About City of Yes
I love cities.
They’re not only humanity’s greatest invention—they’re engines of wealth, culture, and politics, places where the mishmash of humanity somehow brings out the best in us. We’re living through an era of profound social, economic, and technological change, one that poses urgent questions about the future of cities, and the future of us.
I started City of Yes to think through the ideas shaping our cities and to understand how those ideas play out on the ground.
Who am I?
I’m a writer, housing advocate, and zoning commissioner in Austin, Texas. I’ve lived in cities around the world—Boston, New York, San Francisco, London, Madrid, Tokyo—but I hail from small-town Connecticut.
In my early career, I worked as a research analyst on Wall Street before pivoting to Montessori education, where I spent a decade building and managing schools. Through that work, I saw up close the difficulty of building anything in cities—and how the high cost of housing threatens the very people who make our cities function.
My interests span urban policy, politics, architecture, history, and culture: if it happens in a city, I probably want to write about it. As both a practitioner and writer, I’m drawn to the space where theory meets practice—where urban ideals collide with political reality.
About the publication
City of Yes is a weekly publication about urbanism, housing, and public policy, read by planners, developers, policymakers, academics, and engaged citizens across the United States and abroad.
The newsletter currently has more than 6,000 subscribers in all 50 states and over 70 countries.
I also publish periodic paid posts for subscribers who want deeper dives, research notes, and early work related to longer-term projects.
Speaking
I speak nationally on housing, urban policy, and the future of American cities. Recent engagements include:
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (Washington, DC: January 2026)
Progress Conference (Berkeley, CA: October 2025)
State Policy Network Annual Meeting (New Orleans, LA: August 2025)
Strong Towns National Gathering (Providence, RI: June 2025)
U.S. Housing & Community Development Conference & Expo (Dallas, TX: April 2025)
I’m available for conference talks and keynotes, policy briefings, lectures, and panel discussions. For speaking inquiries, email: puzycki [at] gmail [dot] com.
Supporting the work
City of Yes is primarily reader-supported. Paid subscriptions help sustain the research, writing, and travel that go into producing these essays.
If you find the work valuable, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
Thank you for reading along! Welcome to the City of Yes.
