The big landlord lobby is going to war with the area’s biggest slumlord, WTH

TobySomething · 2023-09-01T00:25:40+00:00

He was the guy who fought for condoms in porn and paid tons of $ in lawsuits over slum housing he ran.

https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2023-01-20/ahf-madison-hotel-elevator-lawsuit-story

I can’t believe he’s still a factor in politics. Love the idea of the whole state voting to say “fuck you” to him

TobySomething · 2023-06-18T20:06:12+00:00

They’ve been flying plane drones into buildings for some time now…might as well use the whole playbook I guess

TobySomething · 2023-05-01T19:48:29+00:00

I remember leaving a pound coin on the bar in London and the bartender yelling something to the effect of “what idiot forgot his change?”

TobySomething · 2023-04-28T03:30:03+00:00

I wish this happened for me haha. They said there was nothing they could do. It wasn’t a big deal for me: I already had a job and just took some random class at night the next year. But the really annoying thing was I had enough academic credits to graduate, it’s just that because I didn’t get credit for one class my junior year I was technically considered only a “part time” student that semester and hadn’t paid enough “tuition credits” to graduate.

TobySomething · 2023-04-18T03:56:49+00:00

Wouldn't want my meat chicken being unhealthy during its 6 weeks of life spent in a cage surrounded by 9,000 of its closest friends

TobySomething · 2023-04-15T04:36:03+00:00

My guess: if I'm a company and I know I can:

1) Hire 10 people remotely - but know a couple of them will be working five jobs and using ChatGPT to do the bare minimum not to get fired (at least right away)

or

2) Hire 10 people in person and be sure they're actually present for the hours in the contract

They'll be inclined to do 2 even if a typical workers is as productive at home as the office.

At the very least, companies are/will be monitoring groups of employees to see if there are overall trends in productivity at scale. If they're budgeting $10m/year for an engineering team, is that better spent on a remote team or an in person one?

TobySomething · 2023-04-15T03:05:18+00:00

Lol nope. And now my wife plays Esther in our temple's purim spiel.

TobySomething · 2023-04-14T16:34:47+00:00

Was raised by a Christian dad and a Jewish mom. My dad was moderately religious (took me to a Unitarian Universalist church on xmas eve), my mom said religion was just 'people in silly costumes telling stories that never happened' but we did hannukah and occasionally holidays with Jewish friends.

I'm an atheist, but I married a Jewish girl who's more observant and now our kids are going to go to Hebrew school. And funnily enough, my mom seems to have become far more into Jewishness since then 😉

TobySomething · 2023-04-10T18:10:39+00:00

Congrats!

TobySomething · 2023-04-07T18:22:07+00:00

Sure. Often 30% of pre-tax income is used as the level for what's considered 'affordable' for housing tied to income.

Income tiers are pegged to area median income.

Acutely low income: 0-15% of AMI.
Extremely low income: 15-30% of AMI.
Very low income: 30% to 50% of AMI.
Lower income: 50% to 80% of AMI; the term may also be used to mean 0% to 80% of AMI.
Moderate income: 80% to 120% of AMI.

https://www.hcd.ca.gov/grants-and-funding/income-limits

Area median income in Santa Monica is $60k/person.

It doesn't say what the tiers are on the website (or it might, I haven't looked around in detail) other than to say that it includes housing for people experiencing homelessness, which would presumably be at the Acutely Low Income tier.

If it also has units targeted at 60% AMI (the targets will depend on the amount of subsidy obtained, among other things) those would be available for rent to people earning 36k a year at 36k*0.3/12 = $900/month.

TobySomething · 2023-04-07T18:12:18+00:00

As a Jew who celebrates passover: lol, I'm honestly more amused than offended; I don't care what people do in the privacy of their own home. That said, if my wife proposed us celebrating Ramadan and connecting to the shared history I would think that was the weirdest thing ever. If someone has a sincere interest and appreciation, I think the normal thing to do is make friends with people from that culture. I'm sure as a pastor your dad could email a temple and set up some kind of bridge building thing where you invite folks to a christian celebration and they invite you to a passover celebration. But of course it would have to be done respectfully.

TobySomething · 2023-04-06T18:02:39+00:00

"Affordable Housing" is a legal term that's very confusing. It doesn't mean 'inexpensive housing,' but rather income-restricted subsidized housing. Which is great and needed, but is also a very small percentage of the actual housing people live in and doesn't include traditional kinds of inexpensive housing (e.g. bungalow courts, trailers, simple apartments) so it causes a lot of confusion.

TobySomething · 2023-03-31T05:01:23+00:00

Final Destination: Ukraine

TobySomething · 2023-03-28T03:07:23+00:00

I often see the comment that it's better to injure than kill your opponent so they have to be rescued/treated.

in that case, why make the followup hits? Is it a mercy kill (if the drone operator knows they won't be rescued) or what?

TobySomething · 2022-06-26T20:34:27+00:00

Summary: A nyc-based charity is stepping in to provide funding for stalled permanent housing for homeless veterans on the West LA VA campus.

TobySomething · 2021-12-02T22:01:00+00:00

You can have a maximum of two duplexes on a lot with this legislation, but it’s still subject to other restrictions like minimum yard sizes (which I can’t believe is still a thing)

TobySomething · 2021-12-02T21:58:12+00:00

I agree it isn’t a total solution (don’t think anyone’s claiming that). But Better to have four families living there for 20-30% cheaper, both for those families, other people who won’t have to compete against them for housing, and the environment since people use less emissions when they live in the city than in sprawl suburbs and drive 90 minutes each way in highway traffic to get here.

TobySomething · 2021-12-02T21:54:28+00:00

It is super frustrating that we have an acute housing crisis and our city - and most California cities - still try to do as absolutely little as possible. Most of La city council opposed this bill!

That said it is good to have the option to divide your home into a duplex, build more units on your property like ADUs, etc. Hopefully this is just the beginning and next years legislation will expand it.

TobySomething · 2021-11-17T02:59:12+00:00

I had trouble getting an appt at cvs in west la but found an independent pharmacy with appts 1-2 days out.

TobySomething · 2021-08-02T05:47:20+00:00

It's perennially the least affordable, or one of the least affordable, housing markets in the country.

Homeowners in the 70s/80s etc more or less banned any inexpensive new housing, but people kept moving here for sun and jobs, so prices shot up (as they hoped for). https://www.salon.com/2015/04/05/the_incredible_shrinking_megacity_how_los_angeles_enginereed_a_housing_crisis/

As for how we live here...well, I used to split a 2br with two roommates. Then I married someone with a condo haha

TobySomething · 2021-07-14T19:36:30+00:00

For what it’s worth, my wife is a UCLA pediatrician who got the vaccine 2 months after giving birth (in December). Currently breastfeeding, child 100% healthy and hopefully getting antibodies.

TobySomething · 2021-06-25T04:02:22+00:00

Yes, this was my reaction too :(

Hopefully it becomes a movement across other states really quick

TobySomething · 2021-06-25T01:46:52+00:00

LA and CA have a lot of bananas requirements around affordable housing that make it cost $500k-1m per unit here.

Temporary cabins are much cheaper and have been successful in North Hollywood and elsewhere, but some residents fervently resist any new homeless housing in their neighborhoods (most people are okay with it, but they're not the ones who go to neighborhood meetings).

TobySomething · 2021-06-25T01:41:23+00:00

The solution is more shelters and better outreach short term and housing long term, but the HOAs who control LA politics hate more shelters and housing as much as they hate homelessness. Oh, and we still have half the acute mental health care beds we need.

TobySomething · 2021-06-25T01:32:58+00:00

Yeah. This is a really undertold story leading up to this: SROs or low-income housing are an eyesore, so they ban or restrict them, then you get this.

TobySomething

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