quelle surprise!

big day in #SF today as the Board of Supervisors takes a first crack at Mayor @daniellurie.bsky.social's upzoning to allow more housing. you might hear a lot of nonsense in statements and comments about whether we have "the infrastructure." this, ICYMI, i discussed at length in yesterday 1/

we're well past the point where the madness has taken over the housing debate. enough nonsense about whether we have "the infrastructure" for more homes and neighbors. stop listening to NIMBYs and naysayers www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

Does S.F. have the ‘infrastructure’ to support Lurie’s housing plan? Let’s consider—In September, the San Francisco Planning Commission voted to approve, with modifications, Lurie’s proposal — by only one vote… www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open... @srlazarus.bsky.social @sfchronicle.com

quelle surprise

Another note about that map 👆🏼. Alongside higher ceilings denoted by pretty colors, the steel-gray of every block in those neighborhoods = "density decontrol." That is, no height increase but more density within each parcel. So a single-family mansion might become a bldg with several apts

@myrnamelgard7.bsky.social takes on Chan's "pitting west side vs east side" comment (award for top demagoguery of the day). Melgar: SF *downzoned* the west side in the 70s. Racism/segregation contributed to that prohibition of multifamily housing and concentrated development on the east side.

One more thing. When I wrote about this study showing one-third of Americans don't drive, people were messaging me saying this cannot be true for LA. In LA County *23 percent* of the population is under 16. Kids are people! We must plan for their movement, just like all nondrivers. Hope that helps!

whoever says #SF doesn’t have something about it is not to be taken seriously

Fun fact, Calvin Welch, Sue Hestor and co tried to NIMBY my multi-family home before it could be built. They failed, but they killed some housing for seniors along the way. Snippet courtesy of TribTowerViews

welcome to the future! with SB 79 and the rezoning plan from Mayor Daniel Lurie, #SF enters a new pro-housing, pro-transit era that will be more inclusive and more affordable. the status quo wasn't working. it's kind of messed up that there was so much resistance to changing it

i began my transit advocacy ~25 years ago when a few neighbors and embittered merchants had epic meltdowns over improving our Geary bus line thefrisc.com/the-ballad-o... NIMBYs and dead-enders can still bellyache all they want. but now #SF and other cities have now entered a new era

pretty much yeah www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

Astonishing how many people can’t tell the difference between “loved debate and free speech” and “carried out an effective PR campaign for specific, previously unpopular ideas”

imagine that

GOOD NEWS: California's housing reforms are defanging NIMBYs and their bogus and subjective claims about "aesthetics." building housing is a lot of things, but it is not cheap. (in fact, if you want it to be cheaper, you have to have more of it.) 1/

Lighting buildings and gardens during the Golden Hour (or Magic Hour) of early evening make a place even more magical for photographers & cinematographers, but also makes for enchanting Walk Appeal at close of day while people walk home or to dinner.

#SF politics are kinda cooked. THE WHOLE CITY got to vote on Prop K, and yet people still say that a car cut-through was "taken away without much input from them." mk

Let’s hope the NYT public editor looks into why Times reporters witnessed multiple instances of cash being handed out at the mayor’s events but didn’t write it up til they got beaten on the story by a feisty nonprofit site …. Apologies … We are being told the Times no longer has a public editor.

why does we have a housing crisis? some say it's because of greedy developers. others say it's private equity. others say it's landlords keeping units vacant. maybe it's NIMBYs who assert they "want housing done right." what do you think it is? www.mercurynews.com/2025/08/13/p...

Maybe the Right needs its own Joe Rogan-like figure

"Before 2020, many of 181 Fremont’s buyers were looking for secondary homes in the city ... Today, most of the building’s buyers are local, upgrading within the neighborhood and purchasing primary residences." sfstandard.com/2025/08/03/s... stop listening to #SF antigrowthers and NIMBYs

yea we can blow this one too

✅ PASSED ASSEMBLY LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE: SB 79 by @scottwiener.bsky.social that would end the exclusionary housing policies that have made housing more expensive and transit inaccessible, allowing more people to live within walking distance of quality transit and boosting ridership.

stop listening to NIMBYs that just say no because then you won’t have anything www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/n...

just based on this ‪@missionlocal.org list there’s some $5.5 million in public money going into #SF Mission district nonprofits t.co/SwOfMExH3u and everybody knows how this neighborhood continues to struggle. it’s fair to ask what the community is getting in return

birds of a feather 🪶

Julie Kirschbaum of Muni notes that devastating service cuts to Muni, BART, Caltrain, AC Transit will harm Bay Area economy; mentions Muni's cost reductions and the fact that a SF is also looking at a complementary regional measure to maintain Muni...

We haven't yet fixed the fact that you can stall or stymie a housing project by saying 'I'm opposed unless we have a structured, enforceable, community-led process for daily land acknowledgements during construction' or something." missionlocal.org/2025/05/miss... (reposted)

they are!

The Secretary of State is getting rid of foreign aid and diplomats. The HUD Secretary opposes housing assistance. The Secretary of Commerce is killing businesses. The head of the EPA is promoting fossil fuels and forever chemicals. The Attorney General is a crook.

In August 2022, I predicted six steps Trump would take in a second term to replace our liberal democracy with something like Viktor Orban's Hungary. Shall we review the bidding a month in? 1/10 www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

wknd repost: seeing how in some circles, it's appealing to oppose housing not only because it's for the "wrong people" (the rich) but also for which "wrong people," like white men. (if they're in tech too that's probably worse.) meanwhile, women are <pastes link> t.co/gLZEg06sgN

hold up, shouldn't SEO be the best thing AI does right now? if not, why not?

they probably said stuff at like this at the Stasi

"why can't we blame greedy developers for everything? mommy!"

Setting the over/under of how long I will be at Planning today at 5.5 hours

ICYMI more building = more options = stabilizes prices, and even makes them fall

#28, (we are getting to the NIMBYs) in opposition, complaining about Fleur de Lys (been empty since 2014) potentially being turned into housing, the true emergency is not available housing, but we need safe streets?

2 speakers ask @sfplanning.bsky.social to add Bernal Heights to the upzoning map because - like the nabes currently included - it's well-off and should host more workers and families. Did you see our recent story about Bernal Heights and its housing attitudes? thefrisc.com/what-a-steep...

Fewer areas can go up to 50 feet, 65, or 85 feet. These limits INCLUDE what developers can add on with local and state "density bonus" laws

Here's the big reveal of the new map: Density decontrol. Even where higher buildings aren't allowed, "form based" planning means more units can fit within the allowed envelope.

we need to build housing, how 'bout that

Join us! Here's the map, with a little annotation from us.

🧵 ALERT: In about an hour we'll join the @sfplanning.bsky.social commission meeting. Did you read our story about the new SF #housing map that aims to loosen limits across much of the city? The map is the main event on today's agenda: sfplanning.org/sites/defaul...

What if Great Depression but on purpose

another Great Moment in #Journalism: take the thing that gives you 15 minutes of viral breakout and actual, social impact and say "You know what? Let's take it down to 0 minutes" abcnews.go.com/Politics/whi...