LA's leadership puts a stop to more housing while simultaneously launching a raid on a massive homeless encampment

#BREAKING: Scuffle breaks out during homeless encampment sweep in the San Fernando Valley. https://t.co/Ac3bfx4cX1 pic.twitter.com/oDzDWdsKrf

— KTLA (@KTLA) July 31, 2025

BREAKING TV-11 Encampment sweep in #VanNuys @Stu_Mundel reporting in #SkyFox pic.twitter.com/u6LCid2FDp

— DJTru (@DJTru) July 31, 2025

Duplexes!

After outcry, L.A. restricts duplexes in Pacific Palisades - Los Angeles Times https://t.co/v13d0rsaIn

— Hector Becerra (@hbecerraLATimes) July 31, 2025

The area was already destroyed!: 

Palisades residents have raised alarms about SB 9, worrying that their historically single-family-home community would be transformed by the additional density allowed under the law and become more dangerous in the event of future fires

these people are despicable and infuriating and have abjectly failed at what is by far their most important responsibility because they are simply not morally or politically serious in any way https://t.co/2QpnHgtRUw

— Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc) July 31, 2025

the procedure is precisely to see what people are using to actually rebuild, and then have a panic about it and close that loophole

— Kelsey Piper (@KelseyTuoc) July 31, 2025

Also today:

New newsletter: Antitrust critics of Abundance claim homebuilding oligopolies are holding back supply and driving up prices.

I did something simple. I called up their sources.

Everyone I spoke to told me the same thing: Their claims are bullshit.https://t.co/EGHno84TBl

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) July 31, 2025

The case in Abundance—that zoning and other rules have constrained housing development for decades— is based on an enormous amount of empirical research.

The antitrust folks' argument is built on assertions in legal journals that reference assertions in blog posts that reference… pic.twitter.com/23KClMXIP6

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) July 31, 2025

The owners of high-end market Erewhon filed a lawsuit to fight the building of a new apartment complex

LAT:

The owners of Erewhon have filed an environmental lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, the latest attempt by the upscale supermarket chain to stop the planned demolition of Sportsmen’s Lodge hotel in Studio City to make way for a new apartment complex

...

The hotel permanently closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Caltrans workers accused of building themselves secret mini-apartments inside train stations

Mercury News:

reportedly featured a kitchen, shower, plumbing and security cameras. Prosecutors said the two defendants worked together to keep the invoices for the work below $3,000 each to avoid scrutiny and skirt procedures meant to discourage such fraud.

(Sounds like they cleared out the apartments after they were discovered instead of turning them into airbnbs.)

Deranged tiny apartment layout in Tokyo

@tokyolens 45 Seconds in Tokyos CRAZIEST TINY APARTMENT #tiny #tinyapartment #microapartment #tinyliving #japaneseapartment #tokyoapartment #japan #japanapartment #tinyhouse #tinyhome #tokyolens #tiniest ♬ original sound - TokyoLens

A superior court judge "blocked [Beverly Hills] from issuing all building permits except for new residential development as a penalty for Beverly Hills’ failure to approve a sufficient blueprint for affordable housing"

LAT:

In recent months, the city approved a $100,000 basement spa in the $125-million mega-mansion owned by WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, exterior upgrades for an $80,000-a-month rental and a $130,000 kitchen and bathroom remodel in a home purchased a week before for $6.7 million.

Now, any similar home improvements desired by Beverly Hills property owners are under threat.

...

In 1970, the population of Beverly Hills was 33,400. Today, it is 32,400. Over the same period, the number of California residents has doubled to nearly 40 million.

"Famously reclusive" town near San Francisco lost its post office because there's no available building to lease

SFGate:

The unincorporated Marin County community, whose population hovers around 1,500, lost its post office in March following a lease dispute between the US Postal Service and the building’s landlord. 

...

In another town, this might have been a short-term inconvenience. In Bolinas, it’s a drawn-out disaster with no end in sight. Typically when a post office loses its lease, it just leases out a new building, but Bolinas is a famously reclusive town, which for years has staunchly resisted development. (According to a 1989 LA Times article, Bolinas residents used to steal Caltrans road signs directing motorists to the town in an effort to keep out tourists.) 

...

[Residents] have no choice but to drive 20 to 40 minutes round trip down winding country roads to collect their mail — a significant barrier to Bolinas’ residents over 65

Canadian tribes contemplating plan to build "more homes than currently exist in most of Vancouver’s 22 neighbourhoods"

Vancouver Sun:

The neighbourhood groups that opposed the earlier vision are unlikely to welcome the new, bigger, denser, taller version. But there are also many in Vancouver who support the vision of a new city centre on the west side, a dense, transit-oriented, mixed-use community that will provide public amenities and also support the economic health of the Host Nations.

...

As massive as Jericho is, it is only one piece of the MST Nations’ development plans. The First Nations, both jointly and independently, are planning to build tens of thousands of homes on sites in Vancouver, Burnaby and the North Shore. Their portfolio of prime urban real estate has been estimated at around $5 billion, and the MST Development Corporation CEO has estimated that portfolio could be worth closer to $30 billion by the time those properties are developed.

Interior camera captured the moment a massive boulder smashed through a Honolulu home

(Video has audio.) (The area is north of Diamond Head.)

 
KITV:

According to the Honolulu Police Department, the boulder appeared to have plowed through the property's cinderblock wall, struck the family's car, rammed through a glass door, across the living room floor and into another wall before landing in a bedroom on the second story of the Palolo Avenue home.

KHON:

Community members are raising concerns about a development next door that excavated the mountain.

They said there were no boulders rolling down the valley before the development, and they have now experienced three boulders coming down in the last 24 hours. 

The former Buffalo police headquarters was converted into 114 luxury apartments, and the jail cells are available as work spaces

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Police Apartments (@thepoliceapartments)

Official site, and one write-up.

Update: Looks like they deleted that one Instagram upload, but not this older one:

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A post shared by The Police Apartments (@thepoliceapartments)

Angels owner no longer has to build vast majority of affordable housing units he agreed to build

LAT:

In order to preserve the Angel Stadium land sale, the city of Anaheim made a deal last week. Angels owner Arte Moreno agreed to pay $96 million to the city, which would use that money to fund affordable housing projects elsewhere in Anaheim.

This week, what Anaheim gave up in the deal became clear: Of every five units of affordable housing Moreno had committed to include in developing the Angel Stadium parking lots, he no longer has to build four of them.

...

Under the terms of the revised agreement, Moreno’s company has 25 years to build the affordable homes. If the company does not, the city cannot recover the $28 million still credited to the company but can withhold approval for other projects within the development, which is anticipated to be completed in 30 years.

Today's funny posts

Huh...#MaryWorth pic.twitter.com/pU6WhEBg9H

— Ben Towle (@ben_towle) February 20, 2022

Excuse me, what?#MaryWorth pic.twitter.com/hOflbdLcjS

— Ben Towle (@ben_towle) February 27, 2022

"Private Military Landlord Pleads Guilty, Must Pay $65 Million for Defrauding Air Force, Other Services"

Air Force Magazine:

Balfour Beatty Communities maintained two sets of maintenance records at some bases—one detailing issues of mold, asbestos, and leaks that were not promptly fixed; and another set of falsified accounts of quick repairs that allowed the company to collect bonuses from the Pentagon.

BBC:

It is not the first time that Balfour Beatty has been censured for defence-related work. In the UK in 2019 MI6 sacked the company as a contractor during refurbishment work after it lost sensitive plans of the layout of its headquarters in London’s Vauxhal

...

The fines are more than Balfour Beatty’s entire profit before tax for 2020 of £48m, although they are only a small proportion of revenues of £8.6bn during that year.

Now, parking lots in Los Angeles demand you download a tracking app

The LA Times looks at one you're pressured to download if you park at Trader Joe's:

“Metropolis re-engineered the legacy parking experience from the ground-up,” the company’s website declares. “No more tickets, pay machines or gates: At Metropolis, just drive in and drive out.”

If only it was that simple.

First of all, if you use the Metropolis app, you may not be paying just for parking. You may also be charged a “convenience fee” for your re-engineered legacy parking experience.

The company’s terms of service don’t specify how much this fee will run, stating only that the cost is “calculated as a small percentage of the total visit charge.”

But that’s the least of your worries. Metropolis’ more than 4,000-word privacy policy is a minefield of digital pitfalls, revealing parking to be almost an afterthought for a service that’s aggressively focused on learning who you are and how you behave.

And speaking of Los Angeles parking, Vice looks at the "Save Parking Structure 3" campaign in Santa Monica:

Not only is Parking Structure 3 no longer needed, but it would cost the city a pretty penny to keep around. In 2017, the city determined Parking Structure 3 was one of some 2,000 buildings needing “seismic improvements” because it was constructed with concrete before earthquake building standards were in place. It would cost approximately $3 million to do those repairs, the city says, plus another $1.5 million to replace the aging and often broken elevators, for a total maintenance cost of $4.5 million.

...

It is a pattern [a housing advocate] recognizes from opposition to projects across the county, that specific projects tend to be catalysts that ignite existing discontent rather than concentrated actions for clearly-defined reasons. Repeat these fights project after project, in city after city, across the entire country, and you end up with a country some 6.8 million units short of adequately housing its people.

An investigation asserts that a San Francisco supervisor has "blocked homes for 8,587 people, and opposed them for 28,708"

Here's a thread, and this is the SF Chronicle's write up. The supervisor tweeted a response. 

New York's "mayor estimates there are 50,000 illegal basement units with more than 100,000 residents"

CBS:

A majority of the storm-related deaths happened in Queens in basement units, and despite the tragedies, they’re here to stay.

“I don’t think it’s realistic to say ‘Let’s just have no one live in them’ because I don’t know where all those folks are going to end up who need a place to live,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

From July:

Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams, the man who is all but guaranteed to be our next mayor, has voted against a proposed 18-story tower on the corner of Atlantic and Vanderbilt Avenues in Prospect Heights, citing (among a few other things) the project’s density.

...

But as Curbed has pointed out, Prospect Heights is home to only 83.6 people per acre, compared to 108.1 in neighboring Crown Heights and 94.4 in a nearby section of Bed-Stuy. And it’s hard to think of a better place to add density in the neighborhood: The site is at the intersection of two wide and busy thoroughfares, one of them lined with low-rise auto shops and car washes, and it’s across the street from the Atlantic rail yards and kitty-corner from the 17-story 550 Vanderbilt Avenue, part of the Pacific Park (formerly the Atlantic Yards) project. It’s also a short walk from multiple train lines and the LIRR at Barclays Center. Setting aside the social functions of a McDonald’s, which are intricate and considerable in American communities, is a one-story structure with a drive-through the best deployment of a corner like this?

"One housing project has turned into an epic San Francisco battle"

San Francisco Chronicle on one owner's attempt to add four units to his property (including two affordable):

To some of his neighbors, the garden already is a paradise, an open space that gives the surrounding homes more sunlight, air and a view. [The] proposal, in their minds, is hellish. Building too big and destroying the character of the block. 

...

“Our association will always opt for trees, grass and shrubs because that’s what makes San Francisco San Francisco,” he said. “We consider backyards to be sacrosanct. 

...

“You could sit all day at the Planning Commission, and it’s all stories like this,” she said. “It’s all rich people yelling at each other

Three strange stories about art

2. Notice the antebellum-style portrait behind Kemp as he signs the suppression law? Thanks to Twitter crowdsourcing and particularly @TheSeaFarmer, I can report the measure to limit Black voting was signed under the image of a notorious slave plantation in Wilkes County, GA

— Will Bunch Sign Up For My Newsletter (@Will_Bunch) March 26, 2021

(Link.)

This attempted murder-suicide (but everybody recovered, incredibly, from wounds from a .357 Magnum) at Charles Schulz's studio in the nineties is quite the tale.https://t.co/nh5cje5JJi

— Paul Chadwick (@PaulHChadwick) April 3, 2021

Am now rabbit holeing on this SoHo artist certification thing, possibly the most insane residential zoning story in a city that specializes in them. The city rejects certification for artists whose work has shown insufficient development over time! https://t.co/sLiGrELzEv pic.twitter.com/CwFqI9va6t

— Tom Gara (@tomgara) April 5, 2021

Berlin's rent cap was declared illegal, and now shadow rent clauses takes effect

Guardian:

Germany’s highest court has ruled that a rent cap imposed by the Berlin state government is illegal, dealing a huge blow to those who have campaigned to keep the city affordable.

The constitutional court in Karlsruhe overturned the law on Thursday, saying lawmakers in the state had no right to instigate the law

...

Landlords have also increasingly introduced a schattenmiete, or shadow rent clause, into rental contracts, which tenants were informed they would have to pay in case the court overturned the rent cap.

"Zillow Is Buying And Selling Lots Of Homes And It's Almost Half Its Business Now"

Buzzfeed:

Zillow is now buying thousands of properties, investing in minor repairs, and then selling them — essentially flipping houses — in 15 markets around the country, with plans to be in 26 markets by mid-2020. It collects a fee from the seller with each of these transactions. The company sold 786 homes and bought 1,535 homes from April to June.

This is not yet a profitable business for Zillow. Its Homes segment lost $71.1 million last quarter. But the company plans to eventually make money from the program by attracting more mortgage customers (it acquired a small mortgage company in November) through these sales, and also selling referrals to real estate agents as more homeowners express interest in selling their homes to Zillow.

Related:

For the past two years, WeWork Cos. has spent more than $40 million to host a series of startup pitch competitions around the world. The real estate company asks contestants to pitch apps or creative projects to celebrity panels of judges and compete for cash prizes, in between musical performances from the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This year, it hoped to go much bigger.

WeWork teamed up with Ashton Kutcher to pitch a television show to NBC based on the contest, known as the Creator Awards, according to two people familiar with the talks. The show would be similar to Shark Tank and have camera crews follow contestants around the events. The project hasn’t panned out, though, and is currently on hold.

*Previously: "A Forest Hill couple took their neighbours to court for copying the look of their multimillion-dollar home"

"Sierra La Verne Country Club is closing Sunday, here’s what the city is doing in response"

Daily Bulletin:

“We can’t require them to continue to irrigate everything, but there are certain things that we can do under our current code,” Eric Scherer, La Verne’s community development director, said. “There is enough language in our code that we feel we can make sure it can be relatively kept up and kept clean.”

...

The 1,600 feet of fencing installed without the proper permits remains an issue, Scherer said, and the City Attorney’s Office is working on getting it removed.

...

The site cannot be sold to a residential developer because the land is currently designated “open space” under the city’s general plan, its blueprint for development, Scherer said. The designation prohibits any development on the property.

...

“I can guarantee you at this point in time, I’ll go to my grave saying, ‘No development up there,’” Mayor Don Kendrick said.