Phillip Mendonça-Vieira

Perfect and upright, eschews evil.

  1. About
  2. Selected Writing
  3. Selected Work and Projects

1. About

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.


2. Selected Writing

You can find an archive of my writing here. Follow along using the rss feed.

  1. Remote Work Isn't Gentrification

    October 26, 2020

    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?

  2. Bailout Landlords, Get Social Housing

    April 9, 2020

    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.

  3. Actually, Rent Control is Great: Revisiting Ontario’s Experience, the Supply of Housing, and Security of Tenure

    September 26, 2018

    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.

  4. Actually, Rent Control Is Great

    November 13, 2017

    An op-ed summary of my paper on why rent control is good, which was published in the Toronto Star.

  5. The Saints of Little Portugal

    July 19, 2017

    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.

  6. Canada, Keep the Queen!

    March 18, 2017

    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.