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James Lloyd

@jamesmlloyd.bsky.social
355 followers 79 following 84 posts

Director of Planning and Investigations for the California Housing Defense Fund (calhdf.org), retired naval officer, & rescue dog owner.

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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I was amazed how opposed the business association (of an unnamed Marin jurisdiction) was to metered parking, but the only logical explanation was that they wanted all-day free parking for themselves
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
20-25 mph probably. Not a fun time. Still have lots of road rash scars. But at least the Spanish health service patched me up and it only cost 30 euros (got a bill in the mail six months later).
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Broke my helmet (and avoided a head/brain injury as a result) during both of my last two crashes: a bike race in college; and a descent in northern Spain when I got a pinch flat on my front tire. Helmets are amazing!
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I wasn't a great flosser until I had to pay for a set of dental implants. Cost as much as a new car. Now I floss twice a day, every day of the year.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
No it is not legal. See our letter on this topic to SANDAG. drive.google.com/file/d/1ARs4...
drive.google.com
SANDAG - SB 79 - 24 June 2026.pdf
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Zoning = force the new/young/poor to live on brownfields and next to freeways.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The hearing is on our radar, thanks for highlighting
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The irony of course is that all these homeowners benefited from redlining: they received preferential credit for decades, while communities of color were denied it.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
As someone who wrote a master's thesis on the anti-redlining movement, it's always frustrated me when people use the term as a shorthand for anything other than denial of credit to geographies based on race etc.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
While college sports have, ahem, plenty of inequities, they do have the advantage that the stadiums are publicly owned and the teams can't constantly threaten to leave.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Absolutely! Step one is just allowing rental housing esp. multifamily housing in high opportunity neighborhoods. A leg up for affordable housing (e.g. 40B/Mt. Laurel/AB 2011 etc.) is critical as well.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
If folks are concerned about fair housing and economic integration, AB 2011 is a useful way of achieving fair housing goals because you give 100% affordable a huge leg up in high opportunity areas. See, e.g., our Novato projects with 500+ affordable units entitled in Marin County via AB 2011.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
so much for my polymarket bet
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
AB 130 was critical to this, as it greatly reduced CEQA risk for Builder's Remedy projects.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Beverly Hills is a great example of this - as a result of many Builder's Remedy projects, a lot of multifamily and affordable units are going to come online there within the next four years. Loosening up restrictions in the highest-rent jurisdictions leads to lots of production.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Second readings are typically on the consent calendar. Hopefully there isn't any funny business!
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Busy Town is a great place to start I'd say
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
From my observations it tends to sometimes be the wage issue, but more often I think it's just momentum - entitlement processes take a long time, the projects already had the class 32 exemptions lined up, and it's what folks were familiar with already
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
We're not tracking them per se, but what we're seeing is entirely consistent with that take. Every BR project in Beverly Hills that I saw immediately switched to AB 130. In places with less litigation risk, people are still doing projects with categorical exemptions.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
did you try just tweeting it to them?
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
To be fair, once our AB 2011 projects in Novato start construction, that will change pretty dramatically.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Qatari energy minister predicts $150/bbl oil prices thanks to new war. Those trucks are about to be an albatross.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
In NYC, if you have the zoning, you just need an architect, a contractor and an expediter. In CA, with AB 2011 you'll probably need to hire a land use attorney too and you have a zoning entitlement process ahead of you, even though it's technically "ministerial."
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
An AB 2011 project can be subject to a public hearing, which induces public pressure on the council to do the (wrong) thing, and a oppositional council can vote to deny the project. While the city will likely lose in court, this still creates vastly more risk/uncertainty than in the NYC system.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Also transfer taxes and impact fees, neither of which exist in NYC. And AB 2011's by-right/ministerial pathway is still much less certain than NYC's absolute as-of-right system.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
I mean, it could be full of trash and dog poop, like the courtyard of my last NYC apartment
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
we sent in a letter on that. it was unclear if it was actually deed restricted affordable to moderate income households, or just projected to be moderate for RHNA accounting purposes. We we're worried about it being disapproved.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
was it 320, 324, and 350 Alhambra Blvd?
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
what's the project? Is it HAA eligible?
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Sometimes applicants would prefer not to invoke AB 130 due to the associated tribal consulting process and labor requirements (even when no prevailing wage is required). Our letters point out when projects are eligible for the exemption, even if the applicant has not chosen to take advantage of it.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Fun fact: the design looks how it does because during the land use process we wouldn't let the applicant substitute an indoor public open space for the outdoor open space required by zoning.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
... thinking back to the 140-page public comment I just sent to an exclusionary Bay area suburb to tee up a lawsuit ...
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
I would love metering to cover more days and more hours and encourage more turnover. Downtown Berkeley has a great hardware store, and it sure would be great to have more street parking turnover nearby. On Thursdays, they should increase rates by the North Berkeley farmer's market.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
The Boss delivers in our hour of need: youtu.be/wWKSoxG1K7w?...
youtu.be
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
They should pull a Costco and make it an HAA project
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
And on my old block in Brooklyn I saw someone change a transmission in a street parking spot
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Bronx mechanics: "hold my beer"
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Totally hear you. I think the tough part is that taking any subsidy trips prevailing wage requirements plus other costly compliance/design standards. In contrast, doing a LIHTC-only project costs vastly less on a per-unit basis. The tax-exemption is essentially a state-mandated local subsidy.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
I've worked in both affordable housing and YIMBY spaces, and perhaps the greatest strength of California's system is the statewide tax exemption for 100% affordable buildings. It's the single most efficient subsidy available for these buildings.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
In the Bronx (site of the aforementioned rezoning), people run car repair businesses out of street parking spaces.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
I can see my old office window in the Church St photo, totally insane that hasn't been shoveled. They maintain a POPS too!
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
What I reminded of is when I lamented to my boss in NYC back in 2015 about auto-repair shops that might be displaced by an upzoning along a commercial corridor. He asked, "do you have any better ideas?" I did not have any better ideas.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Simon's statement around not being able to undo an upzoning due to state law is not accurate. SB 330 prohibits downzoning below what was allowed in 2018. It does not prohibit undoing an upzoning implemented later, annoyingly.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Impact fees prevented the construction of 5,000 affordable units over four years and required an average of 10% additional subsidy per unit.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Michigan also has no-fault insurance.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Unlike the vast majority of states, New York has no-fault auto insurance. Insurance is a lot more expensive in a no-fault system.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
you should try making homemade eggnog. It's like liquid, flammable cake
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
I was on a jury once with an MTA worker whose job was to walk the tracks and pick up trash. He loved jury duty and had been on 10+ juries. Only time in his working life that he got to go to work during the day and not work in hazardous conditions.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
In most of the city, the rezoning only allows density decontrol if you opt into the local bonus program. That means that DBL is not available in those areas (nor are several other state law programs). This means that the City is attempting to create "state law free" zones.
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James Lloyd @jamesmlloyd.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
We appreciate your support!
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