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Jake Berman

@lostsubways.com

4.1K followers 340 following 900 posts

Wrote and illustrated "The Lost Subways of North America". Lawyer. Californian living in New York. Avid cyclist. Transport + housing nerd. Order the book at: http://lostsubways.com

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1d

the basic problem of suburban municipal finance, in a nutshell:

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1h

Nope. And the site is six miles from the existing Suisun-Fairfield Amtrak.

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1h

I know! My dad was one of those when I was in high school and it sucked. Would that these billionaires put half as much effort into building towers in Palo Alto or Menlo Park.

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1h

I could see this working well if you upgraded the Capitol Corridor to the standard of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem railway or the Madrid-Toledo AVE, with new right of way via 113 and 12 to stop at the new city.

That puts Sac 45 minutes away, and Oakland 30 minutes away. But that's not in the plan!

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1h

I had my own look at California Forever's plans. I don't mind the design. The design is great.

But Suisun City is an hour from Sacramento, an hour from SF, and 1.5 hours from San Jose, where the existing jobs are. Really, who are we kidding here?

Louis Mirante @louismirante.bsky.social · 21h

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.

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

...because the numbers are the numbers.

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

It requires a ton of manpower for HCD to enforce existing law, and it's not working. A RHNA-based automatic builder's remedy is simple, and can be based on easily available permit data. If a city's behind on your quota, there's no need to analyze whatever bullshit rules they've ginned up...

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

Getting stuck in traffic on the 101 Freeway in LA, a decade and change ago, behind a guy in a Jeep with too many bumper stickers.

I was so mad about it, I ultimately ended up writing a whole book about why American transit went down the tubes.

John Moe @johnmoe.bsky.social · 17h

What meaningless thing/experience are you still mad about? Like it should not matter at all, DOES not matter at all. But you’re still MAD.

And how long has it been?

I bought some bagels at Hy-Vee four years ago. So bad. Too big. Hard. Bland. WORTHLESS.

I’m still FURIOUS.

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

The Santa Monica experience was a great natural experiment - but California politicians haven't learned the right lessons from it. /9x

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

There are a handful of cities trying to rezone in good faith - like Sacramento - but most of them aren't willing to pull their fair share. 8/

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

The law currently provides that while the zoning is void, a city must approve all projects that include 20 percent affordable (that is, rent controlled, income restricted) units. 7/

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

Which brings me to my long-ruminating idea: if a city is behind on its quota, that city's zoning gets voided until it hits its quota, because obviously the plan is falling short. 6/

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

Want to see what happens when the state nukes the zoning? It happened briefly to Santa Monica and the city had to approve more housing in a matter of weeks than they had approved in the 8 years prior. 5/

The first of many: spotlighting the 16 Builder’s Remedy projects - Santa Monica Daily Press

Matthew Hall SMDP Editor SMDP is continuing its coverage of the Builder’s Remedy projects with an ongoing series focusing on each project. In today’s edition, y

smdp.com

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

The theoretical penalty for a bad faith plan is that the State voids your zoning and anything goes until you produce a viable plan, but @gavinnewsom.bsky.social has been too chickenshit to enforce the law. 4/

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

But the quota system only requires cities to "plan" for new housing and often times the plans are bullshit and made in bad faith. State enforcement has been lackluster, so cities like Los Altos Hills are getting away with it. 3/

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

The background is, there's a state quota system called RHNA, where each city has to pull its weight - rich cities, cities with good transit and jobs get higher quotas. 2/

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

This kind of shit is rampant in rich parts of the Bay Area. There should be more teeth to state housing law. If you're not zoning in good faith, cities should face more consequences. I have an idea for how this could be done. 1/thread

Anne Paulson @annepaulson.bsky.social · 18h

Los Altos Hills CA is up to their old tricks, to get out of allowing homes for the people who can’t afford the $5.7M houses there. The rich exclusionary town has to zone for multifamily housing, but they don’t want to, so they’re weaseling. 🧵1/7

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 17h

Here's an interesting question - if service levels decrease below the cutoff on a covered commuter rail station (say Anaheim ARTIC or Emeryville Amtrak) does it revert to pre-SB79¿

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 21h

next step: modifying the subdivision map act to allow as-of-right lot splits down to 2400 SF?

(fwiw that was standard a hundred years ago for large lot single-family!)

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 22h

El Segundo has entered the chat

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1d

the basic problem of suburban municipal finance, in a nutshell:

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1d

And, of course, in New York City, the moderate Bloomberg-Rockefeller strain of Republican is dead as disco. Hell, even Bloomberg became a Democrat.

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1d

It's real interesting seeing the NIMBY/YIMBY fight spill over into statewide *partisan* debate. In California, the Republicans are basically a non-entity because they destroyed their base of support in the '90s with Proposition 187.

Jake Blumgart @jblumgart.bsky.social · 1d

"New Jersey’s problem isn’t that it’s building too little housing, Ciattarelli says: It’s that it’s building too much." www.governing.com/urban/why-ho...

Why Housing Density Has Become a Key Issue in the New Jersey Governor's Race

A new law in New Jersey requires cities to plan for a share of the state’s housing needs. The Republican candidate for governor is tapping into local frustration about it.

www.governing.com

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1d

(This is a map I made for the book.)

Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1d

Highlights:
- Full-length 2 Ave subway from 241st St to South Ferry
- Lexington Ave Line shifted to the MNR Harlem Line right of way
- Extensions to eastern Queens via the Long Island Expressway and LIRR right of way
- Utica Av and Nostrand Av extensions
- Alphabet City shuttle and 48 St crosstown

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Jake Berman @lostsubways.com · 1d

What could have been: the New York MTA's Program for Action to fix the subways, 1968. Details below the fold.

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