Upzone New Jersey 🏗️
@upzonenj.bsky.social
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upzonenj.bsky.social
Hamilton was swingy if not lean GOP forever, and now it's solidly D, when so many other towns have gone the exact opposite. It's confounding.
upzonenj.bsky.social
It's electorally good for the Democrats (while of course morally evil) that they've priced out the white working class and Hispanics in Mercer suburbs.
upzonenj.bsky.social
For those who don't know the history, it used to be enforced by a toothless group called COAH. In 2013, it was dissolved by Chris Christie, and the courts took over enforcement. Magically, housing construction skyrocketed. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/h...
Four Decades to Build 70,000 Affordable Homes? Count That as a Success. (Published 2024)
www.nytimes.com
upzonenj.bsky.social
This is actually an insane, self-refuting chart. NJ courts started enforcing Mt Laurel in 2013 after it was a dead letter for 20 years, and there's almost a perfect correlation with dramatically more permits per capita than PA and NY.
upzonenj.bsky.social
Random thought - if Democrats win a close one in LD-36, you can thank population growth in Hudson County for getting Edgewater and Fairview (which did swing R last year) moved into this district at the expense of more red turf.
upzonenj.bsky.social
I changed it up a little bit, figuring that you can make the A and B run horizontally instead of vertically and have two AA plurality districts still. Again, this is a view of what the 2030 map could look like given population trends.
upzonenj.bsky.social
It's simply a fact that far more affordable housing is being built in Journal Square and the highrise parts of downtown, than in the brownstone parts of downtown, where it's none.
upzonenj.bsky.social
Yesterday, Jim McGreevey said that renovations on single family homes shouldn't trigger property tax revaluations. Probably the most pro-gentrification policy I have ever heard a politician propose.

Every mayoral candidate should have to answer, do they think home prices should go higher or lower.
upzonenj.bsky.social
Has anyone talked about the ballot placement in the JC council races? I think it'll be very important. cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Se...
cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com
upzonenj.bsky.social
But fundamentally they're criticizing a deregulatory law, their analysis sucks given how the law did nothing until 2013, and they want to go back to 90s style regional contribution agreements, just like Jack does.
upzonenj.bsky.social
Yes, they make some deregulatory recommendations, but that's the entire purpose of the law! Their regionalization suggestions will make things worse, and the idea that it hasn't helped affordability is easily disproven if you just compare home prices here to NY.
upzonenj.bsky.social
The point about urban aid exclusion is correct, but this is stupid. Compare Mt Laurel post 2013 to pre, the law used to not be enforced. The fact that Mt Laurel makes NJ's housing production match PA's when we are more regulated is in fact very impressive www.roi-nj.com/2025/10/08/l...
Study finds Mount Laurel affordable housing mandates have had little impact on costs and production in N.J. | ROI-NJ
A new study has found that the mandates from the so-called Mount Laurel decision have largely failed to increase housing production or reduce housing costs.
www.roi-nj.com
Reposted by Upzone New Jersey 🏗️
danieltrubman.bsky.social
The cost of eliminating transit fares on NYC buses is a couple hundred million dollars more than the ENTIRE Department of Parks and Recreation budget.

Let's not kid ourselves: eliminating bus fares would require devastating cuts for a City budget already facing a structural deficit.
upzonenj.bsky.social
This wasn't just bad on its own. This happened at the same time as a few high profile rezonings for more density, so it gave life to the mistaken idea that those were driving price increases.
opennewyork.org
This is one of a record 120+ neighborhood rezonings done under the Bloomberg admin—the vast majority of which were downzonings, reducing our city's housing capacity.

The effects of these rezonings on our city's housing supply are clear:
In one community, North Corona, Queens, housing growth
plummeted after a 2009 rezoning
Far more apartments were built in the 10 years before the rezoning than the 10 years after it.

[Graph shows numbers plummet after 2008
Reposted by Upzone New Jersey 🏗️
mishkaa.bsky.social
Newsom returning AB 527 without his signature, this bill would have have created a categorical exemption from CEQA for geothermal exploration. Geothermal developers and energy orgs were very enthusiastic about this bill. Does this mean anything for SB 79? It makes me feel a bit uneasy because...
Reposted by Upzone New Jersey 🏗️
3underscores.bsky.social
Newark mayor Ras Baraka's administration is proposing downzoning some parts of the city back to R-1 single-family zoning:

newark.legistar.com/LegislationD...
Reposted by Upzone New Jersey 🏗️
3underscores.bsky.social
The article is wrong and it has nothing to do with the new Journal Sq IZO. Its not even in the 2060 redevelopment plan. I sent them an email about it and they didn't correct it.
upzonenj.bsky.social
I have to correct my first statement, I missed Ironstate gave to McGreevey in June.