Favorites February 14th 2023

Filoli House, December 2022

Casey Newton @CaseyNewton

Elon Musk ordered major changes to Twitter this weekend after ... President Biden's tweet about the Eagles got higher engagement than his did. Inside the secret system that's showing you all his tweets first, from @ZoeSchiffer and me. platformer.news/p/yes-elon-mus…

Burning a social media platform to the ground is probably not what I'd do with billions of dollars.

Josh @JalbyMD

So SB 423, the SB 35 extension, includes a version of the "Builders remedy" in the extension. A new clause of the bill makes SB-35 apply to all cities without a compliant Housing Element. The streamlining could be more beneficial than the ignoring of the zoning.

This seems like a great idea, SB35 is already tested and has been shown to be an effective way to get homes built, it's a useful addon in a situation where it's not totally clear how long builders remedy projects will be delayed by CEQA lawsuits.

Alex Lee 李天明 @alex_lee

📶Single Stair Case Bill Intro'd Requiring 2 staircases for buildings over 3 floors makes homes more costly and hinders housing development. I introduced AB 835 to study & develop new standards to legalize #singlestair units in California

Yesterday I said there wasn't a Single staircase bill yet. It had actually already been announced and I hadn't heard about it yet. Alex Lee comes through again, as promised.

Luke Bornheimer 👨‍👧 @LukeBornheimer

“When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” The sad reality is that our public space has been gifted to cars for decades. If we want to address our roadway safety and climate crises, cars need to have less space (and drivers will feel inconvenienced).

What's especially painful, as one commenter points out, if you can convince more people to take other modes of transit, it actually makes driving nicer for the few who continue to do it.

Daniel Piker @KangarooPhysics

The optimal known packing of 17 equal squares into a larger square - i.e. the arrangement which minimises the size of the large square.

Threads

• Thread describing the results of China beginning to return their economy to normal. TL;DR: economic activity has jumped up since they ended lockdowns.