A Bit Of This And That
Maps, essays, and housing
As seen in the map below, Russia has a noncontiguous wedge of land on the Baltic Sea known as Kaliningrad. In the past, Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania have let Russia send supplies overland between the two parts of the country. This all changed when Russia invaded Ukraine, and Lithuania and Poland became less thrilled about doing anything that would make the life of Russia more comfortable. On June 17th, new EU sanctions kicked in and halted the shipment of some goods through Lithuania. Russia is calling this a blockade and saber rattling.
The space between Russia’s satellite state of Belarus and Kaliningrad is known as the Suwałki Gap. It is where NATO planners have long expected intense fighting if it ever had to go to war with Russia. The “blockade” has ignited worries about potential future warfare here. I don’t have a take, I just thought that it was worthwhile to show where this is because you have probably never heard of it before this week.
A guide to the Arbitration Committee
I worked this weekend on an essay for Wikipedia as a guide of sorts for parties in Arbitration Committee cases. It is extreme insider baseball, but one of the things that I have seen over the past decade is people digging themselves into holes due to what they think the Arbitration Committee works. In fact, committee members are often looking for the exact opposite thing.
Missing middle housing
About a month ago, my friend, Luca Gattoni-Celli, released an article in GGWash about building more missing middle housing in Arlington, VA. Last week, he and the rest of the Northern Virginia YIMBYs appeared at the Arlington County Board meeting in favor of a proposed policy to do just that. If you are interested in building a wider variety of homes in Arlington, join NoVA YIMBYs!
