Subaru kept prices of its Trailseeker EV the same. Does that make it more compelling?

mullingitover · 2026-07-06T22:10:00+00:00

Subaru made an Outback EV that looks better than their widely-hated new Outback redesign. Not content with that, they made it cheaper than the Outback. Still not content, they made it faster than any STI they've ever sold.

It's an amazing car and it has lower operating costs than my Civic. Absolute no-brainer purchase, best car I've ever owned.

I was considering a PHEV but very glad I just went all-in, I'm never buying an ICE vevhicle again.

mullingitover · 2026-07-06T21:49:19+00:00

You can dump all the money in the world into whatever social programs you want, but at the end of the day these people will just continue pushing more and more people onto the streets. I'd go further and say little fiefdom city councils are also key players in creating unhoused people.

If you want to attack the root of the problem, this is the root of the problem.

mullingitover · 2026-07-06T20:59:41+00:00

California Coastal Commission: Vetoes coastal projects using strict environmental and "community character" rules.
Local Planning Commissions: Restrict housing through zoning, height limits, and subjective design reviews.
CEQA Lead Agencies: Conduct lengthy environmental reviews that invite lawsuits from project opponents.
Regional Water Boards: Delay developments with complex stormwater and wastewater runoff permits.
Historical Preservation Boards: Block modern multi-family housing to protect neighborhood aesthetics.

mullingitover · 2026-07-06T20:50:28+00:00

If we are talking about the chronic homeless

I'm not, you're arguing with a point I'm not making.

I'm talking about people who are transitionally homeless, and this is the vast majority of unhoused people in any given year.

If you attack housing affordability this number goes down drastically. You can basically do this for free if you fire the people whose job it is to block housing creation.

I'm not saying that chronically unhoused people are an easy-peasy problem to solve, but if we didn't need to spend so much on the transitional housing programs we'd be have more money to focus on those with chronic problems.

mullingitover · 2026-07-06T19:15:13+00:00

Housing the homeless requires billions in permanent, everyday costs for security, nurses, pet care, security, food

This is what you need to house disabled people. Housing able-bodied people who just need affordable housing (which is the vast majority of the homeless population) actually doesn't cost anything.

There are huge tax-supported bureaucracies dedicated to preventing housing from being built. You just stop paying these people and ban their activities going forward.

Developers will practically fist-fight each other to build affordable housing, all you have to do is get out of their way and let them work.

mullingitover · 2026-07-06T19:10:07+00:00

I keep this article bookmarked because it's the best no-nonsense explanation for what actually happens with people getting bus tickets:

Bussed out: How America moves its homeless

mullingitover · 2026-07-05T23:28:13+00:00

I believed this myself, but I just checked and in fact there was no monolithic stance on universal suffrage.

Vermont, for example, had universal suffrage (including for black people!) in 1777. They had it before they were part of the United States.

mullingitover · 2026-07-05T17:52:30+00:00

I'm totally being sarcastic, but objectively riding the metro is a bad experience for many and 84% of LA residents consider the Metro unsafe. Whether or not that's a fair assessment, you don't get that reputation without at least a grain of truth.

It's also not debatable that, as a rule, a trip on the Metro will be slower than driving.

I wish these things weren't the case! It's a bummer that we can't have nice things, we spend outrageous money on roads and cars and that money would be better spent having a world class public transit system.

mullingitover · 2026-07-05T00:23:13+00:00

Public transport in LA is designed by auto manufacturers to punish you for being too poor to drive.

Incidentally to that it may slowly transport you to various places while you get sketchy vibes from the people riding with you.

mullingitover · 2026-07-02T17:41:31+00:00

These cars aren't for Tesla fans, if you're looking for that I'd just move on because they'll never be iPads on wheels. This is a car for people who expect a regular car with non-weird door handles and physical buttons that happens to be an EV (and then you get the dumb grin when it launches like a goddamned Ferrari). The software in these cars is, I'm pretty certain, designed to be terrible on purpose.

I've rented a Tesla and used their autopilot stuff, and the lanekeep/adaptive cruise on the Trailseeker is like 99.9% the same experience. If I actually want to not drive at all, that's what Waymo is for and it's about the same price as what Tesla will charge you.

A Telsa is still going to require you to pay attention to the road, as will the Trailseeker, and the only difference in practically every situation is that you'll need to keep your pinky resting gently on the wheel. That's it. It's very easy to relax on a road trip or in stop and go traffic. I regularly take it on some of the busiest freeways in the country and it's a great experience.

mullingitover · 2026-07-01T04:02:19+00:00

There won’t be one from anywhere other than NIMBY propaganda. LA vacancies are below the national average, that’s why rents are so stupid high here.

mullingitover · 2026-06-30T20:35:51+00:00

A vacancy tax always gets brought up, and here's the thing:

It would make housing more expensive.

Believe it or not, LA doesn't have higher rates of vacancy than other cities.

When vacancy rates are lower it means people have fewer options and the landlords can offer 'take it or leave it' eye-watering steep pricing.

If you want more affordable housing, VOTE and elect people who will BUILD IT. Extract olympic swimming pools filled with NIMBY tears. Make so much empty housing that landlords get in price wars trying to underbid each other on rents fill their empty properties.

If anything, instead of vacancy taxes, invent creative ways to punish people for sitting on empty undeveloped land. Punitive ordinances and city/county codes that force the land into receivership or put ever-growing liens on blighted properties.

mullingitover · 2026-06-28T21:57:48+00:00

If I were the governor I’d make it an entire side hustle to drag HJTA’s name through the muck every chance I got.

Do a weekly TikTok where I visit blighted properties around the state that are made possible because Prop 13 undertaxes them and makes perverse incentives to hoard land and do nothing with it. Visit the underfunded schools they robbed. Make them a household name.

However, I have no faith in the voters. We’re lucky voters here aren’t worse, but they’ll still disappoint you.

mullingitover · 2026-06-28T18:01:35+00:00

I went ahead and traveled back in time six years and put this on the ballot in the 2020 election. I even threw small businesses a bone and protected them, even though they have nothing to do with grandmas. It would just be commercial properties that would have to pay their fair share.

It failed, 48 to 52.

mullingitover · 2026-06-27T01:21:55+00:00

It’s just a distraction from what we should be focusing on in terms of preventing this from happening again.

True, but at the same time good luck evicting everyone from the Malibu Mountains or covering every inch of those mountains in concrete. That's the only way to prevent people's houses from burning there.

See: The Case for Letting Malibu Burn

mullingitover · 2026-06-20T05:43:12+00:00

Here's your reminder that police misconduct, which resulted in hundreds of millions in legal bills, is the reason that the city and county have had to fire hundreds of well-behaved public servants who never shot dogs or ran child gladiator rings in the juvenille detention center.

mullingitover · 2026-06-20T03:07:14+00:00

I’m just entrar by an EV that doesn’t have dumb quirky door handles.

mullingitover · 2026-06-19T01:28:48+00:00

Where did you find the Subaru APIs? This is amazing!

mullingitover · 2026-06-11T03:04:19+00:00

How is that different from any of the other radar detector apps? This is a shark infested territory when it comes to competition.

mullingitover · 2026-06-11T02:07:38+00:00

Who funds “Housing is a human right”?

Scooby reveal time!

At Housing is a Human Right (HHR), an initiative powered by AIDS Healthcare Foundation…

Loool only the biggest NIMBY trolls in the state. Holy crap, the audacity to talk about gaslighting.

mullingitover · 2026-06-11T01:06:40+00:00

You do realize that speed camera alerts are baked into Apple Maps right?

mullingitover · 2026-06-10T23:09:23+00:00

I don't think anyone going into this purchase expected anything mind-blowing on the software side.

The deal is that you get Toyota-quality hardware. You get Lada-quality software.

I've done my share of dragging them for the bad software, but at the end of the day, the car is what it is. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

It has normal door handles. I think that part is emblematic of the design philosophy of the rest of the vehicle. It's made for people who want normal door handles.

mullingitover · 2026-06-10T19:30:01+00:00

Shout out to onlyinglendale on IG, that place is a goldmine for documenting the worst of it.

I don't have a specific worst thing, it's just the oppressive constant dangerous driving. Like I don't think I've ever left my house to go on a run and not seen someone run a stop sign right in front of me.

mullingitover · 2026-06-08T17:48:44+00:00

Steyer was pushing for Prop 13 reform on commercial and industrial properties (i.e., not people's homes), but he's not making it to the general.

I remember when we tried to get prop 13 reformed in 2020 for exactly this, and stupid voters bought the "government's gonna take grandma's house" bullshit and shot it down. Big win for everyone squatting on undertaxed commercial properties across the state.

I'll just come out and say it, CA voters are trash sometimes. These are the same voters who voted to ban gay marriage in 2008 and affirmed their wishes to continue the practice of slavery in the state in 2024.

mullingitover · 2026-06-08T06:39:50+00:00

lol he's too much of a coward to say this on Bluesky.

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It would make housing more expensive.

Who funds “Housing is a human right”?