I'd take anything. I mean, bad things happen by a thousand cuts. Why can't good things happen by a thousand cuts?

Oh, "you don't understand that metaphor..."

I def hear what you're saying, but we have to keep trying. And I really think if the top-line item was "reduced property tax rates", it might stick.

Since we can't get repeal, we should have a ballot measure that phases it out, so all current owners are (no pun intended) grandfathered in. Also, phase in reduced property tax rates (which are workable once everyone is paying their share).
Maybe something like that would pass.

removing parking minimum req'ts doesn't mean no parking. If there is a market for parking spots that justifies the price, parking will be built. A big problem is most people don't actually want to pay for parking bc they're used to it being free (at least, in the US)

Also: the income qualification is more reasonable than you’d expect.

3. More housing, including social housing. I’m fine with an increased min wage, but I don’t think it solves this problem. Paying people more w/out adding a lot of housing would likely just drive housing costs up significantly.

Not that you should necessarily care much about what the Merc says, but the Editorial does a decent job outlining the qualifications of the two candidates.

The ad at the start of your pod is for California Psychics (!) I really thought it was a spoof ad, but it turned out to be serious. 🤣

“That’s why California Psychics reject 98% of the psychics that apply to work with us!” 😂😂

Not sure I agree. *If* the deaths are the result of something that isn’t preventable by code changes, then I’d say the status quo is fine (wrt fire safety).

Also, hate to say it but 3k fire deaths just isn’t that many. By comparison, radon kills an estimated 20,000 but few talk about that.

I’m not sure why fire deaths would be attributed to building codes. This would have to be really studied, but it could just be the combination of 1) common gas cooking, 2) wood-framed construction, and 3) a huge country w fire depts covering large areas, 4) people acting stupid.

shout out to Valley Health Foundation

More info here: valleyhealthfoundation.org/special-even...

@michaelelliott.bsky.social

Maybe

To your last question, I'm a policy analyst by training & at heart, so I *always* think we can learn from others, but that's a bit of a cop-out answer. Also: the US is so big and diverse, it's very different from most developed nations we'd be looking to learn from.

I'm mostly in the dark re: int'l building codes. My sense is that a lot of countries start with the model codes created by ICC (same as the US). ICC says the same, but I dunno.

I do think US code development is good bc it's mostly technocratic and apolitical, but I'm not a code expert.

Ugh. "What if we get in a war with China" is just a rhetorical get-out-of-jail free card for hawks. It's what's known as an unfalsifiable argument, and it could be used to triple (no, quadruple!) our defense spending.

Anyway, unfalsifiable arguments are where I get off the train.

#1) ~$1.2 trillion/yr (inc veterans benefits) is a shitload of money

#2) If you do the math on the share of federal defense/veterans spending *excluding* interest payments, social security and medicare, which are largely paid-for entitlements, it's ~40% of all spending