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Kevin Burke

@burke.bsky.social
1.1K followers 178 following 2.7K posts

Ask me about the Contra Costa County Housing Element

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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A guy kept talking about how his kids class had 40 kids in it as a reason to (IIRC) oppose some new apartment proposal. Finally he named the school in some unrelated thread, I call the school, they confirm the largest class size in the entire school is 32 kids. Just toxic that there's no penalty
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Say what you will about public forums (Bluesky, Twitter) but if you post complete nonsense you are typically going to get roasted. On Nextdoor you can say completely wrong stuff and it shows up just the same as everyone else which is pretty toxic IMO.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"Affordable housing" income limits are tied to area median income, but if you don't build enough housing and your market rate units gentrify, the income limits for BMR also go up... www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...
sfchronicle.com
Real estate investors are profiting off a California tax break
The welfare exemption has become a strategy for landlords to save money on taxes without necessarily giving tenants a discount on rent, a Chronicle investigation found.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I really like this for reading and use it every day daylightcomputer.com
daylightcomputer.com
Daylight | A More Caring Computer
Daylight Computer (DC1) is a new kind of calm computer, designed for deep work and health.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Also - it's just as embarrassing that the CA Democratic Party is supporting this. Asleep at the wheel guys! Corruption is bad no matter who does it. If you want to fund immunology research do it out of the state budget.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Where are HJTA, Carl deMaio, Marc Joffe etc. I don't understand this.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
California Prop 38: - authorizes $4B spending in a way that only one research center in the whole state qualifies - privately funded research center - founder of the research center has donated $22 million to support the ballot prop This is, like, pure corruption calmatters.org/politics/ele...
calmatters.org
Is this proposition a $4 billion giveaway to a billionaire’s LA research center?
Proposition 38 will award $4 billion to one unnamed research center. Under the very specific criteria, only one center seemingly qualifies.
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Reposted by Kevin Burke
sjd93.bsky.social @sjd93.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I have 2 interchange *repavings* that have been stuck in CalTrans design processes for 7 years.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"the Caltrans process... working with Caltrans is a very lengthy process. the environmental clearance that we submitted in February, it took six months" "just by seeing how long it's been working with Caltrans so far, we are [going to push construction from 2027 to 2028]"
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"So whenever you are awarded federal money, you have to go through Caltrans.... so we're not able to actually design the project until Caltrans gives us the design money." "Just like with the design, we cannot bid the project until we receive funding from Caltrans" www.youtube.com/watch?v=u58q...
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Backwardation was named after John Backwardation
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
best I can do is make auto loan interest tax deductible
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
@mgm.ink my question is why they are stopping at 32 pickleball courts. www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/arti...
sfchronicle.com
Massive pickleball court complex proposed for unexpected Bay Area site
The Alameda County Fairgrounds has long been a home for 4-H kids and the region’s agricultural traditions. Could it also become one of the Bay Area’s biggest destinations for pickleball?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
at this rate P != NP has gotta be provable within the next year or two right?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
In other news we pointed out this site was not going to turn into apartments by 2031 and what do you know it just sold to another commercial property landlord and the ground floor bike shop extended their lease for ten years. www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco...
bizjournals.com
Downtown Walnut Creek building with popular bike shop sells for a profit - San Francisco Business Times
A downtown Walnut Creek building home to R&A Bikes has sold to a Los Gatos investor.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It's really crazy that HCD tries to do sites inventory analysis without a CoStar subscription (which all of the relevant cities have). forget law or policy changes "Analysts can retrieve information about leases" should be among the top priorities for next cycle.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
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Reposted by Kevin Burke
The Onion @theonion.com · 03/09/2026
Google Maps Introduces Crawling Directions For Cyclists Hit By Truck theonion.com/google-maps-introduces…
Google Maps Introduces Crawling Directions For Cyclists Hit By Truck
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I have always wondered how this group felt about the Rumford Act www.alamoca.org/page/26618~4...
alamoca.org
Alamo Improvement Association - About AIA
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
If police take a blood draw AFTER you have been transported to a hospital and THEN "questioned for hours" and the blood draw shows a "near zero alcohol level" I do not think this is the vindication that she thinks it is calmatters.org/investigatio...
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
> Germany's plan Where?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Raising these limits (and allowing insurers to better discriminate against people with poor driving records) would have substantial second order effects on car + transit demand in California.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
In California you can drive on the roads with only $60,000 of insurance coverage per accident. In Europe coverage requirements start in the low millions.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
BART ATC engineer writing Fortran in 1964:
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
"working" can you afford this?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
POV: they are finally putting in the sidewalk and curb bulb out
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The scene in Shawshank Redemption where Andy writes a letter a week asking for funds for the library and then they finally say "here are your books, stop writing us" is a pretty accurate description of successful public policy advocacy.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Mexico should have painted this on the field just to mess with England
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The other problem is no one is a sophisticated consumer enough to care about this, who in the USA is touring a house and looking at the sound performance. Ideally this is what local codes are for instead of mandating "major massing breaks" or whatever
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I guess some people have hollow core doors, the price difference to solid doors is not very large. The other fix I wish was more common is a louver with two 90 degree turns - think a sideways submarine periscope - this allows airflow while also blocking most sound
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Closing the door reduces noise but worsens air circulation/temp control. There are code solutions for this - doors are supposed to have a gap at the bottom for airflow, or a louver above the door. But these are rarely implemented correctly and expensive to fix
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I wrote about why new apartments in Walnut Creek offer a pretty low living standard and why it's impossible to build a 3 bedroom apartment with a playground here. kevin.burke.dev/kevin/walnut...
kevin.burke.dev
Why Can’t Walnut Creek Build 3 Bedroom Apartments with a Playground? | Kevin Burke
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
The irony is the car is much safer for the driver and more dangerous for everyone else, the motorcycle is dangerous for the rider and not as dangerous for bystanders. I still don't understand how it's so easy to buy these when I can't even order a 2.5gpm showerhead online
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Most parents understand they shouldn't let their 12 year old drive a car but I guess haven't quite learned the same lesson when it comes to letting a 12 year old ride a 60mph top speed motorcycle. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...
sfchronicle.com
Danville 12-year-old nabbed after allegedly fleeing police on electric motorcycle
Danville police stopped a 12-year-old boy for reckless driving after he allegedly sped through a residential neighborhood on an electric motorcycle and attempted to flee from officers.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Feeding agenda PDF's to Claude 4.7 and asking it to write a parser
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
That's pretty frustrating. Maybe they have more inbound links?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Not at the moment! Still deciding if I want to try to make this a paid model (the CPU costs are going to get prohibitive if I add 5x the number of cities).
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
For which city
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
I mean yes - just take the whole transcript from the site and then paste it in the AI and say "what's actually important." Note that I do this (or try to) to generate the summaries for each agenda item and the entire-meeting summary
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
I tried submitting this to Google - it's original content, none of these transcripts exist! but it's been a week and they've indexed 2% of the pages. I am guessing they are completely overwhelmed by AI submitted crap
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Hello, is this thing on? Here's a site I made to make it easier to track public meetings. Automatic transcripts and agenda parsing. Please take a look, tell me if it's useful, and what meetings I should add public-meetings.burke.services
public-meetings.burke.services
Public Meetings
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Video has a disappointing lack of focus on the tambourine player/hype man and whatever this is www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QL...
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Gemini Dream is the best Moody Blues song
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
This is very funny… “free fares had no impact on car volumes… reorganizing the bus network had a higher impact than free fares”
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Most places have discounted fares for people who do not have a lot of money which is fine. We should probably also lower the cost of monthly passes. I should pay money to ride the bus though.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
If you need the bus to get to your job then you need the bus to arrive on time and get you there on time. If it’s free no one cares as much about getting you there.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
For any level of service you could provide with taxes, you could probably make riders better off by charging fares and then using the money to run more service. Taxes also compete with other priorities like fire, sewer, water, police, parks, library, etc, which you can also provide more of with $
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Reposted by Kevin Burke
California Housing Defense Fund @housingdefense.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
HAA letter to Walnut Creek, CA for tonight's Design Review Commission meeting re proposed 422-unit builder's remedy project at 2775–2855 Mitchell Drive, which includes 55 low-income units. @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov @california-hcd.bsky.social drive.google.com/file/d/1JnUm...
drive.google.com
Walnut Creek - 2775–2855 Mitchell Drive - HAA Letter.pdf
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Free is also a price that rations access
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
How is City College SF doing? Haven’t checked in on it in a while
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