iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Shere @davidshere.net · 23/09/2026

Hmm wonder who paid for this survey

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 19/09/2026

www.fdd.org/analysis/202...

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 04/08/2026

I love BayWheels so much, like this would be 35-40 minutes of my life every single day walking to and from Bart and instead if I e-bike both ways - 10 minutes total. That’s more time in the morning and evening with my kids, less time that my partner has to be solo, more she can sleep in, etc etc.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 26/07/2026

Here's where we're landing on the consent modal btw

Consent modal for chat logging that doesn't use dark pattern.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 26/07/2026

Working on a little chat bot to make it easy to look up information and stats on development projects, and I asked Claude to make a little consent modal for logging chat content, and just on its own it used this sketchy dark pattern. Not super cool Claude!

Modal asking for consent to log chat information that uses a dark pattern to get you to click consent.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 25/07/2026

This, in particular, needs to be formally investigated by someone, because anyone who has come within 1000 feet of a legislative body in this state knows that if these things are being "discussed" by a quorum of the body, either directly or serially, that is entirely against the law!

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 25/07/2026

Grateful to CMs @cecilialunaparra.bsky.social @markhumbert.bsky.social and Ben Bartlett (who I guess isn't on here?) for sending this very thoughtful and restrained letter to the AC Transit board actransit.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=...

Berkeley City Councilmembers
Mark Humbert, District 8 — mhumbert@berkeleyca.gov
Cecilia Lunaparra, District 7 — clunaparra@berkeleyca.gov
Ben Bartlett, District 3 — bbartlett@berkeleyca.gov
2180 Milvia Street, 5th Floor
Berkeley, CA 94704
Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District Board of Directors
1600 Franklin St
Oakland, CA 94612 July 22, 2026
RE: “Recommendations for the AC Transit Board of Directors to Increase Board
Effectiveness and Cohesion”
Dear Members of the AC Transit Board of Directors,
We, the undersigned members of the Berkeley City Council, are deeply disappointed and
alarmed by the Board of Directors’ potential acceptance and implementation of The
Wathen Group’s (TWG) report and recommendations on “Board Effectiveness.” We write
as individual members of the Berkeley City Council and not on behalf of the Berkeley
City Council as a body.
We urge members of the Board of Directors to reject the report as written, and to
instead request that the consultant engage in significant, substantive revisions to:
address the specific issues identified in this letter; rectify numerous typos and drafting
errors; and (most importantly) overhaul the “spirit” of the report to better reflect our
shared democratic values and the East Bay’s history of community activism and
engagement.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 02/07/2026

Spot the telltale indicator that Foreign Policy article was written by a robot

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 15/06/2026

Angry crowds shutting down meetings, preventing the council from conducting its business and sending them into back rooms to do their work? Check.

Rent Control supporters, led by the Berkeley Tenants Organizing Committee (BTOC), confronted the Council on May 16, 1973. The Berkeley Four majority refused to allow a BTOC representative to speak and voted down a Hancock/Kelley motion to let legal representatives of tenants and the Rent Board attend a Council executive session to discuss the city’s response to Bostick’s decision. The Council majority then retreated into an executive session in the City Manager’s office with the crowd screaming at them.

Unwilling, perhaps unable, to return, considering the crowd’s anger, the majority finished the Council meeting by voting on regular business items in the City Manager’s office.

The Council minority refused to attend, charging that the session was a violation of the Brown Act’s requirement for open meetings. The majority responded that the meeting was open to the press and a few other quiet public representatives who were all that would fit in the room. Legally the Council majority was probably correct, because Government Code Section 54957.9 authorizes the type of action they took in response to the crowd’s disorderly conduct.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 15/06/2026

People who write measures and run initiative campaigns thinking that their intentions ought to carry more weight than what the voters actually passed? Check.

On May 18, 1973, the Council majority voted 5-4 to frustrate the intent of the Police Review Commission (PRC) Ordinance passed by the voters and forbid individual appointments to the nine-person body by each Councilmember. Instead, they claimed the right to control all nine seats by having the Council select every member by majority vote.

This was our first confrontation with the Council majority’s desire to monopolize appointments to boards and commissions. Here there was an issue of legal interpretation and City Attorney McCullum’s opinion supported appointment by the Council as a whole. Still, we knew that the PRC’s drafters wished to have individual appointments, although the words were just imprecise enough so that the Council majority saw a chance to grab nine seats instead of just five.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 23/05/2026

Guy is legitimately a great journalist but the takes, the takes are just horrible

Hunter Walker skeet

Just popping in once again to say I think supposed liberals and progressives who argue against tax relief for low + middle income people look ridiculous

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 18/04/2026

Someone is buying scary looking ads that link out to this NY Times article - I think it's meant to be bad for him but all of this just makes me respect Mamdani even more

The heavy-handed approach has bruised some allies, who say the Democratic mayor is wasting capital on internal fights that they worry are sometimes driven less by strategy than by a desire to exert personal control over the movement.

More than a dozen spoke extensively about what they see as a disconnect between his public and private personas, but insisted on remaining anonymous because they feared the consequences of angering him. Mr. Ossé declined to comment.

Others argue that Mr. Mamdani is making smart bets to push his policy priorities through Albany and build up democratic socialist power. The mayor, they say, is not interested in lost causes, even noble ones.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 03/04/2026

rude ass claude telling me touch grass, you touch grass you bunch of ones and zeroes

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 01/04/2026

I'm getting weirdly emotional about this

screengrab from youtube feed from artemis ii launch

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 21/03/2026

How about car free sixth street

Google maps screenshot of sixth street between Gilman and the city border

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 19/03/2026

Threatening ND people with a good time

On the one hand, a person who blasts music through their phone in public should be forced to listen to the same song for the rest of their life. On the other hand, locking eyes with a stranger for a silent "are we both seeing this fucker?" look of solidarity is peak human magic.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 07/03/2026

This is what it's like to be a YIMBY giving public comment at a Land Use committee meeting

Most people rejected his message

Market rate housing lowers costs for everybody

Shut up!

They hated Jesus because He told them the truth

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 28/02/2026

This is just factually not true. Priorities can be observed - safety is clearly not the highest priority. Obviously the best thing would be to make it true, but absent that, just revoke this document. Take down the website. Align the cities words words with its actions.

1. Safety is our highest priority. Human life is more important than speed, convenience, or property. We will evaluate trade-offs and make both proactive and reactive engineering decisions about street design based on this value.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 25/02/2026

Hey if you’re right, great, and I am more than happy to have you and other folks out on the cutting edge here. This is what this argument (that small business won’t need accounting software) sounds like to me, but 🤷 we will find out imgs.xkcd.com/comics/physi...

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 25/01/2026

So, the city council voted to reduce the Hopkins allocation by $2.8 million, and it looks like staff, on their own, decided to put the rest of the money toward the 5 year paving plan - need to review the tape from that paving meeting (again, lol)

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 24/01/2026

Hmm this might be it, the dollar amount is right. It looks like they cut the rest of the project funding on the consent calendar, without making it clear that that’s what they were doing, without removing it from the T1 website. berkeleyca.gov/sites/defaul...

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 24/01/2026

No, I am not convinced at all actually that it's $3 million and not $4 million. When things get shifted around with T1 money, council generally votes on it specifically, and that $900,000 didn't go to a T1 project. I could be wrong but I don't think I am. $4 million.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 24/01/2026

I wouldn't go that far, and actually reading the item I don't think it's true. I won't speculate on anybody's motives for writing it how they did but it's right here. They just left out the original allocation, which was $6.75 million. There is almost certainly $3 million left.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 15/01/2026

Apparently going to meetings and meeting and being annoying runs in the family

bunch of parents came to this meeting to voice our support of it. these Nimby losers folded so fast when they realized that they looked like absolute ghouls

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 29/12/2025

Here's a project - no density bonus, no BMR units, $1.8 million in-lieu fee, and coming it at 49,90 square feet which, by pure happenstance I'm sure, is just 100 sq. feet shy of being subject to HARD HATS.

Front page of a zoning adjustments board staff report for a project at 2372 Ellsworth Street https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025-10-30_ZAB_Item%206b_2372%20Ellsworth_Staff%20Report%20and%20Attachments_0.pdf

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 27/12/2025

Hah ok - yeah I think my only real position is that federal historic preservation standards and a 100-page environmental report is more than enough and off-street parking should not have to go through LPC. I think red curbing the whole property is great, I mean this is a totally insane situation.

satellite photo of 59 arden st in berkeley, showing a very narrow road with cars parked on it.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 12/12/2025

@berkeleyca.gov love your surveys, I really do. I wonder though, if this is the most inviting way to present the San Pablo plan draft report

PDF page with a million awful AI things.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 12/12/2025

He’s playing it too straight though, the correct post is: I think it’s good, actually, that Donald Trump is not in charge of every penny of health spending in America.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 27/11/2025

Great article about the state of things, but I just cannot get over the San Diego erasure on display here. Come on, people! It’s the actual second biggest city in the state!

In San Jose, HAC worked with the council, Councilmember Anthony Tordillos and Mayor Matt Mahan to develop code standards for single stair buildings up to 6 stories, but are currently precluded by state law from enacting them. As the second largest city in the state, they are now a key ally pushing for reform.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 19/11/2025

I will never get used to people saying this, and with their real names! @nextdoorsv.bsky.social

It's unfair have constant new taxes on homeowners with the input (and votes) of those who are not directly affected by the increases.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 16/11/2025

And this here is the most Berkeley thing ever - the important thing about new apartments is how they look to me, homeowner who has to look at it but will never live inside of it.

Dean Metzger, a founding member of Berkeley Neighborhoods Council, said he is worried that “middle housing” will change the appearance of neighborhoods by adding “modern, square, ugly apartment buildings” without neighborhood consultation. East Bay for Everyone and Planning Commission member Alfred Twu said the policy took this concern into account and kept the existing three-story height limit.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 16/11/2025

If you are the wrong kind of tenant - the kind that can pay market rents - you do not matter, do not exist, and letting people build housing for you to live in actively makes the world a worse place. That's what "nobody can afford these prices" means - if you can afford it, you are nobody.

The Berkeley Tenants Union believes that upzoning increases property values and needs to be matched with guarantees for “100% permanently affordable housing developments.” Metzger and the Berkeley Tenants Union said “middle housing” prioritizes developers’ financial interests.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 16/11/2025

pam_corporate_same_picture_meme.jpg

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 16/11/2025

One more soul sacrificed at the altar of the emergency access and evacuation network

Screenshot of a pdf showing the emergency access and evacuation network, which includes telegraph and haste.

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 09/11/2025

This is the funniest shit I have ever seen in my life

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Zohram
(Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters)

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 07/11/2025

At the Corridor Zoning worksession, seeing a lot of folks who won't be able to make this observation

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David Shere @davidshere.net · 26/10/2025

I absolutely love the @berkeleyscanner.com, we are beyond lucky to have that kind of knowledgable, detailed reporting on public safety in our community. Most places don't have that. But man that comment section...there are some wild things that happen in that comment section...

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