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Nato Powell

@hardwarehuman.bsky.social

Twitter refugee, YIMBY, kinda moderate I guess. Lots of luck and some talent with data has allowed me to live in San Francisco, but I hope lots and lots more people will eventually become my neighbors.

94 Followers  |  44 Following  |  682 Posts  |  Joined: 22.12.2023  |  1.7707

Latest posts by hardwarehuman.bsky.social on Bluesky

β€œUpzoning demolitions of rent controlled homes” isn’t even a sequence of words that makes sense?

20.11.2025 03:04 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I feel that one can make a decent argument that Anglophone democracies are weaker in multiple ways now than they were then, but otherwise I feel democracy is far stronger now than it was then. I think the biggest difference is in trajectory. Now the rising powers are likely to be less democratic.

16.11.2025 20:21 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

🀞

16.11.2025 19:58 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

If you said anything about human tolerance or allergenic properties, I missed it. Are we still sort of crossing our fingers that it doesn’t have some toxic or allergenic effect in humans, or do we have reasons for confidence that it’s likely to be a safe drug for at least some people?

16.11.2025 19:56 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I disagree with this, but thank you for giving your perspective on what abundance Democrats are! But how does this make the Venn diagram of abundance Dems and NIMBYs a circle?

12.11.2025 15:15 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I’m not sure why this is a reply to me; I broadly agree with your thread. Maybe I somehow gave an impression of my position that I didn’t intend?

12.11.2025 00:59 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

It doesn’t mean the stereotype isn’t gendered.

11.11.2025 22:37 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Especially now that they can add multiple wrong words in for you without you even noticing. I’ve become ever more thankful for services that allow editing messages, because it’s become so much more necessary.

11.11.2025 22:37 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

My understanding of abundance Democrats is Dems who are focused on pursuing policies that produce more goods and services (public and private) for most people, whereas non-abundance Dems tend to focus on preventing bad things from happening. Housing being a prime example where the approaches collide

11.11.2025 22:25 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I really feel like I have a totally different understanding of what β€œabundance Democrats” are from the other commenters in this portion of the thread.

11.11.2025 21:53 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Most of the mechanisms I’ve seen lauded by abundance Democrats have taken direct aim at the various ways wealthy landowners push development away to someone else’s backyard. Is there some major counter example I’m missing?

11.11.2025 21:51 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I mean, the Venn diagram of NIMBY and YISEBY really is a circle, but most of the mechanisms I’ve seen lauded by abundance Democrats has taken direct aim at the various ways wealthy landowners push development away to someone else’s backyard. Is there some major counter example I’m missing?

11.11.2025 21:50 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Huh? I think of the whole β€œabundance Democrats” movement to have come directly from left-YIMBYism.

11.11.2025 21:39 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

And compared to the US or USSR, neither China nor India had much quality land per capita.

11.11.2025 13:57 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Huh? They easily had the highest per capita of any of them. Recall that Ukraine and the Caucuses were all part of the Soviet Union, which were very comparable to the top tier productive lands in the US, but adding all the additional second tier lands stretching north and east deep into the interior.

11.11.2025 13:56 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

That is still in the future but probably could have been achieved years ago if the nuclear shutdowns hadn’t been pushed to the front of the line.

10.11.2025 21:54 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I caught myself continuing to argue pedantically but rather I should just congratulate Germany on making such good progress on coal. I would not have phased out nuclear while there were hydrocarbons still in use, but Germany is nevertheless making commendable progress and we should celebrate that.

10.11.2025 17:29 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Both because of genuine inequality growth and also a shift in what lifestyles are brought to our attention. I don’t have a way to even gut-estimate the factor contribution there because they interact with one-another. Regardless, I think the core progressive critique may be directionally correct.

10.11.2025 17:11 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I would assert that people judge how they’re doing on a relative basis, and that relative basis is mostly anchored in what they see *now*; memories of the past are hazy and (even more) narratively shaped. In relative terms, the median American might be doing appreciably worse now than in the past…

10.11.2025 17:08 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Legacy base load generation closures were going to happen due to renewables & etc. However, coal generation closures keep getting delayed because they were needed in the disappearance of nuclear generation. So, I feel it’s justified to say that Germany was replacing nuclear with coal.

10.11.2025 17:00 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

It seems to me that coal has reduced but has not been eliminated, so the claim to having replaced both seems shaky.

10.11.2025 16:53 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

I think the problem is that he seems to have always been like this to a significant extent. In responsible, intelligent adults, his current behavior would be a huge red flag for incipient dementia, but with Trump it’s really difficult to tell.

09.11.2025 15:58 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

This is the spot where it’s traditional to tell you I won’t be watching because [some complaint about the network or whatever], correct? So that you are deeply chastened or something.

08.11.2025 19:39 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

In case you haven’t noticed yet, the stream went out

05.11.2025 04:07 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

White supremacy is affirmative action for the most unsupreme white people.

16.10.2025 03:46 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s sometimes difficult to tell when a left-NIMBY is earnestly being a useful idiot for landowners, and when they kinda know it’s a game that raises the value of the house they’re inheriting from their Boomer parents.

01.10.2025 17:53 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I went to Philz consistently back when they offered their β€œPhilz bagel”. No great work of culinary art, but it was a reliably decent bagel with reliably decent toppings, and it really made Philz a comprehensive stop for me. Philz still has bagels but they and their toppings are meh now.

18.09.2025 16:07 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Having said that, I would love if you’re right and the establishment learns that recalls are poison.

17.09.2025 11:04 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s also going to be easier for the Diane Wilsey types to run their candidate. I also don’t think a β€œprogressive” left-NIMBY is practically better than a YIMBY centrist, because being a refuge is useless if no one can afford to live here.

17.09.2025 11:02 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Backing a more progressive candidate against them during the regular election next year was what I would have thought.

17.09.2025 10:44 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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