YIMBY. Architecture enthusiast. Build baby build.
Newark, NJ
Joined January 2011
- Tweets6.3K
- Following494
- Followers181
- Likes15.1K
Jacob Felson retweeted
Rent control will do several things at once: 1) it will depress property values in modern high rises whose owners will file tax appeals; 2) it won’t add more affordable units for low-income people; and 3) it will provide a MASSIVE subsidy to wealthy renters in market-rate units.
Jacob Felson retweeted
Rural NY is in a tough spot: a tax and regulatory regime built for a place with insane agglomeration effects (NYC) that can survive the union / NGO grift
And they're outvoted in the R primary by Long Island lunatics so they can't even put a reformist / pro-biz R forward
Cortland County NY is having such a shortage of snowplow drivers that they're considering ending plow routes after 5pm on the 247 miles of road they maintain.
They're 50% under target for the number of drivers they need. Cannot find enough guys.
Cutbacks like this will become more and more normal as the number of working-age men continues to decrease. Funding for DPW departments will continue to drain as the tax base shrinks. That's already happening -- they're only offering $24/hr for new hires, in part because the money isn't there.
The combination of low birthrates, high taxes, high outmigration, and an aging populace is going to absolutely decimate the rural Northeast.
Stuff like this is just the beginning. Some places in NYS are already de-paving roads, permanently closing bridges they can't afford to fix, etc. Looks like plowing is next, and in heavy snow country like NYS, if the roads aren't plowed for the morning and evening commutes, the economy can't move for 6 months out of the year.
Jacob Felson retweeted
Something I have been insisting on: right now, the rich are having more kids, not fewer, than the poor, reversing a long-standing demographic pattern.
The ultimate status symbol for a finance bro? Three kids and a Rivian.
Jacob Felson retweeted
A Frenchman tells us that raising taxes in order to fund a lavish welfare state works well. But I checked in with some other Frenchmen and received some contradictory information.
Hi @elonmusk , we’ve conducted the most comprehensive study to date on tax unfairness in the United States.
We found that you, like your fellow billionaires, pay a lower effective tax rate than the average American.
So if you really want to help the American people, I have a better suggestion than charity: pay more taxes. 🧵
Jacob Felson retweeted
The worst housing market over the last decade is somewhere people would least expect.
Manhattan.
Values in New York County dropped by -11.9% from September 2016 to 2026, falling from 1.41M to 1.24M.
Which is an astounding -51.2% drop in inflation-adjusted terms.
Condo/co-op/townhome values inn Manhattan are now at record lows compared to incomes and rents.
Making it one of the most undervalued housing markets in America, despite it's still expensive price tag.
Values have actually started turning recently, up 3% YoY.
Meaning it could be a good time to buy in NYC.
Check the value trends for your county at: reventure.app/map/cMk5iPrSfq
Jacob Felson retweeted
These people are why we can't have nice things. Or a functioning fucking subway.
Anonymous submission:
Last week, a group of activists disabled the OMNY readers at the BQ Church Avenue station in Brooklyn with an automatic center punch and drill. They opened the gate so people can ride for free, and painted the cameras to protect themselves and fellow riders from surveillance.
This was deliberate act of protest against unaffordable transit, hyper-surveillance in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods, and the MTA's collaboration with the military industrial complex.
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED. OMNY records when and where you travel, your photograph, name, DOB, billing address, and other personal details. This invasive tech creates a profile to track your life and travel patterns. OMNY’s privacy policy places no limits on the data it collects about you.
EVERY TAP FUNDS A WAR PROFITEER. OMNY is operated by Cubic, a military equipment company making combat simulators. They sell the F-35 fighter jet training system to imperialist zionist entities like israel. The F-35 is a key weapon in israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and all of the US's imperialist wars, responsible for massacring millions of people.
FIGHT BACK. The MTA and Cubic don't deserve your hard earned cash. Take action, smash a reader, jump the turnstile, hold the gate for others. If you must pay, use cash for OMNY cards, and tap yourself and fellow riders in. This makes you all less traceable. Cover your face and identifying features. Always check for police before evading the fare. Remember, contracted security guards have no authority to stop or detain passengers.
RIDE FREE, FUCK THE NYPD, AND FREE PALESTINE!
Jacob Felson retweeted
The Upper West Side represents, to me, the peak of America. Of our confidence, gloriously embodied in homes & then towers whose aesthetic peaks are without peers. I’m always inspired here.
Sadly, it also shows the loss of that confidence, of forlorn blocks and barren facades.
Jacob Felson retweeted
I need leftists to understand that outside NYC, all the housing problems they assert as the default state of capitalism don't exist.
Most of the country doesn't have rent control, yet housing affordability is better. Austin saw nominal rent declines for multiple years during economic growth. Apartments aren't unmaintained for decades; you mainly ask your landlord to fix the dishwasher or in-unit laundry. There aren't wait lists or brokers, you just call the number on a listing, wire them some money, and move in immediately.
They even build new apartments all the time, anywhere it's legal, so much so that it's popular to complain online about being bored of the sight of the many similar apartment blocks investors are building all over the place. Renters complain about style fads, the proliferation of cheap luxury aesthetics, the unfashionable appliances.
The rental housing crisis only exists in a couple cities that have a multigenerational lock of leftist governance that are regulated like little historical preservation snowglobes where outsiders moving in are resented and you can't change or add anything to the built environment without multiple political approvals and interest group payoffs.
Jacob Felson retweeted
There are too many voters in NYC whose brains function at the level of this idiotic post and live in a fantasy land.
Jacob Felson retweeted
The way you pay for the welfare state is by imposing taxes on the middle class
Jacob Felson retweeted
NYC spent more than it took in for four years in a row. The current budget was "balanced" amid an economic expansion only by postponing over $2B in pension payments. This is not a problem stemming from NY's taxes being too low.
Comptroller @MarkLevineNYC called on the state to consider tax increases next year, citing a need to address the deep municipal budget deficit on the horizon.
“Certainly an increase should be on the table for the year ahead in Albany,” he said at @POLITICOLive’s NY Outlook👇
Jacob Felson retweeted
This WSJ video about rent stabilization in NYC has gone viral in crazy-housing-activist circles, and it's been interesting to watch the insane responses. Total economic illiteracy. Naked hatred for landlords. Open calls to seize private property.
These NYC apartments are standing empty, not because the owners don't want to rent them, but because rent stabilization laws prohibit them from charging enough to earn back the costs of necessary repairs.
My latest for @WSJFreeEx
Jacob Felson retweeted
These NYC apartments are standing empty, not because the owners don't want to rent them, but because rent stabilization laws prohibit them from charging enough to earn back the costs of necessary repairs.
My latest for @WSJFreeEx
Jacob Felson retweeted
I’ll never understand people who think you can start an unprovoked war by committing a massive atrocity, then hide under your own people retaining hostages from that atrocity, and then blame others when your own people are hurt. But sure, make a caricature of other arguments that you can actually think you defeat.
I've never fully understood people whose response to the killing of civilians in Gaza is basically a shrug of the shoulders and saying "life's hard" and "war's bad." A total unwillingness to acknowledge that Israelis have agency and that they could have chosen to prosecute the war differently. They chose not to.
Jacob Felson retweeted
Congratulations to Robert Hall on winning the 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics!
Let’s pass the flat tax he helped pioneer: 18%, the first $60,000 tax-free, no deductions, no loopholes.
Want to see this economy on fire? Give Americans a postcard tax return!
Jacob Felson retweeted
I'm sick of these millionaire actors charging us for movies. They should be free!
Seth Rogen says Elon Musk shouldn't be charging people at the Tesla Diner in LA because he's rich.
"I’m sick of these billionaires charging us for burgers."
Just so you know, Google estimates Rogen to be worth around $80 million. I reckon it's more.
