YIMBY News for 4/29

[Eric Budd]

Data Reveals Which Berkeley Commercial Areas Are In Decline

Darrell Owens Substack

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KEYWORD SCORE: 56.89. affordable, apartment, bike lane, construction, density, development, downtown, growth, height limit, housing, housing authority, income, parking, parking lot, project, rent, single-family, urban, walk, zone, zoning

*Disclaimer: This opinion and every opinion on my Substack represent my opinion alone or that of a guest author. It does not represent the opinion of my employer, any affiliate universities, or any public bodies I serve on.* — In the 1960s, backlash to California handling of post-war population growth by building apartments in residential neighborhoods led to statewide down-zoning, limiting new housing. By 1980, the state began requiring cities to plan for population growth every 8 years by allowing for more homes via up-zoning. The city of Berkeley has historically identified declining commer

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Why Is Washington State So Expensive?

Governing

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KEYWORD SCORE: 47.23. affordable, construction, development, growth, homeowner, house, housing, housing cost, income, parking, project, rent, renter, supply, transportation, urban

In Brief: To meet housing demand, Washington needs to add over a million homes by 2044, a 2023 state report found. More than half of renters are burdened by housing costs. Topography and population distribution patterns also make it expensive to transport in oil, driving up prices at the pump. The state is trying different ways to address its housing challenge — including with a forthcoming new agency. At a time when affordability has been top of mind for residents across the country, a new report shines light on just how rapidly costs have risen for those living in Washington state. In fact,

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Report: Upzoning Spurred More Housing Construction in New York

Governing

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KEYWORD SCORE: 33.77. construction, cost of housing, density, development, higher-density, housing, housing price, project, rent, supply, urban, zone, zoning

This story is part of Governing's "Key Findings" series, where our writers make it easy to digest the latest studies, surveys and reports relevant to public officials. As the cost of housing has increased dramatically over the last decade, many states and cities have changed or considered changing their zoning rules to allow higher-density development in the hopes of bringing down costs by increasing supply. In doing so they’ve faced a fundamental question: Does it work? A recent report from the Urban Institute suggests that it can. Evidence from New York and Philadelphia suggests that “upzoni

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Municipal Tech Can Rescue Cities From Their Cyberpunk Era

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 28.39. development, house, housing, income, project, public space, rent, urban

(Illustration by Galina Nelyubova) *This essay is part of In the Shadow of the Server, a Next City series on the fight over urban technology infrastructure — who builds it, who benefits, and how local leaders can push back.* 2026 has started out very cyberpunk. The occupation of Minneapolis, immigration officials’ surveillance network, the Epstein files and the AI-driven bombing of the Middle East reveal a web of deep, violent entanglements between Silicon Valley, state violence and surveillance. The kinds of high-tech repression long present in Palestine and the U.S.-Mexico border are manifes

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Want to track the mayor’s performance? Use his new dashboard

Denverite

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KEYWORD SCORE: 24.00. affordable, affordable housing, construction, development, downtown, housing, project, rent

Affordable childcare, 2,500 new affordable housing units, less street homelessness. Mayor Mike Johnston says he’s on track to meet his big 2026 goals, and he has a bunch of new dashboards to prove it. You can follow along through the year with his quarterly updates at the Building a Vibrant Denver dashboard site. He’s divided his goals into six themes: Vibrant (boosting business), Affordable, Safe, All In Mile High (street homelessness solutions), Climate Resilient and Child Friendly. Click through each item, and you’ll get a sense of how he’s measuring his progress. Because the data reflects

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Crucial Ballard Link Deadline Pushed Back Yet Again by Feds

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 21.95. construction, downtown, project, rent, transportation, urban

[image: Crucial Ballard Link Deadline Pushed Back Yet Again by Feds] One of Sound Transit's biggest planned light rail projects continues to suffer delays as the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) hems and haws over approval of a key environmental document, reflecting a nationwide hostility to transit projects coming from the Trump administration. The delays are adding costs and keeping communities across multiple Seattle neighborhoods in limbo. The Ballard Link Extension's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is currently months overdue, and last week Sound Transit confirmed that the

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Why We Need to Ease the Path to Post-Prison Health Care

Governing

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KEYWORD SCORE: 18.23. development, housing, income, rent, transportation

When people leave prison, they don’t just re-enter society. They return to parenthood, housing and job searches. Navigating our complicated, costly health-care system often determines success or failure during re-entry. For Victor, coming home to two young children meant needing medication and transportation to medical visits for him and his family. Medicaid was a lifeline: It covered both. For Denise, returning from prison meant pushing through a slow benefits enrollment process so she could afford her prescriptions. Medicaid got her on a waiting list for housing assistance to cover a securit

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