If you want to end the California housing crisis, don't just post about it: come to YIMBY Lobby Day on May 19 in Sacramento. We will schedule you for a meeting with your representatives, connect you with neighbors, and coach you on how to advocate effectively!
actionnetwork.org/forms/2026-y...
A healthy neighborhood should have diversity of housing types, serving for families at all stages of life.
[Bill Alert] AB 2074 has passed out of the Natural Resources Committee.
The bill would streamline the construction of high-rise, residential, and mixed-use developments near regional transit hubs, backed by a low-interest revolving loan fund to help reduce costs.
cayimby.org/legislation/...
Joined by @cafedujord.bsky.social of Greenbelt Alliance, sharply dressed as always!
The great @muhammadspeaks.bsky.social testifying on behalf of AB 2074, which @cayimby.bsky.social is proud to co-sponsor! It's time to build housing and revive California's downtowns!
New study: Families who leave California are much more likely to have financial problems than those who stay. But seven years later, those who leave are much more likely to be homeowners than those who stay. Revive the California Dream: build more housing!
www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...
On weekly service attendance, the most intuitive measure of meaningful religious observance, there's only one state where most people are actually religious.
Unfortunately, I think religion is dead in America. Belief in God is the bare minimum of conventional religion in the West, and in many states, most don't even clear that threshold. (And it's trending down.)
I fly twice a month, conservatively estimating that I get a $5 cup of coffee and $25 in meals each trip, that's $720 saved by eating at lounges, which is, alone, enough to cover most card fees. Add on free checked luggage, express lanes, etc. and it works out.
Just look at who is at the top of the American right: a serial philanderer who bought Miss America to harass young women. And at the bottom, valorizing "gooners." It's creepy.
I've also used it to cover the Global Entry charge, a service that is also totally worth it however you pay for it.
Yeah, Clear is a total scam.
Admittedly, I'm maybe overstating United Club, as I'm currently diving my life between two countries, taking a lot of luggage back and forth, and spending an absurd amount of time in Houston and Los Angeles lounges, but for me, it penciled!
Purchasing a card also absolves you from the inanity of having to try to play the points game which is, in the best of cases, a part-time job that leads to a fraction of the benefits and, in the worst of cases, a bit of a scam.
Most of my travel now is to spend time with my wife, whose visa application has been arbitrarily delayed and now altogether suspended by the Trump administration. Maybe this practice died for a reason, and you should practice a little humility.
...with (a) substantial time saved in line, (b) eating/drinking in the lounges instead of restaurants, (c) free checked luggage, (d) more generous cancellation/change policies, and (e) the occasional upgrade. I fly at least twice a month and I wish I had purchased my United Club card sooner.
While we're disbursing hard pills to swallow: If you travel more than a six or so times a year, especially if a partner regularly joins you, you should just buy the top-of-the-market credit card for your airline. Even with fees approaching four figures, you'll probably make it back...
The unfortunate thing about highway robbery is that it usually makes sense to just pay off the robber.
I feel like I should spend a lot more time reading about the history of Argentina: A self-obsessed populist strongman leader? A raft of utterly foolish tariffs and import substitution policies? A once prosperous nation lulled into unseriousness? Hmm, I wonder where all of this leads?
What is the point of Bluesky if not to echo chamber ourselves into increasingly radical positions?
Cities could fund it with impact fee relief.
Unfunded IZ presupposes a permenant housing shortage: the moment rents fall too low to cross-subsidize the unfunded mandate, development stops until rents rise again. It's housing policy pseudoscience.
I do think there are unique financial/cultural/legal advantages to townhouses that are hard to overcome. Planners always and everywhere, except maybe in Houston seem to hate townhouses, but it's the global standard for missing middle mass construction.
Meanwhile, abolishing parking requirements has been one of the more successful reforms of the past few years. Developers tried shared or off-site parking. They found that some buyers didn't want parking. Parking lots came online as sites. And pioneering developers created zero-parking typologies.
Of course, there's range: small, scrappy, entrepreneurial developers have been asking for this reform from the beginning. But big national builders don't think about reform at all. And the vast middle only thinks in terms of things that they have seen change, e.g. energy codes or fees.
Ed's right: most developers don't often demand it. They look around at "comps" and see everything with (mandated) parking. They'll thus say, "I can [lease/sell/finance] anything without 1:1 parking!" They can't imagine a new market. And they definitely can't imagine sites unlocked by a reform.
I feel like the abolition of parking requirements is a really instructive example of why developers often aren't all that useful for identifying pro-growth reform. 🧵
It's so crazy to me that Twitter basically invented addictionware vertical reels, shut the whole thing down, and let TikTok and Meta print billions off it. Between this and his support of Elon's purchase of Twitter, Jack must he recognized as probably one of the worst major tech CEOs.
Antigua feels very cosmopolitan, but not overtouristed. That's changing, for better or worse. A Guatemalan friend once joked: "You'll know we're doing alright when we get more Canadian family tourists than German hippie tourists."
Lake Atitlan also feels like heaven. It's surprisingly cheap to rent a beautiful mansion on the water. Commission a boat and ride around the lake. The nightlife is in San Pedro. Prepare for German hippies. The culture is in San Juan La Laguna. Good home base for embarking on a volcano hike.
Crater Azul feels like a dream: crystal clear, cool ponds, lush green vegetation, all to yourself. Remarkable snorkeling. Getting there is an adventure: you will have to drive to the middle of nowhere, and then commission a boat.