Upzone the coastal elites
@aboutdave.bsky.social
Patent attorney, astrophysicist, & Stack-and-Packist 🏙️🥑🔋⛷️. Ready to help enforce state housing law.
I generally think zoning is dumb, particularly in residential density limits.
But zoning that maintains non-car access - that's necessary.
But zoning that maintains non-car access - that's necessary.
I tried to walk to my nearest Lowes this weekend. It literally had no pedestrian access. The only entrance was the parking lot which was directly connected to a highway, that has no sidewalk. (and I live just outside NYC, ffs) How is development like that even allowed?
November 19, 2025 at 8:17 PM
I generally think zoning is dumb, particularly in residential density limits.
But zoning that maintains non-car access - that's necessary.
But zoning that maintains non-car access - that's necessary.
Gosh, I wonder why it matters that housing prices are higher where jobs are.
Surely that has no bad consequences for the economy. Or future generations.
Surely that has no bad consequences for the economy. Or future generations.
“If you cherry-pick places where housing prices are high, housing prices are high”
This is transparently bad data practice. Yes, there are places where housing is more expensive than average. There are also places more affordable than average. About half, in fact. So what?
This is transparently bad data practice. Yes, there are places where housing is more expensive than average. There are also places more affordable than average. About half, in fact. So what?
Will, my guy, you *gotta* look at city areas as opposed to the country as a whole, we’re a nation of urban islands surrounded by oceans of real estate, and the cities are where basically all economic value is generated.
November 18, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Gosh, I wonder why it matters that housing prices are higher where jobs are.
Surely that has no bad consequences for the economy. Or future generations.
Surely that has no bad consequences for the economy. Or future generations.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
San Francisco’s cost of living is through the roof & our city’s extreme housing costs are pushing people out.
Supervisor Connie Chan’s solution? Make housing even more expensive by sabotaging the Mayor’s zoning plan to actually build more homes.
Great work, Supervisor.
Supervisor Connie Chan’s solution? Make housing even more expensive by sabotaging the Mayor’s zoning plan to actually build more homes.
Great work, Supervisor.
A Last-Minute Change to SF’s Housing Plan Tries to Roll It Back
With a deadline looming, Sup. Connie Chan wants to bar all ‘existing residential uses’ from upzoning. She says state watchdogs won't object.
thefrisc.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:32 AM
San Francisco’s cost of living is through the roof & our city’s extreme housing costs are pushing people out.
Supervisor Connie Chan’s solution? Make housing even more expensive by sabotaging the Mayor’s zoning plan to actually build more homes.
Great work, Supervisor.
Supervisor Connie Chan’s solution? Make housing even more expensive by sabotaging the Mayor’s zoning plan to actually build more homes.
Great work, Supervisor.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
Zoning started with the goals of encouraging segregation and car dependence a century ago. It is a moral imperative to abolish it.
November 17, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Zoning started with the goals of encouraging segregation and car dependence a century ago. It is a moral imperative to abolish it.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
Inclusionary zoning is not just terrible policy. It’s also extremely neoliberal policy that outsources a key state function—providing subsidized housing for poor people—to private, market-based actors and shifts the financial burden for the subsidies from wealthy homeowners to middle class renters.
It's also the most '90s Third Way-ish policy idea imaginable, which is why it is both bemusing and frustrating that so many leftists embrace it with such vigour. "Let's solve affordable housing with technocratic, market based incrementalism" really isn't all that progressive!
So-called “inclusionary zoning” is a tax on new housing that reduces the amount of housing that gets built, worsening the housing shortage and driving up rent. It is bad, counterproductive policy and we should stop doing it.
November 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Inclusionary zoning is not just terrible policy. It’s also extremely neoliberal policy that outsources a key state function—providing subsidized housing for poor people—to private, market-based actors and shifts the financial burden for the subsidies from wealthy homeowners to middle class renters.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
Personally, I think the idea that “adding a cost to a specific (non-luxury) good does NOT impact production” is rather preposterous, and the burden of proof should lie on those suggesting it.
November 16, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Personally, I think the idea that “adding a cost to a specific (non-luxury) good does NOT impact production” is rather preposterous, and the burden of proof should lie on those suggesting it.
This guy is really speed running all the greatest hits.
Now we have alleged anti-competitive behavior from market participants who lack anywhere near monopoly power.
Now we have alleged anti-competitive behavior from market participants who lack anywhere near monopoly power.
November 16, 2025 at 8:38 PM
This guy is really speed running all the greatest hits.
Now we have alleged anti-competitive behavior from market participants who lack anywhere near monopoly power.
Now we have alleged anti-competitive behavior from market participants who lack anywhere near monopoly power.
"I'm not strawmanning, the YIMBYs are!"
November 16, 2025 at 8:37 PM
"I'm not strawmanning, the YIMBYs are!"
"their arguments are pretty easy to refute"
"which is why I, an avowed anti-yimby, have to resort to strawmanning and ignoring their arguments"
"which is why I, an avowed anti-yimby, have to resort to strawmanning and ignoring their arguments"
November 16, 2025 at 7:15 PM
"their arguments are pretty easy to refute"
"which is why I, an avowed anti-yimby, have to resort to strawmanning and ignoring their arguments"
"which is why I, an avowed anti-yimby, have to resort to strawmanning and ignoring their arguments"
TIL, the last 50 years of housing policy, you know the time period where zoning limits were at their highest, was actually the height of "supple-side economics."
I mean sure, if you define "supply-side economics" as ensuring homeowners don't face competition.
I mean sure, if you define "supply-side economics" as ensuring homeowners don't face competition.
November 16, 2025 at 7:08 PM
TIL, the last 50 years of housing policy, you know the time period where zoning limits were at their highest, was actually the height of "supple-side economics."
I mean sure, if you define "supply-side economics" as ensuring homeowners don't face competition.
I mean sure, if you define "supply-side economics" as ensuring homeowners don't face competition.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
The City of Los Angeles has 43,700 homeless people. Seven of them die on the streets every day.
Mobilizing the planning department to slow-walk new mixed income housing near the train stations that taxpayers spent billions of dollars building reflects perverse priorities at best.
Mobilizing the planning department to slow-walk new mixed income housing near the train stations that taxpayers spent billions of dollars building reflects perverse priorities at best.
After failing to stop a major state housing bill from becoming law, Los Angeles leaders are turning to plan B: Delaying Senate Bill 79's implementation and pushing for unspecified legislative changes next year. My dispatch for @politico.com Pro subscribers subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...
POLITICO Pro: Los Angeles failed to defeat a major housing law, so it's turning to Plan B: Delay, delay, delay
A report from the city planning department outlines strategies for pushing off many of the effects of SB 79 through 2030.
subscriber.politicopro.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The City of Los Angeles has 43,700 homeless people. Seven of them die on the streets every day.
Mobilizing the planning department to slow-walk new mixed income housing near the train stations that taxpayers spent billions of dollars building reflects perverse priorities at best.
Mobilizing the planning department to slow-walk new mixed income housing near the train stations that taxpayers spent billions of dollars building reflects perverse priorities at best.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
You should build bike lanes for people who are not currently biking and build housing for people who don't currently live in your neighborhood.
November 14, 2025 at 5:11 PM
You should build bike lanes for people who are not currently biking and build housing for people who don't currently live in your neighborhood.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
Theory: The planning profession and local governments, especially in progressive areas, have over-emphasized process (e.g., public participation) at the cost of positive community outcomes (e.g., housing affordability, street safety). That needs to change.
November 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Theory: The planning profession and local governments, especially in progressive areas, have over-emphasized process (e.g., public participation) at the cost of positive community outcomes (e.g., housing affordability, street safety). That needs to change.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
Fantastic profile of @scottwiener.bsky.social in @motherjones.com.
www.motherjones.com/author/adam-...
www.motherjones.com/author/adam-...
Adam Rogers
www.motherjones.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Fantastic profile of @scottwiener.bsky.social in @motherjones.com.
www.motherjones.com/author/adam-...
www.motherjones.com/author/adam-...
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
My most woke opinion is that property tax rates should increase the further from the town center you are and agriculture tax rates should be incredibly difficult to qualify for
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
My most woke opinion is that property tax rates should increase the further from the town center you are and agriculture tax rates should be incredibly difficult to qualify for
Euclid v. Ambler.
Low density residential zoning, invented in places like Berkeley.
It was always ugly nativism.
Low density residential zoning, invented in places like Berkeley.
It was always ugly nativism.
JD Vance: "A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens."
November 14, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Euclid v. Ambler.
Low density residential zoning, invented in places like Berkeley.
It was always ugly nativism.
Low density residential zoning, invented in places like Berkeley.
It was always ugly nativism.
I was tempted to say that it's the only way a small business could survive in SF, but yeah no....
LOL she was texting others about how she paid people under the table and wrote off personal life as business expenses. Classic small business owner malarkey.
November 14, 2025 at 3:33 PM
I was tempted to say that it's the only way a small business could survive in SF, but yeah no....
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
I'm seeing chatter about the rising tide and all boats. And, I really hate to have to say this, but I think in our current condition, it is wrong. Or, at least overstated.
kevinerdmann.substack.com/p/im-afraid-...
kevinerdmann.substack.com/p/im-afraid-...
I'm afraid the economy isn't improving for everyone
Alex Tabarrok has a post at Marginal Revolution linking to a post from Jeremy Horpedahl at Economist Writing Every Day about rising real incomes.
kevinerdmann.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:49 PM
I'm seeing chatter about the rising tide and all boats. And, I really hate to have to say this, but I think in our current condition, it is wrong. Or, at least overstated.
kevinerdmann.substack.com/p/im-afraid-...
kevinerdmann.substack.com/p/im-afraid-...
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
We have to turn the Growth Machine back on until median rent is less than 30% of median monthly income and median home prices are below 4x median annual household income.
amusing chart. it turns out New York City built more housing units in the 1920s than in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010s put together www.nyc.gov/content/plan...
November 12, 2025 at 5:15 PM
We have to turn the Growth Machine back on until median rent is less than 30% of median monthly income and median home prices are below 4x median annual household income.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
new-ish working paper on Los Angeles' mansion tax argues that the revenue estimates are severely overstated.
the paper argues that somewhere between 2/3 and *all* the direct revenue generated by the tax is offset by tax decreasing transaction volume.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
the paper argues that somewhere between 2/3 and *all* the direct revenue generated by the tax is offset by tax decreasing transaction volume.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
November 12, 2025 at 2:29 AM
new-ish working paper on Los Angeles' mansion tax argues that the revenue estimates are severely overstated.
the paper argues that somewhere between 2/3 and *all* the direct revenue generated by the tax is offset by tax decreasing transaction volume.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
the paper argues that somewhere between 2/3 and *all* the direct revenue generated by the tax is offset by tax decreasing transaction volume.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
I don't care about pickleball, as long as we stop pretending that housing and people themselves are ever legitimate targets of zoning.
www.meyersnave.com/ca-supreme-c...
www.meyersnave.com/ca-supreme-c...
November 11, 2025 at 7:28 PM
I don't care about pickleball, as long as we stop pretending that housing and people themselves are ever legitimate targets of zoning.
www.meyersnave.com/ca-supreme-c...
www.meyersnave.com/ca-supreme-c...
Yeah, the crank candidates are trying to mobilize against a minor revision to landmarkings as if it were a threat to basic human rights.
"Frivolous" is right.
"Frivolous" is right.
November 11, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Yeah, the crank candidates are trying to mobilize against a minor revision to landmarkings as if it were a threat to basic human rights.
"Frivolous" is right.
"Frivolous" is right.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
Good write up. Honestly as someone who reviewed housing elements at HCD, I found that time and again local planners and consultants used sneaky tactics to reduce the feasibility of multifamily housing. I find the insistence on local bottom-up reform to solve the housing crisis hopelessly naive.
I wrote about state-level ADU reform and the differences between @strongtowns.org and YIMBYism. www.maxdubler.com/blog/2025/11...
On The Tension Between YIMBYism and Strong Towns — Max Dubler
Special thanks to those who gave their thoughtful feedback on this piece. The past couple of months have seen quite a bit of Discourse about the differences between Strong Towns and YIMB...
www.maxdubler.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Good write up. Honestly as someone who reviewed housing elements at HCD, I found that time and again local planners and consultants used sneaky tactics to reduce the feasibility of multifamily housing. I find the insistence on local bottom-up reform to solve the housing crisis hopelessly naive.
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
Pelosi's announcement video for her state senate run (released on Twitter this morning) mentions absolutely nothing about cost of living or affordability or any major California-centric issues. Off to a great start!
Days after Representative Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement from Congress, her daughter Christine Pelosi said on Monday that she would not seek her mother’s seat and would run instead for the California State Senate. nyti.ms/4oEDaNI
Christine Pelosi Will Not Run for Nancy Pelosi’s House Seat
Christine Pelosi, a Democratic activist, announced that she will run instead for a California State Senate seat, ending speculation that she would try to succeed Nancy Pelosi in the U.S. House.
nyti.ms
November 10, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Pelosi's announcement video for her state senate run (released on Twitter this morning) mentions absolutely nothing about cost of living or affordability or any major California-centric issues. Off to a great start!
Reposted by Upzone the coastal elites
An extremely high marginal tax rate on production of a socially desirable thing that there's a broad shortage of, no matter how that tax is spent, seems like... extremely bad policy with a huge deadweight loss
In 2018, then-Mayor Ada Colau called Barcelona’s new 30% inclusionary housing requirement for projects over 600m^2 a “paradigm shift,” making housing “a right and not a commodity.” It was supposed to produce 330 affordable units a year. The reality: just 31 affordable apartments in all these years.
Cuando se ha aprobó esta medida dije repetidamente que iba a ser un fracaso y que no construirían nada de vivienda asequible. Se ha probado en mil sitios y no funciona.
Acerté. www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcel...
Acerté. www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcel...
November 9, 2025 at 8:01 PM
An extremely high marginal tax rate on production of a socially desirable thing that there's a broad shortage of, no matter how that tax is spent, seems like... extremely bad policy with a huge deadweight loss