Closing the door reduces noise but worsens air circulation/temp control. There are code solutions for this - doors are supposed to have a gap at the bottom for airflow, or a louver above the door. But these are rarely implemented correctly and expensive to fix

I wrote about why new apartments in Walnut Creek offer a pretty low living standard and why it's impossible to build a 3 bedroom apartment with a playground here. kevin.burke.dev/kevin/walnut...

Most parents understand they shouldn't let their 12 year old drive a car but I guess haven't quite learned the same lesson when it comes to letting a 12 year old ride a 60mph top speed motorcycle. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

Hello, is this thing on? Here's a site I made to make it easier to track public meetings. Automatic transcripts and agenda parsing. Please take a look, tell me if it's useful, and what meetings I should add public-meetings.burke.services

Gemini Dream is the best Moody Blues song

HAA letter to Walnut Creek, CA for tonight's Design Review Commission meeting re proposed 422-unit builder's remedy project at 2775–2855 Mitchell Drive, which includes 55 low-income units. @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov @california-hcd.bsky.social drive.google.com/file/d/1JnUm...

Not sure what case exists for banning transgender surgery for minors that doesn’t also exist for banning plastic surgery for minors, maybe you could argue it’s less reversible? More cosmetic?

Good morning, a good day to read about the history of the multifamily building code in the US and how little of it related to safety www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Larkspur, Warm Springs and Sac Valley transportation planners

Not an original point but worth saying again - there is not a single element in this picture that identifies any of these folks as law enforcement agents. No badges, no uniforms, no vests. Out of context it just looks like a bunch of random guys are kidnapping a mayoral candidate.

Many home insurers are using the same valuation tool to price California insurance. We should increase competition so more competitors enter who might try different software or different valuation models. www.sfchronicle.com/california-w...

It’s 1.3 acres of park space Michael, how much could it cost to renovate it?

Counterpoint to recent @annielowrey.bsky.social piece is mini-Cuomo Sophie Hahn gets elected Berkeley mayor without RCV

Which member of @cacommonground.bsky.social is depicted in this episode?

@eean.dev silence on this issue is deafening www.danvillesanramon.com/pleasanton/2...

this is a fantastic ruling but it's deeply depressing that the clearest-eyed condemnation of this administration's actions has come from the judges tasked with ruling on their legality and not the press ostensibly tasked with speaking truth to power

The status quo exists in California because elected officials think it's good localnewsmatters.org/2025/06/15/s...

Finally the perfect podcast for my daily commute from Reno to the SF Peninsula.

If only - Dean Preston’s staff replied to this data by saying that a plurality of public comments on the MTA budget were asking for lower fares (after Preston had posted on Twitter that people should write in and ask for lower fares.)

Argument in this paper is that 2/3 of the gap between men's and women's wages can be explained by preference for non-salary "amenities" - things like a regular schedule or a safer job papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Filling out my beach boys brian Wilson apology form

The president of the United States in our time is not supposed to wield armed troops and even station marines on American soil because of political speech and assembly he doesn’t like, that is typically not allowed and no I don’t care if any of it is technically “legal”

Walnut Creek is spending $690k next year to add sidewalks on one of these four sections of San Miguel Drive. Guess which one.

Every school district in my area is cold-calling parents in other cities to get them to switch districts. It is a demographic certainty that without massive housing construction these districts are all shrinking.

if youre attacked by a roving gang of 40 year old men show them this poster as a distraction... will buy you at least an hour to escape

Hardly the main point but most shocking thing to me was the airbag failing to deploy, that’s not new technology that’s just the car failing a basic decades old safety test www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

One very counterintuitive thing is that suicide is a very impulsive act, you can actually reduce the number of suicides by making it harder to commit suicide. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/h...

As someone who has been trying to expand housing supply in the suburbs for some time now I am available for comment on the Glaeser and Gyourko paper x.com/TahraHoops/s...

For context, the downtown SF stations are 54 feet below ground level, but two important constraints there - the tunnel needs to be deep enough to go under the Bay and also run Muni above. No similar constraints here (I guess good they are not staying 90 feet deep)

NYC’s business and real estate leaders should have taken city politics seriously and gotten behind the candidate with the best policies, then maybe one of the moderate candidates would have a shot against Mamdani

"But the bridge lights were such a large expense — without a clear path to reimbursement — that they prevented the authority from issuing long term debt for years." -- www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

If you have a proprietary project that you don't want to allow anyone to use mark it as "UNLICENSED" in npm. If you want to dedicate software to the public domain and renounce your own interest in it mark it as "UNLICENSE" in npm.

thing about Cuomo is his posturing as the "get stuff done" candidate is complete bullshit. he *sucks* at management. an overconfident, sloppy moron who constantly makes howlingly bad decisions bsky.app/profile/timm...

5 homes per acre on great infill site. Only $10m for the school district, $1m/acre. Fantastic

Few people have been more vindicated than the "30-50 feral hogs" guy

Name and logo combo goes hard

apple should make it so all your family photos are automatically separated from photos of book pages and screenshots you’re saving to use against your enemies

“Most of this happened in the section of the yard shaded by trees.” sfstandard.com/2025/06/08/s...

Does American cultural dominance extend to mindless children’s entertainment, are Chinese 2 year olds also mainlining Blippi

No rail service to Santa Cruz boardwalk because the Coastal Commission wants to “preserve the view” for the motorists parking in the 15 acre parking lot right next door change my mind

Hope everyone is excited for the week’s biggest housing news: Oakland Planning Commission considering objective design standards for 1-3 story multifamily and 1-4 family unit housing on Wednesday afternoon.

The thing about institutions that aren't subject to any competitive pressure is that they decay.

…is actually leaving first. So maybe they should just take down the often-inaccurate sign and put up a static one that says, “The train with more people on it is the one that’s leaving first.”

I cannot stress enough that there is a double digit percentage of the population of this nation of more than 300 million people who sincerely believe these are the two smartest men in America.

These attacks are ridiculous, a substantial portion of the Democratic base is scared to nominate a woman again because they think *other voters* won’t vote for a woman. The entire point of the slide is to rebut this assumption and encourage a wide range of candidates to run

Oldest high schools in Contra Costa County are SRVHS and Las Lomas HS Las Lomas has 1500 students, a football field, baseball field, tennis courts, parking lot, swimming pool. 20 acres bsky.app/profile/ebwh...

False - "Rolling Hills Estates" is not a real place.

This is basically the situation Walnut Creek is in with jacking up permit fees by 15%, more revenue at the cost of higher inflation and less activity. They should find another revenue source IMO.

Shot/chaser