In-N-Out Exodus Over Housing, Submit to College Towns, & More
Around the College Towns: Links and commentary related to urbanism and higher ed for the week of June 19 - July 26.
Note: Around the College Town is my weekly links roundup article on urbanism and education. This weekly post mostly covers news that may have fallen through the cracks rather than the big events.
College Towns as a Publishing Platform
I have been back for a couple of weeks now from my East Asian excursion, and I am basically back in the groove of writing for the site with two posts per week: one original article on Mondays and a links roundup commentary on Fridays. But I realized that guest posting can be highly valuable to provide some new perspectives from beyond my own.
This summer, I had four great guest posts:
Given the success of these guest posts, I have decided to open up College Towns to be a broader publishing platform. If you are interested in writing something related to education or urbanism, please send me a pitch.
I will work with writers to craft articles that align with the site’s theme and style. But I am open to creative or fun ideas that might be outside of the box compared to standard outlets. DM me here or email at ryanmallen555 at Gmail dot com.
Why is the In-N-Out CEO Leaving California?
Lynsi Snyder, the CEO of In-N-Out, got into some hot water recently when she said her family would be moving to Tennessee to open a new management office there. “There's a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here,” she said on the Relatable podcast.
Given that In-N-Out is an iconic California brand, the statement rankled a lot of people in the state, and brought ire from beyond. For me, the business excuse made some sense: the state of California is way overregulated. However, the company has been very successful under those conditions.
She did later clarify that the headquarters would remain on the West Coast and no stores would be shuttering. Although, the California headquarters in Irvine will close and move to Baldwin Park by 2029. Interestingly, Baldwin Park is home to the In-N-Out University, where they do training programs. I would love to take a tour one day for College Towns.
Snyder also said that the new Tennessee office would be more for expansion eastward. I have to suspect that some kind of tax game is also happening behind the scenes, too, though.
I do also actually agree with her statement about the difficulties of raising families in California, even if not for a billionaire. The state has some of the most unfriendly policies towards families and young people. Mostly, these hinge on the refusal to build housing and the tax revolt from Prop 13.
She leaned in further on the housing front, “There’s so many opportunities for people to own homes in Tennessee and even some of the surrounding states that we could possibly end up in,” said Snyder. “It’s tough here in California, and this doesn’t have to do with my love or loyalty to the state and our customers, but I love our associates and I would love to offer them this.”
While I think these things don’t impact a burger heiress and her family, I can see how they do impact workers and talent.
, author of , said of the CEO’s housing excuse, “[it] strikes me as a pretty reasonable take.”I can attest that Irvine, where the current HQ is located, has some of the most over-inflated real estate in Orange County. It is not on the beach, but rather it is a popular master-planned community that is attractive largely because of the incredible schools in the district.
Looking on Zillow today, there are basically only a handful of places listed below $500K, and most of those are trailers. I could really only find one condo listing, which is a small 661-square-foot 1-bedroom (and all single-family homes are well over a million).
I’ve personally looked in Irvine when I moved to Orange County permanently and witnessed a bidding war that jumped from $400K to $600K for a junked out wrecked 1-bedroom condo. Despite the hype, I can understand saying "raising a family is not easy” in this place. So perhaps I’ll give In-N-Out a pass this time.
Links I’m Reading This Week
Education
The University of Minnesota is charging a $200 fee for all students as a means to stay competitive in the big business that is college sports. The university’s athletics program will still be $9 million in debt after the fees.
Likewise, the University of Memphis tried to buy its way into the Big 12 conference for $200 million. It did not work.
Just in one college, Texas A&M, it was just reported that athletes in its programs received a combined $51.4 million last academic year. That is a lot of college football news this week!
Leaked Meta docs show that most of the new AI team were international students, mostly from China.
Closed university gets a budget line in Illinois state. Whoops (though some are excusing it as money that could possibly go to other civic institutions).
A colleague created The Ranking Game, a satirical game poking fun at metrics and indicator race that dominate higher ed. It’s educational, too!
Urbanism
Wells Fargo is no longer allowing work travel to China after an employee was hit with an exit ban, in a similar case that happened to a US Patent Office staff. It should be noted that both were naturalized Americans originally from China. More rocky relations on the way, or just a blip?
Elon Musk’s robotaxis may not be able to scale due to the need for human monitors. I am very much in the Waymo camp here.
Investor pays $270 million for Vegas Strip property and turns it into a dumpy parking lot. It was set to become another casino, but the project was cancelled.
Locals in Bloomington, Illinois, are trying to save historical buildings in their downtown from becoming parking lots. Good luck to them!
A survey shows that less than 10% of Koreans would accept a foreigner into the family. Less than 40% would accept them as neighbors. This may be a tough situation as the country opens up immigration to grapple with birthrate issues.
Yes, these kinds of rankings are mostly garbage clickbait, but OKC was just named #1 Big City to Live in the US in for 2025-2026. I’m a sucker for hometown praise.
Around Substack
Note: I also think it’s important to stay connected to the growing Substack community. Here are a few I am reading this week:
Over at
, founded by William H. Floyd, the college admissions-focused Substack has an interesting breakdown of the University of California system. I did not realize that the UC application system was different than most other states and colleges.
University of California schools also don’t consider either standardized test scores or teacher recommendations. This puts less pressure on applicants to provide materials, but it makes the process more convoluted from the outside. Students essentially ONLY get in to the UC schools based on their high school transcript and application essays.
Speaking of elite universities,
has a critical reflection of the craze around Ivy League education, reflecting on her own journey at Columbia. As a grad school alum from there, I, too, wonder this myself.
at has a take about the end of Americans as expects. It’s basically because so many people are trying to escape permanently.most of my Columbia classmates would never know this—because they don’t socialize with anyone outside their class bubble. When your entire circle is made up of other upper-middle-class Ivy League grads, you have no reason to question the value of your education. You just assume it makes you smarter than everyone else—because you’ve never actually had a real conversation with someone who didn’t go to college and might be smarter than you.
Anyway, the timing was eerie. Just that morning, a friend in the South of France had mentioned that the Americans there were bitching about the lack of air conditioning amid a raging heat wave. But he didn’t call them “Americans.” He called them “émigrés.” This was new. A chill ran down my spine. Americans abroad don’t look like expats anymore and I know why: They’re not going home.
The Finally… this week is welcoming
to Substack. You may know her as @UrbanCourtyard on X, one of the best accounts still on the platform. But now she is here providing deeper insight into this aesthetic.
In future Substack posts, I’ll delve deeper into how courtyard block design can benefit cities and families, as well as the environmental and economic advantages of mid-rise perimeter blocks. I’ll share a detailed breakdown of the essential criteria for a successful courtyard block and expand on several ideas I’ve discussed on social media—such as my belief that American cities lacked strong urbanism even before the rise of cars and modernism, and the potential for stone construction to support a revival of multifamily living in the U.S.
Welcome to Substack. Glad to have you here.
This is funny timing because just yesterday I ran across a thread on Reddit where somebody asked a question along the lines of "What U.S. city is seen as desirable to move to but isn't that great once you get there?" The unequivocal consensus seemed to be Nashville, with a huge influx of new people during the pandemic that has led to expensive housing, traffic jams, and a diminished quality of life for long time residents.
Also on the list, as I recall, were Denver, Austin, and Portland. More anecdotal that scientific, but felt worth mentioning in light of the In N Out news.