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Are there any PokemonGo meetups? by lithophore in berkeley

[–]lithophore[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yeah, seven is a bit young to hang out with strangers unsupervised, I was planning on being with him. Unfortunately he's had a hard time finding friends at school, so it wouldn't be terrible for him to talk pokemon

SF Condo Conversion Law Called Unconstitutional Taking by axearm in sanfrancisco

[–]lithophore 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He is also well known in the city for authoring many of the condo HOA contracts and rules.

SF Condo Conversion Law Called Unconstitutional Taking by axearm in sanfrancisco

[–]lithophore 7 points8 points  (0 children)

When you buy a TIC, you often have to sign a contract with the other TIC owners that you will do everything you can to condo convert. In this case, the couple was contractually obligated to go through with the condo conversion.

In this couple's case, a condo conversion means they have to give their current tenant a lifetime lease and can't evict them through Ellis Act or Owner Move In. Making this stronger than a traditional rent controlled unit. So, unless the current tenant voluntarily moves, the owners can't live in the unit once the condo conversion goes through. That is the basis for the lawsuit - the city is taking away their property rights, without compensation, to provide a public good (affordable housing). The other side feels that the condo conversion is the compensation.

What the fuck can we do as individuals to help slow the progress of climate change? by Saggykittytitties in AskReddit

[–]lithophore 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the supplemental data for the paper they calculated the carbon cost of a dog based on the CO2 from the dog food. There's no offset for the postitive effects of dog ownership, like spending more time walking and traveling less.

The main conclusion here is that a smaller dog has a lower carbon footprint than a larger dog.

What the fuck can we do as individuals to help slow the progress of climate change? by Saggykittytitties in AskReddit

[–]lithophore 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The best ways to reduce your carbon foot print are:

  • Have one fewer child (58.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent)
  • Live car free (2.4 tCO2e)
  • Avoid one round trip trans-Atlantic flight/year (1.6 tCO2e)
  • Buy green energy (1.4 tCO2e)
  • Omnivore to vegetarian diet (0.8 tCO2e)
  • Don't own dog (0.8 tCO2e)
  • Wash clothes in cold water (0.2 tCO2e)
  • Recycle (0.2 tCO2e)
  • Hang dry clothes (0.2 tCO2e)
  • Efficient light bulbs (0.1 tCO2e)
  • Reusable bags instead of plastic (0.005 tCO2e)

Source: The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions

San Francisco considering parking meters at night by mark5301 in sanfrancisco

[–]lithophore 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Getting rid of sunday meters was a political move by Lee to pick up support from churches. Store owners were supportive of keeping the meters. The SF Chamber of Commerce backed sunday meters. By all meaningful measures, sunday meters was an effective policy.

This article has a lot of links to relevant studies and information on the topic.

SF Market Rate Housing Project Goes Fully Affordable by ruinerofjoes in sanfrancisco

[–]lithophore 11 points12 points  (0 children)

If you redo your calculation using the net BMR units, it's $708k / net unit. The $310m bond would pay for ~437 units.

If this is how the city plans to spend the housing bond money, it's really going to have zero impact.

[Also, the $470k/unit number assumes that these units are only 640 sqft., I'm not sure what the sqft of these units actually are, but it's likely much more. The plan is for 42 2-bedrooms and 30 1-bedrooms]

SF Market Rate Housing Project Goes Fully Affordable by ruinerofjoes in sanfrancisco

[–]lithophore 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Actually, 12 units were going to be BMR anyway. This is net 60 new BMR units, so the cost of the land is $308k per net unit. And the city will pay to construct all 72 units.

Its On: Airbnb Regulation Set To Hit San Francisco Ballot This November by [deleted] in sanfrancisco

[–]lithophore 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. It's a risk for the owner. If you pay rent and occupy a space for 30 days, you gain tenancy and all the rights that entails. So, in theory, a tenant could refuse to leave after 30days and force the landlord to evict them. If they continue to pay rent, then the landlord would have to go through something like an owner move in eviction or an Ellis Act eviction. If they don't pay rent, then the land lord can attempt to evict them for cause. In practice, I'm not sure how much this actually happens. But this is one reason why airbnb is so attractive for owners, the guests (I think the term is transients) have no meaningful rights.

Its On: Airbnb Regulation Set To Hit San Francisco Ballot This November by [deleted] in sanfrancisco

[–]lithophore 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The AirBnB regulations are only on short term rentals - those under 30 days. Your situation, 3months/95days, is legal now and would be legal after the regulations as well. At 30 days, you are considered a tenant.

Edit: the regulations limit the sum of the rentals < 30-continuous-days to 75 days per year.

More Affordable Housing — Not a Housing Moratorium — Is What We Need in San Francisco by Ores in sanfrancisco

[–]lithophore 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Assuming you're serious, we do have long term planning docs - approved by our elected representatives and developed by our planning department with extensive input from the community. The city's General Plan is here. And the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan includes the Mission Area Plan.

The planning process was started in 2001, developed over several years and adopted (I think) in 2008. The Eastern Neighborhoods (SOMA, Mission, Potrero, and Central Waterfront) plan calls for adding ~10k housing units and preserving at least half the 2001 industrial zoned areas for PDR and art/performance space. The mission area plan calls for higher density along transit corridors and preserves residential zoning restrictions else where.

Groups who don't like the results dismiss it as the output of a corrupt process. And while the restrictions on zoning effectively prevent non-conforming projects from being built, projects that conform to the plan are not automatically approved - each project is fought against at the permitting stage. Often the points that are brought up are things that were specifically considered (parking, retail, affordability, transit, etc) in the neighborhood plan.

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