States are finally stepping up on housing
An EU-wide abortion access mobilization, and a Q&A on teen suicide prevention
Hi everyone,
I have three new stories to share with you.
1. The first is a story about how states are finally stepping up on housing after years, frankly decades, of inaction. I hope this piece will help you make sense of the flurry of headlines you may have already seen or might see in the future about new housing laws, because there will inevitably be challenges, loopholes exploited, and bumps along the way. But we’re in a fundamentally more optimistic spot when it comes to tackling our nation’s housing shortage than we were even five years ago, and that good (!!) point can easily get lost. There’s a lot of work to do, but people are becoming more clear eyed about what that work is, and what the challenges will be. You can read that here.
Bonus: Jerusalem Demsas at The Atlantic had a very smart conversation recently on Ezra Klein’s podcast about housing. Jerusalem has done brilliant writing on US housing and localism, and talks in this episode about why she too is more optimistic right now than she’s felt in a long time.
2. I broke news about a massive campaign to expand abortion access throughout Europe that launched on April 24. Activists aim to collect 1 million signatures and press Parliamentary candidates on their Citizens’ Initiative proposal ahead of the EU elections in June. Their solidarity efforts were directly inspired by the overturn of Roe v. Wade and I spoke with Nika Kovač, the Slovenian activist leading the EU campaign. You can read about it here and if you know anyone living in Europe, make sure they’re aware of it, too!
3. Today I published a Q&A with two sociologists who have spent years researching teen suicide clusters. Our conversation touched on things like “social contagion” and smartphones, and whether the discourse around youth mental health has inadvertently contributed to more mental health problems. These researchers are focused on prevention strategies, and the role specifically of adults in steering youth away from seeing suicide as a legitimate way to cope with struggle. You can read that here.
Thanks for reading!
(NIMBYs of color are a hugely influential part of the NIMBY puzzle but are literally never discussed by YIMBYs because their existence is rhetorically inconvenient)