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We’reTexas

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by We’reTexas

  1. San Francisco is basically the same as LA and NYC in terms of housing and development, save for one regulatory quirk that allows it to claim the title NIMBY king. I think the main issue with Thompson and Klein’s writing over the past few years is that it is very relevant to the insular political discourse in those Blue coastal cities among your Blue coastal elites, but it’s not clear how their arguments apply to national politics. They don’t seem to realize it, but the “Abundance” agenda is basically how growing Blue cities in flyover country have generally always operated (on a podcast with Matt Yglesias they used Houston as a red foil to San Francisco, which I found quite amusing). That’s great in one respect - I tell people all the time that San Francisco should be run like Houston. I loved Bill White! But that dude and everyone in his path continue to fail to win statewide office. I’m not really sure how their book will lead to any real impact.
  2. Fair, but in San Francisco (and I think LA and NYC?), the two wing of the party are literally called “moderates” and “progressives”, and you will see Ezra Klein et al use that terminology from time to time.
  3. I’m reading it as exemplified by the Blue state intra-Democratic party fight over housing, which has gotten quite heated since “Abundance” came out. Basically: Moderates: We should build more housing, and in America we rely on private development for most housing, so we should facilitate that. Housing production has been stifled largely because of a regulatory framework enacted with progressive intentions but ultimately has resulted in a housing crisis, so we should consider removing these obstacles. We need to support realistic approaches towards housing affordability. Progressives: No. Market-rate development enriches developers, and we hate developers. Removing regulations is deregulation, and that’s what Republicans do. Any new development should be public housing dedicated to working class people, and we should pay for by taxing the rich. We believe in unions, so these projects must be 100% union labor. The former is objective-oriented and less concerned with getting tied up in ideological labels. The latter is driven by ideological allegiances and axiomatic beliefs - and totally unconcerned with actually delivering results. It’s also the wing of the party that has been steadily losing ground over the past five years
  4. lol Prop 13 is wild.
  5. I spend a good chunk of my life ranting about the unreasonableness of every aspect of California housing, but on a board of relatively affluent college graduates I will agree that it’s actually quite attainable. You will probably not get 3,000 square feet, but that’s a Texan mindset issue. You eventually get over it because you spend all your time outside!
  6. Looks like those are all listings in nice neighborhoods - sellers are shooting for around $1k per square foot these days. Which, to be fair, is a depressed price for the Bay due to lack of BART access and impossible commute to the Peninsula (also, the Berkeley Hills are in a high risk fire zone and going through the same insurance issues yall have unfortunately experienced).
  7. Special bottling from Macurichos for their 60th, and apparently only 60 bottles made it to the states. Fantastic - bright and floral on the nose and cacao and pepper on the finish.
  8. I imagine a huge chunk of longtime Palisades residents can’t afford to rebuild and the County has totally fucked things up by only trying to fast-lane like for like rebuilds. Ugly backlash of 50 years of Prop 13 and NIMBYISM.
  9. I definitely have after enough Orange Crushes at Dewey Beach.
  10. Hey, at least he went from Steve Bannon to jumping on the Abundance bandwagon.
  11. I don’t think it ever was.
  12. I think everyone in the housing reform world understands acutely the cost issue and the limitations that currently exist, but most of the efforts on the supply side are to partly improve the economics of development by mitigating or removing regulations that basically exist to obstruct housing: inclusionary zoning (primarily), environmental review processes, “community impact fees” (ie, shakedowns), union labor requirements, etc. But absolutely, what is left unsaid is that the best case scenario is that housing prices simply increase at a slower rate and that incomes somehow need to rise.
  13. Ay-Eye. Nvidia + FAANG popping off over the last two years have the Peninsula real estate market back to record levels of stupid. I also recommend “Abundance”, a big focus is why so many blue state cities are in the left column and red state cities are in the right column.
  14. Don’t forget the trans Hamas belly dancers.
  15. To be clear, no hate on Ceritas - prob one of my top 3 Sonoma producers. California winemakers are in a rough spot right now and they will do what they need to do make money. One easy way is to take advantage of wealthy Texas vacationers. Happy to provide perspective on wineries , but having lived here long enough to remember when these things were free, I balk at a lot of what I see these days.
  16. I just checked and their tastings are $95/pp in downtown Healdsburg? That’s absurd. Fuck it, go around the corner and get some Raveneau at Maison if you want to spend that much. Wineries are in a weird place right now but if I’m spending more than $30 for a tasting it’s going to be outdoors or part of some meal experience.
  17. El Molino is awesome. Valley Swim is also nearby and another good easy lunch spot.
  18. Context of this issue is the County is trying to push for the state to streamline rebuilding like-for-like by exempting the county from the new state upzoning/development laws - in other words, a NIMBY push to prevent multi-family development.
  19. Yep, it’s a classic. Falls under the radar for tourists but it made the Pic’s Ten Best Restaurants for like a decade straight before they stopped the rankings.
  20. Igor died a few years ago. He still owned Checkpoint Charlie’s, but that place is a shithole. The laundromat was kind of a New Orleans things. Maple Leaf had one. My parents claim they did their laundry while James Booker played.
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