This. It's insane that we ever had to prove that more supply = lower prices but here we are Though I'll say that in my actual advocacy I try to start past that. If someone wants to argue that the basic laws of supply and demand do not apply somewhere, then the burden of proof is on them

Fellow cat dads of Bluesky, is it normal to get yelled at by your kitty demanding we play with the laser? Not just a sweet meow, or a leg rub, but straight up yelling because Ellay wants laser?

YIMBYism actually works and we increasingly have the data to prove it.

Finally got around to reading this article from @resnikoff.bsky.social. It's critical that organizations act in accordance to their stated values, so we need to see environmental and economic justice groups, as well as their funders, work towards, not against, housing abundance.

Happy Thanksgiving

See that column on the right? We're bringing those numbers back.

There's no reason Los Angeles County can't have 26 million people, like Seoul.

For those familiar w downtown of Redlands CA (incl Rep. Pete Aguilar, former Redlands mayor) some Thanksgiving-worthy news: Eyesore "dead mall" that has blighted city for decades has been sold—to local tech/philanthropists Jack and Laura Dangermond www.communityforwardredlands.com/dangermonds-...

They wouldn't be doing this if Prop 50 hadnt passed.

Just finished the chapter on automobiles in Jane Jacob's The Death and Life of Great American Cities and, boy, this closing hit hard:

LA would get even more responses than just 19% if it were actually affordable. It’s got a perfect climate and lots of economic opportunity. It should house 3x-4x its current population and bring more political power to CA while being more affordable and sustainable.

The alternative to an SRO isn't a larger apartment; the alternative is a tent.

Pretty sure the folks who oppose market-rate housing and only want subsidized affordable housing simply don't understand how anything works, but one consequence of their successful advocacy is, We subsidize homes for families making well over six figures. Coulda had a market-rate apartment, but 🤷‍♂️

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend! Metro buses and trains will be running on a Sunday schedule on Thanksgiving. We'll be on a regular weekday schedule on Friday, Nov. 28. We will have regular weekend service for that Saturday & Sunday. All schedules are here: https://www.metro.net/riding/schedules-2/

I have no idea why farmers keep getting a pass for water shortages, to the point where popular culture has now found a scapegoat to blame it on entirely, but it fucking sucks

What incredible irony that rural areas' voters are most against immigration, when it's those places who are literally dying and desperately need immigration:

Some CA legislator should propose a bill to move wildfire mitigation costs out of electricity bills & into the general fund. It's more honest (the whole state is affected), more progressive (electricity bills are *extremely* regressive), & would, at a stroke, lower CA electric bills.

Can confirm, it's real

My line on this kind of thing is that we need policy, programs, and infrastructure that allow cities to function *better* as they grow. Public transit does that. When more people drive, cities get worse for everyone, including drivers.

donald trump endorsed zohran mamdani before chuck schumer lmao

Listened to this @volts.wtf banger this last night and it's wild just how incredible the rate of return is for improving indoor air quality in schools. Where is California at with this? Do we have policy levers we can pull at the state level?

“It’s not technically a crisis” I say as I step over human waste past a tent city because of our nations growing homeless population.

Today I learned that SoCal once (seriously it seems?) considered building a maglev train that could have been built by 2025

Pro transit, Pro HSR, and pro housing could get anyone to my top spot tbh

I won't start ranting about it because I just get myself worked up, but quickly: I literally can not think of an investment of public funds that has a higher return than *cleaning the indoor air in schools*. It's so easy, so cheap, & has such HUGE payoff. Criminal that we basically don't do it.

Phasing out fossil fuels: - ensures long term economic & political stability by reducing climate change - provides lower costs & energy independence - structurally disempowers right-wing, anti-democratic interests domestically and abroad. Suggesting Dems do otherwise is wrecker behavior

Your regular reminder that the ghost of Howard Jarvis laughs heartily at all of us from his place in the depths of hell. Prop 13 absolutely fucked California and Californians, both present and future.

American single stair regulations are *not* "written in blood." We know this because the proponents literally wrote that they did it as pretext to ban tenements.

Status quo bias is real, y'all. Don't fall for it and call out those who do.

i love the bus

We just started a project converting a state property in Riverside into 150 affordable housing units for low-income Californians. Whether it's transforming state land or repealing NIMBY roadblocks, we're using an all-of-the-above mindset to take on the housing crisis.

mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one

Given these facts, the best way to avoid displacement is to let capitalists build new homes for the middle class and wealthy who can afford to pay the cost of new construction. This prevents bidding wars over existing older homes and keeps them from being flipped.

So-called “inclusionary zoning” is a tax on new housing that reduces the amount of housing that gets built, worsening the housing shortage and driving up rent. It is bad, counterproductive policy and we should stop doing it.

We have such a stupid transportation system in this goofy country that affects every corner of our life. Higher costs, worse air, more deaths and injuries, no places you can go and let your kid run around. These are all things we've given up so people can drive a car at 40 mph in a city.

And how much Transportation is hidden in the other categories? What portion of Housing costs is the garage under your apartment building? What portion of Food is the sea of parking surrounding the supermarket? What portion of Healthcare is car-related injury and respiratory disease?

No more big city mayors who hate big cities.

People who think mass deportations are a housing affordability strategy have no place in the YIMBY movement.

Borders should delineate legal sovereignty but should not be barriers to movement.

regarding AC as a decadent, climate-irresponsible indulgence and regarding home heating as an essential necessity is unironically eurocentrism considering that one is objectively more emissions heavy than the other.

The entirety of every urban area, including its suburbs, should be governed by one central local government with one school district. No more exclusive enclaves with snob zoning and pseudo-private schools.

California's main policy goal for the next decade should be to strip as much governing authority away from Los Angeles as possible.

Trump is more personally culpable for the high cost of housing than any undocumented immigrant ever could be.

you could fact check this — there aren’t 30 million illegal immigrants and there is no evidence that the presence of an immigrant in say houston has any impact on housing in madison, wisconsin — or you could note straightforwardly that this is just nazi rhetoric

Feels like things are going really well for Trump

There are clear policies to fight climate change. And equally good ones on affordability. Thankfully though, we don't have to choose. They're the same policies: 1. Legalize infill, multi-family housing in every city. 2. Streamline renewable energy & storage. 3. Invest in good, reliable transit.