Evan Siroky

City Councilman Unearths Magical Zoning Amulet

City Councilman Unearths Magical Zoning Amulet
theonion.com/city-co...

The WA House just approved SB 5501, which prohibits employers from requiring driver's licenses as a condition of employment, unless driving is an essential function of the job. It passed 61-36. This bill is headed to the Governor's desk!
app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/...

Protections for nesting gulls (among other uniquely Californian headaches) delayed repairs to Santa Cruz wharf Repairs on the wharf, damaged by last winter’s storms, were delayed by strict permitting requirements, environmental litigation.

I feel like Santa Cruz has so many examples. Most recent being a group uses CEQA to delay wharf restoration and then wharf collapses before repairs can finish: www.mercurynews.com/2024/12/28/p...

Sad state of affairs in transportation safety.

This new administration is putting safety as its last priority.

I Was an FTA Grants Manager. Here’s how the Trump Funding Freeze Could Impact Public Transportation — Transit-Oriented Discoveries "In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." - Albert Camus

Trump's chaos at the US Federal Transit Authority, as unpacked by a former FTA grants manager in a detailed and thoughtful post:

www.transitorienteddiscoveries.com/blog/i-was-a...

A construction site with some walls around the site

Construction update. No idea what these huge walls are for or if they're temporary.

Boom Supersonic XB-1 breaks sound barrier over Mojave Desert About 35,000 feet (10,670 meters) over the Mojave Desert, northwest of Los Angeles, Boom Supersonic's XB-1 became the first privately funded airplane to break the sound barrier during a test flight on Tuesday.

About 35,000 feet over the Mojave Desert, northwest of Los Angeles, Boom Supersonic's XB-1 became the first privately funded airplane to break the sound barrier during a test flight reut.rs/3E9xfO4

I'm not getting worked up about this one at all. I've known for a while that Google Maps invests a lot in localization to the extent of even drawing borders differently based on where a device accesses Google Maps from.

Chart showing projected increase in the percent of population that are older adults in the San Francisco Bay Area Counties.

And the growing percent of people that are older adults is a trend that is projected to continue.

Map of percent change in older adult population in San Francisco Bay Area from 2010-2022. Shows most of the bay had an increase in older adults.

The SF Bay area is aging. Map from MTC's 2024 Coordinated Plan: mtc.ca.gov/digital-libr...

The people colluding to create housing shortages in order to jack up the price of homes and rent are mostly single family homeowners, not nefarious corporate actors; and they’re doing it in public at your local planning commission, not in smoke-filled conference rooms or whatever.

President Trump Sworn into Office, Issues Significant Executive Orders - Passenger Transport On Jan. 20, Donald Trump was sworn into office as the 47th President of the United States. On that day, he issued a record-setting 26 Executive Orders (EOs) to immediately advance his Administration’s...

Good article summarizing some of the executive orders that may impact transit from @apta-info.bsky.social. aptapassengertransport.com/president-tr...

Trump kicks off potentially messy fight over Biden’s infrastructure money One of Trump's executive orders could imperil billions in funding for projects that states have already begun working on, some experts said.

Trumps executive orders "could imperil billions of dollars in funding for projects that states have already begun working on... for everything from roads and bridges to broadband and withstanding the effects of climate change."

This could get messy. h/t @yfreemark.bsky.social

OpenStreetMapping intensifies... if I can figure out how to add this as a custom layer.

Release 2025a · evansiroky/timezone-boundary-builder Zone Changes Update to latest OSM data

timezone-boundary-builder release 2025a is now live: github.com/evansiroky/t...

One of these days I may need to go to Doklam myself to figure out what timezone they really observe over there.

With this hack now you have to worry about daylight savings time transitions happening at the incorrect time!

Very interesting edge case! But I think there may be ambiguity on whether additional hours digits beyond just 2 could be accepted. The spec says one digit for hours is valid, so maybe more than 2 should be accepted as well? You should start a GitHub issue to discuss!

The real action for timezone banter remains on the listserv: lists.iana.org/hyperkitty/l...

Hard to say for sure whether people are connecting the dots that housing costs are a source of economic discontent. However, I think there's plenty of evidence we're materially worse in what we get for housing, see this evidence for example: bsky.app/profile/kevi...

Actually this might be too niche of a topic. I didn't find mention of this on x, threads or mastodon either.

BlueSky hasn't fully arrived yet. Nobody seems to have mentioned today's 2025a timezone database release.

There's probably a esoteric reason for why this construction project has left a tiny portion of the previous building's outside wall intact.

We are thrilled to announce SB 79, a new bill from @scottwiener.bsky.social that will legalize multi-family housing near transit. We are excited to co-sponsor this landmark legislation with SPUR, @streetsforall.org and the Bay Area Council.

I think there's something to be said about how there's too much process to get infrastructure and housing projects approved, but this seems like a pendulum swinging too far in the direction of deregulation when potentially even safety precautions are thrown out the window.

Can't there be an episode where say the Kratts brothers work with Zach Varmitech to instead do some urban infill on a parking lot or do a land swap to show land preservation in action?

Starting to wonder if I should limit my kids from watching certain PBS kids shows like Nature Cat or Wild Kratts. Too many times there are villains that are trying to build homes.

Diridon Station conceptual designs on display in Diridon Station.

Climate change is real and getting worse, so we're eliminating red tape to rebuild low-density homes in high-risk areas (and requiring insurance sales) while retaining the regulations for high-density structures in low-risk areas and for clean energy production and transmission.