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Sam Alcorn

@samalcorn.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.2K following 2.7K posts

Housing abundance. Urbanism. Zoning abolitionist. Accessibility Compliance expert. YIMBY. Located in Tovaangar. #OverturnEuclid

PostsRepliesMedia
Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 3h
Well, shit. SB 1090 has been signed into law. I thought this state cared about people. Only the ones who want their neighborhoods rebuilt to look the same as they did before they were destroyed, I guess, without regard to whether the people can afford to rebuild. www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/u...
gov.ca.gov
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 4h
Corridor zoning is just gross.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Something I think about often is how planes landing on aircraft carriers increase their throttle just as they’re about to touch down. This is exactly what we need in the short time before the elections. Don’t get complacent due to the favorable polls. We need a full-court press up to the buzzer.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Good summary of the history behind the Mt. Laurel doctrine: youtu.be/0By4M6a-r3w?...
youtu.be
How a NIMBY Suburb Screwed Themselves Over
YouTube video by City Beautiful
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Is your goal reducing carbon emissions? Legalize apartments. Is your goal advancing social justice? Legalize apartments. Is your goal reducing segregation? Legalize apartments. Is your goal reducing housing costs? Legalize apartments.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The state of California should acquire Kaiser Permanente and make all residents of California members. We need universal healthcare now! And this seems like it could be a good way to get there.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
youtube.com/watch?v=ST49...
youtube.com
It's the solution to Climate Change, but no ones listening.
YouTube video by Thunderf00t
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Another banger from @nickandert.bsky.social. Watch this. Get all your friends, families, and government representatives to watch it: youtu.be/uYwInrTocww?...
youtu.be
California's Brilliant State Rail Plan
YouTube video by nandert
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
We need legislation that prevents high road design speeds paired with low speed limits. If you’ve got multiple arrow-straight lanes on your stroad, and the speed limit is set to 35 mph, those lanes shouldn’t be allowed to be the same width you’d find on a limited-access highway.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Accommodating cars with our urban infrastructure laid waste to our cities better than any invading army ever could have dreamed of.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I was so proud of my state senator for voting the right way on SB 79 last year. But with the BS that is SB 1090 (let’s pray the Governor vetoes it; call his office to urge that!), I’m not sure she’ll have my vote next time…
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Development fees got you down? Wear this shirt! All cotton, availabe in many colors and sizes: voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4439...
A t-shirt with the text, “Show me your nexus study”
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
🤔👇
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Read this thread for insight into how regulatory capture happens on the ground:
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The way to reverse exclusionary zoning is by eliminating exclusionary zoning. If anyone claims its effects can be ameliorated by introducing more rules on top of the existing ones, and especially if they’re trying to EXPAND exclusionary zoning, know they’re doing so in bad faith. #OverturnEuclid
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
“Preserving local control” translates as “Housing should be yet more expensive.”
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 08/09/2026
And finally, Conor Dougherty’s masterful profile of Marin County anti-housing activist Susan Kirsch: www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/b...
nytimes.com
Twilight of the NIMBY (Gift Article)
Suburban homeowners like Susan Kirsch are often blamed for worsening the nation’s housing crisis. That doesn’t mean she’s giving up her two-decade fight against 20 condos.
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 08/09/2026
Second, @jerusalem.bsky.social on the environmentalist movement’s generational conflict over urban housing and other climate infrastructure. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
theatlantic.com
The Culture War Tearing American Environmentalism Apart
In Minneapolis, the housing shortage has fractured the green community.
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 08/09/2026
Three great reported essays on the inter generational conflict over housing and active transportation, particularly in Northern California: First, a Berkeley-raised writer’s exploration of his parents’ generation’s complicated feelings about the proposed apartments and the Hopkins bike lane:
nytimes.com
A Tale of Paradise, Parking Lots and My Mother’s Berkeley Backyard (Gift Article)
Plans to build apartments have sparked a fight between progressive newcomers and nostalgic old-timers — with surprising allegiances in a writer’s hometown.
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Daniel Trubman @danieltrubman.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
​"Why not make all of the income-restricted units affordable at 30% AMI?" is the housing discourse equivalent of "why don't they build the whole plane out of the black box?"
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
MAGA is like an auto-immune disease for the USA. Just fucking up anything they can get their hands on.
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Shane Phillips @shanedphillips.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
In our latest UCLA Housing Voice episode, Seva Rodnyansky shares his research on preapproved building plan programs in the US. How much do they speed up permitting? How much are they lowering costs? Where are they working best, and what can those places teach us? lewis.ucla.edu/2026/09/02/1...
lewis.ucla.edu
Episode 122: An Overview of Preapproved Building Plan Programs with Seva Rodnyansky
Seva Rodnyansky shares findings about how preapproved plan programs promise to speed up permitting and lower the cost of building new homes.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
A thought I have every time I hear Brown v. Board mentioned: If Euclid v. Ambler had been decided the other way (the right way), would Brown have even come up as a case?
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Just gonna leave this here: tubitv.app.link?channel=mobi...
tubitv.app.link
Punishment Park (1971)
Follows a film crew and their coverage of soldiers escorting anti-establishment types across the desert to participate in a game for their freedom.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Maintenance of apartment bans in wealthy areas by a municipality in California seems to me to be a clear violation of Government Code 8899.50: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_...
leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
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Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰 @urbanlandrent.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The question of “Why are enviros so temperamentally eager to say no to things but so unable to say yes to things” is easier to understand when you realize that they built themselves completely around an advocacy focused on hyperlocalized impacts on ecosystems
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
youtu.be/1s05tSXkYFQ?...
youtu.be
Why Boomers hate cities
YouTube video by Alan Fisher
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
I love this guy’s videos so much: youtube.com/shorts/Dojdh...
youtube.com
Mowed Turfgrass Along the Interstate is Killing Us
YouTube video by Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't
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Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
hey chris remember how basically none of the designs from the LA low rise competition are feasible? single stair solves that. there's a reason it's the median building, new and old, the world over - outside the US and canada.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Palms in cities are so terrible. Plant a tree instead.
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YIMBYonese Liberation Army @dingbattitude.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Put another way in the last 35 years the oceans have accumulated enough heat to power current global energy demand for 400 years
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
www.sacbee.com/news/local/a...
sacbee.com
New research shows unionized construction crews are more cost-efficient, on-time
A recent study of Sacramento County public works projects found that those led by unionized contractors were more cost- and time-efficient.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 14/07/2026
Environmental review at the urban level has become a farce.
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California YIMBY @cayimby.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
When suburbs restrict apartments, rents in nearby poor neighborhoods rise by ~$54/month, and the share of rent-burdened households increases by 2%. Exclusionary zoning in wealthy suburbs raises costs for low-income renters across the entire metro. cayimby.org/blog/suburba...
cayimby.org
Suburban Apartment Bans May Be Making Poorer Neighborhoods’ Rents Increase - California YIMBY
When suburbs block apartments, rents in nearby poor neighborhoods may rise by about $27 a month, according to a new national study. Most research on exclusionary zoning has focused on costs within…
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Jordan Grimes @cafedujord.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Possibly the first SB79 project in existence is a proposal to turn an old motel on .38 acres of land near the California Avenue Caltrain Station in Palo Alto into a 76 apartments. 200 units per acre, on a parcel where housing was not previously allowed. We absolutely love to see it!
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
What I’m wearing to the office today: voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4419...
A pink T-shirt that says, “Zoning: keeping Americans segregated and car-dependent for a century”
All cotton, available in many colors and a full range of sizes. 

https://voiceofdissentwear.etsy.com/listing/4419215371
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Pass the jackhammer!
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Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 02/07/2026
Before the invention of exclusionary single-family house zoning, great neighborhoods — housing thousands of people from all walks of life — grew up around great universities. We should make that legal again.
An aerial photograph of the neighborhoods surrounding Sorbonne University in Paris, France.
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Matthew Lewis -- living in the era of cults and consequences @mateosfo.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Happy SB 79 day to all who celebrate!! But especially @hanlon.bsky.social and @scottwiener.bsky.social who had the vision and held onto it against massive odds. cayimby.org/legislation/...
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Happy SB 79 Day!
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
SB 79 is now effective! It’s been a LONG time coming.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
20 minutes!
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
July 1, with SB 79 (partially) going into effect, cannot come soon enough.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Why so much focus on TOD? Why so much focus on “Affordable” (read: subsidized) housing? We need to allow apartments and no parking everywhere. Not in some places. Everywhere. accessmagazine.org/fall-2015/do...
accessmagazine.org
Does Transit-Oriented Development Need the Transit?
Download the PDF. Most planners think #TODs lead to less driving, but what if it’s not because of rail? #Parking Urban planners have invested a lot of energy
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Max from UNFTR @unftr.com · 27/06/2026
Trump is blocking a bipartisan housing bill to attach a voter suppression act over a "problem" that only affects 130 people a year, while 745,000 Americans sleep outside. Bad math, and even worse priorities. #UNFTR for @meidastouch.com. Watch the full video: youtu.be/MCPjytZiWnA
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
US zoning codes are so labyrinthine that grasping their implications takes months of study, or feeding hundreds of pages into an LLM. The complexity isn’t a bug to power through; it’s the point. The purpose of a system is what it does. These codes seem to exist so nothing ever changes.
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
If you aren’t listening to “Look Both Ways with David and Wes,” I’d strongly suggest you add it to your podcast feed.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
A new RAND study of impact fees finds that a 25% reduction in such fees would increase the number of feasible housing developments by 20%, and pay for itself via increased taxed revenue. www.rand.org/pubs/researc...
rand.org
Understanding How Impact Fees Shape Housing Development Feasibility
As California cities face growing pressure to build more housing, high development costs remain a major barrier. RAND researchers examines whether reducing impact fees could help make more housing pro...
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Sam Alcorn @samalcorn.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Exceptionalism and resistance to learning what works and doesn’t for other places must be eliminated from public discourse. “What works in this other place won’t work here! This is [insert place name], not there!”
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