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Jeff Baker

@jwbee.bsky.social

1.3K followers 300 following 3.9K posts

Notorious GIS reply guy YIMBY I will come to your hearing, Berkeley politician Vuvuzela owner Father @jeffinatorator on certain bird sites

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Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 1h

I don't think that is the aim. This is the UC investment fund. They also own 2631 Durant (is and was always student apartments), 2120 Berkeley Way (an office building), 2015 Kala Bagai (the WeWork) etc

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 2h

If you tape that to the telephone pole on the corner I would stop and read it.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 2h

I'm not trying to misread you, just to understand your point of view.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 2h

Isn't that using their greenbelt in a way that makes the stats look worse? Their 17.5k acres include more than 20x the open space that Berkeley contains, so that isn't a head-to-head comparison, just because of political boundary effects.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 2h

The obvious nearby examples being CA-37 expansion, CA-239 expansion to Byron of all places, widening I-80 from Sac to Davis, and the aforementioned Capital SouthEast Connector that is a sprawl inducer funded by Caltrans TCEP program,

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 2h

Today's > $20bn/year Caltrans budget consists largely of expanding untolled freeways to places that REFUSE to build housing, so in that context this seems obviously better.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 2h

You are not willing to evaluate this plan in terms of being better than what we are or were doing? As a state, incinerating tax revenue by Caltrans to benefit sprawl developers is almost the only use we can think of for money. CA-4 widening to Antioch??

If the widening costs money, put a toll booth

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 2h

30/ac isn't very high, it's just higher than every existing place in California. I.e. their claimed phase 2 buildout of 400k people in 7470 acres is triple the net density of Berkeley.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 2h

I don't believe my support is necessary. I'm a generic, store-brand libertarian.

The worst that could happen here is these guys are blowing smoke and they build another Fairfield, either intentionally or accidentally. But we already have a Fairfield, it is demonstrably acceptable to us.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 3h

I look at what the people of California have done/are doing with their government powers and with few exceptions all of it is large-scale ecocide where the outcomes are way, way worse than what California Forever at least claims to be pursuing.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 3h

I would like to understand why this project attracts so much opposition when it is compatible with what we want, while other massively destructive projects slide by silently, such as the Sac SE Connector, a 34-mile freeway that guarantees a larger area will be paved over with sprawl and parking.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 3h

If there are legit concerns about regional connections to this proposal, it seems healthier for a larger agency to step in and say "yes, and this is where we want our train station to be", rather than random people saying "stop, you did not plan every single thing."

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 3h

I don't look at Berkeley and think we've got it all figured out. On the 20-year horizon that is planned for the Suisun phase one buildout, what is Berkeley going to do?

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 3h

I'm willing to allow for the possibility that these people have fair ideas about some things without having total global knowledge and expertise about all the things. After all the only question here is whether the people of Solano County should _prevent_ this development using their powers.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 4h

That just seems like a double-standard. Their regional transportation plan is as good/bad as hundreds of other cities of the same or greater extent. Turlock, Oakley, Lodi, whatever. Unlike those, if they build to this plan, it would be trivial to county/state/agency to step in with a train.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 4h

See, letting those SV money guys be the prime developer is actually the part that is most concerning. I hope they turn it over to someone with good taste, otherwise there's going to be some ridiculous quirk like every home has a cold plunge tub and a built-in Juicero.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 4h

If they are going to lay down small parcels that are all zoned for 85' heights or more, it would seem to be a significant market failure if developers failed to achieve the envisioned 30 du/ac result.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 5h

That seems like a bit of a hot take. Tech companies have been begging to build workforce housing for decades. It is the greatgrandfailsons of railroad barons who are stopping them.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 5h

I'm with Louis here. This plan is exciting and the quibbling about the details doesn't rise above quibbling. The main thing they could change to make it more appealing is a stronger phasing plan that prevents some things that are possible in their zoning, like 100% IKEAs along highway 12.

Louis Mirante @louismirante.bsky.social · 22h

Spent some time with the California Forever plans today and it's exciting. If they pull this off, I would absolutely consider moving. First off - they're really locking themselves into 30 du/acre, which is like triple San Francisco's (13 du/acre). That would be sick as hell.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 5h

I was thinking of this book specifically, which proposes a "car-free city" that is "car-free" in the sense that it has just 18 monumental parking lots.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 7h

Yeah. But, aren't peripheral garages a long-standing New Urbanist wish?

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 16h

Isn't that an older CNU idea?

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 1d

Nice. I just did the same with the road wheel swap. There may be some debate within the household as to whether it can be said that money was "saved" as such on the 2nd set of wheels and tires.

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 1d

What else do you ride?

Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting. Surely this doesn't make the hotel tax-exempt, right? www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/10/14/b...

UC investment unit buys big East Bay hotel for more than $170 million

The University of California’s investment arm has bought an East Bay hotel for well under its appraised value.

www.eastbaytimes.com