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Dave Guarino Profile picture
@allafarce
Apr 4 • 14 tweets • 8 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
With the #earthquake, maybe now is a good time to talk about soft story buildings—you know, the ones that have a tendency to... fall in on their first floor in an earthquake?

The bigger Bay Area cities required these to be retrofitted.

But MANY cities have NOT! Let's look...
San Francisco... YES!

SF mandated soft story retrofits a number of years ago.

Unsure of the status of your building? You can look it up here data.sfgov.org/Housing-and-Bu… #earthquake
Palo Alto... NO!

They *talked* about requiring soft story retrofits in 2017, but best I can tell... no actual action has happened.

Note: the article says there are about *300* such buildings in Palo Alto.

paloaltoonline.com/news/2017/11/3…
Berkeley... YES!

Berkeley mandated that owners of #earthquake vulnerable soft story apartment buildings retrofit them.

Unsure of your building's status? You can see the list updated as of 1/11/23 here berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/…
Alameda... NO!

Alameda has created an *inventory* of soft story buildings, and has tracked the status of their retrofits.

But they have NOT yet required owners to retrofit them like their neighbor cities.

The still-vulnerable building list? Click here: alamedaca.gov/Departments/Pl…
Oakland... YES!!

Oakland (finally!) passed a mandatory soft story retrofit ordinance in 2019. (I fought hard for it.)

It's a great reminder though that...they take time! Even 3 years out, we're far from done.

See list of buildings and status here:
softstory.openoakland.org
Here's a BIG one:

My understanding* is that NOT ONE CITY in San Mateo County has mandated #earthquake vulnerable soft story buildings to be retrofitted.

These are a disproportionately large more affordable (older) apartments. cc @penforeveryone

* abag.ca.gov/soft-story-res…
Exactly right!

Los Angeles has a required soft story retrofit ordinance! Like lots of cities!

Why are so many cities in the Bay Area still sitting on their hands??? (ALL of San Mateo County?!)

Mountain View... NO!

They DID inventory for possible #earthquake vulnerable soft story buildings in the city.

But have they required owners to retrofit them, as other cities have?

Nope. Nope nope nope.

List of vulnerable buildings here: abag.ca.gov/sites/default/…
West Hollywood has done the work!! weho.org/city-governmen…
Has Sunnyvale acted to protect residents by requiring #earthquake vulnerable soft story buildings be retrofitted?

No!

As of a 2004 inventory, there are *415* such multi-family apartment buildings: abag.ca.gov/sites/default/…

cc @AlysaCisneros
Thank you Sunnyvale Councilmember @AlysaCisneros!!

A reminder to all that @ABAG_Resilience provides technical assistance to any city working on soft story policies! abag.ca.gov/technical-assi…

City of Santa Clara… NO!

SC has 320 #earthquake vulnerable soft story apartment buildings, but has not taken action to require retrofits as other cities have. Cc @AnthonyJBecker
To the best of my understanding, San Diego... NO!

San Diego has *not* required the retrofit of soft story buildings.

(But: SD also has a different seismic hazard profile from LA and the SF Bay Area.)

More: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a0b6a0…

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More from @allafarce

Dave Guarino Profile picture
Apr 3
I think I've come to the perspective that a lot of the problems people associate with government technology/experience/etc. flow from a firm commitment to reasonably—but *imagined*—problems, and far too delayed feedback loops to adjust that commitment in response to reality.
The classic example to me: the "one stop shop" aka "everything in one place"

It imagines that the most significant friction people face in accessing services is having to go to multiple places.

(I'll be bolder than normal...) That's usually quite wrong.

When "one stop shop" is the governing principle (really, meme more than anything), it pretty quickly closes off a scope focused on different dimensions of the problem.
Read 4 tweets
Dave Guarino Profile picture
Dec 15, 2021
On the heels of this executive order, I am starting here a thread of examples of specific things the federal government could do within its scope — mostly (I hope) from people who directly use these services:
Let people auto-renew SSI eligibility when they have a condition that doesn’t (or is very unlikely to) change
Similarly, let all disabled SNAP beneficiaries — not just those whose states opt in — auto-renew benefits instead of filling out new paperwork when their situation really hasn’t changed
Read 6 tweets
Dave Guarino Profile picture
Dec 14, 2021
Yesterday the President issued an executive order on "Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery"

If you follow me, you probably know I yell into the ether a lot about this stuff (especially food stamps)

Let's read the details:

whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
I have to jump first to SNAP: explicit direction from the White House to reduce burdens in getting people the help with food they need is something I'm — of course — wildly excited about.

10 years ago, these words wouldn't have been!

That's no knock on 10 years ago — I'm saying that the epistemic community building work of folks like @donmoyn @pamela_herd around administrative burdens, and lots of folks (yes me as well) talking about the BS we put people through to get SNAP has reached a new point.
Read 42 tweets
Dave Guarino Profile picture
Dec 13, 2021
Let's get ready for CUSTOMERRRRR EXPERIENCEEEE!!

whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
I am DYING to read the actual text!!
Text of the customer experience executive order!!

(in meetings but can't WAIT to dig in)

whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
Read 4 tweets
Dave Guarino Profile picture
Dec 7, 2021
Them: "Why can't we just have a short web form where people could learn all the benefits they're eligible for?"

Me:
By the way:

If you're ever looking at building some sort of intervention for the "screening" user need, I really REALLY recommend you test ASAP with actual clients.

In my experience the "I need a screener" is actually a misunderstanding of what clients say their need is...
...What people actually want to know is "is it worth it for me to apply?"

If a screener itself is a whole lot of work, that does not give a client what they need!

This idea of "people want to know everything they're eligible for" is (imo) a dangerous misunderstanding.
Read 6 tweets
Dave Guarino Profile picture
Dec 6, 2021
Question about iPhone COVID exposure notifications:

The below came in just now and said I could have been exposed.

It says “7 days ago” and is from Virginia, but I was last in VA Mon 11/8 (3 weeks ago)

So what does “days ago” actually refer to?
(Also I have no symptoms and just rapid tested negative twice, in case anyone is worried)

This is not the most intuitive design!
One other detail:

When I first opened it, it still had my “Active Region” set to VA (I changed it to CA)

And the last “Exposure Check” had its data source as “US-VA”

So I’m really confused what the notification means here.
Read 4 tweets

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