Perfect and upright, eschews evil.
By trade, I tell computers what to do. I make apps, I build products, I throw events. I think about people, urbanism, housing, the internet, and living a good life. I live in Toronto.
You can find me on twitter, and on instagram. Reach me by email via phillmv at okayfail dot com.
You can find an archive of my writing here. Follow along using the rss feed.
Before the pandemic, fully remote work was rare but now it's rapidly expanding. If lots of workers stand to earn good, tech-industry salaries while living outside of tech-industry hubs, could this lead to more gentrification?
If scores of landlords become insolvent due to the global pandemic, we should bail them out directly – and nationalize their assets. We could greatly expand the social housing stock, and use it to protect tenants and the homeless.
Rent controls are criticized for acting as a severe disincentive to new and existing rental construction. In this paper, I documented contemporary Canadian housing policy initiatives and investigated the theoretical and empirical record of rent controls in other jurisdictions. I then argue that rent controls' most important aspect is their regulation of the provision of security of tenure — which should be seen as a right of tenants as well as homeowners.
An op-ed summary of my paper on why rent control is good, which was published in the Toronto Star.
When you next walk through the residential streets of Toronto's west end, take a look at the houses around you. Before long, you'll see the azulejos.
Let's talk about the Queen, shall we? Elizabeth Alexandra Mary has been the Queen of Canada and fourteen other countries since 1952. She is now ninety years old, and she's not getting any younger.