dereksagehorn
@dereksagehorn
Interested in figuring out how to build better housing, transit and cities. Construction lawyer; advocate for East Bay for Everyone. Oakland.
The S.F. BOS commissioned study of the costs of the pre 1974 high rise condo fire sprinkler mandate has been released and shows a wide range of costs per unit to comply. Gift link www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s...
Policymakers need to be internalizing the costs of inaction/delay via escalation much earlier in the life cycle of infrastructure development, imo.
Interesting to go back to 2018 and look at what Livermore leadership was saying about their ability to locally deliver a 5 mile freeway median extension connection to BART via ValleyLink. www.danvillesanramon.com/news/2018/05...
Questions as to how passenger and freight service interacted in terms of scheduling for the SF&D.
This will probably get better in the future with Newsom's 6/26 transit EO that instructed Caltrans to create new standards to facilitate transit on the State Highway System. But it's still not clear whether Caltrans staff will be the lead designers (they should). www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/u...
The Hopkins discourse prompted me to look back at some of the hagiography of the neighborhood movement. berkhistory.org/berkeley-in-...
Nathaniel Owings of SOM: “to work, we must have volume… Volume meant power.”
“In the [1971] speech, he offered support for a new bill that would form a National Institute of Building Sciences to develop standard criteria for building codes,” Incorporating Architects, Aaron Cayer
Producers see what Apple general counsel actually dress like > nope we’re not doing that
Aziz Sunderji laying his cards on the table: he’s willing to overlook lying about data and research as well as animus towards immigrants, trans people and doctors if someone agrees with his priors.
LA sidewalks are in bad shape and can’t be effectively maintained or repaired because it was “designed” for cars. What does the “design” have to do with asset maintenance and renewal? Underfunding and under planning that work is a management and political choice.
USC engineering professor Lucio Soibelman appears to have really low standards. www.latimes.com/california/s...
The bit about Peninsula electeds’ opposition to BART based on it having too much financial power has echoes in the 2024-2025 charges by Gina Papan, Diane Papan and a minority of San Mateo County electeds who tried to sink Connect Bay Area due to their distrust of BART.
Millbrae City Council’s opposition to BART’s formation circa 1959-1960.
I would simply have the general counsel review a proposed policy to limit board or public participation prior to placing it on the agenda. oaklandside.org/2026/07/24/a...
Senator Collier from Siskiyou was the Senate Transportation Chair for years, father of the highway program and: “His personal opinion of the project was clear: Collier didn't think anyone would prefer a transit tube over a car.” escholarship.org/uc/item/3kv5...
This was especially visible in the 1950s and early 1960s during BART’s formation. Senator Hatfield from Merced: “wanted highways for their constituents; they didn't see any reason why their funds for new roads should be decreased any longer to support Bay Area bridges.”
The Capitol Corridor service vision refresh ahead of their 7/23 webinar frames four choices for Corridor ID prioritization. www.capitolcorridor.org/wp-content/u...
“In his ruling, [Judge] Morgan wrote that even if the BRT project were delayed, Metro failed to demonstrate if the lack of a completed project renders "any specific consequences" that would affect the 2028 Olympic games, traffic or transit services for spectators.” www.dailynews.com/2026/07/20/c...
If we don’t have strong service goals, a lot of unnecessary scope gets added and beneficial scope cut. E.g. VTA’s BART extension shedding and consolidating stations - and thus access benefits - due to technology and infrastructure-led decision making.
Far too often we have assumed a technological solution or infrastructure solution and designed the transit service to match it. This is backwards. Instead define the network you want and design service improvements to meet that goal.
Studying the infrastructure before studying the operational goals, systems and constraints is domestic worst practice. It’s the ideology that produced BART to SFO. Phase 2 gets into service concepts and infrastructure.
Given the access premium of Manhattan CBD and the utilization opportunity costs of Penn Station... these dwells are a very expensive operational choice.
Broke: 3 months free rent at recently built Class A apartments Woke: $2000 signing bonus for Section 8 voucher holders to rent Class D apartments
Gregory L. Thompson pegs the origins of California’s intuitional arrangement for transportation - state engineering + local self-help and planning - to the emergency response to the 1906 earthquake.
The first/last mile ATP plans for Valley Link stations are really bleak. granicus-aasmp-peak-files.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/atta...
@briannaje.bsky.social found your Eco apartheid building in this building code reform report. www.bostonindicators.org/-/media/indi...