what is wrong with my country man
https://bettercities.substack.com/ Better cities and transit are possible š #1 Congestion pricing stan #1 RFK Jr. hater
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what is wrong with my country man
my high level take: 1. Automate as much traffic enforcement as possible 2. Professionalize detective work, set up programs at top universities and pay them very well 3. increase standards and pay for police, but also make disciplinary action more effective 4. get rid of the unions to achieve 1-3
really just goes to show how scarcity mindset is the ultimate form of brain rot and we need to build more housing
the best ones are when itās someone who is completely offline and isnāt trying too hard to be part of the *discourse* and just fires off a wild amusing take completely out of left field that makes no sense but cracks you up. all too rare these days
itās kind of annoying how complaining about transplants has become the new hipster xenophobia
Congestion pricing is actually the perfect example here. Trump declared that ācongestion pricing is deadā (and that he is the king) Hochul and the MTA told him to fuck off, and now, more than 6 months later, congestion pricing is still alive and working exactly as planned
itās pretty darkly funny that the U.S. has spent decades trying to become closer partners with India and trump blew it all up because India wouldnāt nominate him for a Nobel peace prize. weāre being governed by the biggest moron on earth
I suggested this a while back and a bunch of formers got mad at me
If you donāt like NIMBYs stopping California from building housing near transit, call your CA Assemblymember RIGHT NOW and ask them to SUPPORT SB 79. unlike in DC where the fate of bills is often pre-ordained, calls actually matter at the state level findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov
my most small-c conservative take is that influencers were a mistake and the old system of elite institutions gatekeeping fame, while not perfect, was far better than the status quo of braindead influencers churning out infinite levels of slop
the founders envisioned a madman potentially becoming president what the founders did not envision was the majority of Congress and the Supreme Court becoming part of a cult of personality around said president. itās both pathetic and horrifying
she said that āblackā with a hard r
This is an easy one! Zohranās pro-housing program is against the conservative outer-borough far right NIMBYs like Vickie Paladino and Bob Holden. And against their wealthy landlord buddies who want rents to stay high
Mostly agree here: but worth emphasizing that a key benefit of YIMBY policies is that they reduce the amount of subsidy required for voucher programs to be effective, and how many people need to rely on subsidized housing in the first place.
I think the regulation/deregulation framing is quite unhelpful here, especially since I am also arguing for *increased* public sector investment. also, the Long Island NIMBYs argued that statewide TOD law was an unfair āregulationā; remember the ālocal control not Hochul controlā rallying cry?
I donāt think we need a specific number here! Also, that number would change based on other factors (lot size, height, etc) Again, my point is simple: single stair bans increase cost and provide no benefit to anyone. we should get rid of them even if we canāt quantify the *exact* impact on costs
I have trouble following JWās point here. My argument is simple: higher hard costs (eg elevators) reduce the amount of housing built on the margin as some projects will no longer pencil due to increase costs. This subsequently increases the equilibrium market rate cost of housing.
regulated rents are set entirely outside the demand of the housing market, rather, they are based on the operating costs of older housing, which is almost entirely independent from new housing And to JWās point, the idea that new housing raises local rents has been disproven time and time again
Fair point, but the reason I didnāt cover freezing the rent is that it has taken up so much of the discourse and most people donāt even realize that it only applies to a subsection of apartments. Also, YIMBY policies prevent a 2-tier rental market with regulated winners and everyone else suffering
In the spirit of good faith discourse here, Iām going to go 1 by 1 and address @jwmason.bsky.socialās critiques here! (PS, read my article on the YIMBY policies that Zohran could use to fix NYCās housing crisis if you havenāt already)
relevant scene from the leftovers youtu.be/gKip3iFUSkg?...
seriously though what the fuck is wrong with Jared Polis
as a former consultant I tried with House of Lies and couldnāt get through 15 minutes of it
I think Susan Collins is completely cooked in her election next year. she voted to confirm RFK jr which was insane at the time but is completely toxic in a D leaning midterm for a state Kamala won by 7
just speaking personally I cut off my MAGA extended family because the one time I visited them in the past 5 years they tried to force my immediate family to take a picture in a maga hats and they called my (mixed-race) wife an ethnic slur why would I want to spend my time with people like that?
itās been really funny to see that the only people defending Padilla at this point are primarily conservatives who agree with her wanting to protect neighborhood character
by left-NIMBY Iām not explicitly referring to āleftistsā but just anyone left of center who is NIMBY. not meant to be a dunk on DSA or whatever, more just meant to show that NIMBYism is a major problem on our side of the aisle
LA Left-NIMBYs: āI am proud that we reduced the height of affordable housing from 6 to 3 storiesā YIMBYs: āthat is awful, we need laws that make it easier to build more housing to prevent thisā Anti-anti-NIMBYs: āthere is no such thing as left-NIMBYism, why do YIMBYs care so much about zoningā
we need to bring earnestness back
I still canāt believe that Jared Polis, the democratic governor of *colorado* praised RFK for his antivaxx stances
ever since Trump announced his cabinet full of deplorables, I knew that RFK was a unique danger. even I did not appreciate just how rapidly he would try to immolate our public health institutions
Los Angeles is the final boss of NIMBYism
ah yes, vital that we have housing for cars and not people
impossible to watch this video and come to any conclusion other than that Councilmember Padilla is completely out to lunch and views hirself as a mini dictator who has the right to arbitrarily control any development in her district
Hereās the clip of CM Padilla bragging about reducing the size of a 100% affordable housing project in her district and increasing the amount of parking while arguing against the transit oriented upzoning bill SB 79. (ED 1 is an affordable housing program in LA.)
Left-NIMBYs are basically just Hiroo Onoda at this point
itās very funny how mad shanti gets when people call her a NIMBY itās literally just this meme
This imagery is the kind of thing you see in video games to let you know youāre in a totalitarian city or country.
kier Starmer is basically like an unhinged leftistās view of the average democratic politician. closest American analog is probably Kirsten Sinema
Insta reels here but yeah itās amazing how many people just got completely oneshotted by short form video
incredible video, Nithya is the left-YIMBY voice LA desperately needsā¦but man look at the comments Left-NIMBYism is really a tantalizing ājust-soā myth with false solutions that just serves to stop the left from actually addressing the housing crisis
if i were on this deployment i would be pissed. these people have actual jobs! and here they are, walking around picking upt rash.
deploying highly trained soldiers at the cost of millions of dollars per day to do light janitorial duty really will make the capital cleaner and is the kind of thing they would impeach a democratic politician for doing. trump always gets to play on easy mode with the unlimited money cheat
this stuff is such a disgrace. a free citizen of a free country should be ashamed to engage in it.
I mean he votes for democrats pretty consistently unless you think heās lying about that
Lakshya is many things and I donāt always agree with him but itās clear he truly despises the modern Republican Party
thankfully, all we need is to convince the ~10% of the country that is swing voters that Trump is fucking up the economy. but itās still worth noting that this 10% is full of some of the dumbest people on earth so it can be difficult for them to pick up on the causal relationship
I think that everyone is driving themselves crazy because Trump is obviously a senile unfit fascist and yet ~40% of the country supports him everyone is cooking up galaxy brain ideas to give themselves agency to develop a strategy of what could finally deprogram the cult.
still thinking about the time that Michelle Tandler DMed me to say I shouldnāt criticize her because we went to the same schoolā¦ and then blocked me
āAgain, are you different than your brother?ā is a truly incredible burn when Thomas pretends to be a reasonable center-right voice meanwhile his brother is a literal nazi
I strongly support a left/liberal vision of abundance: abundant housing, clean energy, mass transit, medical advancements, scientific research, etc. but thatās exactly why I get so angry at the right wing āabundanceā bros for whom abundance just means abundant concentration camps
the peeling American flag graphic on his sleeve is really something temu fascism
this is beyond parody, especially when the subway extension through koreatown is opening this year
the most frustrating part of housing policy is these NIMBY groups that claim to speak for all tenants but in reality are just a few weirdos in a trench coat getting paid by some millionaire slumlord to fight against more housing
1) the people moving out are generally a political mix, not just blue 2) people who move out of blue states because they are unaffordable donāt always walk away from that situation with a desire to keep voting for democrats
great mindsā¦
if Karen Bass was a Republican op what would she be doing differently at this point
we need to have a serious conversation about how NIMBY democratic politicians are essentially handing elections over to republicans at this point they hate housing more than fascism. itās absurdity
if you live in California, right now is the perfect time to call up your state assemblymember and senator and tell them to support SB79!
100% building housing on top of existing city facilities is One Simple Trick to find nice renovations. pure win-win
this is JD Vanceās whole thing. If we canāt increase supply, the only way to lower prices is by reducing demand. and how do you reduce demand? Kicking out those who are āunworthyā (immigrants, according to JD)
"build more housing" is the single most important thing we can do to combat a further rightward drift of the electorate what do you think is going to happen as climate migration accelerates
Fire literally everyone in one of these units and blacklist them from all government service forever the moment we retake the White House. Yes, some poor dumb kids who didnāt know what they were signing up for will be collateral damage. No, there is no other way to be safe.
looks like heās running on a pro housing platform we love to see it
My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up. NYT just covered it. 1/n www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...
You should go to an apartment listing in Manhattan sometime and see how many people are showing up to viewings
many of the shitty politicians in NYC are so unfathomably shitty that it becomes beyond parody. Susan Zhuang is a ālaw and orderā conservative who literally *bit a cop* while protesting homeless housing. her getting support from the CCP is just the cherry on top!
I am surprised Chris Marte wasnāt one of the politicians mentioned here
very excited to announce I have been featured in Liberal Currents, writing about what Zohranās pro-housing policy should look like! hereās the TL;DR: 1) upzone, upzone, upzone 2) address hard costs & permitting 3) leverage the public sector 4) appoint the right people 5) sell the vision
Itās an objective fact that Jersey City is building housing at a much greater rate than NYC. In fact, if NYC built as much housing per capita as Jersey City, housing in Jersey City would be much more affordable
itās really remarkable how much conservative NYC politicians hate the very city they represent
yes and itās not even close at this point. only question is if another candidate jumps in last second
itās honestly so funny that she chose my post with like 7 likes where Iām deep in the replies arguing with some weirdo right wing YIMBY about whether Rick Caruso is good or not
I know this might upset some folks but I think āwonky Orange County progressiveā is kinda the perfect demographic to sway with Abundance messaging
so, uh, @katieporteroc.bsky.social, the person most likely to become the next governor of California, retweeted one of my posts to say that she supports the most transformative housing bill in state history
I think itās half that and half zero self awareness
BIG news: The California Democratic Party just endorsed @scottwiener.bsky.socialās landmark housing bill #SB79, which legalizes multifamily homes near major public transit statewide! This marks a major shift in state politics: California Dems are *finally* embracing a party that builds!
too Republican :(
Austin feels like a vibrant, growing, dynamic city in a way that few other red state cities do
I lived in LA for 6 years! the problem is I had friends/events all over the city so even if there are walkable pockets, visiting friends in like the SFV or SGV is a total pain
yeah Colorado should be a maybe I just donāt care for all the outdoors stuff
itās fine? I would live in Seattle if I had to but wouldnāt seek it out. And Portland is just kinda like a sleepier Seattle imo
just for fun hereās my map of states I would live in
one simple trick to boost transit usage (be located in the NYC area)
the extent to which this administration is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to making every Americansā life even marginally worse is really something heās the most anti-abundance president in American history
nina turner is unique in the way in which her career has demonstrated the pathologies of both the Democratic left (low-trust grifter incapable of organizing a child's birthday party) and center (incompetent suck-up who rose through party offices, on charter school payroll, aggrieved at tiny slights)
canāt stop thinking about the ācenterā right āabundanceā think tanks who thought that cozying up to Trump would prevent him from being insane
most dictatorships eventually collapse when the dictator is too thin-skinned to accept bad news, and eventually the truth catches up to them
How long must we be forced to endure this national humiliation
ābuilding high rise buildings next to single family zoned isnāt safe for many reasonsā meanwhile in Toronto
there are multiple large surface parking lots right next to the Capitol that are just begging to be turned into apartments for congressmembers and their families
Chuck Todd is the Lane Kiffin of politics
i'll say it again, my loud and vigorous support for any democrat who calls for televised hearings and criminal charges for everyone involved in DOGE. this guy should never be able to live in peace again.
Nina Turner is truly beyond parody at this point
itās weird though because when a few ostensibly left-leaning folks did this about Sydney Sweeney, the Republican media apparatus went crazy while Dem politicianswere like āwutā now that itās the right wingers getting mad, right wing politicians are latching on too
blocking much needed housing is putting your foot on the neck of renters. It is impossible to be a good Democrat and a NIMBY
these people are all fucking freaks itās really not any deeper than that. if an acquaintance IRL started complaining about how the Cracker Barrel logo is a sign of the decay of modern society I would tell them to get psychiatric help
Why are 90% of op-eds scolding liberals for the way they talk about threats to democracy rather than scolding conservatives for threatening democracy
Nina Turner is an unserious grifter
