Justin de Benedictis-Kessner

@sahnicboom This is why I usually have the map with Phoenix (and Jacksonville and Fresno) highlighted on slide ~5! Academic Phoenix blindness is real.

i was giving a job talk once, and an urban politics old head interrupted me and asked, "we don't consider phoenix to be a real city, do we?"

@zacharylhertz Dunkin iced in the snow? Very New Englander behavior, I approve 👏🏻

Polled my friends on this drink and no fewer than 15 of them so far have responded with “guillotine straight away”. Guess I should’ve gone with the Likert scale instead of the binary

@sahnicboom From Ben Feingold's dissertation version! proquest.com/docview/305990…

@jdbk yeah good memory, but it’s not posted publicly anywhere. similar effects on overall permitting and affordable housing mix

interesting papers on LA's TOC program, both finding an increase in development applications and proportion of affordable units. however, disagreement over effects on actual housing production due to different measurement strategies and research designs

Join us here at LPEC @CenterforCities in September!

Yesterday was a fulfilling day representing Canada in Boston! 🇨🇦 Here’s a moment from a thoughtful and productive conversation on housing policy with students at Harvard University, moderated by Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

@BostonPWD @CityOfBoston Hey @BostonPWD @MayorWu: these photos are lovely and I'm glad to see this finally happen. But crews seemed to have stopped clearing any bike lanes outside the 1-block radius around these photo locations. Mass Ave is *impassable* at several locations north of Westland Ave!

PWD crews were out bright & early this morning clearing snow from the Washington St. bike lane in #Chinatown & the Mass Ave. bike lane in the #SouthEnd. 🚲❄️ 🦺

As he says: “learning isn’t just getting answers to questions.” Worth a listen for anyone who teaches, is learning (anything), or cares about the quality of education in the age of AI!

My friend and colleague @Kennedy_School @tedsvo shared his expert perspective on the use of AI in education on @NPR’s All Things Considered today: wbur.org/upnext/2025/09…

This partisan finger-pointing is based on falsehoods. To fix crime, we should focus on evidence-based strategies to address crime, rather than engaging in a distracting blame-game. theconversation.com/crime-is-nonpa…

Our open-access research in @ScienceAdvances shows that the partisanship of mayors has no causal effect on crime rates. Nor does it affect police spending, staffing, or arrest rates. x.com/jdbk/status/18…

Yet again, Trump is falsely claiming that Democrat-controlled cities like DC are letting crime get out of control. Our research – from cities across the US – shows that this just isn't true (@cwarshaw @Matthew00117310)

🔥🧯 Excited to announce the program of our 2025 MIT workshop on polarization, norms & trust (co-organized w/ @DG_Rand, @ylelkes @AdamBerinsky @kati_kish)! Speakers incl. @BrendanNyhan @jdbk @dhopkins1776 et al. Info: sites.google.com/view/polarizat… To attend: buy.stripe.com/dRmdRa7Du1fwe4…

📢 It’s time to nominate for the 2025 Urban & Local Politics Section Awards! We’re recognizing outstanding work in urban politics across multiple categories, including best dissertation, book, and career contributions. 🏆 Deadline: March 15, 2025

Well said, from @ProfDavidDeming: "If government funding goes away, so will much of the research. The long-run cost will be staggering. We’ll have fewer medical breakthroughs, the progress of lifesaving medical treatments will stall, and America may fall behind"

@SocDoneLeft @ScienceAdvances @cwarshaw @daniel_b_jones @Matthew00117310 @Kennedy_School @GWtweets @PittTweet Happy to chat more about that specific thing! We mostly focused on the major parties in identifying partisanship, as you picked up.

@jdbk @ScienceAdvances @cwarshaw @daniel_b_jones @Matthew00117310 @Kennedy_School @GWtweets @PittTweet Thank you! I didn't realize that you had created this database, I found it extremely cool! (I was looking for databases like this to see how well third-party candidates did in local elections -- your database is more focused on (and great at) tracking Dem/Rep wins.)

Are Democratic leaders making cities more dangerous than Republicans? Trump + others have repeatedly made claims like this. New paper @ScienceAdvances w/ @cwarshaw @daniel_b_jones @Matthew00117310 shows that, in short, the answer is no.

@SocDoneLeft @ScienceAdvances @cwarshaw @daniel_b_jones @Matthew00117310 @Kennedy_School @GWtweets @PittTweet Glad you find it interesting! This is using the American local government elections database that Chris + I created with a couple others. Details here: nature.com/articles/s4159…

@jdbk @ScienceAdvances @cwarshaw @daniel_b_jones @Matthew00117310 @Kennedy_School @GWtweets @PittTweet This is extremely interesting. I wasn't aware of any big datasets on Mayoral elections -- what data did y'all use?

@JaeJaeykim2 @ScienceAdvances @cwarshaw @daniel_b_jones @Matthew00117310 @Kennedy_School @GWtweets @PittTweet Thanks Jae!

@lauraroyden Thanks Laura!

@mattkahn1966 @ScienceAdvances @cwarshaw @daniel_b_jones @Matthew00117310 @Kennedy_School @GWtweets @PittTweet Glad you found! Yes that is the hope :)

@jdbk @ScienceAdvances @cwarshaw @daniel_b_jones @Matthew00117310 @Kennedy_School @GWtweets @PittTweet Found the data archive! Thanks very much. dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?…