Yoni Appelbaum
@yappelbaum.bsky.social
Deputy Executive Editor, The Atlantic. Author of "Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity." https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/700580/stuck-by-yoni-appelbaum/
BREAKING: Mark Wolf, appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, writes that he is resigning as a judge to have the freedom to speak out against the president's assault on the rule of law.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
November 9, 2025 at 2:27 PM
BREAKING: Mark Wolf, appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, writes that he is resigning as a judge to have the freedom to speak out against the president's assault on the rule of law.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
law and order: sandwich crimes unit www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Law and Order: Sandwich Crimes Unit
Serving justice to sandwich-wielding offenders takes expertise.
www.theatlantic.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:48 PM
law and order: sandwich crimes unit www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
We published our 100th episode! Listen for some fun lore about the Housing Voice hosts, answers to listener questions, and the announcement that we'll be reading Stuck for our first book club, with author Yoni Appelbaum joining us for the last episode in that short series.
This week on #UCLAHousingVoice, we're celebrating 100 episodes!! The hosts reminiscence on their favorite episodes (like @shanedphillips.bsky.social 1st pick) and answer listener questions. Also, we have updates on our book club!
As always, thanks for listening! 🎧 www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/10/22/1...
As always, thanks for listening! 🎧 www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/10/22/1...
October 24, 2025 at 5:33 PM
We published our 100th episode! Listen for some fun lore about the Housing Voice hosts, answers to listener questions, and the announcement that we'll be reading Stuck for our first book club, with author Yoni Appelbaum joining us for the last episode in that short series.
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
"Some of the critics seems to view the artificial costs of mobility as an argument against mobility, when removing those artificial costs is the whole point of the book." Further thoughts on @yappelbaum.bsky.social's "Stuck," and against localism as an ideology:
Localism Must Not Be an Ideology of Soil
A critique of the localist critique of Yoni Appelbaum’s “Stuck”
thedeletedscenes.substack.com
October 6, 2025 at 1:05 PM
"Some of the critics seems to view the artificial costs of mobility as an argument against mobility, when removing those artificial costs is the whole point of the book." Further thoughts on @yappelbaum.bsky.social's "Stuck," and against localism as an ideology:
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
One of the most interesting things in @yappelbaum.bsky.social's Stuck, is the idea that people join groups most when they can live where they want.
September 23, 2025 at 2:24 AM
One of the most interesting things in @yappelbaum.bsky.social's Stuck, is the idea that people join groups most when they can live where they want.
NEW: Kamala Harris passed on her top choice for a running mate—Pete Buttigieg—because it would've been “too big of a risk” for a Black woman to run with a gay man, she writes in her book, @jonlemire.bsky.social reports:
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The Running Mate Kamala Harris Didn’t Dare Choose
“I love Pete,” she writes in her new book. But picking a gay man would have been too risky.
www.theatlantic.com
September 18, 2025 at 12:20 AM
NEW: Kamala Harris passed on her top choice for a running mate—Pete Buttigieg—because it would've been “too big of a risk” for a Black woman to run with a gay man, she writes in her book, @jonlemire.bsky.social reports:
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
Many of our land use / building codes are rooted in exclusion + prejudice, even if they are facially anodyne and widely accepted as common sense today
Case in point: early 1900 fire safety reforms were primarily designed to ⬆️ the cost of tenements / MF apts (old and new) to reduce immigration
Case in point: early 1900 fire safety reforms were primarily designed to ⬆️ the cost of tenements / MF apts (old and new) to reduce immigration
September 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Many of our land use / building codes are rooted in exclusion + prejudice, even if they are facially anodyne and widely accepted as common sense today
Case in point: early 1900 fire safety reforms were primarily designed to ⬆️ the cost of tenements / MF apts (old and new) to reduce immigration
Case in point: early 1900 fire safety reforms were primarily designed to ⬆️ the cost of tenements / MF apts (old and new) to reduce immigration
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
Strongly recommended for pro-housing people (and even more for people who aren't yet on board): Appelbaum, Yoni. Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. Random House, 2025. Moving exerpt attached. #a2council
September 3, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Strongly recommended for pro-housing people (and even more for people who aren't yet on board): Appelbaum, Yoni. Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. Random House, 2025. Moving exerpt attached. #a2council
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
"When the Dust Bowl set off an exodus out of the Great Plains, 300k migrants showed up in California, a place seen as the land of opportunity. The welcome was not warm."
This was talked about a bit in the book "Stuck" by @yappelbaum.bsky.social:
This was talked about a bit in the book "Stuck" by @yappelbaum.bsky.social:
September 2, 2025 at 5:03 PM
"When the Dust Bowl set off an exodus out of the Great Plains, 300k migrants showed up in California, a place seen as the land of opportunity. The welcome was not warm."
This was talked about a bit in the book "Stuck" by @yappelbaum.bsky.social:
This was talked about a bit in the book "Stuck" by @yappelbaum.bsky.social:
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
From Stuck! by @yappelbaum.bsky.social, some great history on U.S. building codes and Lawrence Veiller's work on tenement laws:
August 26, 2025 at 1:18 AM
From Stuck! by @yappelbaum.bsky.social, some great history on U.S. building codes and Lawrence Veiller's work on tenement laws:
1. In the decades before Prohibition, many municipalities experimented with license-laws, regulating the sale of alcohol. Such licenses swiftly became the most valuable things dispensed by government, with profoundly distorting consequences.
One noteworthy fact about local control of land use in Los Angeles is that it's why City Councilmembers keep going to prison.
As it turns out, land use rules that are so complex that you need special permission from the Councilmember to build ~anything create irresistible incentives for corruption!
As it turns out, land use rules that are so complex that you need special permission from the Councilmember to build ~anything create irresistible incentives for corruption!
August 21, 2025 at 9:18 PM
1. In the decades before Prohibition, many municipalities experimented with license-laws, regulating the sale of alcohol. Such licenses swiftly became the most valuable things dispensed by government, with profoundly distorting consequences.
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
You will never think of Jane Jacobs the same way again after reading this book:
bsky.app/profile/torr...
bsky.app/profile/torr...
The section of Yoni’s book “Stuck” that is about Jane Jacobs is an essential read:
August 16, 2025 at 4:05 AM
You will never think of Jane Jacobs the same way again after reading this book:
bsky.app/profile/torr...
bsky.app/profile/torr...
August 15, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
We used to be a country, a proper country
July 30, 2025 at 12:37 AM
We used to be a country, a proper country
"On its own accord, Grok dug up the demographics of previous winners of Nobel Prizes in the sciences—disproportionately white men—and determined a set of “good_races”: white, caucasian, Asian, East Asian, South Asian, and Jewish."
July 11, 2025 at 10:20 PM
"On its own accord, Grok dug up the demographics of previous winners of Nobel Prizes in the sciences—disproportionately white men—and determined a set of “good_races”: white, caucasian, Asian, East Asian, South Asian, and Jewish."
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
I talk to Yoni Appelbaum on declining mobility and the future of American economic growth, how the abundance movement is changing the tenor of this debate, and some solutions on how to help Americans live where they want and build a more prosperous future: riskgaming.substack.com/p/how-jane-...
How Jane Jacobs got Americans stuck
Yoni Appelbaum on the real villians behind our housing and mobility problems
www.riskgaming.com
July 9, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I talk to Yoni Appelbaum on declining mobility and the future of American economic growth, how the abundance movement is changing the tenor of this debate, and some solutions on how to help Americans live where they want and build a more prosperous future: riskgaming.substack.com/p/how-jane-...
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
NEW: Culture war, with real troops. What I saw during three days in downtown LA www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Stephen Miller Triggers Los Angeles
The protesters gathered in downtown L.A. are a microcosm of the Democratic coalition that has dominated the city for decades.
www.theatlantic.com
June 12, 2025 at 12:02 PM
NEW: Culture war, with real troops. What I saw during three days in downtown LA www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The most important graph you'll see today. As large blue-state metros choked off growth with zoning, red-state metros kept building cheap suburban housing.
But now, that's changed, as homeowners in those states have mastered the art of blocking development, too.
The result? Prices are spiking.
But now, that's changed, as homeowners in those states have mastered the art of blocking development, too.
The result? Prices are spiking.
June 9, 2025 at 1:42 PM
The most important graph you'll see today. As large blue-state metros choked off growth with zoning, red-state metros kept building cheap suburban housing.
But now, that's changed, as homeowners in those states have mastered the art of blocking development, too.
The result? Prices are spiking.
But now, that's changed, as homeowners in those states have mastered the art of blocking development, too.
The result? Prices are spiking.
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
Sunday read: How has zoning historically been used to segregate cities? 1885 Modesto, CA made it illegal to operate laundromats in certain areas for one racist reason. We can’t discuss zoning bills, like the AZ Starter Homes Act, without acknowledging this history.
ℹ️: Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum
ℹ️: Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum
May 25, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Sunday read: How has zoning historically been used to segregate cities? 1885 Modesto, CA made it illegal to operate laundromats in certain areas for one racist reason. We can’t discuss zoning bills, like the AZ Starter Homes Act, without acknowledging this history.
ℹ️: Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum
ℹ️: Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
The housing market now dictates settlement patterns, rather than following from them. Americans move to find housing they can afford, not to seek economic opportunity. Does it really have to be that way? @ad-mastro.bsky.social reviews @yappelbaum.bsky.social's "Stuck":
Can America Get Unstuck?
We used to be more dynamic, more mobile, and more energetic. It’s not clear if we can be again.
www.thebulwark.com
May 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
The housing market now dictates settlement patterns, rather than following from them. Americans move to find housing they can afford, not to seek economic opportunity. Does it really have to be that way? @ad-mastro.bsky.social reviews @yappelbaum.bsky.social's "Stuck":
"Appelbaum very probably represents the Democratic future. He can bring in libertarians and capitalists with his YIMBY economic policies...but he keeps the coastal activist base happy by including just a touch of racial identity politics and a whiff of lavender identitarianism."
May 13, 2025 at 12:53 PM
"Appelbaum very probably represents the Democratic future. He can bring in libertarians and capitalists with his YIMBY economic policies...but he keeps the coastal activist base happy by including just a touch of racial identity politics and a whiff of lavender identitarianism."
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
Sinners is a horror film in which almost all of the key events are driven by the constraints of the Jim Crow economy (spoilery) www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
The Real Horror of 'Sinners' Isn’t Supernatural
The constraints of the Jim Crow economy drive every event in the film.
www.theatlantic.com
May 2, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Sinners is a horror film in which almost all of the key events are driven by the constraints of the Jim Crow economy (spoilery) www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
Reposted by Yoni Appelbaum
Key passage from Stuck by @yappelbaum.bsky.social. New York tenement housing was a temporary step ladder for newcomers saving up for something better (and conditions were mostly fine). We see snapshots of where people are in the moment but not how they move up. Observing dynamism is tricky.
May 1, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Key passage from Stuck by @yappelbaum.bsky.social. New York tenement housing was a temporary step ladder for newcomers saving up for something better (and conditions were mostly fine). We see snapshots of where people are in the moment but not how they move up. Observing dynamism is tricky.