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Ironic because Bay Area housing socialists are just witless "useful idiots" acting on behalf of the real estate lobby. For example noted idiot and self-describe

Ironic because Bay Area housing socialists are just witless "useful idiots" acting on behalf of the real estate lobby. For example noted idiot and self-described socialist Dean Preston, who is himself an ultra-wealthy landlord who owns hundreds of SF apartments. Preston's former chief of staff and campaign manager Jen Snyder, and most of the rest of his campaign staff, most of whom literally use hammer-and-sickle titles on Twitter, formed a real estate consultancy called "Red Bridge Strategies" that takes contributions directly from NIMBY dipshits, for example when they sued the city of Livermore to stop two 100%-subsidized affordable apartment complexes in Livermore. YIMBYs rightly looked at these fake socialists and said "pick up a hammer or GTFO".

abalone 2y ago
That is a low quality and highly inaccurate comment that doesn’t really belong on HN, but just briefly: - The real estate lobby funds CA YIMBY and YIMBY candidates, not socialists. - Dean Preston was a major tenants rights attorney who authored key legislation protecting tenants from evictions, not a landlord.
- jeffbee 2y ago
  See, you're a very poorly-informed person. Dean Preston's SF manse and his two gigantic North Bay estates are owned by the Goosby Family Trust, his wife's legacy real estate empire. The avowed purpose of Goosby Family LLC is "REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT" you can look it up yourself on the Sec. State's website. Class solidarity with a guy who moved directly from undergraduate school to living in a $3 million Nob Hill apartment is, as the online socialists love to say in that incredibly irritating way, "a bad look". Edited to add: I will be disengaging from this thread because it's so bizarre that I, advancing a Marxist materialist analysis, am being accused of aligning with fascists, while you, licking the boots of a millionaire who owns a REIT, cast yourself as a socialist. I will actually lose my mind.
  - abalone 2y ago
    This is Q-anon level conspiracy rambling. Preston has a long career as a tenants right attorney directly opposing the interests of landlords. He is landlord enemy number one. He wrote and passed a tax on the real estate industry to the tune of $350M along with several laws protecting rent control and tenants from eviction. The idea that he's secretly a landlord and that socialists are in the pocket of the real estate industry is a desperate (though well-funded) Big Lie. But you've made the larger point of the article: The oligarchy that funds the YIMBY movement uses it as a political tool to slander and fight anti-oligarchy activists. Just moments after pointing to seemingly neutral, technical legislation on the minutiae of zoning reform, you descended into crazed mudslinging against tenants rights advocates and socialists. Addendum: I looked up Red Bridge Strategies and find no evidence they have opposed affordable housing developments. What I do see them supporting:[1] * Yes on H! Rent Control for Pasadena * Yes on M! Empty Homes Tax * Tax on $10M Real Estate Sales to Fund Social Housing * Gross Receipts Tax on Large Corps to Fund Homeless Services and so on. These are all genuinely progressive/socialist positions consistent with promoting working class affordable housing and opposing landlords. It seems like you've just been taken by this well-funded right wing disinformation campaign. I hope you can see the larger point of the article that this is indeed a coordinated political strategy designed to radicalize people like you (and tech industry professionals generally) into fighting to defend the oligarchy and undermine the kind of populist progressive movement we see Bernie/AOC trying to start up again lately, and that folks like Preston genuinely were a part of. [1] https://www.redbridgewins.com/work https://www.redbridgewins.com/work
    - hedora 2y ago
      None of the things you mention support building more housing. A few look like they might, but don’t: Increasing taxes on expensive real estate just pushes demand down the chain, reducing supply for all. If empty houses are actually a problem, fix the root cause. I can think of two reasons a house would go empty: Speculation (betting there will not be enough houses built), or planning departments that prevent the house from being repaired. Making it easy to build houses solves both those problems. If you attack landlords, who do you expect to build and maintain rental housing? The affordable housing requirements are similar nonsense: Say you have some cash to invest. If you put it into building housing, the government will require you to sell the houses at a loss. Are you really going to build houses, and not invest it in something that can at least break even? The yimby folks in CA are useful idiots that serve people that want housing prices to stay up. If you don’t believe this, go take an introductory micro and macroeconomics course.

abalone 2y ago

That is a low quality and highly inaccurate comment that doesn’t really belong on HN, but just briefly: - The real estate lobby funds CA YIMBY and YIMBY candidates, not socialists. - Dean Preston was a major tenants rights attorney who authored key legislation protecting tenants from evictions, not a landlord.

jeffbee 2y ago
See, you're a very poorly-informed person. Dean Preston's SF manse and his two gigantic North Bay estates are owned by the Goosby Family Trust, his wife's legacy real estate empire. The avowed purpose of Goosby Family LLC is "REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT" you can look it up yourself on the Sec. State's website. Class solidarity with a guy who moved directly from undergraduate school to living in a $3 million Nob Hill apartment is, as the online socialists love to say in that incredibly irritating way, "a bad look". Edited to add: I will be disengaging from this thread because it's so bizarre that I, advancing a Marxist materialist analysis, am being accused of aligning with fascists, while you, licking the boots of a millionaire who owns a REIT, cast yourself as a socialist. I will actually lose my mind.
- abalone 2y ago
  This is Q-anon level conspiracy rambling. Preston has a long career as a tenants right attorney directly opposing the interests of landlords. He is landlord enemy number one. He wrote and passed a tax on the real estate industry to the tune of $350M along with several laws protecting rent control and tenants from eviction. The idea that he's secretly a landlord and that socialists are in the pocket of the real estate industry is a desperate (though well-funded) Big Lie. But you've made the larger point of the article: The oligarchy that funds the YIMBY movement uses it as a political tool to slander and fight anti-oligarchy activists. Just moments after pointing to seemingly neutral, technical legislation on the minutiae of zoning reform, you descended into crazed mudslinging against tenants rights advocates and socialists. Addendum: I looked up Red Bridge Strategies and find no evidence they have opposed affordable housing developments. What I do see them supporting:[1] * Yes on H! Rent Control for Pasadena * Yes on M! Empty Homes Tax * Tax on $10M Real Estate Sales to Fund Social Housing * Gross Receipts Tax on Large Corps to Fund Homeless Services and so on. These are all genuinely progressive/socialist positions consistent with promoting working class affordable housing and opposing landlords. It seems like you've just been taken by this well-funded right wing disinformation campaign. I hope you can see the larger point of the article that this is indeed a coordinated political strategy designed to radicalize people like you (and tech industry professionals generally) into fighting to defend the oligarchy and undermine the kind of populist progressive movement we see Bernie/AOC trying to start up again lately, and that folks like Preston genuinely were a part of. [1] https://www.redbridgewins.com/work https://www.redbridgewins.com/work
  - hedora 2y ago
    None of the things you mention support building more housing. A few look like they might, but don’t: Increasing taxes on expensive real estate just pushes demand down the chain, reducing supply for all. If empty houses are actually a problem, fix the root cause. I can think of two reasons a house would go empty: Speculation (betting there will not be enough houses built), or planning departments that prevent the house from being repaired. Making it easy to build houses solves both those problems. If you attack landlords, who do you expect to build and maintain rental housing? The affordable housing requirements are similar nonsense: Say you have some cash to invest. If you put it into building housing, the government will require you to sell the houses at a loss. Are you really going to build houses, and not invest it in something that can at least break even? The yimby folks in CA are useful idiots that serve people that want housing prices to stay up. If you don’t believe this, go take an introductory micro and macroeconomics course.