There's no way to sugar coat or soft-pedal this:

Folks who fight market rate housing on ideological grounds are painting a giant economic crosshairs on the middle class.

If you work in housing, you know this. So, the ones who do this, don't work in housing.
The "affordable for whomst" crowd either doesn't understand this, or they're accelerationists. I think it's mostly the former, since the latter are primarily a bunch of sociology professors who wouldn't know the first thing about how to load a gun.
Most Americans are homeowners, many of those who are not would like to be, and while we should absolutely raise taxes on everyone to build as much low-income, subsidized/social housing as possible, "as much as possible" will still result in years-long waitlists.
Some of the dumber downwardly-mobile white lefty journo-bros on this website -- who also can't load a gun -- seem to think market rate housing is a gift to developers.

Developers make money off housing! Because it's ... their JOB

But it's also the job of construction workers
You don't hear many complaints from the leftermost reaches regarding "greedy drywallers" or "neoliberal roofers" or "developer shill plumbers." Even though, in reality, THEY make more money off housing, in aggregate, than "developers" do.

It's their job! People work for money!
As a YIMBY, I would like my brothers and sisters and non-binary friends who build houses to not only make good money building them, but also, to be able to afford to live in and, if they so desire, purchase them.

White lefty journo-bros never seem to talk about that.

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More from @mateosfo

30 Sep
I was riding through Berkeley yesterday late afternoon around rush hour and I am quite sure I am not the only one who has noticed:

Drivers have lost their god damn minds. It is total lawlessness and violent aggression on the streets. I have never seen it this bad.
The first psychopath drove right over two barricades with giant “do not enter signs.” Then, I was riding in slow traffic when another driver pulled up on my left - in the wrong lane - and tried to nudge me into parked cars.

I didn’t break his window, but not for lack of trying.
This sort of bullshit happened a dozen times on a 5 mile ride to a doctors appointment.

No cops. No safe streets interventions. Nobody giving a shit about the violence.

Hell, public discourse doesn’t even really acknowledge it as an epidemic of street violence.
Read 5 tweets
28 Sep
This story observes that vehicular assault/homicide is legal in Texas, as long as the killer/assailant stays by their victim/kill, and admits to police that they undertook the attack.

Except, it's not just Texas. This is true in every state in the USA.
Do a brief google search for "driver not charged," you'll find dozens of articles from across U.S. in just the past ~ 3 weeks.

Why are they usually not charged?

Because hunting/killing/maiming humans with your car is, generally speaking, legal in US. salon.com/2015/02/22/why…
There is no political will, at the local, state, or national level, to deal with this. City traffic engineers have a well-documented and macabre bloodlust -- they don't care how many people are killed on the streets they manage, as long as it's below their quotas.
Read 7 tweets
20 Sep
seems to me that climate change is going to be too expensive, I think we should pick the substantially cheaper option of ending car culture and fossil fuel hegemony
"you'll never get people out of their cars"

o rly
In this photo: $2 million worth of destroyed cars, $2 million worth of street, and a $25,000 bus shelter with its bus safely out of picture in the storage yard.
Read 5 tweets
18 Sep
A ton of responses to this that are essentially, “I’d love to walk/take the train/bus but it’s not possible where I live.”

Rather than stop at this observation, I’d encourage everyone to explore *why.*

The answer, universally: Your tax dollars subsidize car/oil industry profits
And I’m not talking about just at the national or state level. I’m talking about in your city/town, where you live.

I’ll demonstrate: My city of Berkeley spends about $200 million a year trying to re-pave the streets. But we’re $1 billion behind! The streets are crumbling.

Why?
Because cars *are a bad idea.* They *do not and can not and will never pay for themselves.* They *perpetually steal funding and land that you own and …

Prevent the construction of safe streets, bus/train service, and bike lanes.

I get that not everyone has time to go shout …
Read 7 tweets
12 Sep
I don’t believe Democrats and Republicans are remotely the same but one large coalition straddles both parties & demands wildly unfair/unsustainable/destructive policy:

The NIMBYs.

In cities & suburbs alike, Republican & Democratic NIMBYs agree: “No more housing here.”
Given the existential nature of housing, whichever party casts out this coalition and energizes the majority — who WANT walkable communities and affordable cities — will dominate American politics.

Neither party is currently capable of this.
The Republicans are beholden to violent, reactionary white Christianists for votes, and the oil industry for money.

The Democrats actually have the *voting* coalition and the values to race ahead on housing, but are mostly cowed by angry suburban NIMBYs and wealthy NIMBY donors.
Read 4 tweets
11 Sep
I just want to say to everyone posting these “people’s histories” of 9/11 -

Thank you. We all were there, we all saw the depths our “leaders” sunk to, and how transparent the lies became.

The lying bastards want to gaslight us again. Our shared memories can stop them.
Read 6 tweets

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