iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Phenomenal reporting here. www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...

Text from the article: "These agencies, the California Statewide Communities Development Authority and the California Municipal Finance Authority, aren’t required to regularly publish data about the projects that they’ve helped qualify for the exemption. So the Chronicle conducted its own analysis of public meeting agendas and property tax data.

The analysis found that CSCDA and CMFA have enabled 195 property owners across the state to apply for the exemption since 2023, and could strip nearly $4 billion in value from California’s tax rolls — or around $40 million in revenue to local schools, transit authorities and police departments each year. The potential loss comes as many cities and school districts already face gaping budget shortfalls, with some asking voters to raise their own taxes to fill the gap."

Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

This unprecedented policy idea, which I wrote about in March, intended to beef up California's factory-built housing industry will remain unprecedented for now with Newsom's veto. calmatters.org/housing/2026...

Veto message from Gov Newsom points to "millions of dollars in initial capitalization, funding that was not included in the state budget."

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

My wife, a public employee, has to pack her own lunch to third-party sponsored work conferences, lest she run afoul of state ethics rules by accepting a bribe in the form of a free tuna salad sandwich. calmatters.org/politics/202...

The questionable expenses included: Premium Uber and Lyft rides to and from a restaurant, bar, and nightclub between 9:40 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. that “clearly appear to be for personal enjoyment rather than for the benefit of the state;” Numerous meals in Folsom, where CEO Choudri has a home; Repeated reimbursed ride-hailing trips to Planet Fitness gyms in and around Sacramento, even after a supervisor wrote that “the state does not cover ride share[s] to gyms”; $118,000 in international travel despite the contracts explicitly barring international travel; A nearly $40 Uber Black luxury car charge for a trip of less than one mile in downtown Sacramento.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

An illuminating Facebook post by Rocklin mayor Dave Bass that speaks to the shifting political balance between local and state governments over housing in California. www.facebook.com/daveforrockl...

From a lengthier post: "So when somebody asks me: “Why doesn't Rocklin just say no?”
That's why I want people to understand the whole picture.
Because “just say no” sounds great until the State threatens enforcement, a developer sues, the City hires outside counsel, the developer wins attorney's fees, and potentially enormous statutory penalties start piling up.
That doesn't mean we roll over. It doesn't mean every housing project is good. It doesn't mean Sacramento is right.
And it sure as hell doesn't mean I think residents should shut up and accept whatever is put in front of them. Quite the opposite.
It means people need to understand how dramatically Sacramento has tilted the playing field. A city trying to protect itself from the ideocracy of Sacramento while still providing workforce housing now carries real financial exposure it didn't carry in the same way a year ago.
Translate that into normal English: Sticking up for yourself can now become financially disastrous."

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I wish fewer coastal Californians had to contend with the region's notoriously unaffordable housing market. (Monkey's paw curls) www.sfchronicle.com/california/a...

A screen shot from a San Francisco Chronicle article summarizing a new PPIC survey: "In coastal regions...the sense that housing is a paramount problem is actually declining, the researchers found, as people who can afford the region's high housing costs are increasingly the only ones left living here."

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

As we pivot from polling firm to purveyor of cutting social commentary, we will not be accepting questions at this time. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Quote from a Los Angeles Times article about a "bogus" poll about the L.A. City mayoral race: "“Median Strategies was created as a short term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” the company said in an email to The Times. “We are not seeking publicity or attribution for the individuals involved and are declining interviews.”

The phony poll also claimed that 16% of its respondents said they had voted for Pratt, and that of those voters, about 85% were planning to vote for Bass in the general, while about 7% would support Raman."

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

An interesting (in the wild!) example of how upzoning can affect land values. Here's a comparable home for sale, also in the Palo Alto Caltrain station's SB79 zone, selling for 1/4 as much. Unless I'm missing something, the difference is the first one vested its SB 79 app before the window closed.

A Compass add for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath single family home in Palo Alto. The sale price is $1.699 million. The listing does not mention an SB 79 application.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

CommunityScale mapped out the est winners/losers of a new change in fed law that increases/decreases certain federal economic development grant funding based on local housing production trends. Can't speak to the methodology, but a lot of red across SoCal. maps.communityscale.io?level=munici...

A map of California's cities with municipalities color-coded in three ways: blue communities accelerated housing growth to at or above the national median and would receive a CDBG bonus; red communities fell below the median and would lose 10% of their Community Development Block Grant; green communities are exempt (a statutory carve-out for low-cost or slack rental markets). Los Angeles, San Diego, Huntington Beach, Irvine and Santa Barbara are all read. So are San Jose, Stockton and Elk Grove.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Added the following bit to last night's story with this response from the carpenters: calmatters.org/housing/2026...

Despite Arreguín’s promise to pursue a future compromise, “(I) don’t think he understands the hard part…his lack of leadership,” said Danny Curtin, director of the California Council of Carpenters in a text message. A number of Democratic members of the committee expressed similar, if less pointed, frustration.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Wild stuff here. In unrelated news, I had the most shockingly unpleasant experience at the offices of my new dentist, Dr. Ouchiemouth. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...

A screenshot from the New York Times article "Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool": "The contract shows that the National Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is typically required, and gave a $1.7 million contract to the firm, Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio."

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

...the top two may have the last laugh.

District 4 election results. Jaron Brandon, a Democrat, with 39.4%, Alexandra Duarte, a Republican, with 32.4%. Marie Alvarado-Gil, a Republican, trails in 3rd with 28.2%.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

TIL that Hiram Johnson, forefather of direct democracy in California, actually thought the election of the attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction was pretty dumb. (He did like voting for controller fwiw). governors.library.ca.gov/addresses/23...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Last year, I covered a legal dispute between a Carlsbad condo owner and his homeowners association over his right to turn his garage into an ADU. On Friday, a San Diego County judge ruled for HOA. (reposting with the right link this time!) calmatters.org/housing/2026...

Adam Hardesty looks through the construction at his home in Carlsbad on Feb. 19, 2025. Hardesty wanted to convert the garage of his three-story condo into a ground-floor apartment despite opposition from his own Homeowners Association. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

The Takes giveth and the Takes taketh away.

Two side-by-side posts. The first by David Roberts: "Yes, the obvious solution to fossil fuel wars is obvious: ' The fragility of global fossil fuel supply underscores why scaling renwables and electriciation is essential for lasting energy security." The second by the Economist: "An LNG crunch is good news for the world's dirtiest fuel," with a photo of a barge towing five mounds of coal.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

If you squint at this chart you can just make out the modest uptick in Meta's California lobbying spend in 2025 calmatters.org/politics/202...

I am being cheeky. The chart shows a fairly low level of spending each year (bumping around $1 million since 2020) and then a giant spike to well over $4 million in 2025.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

In 2023, the state's fire marshal was tasked with putting together a report with recommendations on if/how the state should change its building code to allow for taller single stair apartments. The deadline was Jan. 1. Still waiting... calmatters.org/housing/2026...

Mr. Bean stands alone in a field of wild flowers, waiting for something. The image has become a meme, taken from the film Mr. Bean's Holiday, often used to depict exasperated impatience.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Horseshoe theory something something

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

You are not going to believe how much I had to go out-of-pocket for targeted crab massage to treat my acute tummy ache (the doctor didn’t even wash her hands before administering!) But that’s American healthcare for you smh

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

For all the concerns that many pro-housing development advocates had about a President Pro Tem Limón, removing Wahab as Housing chair (albeit by giving her a top leadership spot) and replacing her with a YIMBY Arreguin (albeit a “born again” one) has got to do some assuaging.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

You know things are bad when both the DA and Sheriff are concerned that their side is winning in court TOO much. Another great one by the great Anat Rubin: calmatters.org/investigatio...

The situation had deteriorated so dramatically that the San Benito district attorney, Joel Buckingham, found himself worrying about the people his office was trying to send to prison. Their attorneys didn’t contest the evidence Buckingham’s prosecutors presented, no matter how it was obtained. Each year, they filed an average of just 10 motions to suppress evidence based on violations of constitutional rights — including unjustified stops and searches, illegal interrogations, and arrests without probable cause.

“Police officers must make mistakes sometimes,” Buckingham told a researcher conducting the evaluation.

The sheriff, Eric Taylor, was also alarmed. If his deputies were never challenged in court, how would they know when they had crossed a line? What would stop them from doing it again?

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

If you see this, repost with your model of positive masculinity

A picture of Bandit, the cartoon dog from the Australian kid’s show Bluey, doing a silly dance.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

ChatGPT is apparently both pro-journalists using ChatGPT and pro-family.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

You‘re treating yourself to a birthday trip to Mexico and you only have $170K (allegedly). How do you spend it? calmatters.org/politics/202...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Notable finding in a new paper on how California cities have responded to AB 2097, which scrapped minimum parking requirements for housing developments near major transit stops. At least one city just ignored the law for housing near future, planned projects. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Every single person in my feed: What's the deal with SB 79? Has Newsom signed SB 79? What is Newsom waiting for on SB 79? Newsom better veto SB 79! If Newsom doesn't sign SB 79 tonight I'm going to move to Canada. I'm launching a SB 79 shot clock widget SB 79 S!B 79 SB 79 Newsom:

Press release from Governor Gavin Newsom: A hiss-torical day: Governor Newsom signs bills establishing state snake, state shrub

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Oh, so that's why @asmlowenthal.bsky.social said "poopy" on the floor yesterday. I was so confused. www.politico.com/newsletters/...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

A deal that would have capped Los Angeles' ULA transfer tax under the condition that @prop13.bsky.social remove a proposed ballot measure aimed at making it harder for local govs to raise taxes is dead for the year. Statement from @senatorgonzalez.bsky.social and @asmtinamckinnor.bsky.social:

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

An eyebrow raising detail in this story by @levisu.bsky.social about rideshare drivers winning the right to unionize in California

Now that the state's 800,000 drivers have gained those rights, they will need to choose a union to represent them.
The SEIU, which sponsored the legislation, will likely become the drivers' representative, thanks to late amendments to the bill. They include new requirements that make it tough for fledgling drivers unions to qualify to represent drivers. One of those requirements is experience negotiating union contracts.
"This is so outrageous," said Nicole Moore, president of Los Angeles-based Rideshare Drivers United, adding that because the ride-hailing industry is fairly new, even a group like hers, which has been organizing drivers since 2018, does not have that experience. Moore said her group had supported the bill and been engaging with lawmakers as well. "They pulled the rug out from under us," she said.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Updated the story with a statement from the company that is developing the project that seems have been the subject of this legislation.

In an unattributed statement from Mission LLC, the company slammed the deal and said it would sue, “as California prohibits legislation attacking a single project.”

“This bill is an example of the control of public policy by a few wealthy NIMBYs in an attempt to obstruct desperately needed low-income housing,” the company wrote. “The project, located in a wealthy area of Santa Barbara, would provide 54 low-income units and this attempt to block it demonstrates the kowtowing of some legislators to wealthy NIMBY constituents.”

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

The national housing market is still stuck in a post-pandemic rut. But with higher prices, limited supply and a property tax regime that discourages sales, California homeowners have “have extra reasons to stay put,” said @hatethegamebook.com calmatters.org/housing/2025...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

The lede in this story by @marisakendall.bsky.social calmatters.org/housing/home...

A common meme image (used to express an unlikely shared viewpoint) of two muscled arms in a firm grip. In this case, one represents Donald Trump, the other Gavin Newsom. Where their hands clasp together, the text says "pushing cities and states to use law enforcement to get unhoused people off the streets."

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

A new Lincoln Institute report shows how much more a new homeowner will owe in property taxes than someone who has owned for the avg duration in that city (based on median prices). Thanks to Prop. 13, California cities well represented at the top of the list. www.lincolninst.edu/publications...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

This morning Politico wrote that Sen Pro Tem Mike McGuire has "increasingly become the outlier" on housing policy compared to YIMBY-oriented Speaker Rivas and Gov Newsom. Also this morning, McGuire named former Hermosa Beach Councilmember Ray Jackson to the Coastal Commission. Jackson in 2023:

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Stumbled upon a 1976 issue of San Francisco Magazine last night. Alongside a Moscone profile, an essay on “the plight of homosexuals” working in finance and a jarring number of cigarette ads, there's a short article about how new development restrictions in Petaluma are causing home prices to go up.

Cover of San Francisco Magazine, January 1976. The cover photo is George Moscone. The lede headline: "Meet your new mayor-elect."

A story of "Petaluma's Housing Hassles," centered around the 1971 Petaluma Plan that sharply restricted new housing, notes that the average three-bedroom now goes for $37,000. It ends with a Realtor wondering "What about the have nots? What do they do?"

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Will absolutely never forgive my editor for desk rejecting this gem of a headline:

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Some of the stats unearthed here are just staggering. Nearly 40% of California drivers who have been charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019 still have valid licenses. Absolutely vital reporting here: calmatters.org/investigatio...

Quote from the story: The court records and driving histories reveal a state so concerned with people having access to motor vehicles for work and life that it allows deadly drivers to share our roads despite the cost. Officials may call driving a privilege, but they treat it as a right — often failing to take drivers’ licenses even after they kill someone on the road. We found nearly 40% of the drivers charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019 have a valid license. That includes a driver with two separate convictions for vehicular manslaughter, for crashes that killed a 16-year-old girl in 2009 and a 25-year-old woman in 2020. In July of last year, the DMV issued him a driver’s license. The agency gave licenses to nearly 150 people less than a year after they allegedly killed someone on the road, we found. And while the agency has since suspended some of those, often after a conviction, the majority remain valid.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

The Trump Administration 2.0 is cutting off funding to a California dementia researcher because he structured his research project to comply with funding requirements set up by the the Trump Administration 1.0 Story by @mzinshteyn.bsky.social: calmatters.org/education/hi...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

calmatters.org/economy/2025...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

A new study from RAND found that it costs more than twice as much to build a privately-funded multifamily housing project in California than it does in Texas and 40% more than in Colorado. calmatters.org/newsletter/n...

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Blessed to be a journalist who is so extremely on top of his shit

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Stellar reporting my colleague, Marisa Kendall, and KPBS' Katie Anastas. Cities across California have aggressively ramped up enforcement of anti-camping laws against homeless Californians. The result: calmatters.org/housing/home...

Experts agree clearing or “sweeping” encampments alone can’t end homelessness. But here’s what we did see over and over as a result of sweeps in those cities: people becoming more likely to lose touch with support services, people losing essential items they need to get into housing (such as birth certificates) or to survive the elements (such as tents) and people still stuck on the streets — sometimes in new locations.

In some cases, cities try to pair enforcement with offers of a shelter bed or other services. But shelter is generally in short supply, and the types of programs available often don’t work for everyone on the street.

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

The YIMBY Law report spends a lot of time dissecting what has and hasn't worked with SB9. This morning, @scottwiener.bsky.social announced a new bill, SB 677, that would, among other things, treat SB9 lot splits more like ADUs (i.e. making it much harder for local govs and HOAs to restrict them).

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Ben Christopher @frombenc.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

The above analysis didn't look at either State Density Bonus law or the Housing Accountability Act. It's hard to show empirically, but both anecdotally and theoretically there's reason to think they have had a more profound effect on production. One anecdote: www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/m...

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Once again, opponents are demanding the Planning Commission deny a housing project in the Mission: a 10-story building with 181 units, including 30 affordable units. Advocates want the owner to sell the site to the city for affordable housing, but based on the comments of city officials, they’re unlikely to prevail this time.

That’s because of two state laws: the density bonus law and the Housing Accountability Act, which set objective standards governing whether a city can reject or modify a housing project. Because the proposal conforms to all city rules, the city can’t reject the project, the Planning Department told the Chronicle.

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