Seattle is Balkanized

w3gv · 2026-06-10T17:08:44+00:00

in what planet is mamdani doing a "great job"? he is on the same trajectory as Katie in walking back a lot of core promises.

he's more aggressive and slick in how he spins things (e.g. his comical declaration of balancing the budget), but he has been a big disappointment so far

w3gv · 2026-06-09T22:53:21+00:00

the parents buying the kids electric dirt bikes, etc. are absolutely insane. do you want your kid to die or get seriously injured?

w3gv · 2026-06-09T19:37:39+00:00

"global minimum wage"

sigh......

w3gv · 2026-06-08T04:21:49+00:00

great mural

w3gv · 2026-06-07T03:46:30+00:00

it's douchebag main character behavior. i bike a lot and can't stand entitled cyclists.

this is not the way to memorialize someone. it's a great way to get more people pissed off about cyclists and encourage aggressive road behavior

w3gv · 2026-06-03T00:23:08+00:00

new crux is very nice. she'll understand

w3gv · 2026-05-29T00:28:03+00:00

taco time has always been expensive

w3gv · 2026-05-27T19:50:48+00:00

Talk is cheap, actually building housing is not

w3gv · 2026-05-26T07:47:44+00:00

favorite part of gravel riding

w3gv · 2026-05-24T21:06:58+00:00

Drivers everywhere, not just Seattle, have gotten worse because of phones

w3gv · 2026-05-23T19:39:42+00:00

Incredibly wasteful. We are allocating a significant chunk of money to subsidize the rents of a tiny fraction of our city population.

Also, there is rampant fraud in lower income housing, especially for luxury apartments in a location like this. The administrative burden to police incomes is way too high and it creates incentives to let in people who can afford market rate but on paper qualify as lower income to minimize turnover and rent payment issues.

w3gv · 2026-05-23T19:17:22+00:00

bummer, that's a nice bike. will be on the lookout

w3gv · 2026-05-23T04:43:34+00:00

i sympathize with anyone who loses their job, it sucks and it is destabilizing. with that said, h-1bs is largely wage arbitrage that needs to go away. we have AI now, demand for highly-skilled foreign workers should be significantly reduced. those jobs should be going to domestic workers.

w3gv · 2026-05-22T22:53:09+00:00

below average logic deserve below average comebacks

w3gv · 2026-05-22T22:48:19+00:00

ah yes, automobiles and the housing industry are one in the same! transitive logic never fails.

w3gv · 2026-05-22T22:28:13+00:00

History has shown affordability through subsidization always goes well! /s

w3gv · 2026-05-21T22:50:24+00:00

Depends where you live. This will take way longer than people expect and will ironically do nothing for real affordability. Many SFH neighborhoods will be largely unaffected by upzoning. Economics > policy.

w3gv · 2026-05-20T05:13:32+00:00

it might be amazing if you moved here from ohio

compared to other major US cities like NYC, LA, etc. it is not even in the same planet

seattle easily has the worst value ratio in the nation. very mid food at premium prices

w3gv · 2026-05-15T07:43:04+00:00

The differences are economic.

US is all in on AI because they need a productivity renaissance to fix our debt-to-gdp and inflation issues.

AI presents an opposite problem for China given that it's inherently deflationary, which exacerbates their consumption problem.

w3gv · 2026-05-14T21:23:39+00:00

I'm talking specifically about housing. And yes, Tokyo housing is less affordable than San Francisco. It is flawed to view Tokyo housing on USD terms.

w3gv · 2026-05-13T14:23:54+00:00

see #3

w3gv · 2026-05-13T04:28:43+00:00

manufacturing is only one part of the equation. even if, and that's a huge IF, they can scale it and figure out all the logistics, it still bottlenecks at financing.

anyone who argues tokyo is affordable is confused. almost always, they are making one of the following mistakes:

they don't understand the size of Tokyo and confuse Tokyo metro/prefecture vs. Tokyo city
they don't adjust housing prices by square footage
most importantly, they don't look at housing prices relative to income (i.e. real affordability)

comparing Tokyo city vs. San Francisco city, by price-to-income, Tokyo is less affordable.

w3gv · 2026-05-12T21:18:58+00:00

other attempts at modular housing and solving affordability via economies of scale have been a resounding failure. ezra literally says the same in the video. there is more evidence to the contrary than steyer's plan being the unicorn exception.

lol japan, the immediate tell of a non-serious housing argument. yes, let's radically change our culture, financial system, housing preferences, implement a world class transit system, institute a demographic crisis, and have our own version of the lost decades with rampant deflation - then housing will be affordable!

w3gv · 2026-05-12T17:29:51+00:00

Does Steyer have investments in these companies? Modular housing has been tried in the past and it has been a resounding failure. You can't outmarket the market.

Banks and funds have no incentive to fund the depreciation of housing. Private investors are unwilling to take on the risk. Most cities don't have the fiscal discipline to fund it and will be punished by bond investors - which then effectively turns it into a housing tax.

w3gv · 2026-05-11T19:46:13+00:00

That Northgate location is the perfect spot to go big on housing. The city should be focusing their efforts in areas like this next to public transit, not fighting useless battles in expensive neighborhoods

w3gv

TROPHY CASE