One is that, given that the attractiveness of owning vs. renting can vary depending on the person and the state of the housing market, making a broader array of rental options available for people is a positive thing. I remember years ago when I was trying to find a large (3+ bedroom) place to rent, and how difficult it was to find rentals that size in the area I was looking in. Giving people more ways to purchase housing is good, the same way it’s good for people to have the option to buy or lease a new car.

Second, it’s clear that many folks strongly believe that large-scale corporate ownership of rental housing (which would include BTR communities) is something that can have negative effects on the housing market. But I think it’s more useful to think of the popularity of rental housing as something that’s a product of the housing market: it’s a natural consequence of housing getting increasingly unaffordable thanks to high interest rates and skyrocketing housing prices. Shutting down BTR is a poor way to address that problem; what we need to do is build more housing and develop construction methods that let us construct buildings more cheaply.

A fantastic writeup by Construction Physics on the birth of build-to-rent housing, it's growth, and current controversy.

Some of my projects - spanning tools, toys, and AI experiments.

Sam and Samuel sit down with our Art Director, Atalanta, a sculptor by training, and talk all things sculpture. They discuss how art education has become de-skilled, how sculpture has always been the best art form for mass production and the surprising places the tradition has been kept alive.

Works in Progress on why America lacks sculptors for mass statue revival.

“To choose Inuit wayfinding,” the ethnographers conclude, “becomes increasingly heroic in the face of wayfinding that depends on an advanced technological system.”

It may be a losing battle to demand that basic acts of competence require heroism. But I still think it’s worth noticing what assumptions that Silicon Valley steam engine metaphor is trying to force us to accept.

Tim Requarth's essay on AI as steam engine, instead of a bicycle.