I am increasingly of the opinion that the environmentalist movement's opposition to modernizing environmental laws for climate change and the housing crisis is an existential issue for Californians. This week I am extremely worried this problem can't be solved. 🧵 Yesterday, a coalition of environmental organizations successfully defeated two proposals by Senator Blakespear, which would have streamlined ADUs in the coast and established the first timelines and process for the Coastal Commission when they overturn a project approval.

Today the CA Legislature cleared a proposal to eliminate parking minimums near transit through its FINAL committee, an affordability/anti-poverty victory. Author @laurafriedman43 is a dynamo on this issue.

The bill was amended today and I've seen the amendments. Here's my take: The core of the bill is intact. We're still talking about full elimination of parking minimums near transit. We're still talking about a good definition of transit and a broad, fair application of the bill.

In about 100 BCE, the City of Rome reached 1 million people, the first city in the world to do so. Of every 100 people born in the world that year, 3 were born in the City (not the Empire) of Rome. Roman insulae, apartment buildings up to 6 stories tall, allowed the City to grow. Realized this after I tweeted this out (need that edit button!) that the Empire didn't exist until 31 BCE. Rome's population reached one million during the late Republic.

Fucking MASSIVE statistically valid poll buried in City of LA's most recent housing element update. They find that SEVENTY NINE percent of people in LA say upzoning single family areas to allow fourplexes is a priority, FIFTY THREE percent saying this is high/major priority SURE SEEMS LIKE THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES WOULD LIKE UPZONING, PEOPLE WHO REPRESENT THEM

Jumped in a Clubhouse of several hundred people talking about what they had for dinner tonight, this app rules These people are extremely Midwestern and I feel like I’ve traveled somewhere exotic

By a vote of 9-0, the City of Berkeley, one of the originators of single family zoning, moved tonight to eliminate it, a first for the Bay Area. Hundreds showed up to support. Extremely inspiring to see this change in the wind. Congratulations @loridroste and all in Berkeley!!! I can’t believe this is unanimous. Just shocking. That means Sacramento and Berkeley have both taken UNANIMOUS steps in this direction, the first two cities in California. This is so wild and good.

This is what it looks like when the State of California process your unemployment insurance claim, which is part of why that claim takes too long to be paid out. It’s not a sexy overhaul, but we NEED a 21st century system that is resilient to the crises it purports to respond to. Uh, holy shit. The TLDR here is that California/the consultant hired to review our system don’t know why California is rejecting or approving some claim changes. We just don’t know.

Here’s my view: SB 1120 was held to the literal 11th and a half hour because Rendon became aware he couldn’t just kill the bill by not letting it come up for a vote. But he knew, like we knew, we had the votes. (Thread) By scheduling it for that time, it killed the rest of the work time, filibustering everything else on the Assembly calendar. No one at this point can prove that filibuster was intentional. But come on.

Wanna talk about what COVID-19 means for housing subsidy streams in California tonight? Yeah? Great, here's a thread.

h/t to @aceckhouse and @TribTowerViews for good points when discussing this earlier (I am regurgitating some of their ideas here) First, the Governor's Budget Currently proposes about $6.75 billion in activities related to affordable housing. That's an increase of about $750 million this year, an increase that is one-time only.

In light of @RobSchneider attacking a legislator who said more housing is more important than lawns, let's review the history of lawns.

Top lines: lawns were created to be aristocratic displays of wealth. Requirements for lawns help ensure only wealthy can afford housing. (1/9) Private lawns began on English fiefdoms as early as the twelfth century to demonstrate wealth. Colonizers to this continent took lawns with them, using them as aspirational signals that the aristocracy of the Old World would be re-created here. (2/9) 99percentinvisible.org/episode/lawn-o…

People think of Europe as transit heaven and the US as a backwater, but it wasn’t always that way. The US fundamentally developed urban public transit, and in public transit’s first 100 years, no country had equal service to that provided in the US. (1/5) Public transportation in NYC, primarily ferries and horse drawn carriages, was better in 1833 than any other world city, and likely better than any city in the US today. Headways were frequently less than 2 minutes, and reports exist of headways of 15 seconds at some stops. (2/5)

This is literally the YIMBY-est year in the Legislature. Ho boy. I am reviewing all the bills that dropped today - join me. A thread. (1/x) First up, AB 10 would increase the LIHTC by $500 million!!! leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavC…