justine underhill

This metro station sat surrounded by a giant parking lot for decades. Now it’s finally being turned into housing. Why did it take so long?

Most street space in NYC isn’t for people, it’s for cars.

He started planting trees illegally. It changed an entire city.

$4 hot dog outside. $14 inside. Same food. Different rules.

A tree so BIG people thought it was a forest. It’s actually just one.

Tokyo’s city center is some of its least dense land. That’s the opposite of how modern cities are supposed to work.

Same place. Same people. Completely different outcomes. Why?

35,000 people. One city block. The densest place on Earth.

Crime doesn’t just correlate with poverty. There’s another factor most people miss.

"New York made one change. Traffic dropped immediately."

TVs are cheap. Housing isn’t. Something strange happened to the economy.

50,000 people at the Colosseum… So where did everyone park?

What if the Louvre had to follow U.S. parking laws? It wouldn’t look the same.

A 50-year mortgage sounds more affordable. It might actually make housing more expensive.

A city almost spent $1.7 million on one public toilet. There’s a reason this keeps happening.

California planned high-speed rail 30 years ago. It still isn’t finished.

One of the cheapest types of housing used to be everywhere. Then cities made it illegal.

Why do some college textbooks cost $300+? The answer is more complicated than you think.

Friday Video: Guess Which Argument Can Get a NIMBY To Change Their Mind About New Housing usa.streetsblog.org/2026/03/20/fri… via @StreetsblogUSA and @jj_under

@DevV990 @CSElmendorf @dbroockman @j_kalla I’m a big fan of “Form-based Code” — it basically sets up expectations for building form and streetscape, which makes it easier to get beautiful, walkable development without subjective, case-by-case battles (and thus speeds up the process)

@jj_under @CSElmendorf @dbroockman @j_kalla Justine can you do something to encourage beautiful buildings as a city councilor?

Which arguments ACTUALLY change people’s minds about housing? Last year I worked with researchers testing different messages, and the results were... surprising! New video explaining the results: youtube.com/watch?v=aCKrQ4… Enjoyed working with @CSElmendorf @dbroockman @j_kalla