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alxlndomountain.bsky.social
Alex
@alxlndomountain.bsky.social
1.8K followers 2.1K following 6.5K posts
San Francisco based planner
construction industry knower
organizer
labor bureaucrat building the high road
dad & hubby
bike enjoyer
trolleybus evangelist
PHIMBY stan
co-editor @derspekter.bsky.social
speaking only for myself
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alxlndomountain.bsky.social
so i just went into the numbers...CA's MF production during this part of the chart bobbed around 52k/year & was about the level a year prior to the GFC shitpile when rates were higher.
November 23, 2025 at 2:46 AM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
What a model
Calico cat in the sun, looking at camera Calico cat in the sun, looking away
November 22, 2025 at 6:30 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
What a model
Calico cat in the sun, looking at camera Calico cat in the sun, looking away
November 22, 2025 at 6:29 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
Daloy Polizei
Abolish ICE
There must be something magic down in the holding cells, Cause there's stuff that happens there that just don't happen nowhere else. Healthy people dying from a sudden heart attack, Men who hang themselves with their hands tied behind their back. There's lots of good and brave police, it must be true, I guess-- It's brave to work with a murderer sipping coffee by your desk.
November 22, 2025 at 3:05 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
California style YIMBY ideology has failed on its own terms. Even as it racks up legislative and regulatory wins with hundreds of laws & code changes, CA's housing production remains flat while prices continue to climb.
columns as stacks of apartments & red line for price index YEAR APARTMENT PRODUCTION HOUSING PRICE INDEX 2016 51,353 100 2017 52,408 107 2018 53,454 112 2019 50,660 116 2020 43,619 124 2021 53,853 150 2022 53,065 153 2023 52,819 162 2024 39,346 167
November 22, 2025 at 12:55 AM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 7:22 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 7:22 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
as i said...all the righteous amendments to remove rent controlled units come up against "oops, capacity problems!" responses. only appropriate response it so add capacity on the SFH lots.
Summary: Realistic Capacity & SB 79 . MULTIPLE CAPACITY METHODS NEED TO BE CONSIDERED and all must meet our requirement for realistic capacity for 36,200 units (16,000 units moderate & above-moderate). . AMENDMENTS NEED TO BE "NET NEUTRAL": Per HCD preliminary approval letter in September, changes that negatively affect housing capacity and/or constraints should be offset with changes elsewhere.
November 18, 2025 at 12:08 AM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
watching SF's zoning calcs. would love to see what the analysis would show with 20' extra feet on top of the 51K single family parcels getting their heights frozen at 40'
MethEd: Financially Feasible Urban Sim - online simulation tool to determine how many units are financially feasible. . Urban Sim runs a proforma analysis on every parcel using (1) economic assumptions, (2) allowed building envelope, (3) existing lot conditions, to determine for each lot the largest feasible project, if any. Helps us understand how economic conditions impact the construction of moderate and above moderate homes relative to our RHNA targets. Since most affordable housing relies on public subsidy instead of financial feasibility, this method provides limited information for how the city will meet its affordable targets. Not all Financially Feasible Projects will be pursued during the RHNA period. Discount factors must be applied. In "improved" financial conditions, as many as 221K units are feasible, but many are on sites with homes or other conditions that must be accounted for. 19,000 - 47,000 likely units Target: 16,000 Mod/Above Mod on sites suitable and available during the RHNA period
November 17, 2025 at 11:58 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
My perverse interest in the CRE press is vindicated
Marxist bros have long been interested in the financial press. Karl Marx first turned to The Economist to help understand the failure of the revolutions of 1848, and in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, he directed readers to that “organ” of the “aristocracy of finance” to understand what liberalism was up to. The mid-century American cartoonist Don Wright featured in one sketch a supposed Moscow newsstand selling three papers: Pravda, Izvestia, and the Wall Street Journal.
November 17, 2025 at 9:29 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
Though I guess Joe "Impeccable credentials" Alioto becoming mayor sort of turned that upside down
Cover of David Talbot's Season of the Witch
November 17, 2025 at 6:10 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
seems like Ehrlich addressed that and clearly pointed the way forward. I must also say that movements change and adapt to the ground from which rise. This manifesto is no less relevant today than 88 years ago
The Bund infused the Jewish working man with a new spirit. The Bund filled his heart with a new faith. The Bund awakened in the Jewish worker the feeling of human dignity and, as a consequence, also his national consciousness, the need to find fulfillment within his national culture. And as an equal among equals, it introduced the Jewish worker to a new and proud world, the world of the militant proletariat. The Bund also taught the Jewish worker how to feel and think like a citizen of the country. It taught him how to link his own destiny to the destiny of the country. It inculcated in him the unshakable conviction that in the place where he lives and in the land in which he expends his toil, he must demand his rights and stand up for his rights with all his strength. The Bund taught the Jewish worker that his power lies not in national unity with his exploiters, the rich and their minions, the clericals, but in class struggle against the capitalists without difference of nationality; and in international unity with all toilers and oppressed.
November 14, 2025 at 8:08 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
kinda tearing up reading this
The Bund infused the Jewish working man with a new spirit. The Bund filled his heart with a new faith. The Bund awakened in the Jewish worker the feeling of human dignity and, as a consequence, also his national consciousness, the need to find fulfillment within his national culture. And as an equal among equals, it introduced the Jewish worker to a new and proud world, the world of the militant proletariat. The Bund also taught the Jewish worker how to feel and think like a citizen of the country. It taught him how to link his own destiny to the destiny of the country. It inculcated in him the unshakable conviction that in the place where he lives and in the land in which he expends his toil, he must demand his rights and stand up for his rights with all his strength. The Bund taught the Jewish worker that his power lies not in national unity with his exploiters, the rich and their minions, the clericals, but in class struggle against the capitalists without difference of nationality; and in international unity with all toilers and oppressed. The Jewish worker grasped the message of the Bund. While the Jewish bourgeois elements sang words of blessing for the bloody Tsar; while the Jewish clericals preached humility as the response to all the evil decrees, and the Zionists promised the tsarist ministers, people dripping with workers’ blood and Jewish blood, to lead the Jews out of Russia - Jewish workers, under the banners of the Bund, fought for freedom in the front ranks of the revolution; the Bundist self-defense groups, with guns in hand, bravely defended the Jewish masses against the wild bands of tsarist pogromshchiki. The Bund transformed the obsequious Jewish working man into a class-conscious proletarian, into a socialist, into a revolutionist.
November 14, 2025 at 6:05 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
Remove the fascist abscesses
And when the hour of victory shall sound, the working people will not be satisfied with eliminating the fascist abscess from the body of today’s social order. They will, at that time, fundamentally cure the sick body and do away with the causes that gave rise to that festering abscess. And the causes are inherent, after all, in the capitalist nature of today’s economic system. They are related to the fact that the greatest riches of the world find themselves in the hands of a tiny number of people.
November 14, 2025 at 5:47 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
The names of the countries and their rulers may change but these insights are as true today as they were 88 years ago.
Seventy million people are languishing under the heavy boot of Hitlerism. Not only the 500,000 Jews—the whole German people has been transformed into a nation of slaves. After four-and-a-half years of Hitler rule, even fresh bread is an item of luxury in Germany. And instead of butter, the common people of Germany are fed guns. Forty million Italians have been turned into a footstool for the “great” Mussolini. The Italian workers and peasants have long forgotten what eating a full meal is like. Which is why Mussolini's hurling their children from one battlefield to another; which is why Mussolini is calling on Italian women to bear children without letup so that there will be no lack of soldiers for his coming wars. And just as in Germany and Italy, millions of working people in other, smaller countries which have become areas of reactions are sunk in privation and bondage. This system of oppression and enslavement is called fascism. It was devised and effectuated by the possessing class against the rebellion of the exploited masses. But fascism has not managed to eliminate a single one of the sources of anguish that have driven the masses to rise up. It has only deepened their misery and made the danger of a new world war infinitely greater. Fascism not only murdered freedom where it was victorious, but it carries murder, oppression, and enslavement wherever its criminal hand reaches. It is sufficient to mention Abyssinia, Spain, China, Danzig.
November 14, 2025 at 5:45 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may
November 14, 2025 at 4:06 AM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
"It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may"
Christine Pelosi @sfpelosi This Epstein case is horrific and the young women deserve justice. It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may - whether on Republicans or Democrats. #WeSaidEnough #MeToo
November 14, 2025 at 3:35 AM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
I am DEEPLY allergic to people claiming paying the men and women who ACTUALLY BUILD housing a fair wage that allows them to live and retire in dignity is bad for housing especially when they do so via numbers they pull out of their ass.
According to the Census of Construction, blue collar construction workers comprise about 22% of the total *hard* costs of a construction project. My own review of SF's certified payroll records shows that to be about right. This includes their wages as well as "benefits" like family supporting health care and retirement security, as well investment into the construction workforce development system. Once you add in soft costs (which are often equivalent to direct labor), developer fees, and the price of land you end up with an overall bill that's about 15% of the total project development costs. A reasonable follow up question may be "well how much higher are prevailing wages than 'catch as catch can' wages?" Just this morning on KQED's forum I heard a developer say something like 20%. Fine. Lets assume a 20% premium for skilled workers making a livable wage, getting health care and retirement, and investment in training the next generation of skilled tradespeople. At 15% of the TDC we're talking about 3% of the total cost. So unless Ben is saying that each unit is running $2.7M each then his numbers simply don't reconcile. Then there's the actual question of the welfare of the workers themselves. According to research by the UC Berkeley Labor Center the residential construction industry is one of California's principal employers of working poor persons needing public assistance. My own research has shown that residential construction workers overwhelmingly qualify for the type of housing affordability supports that the housing Ben and the OP want to build with the same low wage labor. Lets also not forget the persistent complaint of construction employers about their inability to draw enough people to one of the nation's most dangerous industries and the fact that absent prevailing wages commercial construction would siphon off anyone with the skills we want on these projects.
November 13, 2025 at 7:10 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
also...
Wage. The term “wage” means gross earnings paid to construction workers for labor or services rendered that are taxed under the Federal Insurance Contribution Act, but not inclusive of essential benefits or other supplemental benefits paid on behalf of construction workers.
November 13, 2025 at 6:30 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
1st, this is clearly limited to construction
2nd, the unit threshold is too low...should be 40.
3rd, it needs a height threshold too since i imagine projects in outlying areas will be mid-rise
4th, the wage is too low. just use standard prevailing wages
5th, the local hire provision is reasonable
Housing development project. The term “housing development project” means construction or demolition of any residential building, residential facility, or residential structure, including any commercial and community components of such building, facility, or structure (1) that creates or preserves at least 100 or more dwelling units with project construction costs of three million dollars or more; and (2) that is funded in whole or in part by city financial assistance.
November 13, 2025 at 6:10 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
So basically AI turns you into a dumbfuck like Trump
If a large part of the job of president is to receive and manage information, then Trump has constructed an environment in which he rarely if ever hears anything contrary to his own perception of the world and is rarely if ever challenged on his decisions. This means he cannot respond to political conditions on the ground.
November 12, 2025 at 10:25 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
I'm sure doing the drug war will work this time
LOTS OF PEOPLE ARE TELLING ME THAT WE SHOULD SIMPLY THREATEN TO JAIL PEOPLE USING DRUGS ON THE STREETS WELL DID IT WORK FOR THOSE PEOPLE? NO, IT NEVER DOES, I MEAN, THESE PEOPLE SOMEHOW DELUDE THEMSELVES INTO THINKING IT MIGHT, BUT ... ... BUT IT MIGHT WORK FOR US.
November 12, 2025 at 9:25 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
Good fucking luck with that
John Fetterman, while on Bari Weiss' Free Press podcast "Honesty" says: "Being devoted to Israel is becoming increasingly incompatible with being a proud Democrat."
November 11, 2025 at 11:44 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
just had lunch at Zazie SF and leaving aside the yumminess of the food (it was yummy) I want to give them a massive pat on the back for their receipt that does not include the bullshit callout of the City's health care mandate & incorporates the service charge into the price of the meal
Subtotal Credit Card Surcharge (2.90%) Tax Total
November 11, 2025 at 8:23 PM
alxlndomountain.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM