Chaim Simon

MAJOR NEWS: @GavinNewsom signed SB 79, my bill allowing more housing near public transit — rail, subway, rapid bus.

It’s a huge step for housing in California. It’ll create more homes, strengthen our transit systems & reduce traffic & carbon emissions.

Thank you, Governor!

Ladies and gentlemen, we did it. SB 79 has been signed.

A graphic showing the enormous improvements since the launch of the original Nissan Leaf 14 years ago the new one goes four times further charges three times faster has two times more power and is 36% cheaper than the original

Useful comparison

Israel and Hamas have agreed to 'first phase' of Gaza peace plan, Trump announces Hamas plans to release all 20 living hostages this weekend, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, while the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza.

Hamas plans to release all 20 living hostages this weekend, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, while the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza. https://to.pbs.org/4nHBlyR

🇮🇱 Cabinet convenes tomorrow

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his Cabinet would convene on Thursday to approve "the agreement and bring all our dear hostages home״
@barakravid.bsky.social

The judge notes that noncitizens detained after 9/11 weren't held nearly as long without notice for the legal basis. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

A WILD ONE: A man broke his leg during an arrest by ICE at a car wash south of L.A.

ICE has held him under 24/7 guard at a hospital, registering him under a pseudonym, for *37 days* without telling him why.

A judge has ordered his immediate release.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

New Yorkers: After voting for candidates who will fight for affordability on the front of your November ballots, flip↩️your ballot to fight for affordability yourself by voting YES on Affordable Housing Ballot Measures 2-5!

Fun with data:

In the last 24 hours, the NYS Mesonet's Schaghticoke station has had 3.51" (so far, most in NY). That's just .1" shy of a 24-hour record at that site.

In the 90 days *before* this period, they were the driest station in the whole state, with 4.1" (in east-central NY). #nywx

Philanthropies Strike a Promising Deal to Turn Back H.I.V.

A drug that provides near-perfect protection against HIV with shots just twice a year will be made available at $40 per patient annually in low- and middle-income countries, offering new hope for ending the HIV epidemic.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/h...

Roll back regulations to lower housing costs - The Boston Globe The sheer volume of Massachusetts’ regulations can drive up the total cost of construction in significant ways. But some rules are no longer necessary.

The Boston Globe Editorial Board is running a whole series on the state’s excessive building code regulation over the next three weeks – single-stair, Massachusetts’s unusually low high-rise definition, and the mess of different septic system rules www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/21/o...

The first Chicago River swim in 98 years! The water is now clean enough. Congratulations to the hundreds of swimmers completing the swim this morning!

The reason they’re going to take up such an insane amount of space is that the city wants to dedicate them to each building (vs. international best practice of having them be city-owned and shared), and only collect 3x/week (vs. up to 14x/week in Barcelona).

DOT to start installing center-running bus lanes on Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue | amNewYork The city’s DOT announced that it will begin installing new bus lanes on Brooklyn’s primary thoroughfare, Flatbush Avenue, later this fall.

The new center running bus lane on Flatbush Avenue will speed up the B41 and bring safety improvements to what is currently a dangerous traffic corridor. We’ve been fighting for this project for years, and I’m excited it’s moving forward! www.amny.com/news/bus-lan...

Finally, egress failure and smoke penetration are incredibly rare.

Two times as many people die each year in LA County from car accidents than in the ENTIRE COUNTRY from apartment fires. And the vast majority of these deaths are in older buildings without fire sprinklers.

Why are single-stair buildings actually SAFER than two stair buildings in some circumstances?

It seems counter intuitive… obviously, more redundancy is better, right?

SB 79 (Wiener): Transit-Oriented Development and Upzoning SB 79 will make it faster and easier to build multi-family housing near transit stops, like train and rapid bus lines, by making it legal for more homes to be built in these areas and streamlining exi...

[BILL ALERT] SB 79, which broadly legalizes more homes near high quality transit stops, has passed the Senate floor! The bill is now on the Governor’s desk. Learn more: cayimby.org/legislation/...

California's SB 79 has now passed the State Senate, after passing the State Assembly yesterday. It's now on to the governor's desk.

It's a big change in zoning policy for California's cities that will encourage substantial additional housing in neighborhoods around the state's transit stations.

SB 79 — our bill allowing more housing near public transportation — just received final approval by the Senate & IS ON ITS WAY TO THE GOVERNOR!

This bill is a huge step for housing, transit & climate action. Thank you colleagues!

Ladies and gentlemen, SB 79 has passed both chambers! Off to the Senate for concurrence!

HUGE HOUSING NEWS: The Assembly just passed our bill allowing more homes near public transportation, SB 79!

We need more housing & we need it near transit. It’ll reduce traffic congestion & carbon emissions & increase transit ridership & affordability.

Go housing! Go transit!

SB 79 is up in the Assembly!

but how many blew a 3-0 lead in the alcs

Today, the Center for Building published “Beyond Zoning” by John Zeanah, Memphis’s Chief of Development and Infrastructure. He chronicles the non-zoning barriers faced by Malone Commons, a low-rise multifam/mixed-use project, and how they worked through them www.centerforbuilding.org/publication/...

In June, a Democratic state rep in Minnesota was murdered, and a state senator was shot.

And a couple of days later, Trump said he wouldn't phone Gov. Walz, calling him "whacked out" and "a mess"

this is really fuckin wild

Congestion pricing is working — and the cameras are staying on.

Indian Point owner floats restart of shuttered nuclear reactors Holtec, the company decommissioning the plant, says it would need state and federal backing to rebuild the plant.

Andrew Cuomo was a climate disaster for New York, and cleaning up his mess is going to cost the state billions: “Five years after Indian Point started shutting down, the company charged with dismantling the nuclear plant says it could still be restarted — at an estimated cost of $10 billion.”

Jensen Hughes won the NYS contract to conduct a single-exit study for the state code (the city already allows six stories and has a very different building code). The contract is in the amount of $331,000, and it has an end date of May 2027. wwe2.osc.state.ny.us/transparency...

The speaker of the city council can end member deference and start bringing everything to a vote - a completely democratic process.

If particular council members don't want to be on the record with their votes against a project, they can retire any time they want.