Anne Paulson

@annepaulson.bsky.social

1370 Followers 658 Following

YIMBY, cyclist was Krampus Snail on the old site, still a snail when I ride my Krampus

Is anyone else frustrated with the constant parking tickets in our neighborhood? The City of San Jose keeps handing out citations, but there simply aren't enough places to park, especially here in our highly condensed apartment living area. Instead of protecting citizens and ensuring we have a safe place to live, it feels like price gouging and abuse. We pay to live here, and we shouldn't be penalized daily just for trying to park near our own homes. Has anyone else had success contesting these tickets, or are there neighborhood groups already pushing the city for better parking solutions?
Six story condo building proposed as Builder's Remedy project. We see a small light gray six story building, with balconies on the front and a roof deck. The big windows don't line up vertically: alternate floors have very wide, medium, narrow windows or medium, wide, medium windows.
Property tax map of a little bit of Los Altos Hills, with property tax values from 2023 or 2024, something like that. One house paid $2800. Across the street the neighbor paid $140,800 (not a typo).
Comments on a NextDoor posting about an approval of a 7 story project in Palo Alto. Mark Dinan writes: 7 stories is a good start but 14 or 21 would be a lot better. A NIMBY from San Mateo (name blacked out) writes: watch out for the pro postings in favor of this massive development because 90% of them are from so-called "paid influencers" who do not live in the Bay Area and are most likely offshore somewhere in Asia (most likely China or India). I blandly reply to NIMBY guy: I'm pretty sure Mark Dinan lives in East Palo Alto, because he's on the EPA City Council.
My face, after a crash. Bruise above eyebrow with sharp line where helmet ended. Nasty scrape and bruising on chin, where there was no protection. Black eye where sunglasses broke. Nothing too serious, all will heal.
Blurb for Sarah Strochak, the guest on the recommended UCLA Housing Voice podcast about how to enable more housing voucher recipients to end up using the vouchers Sarah Strochak Sarah Strochak is a PhD candidate at NYU Wagner and a doctoral fellow at the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Her research focuses on identifying how the design and administration of public programs can help participants in finding and sustaining safe and affordable housing. Her current work examines the Housing Choice Voucher program, using novel administrative data to measure program take-up, evaluate programmatic changes, and study outcomes for tenants. Prior to coming to Wagner, Sarah worked as a research analyst in the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute, and as a research fellow at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley.
From a Psychology Today article explaining alcoholic blackout: People pass out when they have had so much to drink that it is like going under anesthesia. Consciousness lapses and people become comatose, unable to be aroused. Blackouts, on the other hand, have no objective signs of their presence and no alteration in the level of consciousness. During a blackout, people can carry on conversations and complete complex tasks. I once interviewed a surgeon who had successfully removed a patient’s appendix while in a blackout.
Screencap from HCD's Housing Element Implementation and APR Dashboard, the Key Figures tab, with San Jose selected as the city and the years 2023 and 2024 selected. The year 2025 is not available to be selected, because the data isn't available yet in this visualization. HCD shows 1469 Above Moderate Income units permitted in San Jose in 2023 and 2024. There are a lot of other numbers that I'm not going to type.
We do not want to lose the benefits of our accessible public parking or our heritage tree canopy, both of which define the village character of our town.
Nextdoor post from M, name blacked out. Anne [that's me] actually our village [Los Altos is a suburb of 30,000 people, not a village] does include beautiful tree covered surface parking.
Map of the Marina district in San Francisco. Text helpfully indicates where people should dump their cars: in the Bay.
3. Modulation of building mass, scale, and bulk. Large building masses and volumes greater than 100’ shall be reduced in scale and bulk by varying architectural form. By creating variations in roof form, cornice, and roofline, treatment of corners and interruption of facade lengths, large building masses can be reduced to increase compatibility with the context of the district. Buildings greater than 100’ in length shall be broken up with multiple bays at a minimum of every 75’. Where windows are not possible or appropriate to the intended use, vertical articulation in the form of raised or recessed surfaces, piers, columns, pilasters, etc. must be used to break up blank walls. Building design elements, details and massing shall create a well-proportioned and unified building form and exhibit an overall architectural concept. Buildings shall exhibit form and features that reflect the functions within the building. Spacing and width of bays shall provide intervals that create scale elements similar to surrounding buildings.
2.Vertical Articulation.a.When a building façade exceeds seventy-five (75) feet in length along a right-of-way, it must be separated into primary façade bays no greater than fifty (50) feet and secondary façade bays defined by a recess a minimum three feet deep and ten (10) feet wide.b.The building shall include at least one ground-floor entrance every twenty-five (25) feet.c.The eave/roof of a secondary façade bay shall be no higher than the corresponding elements of the primary façade bay.
Postcard from people who want to keep two free downtown parking lots instead of turning them into a park: Take a stand for public land Keep downtown parking plazas open, beautiful and thriving for residents and businesses. FORLOSALTOS. Your voice today, your vote tomorrow
Five gas masks available from Amazon. Cheapest is $21, most expensive $119.
From the paper: What are the effects of IZ ordinances on local housing markets? Using a housing policy simulator, Phillips (2024) finds that poorly calibrated IZ policies could be associated with lower housing production. He argues that too high an IZ requirement, moreover, can undermine the goal of producing housing for families with low incomes, because it may inhibit market-rate construction. IZ requirements might reduce land value proportional to the cost of providing affordable housing, but there is inadequate evidence to demonstrate that connection. Others have studied the effects of actual IZ policies. Scheutz, Meltzer, and Been (2011) find that in Boston, IZ corresponds with larger increases in housing prices during hot housing market periods but decreased prices during soft-market periods. They do not find any effects in San Francisco. Hamilton (2021), meanwhile, studies the effects of IZ in the Baltimore–Washington region and finds that IZ increases market-rate prices but does not change the supply of new housing. Bento and coauthors’ (2009) study of IZ in California similarly finds that IZ causes market-rate prices to increase but does not cause changes in new construction
NHL Pacific Division standings, showing Golden Knights (booo) first, Bubbling Crude second, Kraken third, Sharks fourth. Sharks have the same number of games played and two more points than the Kraken. Correct me I'm wrong, but I thought if two teams have played the same number of games, the first tiebreaker is number of points earned.
A snippet from NextDoor: Me: Parking spaces are not essential. We know that, because lots of households get along just fine without any parking spaces. In Santa Clara County about 10% of rental households have no car. In contrast, 0% of rental households don't use water. Requiring everyone to pay for parking, even though some people don't want it, is like requiring an extra bedroom. Studio apartments should be available, even though most people don't want them, and parking-free apartments should be available, even though most people don't want them. Let the market decide. Let people have lower-cost parking-free apartments if they want them. Rich jurisdictions requiring parking is just another trick to keep out "those people," and we shouldn't stand for it. Driving is not a necessity of life. I don't drive, and I am alive. Car-brain man: Some people would say the same about heating, air conditioning, etc. But those things are now more and more considered essential, and are increasingly required by law for rental units. Parking should be considered a basic human right in a community designed entirely around cars.
5.The Record Contains Evidentiary Support for the Land Acquisition Costs for the City’s Park Fee The Nexus Study concluded that the City needs 3.04 acres of new parkland to accommodate future population growth and that it would cost an estimated $36,935,597 to purchase that land. (AR033, 034.) The Nexus Study states that “[t]he cost of land is based on the 3.04 acres need on a fair market value of $12.1 million per acre of land.” (AR034.) The Nexus Study provides attribution for the $12.1-million figure, stating it was “based upon the city’s most recent estimation in 2020 with an annual inflationary factor applied.”
Market land costs were established based on 2025 listings and sales activity for 1+-acre vacant building lots in Los Altos Hills. This included current listings and past and pending sales. The prices of vacant building lots ranged between $1.25 million and $6.5 million per lot with an average of $999,000 per acre. Based on these current listings, a target RLV of $1 million per acre was used as a benchmark to indicate market feasibility of the sites/scenarios relative to the market value for land. ITEM 6A ATTACHMENT 3
Prefab module being craned into an apartment building. We see two floors of a building shrouded in scaffolding, which extends up one floor, and a storage-crate-sized module hanging off a crane far above. It was lifted off a truck, and will fly into the back of this building. We can barely see the first module of this floor, back right, and this will be the second. This is 330 Distel, an all-affordable building in Los Altos CA.
"It should be noted that selecting and comparing vacant sites is the best way to determine and compare relevant land costs for future development. A developer is looking for land with development potential, ideally vacant land, not units that need to be removed. The existing homes could reduce the value to the developer due to demolition, removal and remediation costs, among others. Isolating the land eliminates the many and significant factors associated with the built improvements. There are many variables when comparing lots with single-family homes since they can represent a wide range of sizes, ages, amenities, improvements, values and suitability for continued use as homes. They could range from uninhabitable and effectively raw land to perfectly serviceable for 10 or more years. At typically three to four times the value of the land, a developer is not looking to pay for structures that are not part of the proposed development plan, revenue stream, or that are going to increase development costs." This is nuts. Other people participate in the real estate market, and lots of people would like to buy an old house in Los Altos Hills and live in it, if it were as cheap as Los Altos Hills claims for these properties. Which is why it isn't that cheap. These buffoons don't just get to pretend the houses aren't there because they wish they weren't there and it would be more convenient for their narrative.
City of Los Altos Resolution charging $106 psf for multi-family rental units, $115 psf for condos, $170 psf for townhouses.
Small Scale Rental Apartments: this prototype is a three-story multifamily building at a density of 36 units per acre. The prototype contains a mix of studio to three-bedroom apartments, with an average unit size of 955 square feet. Parking is a combination of surface and tuck-under parking with two spaces per unit.
Wave bike rack.
Another terrible wheel bender rack, set up flush to the curb so I can’t even use the end of it without putting my bike on a diagonal.
Three bikes in wheel bender rack, one at each end and one across the middle. Staples are the answer, folks.
Two e-bikes locked across “bike racks” that only hold the front wheel and offer no locking spot if used as designed. The rack is supposed to hold six bikes but only holds two, and badly.
Sorry, I'm bad at describing buildings. But this is an eight story building rendering, viewed from a corner. It's on the corner of two streets. It has a gray facade for the first three stories, and then alternating white and light brown vertical stripes for the rest. The facade is not flat—the corner we're looking at has a square column cut out of it, and there's another square column cutout on the right street front. The right street front also has a strange white vertical flange sticking out. There are black or dark brown balconies on the left street front (the busy street), but not on the right street front (the quiet street) for some reason.
Dear Mr. Sean Gallegos, [the planner] My working schedule won't allow me to attend the community meeting. I am writing this letter for my absence. My home is next to this project. I believe the height of this 3-story building will ruthlessly deprive me of many benefits and take off the rights that I have been having for living there. It will also badly impact my health condition directly for uncontrollable severe high blood pressure due to lack of adequate warm natural sunlight, especially in winters. Please consider all the following negative facts that will bring from this 3-story building 1) The morning sun shines throughout entire my property's east side wall as well as all my kitchen and bathroom windows on that side will be totally blocked. 2) My bedroom is facing southeast next to your proposed 3-story building. Winter daily warm sunlight can reach the entire room. I mainly rely on this natural warm power to keep the room and myself warm to control my severe blood pressure issue. But your project could block most of such natural resource. Can't you see that your building's future profits has my share? It is because your gain is built on top of my loss. Is that fair? [I slightly edited for typos; the writer is not a native speaker of English]
Another downside is the potential for crowd out: building social housing results in the private sector building fewer housing units. The benefits of new social units are offset, therefore, by the opportunity cost of social housing subsidies. Research in France suggests that each unit of social housing results in the private sector building nearly two fewer units, driven by social landlords building lower density projects than what private developers would have built in the same location (Chapelle, 2018).
Anne’s summary of Menlo Park RFP Project is on 4.83 acres Project should meet these guidelines: Minimum 345 units affordable to people in 15%-80% AMI (so the project is 71.42 du/acre just for that) 80% of property has to be housing, 40% of ALL the units have to be for 60% AMI or lower, and of those, half have to be for 50% AMI or lower 556 replacement parking spaces without any contribution from city City also would like: As much affordable housing as possible Mixed income development Diverse unit sizes including family sized units Special needs housing “Innovative parking management strategies” Publicly accessible open spaces Ground floor non-housing uses Innovative partnerships between affordable developers and market rate developers Fast timeline Minimize construction impact And a pony 55 year ground lease at a dollar a year
A Nextdoor poster from Moss Beach CA: I believe that Senator Weiner is a Democrat and is the master-mind of all the pro-development policies which have passed recently. I am not against affordable housing, but l AM practical, and I do NOT comprehend the policy of “cheaping out” on parking. If they actually built a building or project with the needed parking, it would not stress out the future residents or force a game of musical parking spots onto the surrounding area. “Get ‘em while they are warm”! I am saying this as a person who lived without a parking spot on Russian Hill for a decade, and got countless parking tickets and spent hours of my life (that l can never get back) looking for street parking. We even invited friends for dinner once, who got so annoyed when they could NOT find parking, that they stood us up, and drove all the way back home in frustration! I just think it’s a quality of life issue. Maybe in a Senior Complex, when many do not drive, but if you work, in reality, you will probably need to drive there to get there efficiently.
Post's diagram of White House and proposed changes, annotated. East Wing of White House circled, and labeled "Smashed to ground." Because despite this diagram of the East Wing of the White House still standing during and after the renovation, in fact it has been smashed to the ground already.
Cost Components and Assumptions In order to determine the annual cost associated with public art, the project team used information associated with the Public Art Fund's balance of costs available. The City has approximately a $889,900 fund balance available for Public Art for future projects. In-Lieu Fee Calculations The Public Art Development fee is calculated as a percentage of project valuation for new development. The project team used the City's actual FY23 valuation, as the base for calculating the in-lieu fee. The total annual cost calculated was divided by the valuation, resulting in a percentage, the following table shows this calculation for valuation: Table 22: In-Lieu Fee Calculation - Non-Residential Commercial Projects Cost Components Annual Cost Total Valuation % of Valuation Amount $889,900 §92274.751 1% The 1% represents the maximum justifiable fee the City can charge. [Sorry, the formatting of the table is messed up, but there is no formatting and no table that would make this make sense.
Picture of white people holding up signs saying "Support sensible housing." Caption says "Keep out the poors."
Hôtel de Sens park in Paris, with three, five and six story buildings surrounding it. The little, sunken park has benches around the edges and flowerbeds in the center. It's a green oasis in the heart of the city.
Car carrier illegally parked in El Camino bike lane. Cyclist veering into car lane to pass it.
Little urban park surrounded by midrise housing. This is two blocks from a metro stop.
Bike alongside shark sculpture, taking up half the length. Another bike would fit on the same side, and then two on the opposite side. So this is a “bike rack” that’s maybe fifteen feet long and fits four bikes.
Left: trying to stick handlebars under the bar, but they’re too wide and too tall. Right: saddle doesn’t squeeze in either.
Fish sculpture under a tree in a park.
If the County persists in its unlawful conduct, it will face a lawsuit, in which it will bear the burden of proof. (Gov. Code, §§ 65589.5, subd. (h)(6)(F)(iv); 65589.6.) The County will lose that lawsuit and will have to pay the project applicant (and, potentially, CalHDF, which regularly brings and wins HAA lawsuits) hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars for its intransigence. And in the end, the Court will order the County to approve the projects.
First story plan for three story building on a corner. Front of building has a residential lobby on the left with stairway and elevator, small retail space on the right on the corner. Side street has parking entrance, to a 16-stall parking area, and second entrance to stairway to upper stories. This is a building with only one elevator. Text boxes in red say "Only one elevator" with arrow pointing to the single elevator, "Req'd first floor retail" with arrow pointing to the retail space, "So much parking" in the parking area with 16 stalls. Eight of the stalls are marked "EVR" (something about electric vehicles) and another four are marked "EVC" (electric vehicle charger I guess).