point, why don’t they just tackle the code barriers that forbid the real thing?
This follows the model used to develop efficient, plug-in window heat pumps through the Clean Heat for All challenge.
That pilot was really successful but the wider promised rollout has been slow (see my story from April, though the tariff news is out of date) nysfocus.com/2025/04/15/t...
That pilot was really successful but the wider promised rollout has been slow (see my story from April, though the tariff news is out of date) nysfocus.com/2025/04/15/t...
![NYCHA selected Midea and another manufacturer called Gradient in 2022 and installed an initial 72 heat pumps the following year. By most accounts, the test round has been a smashing success. Residents at a Queens development are now coming out of a second winter heating their apartments with the test units and have rated them a major improvement over the old radiators. The heat pumps have yielded close to 90 percent energy savings and roughly halved energy costs for those homes, according to a NYCHA analysis.
But the rollout has been slow. NYCHA hasn’t installed any new heat pumps since the test round, even though the agency originally announced that it would install more than 20,000 heat pumps over five years. A spokesperson told New York Focus that the authority received another 150 units from Midea in January, which it plans to install across about 50 apartments over the coming months. And it still plans in the next two years to begin a wider rollout, which would see about 15,000 of the heat pumps installed.
[picture of a Midea heat pump installed in a NYCHA window, viewed from outside]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:64drjustsrvsrcl2a2n2jnyf/bafkreieizb2ssjkbmij52hinkdfwnytxy3h32nua4krxpp3vf5yyu6zdj4@jpeg)
November 13, 2025 at 7:01 PM
I didn’t realize the Midea units they’re installing (or…were…looks like they’ve stalled…) are so close to actual mini-splits. At this point, why don’t they just tackle the code barriers that forbid the real thing?
“A large housing project delivering more than 500 homes in west London will no longer go ahead…Specifically, [the developer] claims that the most significant reason for its termination was the new requirement to provide two staircases in London for buildings over 18 metres.”
Developer Peabody pulls out of building 564 homes in Southall - BBC News
Hundreds of affordable homes will no longer be built in west London after Peabody withdraws plans.
www.bbc.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:31 PM
“A large housing project delivering more than 500 homes in west London will no longer go ahead…Specifically, [the developer] claims that the most significant reason for its termination was the new requirement to provide two staircases in London for buildings over 18 metres.”
Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Worth pointing out this bill would do more than freeze the MTA on two-person operation for all lines with it — it would require the MTA to hire conductors for all the services that have switched over to OTPO. (Shuttles, late night G, weekend M)
November 13, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Worth pointing out this bill would do more than freeze the MTA on two-person operation for all lines with it — it would require the MTA to hire conductors for all the services that have switched over to OTPO. (Shuttles, late night G, weekend M)
Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
New Marron survey of 400+ subway lines across the world from London to Paris to Shanghai finds just 6% still use two-person train operation, which would be required by a TWU-backed bill.
“It doesn’t really matter to us what the data shows,” says TWU boss Samuelsen
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...
“It doesn’t really matter to us what the data shows,” says TWU boss Samuelsen
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...
Does the Subway Still Need Train Conductors?
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:06 PM
New Marron survey of 400+ subway lines across the world from London to Paris to Shanghai finds just 6% still use two-person train operation, which would be required by a TWU-backed bill.
“It doesn’t really matter to us what the data shows,” says TWU boss Samuelsen
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...
“It doesn’t really matter to us what the data shows,” says TWU boss Samuelsen
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...
NYC Council has a veto-proof majority on a union-backed bill to set a $40/hour minimum average compensation for workers on city-funded affordable housing projects, kicking in at 100 units www.crainsnewyork.com/politics-pol...
Developers alarmed as council advances minimum wage for affordable housing projects
The Construction Justice Act would set a $40 wage-and-benefit floor, increasing the cost of building.
www.crainsnewyork.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:41 PM
NYC Council has a veto-proof majority on a union-backed bill to set a $40/hour minimum average compensation for workers on city-funded affordable housing projects, kicking in at 100 units www.crainsnewyork.com/politics-pol...
Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Some old-school Philly corruption that selects winners and losers based on their personal relation or lack thereof to the police. In a city with a $1.2 billion surplus, apparently street festivals just aren't important to the Mayor
www.inquirer.com/news/philly-...
www.inquirer.com/news/philly-...
Philly street festivals are shutting down over rising police overtime costs. But some groups don’t have to pay.
Philly elected officials, police-connected groups, and street festival organizers who cut special deals are exempt from tens of thousands dollars in city event fees inked to street festivals.
www.inquirer.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Some old-school Philly corruption that selects winners and losers based on their personal relation or lack thereof to the police. In a city with a $1.2 billion surplus, apparently street festivals just aren't important to the Mayor
www.inquirer.com/news/philly-...
www.inquirer.com/news/philly-...
Important to get single-stair through in a viable way to make 16-unit projects work. You aren’t going to find many two-stair buildings with 16 or fewer units, and the current single-stair limits are three stories, four units per floor – just 12 units.
"In the original bill...lawmakers voted to eliminate mandatory minimum parking requirements in developments with 24 units or less in order to make it easier to build more housing. That number was lowered to 16 in the latest version..."
Hope my Republican friends can learn to embrace a freer market!
Hope my Republican friends can learn to embrace a freer market!
CT House passes housing bill as Republicans rail against it as partisan: ‘I feel ignored’
Nearly five months after a controversial veto by Gov. Ned Lamont, state legislators battled again Wednesday over the best ways to generate affordable housing in a state with some of the highest rea…
www.courant.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Important to get single-stair through in a viable way to make 16-unit projects work. You aren’t going to find many two-stair buildings with 16 or fewer units, and the current single-stair limits are three stories, four units per floor – just 12 units.
I am most interested in an ability to execute so they can roll out as many effective projects as possible. Supporting transit, bikes, and pedestrians ideologically is table stakes and easy to find nowadays – I also want somebody who can turn costs around, improve project quality, and enforce.
New: Two NYC transit experts, including a top "Vision Zero" planner in the de Blasio administration, have emerged as early favorites to become mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's Department of Transportation commissioner, per four sources. www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/12/m...
Mamdani eyeing DOT veterans, including ‘Vision Zero’ czar, for Transportation commissioner
Ryan Russo and Nivardo Lopez, two veterans of the department with deep experience in street redesign efforts, are being eyed by Mamdani’s team as potential picks for DOT commissioner, the fou…
www.nydailynews.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:48 AM
I am most interested in an ability to execute so they can roll out as many effective projects as possible. Supporting transit, bikes, and pedestrians ideologically is table stakes and easy to find nowadays – I also want somebody who can turn costs around, improve project quality, and enforce.
I wonder how much of the Adams administration’s pro-housing stance was sincere, and how much was because a few people at the very top perceived it as a way to tweak his political opponents. Because now that the politics have changed, he doesn’t seem so pro-housing! nypost.com/2025/11/12/u...
Eric Adams makes last-ditch bid to save celeb-beloved Elizabeth Street Garden that Zohran Mamdani wants to evict
The move from the Adams administration is the latest salvo in the decade-plus battle over the private garden, which sits on city-leased land.
nypost.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:47 PM
I wonder how much of the Adams administration’s pro-housing stance was sincere, and how much was because a few people at the very top perceived it as a way to tweak his political opponents. Because now that the politics have changed, he doesn’t seem so pro-housing! nypost.com/2025/11/12/u...
Amazing how gullible people on TikTok are. There’s basically not a single comment on this video siding with the teacher, it’s all about how racist the teacher is! It’s obvious at 0:30 that they were bullying that poor girl! The girl even starts smiling when the teacher mentions it!
November 12, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Amazing how gullible people on TikTok are. There’s basically not a single comment on this video siding with the teacher, it’s all about how racist the teacher is! It’s obvious at 0:30 that they were bullying that poor girl! The girl even starts smiling when the teacher mentions it!
Good news, but as an MIH high-rise rezoning, feasibility requires very high rents. If we get enough construction that new LIC rents fall below that (not sure the exact number but in my bones I’m feeling…$4,000/mo. 1BR?), construction will stop. This is the problem with inclusionary requirements.
Breaking News: The New York City Council overwhelmingly approved a rezoning on Wednesday that could transform an industrial stretch of Queens into thousands of apartments — private development aimed at addressing the city’s affordable housing crisis. nyti.ms/4p71Cqv
November 12, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Good news, but as an MIH high-rise rezoning, feasibility requires very high rents. If we get enough construction that new LIC rents fall below that (not sure the exact number but in my bones I’m feeling…$4,000/mo. 1BR?), construction will stop. This is the problem with inclusionary requirements.
Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Beyond the obvious top-line—that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law failed to change the equation of transit funding—this also highlights just how important it is to get transit construction costs under control.
It's lighting money on fire.
Great thread by @yonahfreemark.com:
It's lighting money on fire.
Great thread by @yonahfreemark.com:
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed 4 years ago. In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social we study its effects.
US transport spending increased by 30%, but:
—Funding for non-highway projects flatlined
—Construction cost increases resulted in no actual increase in infrastructure
US transport spending increased by 30%, but:
—Funding for non-highway projects flatlined
—Construction cost increases resulted in no actual increase in infrastructure
Federal Infrastructure Spending on Transportation, Four Years after the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is up for reauthorization in 2026. New analysis shows that the act increased spending on transportation infrastructure, but…
www.urban.org
November 12, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Beyond the obvious top-line—that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law failed to change the equation of transit funding—this also highlights just how important it is to get transit construction costs under control.
It's lighting money on fire.
Great thread by @yonahfreemark.com:
It's lighting money on fire.
Great thread by @yonahfreemark.com:
It’s hard for me to see how New York can stay as low-crime as it is in the long run with the Supreme Court flooding the city with guns www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/12/n...
November 12, 2025 at 4:12 PM
It’s hard for me to see how New York can stay as low-crime as it is in the long run with the Supreme Court flooding the city with guns www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/12/n...
Caltrain needs to be planning for driverless operations at high frequencies (and probably lower fares) to compete. That can start by cutting the second conductor almost immediately and reinvesting the savings in more service.
Waymo is now directly competing with Caltrain on the San Francisco Peninsula
Taking riders further, safely with freeways
The open road symbolizes freedom and unlimited possibility– highlighted especially by the ease and speed by which freeways allow us to get where we’re going. Waymo is now bringing that experience into...
waymo.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Caltrain needs to be planning for driverless operations at high frequencies (and probably lower fares) to compete. That can start by cutting the second conductor almost immediately and reinvesting the savings in more service.
November 12, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
Today Mayor Bass declared the homelessness emergency over so that we no longer have to permit housing for them
Today, Mayor Bass has lifted the Shelter Crisis Emergency Declaration.
I believe that means that ED 1 is no longer in effect.
The council has moved forward with a permanent ED 1 ordinance, but it will be months (or longer) until it goes into effect
I believe that means that ED 1 is no longer in effect.
The council has moved forward with a permanent ED 1 ordinance, but it will be months (or longer) until it goes into effect
November 5, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Today Mayor Bass declared the homelessness emergency over so that we no longer have to permit housing for them
Construction without cranes, lifts, or hoists, in the richest city in human history
November 11, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Construction without cranes, lifts, or hoists, in the richest city in human history
These tariffs are a war on flavor. They want us to eat dollar store domestic pasta and season our food with salt and pepper. All of those 1950s memes were meant to be taken literally.
“Small retailers, specialty retailers are suffering." Grocery stores catering to New York's immigrant communities anchor neighborhoods. President Trump's tariffs are hitting some of them hardest. nyti.ms/43qCCSW
Trump’s Tariffs Hit Specialty Grocery Stores for Some Immigrant Communities Especially Hard
For immigrant communities from countries with especially high duties, food costs have risen sharply courtesy of President Trump.
nyti.ms
November 11, 2025 at 4:40 PM
These tariffs are a war on flavor. They want us to eat dollar store domestic pasta and season our food with salt and pepper. All of those 1950s memes were meant to be taken literally.
Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
FTA's guidance on utility coordination ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.do...
www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.do...
November 11, 2025 at 3:32 PM
FTA's guidance on utility coordination ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.do...
www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.do...
I genuinely through that when East Side Access opened, NYC Transit would take over Atlantic to Jamaica as a subway line or something, or at least the LIRR would do their best impression, with frequent shuttle service and leaner staffing. Am I hallucinating or did they hint that that was the plan?
A 100 minute LIRR trip from Brooklyn to just over the Nassau border? On a weekday morning? How?!
There’s a 57 minute pause in Brooklyn service weekday mornings. Naturally, the first train after the pause is scheduled to misconnect to a Far Rockaway train, so it gives a 58 minute wait at Jamaica…
There’s a 57 minute pause in Brooklyn service weekday mornings. Naturally, the first train after the pause is scheduled to misconnect to a Far Rockaway train, so it gives a 58 minute wait at Jamaica…
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
I genuinely through that when East Side Access opened, NYC Transit would take over Atlantic to Jamaica as a subway line or something, or at least the LIRR would do their best impression, with frequent shuttle service and leaner staffing. Am I hallucinating or did they hint that that was the plan?
Reposted by Stephen Jacob Smith
The 26ft clear road width requirement from the US model fire code, Appendix D:
Not only making road diets ineffective and brownfield redevelopment boring and car-centric, but now also being used to prevent construction of taller, safer buildings on streets that don't comply.
This rule needs to go.
Not only making road diets ineffective and brownfield redevelopment boring and car-centric, but now also being used to prevent construction of taller, safer buildings on streets that don't comply.
This rule needs to go.
The good news: Portland is opting into Oregon's optional 4-story single-stair code section.
The bad news: Portland's fire marshal has managed to insert a poison pill into what appeared to be a take-it-or-leave-it appendix text, likely making it unusable in most cases.
djcoregon.com/news/2025/11...
The bad news: Portland's fire marshal has managed to insert a poison pill into what appeared to be a take-it-or-leave-it appendix text, likely making it unusable in most cases.
djcoregon.com/news/2025/11...
Portland’s new single-staircase rule faces big hurdles
The city now allows single-staircase buildings as tall as four stories, but a fire access rule may make most projects unbuildable, one designer warns.
djcoregon.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:49 AM
The 26ft clear road width requirement from the US model fire code, Appendix D:
Not only making road diets ineffective and brownfield redevelopment boring and car-centric, but now also being used to prevent construction of taller, safer buildings on streets that don't comply.
This rule needs to go.
Not only making road diets ineffective and brownfield redevelopment boring and car-centric, but now also being used to prevent construction of taller, safer buildings on streets that don't comply.
This rule needs to go.