CityWork | Alex Fella
@city-work.bsky.social
Periodic professor, writing about housing, cities & the financialization of daily life. Author of Liquid Cities: Climate, Capital, and the Crisis of Affordable Housing (2025).
Maps @ www.citywork.io
📍USA | 📍 CA
Maps @ www.citywork.io
📍USA | 📍 CA
Pinned
Investors made millions. Renters faced 300 evictions.
Get the latest dispatches from renter hell.
liquidcities.substack.com/p/hampton-ro...
#housing #rent #evictions #landlords #wallst #virginia #affordablehousing #rent #finance #cities
Get the latest dispatches from renter hell.
liquidcities.substack.com/p/hampton-ro...
#housing #rent #evictions #landlords #wallst #virginia #affordablehousing #rent #finance #cities
Montreal's rental crisis, visualized by neighborhood over the past 10 years.
Full map at www.commonplaceresearch.org
Data: CMHC/Common Place Research. 2014-2024. Nominal.
Full map at www.commonplaceresearch.org
Data: CMHC/Common Place Research. 2014-2024. Nominal.
November 11, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Montreal's rental crisis, visualized by neighborhood over the past 10 years.
Full map at www.commonplaceresearch.org
Data: CMHC/Common Place Research. 2014-2024. Nominal.
Full map at www.commonplaceresearch.org
Data: CMHC/Common Place Research. 2014-2024. Nominal.
Our national map of health care tax credits has been updated!
Due to an error #Texas #Utah #Arizona & #Oregon weren't showing up. Now all states with federal data are visible.
See how many people in your community rely on health care subsidies!
www.citywork.io/health-care-...
#healthcare #aca
Due to an error #Texas #Utah #Arizona & #Oregon weren't showing up. Now all states with federal data are visible.
See how many people in your community rely on health care subsidies!
www.citywork.io/health-care-...
#healthcare #aca
Health Care Marketplace Tax Credit Map
An interactive, easy-to-use map to explore federal health insurance subsidies in your ZIP code. See premium tax credits and Marketplace assistance using 2023 CMS data.
www.citywork.io
October 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Our national map of health care tax credits has been updated!
Due to an error #Texas #Utah #Arizona & #Oregon weren't showing up. Now all states with federal data are visible.
See how many people in your community rely on health care subsidies!
www.citywork.io/health-care-...
#healthcare #aca
Due to an error #Texas #Utah #Arizona & #Oregon weren't showing up. Now all states with federal data are visible.
See how many people in your community rely on health care subsidies!
www.citywork.io/health-care-...
#healthcare #aca
New map of health care subsidy data by ZIP across the USA, based on available fed data.
It shows where health insurance tax credits are going & how much people get each month & year to afford coverage.
Useful for anyone curious about the geography of health care.
www.citywork.io/health-care-...
It shows where health insurance tax credits are going & how much people get each month & year to afford coverage.
Useful for anyone curious about the geography of health care.
www.citywork.io/health-care-...
Health Care Marketplace Tax Credit Map
An interactive, easy-to-use map to explore federal health insurance subsidies in your ZIP code. See premium tax credits and Marketplace assistance using 2023 CMS data.
www.citywork.io
October 25, 2025 at 1:40 PM
New map of health care subsidy data by ZIP across the USA, based on available fed data.
It shows where health insurance tax credits are going & how much people get each month & year to afford coverage.
Useful for anyone curious about the geography of health care.
www.citywork.io/health-care-...
It shows where health insurance tax credits are going & how much people get each month & year to afford coverage.
Useful for anyone curious about the geography of health care.
www.citywork.io/health-care-...
I built a free map showing health care subsidies across all Virginia ZIP codes.
Over a quarter million Virginians receive federal tax credits averaging $401/month.
Click any ZIP to see how many people, avg subsidy, and total dollars.
www.citywork.io/virginia-hea...
#Healthcare #ACA #Tax
Over a quarter million Virginians receive federal tax credits averaging $401/month.
Click any ZIP to see how many people, avg subsidy, and total dollars.
www.citywork.io/virginia-hea...
#Healthcare #ACA #Tax
Virginia Healthcare Marketplace Tax Credits by ZIP Code
See where Marketplace tax credits help Virginians most by ZIP. 281,889 people received help in 2023, averaging $401 per month. Explore the map
www.citywork.io
October 19, 2025 at 12:15 PM
I built a free map showing health care subsidies across all Virginia ZIP codes.
Over a quarter million Virginians receive federal tax credits averaging $401/month.
Click any ZIP to see how many people, avg subsidy, and total dollars.
www.citywork.io/virginia-hea...
#Healthcare #ACA #Tax
Over a quarter million Virginians receive federal tax credits averaging $401/month.
Click any ZIP to see how many people, avg subsidy, and total dollars.
www.citywork.io/virginia-hea...
#Healthcare #ACA #Tax
Is America’s descent into authoritarianism inevitable? Karl Popper and Giambattista Vico on whether were doomed to barbarism.
substack.com/@liquidcitie...
substack.com/@liquidcitie...
Alexander Fella (@liquidcities)
Is America’s descent into authoritarianism inevitable? Karl Popper and Giambattista Vico on whether were doomed to barbarism.
substack.com
September 27, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Is America’s descent into authoritarianism inevitable? Karl Popper and Giambattista Vico on whether were doomed to barbarism.
substack.com/@liquidcitie...
substack.com/@liquidcitie...
There is no such thing as “political violence.” In the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, commentators like Ezra Klein are calling political violence a virus threatening democracy. We have it backwards.
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
There is No Such Thing as Political Violence
Notes on a killing
open.substack.com
September 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
There is no such thing as “political violence.” In the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, commentators like Ezra Klein are calling political violence a virus threatening democracy. We have it backwards.
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
Medicaid Cuts in 3 Charts
As Washington scales back Medicaid, Over 110,000 residents across Coastal Virginia rely on it for coverage. See how cuts will impact residents in our latest report.
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
#health #data #medicaid #insurance #Virginia
As Washington scales back Medicaid, Over 110,000 residents across Coastal Virginia rely on it for coverage. See how cuts will impact residents in our latest report.
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
#health #data #medicaid #insurance #Virginia
Medicaid Cuts in 3 Charts
How will cuts to Medicaid impact Hampton Roads?
open.substack.com
September 3, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Medicaid Cuts in 3 Charts
As Washington scales back Medicaid, Over 110,000 residents across Coastal Virginia rely on it for coverage. See how cuts will impact residents in our latest report.
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
#health #data #medicaid #insurance #Virginia
As Washington scales back Medicaid, Over 110,000 residents across Coastal Virginia rely on it for coverage. See how cuts will impact residents in our latest report.
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
#health #data #medicaid #insurance #Virginia
Check out some of my work on housing and climate adaption featured in the latest issue of the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy!
utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/...
utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/...
July 23, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Check out some of my work on housing and climate adaption featured in the latest issue of the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy!
utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/...
utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/...
Reposted by CityWork | Alex Fella
With the right funding, cities can better protect people from devastating climate impacts like heat, flooding, and storms.
But local governments often miss out on the money they need, even in wealthier cities.
Read all about it in our latest journal issue: utppublishing.com/toc/jccpe/4/1
But local governments often miss out on the money they need, even in wealthier cities.
Read all about it in our latest journal issue: utppublishing.com/toc/jccpe/4/1
Contents | Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy 4, 1
utppublishing.com
July 23, 2025 at 8:12 AM
With the right funding, cities can better protect people from devastating climate impacts like heat, flooding, and storms.
But local governments often miss out on the money they need, even in wealthier cities.
Read all about it in our latest journal issue: utppublishing.com/toc/jccpe/4/1
But local governments often miss out on the money they need, even in wealthier cities.
Read all about it in our latest journal issue: utppublishing.com/toc/jccpe/4/1
Roughly 1 in 5 Norfolk residents will be affected by Medicaid cuts in Norfolk #Virginia. Though, the impact won't be felt equally across the city. 22 neighborhoods are home to 60% of all Norfolk’s Medicaid recipients.
July 10, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Roughly 1 in 5 Norfolk residents will be affected by Medicaid cuts in Norfolk #Virginia. Though, the impact won't be felt equally across the city. 22 neighborhoods are home to 60% of all Norfolk’s Medicaid recipients.
Norfolk student loan data shows how educational debt can is changing across neighborhood income type. Education becomes manageable debt for some & a crushing burden for others.
June 25, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Norfolk student loan data shows how educational debt can is changing across neighborhood income type. Education becomes manageable debt for some & a crushing burden for others.
🧵 New analysis of #debt patterns in VA reveals interesting spatial inequalities that challenge conventional assumptions about financial stress, literacy, and credit access.
June 19, 2025 at 1:09 PM
🧵 New analysis of #debt patterns in VA reveals interesting spatial inequalities that challenge conventional assumptions about financial stress, literacy, and credit access.
Yet landlords are basically immune from prosecution over blatant violations of the eviction moratorium? Maybe with all that money they’ll finally build enough housing to bring down rents 🤡
www.bisnow.com/national/new...
www.bisnow.com/national/new...
Landlords Can Sue Government For Missed Rent During Pandemic, Appeals Court Finds
Landlords are allowed to pursue claims against the government that allege that eviction moratoriums were violations of the Fifth Amendment's takings clause.
www.bisnow.com
June 13, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Yet landlords are basically immune from prosecution over blatant violations of the eviction moratorium? Maybe with all that money they’ll finally build enough housing to bring down rents 🤡
www.bisnow.com/national/new...
www.bisnow.com/national/new...
Wealthier neighborhoods carry nearly double the student debt of low-income neighborhoods. Yet poorer neighborhoods face a crushing 50% higher debt burden relative to their income.
Debt: The Last 3 Years open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
Debt: The Last 3 Years open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
Debt: The Last 3 Years
Please put the remaining balance on my headstone.
open.substack.com
May 30, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Wealthier neighborhoods carry nearly double the student debt of low-income neighborhoods. Yet poorer neighborhoods face a crushing 50% higher debt burden relative to their income.
Debt: The Last 3 Years open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
Debt: The Last 3 Years open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
Reposted by CityWork | Alex Fella
“The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently.” - David Graeber. Property Collectives article discusses the need for more community led, for-purpose housing 🔗 sbee.link/pdy8nu9grb
May 12, 2025 at 7:41 AM
“The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently.” - David Graeber. Property Collectives article discusses the need for more community led, for-purpose housing 🔗 sbee.link/pdy8nu9grb
Recessions don't do much to help rental affordability. In the #Virginia MSA of Hampton Roads, the 2008 #recession saw the affordable #housing gap narrow slightly by $31. Only because wages rose while rents froze. The COVID recession saw renters lose ground, even as wages rose slightly.
May 2, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Recessions don't do much to help rental affordability. In the #Virginia MSA of Hampton Roads, the 2008 #recession saw the affordable #housing gap narrow slightly by $31. Only because wages rose while rents froze. The COVID recession saw renters lose ground, even as wages rose slightly.
Will a recession bring relief to renters?
Typically, during a recession, rent growth turns negative but not always.
Nationally, the biggest rent drop came during the early 1990s recession, where rent turned negative by 3%. But that doesn’t always happen.
Typically, during a recession, rent growth turns negative but not always.
Nationally, the biggest rent drop came during the early 1990s recession, where rent turned negative by 3%. But that doesn’t always happen.
May 2, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Will a recession bring relief to renters?
Typically, during a recession, rent growth turns negative but not always.
Nationally, the biggest rent drop came during the early 1990s recession, where rent turned negative by 3%. But that doesn’t always happen.
Typically, during a recession, rent growth turns negative but not always.
Nationally, the biggest rent drop came during the early 1990s recession, where rent turned negative by 3%. But that doesn’t always happen.
What does the market meltdown means for renters? The short answer, it's not looking good. New piece on Substack on recessions and rent.
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
What the Market Meltdown Means for Renters
Notes from a haruspex
open.substack.com
May 1, 2025 at 7:12 PM
What does the market meltdown means for renters? The short answer, it's not looking good. New piece on Substack on recessions and rent.
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
Reposted by CityWork | Alex Fella
This is disappointing. Eviction filing records are huge barriers to finding a home. Automatic expunging or sealing records that meet certain set criteria helps renters, both in eviction negotiations and in gaining housing access minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/23/i...
In win for landlords, appeals court strikes down eviction expungement law • Minnesota Reformer
Life just got harder for Minnesotans who want to shed the stigma — and the practical complications — of a past eviction. In a unanimous decision released Monday, a three-judge panel of the Minnesota C...
minnesotareformer.com
April 24, 2025 at 5:17 PM
This is disappointing. Eviction filing records are huge barriers to finding a home. Automatic expunging or sealing records that meet certain set criteria helps renters, both in eviction negotiations and in gaining housing access minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/23/i...
To get around the 'sovereignty' question they'll turn El Salvador's prisons into Special Economic Zones. Humans will have as many rights as imported car parts.
www.thetimes.com/us/american-...
www.thetimes.com/us/american-...
Trump thanks Bukele for prisons and tells Americans: You’re next
President Nayib Bukele visits the Oval Office and says returning a wrongly deported man to US would be ‘preposterous’
www.thetimes.com
April 15, 2025 at 6:32 PM
To get around the 'sovereignty' question they'll turn El Salvador's prisons into Special Economic Zones. Humans will have as many rights as imported car parts.
www.thetimes.com/us/american-...
www.thetimes.com/us/american-...
Margin Call: If this continues we may witness a dramatic drop in multifamily financing. There will be no liquidity left for investors to buy, sell, or build new apartments. Rents could spike unless there's a sudden drop in interest rates.
www.reuters.com/markets/weal...
#rent #markets #tariff
www.reuters.com/markets/weal...
#rent #markets #tariff
Hedge funds capitulate, investors brace for margin calls in market rout
Some hedge funds say they are offloading all or most of their holdings of stocks as U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war wipes out trillions of dollars of market value and forces them to curtail trading using borrowed cash.
www.reuters.com
April 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Margin Call: If this continues we may witness a dramatic drop in multifamily financing. There will be no liquidity left for investors to buy, sell, or build new apartments. Rents could spike unless there's a sudden drop in interest rates.
www.reuters.com/markets/weal...
#rent #markets #tariff
www.reuters.com/markets/weal...
#rent #markets #tariff
What does the market meltdown mean for renters?
What we know: It’s not only securities falling, but ‘safe assets' like Gold and Govt. bonds are sliding as well. Signaling that investors could be pulling money out of ‘safe’ assets to cover their losses elsewhere.
What we know: It’s not only securities falling, but ‘safe assets' like Gold and Govt. bonds are sliding as well. Signaling that investors could be pulling money out of ‘safe’ assets to cover their losses elsewhere.
April 7, 2025 at 1:56 PM
What does the market meltdown mean for renters?
What we know: It’s not only securities falling, but ‘safe assets' like Gold and Govt. bonds are sliding as well. Signaling that investors could be pulling money out of ‘safe’ assets to cover their losses elsewhere.
What we know: It’s not only securities falling, but ‘safe assets' like Gold and Govt. bonds are sliding as well. Signaling that investors could be pulling money out of ‘safe’ assets to cover their losses elsewhere.
Reposted by CityWork | Alex Fella
Private companies will still be able to fund local data gathering efforts. The removal of this data harms the public - it harms people buying houses, nonprofits allocating funds, state and local governments who rely on data to make decisions about day to day lives. This is a catastrophe
"A sudden elimination of surveys could rattle the private sector, too. Analysts at financial firms guzzle up government data releases, scrutinising even slight shifts in figures..."
www.economist.com/united-state...
www.economist.com/united-state...
DOGE comes for the data wonks
America may soon be unable to measure itself properly
www.economist.com
April 1, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Private companies will still be able to fund local data gathering efforts. The removal of this data harms the public - it harms people buying houses, nonprofits allocating funds, state and local governments who rely on data to make decisions about day to day lives. This is a catastrophe
Shootings in redlined neighborhoods? 363.
Shootings in neighborhoods given an A grade? 3.
Find out more with Snap/Shot from CityWork @ www.citywork.io/gun-violence
Shootings in neighborhoods given an A grade? 3.
Find out more with Snap/Shot from CityWork @ www.citywork.io/gun-violence
March 31, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Shootings in redlined neighborhoods? 363.
Shootings in neighborhoods given an A grade? 3.
Find out more with Snap/Shot from CityWork @ www.citywork.io/gun-violence
Shootings in neighborhoods given an A grade? 3.
Find out more with Snap/Shot from CityWork @ www.citywork.io/gun-violence
What do we mean by “safe neighborhood?” Do we mean ending gun violence, or containing it to places where it’s “supposed” to happen?
My new piece on Substack looks at the latter:
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
My new piece on Substack looks at the latter:
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
March 27, 2025 at 7:27 PM
What do we mean by “safe neighborhood?” Do we mean ending gun violence, or containing it to places where it’s “supposed” to happen?
My new piece on Substack looks at the latter:
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...
My new piece on Substack looks at the latter:
open.substack.com/pub/liquidci...