Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · 1h

I'll be there and so will a ton of the Jedi team! Stoked to catch up. Glad to hear things are on the up and up

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · 3h

Willl!!!!! Crazy it's been that long. Hope you're doing well and still crushing it

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · 4h

Hey y'all, we just posted a Sound Design intern position here on the Respawn Jedi team for Summer 2026! Come make some really cool stuff with us

*Caveat is you must be a student graduating no earlier than December 2026

jobs.ea.com/en_US/career...

Sound Design Intern, Summer 2026 (Jedi)

jobs.ea.com

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · 6d

I will be at GSC

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Sep 11

In other news, I paid of my student loans so that's cool

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Reposted by Alex Barnhart

California YIMBY @cayimby.bsky.social · Aug 27

Decades of unlimited local control over land use have left us with an historic housing shortage, unaffordable rents, homeownership out of reach for the middle class, and crisis-level homelessness.

Enough is enough. It’s time for the state to step in and set some basic ground rules by passing SB 79.

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · Aug 27

Here’s 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.)

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Reposted by Alex Barnhart

Joe Cohen @cohenhouse.bsky.social · Aug 27

Jon Lovett’s face when LA City Councilmember Imelda Padilla said she forced an affordable housing project to go down from six stories to three stories and add in EV charging spaces

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 27

Been relearning how to draw after years of avoiding it. Here's a tree

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Reposted by Alex Barnhart

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · Aug 23

The most impressive thing about this campaign is how *creative* they are. They’re trying new stuff! Multiple times during the last few months I’ve thought “wow, I’ve never seen a campaign do that.” Much more of that needed everywhere.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Aug 23

Game on.

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Reposted by Alex Barnhart

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · Aug 21

Josh Albrektson turned this tweet into a letter to the LA Times! www.latimes.com/opinion/lett...

Letters to the Editor: L.A. City Council has proven it can’t fix city’s housing problem on its own

'This is exactly why the state needs to preempt local control from them and other cities like Los Angeles,' writes an L.A. Times reader.

www.latimes.com

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Reposted by Alex Barnhart

Sam @samd.bsky.social · Aug 20

Karen Bass is an unhinged NIMBY and everyone still on the other site should ratio her

Mayor Karen Bass &
Follow
@MayorOfLA
Today I signed a City Council resolution opposing SB79 unless it is amended to exempt cities with a state-approved and compliant Housing Element.
While I support the intent to accelerate housing development statewide, as written, this bill risks unintended consequences for LA.

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Reposted by Alex Barnhart

California YIMBY @cayimby.bsky.social · Aug 19

“Los Angeles leaders are once again demonstrating their cowardice and failing their own constituents who desperately need more housing—and they’re doing it at the behest of LA’s wealthiest, most entitled voters, who have consistently blocked progress on housing affordability.” - @hanlon.bsky.social

California YIMBY Statement on LA City Council Vote on SB 79

Los Angeles, CA — Today the Los Angeles City Council voted to oppose SB 79, a state bill designed to expand affordable housing near major transit stops. In doing so, councilmembers repeated discredite...

cayimby.org

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Reposted by Alex Barnhart

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · Aug 19

It's 2018. The LA City Council is opposing SB827 because it overrides local control. Rent is $1,663

It's 2019. The LA City Council is opposing SB50 because it overrides local control. Rent is $1,791

It's 2025. The LA City Council is opposing SB79 because it overrides local control. Rent is $2,625

California YIMBY @cayimby.bsky.social · Aug 19

“Los Angeles leaders are once again demonstrating their cowardice and failing their own constituents who desperately need more housing—and they’re doing it at the behest of LA’s wealthiest, most entitled voters, who have consistently blocked progress on housing affordability.” - @hanlon.bsky.social

California YIMBY Statement on LA City Council Vote on SB 79

Los Angeles, CA — Today the Los Angeles City Council voted to oppose SB 79, a state bill designed to expand affordable housing near major transit stops. In doing so, councilmembers repeated discredite...

cayimby.org

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 19

Is private equity buying homes a problem? Yeah for sure, I hate BlackRock owning homes as much as the next person

Is that as big of a deal compared to the fact we simply don't have enough housing and have built up massive barriers to building housing? No, not really

Kevin Erdmann @kevinerdmann.bsky.social · Aug 18

btw, a point to keep in mind when you see the claim that private equity or Wall Street is pricing families out of homes:
Homeowner families have never owned a larger portion of the housing stock.

Reposted by Alex Barnhart

A. Zivarts @nondriver.bsky.social · Aug 5

AAA estimates the average cost of owning a car is $12,297 a year, and recommends drivers spend no more than 10 percent of their income on car costs. This means you should make 120K to afford the average cost. Median *household* income in the US is $77K. The math just doesn't work.

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Best thing to do is to write to your local leaders (city council, mayor, etc) about changing city code to allow for things like Single Stair Apartment buildings, upzoning R1 areas to allow for townhomes/duplexs/triplexes, abolishing parking minimums, etc and speeding up permitting for new housing

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Today's affordable housing is the market rate housing that was built 20+ years ago etc. To make affordable housing now and in the future, we need to build housing period. That includes the kind of housing that's pissing you off. Most of Austin's housing that is driving rents down is this type

Picture of large apartment complex in Austin

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Here's a good video about specifically that idea. TLDR: Essentially higher income folks move into the "luxury" housing leaving vacancies for folks to move into the cheaper housing they currently live and so on and so on

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbQA...

The Problem with "Luxury Housing"

YouTube video by About Here

www.youtube.com

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Lack of diversity in housing options in what's being built is definitely a problem. A lot of that is in zoning codes and regulations (parking minimums etc). That being said, all of those apartments open up cheaper, older housing that otherwise would be taken by folks with the money to afford them

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Anyways, that's my rant. Feel free to call me a developer shill or landlord sympathizer or something I guess. I just want more walkable cities and cheaper rents/mortgages

Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Fix the supply issue and companies like Blackrock have much less reason to buy and hold housing. Cities like Austin have been building and showing by example that building housing, even market rate housing, brings rents down for everyone.

Screenshot of an article that reads: The chief reason behind Austin’s falling rents, real estate experts and housing advocates said, is a massive apartment building boom unmatched by any other major city in Texas or in the rest of the country. Apartment builders in the Austin area kicked into overdrive during the pandemic, resulting in tens of thousands of new apartments hitting the market.

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Is corporate ownership an issue? Hell yeah and we should do something about it. Do companies like Blackrock explicitly say to investors the reason they are buying houses and apartments is because the US doesn't build enough supply thus making it a desirable commodity for them to invest in

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Vienna is the classic example from the left of social housing done right and they deserve praise. The problem with that though is they actually built dense housing compared to cities like in the USA. Single family homes are the true luxury housing

Overhead shot of Vienna showing many multistory apartment buildings as far as the eye can see

Overhead shot of LA showing single family homes as far as the eye can see

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

Rent control is a great stop gap for stopping the immediate bleeding but long term all it does is trap people into staying in there current housing as the market around them skyrockets and makes it unfeasible to leave meaning the supply of rent controlled housing dwindles fast

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Alex Barnhart @alexbarnhart.bsky.social · Aug 5

I love affordable, non-market, social housing like the next lefty. I will always advocate for that. The problem is without removing the constraints that make it hard to build housing, there will never be enough housing to go around and only the luckiest or people who wait the longest get housing

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