kevinburke

5 ms·

31.
by kevinburke 2y ago
Yes, the fact that PG&E rejected the offer is why I adjusted the figure for Walnut Creek's population and then increased it by 50%. The fact is muni borrowing is cheap - even if PG&E charged $1 billion we could finance that for
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by kevinburke 2y ago
All utilities have usage based costs and large fixed costs. Historically, all utilities have charged solely on usage. The problem is when you have solar, or solar + battery, your usage goes way down. Unfortunately the grid still needs to be
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by kevinburke 2y ago
PG&E already went bankrupt recently, and taking over the whole state wouldn't really help very much. The problem is largely liability rules that make it very expensive to provide power to wildfire zones and rural areas. PG&E an
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Cities can cost effectively start their own utilities(kevin.burke.dev)
420 points by kevinburke 2y ago|396 comments
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Why it's hard for your laptop to switch from one router to another(meter.com)
2 points by kevinburke 3y ago|0 comments
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by kevinburke 3y ago
I mean, cleaning up the streets gets a lot easier when there isn't as much homelessness, reducing homelessness only happens when you add more homes and reduce overcrowding. In addition, new homes pay 2024 market rate property taxes, wh
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by kevinburke 3y ago
There are very few places in the USA that have the density of Berkeley and lots of places that have much lower densities. People who don't want density have plenty of options they can move to; the problem is the misanthropes who want t
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by kevinburke 3y ago
In reality rents in Berkeley have been falling for several years because the city has added a lot more new housing over the past few years. https://twitter.com/Jeffinatorator/status/173039356154234085... Congestio
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QR code generator for your WiFi, anyone can scan to join(wificard.meter.com)
2 points by kevinburke 3y ago|4 comments
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by kevinburke 4y ago
I'd like people with substance problems to get help for their problems, and I'd like for everyone in the richest country in the world to be able to sleep with a roof over their head, instead of in the cold and rain.
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by kevinburke 4y ago
You can read our letter about the Caldecott site - it's in a fire zone, there are no amenities, utilities would likely need to be pulled across the freeway and active BART line. Near the freeway and in walking distance of downtown is
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by kevinburke 4y ago
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/us/homeless-population.ht...
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by kevinburke 4y ago
Imagine if there was a law that only permitted the construction of cars that cost over $100,000 per year, and then think about the effects of that on used car prices
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by kevinburke 4y ago
It takes about a year to get permits in most cities in the best of cases, and we're in uncharted waters here, legally, so I would not expect anything to break ground for years.
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by kevinburke 4y ago
If the Governor is wildly successful your town's housing supply will grow by about 2% per year. That is not enough to do a gerrymander and it's not going to change your "suburban lifestyle." It will let more people affor
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by kevinburke 4y ago
People are looking for any scapegoat for the problems in their community so they don't have to look in the mirror. This is the same reason why there's a persistent myth that homeless are bused in from other states or whatever (whe
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by kevinburke 4y ago
The provision for "access to sunlight" is a code requirement that every bedroom needs to have a window. If you are concerned about access on your property, you can purchase a height easement from your neighbors.
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by kevinburke 4y ago
San Francisco is a good case study in what happens when you don't build enough housing - people who were previously able to afford cheap apartments now can't and do all of their business out in the street. Other cities and states
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by kevinburke 4y ago
There's no case law around it but there will be soon.
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by kevinburke 4y ago
This attitude has led to pretty much everyone I grew up with not being able to afford to live anywhere near where they grew up (or their parents), as well as rising homelessness, declining school population, and an inability to hire teacher
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by kevinburke 4y ago
The 20% affordable component of Builder's Remedy means you need to propose at least 5 homes so one of them can be affordable. That said, a "missing middle" program is a really helpful thing to help cities get their Housing El
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by kevinburke 4y ago
It won't make economic sense to try a builder's remedy project in lower land value jurisdictions, especially when you consider the legal headache. This is why we saw so many in Santa Monica and few in, say, the Inland Empire.
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by kevinburke 4y ago
This is actually the compromise position - California proposed SB 50, which would have unilaterally set density standards near transit and permitted fourplexes in single family zones. Cities fiercely opposed this. So instead we have this du
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by kevinburke 4y ago
Seems neat, but why is this better than Hadoop?
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by kevinburke 4y ago
In this scenario I’m making up lies about a person who died last month.
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by kevinburke 4y ago
Berkeley has basically the same population as it did in 1950. It is home to the best public university in the state, which outdates any residents by a century. Students and low income workers sleep in cars, in tents near Highway 80 or commu
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by kevinburke 4y ago
"Losing its character" is not a climate impact.
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by kevinburke 4y ago
He was rude to legislators on constituent calls in a way that made them not want to support the bills that he was supposed to be advocating for. Fortunately, since those bills would not have helped reduce climate change, this was probably a
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by kevinburke 4y ago
> speaking the truth about the climate emergency and treating it as an actual emergency. Unfortunately this advocacy frequently took unproductive directions, being abusive to elected officials and staff at the local and state levels,[1]
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by kevinburke 5y ago
Historically cities throughout the state have added new density in their lowest income, most polluted neighborhoods, with the worst schools. In San Francisco for example big developments are planned for Treasure Island and Candlestick Point

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