Jonathan Berk 🏠
@berkie1
Supporting a new generation of walkable neighborhoods with housing abundance, active public realms, & thriving small business ecosystems. Founder remainplaces.com
Boston Herald in 2019: *lets ease into this bike lane thing* Boston Herald in 2026: “put the pedal to the metal” on bike lanes.
The Northeast is home to some of the largest minimum lot size requirements in the United States, limiting where homes can be built and driving up housing costs.
Most of North Carolina has now eliminated minimum parking requirements for new development... ...Boston has not.
Well over 60% of Salem's residential lots are non-conforming to current lot-size requirements, with many more violating other zoning rules; density, setbacks, unit counts, parking, etc. Salem’s zoning reflects a city that never existed, not the City that was actually built.
We've spent years reforming zoning. Now it's time to take a hard look at building codes. A @bosindicators.bsky.social / @harvard-jchs.bsky.social report finds many code provisions were written for a different era. Updating them can reduce costs while maintaining safety & expanding housing choices.
Before a redesign project that took nearly 6-years of community process & construction, Tremont Street in Boston's South End ranked among the top 3% of streets for pedestrian crashes. In just 3-years it saw 53 crashes requiring EMS response & the tragic deaths of two neighbors.
We need to stop forcing new developments to “break up the box.” It makes building designs worse, reduces usable square footage and the amount of housing we can create, increases long-term maintenance challenges & hurts energy efficiency. 📍 Reading, MA (1900)
Noah Kahan took advantage of Massachusetts’ new Accessory Dwelling Unit law and built an ADU in centerfield at Fenway. 🏡 Legend.
At a bare minimum, you should be able to build this, by-right, anywhere in Massachusetts with water and sewer access.
🚨Governor Josh Stein has signed legislation eliminating minimum parking requirements for most uses across nearly all of North Carolina. “An Act To Restrict Local Governments From Regulating Certain Aspects of Off-Street Parking Spaces,” passed the Senate 44–1 & House 111–2.
The longer the Massachusetts Legislature delays meaningful, system-level housing reform, the more support you’ll see for policies like rent control. When people don’t see government addressing the root cause, a chronic shortage of homes, they’ll understandably look elsewhere.
Happy 250th, America! 🇺🇸 Celebrating from the heart of our 400 year-old city built around walkability, small infill lots, and a rich mix of housing types. Here’s to honoring America’s past by making it possible to build more places like it for our future. 📍Salem, MA
🚨 North Carolina's HB 162, “An Act To Restrict Local Governments From Regulating Certain Aspects of Off-Street Parking Spaces,” has been sent to the Governor after passing the Senate 44–1 & House 111–2. The bill eliminates minimum parking requirements in most of North Carolina.
We need more moments that bring communities together in person again. In an age of division and endless scrolling, public spaces full of people coming together to cheer for @usmnt.ussoccer.com feels like exactly what we all need a whole lot more of. 🇺🇸⚽️ 📍Salem, MA
Neighborhood pocket parks are for moments like this. Organized a World Cup game watch tonight and it was incredible seeing the community come together around this @usmnt.ussoccer.com 🇺🇸⚽️ 📍Salem, MA
"Cities that lift minimum parking requirements may find that the overall change in parking supply is modest, while the added flexibility can make new development more feasible and allow land to be used more efficiently." - UCLA Center for Parking Policy escholarship.org/uc/item/8df4...
Last session, a bipartisan bill to eliminate minimum parking requirements statewide passed the NC House unanimously. On Tuesday, a similar bill eliminating most mandatory parking minimums passed the NC Senate 44–1. The bill heads to the House for concurrence. 📍North Carolina
Massachusetts won’t solve its housing crisis by nibbling around the edges. Decades of overregulation across zoning, permitting, and building codes have suppressed housing production. We need systemic reform.
The @bostonglobe.com published a full page thank you letter to the Tartan Army in this mornings paper. 🏴
🚨 On Salem’s 400th birthday, founder Roger Conant has received the ultimate blessing: a visit from the Tartan Army. 🏴
A single-family home on a 1-acre lot can use 4x—or more—the water of a townhome on a smaller lot. If we're worried about water demand, the problem isn't housing production. It's sprawling development patterns that require large, heavily irrigated lawns.
Boston permitted just 432 housing units in Q1 2026, 266 of them in the multi-phased, subsidized, Bunker Hill redevelopment. At this pace, the city is headed for its worst year of housing permitting since 2010.
A remarkable conservation success: Boston now uses less water than it did in 1900, despite having over 200,000 more residents. Water consumption today is also less than half of its 1980s peak.
Temps are high, beer supplies are dangerously low but the vibes for Scotlands first World Cup match in 28-years are perfect. 🏴 Boston 💙 The Tartan Army
Haiti supporters in Boston bringing the party on their way to tonight’s match with Scotland, their first World Cup match in 52-years. 🇭🇹
