Ben Raderstorf
@raders
defend democracy and build homes / policy advocate @protectdemocracy.org / author ifyoucankeep.it / board @sacyimby.bsky.social / rash opinions my own No kings but Sac Kings 📍Sacramento
Seven major YIMBY reforms have made it so Sacramento is building twice the housing at half the rents
The zoning simplification is especially radical and kinda slept on. This will be the entirety of Sacramento's residential zoning. Anyone aware of another city whose residential zoning code is this streamlined and simple? Most I think have at least a dozen different zones
Really wonderful ode to the dream of mixed-density, walkable, vibrant neighborhoods by @byrobinepley.bsky.social in @sacbee.com
Yeah I mean, you just can’t win. You price thickets to extinguish speeding (and drive revenue to zero) and this guy will scream at you for giving him a $900 ticket for speeding through your neighborhood
SoCal might, and it's possible NorCal will get dragged along, but I can't say I'm looking forward to this. There's no free daylight, regardless of where you live
Winter sucks, but your only options are: 1. Go to work/school in the dark all winter (8:25AM winter sunrise where I live under PDT). 2. Waste a huge chunk of the summer morning daylight while asleep (4:42AM sunrise under PST). 3. Do daylight savings. There's no option 4.
Christ, *market* rents in Sacramento are considered affordable at 65%AMI in SF. San Francisco NIMBYs are all going to hell, I’m very sorry to say
This isn’t an exaggeration. Sacramento rents are currently 48% of San Francisco’s and dropping. meanwhile Sac’s multifamily starts are, right now, ~4x SF’s. If you rent in San Francisco, you should be protesting in front of city hall against the policymakers who are raising your rent.
Ironically, Platner may still win the Senate for Ds: preventing a very “meh” Mills run only to drop out and clear the stage for this guy
With every possible housing project, the San Francisco instinct is to ask: "How can we make this smaller?" In Sacramento, we ask: "is this really the most we can do?" The outcomes of these two political cultures speak for themselves:
Ah, I see. Regardless, this is probably a better visualization anyway 😉
Per @nytimes.com data today, Sacramento is the third most affordable place in the state behind Redding and Hanford. (And, no offense, but it’s much nicer) YIMBYism works. Elect YIMBYs. Join YIMBY groups like @sacyimby.bsky.social. Your city can look like this too
Even specifically calls out weaponized IZ. The times, they are a-changin’!
Tisza winning 53% of the vote but on track for almost 70% of seats. Electoral system chicanery cuts both ways!!
To build such an abomination directly between two of our nation's most hallowed sites, the Lincoln Memorial — a temple of equality, freedom, and union — and Arlington National Cemetery — our sacred and somber ground dedicated to the costs of war — would be to despoil our nation's very soul
To build a triumphal arch is — essentially — to celebrate in stone the conquest and subjugation of other peoples, as Napoleon did in the 1800s or centuries of Roman Emperors did two thousand years ago
The triumphal arch isn't just a cute monument that Europeans build — it's expressly a symbol from the Roman Empire marking military conquest. A triumphus. When he built his, Napoleon wasn't celebrating his code of laws or general national greatness or whatever. It was the battle of Austerlitz!
Donald Trump ripped up the JCPOA, which had successfully forced Iran to abandon its nuclear program. Now he seems poised to give Iran a much more favorable deal — potentially including control over Hormuz — *without* a commitment to end the nuclear program. Incredible bsky.app/profile/fint...
Pete Hegseth publicly promised to execute Iranian prisoners of war. If that’s what happens to these American pilots, he will share the blame
The Powell Doctrine gets a bad rap (maybe because it was so poorly applied later in its namesake’s career) but the Iran War makes a hell of a case for it. Trump and Hegseth are *unambiguously* zero for eight here.