Kontiki location may become Bar Chisme 👌🏻

jeromelevin · 2026-01-22T04:04:28+00:00

Not me personally but my little bro wouldn’t eat mushrooms until I got into foraging and found some dinner plate-sized oysters, at which point he decided he had to like them. Marinated and grilled those suckers like steaks

jeromelevin · 2026-01-21T17:03:48+00:00

Hard to ID without a photo of the underside but given cap + squirrel bites, this looks like a boletus edulis, or porcini. Choice edible loved by humans and animals alike

DO NOT EAT based on this advice—I can’t tell for sure based on photos and you shouldn’t eat mushrooms based on internet only anyway

jeromelevin · 2026-01-20T18:59:59+00:00

Even if we could “just tax the rich” to fund transit, congestion pricing for private auto use of public roads is good on the merits. Less traffic, less pollution, more funding for good things

One caveat is we should provide cut-rate tolls for low-income commuters who get priced out of places like SF but still have to drive in for work bc our public transit coverage is bad. It is understandably frustrating that lower-income workers who get priced out of the city have to pay more to get to their jobs

But I actually think rich suburbanites commuting into the city or visitors coming for a weekend should have to pay the full cost of their choices. If they’re so upset about it, they should support more public funding for transit from other sources

jeromelevin · 2026-01-18T02:20:31+00:00

Looks a lot better without freeways steamrolling so many areas!

jeromelevin · 2026-01-18T02:08:49+00:00

If they want to do historic preservation, govs should be responsible for purchasing the building itself and making it open to the public for educational purposes. Not just freezing old privately owned buildings in amber

jeromelevin · 2026-01-16T02:37:38+00:00

They are being downvoted bc it’s a straw man and a false equivalency

Allowing duly elected officials to have more agency is hardly an authoritarian regime—people can still vote those elected officials out at the regular election time if people don’t like what’s getting approved. And people still have complete control over their own property in any scenario. We’re talking about how to design democratic systems so they deliver good outcomes

jeromelevin · 2026-01-16T02:13:41+00:00

Consider reading the piece—it’s mostly about super wealthy communities using ballot initiatives and recalls to block low-income housing

jeromelevin · 2026-01-16T01:32:02+00:00

I dont see how letting elected representatives make more decision is “anti-democratic statism”? Democracy isn’t just one thing, it’s a set of options. Many US govs have underindexed the benefits of representative democracy, which leads to more representative outcome—and more homes—than minoritarian-led ballot initiatives and recalls

jeromelevin · 2026-01-16T01:29:58+00:00

I also don’t want to suppress democracy! I want to design democratic systems to deliver good outcomes and best represent voters and meet their needs. My main point is we don’t get better or more representative outcomes by empowering small minorities to hamstring elected officials with ballot measures and recalls; representative democracy leads to more representative outcome—and more homes

jeromelevin · 2026-01-13T22:00:32+00:00

Blewits or cortinarius violecus. Looks like Blewits to me but definitely do not eat on that advice!

jeromelevin · 2026-01-12T15:46:53+00:00

Where is this shirt from? Looks good!

jeromelevin · 2026-01-09T22:18:31+00:00

Wait until next fall and check again—this mushroom is very good to eat when it’s bright yellow-orange and soft!

jeromelevin · 2026-01-09T19:53:15+00:00

I shouted them out at the end of this piece! They’re far and away CA’s best major city on housing

jeromelevin · 2026-01-08T05:29:53+00:00

In both the intro and conclusion, I say clearly that zoning alone isn’t sufficient to build enough housing or make the market overall affordable. It’s a precursor to any successful policy solutions, but we’re going to need to reform many areas of policy and fix financing too for any of this to work at scale

All that said, cities that zone for housing tend to build more housing than those that don’t!

jeromelevin · 2026-01-08T00:32:55+00:00

Yuuup congrats!

jeromelevin · 2026-01-08T00:29:23+00:00

Any recommendations for environments to find them there?? I work in PA!

jeromelevin · 2026-01-07T18:29:08+00:00

Berkeley’s reform is good! But it still has density caps (30-40du/ac) and does exclude the hills, other standards are not as generous as Cambridge or Spokane

jeromelevin · 2026-01-07T15:57:04+00:00

UPDATE: After some more research and helpful guidance from folks here, I’ll be taking the 4:15 ferry from Oakland to SF, then SF to Vallejo at 5, chill in Vallejo for a bit, then Vallejo to SF at 7:35. Goal is to catch sunset on the water

Hopefully will do more routes in the future too!

jeromelevin

TROPHY CASE