It's quite bad to have @indivisible.org groups using that organizing to oppose bike lanes. Really makes me question my funding to Indivisible. This is not the first example I've heard of NIMBY organizing around Indivisible.

My pickleball building code strategy is to adopt European window standards so that we can buy and manufacture triple-glazed tilt-and-turn windows at affordable prices that actually keep sound out

One of the MAJOR PROBLEMS with wealth inequality at this scale is exactly that people amass this much wealth and attendant power and then use it to say, “Policy is what I say it is, I am too powerful to offend.” They become entirely immune to policy. You can’t live that way.

Who did Santa leave off the Naughty List?

Who needs a village when you can have parking lots?

Happy Wednesday, folks! I’m spending my evening at a meeting of California NIMBY group Our Neighborhood Voices. The topic? How to stop state housing bill SB79, which was signed into law, from actually being implemented! The big draw is the special guest: the LA City Attorney's office. Yikes! 🧵

The SB125 task force is putting together its final report to the legislature this Monday, but there are 3 key things missing: 1. A state source of transit operations funding 2. Multi-year investment frameworks for capital projects 3. Funding at full design Speak out on Monday 9/30!

Making it illegal to build new homes for yuppies does not keep older homes affordable. Rich people just buy the old homes and build luxurious new homes inside their walls, which drives up the price of housing. I understand that this is unsatisfying to people who want housing for the neediest first.

Happy Saturday, folks! As is tradition, I'm at a meeting of statewide NIMBY group Livable California. Today's discussion will focus on freaking out about statewide upzoning legislation (SB79) and CEQA reform. Grab some🍿, 🧵 starts here!

CA's Sen. Housing Committee has posted bill analyses (committee reports) for @scottwiener.bsky.social 's "plain bagel" upzoning bills. Sad to report that the abundance drumbeat either was not heard by the staffers who wrote them or the chair who told the staffers what to write. 1/6

You may have heard there’s an informational hearing about San Francisco’s new rezoning map? We are here in Room 400 doing it live! And I’m sure people will say some absolutely bonkers things. Been a while since I’ve done one of these so please forgive me if I’m a lil rusty!

CA state auditor is reviewing HCD's review of housing elements, at behest of state senator who says reviews are too unpredictable & take too long. @nmarantz.bsky.social, @elpaavo.bsky.social and I submitted a comment letter. 1/5

SF's refusal to charge for parking on Sunday is so mysterious. It's like a blue law for bad transit www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/m...

I would like to remind you all that when you block me it becomes much more difficult to educate me and correct my foul behavior . Thank you

There is currently a rush by California officials, all the way up to the governor's office, to enable rebuilding in a manner that will GUARANTEE a repeat of this disaster. We need to be a lot smarter about this.

Do yourself a favor and use the lists to Block junk accounts 👇

“Americans did not choose car dependency. We didn’t vote for it, and it was not the winner in a free market competition. The real answer is complex, but a single turning point reveals an essential part of the story.” www.planetizen.com/features/132...

If you think we shouldn’t be blanket applying historic preservation to parking garages and the burned out husk of 659 Union, tell the commission! actionnetwork.org/petitions/no...

Per Reddit, this Passive House - super energy efficient with an airtight building envelope that doesn’t breath in burning embers from the air, survived a fire that consumed all of its neighbors. Visited a passive built apartment building just south of Boston, felt like walking into a bank vault.

Here's the reality about the #LAFires this week: this isn't the first time ANY of these places have burned. Not even close. In 2018, we mapped CA fire history to look at fire frequency across SoCal. Santa Monica Mtns area burns more than anywhere else -- up to once per decade in a given spot. 🧵

Seventy years of building in the wildland urban interface in California. Apropos of nothing, we should maybe, idk, stop doing that?

One home becomes 12 homes

Congratulations, New York City! Now please stop calling it "congestion pricing". It's the "Congestion Relief Zone," because congestion relief is what the toll buys.

We hope everyone had a great holiday break! Join us for our first meeting of 2025 next Wednesday from 6 - 8 pm. What's up with the rezoning? Who will be the new Board President? And how can you get involved? Snag a spot today! actionnetwork.org/events/sf-yi...

HOW TO FIX CALIFORNIA'S HOUSING CRISIS: 1. Repeal the California Environmental Quality Act 2. Phase out Prop 13 and remove limits on municipal property taxes 3. Repeal Prop 103 and instead of price controls on insurance, just let the FAIR Plan compete with private insurers

American urban planning institutions regulate the wrong things, in the wrong ways, for the benefit of the wrong people. Urban planning should focus on accommodating population and economic growth in an orderly fashion and creating a pleasant public realm for everyone to enjoy.

Tell Gov. Newsom to flex CA's highway dollars into transit! With Trump threatening to impound already allocated funds, Newsom needs to move fast to transfer federal funding into much-needed transit projects. www.movecalifornia.org/take-action

Here's my 2 cents for @resnikoff.bsky.social and @interfluidity.com . open.substack.com/pub/kevinerd...

The Nimbee holiday plushie sale is back, and this year, we have the all new Yimbee plushie! $15 (+$10 for each additional plushie) and free shipping! Order by Dec. 15 to guarantee delivery by Xmas. paypal.me/Takomatorch Venmo @EricSaul Leave your address in the memo!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! See you Tuesday at Harrington's for our holiday happy hour. A few Supervisors will be there 👀 Will you? Raise a glass and toast the housing wins. Members get the first drink free! actionnetwork.org/events/sf-yi...

New from me on what the rage and glee on public display after the killing of a healthcare CEO portends. I suspect the corporate world will respond with more security and retreating even more into their gated lives. They would be advised to read up on history. 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/o...

Excellent Ben Schneider column on the "tall skinny" variations coming to SF. I think we'll get lots of 6-10 unit bldgs on small lots, not NYC-style pencils in the sky. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

3. BUILD MORE HOUSING. Overrule the busybodies and reactionaries screaming at zoning board hearings. Cut the red tape. Stop trying to preserve the urban character of your city as was in 1993, stop driving people away with housing shortages, and just let your city grow.

there's a housing crisis and we need more affordable housing and more housing now but not close to me and not that close together they should all be very large and very far apart and very far from me and there shouldn't be any more of it there should be less because it'll make my house worth more

got an email re: my book... these two plans have same number of bedrooms - but the double loaded corridor requires 50% more floor area (PAB: 6,500 sf v. DLC: 9,750 sf) quality of the units is also radically different (100% dual/corner aspect v. 29%) PAB savings: $300/sf * 3,250 sf = $975k/floor

I think I have a pretty good starter package for YIMBYs and politicos. go.bsky.app/59QKB51

Darling what’s wrong you’ve barely touched your canned fruit cocktail eggnog gelatin pie with homogenized pie crust

seeing posts like this where republican politicians complain about Illinois’ gerrymandering has convinced me that Dem states should pass as blatant gerrymanders as possible just to get republicans to actually support a national gerrymandering ban. unilateral disarmament doesn’t work

Newsom wants to be seen as a climate hero and fighter of bad Trump policy. Yet the Bay Area's transit agencies may collapse under his watch. There is one easy trick to stop that from happening...

New Measure ULA data drop! Just got all LA County transactions above $1 million, back to 1/1/2020 -- about 160,000 data points. It lets us compare what happened in LA under Measure ULA to Culver City under its Measure RE transfer tax. The difference is staggering.

Happy Saturday, folks! As usual, I'm attending a meeting of statewide NIMBY group Livable California. There's no guest speaker today, but instead NIMBYs across the state will share their local wins and losses from the November election. Grab some 🍿, 🧵starts here!

That's right

Caltrain has a plan for level boarding, using Euro standard 550 mm (22”) platforms. Some good ideas but more urgency is needed!

For those that haven't seen it, @bicycledutch.bsky.social came to visit my wife and I in Carmel Indiana this past summer and made a video about it. Check it out! 👇 youtu.be/Dh5gY_4SXUw?...

#2 San Francisco Folks have been talking about a Geary Blvd subway since the 1960s... & it still needs one. Another line could connect outer Richmond, Sunset, and Visitacion Valley.

The people in charge of your city's streets are willing to sacrifice your safety and quality of life to make it easier for motorists to drive fast and park for free. This is a skeleton key for understanding why American built environments look the way they do, even in places like Berkeley.

now that I’ve had a few days to process the election, I think my reaction is: let blue states cook no more of this “our infrastructure project needs 80 studies” and refusal to build housing. it’s time to turn the blue states/cities into a utopia and advertising point for dems