Max Mautner

Driving 5 mph slower beats driving 5% less

2026-10-02T17:00:00-07:00

Since our baby came home from the hospital, I have been evaluating the car-safety choices within my control. Two of them cost nothing: drive slower or drive less.

A household that drives 5% fewer miles has ~5% fewer chances to crash, assuming the miles cut are as dangerous as the miles kept.

Rune Elvik’s 2009 meta-analysis of 115 studies found that fatal crashes fall much faster than speed does. For example, going from 65 to 60 mph on a freeway (an 8% cut in speed) cuts fatal crashes ~28%. Going from 35 to 30 mph (a 14% cut) cuts them ~33%. To frame that in time costs, it costs ~90 seconds to drive 60 vs. 65mph on a 20-mile freeway trip.

Those figures come from changes in a road’s average speed, but one driver going slower than the traffic around them is a different situation. A 2019 meta-analysis found the relationship between speed and safety is the same for individual drivers as for a road’s average. Elvik’s own follow-up work found that a given percentage cut matters less at low starting speeds, so the 44% figure for a 25 mph street is likely high.

Slowing down reduces the crashes we cause and how bad they are. It does nothing about a driver who runs a red light into you, and fewer miles means less exposure to that driver too.

A 2005 study of California households compared families that were alike except for how densely built their neighborhoods were. For every 1,000 fewer homes per square mile around them, a household drove almost 1,200 more miles a year. The average American household drove ~20,600 miles in the 2017 National Household Travel Survey, so that density difference alone is worth ~6% of a year’s driving.

Counted by the county a person lived in, rural residents died in traffic in 2017 at 2.2x the rate of residents of metro areas over 1 million, according to death-certificate data from the CDC. The same year’s travel survey shows rural residents drove only 18% more miles per person. Each mile driven by a rural resident came with ~1.9x the deaths of a mile driven by a big-metro resident.

Rural drivers in the 2017 survey spent less time driving each day than big-metro drivers (54 vs. 57 minutes) and covered 21% more ground (29.5 vs. 24.5 miles). They averaged 31 mph to the big-metro drivers’ 25, on the rural roads where Elvik found a given cut in speed prevents the most deaths.

The real estate phrase “drive till you qualify” describes buyers who keep looking farther from work until they find a house cheap enough to qualify for a mortgage. I could not find a study that measures whether home prices reflect the traffic risk that comes with a location. A study by Bishop and coauthors comes closest to measuring it in finding that home prices are higher where older Americans’ risk of dying from any cause is lower.

Another study found that traffic death rates were highest in exurban counties and concluded that home buyers largely fail to account for that danger, though it did not survey buyers to show it. The study’s author also pointed out that parents choose homes for their schools without considering that their young children will have to walk those roads and grow into teenagers driving those roads.

The charts are generated by this code, which lists every input and its source.

1 in 4 new California homes is in someone's backyard

2026-10-01T17:00:00-07:00

In 2025, California cities permitted 41,846 accessory dwelling units and 43,083 detached houses, according to their annual reports to the state. ADUs were a quarter of all new homes permitted. In 2016 cities permitted only 1,336 of them.

That growth followed the state taking away cities’ power to say no, known as “state preemption.” A city now has to approve or deny an ADU application within 60 days, without a hearing, judged only against objective standards. Permits run ahead of finished homes: from 2018 through 2025 cities reported ~213,000 ADU permits and ~108,000 completed ADUs, and some permits legalize garages people already lived in.

ADUs took off because the person who decides to build one is the person who gets paid for it. A homeowner needs no developer and no subdivision. When my wife and I were pricing an ADU, our contractor gave us a reference: a senior couple who had built one, rented it to a great tenant at a very good rent without any trouble, and used the income to de-risk their retirement.

SB 9, the 2021 law that lets owners split a lot or build a duplex, is much more complicated than an ADU project. In its first year, Los Angeles received 211 applications for SB 9 units and approved 38. In contrast, the city permitted 7,160 ADUs that year.

We looked at an ADU when we had a baby, and built an addition instead. The bids came in within ~$10,000 of each other. Trenching utilities out to a separate building carried more cost and risk than tying an addition into the house, and our setbacks ruled out the prefab unit we wanted. We never planned to rent it out. We wanted room for visiting family and space to work and care for the baby, and on our lot an addition was the better way to get it. The city approved our permit in ~6 weeks, so permitting had nothing to do with the choice.

It took ~26 bills over 10 years to get here, by my count of HCD’s handbook, because cities kept finding workarounds. Some required the owner to live on the property, some wrote design rules a planner could read however he liked, and some charged impact fees. The state banned the first 2 outright and barred impact fees on ADUs of 750 square feet or less. In 2023 Huntington Beach stopped processing ADU applications altogether. The Attorney General sued, and the council backed down ~2 weeks later. Since 2025, a city that doesn’t submit its ADU ordinance to the state, or doesn’t answer the state’s objections to it, loses the ordinance and has to permit under state rules.

Many of those ADUs replaced garages, and state law bars cities from making owners replace the parking. In a survey of owners who built ADUs in 2018 and 2019, 23% were garage or other accessory-structure conversions. Those garages mostly held storage: a study in Sacramento found more than 75% of households had enough off-street parking for all their cars after accounting for how they actually used their garages. Nobody has measured the net change in off-street parking. My family would not have built anything, ADU or addition, if the city had required a new parking space.

ADUs are a brilliant end-run on local prohibitions on infill housing development. We will see how far YIMBYs can push the envelope on state preemption, but so far it is an astounding success.

The charts are generated by this code, which lists every input and its source.

When we talk about traffic violence

2026-09-27T17:00:00-07:00

New York City has the lowest car ownership of any large US city, and still 70% of its voters know someone who’s been injured or killed in a traffic crash. On Staten Island, the borough that drives the most, it’s 88%.

Safe streets advocates, me included, often write off the neighbors who drive everywhere, though they’re the ones most likely to know someone killed or injured by driving.

No national poll asks the question. The lifetime odds of dying in a crash are 1 in 101, and the average American knows ~611 people, so ~6 people they know will die in one. ~28 more will be seriously injured.

By 40, ~79% of Americans have lost someone they know to a crash.

Most people never connect those deaths to anything larger, partly because local news reports every crash as a one-off. Readers who see the same story alongside a count of other pedestrians killed nearby blame the road more and the people involved less.

Asked directly, 82% of Americans favor safer street design even if it makes driving slower. Support drops when the question names a specific tool. Only 47% of drivers back speed cameras on residential streets.

When San Mateo put an all-way stop at a crash-prone corner near my home this month, 15 people came out to celebrate it, and nobody I know of complained. The man who runs the preschool on that corner once gave first aid to someone hurt in a crash there while they waited for an ambulance. I knocked on their door, and he emailed the city about the crashes his students hear from the playground. He’s one of the people those polls count, and he acted the first time someone asked.

The charts are generated by this code, which lists every input and its source.

Too many roads

2026-09-24T17:00:00-07:00

The bus down El Camino Real through Burlingame was bumpy enough to unsettle the man across from me, a tourist from Ireland. I apologized for the state of the road, that we build roads but don’t necessarily maintain them. He gave me a suggestion that I took home with me: “Perhaps the problem in the US is simple: there are too many roads to maintain them all in America.”

I came home and looked it up. By roadway mileage per capita, America and Ireland are tied. The US has 4.2 million miles of public road, about 20 meters per resident. Ireland has 99,830 kilometers, about 19 meters per resident.¹

A national average mixes Manhattan with a town in the wheat fields of North Dakota, though. The comparison that matters is between American cities, where every mile counted is urban and the differences come down to how each place was built.

Los Angeles, known for its car culture, has less road per resident than New York. Counting its suburbs doesn’t change that: the 11 urbanized areas of greater Southern California from Santa Clarita to Temecula come to 3.8 meters per resident together. Kansas City has 9.1.²

Every mile of road in Los Angeles has 500 residents to pay for its upkeep, while every mile in Kansas City has 177. Density diminishes road upkeep cost by spreading it over a bigger tax base.

Despite a healthy tax base California’s roads are still in rough condition. The Bay Area and Los Angeles rank among the worst in the country for pavement condition, as the Irishman noticed.³ That comes from the other end of the ratio:

Los Angeles roads carry almost twice the traffic per mile that Kansas City’s do, and 2.7 times Pittsburgh’s. A small network driven hard wears out. A big network lightly driven wears out too, just more quietly, because asphalt also ages with sun and water whether anyone drives on it or not.

More road also comes with more driving. Atlanta’s roads log 35 vehicle-miles a day per resident while Los Angeles’s log 20.⁴

Pittsburgh, third on the first chart, is not a sprawl capital. The city has less than half of its 1950 population. Pittsburgh shows that road assets don’t scale down as people leave the area, and they don’t get cheaper to rebuild when fewer people are left to pay for them.

The ratio moves from the other direction too. Apartments on streets that already exist split the same miles among more households. The Homevoter Hypothesis explains why the people already living on those streets usually vote against the apartments.

Road upkeep is also only one of the costs of driving that drivers don’t fully pay. The rest, mostly crashes, comes to at least $2.15 trillion a year in the US, and every mile not driven takes a little off it. I broke that bill down in Paying for driving.

Correction, September 25, 2026: An earlier version of this post used FHWA’s 2023 table, whose population figures are from the 2010 Census; the figures and charts now use the 2024 table and 2020 Census populations, which leaves Los Angeles last but makes Miami, not Los Angeles, the metro with the most traffic per mile of road.

FHWA, Highway Statistics 2023, Table HM-20: 4,199,209 miles of public road, about 20 meters for each of roughly 335 million residents. Ireland’s total is from the Department of Transport’s 2018 road classification ↩
FHWA, Highway Statistics 2024, Table HM-71, urbanized areas over 1 million people, excluding Puerto Rico. Population is the 2020 Census; miles and travel are 2024. Data and code: github.com/mmautner/us-urban-road-mileage. Miles are centerline miles of all public roads; FHWA does not record road width, and local-road mileage is the least carefully inventoried category. Greater Southern California sums Los Angeles, Riverside-San Bernardino, Mission Viejo, Santa Clarita, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Oxnard, Camarillo, Palmdale-Lancaster, Temecula-Murrieta, and Victorville: 17.5 million people and 41,078 miles. ↩
TRIP, Keeping California Mobile (2025). TRIP is funded partly by the road construction industry, and its roughness measure covers major roads only. ↩
Daily vehicle-miles from Table HM-71 (2024) divided by population. The count includes through traffic, not only residents’ trips. ↩

A stop sign for $1,000

2026-09-17T17:00:00-07:00

Over the course of several months I had captured 3 photographs of crash aftermath at a single intersection, encountered while biking to and from downtown San Mateo.

A few months later, a hit-and-run driver struck an electric scooter rider at that intersection in the middle of the day. 2 days later I sent Public Works an email, giving them notice of “dangerous condition of public property.” The message restated what the city’s own adopted documents already said: Monte Diablo is a designated bike boulevard in the Bicycle Master Plan, North San Mateo Drive carries Class 2 bike lanes in both directions, and a preschool sits on the northwest corner. I embedded my 3 photos to illustrate the point.

Giving this type of notice doesn’t obligate the city to do anything. Under Government Code §835, a city is liable for injury from a dangerous condition of its property only where it had actual or constructive notice in time to have done something about it. Constructive notice is arguable and gets fought over in the discovery phase of lawsuits. But a dated email with photographs attached sitting in the city’s own records makes it very real, which is what a plaintiff’s attorney goes looking for after someone is hurt. What the notice changes is the city’s exposure if that intersection produces a serious injury next year.

I didn’t do this alone–I recruited neighbors to send their own emails. One of them runs the preschool, and he’d shared with me that students hear vehicles colliding with each other from their playground over the fence. He also shared that he had provided emergency care to a person before ambulances could arrive at the intersection. I suspect my email wasn’t as effective as his.

Public works replied to me in 3 days. The intersection would be reviewed under the city’s “Quick-Build” program, which staff described as facilitating roadway projects from concept to installation faster than the 12-24 months a standard capital project takes. The staffer was forthright about the queue for these projects, and that there were over a dozen similar requests, limited staffing, and to expect ~6 months to study and install anything.

That “Quick-Build” program has no visible public existence. There’s no webpage on the city website, no discoverable budget line in published city materials, no press coverage (which is a shame!).

Nearby San Francisco runs a Quick-Build program with a named webpage and its funding sources printed on it. San Mateo’s exists in staff email and the verbal record.

Moving to the front of the opaque list of a dozen means something else moved back. My friend who works on these campaigns with me raised this zero-sum issue after I BCCed him on my email: with fixed staffing and funding, prioritizing one request slows another, and advocates may be selecting winners rather than increasing how much gets built. Writing the email cost me an evening and evaluating it cost a traffic engineer weeks, so the ratio is bad and gets worse the more people do it. That is also why I never followed up with staff on my request for the program’s project list. The records would have made this a better piece of writing, but staff time spent producing the list for me would have come out of the next intersection.

2 more collisions happened while the intersection sat in that queue, on March 24 and June 19. I photographed both and forwarded both. The driver of one of the cars told me she was going the speed limit. On June 23 the city wrote back naming its 2 Quick-Build priorities: an exclusive pedestrian signal phase at 17th Avenue and El Camino Real, and an all-way stop at Monte Diablo and N San Mateo Drive. The first had finished, and mine was now first in the queue.

A 62-year-old woman was struck and killed in the marked crosswalk at 17th and El Camino on January 23, 2026. Caltrans reprogrammed that signal on June 1. El Camino is a state highway, so the city’s top Quick-Build priority was a project the city did not “build” at all. The second slot (mine) went to an intersection with no fatality on record, on the strength of photographs a resident took on the way to work.

The signs went up on September 11, 2026, 178 days after the notice. That is the original ~6 month estimate.

I never asked for a stop sign, the city’s public works staff picked the treatment. The city’s Local Roadway Safety Plan prices converting a 2-way stop to all-way stop control at $500 per sign and assigns it a 50% collision reduction factor. Installation took a few hours. My estimate of the hard cost is ~$1,000.

Every email I sent the city went out with ~14 neighbors BCC’d, so the whole multi-month exchange was legible to them while it was happening. I BCC my friends and neighbors to “lead by example”–showing how to do this so others might do this type of thing too.

I first found out when the stop signs went in because one of the neighbors who I was BCCing texted me with a message of gratitude. I hopped on my bike with my camera and went out to capture the changes made at the intersection and appraise how it felt different.

It then dawned on me: I should organize a party at the street corner. I sent out text messages, emails, Facebook messages. 15 people came, and I brought sidewalk chalk for the kids and a “stop sign” cake:

The intersection sits on the border of 2 council districts, so I invited both councilmembers and both came! Staff describe the program as Council-established, so a budget vote of the council paid for it.

After the celebration, I sent a thank-you email to the traffic engineering staff by name, including photos from our party. Sending an email costs $0.

Killing someone with a car costs $1.6 million. California requires drivers to carry $30,000

2026-09-11T17:00:00-07:00

In June 1922, Baltimore put up a 25-foot obelisk in Courthouse Plaza inscribed to the 130 children killed by drivers in the city the year before. Cities across the country were doing versions of this. The dead were overwhelmingly pedestrians and overwhelmingly young, and people had not yet grown accustomed to this fatal risk in their communities.

Cincinnati tried to do something about it. A citizens’ committee spent 1922 gathering signatures to put an ordinance on the ballot requiring every automobile operating inside the city to carry a mechanical governor physically limiting it to 25 miles per hour. Car dealers and the auto clubs organized against it. The measure lost 92,427 to 14,012 (87%-13%). Cincinnati recorded 103 traffic deaths the year of the vote, 157 by 1929, and 201 by 1934.

Connecticut took a different route in 1925, requiring drivers to prove after a crash that they could pay for the damages they had caused. Massachusetts went further in 1927, requiring proof of insurance as a prerequisite to registration. The required minimum coverage was $5,000 for the death or injury of one person, and $10,000 for everyone hurt in a single crash. Unlike a speed governor that restricts how a car gets driven, a financial responsibility law does little to prevent the crash itself.

Yet that is the version of driver safety policy that stuck. Every state except New Hampshire now requires some form of car insurance in order to drive, and it is the oldest surviving answer that American law gave to the automobile’s collateral damage. It has also been allowed to rot: the $5,000 that Massachusetts required in 1927 would be ~$96,000 in today’s money. Massachusetts requires $25,000 today, raised from $20,000 in July 2025 after ~40 years at the lower figure.

California set its minimum at $15,000 per person and $30,000 per crash in 1967. That $15,000 is worth ~$150,000 now, but it remained unchanged for 58 years. Senate Bill 1107, effective January 1, 2025, raised it to $30,000 per person, and writes in a further increase to $50,000 on January 1, 2035. While ~2.5 million people died on American roads between 1967 and 2024, California did not touch the number once. The increase that finally arrived (celebrated as the first in more than half a century) landed at 1/5th of the 1967 inflation-adjusted value.

NHTSA tracks what a road death costs in The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes: the average traffic fatality carries $1.6 million in discounted lifetime economic cost in 2019 dollars, ~$2 million today. That figure is lost market and household productivity, medical care, emergency services, legal and court costs, and property damage. Crashes in total cost $340 billion in 2019, 1.6% of GDP.

The same NHTSA report tracks who pays it. People not directly involved in the crash cover roughly 3/4 of all crash costs, $261 billion in 2019, through their own insurance premiums, their taxes, and congestion. Public revenues alone cover ~9%, $30 billion, which NHTSA converts to $230 in added taxes per American household per year. Every household in the country is paying an annual bill for crashes it had nothing to do with.

The gap does not get collected later. A driver who kills someone owes the whole judgment, and the policy limit binds only the insurer, but past the policy limit there is usually nothing left to take. Home equity, retirement accounts, and wages are either untouchable or capped by state exemption law. An ordinary negligent driving judgment then discharges in bankruptcy, with a carve-out at 11 U.S.C. §523(a)(9) for death or injury caused by drunk driving. In practice the insurer pays $30,000, the lawyer runs an asset check, and the case ends. A person can take a life, settle for 2% of the economic damage, keep the house, and walk.

It gets worse below the minimum: the Insurance Research Council put 15.4% of US drivers uninsured in 2023 and another 18% underinsured, 33.4% combined. One in three US drivers cannot pay for the harm they are statistically likely to do. What they cannot pay lands on the victim’s own uninsured motorist coverage, which is sold only as part of an auto policy. A pedestrian or cyclist who does not own a car cannot buy it at any price, and is left with health insurance, which pays for the hospital and nothing else. Even the ambulance ride from the crash site is an out-of-network charge 51% of the time.

The reason the number stays low is that once the state requires buying insurance, the minimum it picks determines two things:

who can afford to drive at all
how many drivers carry insurance, since some share of drivers priced out of a policy keep driving uninsured and unregistered instead

So the floor gets set by affordability politics rather than by the size of the bill, and once set it is left alone, because raising it means raising insurance prices.

California’s 2035 minimum coverage hike has already been priced. Quadrant Information Services rate filings, published by CarInsurance.com in March 2026, put a California liability-only policy at today’s minimum at $1,019 a year, and the same policy raised to $50,000 per injured person at $1,120. The higher quote also carries more property damage coverage than California requires, so it prices the generous version of the change. The difference is $101 a year. Going from $30,000 to $50,000 per person is the increase the Legislature already voted for and scheduled 10 years out, and it costs ~$8 a month to all (insured) California drivers.

Europe treats the same question as settled. The EU motor insurance directive requires every member state to mandate at least €1,300,000 of coverage per injured person, ~$1.5 million, or €6,450,000 per crash regardless of how many people were hurt, ~$7.4 million, revised every 5 years against the European consumer price index automatically. The United Kingdom requires unlimited coverage for personal injury. California requires 2% of the European per-person floor, Pennsylvania 1%, and Florida nothing at all.

California came close to fixing the drift. SB 1107 as introduced in 2022 would have raised the limits 4% every 5 years starting in 2028. That clause did not survive negotiations with the Personal Insurance Federation of California. What passed was a fixed step-up to $50,000 in 2035, which guarantees the same erosion starts again the day it takes effect.

The strongest technical objection to inflation-indexing is expiring. Until recently an insurer could not observe how riskily any given driver actually drove, so a higher mandate raised every California premium without sorting dangerous drivers from safe ones. In-car dongles that track jerky driving, crash event recorders, and driver monitoring systems now let an insurer observe behavior directly and price it.

What actually gets priced by insurers is the open question. An insurer will use new per-person driving data to reduce its own losses, and nothing in the current arrangement makes them price the risk that a heavy, fast vehicle poses to people outside it, because the loss the insurer faces is capped at a figure the Legislature picked. Any member of the California Legislature can introduce a bill to tie the mandatory coverage minimum to inflation before 2035. If they fail to do so then it restarts the same 58-year slide over again, and the households paying $230 a year for other people’s crashes keep paying it.

Paying for driving

2026-09-10T17:00:00-07:00

Most drivers in the US know what driving costs them, by adding up their bills: filling the gas tank, insurance payments, loan payments, servicing. AAA tracks these costs over time and estimates those costs for a new car in 2025 to be at $0.77/mile.¹

A study published this week in Transportation Research Part A puts a price on un-priced driving costs: crashes, air pollution, climate damage, noise, and the land taken up by roads and parking.²

Academic papers like this rarely punch through to a mainstream audience without their findings being re-stated for a wider audience, so I have done so through 3 visualizations below.

Private vs. public costs

Averaged across the world’s cars, those public costs come to $0.89/mile. Road construction is part of that figure, and fuel taxes and registration fees already cover about half of state and local road spending,³ so if those are excluded then what remains is $0.76/mile.

Crash costs dominate

While drivers pay for their cars, the “socialized” costs of driving are dominated by the costs from crashes. The study values road deaths and injuries worldwide at $3.98 trillion/year, which is twice the paper’s estimated driving costs from air pollution, climate damage, and noise altogether.⁴

Or visualized another way:

The authors of the paper argue for shifting these costs that the public are forced to pay back onto the driver’s bill through congestion pricing, road use charges based on distance and vehicle weight, and an end to subsidized parking.

Feel free to share these data visualizations as you see fit.

A note on “land costs”: the paper massively undervalues the land under American roads.

It takes its road-land figure from a US study by Guerra, Duranton, and Ma, then scales it down to the world’s average income. That US study puts the land under urban roads alone at $206-$370 billion a year, 5-9x what this study’s method assigns to every road in the country.

Correcting that one line adds $150 billion to $300 billion to the US total above, before counting parking, rural roads, or any rise in land prices since 2016.

What that land is worth is a subject for a separate post.

Footnotes:

AAA, Your Driving Costs 2025: $11,577 a year for a new vehicle driven 15,000 miles. ↩
Nadja Schweiggart, Stefan Gössling, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, and Felix Creutzig, “The global cost of automobility,” Transportation Research Part A 214 (2026), 105235. Open access. Figures are the paper’s central estimates: $0.5547 in social costs per vehicle-kilometer, of which $0.0808 is road construction. ↩
Tax Foundation, “Gasoline Taxes and User Fees Pay for Only Half of State & Local Road Spending.” ↩
Lawrence Blincoe et al., The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2019 (Revised), NHTSA, 2023. Includes quality-of-life valuations, covers all vehicles, and is in 2019 dollars. ↩

A scooter is cheating, a cargo bike is rude, the car is fine

2026-08-25T17:00:00-07:00

The Scooter

I still remember using an electric scooter for the first time and feeling a strong sense of guilt and physical laziness as I effortlessly glided over the concrete.

With a few hours of distance from that first scooter ride it dawned on me that I was feeling a guilt and laziness that I didn’t feel when driving a car.

Specifically, it felt like I was violating several norms at once:

“the roadway is for cars”
“the bikelane is for bikes”
“effortlessly transporting yourself outside of a car is lazy”

These norms are both self-imposed and societally imposed.

Societally: drivers find a small, twitchy and fast e-scooter rider to violate their norms of understanding around what to expect in the roadway. It also may offend their norm at having to share roadway space with non-cars that are smaller and slower than they are used to traveling.

My own mind associated the sensation of being outside in public on the open roadway–air flowing through my (helmeted) hair–with a bicycle ride. A key difference being that a bicycle ride involves my leg muscles and exertion powering me to my destination. As bicycling was my reference experience, I could not help but judge e-scootering as physically lazy.

Feeling guilt is entirely self-imposed though! Nobody was standing next to me saying “you’re cheating”. In fact I encountered very few people on that first scooter ride at all!

And ultimately: why is riding a 2-wheel motorized device to your destination any more lazy than driving a 4-wheel motorized vehicle to your destination?

The Cargo Bike

With time I set aside e-scootering as a transportation choice for me.

I found the small wheels and standing position to be too physically dangerous for my tastes, and I also found the trips I would use an e-scooter for were eliminating the desirable physical exercise I would got from walking or bicycling to the same destination.

However I did not sit idly on walking and biking as I used to: I picked up a cargo bike, loaned to me by a friend.

Taking the cargo bike out for rides introduced another norm violation:

It is so big! But in spacial terms it is maybe 1/4 the footprint of the average of a car.

It is so heavy! But in terms of weight is maybe 100 pounds vs. a 4,000 pound average weight of a car.

I felt self-conscious as I navigated the streets a little less nimbly in the wide canoe than I would ordinarily with my “ordinary” bicycle.

I feared being a “space hog” on the road and that drivers would be more likely to menace me as I competed with them for more roadway space.

I also competed with them for parking space.

The Car

Both the e-scooter and the cargo bike triggered in me a feeling of discomfort based on a deviation from a norm–but it was not based on the vehicles’ absolute size, speed, or impact.

That seems backwards: operating actually big and dangerous vehicles is the invisible norm, and the stuff that’s small and safe is uncomfortable because it’s rare.

What would it take to make driving feel out-of-the-norm?

Have drivers regularly walk or bike the same corridors they drive.

Chalk or cone off one car-parking-space area and show how many bikes, or how many square feet of café seating, fit in it

Surface the alternative at the moment of driving: “this would be a 9-minute walk”. Quantifying converts breaks the norm.
Price what’s currently free or flat-rate: metered parking, congestion pricing. Buffet pricing gets ignored; the same way an open bar produces more drinking vs. a per-drink tab.
Narrow lanes, elevate crosswalks, add street trees close to the curb–change the physical environment so the vehicle stops matching its surroundings. Driver behavior “improves” because the street no longer signals a car here is prioritized.
Name the norm violation: “crash” not “accident”, “subsidized parking” not “free parking”, “car storage” instead of “parking.” “Manspreading” succeeded at naming a spatial behavior and course-correcting through shaming.

The exercise for me is very real, it isn’t a drivers’ training program, it’s my own commute.

From an absolute time perspective, the bike ride to the train station is faster than the drive.

If there's a war on cars in the USA then the cars have won

2026-08-08T17:00:00-07:00

Every American understands the phrase “war on cars”, including the ones hearing it for the first time. Cities fight over every reallocation of street space: a protected bike lane, a bus lane, parking converted into parklets.

At stake in these fights is an inherited premise: that a car is how an American arrives at adulthood, independence, and economic mobility. Yet fewer people are claiming it: in 1983 nearly half of 16-year-olds held a license, but by 2022 it was about a quarter. 18-year-olds holding licenses fell from 80% to 60% over the same span.

The vehicles have kept growing anyway. The federal government has weighed and measured every new car, SUV, and pickup sold in America, model year by model year, since 1975.¹ The first 6 years are the only stretch in the last 50 when American vehicles got smaller.

The average new vehicle sold in the United States now weighs 4,441 pounds — the heaviest figure in the 50-year record.

Horsepower traces the same shape:²

An average new vehicle sold in the USA today makes 264 horsepower, nearly double the 1975 figure and 159% above the 1981 trough. The average new vehicle reaches 60 mph in 7.3 seconds, down from 15.6 in 1980.³ On this chart, falling is the bad direction if you care about pedestrian or bicyclist safety:

A faster car is a car whose driver has less time to humanize others they may or may not see beyond their windshield.

“Footprint” is the rectangle you’d get by drawing lines between the four spots where a car’s tires touch the pavement: front tire to back tire, left tire to right tire. The EPA sets fuel economy standards against that rectangle, and a bigger one means more permissible gas guzzling. Growing the car size is a strategy for American car companies to remain compliant with a backwards policy:

The average American vehicle footprint is up 6% since the EPA started tracking it in 2008.⁴ Between 2003 and 2023 the average new vehicle grew about 5% longer and 6% wider, and the space displacement has spread across every parking stall, turning radius, and sightline in the country.

The footprint increase has directly escalated parking congestion in my city of residence (San Mateo, CA).

Drivers struck and killed 7,080 people walking in the United States in 2024, 72% more than in 2009, when pedestrian deaths were at their lowest.

Fifty years of federal data show a fleet that has gained mass, power, and land use. While drivers have gained acceleration they have also lost critical seconds they need to react to pedestrians and bicyclists in the roadway, i.e. their neighbors.

I have critically left out vehicle miles traveled: how far is all this metal actually moving and how much per capita? I will revisit that in a subsequent blogpost.

In the meantime, people trying to walk, bicycle, or ride the bus in America have never been more outgunned in the “war on cars” since the consumer automobile revolution in the 1920s.

The contested territory in the war is a bike lane here, a bus lane there, and a few parking spaces.

Where things are headed is up in the air: is there any reform on the horizon that will curb these metrics? Is their a ceiling to vehicle size?

These questions are playing out at local, state and federal levels of government–and your voice is needed: as a voter and a consumer.

US EPA, The 2025 EPA Automotive Trends Report (EPA-420-R-26-001, February 2026). Weight, horsepower, 0-to-60, and footprint series are from Table 3.1 and the accompanying vehicle-attribute tables. Report landing page and downloadable data: epa.gov/automotive-trends. ↩
Model years 1994–2009 are reconstructed rather than taken directly from a published annual figure, by combining EPA’s separate car-class and light-truck-class weight averages — published as US DOE, Fact #807: Light Vehicle Weights Leveling Off (December 9, 2013) — with production-share splits interpolated between EPA’s official 1993, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010 values. The reconstruction matches every official checkpoint it touches to within one pound. ↩
EPA does not measure 0-to-60 times; it estimates them from engine power, weight, body style, and powertrain using the regression models in Don MacKenzie and John Heywood, “Acceleration Performance Trends and the Evolving Relationship Between Power, Weight, and Acceleration in US Light-Duty Vehicles”, Transportation Research Record 2287 (2012): 122–131. Pre-2010 points are sampled every five years. ↩
JATO Dynamics data as reported by Motor1, “In The USA And Europe, SUV Popularity Has Set Records For Average Vehicle Size” (February 2024). Three observation years, US figures only. ↩

Key Biscayne, Florida

2026-07-29T17:00:00-07:00

I often visit family in Miami–and I explore the area including upscale Key Biscayne, just across a causeway from Miami.

We of course took the bus over the water, to maximize leisure and 360 views!

Miami’s 26 bus route ranges in frequency from every 10 minutes at peak to hourly late at night.

In Key Biscayne we walked through affluent neighborhoods–here is a snapshot of the Zillow Zestimate map:

This snapshot is a bit exaggerated, as available condos in Key Biscayne bring the median home price down a bit lower to a cool $1.6M.

Walking meant no sidewalks:

Proof-of-life: a parent & child bike ride–something I had not seen in Miami before:

Tragically, we saw this bench with flowers and knew something was off:

This bench marks the site of a fatal collison between a 12-year old e-bike rider and a 66-year old bicycle rider.

The two riders collided: while the 12-year old was wearing a helmet the 66-year old was not, and the 66-year old died from the crash.

I learned from reading about the crash that Key Biscayne (the municipality) pushed through an e-bike ban and attempted but failed to push through a state-wide ban.

A few personal learnings (or reminders, rather):

motorized mobility is fatally dangerous
practice safe-riding practices that are within your control:
- wear a helmet
- ride a manageable speed
- improve visibility with reflective clothing and lights
adolescent motor vehicle access is fatally dangerous to others, and enforcement has failed to eliminate this danger

The visual experience of walking around Key Biscayne’s neighborhoods (besides the humidity experience–which was very high) meant a ton of golfcarts:

You can tell that these golfcarts do not enable car free living, but perhaps they replace one of a household’s car portfolio:

Golfcarts are so embraced by the community that infrastructure & signage accommodates the motorized vehicles:

Some illustrative golfcart parking photos:

And quite a few households had visibly more than one golfcart:

Parking etiquette is all over the place, but it does mean less of the key is paved over:

You know it is an exclusive (exclusionary?) community when they call their municipality a “village”–more folksy-sounding than than “town” or “city”!

Aspirational naming:

Before we wrapped up our visit we picked up some baked goods before timing the bus pickup perfectly:

The bus stop was crowded:

Return ride:

Enjoy your own transit-enabled adventures!

Kirby Cove Camping

2026-07-24T17:00:00-07:00

Embarking on a Sunday-Monday camping trip (getting home before the Monday workday!).

Beginning at the train station, trying out the Burley Travoy trailer as camping gear portage:

It was not such a long bike ride from the train station to meet up my friends at the southern span of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Our destination was Kirby Cove, a park located just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

Hit some congestion:

I took a break before reaching the Golden Gate visitor center where us bike campers were congregating, before making our way over the bridge:

After a little waiting (I was the first to reach the meeting point) we headed out across the bridge:

Beginning the descent down to the campground:

Campground before bedtime:

And the next morning, my final photos captured before my mad rush to make an early train home before the Monday workday began:

Forever grateful for beautiful experiences like this.

If you are considering giving bicycle-enabled camping a go, take this as a sign to give it a try!

Aspen visit

2026-07-09T17:00:00-07:00

This past week I spent in Aspen, Colorado–an ultra-expensive alpine town.

I have done so a number of times to visit with family.

The city’s population is ~7,000 according to the 2020 census.

Notably, the population balloons by 77% to ~12,000 during the daytime, due to an absence of housing inventory and a migratory workforce.

These facts and figures matter to me as I am fascinated at the functioning of an extremely wealthy community as it manages a labor force via transportation infrastructure in the absence of housing infrastructure.

This toxic pattern is familiar to me from my native San Francisco Bay Area!

We flew with our son for the first time. It went shockingly easily, helped along by a nearly empty direct flight:

We landed the morning of the 4th of July. The free in-town buses were swamped and hard to board with our luggage. This is the same bus network that carries the workforce, but on a holiday it chokes on tourists.

We made the parade, and watched an immense number of people arrive by bicycle:

I noted a Bafang-motor fat-tire e-bike for sale, with no price and no phone number posted:

On my way to work remotely at the library, I passed a book for sale at the pharmacy cash register:

It’s called Escape Home, about an Austrian Jew who fled the Nazis and, like my family, started over after the war, though this one settled in Aspen. He escaped occupied France on foot and bicycle, reunited with his children after eight years apart, and became a high school language teacher in the young ski town. I didn’t expect to find a version of my own family’s history for sale in Aspen.

At the library the wifi turned out too flaky to work on, so I abandoned the laptop and browsed the stacks instead.

I picked up a book on the transcontinental railroad build-out, focused on the rivalry between St. Louis and Chicago. I hadn’t known the build-out ran straight through the slavery fight, or that it decided which of the two cities won:

The dollars required to build a railroad line west from Saint Louis or Chicago came in large measure from New England money lenders, all of whom were certain that slavery was wrong… Many of the same affluent families had provided money to build early railroads across the Midwest, but after the Kansas-Nebraska firestorm in 1854, they redirected their investments from slaveholding Missouri and metropolitan Saint Louis to Chicago in the slavery-free state of Illinois.

…As late as 1850, Saint Louis still handled twice as much wheat and flour as Chicago. But within five years, Chicago had surpassed Saint Louis.

This is the pattern that interests me. The railroad came first and the growth followed it–Chicago grew because it got the tracks, not the other way around. Aspen has the transportation but won’t build the housing to match, so that growth never arrives.

The book was good on how expensive surveying and planning a route could be:

One passage tied Chicago back to my own San Francisco, along the route that’s now Amtrak’s California Zephyr:

My wife and I had talked about taking the Zephyr out here instead of flying. It’s about 24 hours from Oakland to Glenwood Springs, then an hour by bus to Aspen. We decided against it, for the time and the unknowns of doing it with a baby.

We did, though, take the bus from Aspen to Glenwood Springs, and caught a glimpse of their Amtrak station:

The ride runs from mountains to plains to river:

It wasn’t free, but it was comfortable and cost $3.75 for an adult.

The free in-town buses that choke on tourists and the smooth $3.75 regional coach are two halves of a whole: the thing that lets Aspen work without housing its workers.

The town controls the rest of its space just as tightly. Parking is heavily regulated, monitored, and enforced:

Golf carts get no quarter:

I noticed some street sleeping, which is technically illegal and happens anyway:

A town that meters its curbs this precisely has been far less precise about housing the people who fill its jobs.

Downtown has placemaking touches. Some resourceful lounge benches:

And some decorative, movable bollards:

I got out running on the trails, only to encounter a black bear:

And once I got my hands on a bicycle, a little riding:

Heading home, I liked seeing the barely-secured bikes parked right in front of the departures entrance:

I recognized most of Aspen from home: the imported workforce, the buses carrying it in and out, the housing that never gets built.

The mountains were the unfamiliar part.

Until next time, Aspen!

Moving Car-Free as a Parent

2026-06-27T17:00:00-07:00

I am late to share the news here on my blog, but I became a father recently.

This has opened my eyes in many ways, but I want to jot down some thoughts about family mobility while they are fresh.

Moving around as a parent with a child is a form of physical disability.

I did encounter this fantastic YouTube video a month or so before our baby was born, and it was inspiring:

You can of course forego a car ride home from wherever your baby delivered (I was born in my parents’ home!).

I had heard that it is illegal to leave the hospital without a carseat, but it turns out that is not correct.

In fact a Minnesota state legislator & her newborn were biked home by their husband recently in a cargo bike (Instagram video).

But fast forwarding from the moment of delivery to being back home with infant, wife and myself–I endeavored to discover all the ways to avoid driving:

Walking is key
- with stroller or carrier (of which there are quite a few variants).
- strollers are incredible shopping carts: they can carry your required diaper-changing gear, bottled milk/formula, toys, and groceries.
- a big caveat for post-partum mothers, whether they deliver vaginally or via C-section, mobility is impaired and you don’t want to push things too fast.
- I actually run when it is just me and my son–this roughly doubles my walking time and I have gone on 10+ mile runs with him.
Public transit is a much more difficult space to navigate:
- your newborn will not be fully vaccinated for a wide range of diseases until the 2-6 month mark–and in the first 2 months your infant is at acute risk of respiratory diseases that would cause hospitalization. This is a reasonable risk to mitigate by not using public transit until respiratory immunizations are done at the 2-month mark.
- most buses and many trains have (1) no at-grade boarding and (2) appropriate space for a stroller, so most parents are understandably deterred from utilizing them. This can of course be avoided by using a carrier, but learning to use a carrier with a newborn who has poor neck strength can be easily overwhelming
- “What will you do if their diaper is soiled?” – this fear turned out to be totally overblown. In the absolute worst case you can de-board the bus, change the diaper at the bus stop, and board the next bus! Turns out that infants’ feces are not smelly either.
Bicycling is do-able, but traffic risks take on a whole new level of stakes:
- I tested out the Urban Arrow bucket bike with a carseat adapter, but didn’t have quite the budget to buy the bike–I would recommend it though!
- much more accessible in the US is a bicycle trailer (Burley, Thule, etc.)–while their product descriptions deter usage below 12 months, this is for legal liability purposes and concerns about neck strength–but realistically these trailers have great suspension + inflated tires so they are a real option and parents of infants in Europe use them.
Driving is the default for the 95% of North Americans
- This is just reality – it is what most North American communities are built for, and depressingly it translates to a highly asocial and lonely experience for new parents–something that my household’s lifestyles miraculously is innoculated from, though it takes real sacrifice to make it logistically possible (e.g. be more selective about where you choose to reside and what services/businesses you patronize). This is a sacrifice that most North American new parents cannot hold space for making.

Some illustrative photos from these first happy months of parenthood–enjoy! I’d love to hear from you about your experiences/advice.

The fundamentals–walking with a carrier:

Running! Get a stroller with pneumatic tires:

One of many bus rides with a carrier:

Napping on the bus is no problem:

My wife or I can comfortably bring the stroller on our local bus at off-peak hours:

Train rides (with stroller):

Train rides via Amtrak (inter-city rail):

Stroller as shopping cart:

The first bike ride, with the Urban Arrow + carseat:

Here is an improvised setup I saw at the local mall:

Hope you enjoyed! I expect to share more parenting thoughts as they come…!

Voting with Feet

2026-06-25T17:00:00-07:00

“Voting with your feet” usually means leaving. You don’t like the schools, or the taxes, or the politics, so you move somewhere that suits you better.

Lately I have tended towards staying & investing.

A few years ago I reclaimed citizenship in Austria, the country my Jewish grandparents fled. A second citizenship made me stop and ask what I was signing up for.

A citizen doesn’t only draw protection from a state; a citizen pays into it. Austria has compulsory military service for men 18-35 years old. Where you hold citizenship decides whose roads and schools and pensions your life’s work funds.

A country’s immigration law dictates whether it wants more feet. An aging economy with a shrinking tax base looks for people to bring in. Letting people in is how a place stays financially solvent.

The national version of “voting with your feet” is abstract to most Americans. ~5,000 Americans renounced their citizenship in 2025. With a population of ~320,000,000 citizens that is an effective annual rate of ~0.0016%.

Most taxes I pay as an American are income taxes, and they go to the federal government. But learning about municipal finance made the concept of loyalty more concrete for me: sales tax, property tax, permit fees. That money goes somewhere, and the somewhere includes institutions a few miles from my house. Where I shop, who I hire, whether I rent or buy are small recurring votes for somebody down the street.

California makes this weirder than it needs to be. Under Prop 13, two neighbors in identical houses can owe wildly different property taxes based on nothing but who bought longer ago – which quietly rewards sitting still.

The smallest version of this is the household. You pool your money and your hours and keep choosing to pay into it. My wife and I picked each other, and picked this city, and then a baby arrived who got no vote in any of it. Most days staying in our current residence presents as the best option. But pricing childcare in our area is easily $3,000 a month and that is a sobering amount. Notably, every local childcare provider we’ve met is a first-generation immigrant. The people who would allow us to keep working and still raise this kid are the same people a louder version of our country spends its energy trying to keep out. Letting people in isn’t limited to new feet arriving from abroad; those new feet are a big part of why anyone here gets to grow a family at all.

Being somewhere on purpose is a kind of loyalty too, and loyalty does add value to a place. Much of Melody Warnick’s This Is Where You Belong touches on how to add value, and that where you land matters far less than what you do once you’re there.

But Prop 13 is also a preview of where this goes wrong. The people who’ve been present longest tend to feel they’ve earned disproportionate say, and a lot of them spend it on keeping new feet out. That’s the Homevoter Hypothesis: local politics run by people safeguarding what’s been built against the people who’d like to stay too.

Which sends me back to the passport, and to the half of the phrase I skipped. Voting with your feet usually means leaving, and my grandparents did leave: they fled Austria on the cusp of the Holocaust. I’m here three generations later making a wordy case for staying put.

But my grandparents didn’t run to America. The United States said no. Bolivia, however, said yes. And so my father was born in Bolivia, a poorer country that had every excuse to call itself full and didn’t. My grandmother and father reached the US only years later, after my grandfather died and my grandmother re-married an American. My grandmother and father were let in as a wife and stepson, not as refugees. Our country likes to tell this kind of story as though it were the hero of it. For my family, the USA was a closed door.

This wasn’t bad luck or lost paperwork. In July 1938, a few months after Austria was annexed by the Nazis and its Jews were suddenly stripped of everything, 32 countries sent delegates to Évian, France, to decide what to do about the people trying to get out. One after another they gave sympathetic speeches and then explained why they couldn’t take anyone; the United States, which had called the conference, was among them. Only the Dominican Republic agreed to take more refugees in. The Nazi government read the outcome out loud and correctly: the world had just admitted it didn’t want these people either.

So I know what the closed door looks like. Presence is a vote; so is deciding who gets to be present at all. None of this was ever only about showing up and adding what you can. It’s about not being the one standing in the door – the way this country stood in it once, against the people it now says it would have saved.

This is Where You Belong

2026-05-30T17:00:00-07:00

Sorry, this blogpost is a book review.

But it was a really great read–and I read it cover-to-cover, which is very rare for me in my adulthood.

The book is called “This is Where You Belong” by Melody Warnick, and its contents fiercely resonated with me as I read it when my then-girlfriend and I were entering COVID-19 lockdown together.

COVID triggered a lot of lifestyle changes globally, and for our household it triggered deep reflections on where we should live. It seems like back then we would turn to each other every day and discuss where we should move to in this new era of work-from-anywhere.

I read this book as its title seemed to hit on the root question of our COVID-era conversations:

“Freed of labor market requirements, what makes a place somewhere where the two of us would choose to set roots together as a family?”

Let me give a brief run down of the book’s contents, and then I’ll leap to the conclusions I derived from reading it:

The introduction shares that Americans move more times in their lives than any other country in the world, and this physical mobility and willingness to uproot social ties to go rebuild new ones is a cultural strength and weakness.

Each chapter prescribes a specific exercise to the reader about how to explore a place and to develop a feeling of “belonging” in that place.

While I had picked up the book to help triage the list of cities that we could move to I came to realize that these exercises are not limited to picking a permanent residence. These are activities to help you fully embrace a place that you are visiting at any stage of life. I’ve practiced these exercises in small towns I’ve visited for weddings, far flung work trips, and visiting family members where they live around the US and world.

Some of these exercises:

Walk more – moving at the speed of a human opens you to immensely more social opportunities than driving.
Share a meal with a neighbor – you’d be shocked at how happily willing your neighbors are to do this, whether potluck, picnic or dining out.
Patronize local businesses - even if you don’t like their inventory or prices at first glance, spending money locally pays staggering dividends for your community’s wellbeing. This includes employing workers who live near you and generating local tax revenues that directly fund your community’s public amenities. Alongside driving less, this is arguably this single greatest power you have as an individual to improve your community.
Volunteer – it’s a great way to meet your neighbors and deepen shared values, while also being an informal opportunity to get to know other people’s lives.
Get involved with politics – this one can be very toxic, but familiarizing yourself with the political challenges your community faces deepens your connection with the place’s social fabric.
Read the local news – new business openings/closures, local sports, crime blotter, it all serves to educate you about things that impact your life more than national or international news might. You can read my own letters to the local editor here.
Learn local history – this shared context about history helps you understand why things are the way they are, what’s been tried before, and what might be possible!

I am entirely reciting these from memory, so I may have missed a few or even gotten them wrong.

Reading the book did not result in a radical relocation for us. My then-girlfriend/now-wife and I did move but it was about 3 miles away, and we have stayed put for 5 yearssince then, putting us near a decade in the same city.

While I picked the book to help choose where to live it is not about that at all. It does not matter where you are, these exercises will deepen your connection with a place no matter your relationship with it or how much time you have spent there.

Some videos I recorded with my neighbors, inspired by the book:

How to Meet Your Neighbor

My neighbor handed me a speeding survey. Then she told me people my age want her dead.

2026-05-25T17:00:00-07:00

A neighbor on my street handed a flyer to the house next door. It was a one-page printout, calling for neighbors to write down details of speeding vehicles on our street (make, model, time, direction), which she planned to compile and bring to the city.

I appreciated the intent.

I called the number on the flyer and invited her over. I expected to talk strategy with her about how to persuade the city to make our street safer.

She stayed for an hour at my home. We spent less than 10 minutes talking traffic. I offered her coffee and tea. She declined both. She had not really come to talk about cars on the street.

She came to tell me three things.

One: people my age want her to die so her house comes onto the market and frees up housing supply.

Two: her taxes keep going up.

Three: city services — street cleaning, storm drain vacuuming, sewer lateral coverage — have steadily disappeared.

She is in her seventies. She lives with her husband in a 3,700 square foot residence. The Zestimate on the house is $2.2 million. Prop 13, California’s 1978 law capping assessments, has her assessed at $740,000 — she is paying property taxes on a basis that has not meaningfully moved since the Carter administration.

The traffic survey was not about traffic.

Each thing she told me is wrong, in a direction.

I do not know a single person under forty who wants her dead. I know dozens who would like to be able to live within walking distance of their aging parents and cannot financially make it work. She fears the inverse of what’s happening.

Her taxes have, by law, gone up no more than 2% a year for as long as she has owned this house. Everyone in San Mateo who has bought a home since the 1980s pays a larger share of their property’s actual value in tax than she does. She is in the privileged tax bracket. The system she is complaining about is the one protecting her.

City services have in fact eroded. She is half-right about this one — she is wrong about why. Cities have shed services in large part because their property tax base is choked by the same 1978 law that locks her assessment at $740,000. The missing street cleaning is downstream of the missing tax revenue from her own house. The services she remembers were funded by the tax structure Prop 13 dismantled — the dismantling she has spent decades defending.

She is not lying. She believes all three things. They are wrong in different directions, but they point the same way. Each identifies people like me, or change, or the future, as the threat. Each absolves the regulatory and tax regime she has been defending for forty years of any responsibility for what she is feeling.

But she is not wrong that something is wrong.

The street outside her house has cars going faster than she can safely walk across. The walk to the grocery store requires crossing some long crosswalks in the path of speeding cars. The neighborhood is mostly empty during the day. The corner store closed over a decade ago. Her friends are dying. The people who would visit her live somewhere else, because the somewhere else is what they could afford.

Each of these has a fix. Slower streets. Denser zoning so a corner store could survive. Missing-middle housing so people who would visit her could afford to live nearby. Frequent transit. Safe bike infrastructure. Reduced parking minimums. Every fix is on the agenda at the planning commission. Every fix is opposed by people like her. Sometimes by her specifically.

Homeowners in her position have spent decades opposing the changes that would have made life in their 70s easier. She inherited Prop 13; she has spent forty years defending it. Lower density meant no corner store. Single-family-only zoning meant the next generation could not afford to stay. Wide streets meant fast cars. Free parking meant transit could never compete. Each fight sounded reasonable, in isolation. Stacked up together they built the cell she is now alone inside.

I think she has been handed the wrong story about why her life feels diminished, and the people handing her that story — neighbors, Nextdoor, local media — are unanimous in the wrong direction. The young people she is afraid of want her to thrive in her house for another twenty years. They would also like to be allowed to live nearby.

She killed an hour of my afternoon. She did not want coffee. She wanted to tell me three things, and what she actually told me was the worldview of some — not all, but enough — of my older neighbors. It is a worldview in which the people next door are the threat, the tax system is rigged against them, and the city is failing them. None of it is true. All of it is felt.

They vote.

She thinks we want her dead. We want her to have neighbors.

Moving at Human Speed

2026-05-20T17:00:00-07:00

5 years ago I stopped driving.

I get around by walking, biking, taking the train & bus.

It’s been long enough that the change has stopped being a “transition”, and it’s now an opportunity to inventory what actually changed.

Health

Driving to work was literally killing me, in 2 ways.

The first was the absence of exercise. 2 hours a day in a seated, motionless box, eating into the same hours I might otherwise have spent moving. Walking and biking didn’t replace exercise as a separate hobby; they were the trip. The errand became the workout.

The second was more direct. I was a danger to myself and to other people. I drove on highways and arterial streets where most of the drivers around me were looking at addictive phones, and where I was doing the same in my worst moments. The American driver knows, somewhere underneath the radio and the climate control, that the situation in our roadways is not under control.

5 years out, my resting heart rate is lower. I sleep better. I wake up looking forward to the bike ride to a meeting rather than dreading the drive to it. My whole mental health floor moved up — not because anything specific got better, but because the low-grade dread was removed.

Wealth

I’ve written about the financial side before. The short version: it costs a lot to drive a car, and the savings get larger the more attention you’ve paid to the line items most drivers stop noticing.

The smaller thing I’ll add here: I haven’t paid for parking in 5 years.

Reconnecting with nature

I knew the seasons in an abstract way before — daylight savings, holidays, pumpkin spice latte on the menu.

Walking and biking gives seasons back to you. You have to know what clothing to wear. You know when the rain is about to start because I can read the sky again — a skill I had no idea I’d lost until I needed it.

I notice which trees in my neighborhood are flowering, which streets the deer come out on, where the coyotes literally prowl.

This is not nature in some grand wilderness sense. It is just the actual living world that was always around me that I had been driving past.

Reconnecting with community

When I drove, I knew my neighbors the way you know coworkers at another company: by face, by car, by the brief eye contact at the driveway.

“Hello” from a shouting distance and then both of us back into our respective domiciles or cars.

The car is a small acoustic and visual box. You can’t hear anyone outside it; they can’t really see you through the reflective glass; the vehicle does most of the social work of refusing interaction for you.

I had not understood how much “windshield bias” is a real thing — how much harder it is to think of the person you pass as a full human when you are physically sealed off from them and moving at 4x their speed.

The costs

I am not going to pretend the tradeoff is one-sided.

Moving as a family is much, much harder. Carrying my infant son on and off the bus or train comes with serious challenges–and we consume more space with a stroller. Visiting grandparents who live far away, or coordinating an outing with relatives who can’t bike — cars solve for this in a way that my political advocacy for better transit and bike lanes cannot (today).

The disability question is the one I think about most. My body walks and bikes well right now, but none of us are guaranteed that for life. Accident, illness, age will all take it away eventually.

A car-free life works for me because I am able to opt out of cars–for now.

A note on what isn’t “driving”

5 years without driving doesn’t mean 5 years without a motor.

I ride the bus and the train. These are fundamentally different from a car — not because of the engine, but because they are communal. You share the space with strangers, you negotiate it together, and you are not the one steering a 4,000-pound object through a crowd. This is also why I don’t put Uber, Lyft, or Waymo in the same category as transit. A private vehicle that happens to have a stranger driving it — or no one driving it — reproduces all the externalities of car ownership: traffic, road wear, the demand for parking, the spatial logic of car-first streets. Not being the one behind the wheel doesn’t change the system.

I also ride electrically-assisted bikes. My rough line for “humane” micromobility is: under 500 pounds, speed-limited near bicycle speeds, no enclosure.

Weight because the kinetic energy a vehicle delivers in a crash scales with its mass.

Speed because it scales with velocity squared, and because higher speeds shorten the time you and the people around you have to react.

No enclosure because the acoustic and visual seal of a windshield is most of what produces the bias I described above.

Once you’re inside one, you’re driving — whatever the motor.

Moving at human speed

The phrase I keep coming back to is human speed.

There is no sharp line between traveling at a humane and inhumane speed. Ivan Illich claims it’s 15 miles per hour.

I trust you to know which one you’re doing.

5 years of moving at human speed has not made me healthier and happier because bicycling is virtuous or whatever. It has made me healthier and happier because at this speed I am still in the world. I am subject to its weather, its neighbors, its seasons, its small obstacles. The car promises to lift you above all of that. But the problem with that is that it delivers on that promise.

Earlier writing on this theme:

The Trailer Gap

2026-05-19T17:00:00-07:00

In my previous post I argued that the barrier to carrying items by bicycle is mental: once you’ve made the first trip then your mental model updates permanently.

While that’s true, there’s a category it doesn’t fully solve which is transporting the awkward and large object.

For most people, those trips that require transporting an odd-shaped object remain “car-shaped” trips.

I call it “the trailer gap”.

I found my bike trailer through a YouTube rabbit hole. A German YouTuber filmed himself bike-camping on a Kwiggle — a tiny folding bike I also own — with a Burley Travoy hitched to the back. It looked absurd yet practical. The next day I bought one off Facebook Marketplace for $75.

The Kwiggle has a non-standard seat post, so the Travoy didn’t attach cleanly. I had other bikes, so I shrugged it off and moved on by hitching it to my e-bike. I realized towing wasn’t especially fatiguing so I mounted it to my regular bike.

The Burley Travoy is a purpose-built for cargo: folding metal frame, bag mounts, and 2 wheels that let it stand like a shopping cart or dolly. My wife uses it that way to haul yoga supplies on foot.

It hooks to the rear seatpost, and it feels more stable than you’d expect even with uneven loads.

The free bench

I was riding past a neighbor’s house and spotted a wooden outdoor bench on the sidewalk with a cardboard “FREE” sign taped to it.

Normally this is a car problem: you note the address, you come back later, the bench is gone. Instead I stopped, unfolded the Travoy, strapped the bench to the frame with a bungee cord, and rode home.

The errand wasn’t planned or requiring an extra trip–and thanks to the trailer I have a new bench at my residence!

Bike trailers convert “I’d need a car for that” to “I wonder if that fits.” And when it does fit it’s a joyous celebration!

Some other illustrative errands with the trailer:

Bags of soil from the Home Depot garden section — the kind that normally require a flatbed cart and a trunk.

Paint cans.

Two furniture boxes from a local furniture store, stacked and bungeed into a precarious but functional arrangement.

A vacuum cleaner, held by a green bungee doing exactly as much work as it looked like it was doing.

“Safe Streets for Everyone” yard signs and an acrylic display stand for a bike advocacy tabling event.

Bringing a kickscooter to help out a friend.

Pizzas for my birthday celebration.

I have even used it as my overnight backpacking rig – with cooking & sleep gear.

The honest limits

The Travoy is not a cargo bike. Its rated capacity is around 60 lbs — which is a lot, but I cannot carry my child to daycare. For that, you want a longtail or a box bike.

Used Travoys show up on Facebook Marketplace regularly, usually in the $75–150 range. New they’re $200-250 – depending on where you live you might try the used market first.

Enjoy!

Downtown San Mateo Is a Monument to Insider Self-Dealing

2026-05-18T18:00:00-07:00

In 1862, the San Francisco & San Jose Rail Road needed to decide where to cross San Mateo Creek as it laid train tracks down the Peninsula. The decision was not made by an engineer; it was made by a real estate speculator who had already bought the land he wanted the railroad to run through.

That speculator was Charles Polhemus.

Polhemus joined the San Francisco–San Jose railroad board in 1860. He had already purchased a tract of San Mateo land anticipating the railroad would have to come through it. In 1862, with Polhemus running railroad construction, he commissioned a surveyor to plat the town of San Mateo at the exact point where the right-of-way crossed the creek. Conveniently, that point was the middle of his own holdings.

The first building near the new tracks was the train station; downtown coalesced around it, precisely where a railroad director happened to own land.

Transit is a real estate business

Transit produces value but doesn’t capture it. A train station turns nearby parcels into front-row seats on the most expensive amenity a city can offer: convenient access to a regional labor market. That value accrues most directly to whoever owns the dirt within walking distance — in the US that’s typically not the transit agency, not the riders, and not the taxpayers who paid for it. Just the landowners.

Once you see this, patterns snap into focus:

Transit alignment decisions turn into knife fights because the alignment determines who gets rich.
Stations end up at locations suboptimal for service quality because the people deciding the locations own land.
Freeways are politically easier to build than rail because they spread their value across millions of car owners, while a transit project concentrates value on a handful of parcels — and concentrated benefits attract concentrated lobbying.

The Polhemus episode is the unvarnished version: one board member capturing the entire uplift because the rules hadn’t yet figured out he shouldn’t. Modern transit planning has procedural guardrails — environmental review, public hearings, competing engineering criteria — but the underlying dynamic is unchanged. Transportation is a real estate business with a transportation department attached.

Who actually benefits from Caltrain in 2026?

164 years later, Caltrain — the operational descendant of the SF&SJ — is staring at a projected $75M annual operating deficit starting in FY 2027. The state has loaned $590M to bridge the gap. The longer-term plan is SB 63, the Connect Bay Area Act, which puts a 14-year sales tax on the November 2026 ballot across five counties to fund regional transit.

A sales tax is regressive. The cost falls disproportionately on households who spend most of their income on taxable goods, and it’s paid by everyone who shops in the affected counties — whether or not they ever ride the train.

The people who benefit most from Caltrain’s continued existence are not the riders. They are the landowners within walking distance of every station. Their land is worth what it’s worth specifically because the train still runs. Killing Caltrain would cost a station-adjacent property owner more than it would cost the median rider. Riders can change modes; land can’t move.

So the proposal is: tax everyone, especially low-income residents, to preserve a service whose primary financial beneficiaries are owners of high-value land near stations.

If you wanted a funding instrument that captured value where the value actually goes, you’d tax land within each station’s catchment — a land value tax, a station-area assessment district, a vacancy tax on transit-adjacent parcels — with rates scaling by distance to the platform. Nobody is proposing this. Sales tax is what’s politically available.

Why I’ll vote yes on SB 63 anyway

I’ll vote yes in November. I ride Caltrain. My family lives within walking distance of a station, and the land we own is worth what it’s worth in part because the train still runs.

It is a small miracle that passenger rail in this form has continued to operate here for 164 years. Most American cities lost their equivalents to the highway era. Ours didn’t, and our community is better for it.

The argument above isn’t that transit shouldn’t be funded. It’s that this particular instrument doesn’t ask the right people. The deeper reason the right people can’t be asked is that the half-mile around every station has been knee-capped for decades by NIMBY land use politics — held to a density too low to justify the kind of station-area assessment district that would actually capture the value transit creates.

SB 79: value recapture through supply

One mechanism does something like value recapture, even if indirectly: letting more people benefit from station proximity by building more housing inside it.

SB 79, which Newsom signed last October and which takes effect July 1, 2026, upzones the half-mile radius around qualifying transit stops in eight urban transit counties — San Mateo among them. The half-mile around a Caltrain station has been worth a fortune for 164 years. SB 79 lets more housing exist inside that radius, so more people can pay to access the locational value of being near a station rather than concentrating it in whoever already holds title.

I built a map of every SB 79 upzoning zone around San Mateo’s train stations — the geography that, if the law functions as designed, will absorb a significant share of the next decade of housing growth on the Peninsula. It is a small geometric inheritance from Polhemus, drawn 164 years ago around the point where the tracks cross the creek.

Who benefits from supporting transit?

The honest answer is: the people who own the land near the stations.

They benefited in 1862 when Polhemus drew the plat around himself. They benefit in 2026 when sales tax revenue from minimum-wage workers props up the value of single-family lots near stations they may never use. They will benefit again in 2027 when SB 79 unlocks new construction in the half-mile around every stop — though at least in that case, some of the uplift gets shared with the people who move into the new housing.

The interesting question isn’t whether to keep transit running. Of course we should. The interesting question is whether we can finally adjust who pays for it and who lives near it, so that the value uplift transit produces accrues to more than just the heirs of Charles Polhemus.

YIMBY data projects, between naps

2026-05-17T18:00:00-07:00

Parenting an infant gives you 20 minutes here, an hour there. There’s never enough to context-switch into “real work”.

It’s enough time for me to build small civic data projects with Claude Code.

All 3 of the projects below answer local political arguments I’ve heard at public meetings in San Mateo.

Each project lives at a public URL, each took a handful of hours across my naps, and each is meant to be cited/shared forward!

1. Permit Timeline Tracker

→ permit-timeline-tracker

A ranking of 22 Peninsula cities by construction permitting speed, California’s regional housing needs allocation (RHNA) progress, and ADU compliance, pulled from the CA Housing & Community Development office’s annual progress reports. Friction scores are per jurisdiction & sortable.

This is useful if you’re testifying at a public hearing and want to compare your council’s record to its neighbors’.

2. Enrollment Decline vs. Housing Production

→ peninsula-enrollment-decline

A scatter plot, basically. Every San Mateo County school district, plotted against housing permits issued 2021–2025 and enrollment change since 2018. The schools argument predicts a positive slope. The actual slope is flat to slightly negative — and every district sits below the zero line. Redwood City and South San Francisco, which permitted hundreds of units, show declines indistinguishable from Hillsborough and Portola Valley, which built almost nothing. Cost-driven family displacement has been emptying Peninsula classrooms since 2015. The predicted signal is simply absent.

3. SB 79 Capacity Analysis

→ sb79-analysis

A live, parcel-level map of what California’s transit-oriented zoning bill would permit within walking distance of every qualifying stop on the Peninsula: 160 du/acre within 200 feet, 120 within a quarter mile, 100 within a half mile, minus what’s already there. The aggregate net-new capacity is meaningfully larger than the discourse around the bill suggests.

Takeaways

The marginal cost of producing a small, well-sourced, embeddable civic data project has collapsed to basically nothing.

None of these projects required a journalist, grant funding, or a year of GIS expertise (I do not know any GIS).

It required publicly available data (discovered by Claude), a few evenings, and a coding agent.

If there’s a local fight happening near you (housing, transit, schools, parking) — anything where someone is making an empirical claim — there is now a reasonable chance you can answer them with a webpage hosted on GitHub Pages in a couple hours.

Pick the NIMBY claim that bothers you most, open Claude Code, and see how far you get before the baby wakes up (or you doze off!).

Lessons From 6 Years of Local Advocacy

2026-04-30T18:00:00-07:00

I have been doing safe-streets, transit, and housing advocacy in San Mateo for about 6 years. Along the way I’ve written a fair amount about it, here and elsewhere.

Most of what I’ve actually learned came from showing up: to public meetings, to bike rides, to city survey groups.

These lessons are written for the version of me who began this advocacy journey in 2020, and for anyone in that position now.

Slow streets > bike lanes

When I began advocating for safer streets it was after a radical lifestyle change brought about by COVID-19 and an abrupt and sustained work-from-home. This brought me into the bike coalition activism group, who had successfully advocated for a citywide “Bicycle Master Plan” network — building out the network segment-by-segment was the stated goal. Six years later I think I (we) had the wrong picture.

The thing that actually makes a street safe to walk on, bike on, sit next to, raise a kid near, and shop along is the speed of the cars. Not the presence of bike infrastructure, and not the width of the sidewalk. Not the trees, the benches, the wayfinding, or any of the other things planners reach for. The speed of the cars.

The relationship between vehicle speed and pedestrian fatality is one of the most replicated findings in road safety. A pedestrian struck at 20 mph has roughly a 90% chance of survival. At 40 mph, it inverts. Every other intervention is downstream of that curve. Build the most beautiful protected bike lane in the world next to a 45 mph stroad and you have built a pleasant place to die.

Slow streets build a bigger coalition than bike lane advocacy does:

the parent worried about kids crossing to school
the senior who can no longer judge closing speeds
the homeowner whose backyard faces an arterial
the restaurant owner whose patio nobody uses because of the noise
the driver who lives on the street and would prefer not to be funneled through it at highway speed

These people will never unanimously agree on a bike lane. They will all agree on a slower street. Speed is the political solvent.

This realization shifted what I advocate for. My priorities now revolve around asking about lane widths, daylighting, raised crossings, signal timing, and speed. The bike network naturally follows.

Land use is upstream of infrastructure

The child who can walk to school doesn’t need a bike lane. They need a school within walking distance. The adult who lives a quarter-mile from the train doesn’t need a parking minimum at the station. They need a quarter-mile of housing that the city was willing to permit.

I spent my first 2 years of advocacy treating bike infrastructure as paramount. It is certainly a lever for behavior change, but it is not the most powerful one. The most powerful lever is what the city chooses to allow people to build and where, at what density, and with how much mandatory parking. Every bike lane I have ever fought for is downstream of those decisions. A perfect network in a city zoned for car-dependence produces a few brave commuters and a lot of empty paint.

The math is unforgiving: a typical suburban 100% single-family home neighborhood produces few walking trips because there is nothing to walk to.

The same household in a neighborhood with corner stores, a school, a coffee shop, and a bus stop within 0.5 mile produces walk-trips daily, often without thinking of them as transportation. The infrastructure doesn’t change the behavior, but the destinations do.

Parking minimums are the version of this most people don’t notice. Every required parking space costs somewhere between $25,000-$75,000 (or more) to build when you account for land, construction, and lost development opportunity, and that cost is baked into the rent of every apartment and every cup of coffee in the building above it. They don’t require those parking spaces in the hill towns of Cinque Terre, or central Amsterdam, or most of Tokyo, and those places are not economically impoverished for it. Those cities are among the most productive square footage on earth. The cumulative effect of parking minimums in a city like ours is to make the neighborhood larger, which makes everything farther apart, which in turn makes walking infeasible, which makes a car necessary, which justifies more parking. The bike lane painted through the middle of this loop doesn’t break it.

This is the lesson that requires tremendous patience. A bike lane can go in over a summer. A rezoning takes years, and the development that follows takes years more, and the behavior change that follows the development takes a generation. The advocate who only wants visible wins will gravitate toward paint. The prize is the kid who grows up in a neighborhood where they don’t have to ask their parents for a ride, and that kid is being shaped right now by what the city did or didn’t allow to be built ten years ago.

I still show up for bike lanes. I just know now that there are much bigger fights happening at the same time that need my advocacy too.

Seniors are the most underrated coalition

When I started, I wasn’t thinking much about the demographics of allies or opposition at all. I had a picture in my head of the persuadable audience — vaguely, a 30-something commuter, a parent with a cargo bike — and I worked from that. Six years later I think the demographic that matters most to the work is the one that picture left out: people in their seventies.

Seniors don’t dominate the online cycling discourse and the imagery the advocacy world produces — usually a Lycra-clad commuter or a young family on a Tern — does not feature them. But seniors are the people who actually show up to council meetings, who actually vote in off-year elections, who actually have time for the long arc of a roadway project, and who have personal credibility with other seniors in a way no thirty-something advocate ever will. The “age-friendly” community, as they prefer to be called, has been a steady collaborator on group rides and shared advocacy in San Mateo, and they have moved more than I have.

The case for centering them is also moral, not just tactical. The senior who can no longer drive safely is in a real bind almost no one is solving for. They have spent their adult lives in places designed exclusively around a car they can no longer operate, and the ramps off of driving are mostly grim: stop driving and lose access to groceries, doctors, friends, and dignity, or keep driving and become a danger to yourself and to everyone you pass. Walkable streets and frequent transit are not a lifestyle preference for this person. They’re an off-ramp from isolation.

In practical terms this changed how I show up. I hold space for their needs in my own public comments and conversations, acknowledging where motorized mobility is critical and not something that can be waved away. The advocacy world too often frames car-dependence as a choice that the right messaging can flip. For an 80-year-old with a bad hip and groceries to carry, it isn’t. The job is to build the streets and the transit that give them another option, not to scold them for the option they currently have.

Patience requires infrastructure

Roadway projects take years. The official process is slow, but the attention on any given project is fast. A meeting happens, a commitment is made, and within two weeks the room has moved on. If you are not the person holding the thread, no one is. And no one will tell you that the thread has dropped — they’ll just stop returning emails, and a year later you’ll wonder what happened to the thing you thought was moving.

The lesson is that patience by itself is not enough. Patience without a system is just waiting and forgetting. Vigilance and follow-up are required because the systemic cycle of these projects demands it, and because at a later date my own motivation and time budget will have shifted. Calendar reminders to my future self earmark an opportunity to keep pushing, or to re-calibrate my priorities if the project no longer warrants the energy. Every commitment from staff or a councilmember gets a follow-up date attached. Every email that doesn’t get a reply gets a reminder set for two weeks out. Every council meeting produces a short list of items to track, with dates.

The reason this matters is that the people working against you — the status quo, the agenda items that are easier to shelve than to resolve, the staff member who didn’t reply and assumed the issue was no longer live — are all working on a longer clock than you are. The project that quietly disappears from the work plan is the default outcome. The project that gets built is the one that someone outside the building kept reminding everyone about, for as long as it took.

Mode-switching is the most underrated form of direct action

Riding the bus. Biking to the grocery store. Walking the kid to the park instead of driving. Each of these is a small political act with immediate personal returns, and I undervalued how much of my advocacy was downstream of doing them.

When you stop driving for a trip you would have driven you are voting with the only currency that local government and local business actually count: trips.

All of the following are built on observed behavior, not stated preferences:

the traffic engineer’s models,
the retailers decision of where to sign a lease,
the transit agency’s service planning,
the city’s parking projections

The survey where you said you’d ride a bus if it came every 15 minutes does not move the needle.

The day you actually take the bus does.

The personal returns came faster than I anticipated:

I save money. I’m in better shape than I was when I drove everywhere. I know my city in a way I never did from behind a windshield — which blocks have shade in August, which have gusts of southbound wind vs. those with without, which intersections have the long signal cycles, which corner store has the good instant coffee, which neighbor is out gardening on Saturday mornings.

None of this was visible driving. The texture of a place reveals itself at walking and biking speed and stays hidden at any other.

The friendships are the part I would not have predicted. The regulars at the bus stop, the parents at the bike rack at school pickup, the neighbors who recognize the cargo bike before they recognize me — these are weak ties that the car-dependent version of my life simply did not generate. Some of them have become strong ties. None of them would exist if I were still in a car for those trips.

I will not tell anyone they should do this. The pitch I would make instead is that the people who have done it report things they did not expect to find — money, health, friends, a city that suddenly feels theirs — and almost no one I know has tried it and gone back.

Closing

These are five lessons I didn’t have when I started. There will be more, and the next version of this post is probably 3 years away.

The work itself hasn’t changed — car dependence, housing scarcity, and unsafe streets are still the things I’m working against - but my understanding of how to actually move them has evolved and will continue to do so.

If you are starting now then you don’t need to learn these the long way that I did - read it in full!

It's Not a Values Crisis, It's a Housing Crisis.

2026-04-30T17:00:00-07:00

J.D. Vance and the rising pro-natalist right have an explanation for collapsing American birth rates: a values crisis. People are too selfish, too secular, too career-focused, too disconnected from the meaning of family. The solution, they argue, is cultural — restore the right values and the babies follow.

The data tells a different story. And it’s an uncomfortable one for them, because the answer is not a mass “come to Jesus”–it’s policy.

United States · 1981–2024

Buying a first home now happens past peak fertility

As housing access slipped past prime childbearing years, births collapsed in lockstep.

Median age, first-time homebuyer Total fertility rate (US)

Sources: NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers (first-time homebuyer median age, 1981–2024); CDC/NCHS National Vital Statistics Reports (US total fertility rate). Female fertility cliff band based on ACOG clinical guidance.

In 1981, the median first-time American homebuyer was 29 years old. The total fertility rate was 1.81. By 2024, the first-time homebuyer was 38 — and TFR had fallen to 1.62.

The age at which Americans can afford a first home has marched right past the age at which a woman can biologically start a family without intervention. Female fertility declines steeply after 35. The line crossed in roughly 2022 and fertility rate fell in lockstep.

We have causal evidence that this is not coincidence. A natural experiment in Brazil that randomly assigned housing access through public lotteries found that adults aged 20–25 who won homes had children at a 32% higher rate than those who didn’t. When you hand young adults a house, they have kids. When you don’t, they don’t.

This is the part of the discourse that J.D Vance will refuse to publicly acknowledge: housing unaffordability is not distributed evenly across the population. It is concentrated with brutal precision on the cohort in their 20s and early 30s — the same cohort whose biological window for forming families is closing.

The median U.S. household headed by someone aged 65–74 now holds eleven times the net worth of the median household under 35 — $410,000 versus $39,000. Older Americans who already own homes have seen their net worth balloon. Younger Americans hoping to form households face a price level set by the asset accumulation of the generation above them.

In California, Proposition 13 is the engine of this concentration. Two identical homes can sit side by side on the same San Mateo street. One purchased in 1978 might pay $3,000 a year in property taxes. Next to it is another purchased in 2024 paying roughly $20,000/year. Same size/quality of house, same services, same street — the difference is who got there first. Multiply that across millions of parcels and you have the structural reason that long-tenured homeowners get richer while new entrants get priced out. You also have a homeowner political class with direct, multi-decade financial incentive to vote against new supply.

The pro-natalist framing avoids this entirely. It has to. Once you concede that the proximate cause of low fertility is housing affordability for fertility-age adults, you are no longer fighting a culture war — you are arguing for housing supply, for property tax reform, for the political defeat of a homeowner coalition that has spent 50 years pulling up the ladder behind itself.

That is a much harder fight than complaining about Hollywood, and it has a different set of villains.

Prop 13 didn’t just suppress supply. It picked a generation to win and a generation to lose, and the losing generation isn’t having kids.

Does Prop 13 explain California's relatively lower birth rates?

2026-04-25T17:00:00-07:00

In my last post I argued that Proposition 13 is the policy that ties California’s dysfunction together: it entrenches homeowner advantage, suppresses supply, and shifts the tax burden onto everyone who arrived after the good seats were taken.

A natural follow-up: if Prop 13 explains California’s housing crisis, does it also explain why California has fewer babies than almost any other state?

The chart below plots median home price against total fertility rate for all 50 states in 2023. The pattern is unambiguous: the more a state costs, the fewer children its residents have.

All 50 states · 2023

The more a state costs, the fewer babies it makes

California is near the end of a national trend — not a Prop 13 outlier, but a housing-cost story.

California West South Midwest Northeast Trend

Sources: CDC/NCHS Births: Final Data 2023 (total fertility rate); Zillow Home Value Index, July 2025 (median home price). TFR = total fertility rate, children per woman over a lifetime.

California sits at the far right end of that trend line. It’s the 2nd-most-expensive state, TFR of 1.48, down from 17th-highest to 43rd-highest since 2008, but the chart reveals that California isn’t an outlier from the trend. If you know a state’s median home price then you can predict its birth rate with uncomfortable accuracy.

This matters for how we assign cause: rising rents correlate with lower fertility for all age groups, hitting hardest among women in their 20s who are also the most likely to be renters. In California, 44% of households rent, which is the 2nd-lowest homeownership rate in the country (after New York), so high prices fall on exactly the people most likely to be making family-formation decisions.

Prop 13’s role in this story is real but indirect. The policy suppresses property turnover and gives long-tenured homeowners clear-eyed incentive to block new supply near where they reside. Constrained supply drives prices up. High prices suppress birth rates. Prop 13 is 3 steps upstream of the fertility data.

The telling counter-cases are Massachusetts, Washington, and Colorado. They’re expensive states with no Prop 13 equivalent and equally low fertility rates. Their housing costs rose through different mechanisms, and their birth rates fell to the same place.

The one clear outlier is Utah: $547K median home, TFR of 1.80 — well above trend. The LDS community’s emphasis on large families has long outweighed the housing cost headwind, though even that gap is narrowing.

So does Prop 13 entirely explain California’s low birth rates? No. Housing cost is the proximate cause, and Prop 13 is one of several upstream policies that are driving it. California’s fertility rate isn’t unusually low given its prices — it’s exactly as low as you’d predict.

Housing cost is the proximate cause. But California’s housing costs aren’t expensive the way Boston or Denver are expensive. They’re expensive because Prop 13 turned homeowners into a permanent political class with a direct financial stake in keeping supply restricted. The suppression runs through the ballot box, not just the market.

Most People Who Ride Bikes Have Soft Tires

2026-04-25T17:00:00-07:00

Last week I argued that gear-shifting competency is an underexamined barrier to bicycling. Then a friend called me 10 minutes before a group ride I’d invited him to, panicking — both his tires were flat and he didn’t own a pump. He ran his bike over to the meeting point on foot. We inflated his tires with another rider’s hand pump, I walked him through it, and he made the ride.

He’s a competent adult who wanted to bike. The thing that almost stopped him wasn’t the route, the traffic, or the hill. It was air.

This is the bicycle’s quietest barrier. It’s also the one almost nobody talks about.

Tires lose air whether you ride or not

Bike tires lose air on their own, even when the bike is sitting in the garage. Skinny, hard tires lose air faster than fat, soft ones — but every type drops noticeably within 1-2 weeks.

If you ride daily, you feel the softness immediately and you keep a pump handy to re-inflate the tires.

If you ride infrequently, which describes most people who own a bicycle, you reach for the bike and might find the bicycle unrideably slow.

Without a pump and the know-how to use it, you have two choices: don’t ride, or ride on soft tires and risk ruining the tire. Most elect to abandon the bike ride.

The pump has a learning curve

To inflate a bicycle tire you need:

A pump that matches your valve type (Presta vs Schrader — most adults don’t know there are two)
Knowledge of the correct tire pressure that is appropriate, which is printed in tiny letters on the side of the tire (PSI or BAR) with a minimum and maximum
The skill to attach the pump head properly
The familiarity to read a pressure gauge and stop at the right number

None of this is “hard”. But all of it is unfamiliar to someone who has only ever pumped a car tire at a gas station, which is most American adults. A first encounter with a Presta valve is an exercise in “is this thing broken?” The little brass nut you have to unscrew before pumping is not intuitive.

Diagnosing whether the tire even needs air is its own skill. Experienced bicyclists pinch the tire and can guess whether a tire is adequately inflated. The pump itself is an overwhelming set of decisions: floor, hand, mini, CO2 cartridge, battery-operated? Each has different prices and use cases. A would-be cyclist trying to do the right thing has half a dozen decisions to make when first pump-shopping.

Until you know how to reinflate your bicycle’s tires, your bike will be unrideable after 1-3 months.

How big a drag is this on adoption?

No one has cleanly measured it, but we can estimate it:

A 2022 Ipsos survey found 42% of adults globally own a bicycle, but only 14% use one for a short neighborhood trip. The gap between “owns” and “uses” is large, and is the entire scope of the problem if you care about driving bicycle adoption.
Bikeshare ridership is robust in cities that build for it precisely because the bikeshare operator handles all maintenance, including keeping tire pressure topped up. Whatever portion of bikeshare users would otherwise be riding their own bike is a signal of how many would-be cyclists are blocked by maintenance friction.
Bike shops sell “tune-up” services as a paid product because a meaningful share of owners would rather hand over $80–150 once a year than learn to do it themselves, which reveals many (most?) consumers’ preference for outsourcing maintenance.

My personal guess: somewhere between 10–25% of would-be bicycle trips that don’t happen are aborted due to tire pressure issues.

This compounds with every other barrier: gears, route-finding, weather, traffic anxiety, fear of theft.

A would-be bike rider who clears all of these hurdles can still be defeated by a deflated tube on the day they finally feel motivated.

For transportation bicycling specifically, the effect is worse as transportation depends on reliability.

If 20% of mornings starts with “the tires are flat and now I’m late” bicycling fails the basic test of being a transportation mode.

The would-be bike rider drives or takes a rideshare and the bicycle quietly retreats to being a purely recreational object.

What car owners deal with instead

I don’t think much about cars anymore, but the equivalent car-maintenance load is genuinely larger. It’s just outsourced and time-shifted.

A car’s tires need air maybe 2x a year vs. a bicycle’s 8-20x, and modern cars warn you with a dashboard light. Most drivers inflate their own tires in 5-10 minutes at a gas station. Thanks to modern tire pressure monitoring systems the deflated tire risk creates less uncertainty.

The rest of the car-maintenance burden (oil changes, brake pads, transmission fluid, the check engine light, registration, smog, the $1,500 surprise repair) adds up to $1,000s and many hours per year. The driver doesn’t experience tire pressure as a barrier to driving because pressing the ignition is easier than perform a pre-flight check on a bicycle.

The bicycle inverts this: total annual maintenance is tiny ($30–100 for most riders), but you feel the “work” of maintenancing a bike at the moment you mount it to ride it.

You can largely outsource your bike’s maintenance, but you can’t outsource tire pressure unless you live above your bike shop.

Cars cost staggeringly more in dollars, time, and distress than bicycles - but while the bike costs less its costs are timed to inconvenience you exactly when you want to ride.

The kickscooter dodges this entirely

As I argued earlier this month, the un-motorized kickscooter has a near-flat learning curve and a near-zero maintenance burden. Most sidewalk-riding kickscooters have solid polyurethane wheels: no tube, no valve, no pump. The wheel is forever ready.

That readiness comes at a real cost in ride quality and efficiency — the bike is 2–3x more efficient than kickscooters so if you are minimizing sweatiness you should definitely learn how to pump your bike’s tire and pick the bike.

The pump barrier is one of the under-discussed reasons the kickscooter punches above its weight as a last-mile tool.

The kickscooter dodges the maintenance question by having no maintenance. Bike share dodges it by handing the maintenance to someone else.

Every friction to bicycle riding discussed in this post is solved by bike share. The bike share bike sits at a dock, tire pressure fixed by the operator.

What to do about it

A few things, in rough order of impact:

Treat tire pump access as infrastructure: every bike rack at a transit station, library, school, and major employer should have a public floor pump bolted next to it. They cost a few hundred dollars.

Bundle a pump with every new bike sold: A floor pump with a gauge is $40 retail, and it takes 30 seconds to inflate bike tires. Bike shops should be offering this as a standard add-on at cost.

Teach the pump in every “learn to ride” program. 5 minutes on valve types and pump technique. Without it you are not creating independently mobile riders.

A closing thought: there are many barriers to biking that the experienced have forgotten about (gears, pumps, locks, route-finding, weather).

The infrastructure-only theory of cycling growth has us building protected bike lanes for riders who never make it out of their driveway because the back tire is at 20 PSI and the pump is buried under a recycling bin.

Prop 13 Didn't Shrink Government. It Handed It to Sacramento.

2026-04-23T17:00:00-07:00

In my previous post I argued that California is not the progressive champion it presents itself as. Proposition 13 is a big part of why.

Prop 13 didn’t just shift the tax burden from property onto sales and income.

It gutted political “localism” — the idea that decisions and power should be handled by your own community rather than by distant governments.

The Promise

The promise of Prop 13 was small government.

Cap the property tax, block runaway spending, and most enticingly: protect homeowners from being taxed out of their homes by re-assessments.

Nearly 50 years after passage, the question is: did the overall tax burden shrink?

California has the highest top-bracket state income tax and state sales tax in the nation. A sprawling patchwork of fees, assessments, parcel taxes, property transfer taxes, and special assessments has expanded to fill the space Prop 13 created.

The tax burden didn’t shrink.

It moved. So did power.

What Actually Happened

Local government decides what gets built on your block. It operates your library. It fixes your streets (or doesn’t). It sets the speed limit on the road your kid walks to school on (if state law permits it). It’s the tier of government closest to you — the one where showing up to a Tuesday night meeting can actually change something.

Prop 13 didn’t just cap property tax rates. It froze assessed values at acquisition. This handed cities and counties a structural funding problem with no local solution.

While it stripped cities of the ability to raise property taxes — the most stable local revenue source — it gave the state legislature unilateral authority to raise rates above 1%.

The only available response for cities and counties was to become supplicants to Sacramento.

Grants as governance. Cities and counties now employ staff whose entire job is writing applications for state and federal competitive grant programs. Caltrans, the ATP, HSIP, RAISE, INFRA — an alphabet of funding pots that cities must compete for to do basic infrastructure work. A sidewalk gap that would once have been a line item in a city budget is now a multi-year grant cycle involving consultants, environmental review, and scorecards for winning the money through a process designed in Sacramento or Washington DC — and changing with every election.

Consultant capture. Starved of stable and meaningful tax revenues, local governments forgo full-time staff in favor of contractors and consultants. Grant-writing firms, contract engineers, and lobbyists sit between cities and the money that used to be theirs by default. A meaningful fraction of every dollar a city “wins” goes back out the door to the consultants who helped it win.

Developer dependency. Property tax revenue being constrained, cities chase sales tax — which means chasing car dealerships, big box retail, hotels. Cities don’t plan for the public good. They plan to maximize taxable consumption rather than human habitation. Which is how you end up with California cities taking 7 of the 10 worst commute spots in the nation.

Strings attached. When Sacramento does distribute money it sets conditions on receiving it. Housing element compliance, climate goals, transportation performance metrics. These aren’t inherently bad objectives — some of them I actively support! But when local governments need state funding to function, Sacramento’s policy preferences become local policy by financial coercion rather than democratic deliberation. The appearance of local control is preserved. The substance drains away.

A Caveat

None of this is to say Sacramento is the villain.

Some state intervention has been genuinely necessary. The housing element process, SB 9, SB 35, SB 79 — these exist because locally-captured governments were using their autonomy to exclude, downzone, and delay — the predictable result of homevoter dominance in local politics.. When I argue in favor of state preemption of local zoning I am fully aware of what I’m arguing for.

But the choice shouldn’t be between “local governments with bad priorities” and “local governments financially hollowed out.”

Prop 13’s defenders invoke the principle of limiting government.

What it actually did was hand power upward — away from the tier of government most subject to direct democratic accountability, to the tier most insulated from it.

Something has gone wrong when a city has to hire a consultant to compete for a grant to fix a crosswalk.

That is not limited government. It’s just government that is harder to hold accountable.

Reform

Prop 13 reform is a third rail for good reason.

The politics are hard. The policy design matters enormously. Any serious reform has to protect long-tenured homeowners on fixed incomes, and any serious reform will be fought tooth and nail by the political coalition I described in my last post.

But the first step is getting the diagnosis right. The conversation shouldn’t be about whether government is too big. It should be about where power actually lives, and who it actually answers to.

Right now, if you live in California, local government answers to Sacramento.

And that is not what the voters thought they were voting for in 1978.

The Declining Driver's License: Good, Bad, or Both?

2026-04-21T17:00:00-07:00

In 1983, nearly half of all 16-year-old Americans had a driver’s license. By 2022, that share had fallen in half to ~25%. Even at 18 years old the rate dropped from roughly 80% to 60% over the same period.

This trend is real, decades-long, and expected to continue.

I want to tell you this is good news, and I think it mostly is. But fewer licenses doesn’t mean more kids on bikes — it may just mean teenagers spending more time on screens and not going anywhere at all.

Sources: Federal Highway Administration Highway Statistics, Table DL-20; AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

The decline is not a “blip.” It began before smartphones, rideshare, and the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. And some of it traces back to the 1980s rollout of “multi-stage licensing requirements” called graduated driver licensing (GDL): learner’s permits, restricted licenses, mandatory supervised hours. These added requirements made getting a license a months-long process rather than a birthday errand at the DMV.

The current causes driving the rate down are well-known: insurance costs are punishing. A 16-year-old on a standalone insurance policy runs $6,000–$6,700/year before all other vehicle costs, The GDL requirements are big hurdles even if teens don’t cite them as the main barrier, and the cultural meaning of the license has eroded. A driver’s license used to mean you could finally go somewhere without asking your parents. That’s a weaker sell when everything comes to you (Uber, DoorDash, etc.).

Optimistically

If declining licensure reflects a genuine mode shift toward transit, biking, and walking then it is unambiguously good news — for public health, for congestion, and for the quality of public space.

Some evidence points this way. Gen Z expresses stronger preferences for transit-proximate housing than any prior generation: 65% of young people say living near transit is important to them, up 9 points since 2020. The car-free or car-light household isn’t a fringe choice for urban yuppies any more.

If kids are skipping the license because they can get where they need to go without one that is a win, and suggests they’ll build wealth faster and have better health outcomes than they would being shackled to a car loan.

Pessimistically

Here’s the problem: walking and biking rates among youth are also down — sharply.

Children aged 5–14 walking or biking to school: 48% in 1969, 13% in 2009, and the trend has continued downward.
Youth under 16 share of bicycle trips fell from a historically high proportion to roughly their population share by 2017 — a significant drop in absolute trips, distances, and time.
Bike ridership among ages 3–17 has declined steadily since 2016; by 2022, only about half had ridden a bike even once in the prior year.

The research on whether declining teen driving has been replaced by transit use is mixed. A peer-reviewed analysis of NHTS data found that young adults’ higher transit use is largely explained by lifecycle factors (lower incomes, smaller households, urban residence) that tend to dissipate as they age — not by a durable cultural shift away from driving.

Or a worse trend is occurring: teens aren’t driving less because they’re walking or biking. They’re driving less because they’re not going anywhere. DoorDashing instead of dining in public. FaceTime instead of a visit to a friend’s house.

This is consistent with declining youth outdoor recreation, declining independent mobility for children, and rising rates of social isolation among adolescents.

What can be done

These two explanations of the youth drivers license trend (mode shift from driving vs. social withdrawal) have completely different policy implications.

If it’s mode shift then the answer is more investment transit, bike infrastructure, walkable land-use reform.

If it’s social withdrawal then more transit won’t fix it. The problem is that young people aren’t traveling to participate in public life at all.

The single biggest determinant of whether a parent will let a child move through the world independently is perceived traffic safety. Not distance, not crime, not stranger danger — traffic. Study after study on children’s independent mobility ranks parental concern about cars as the dominant barrier. This means traffic speed reduction is literally a youth liberation movement. Cities that have implemented area-wide 20mph zones see fewer crashes and they see more kids outside, more kids walking to school, more kids on bikes. The street becomes a place again rather than an obstacle course.

Longer term, where school boards locate their schools is the powerful lever controlling youth transportation choices that almost nobody talks about. The decades-long trend has been to consolidate schools onto cheaper suburban campuses accessible only by car, drawing students from distances too large to walk or bike. This is perhaps the single largest infrastructure decision driving the collapse of children’s independent mobility.

Here’s the number I actually care about: total trips taken by teenagers across all modes.

Like teenagers with driver’s licenses, I expect that number is going down. Between 2009 and 2017, the NHTS found youth accounting for a shrinking share of both bike and walking trips, not just driving.

American youth are not trading the car for the bus/bicycle, they are trading the car for the couch.

It’s up to us to make our communities more welcoming than the screen of a phone. For me personally, that means advocating for spaces and places that are vibrant, car-free, and all-ages friendly.

The e-bike regulation gap is closing

2026-04-19T17:00:00-07:00

One of these needs a drivers license and license plate. The other does not:

E-bikes have gone mainstream (1.7 million sold in the US in 2024), and US state e-bike legislation is struggling to keep up.

What comes next will determine whether e-bikes remain a viable car replacement or get regulated into irrelevance.

What’s at stake

Three things are true at once:

The current framework is unsustainable. The regulatory gap between e-bikes and gas-powered two-wheelers was tolerable when e-bikes were all 20 mph pedal-assist commuter bikes. It is intolerable when retailers are selling 50 mph pedal-less motor vehicles to 13-year-olds under the “e-bike” label.
New Jersey–style blanket moped treatment is a disaster for climate and cities. Requiring a driver’s license, registration, and insurance to operate a 16 mph pedal-assist bicycle destroys the mode-shift appeal of e-bikes, converting a car replacement back into a car, and re-opening the biased-enforcement problems California closed with AB 1909 in 2022.
The choice is not “regulation vs. no regulation.” It is whether reform draws sharp, defensible lines — or reaches for the blunt hammer that treats everything electric as a motor vehicle.

My prediction for California

Class 1 stays a bicycle. No license, no plate, no registration.
Class 2 gets an age floor on throttles. Operators under 16 will be effectively banned from any throttle-equipped e-bike, but still no license plate, no driver’s license mandate.
Class 3 gets a plate and a license. 28 mph pedal-assist is where the e-bike reaches moped performance and risk parity, and this is where the regulatory gap closes.
No insurance mandates — Class 1, 2 or 3–but yes for e-motos (exceeding Class 3 power). CA doesn’t require insurance on <50cc mopeds. The hypocrisy to add insurance mandates for e-bikes when it doesn’t exist for equivalent internal combustion engine (ICE) scooters is absurd.
The real enforcement fight shifts to e-motos and imports. Tighter manufacturer liability, import screening, and platform pressure on Amazon and Alibaba because that’s where the actual problem lives.

The endpoint: Class 3 becomes regulated roughly like a <50cc moped (mandatory license, plate, no insurance). Class 1 & 2 remain labeled “bicycles” with targeted age restrictions.

Why this matters if you care about getting people out of cars

No amount of mandates layered on e-bikes prevent the thing that actually kills cyclists: a 4,500-pound SUV making a right-turn across an unprotected bike lane. License plates on e-bikes are not a substitute for protected bike lanes, and nobody should let them be framed as one.

Every hour spent regulating a Class 2 commuter is an hour not spent regulating the Amazon/Alibaba pipeline that ships 50mph motor vehicles into the hands of middle- and high-schoolers.

There is a version of the next decade where California writes new e-bike laws that preserve frictionlessness for real bicycles, treat e-motos like the motorcycles that they functionally are, and go after the distribution problem at the source.

Or there is a version where California legislators regulate e-bikes as we know them out of existence.

Background: how we got here

The boom

A decade ago, California wrote the national playbook for e-bike law: three classes, 750W motor cap, 20 or 28 mph speed limiters, no operator license, no registration, no insurance. 46 other states followed.

The policy worked exactly as intended — keeping e-bikes legally indistinguishable from bicycles and letting a new mode scale without friction.

US e-bike imports hit ~1.7 million units in 2024 — up 72% year-over-year. California alone is ~$500M of that market. E-bikes outsell electric cars globally by a wide margin, and in the US they now outsell electric cars by unit volume. A growing share of American teenagers gets an e-bike before (or instead of) a driver’s license.

The asymmetry

Alongside legal e-bikes, a parallel category has exploded: vestigial (or no) pedals, 3,000–6,000 watt “e-motos” (Sur-Ron, Talaria). Sold online, capable of 50+ mph, ridden overwhelmingly by youth under 18. These are unregistered motorcycles — but in practice they are what most of the “e-bike” news coverage is actually about.

The physical gap between a Class 3 e-bike and a 50cc moped is narrowing. The regulatory gap has not moved. That gap is exactly why e-bike adoption scaled so rapidly, and why the pressure to close it is now coming from every direction at once.

What California is doing

SB 1271 (Min, signed Sep 2024). The big one. Reclassified any e-bike with a throttle as Class 2 (throttles now prohibited on Class 1 and 3). Criminalized aftermarket speed-mod kits. Required UL 2849 / EN 15194 battery certification for any e-bike sold, leased, or distributed in California starting Jan 1, 2026. Gave police clearer authority to impound sub-four-wheel vehicles that don’t meet the e-bike definition.

AB 2234 (2024). Authorized San Diego County jurisdictions to bar riders under 12 from Class 1 and 2 e-bikes.

AB 1778 (Marin pilot). As of July 2025: 16+ to operate a Class 2 in unincorporated Marin, helmets required for all ages.

AB 544 (2026). Rear red reflector or light required at all times.

AB 1942 (Bauer-Kahan, introduced Feb 2026). Would require DMV registration and a special rear license plate for every Class 2 and Class 3 e-bike in California. Currently in Assembly Transportation. Opposed by Bike East Bay, CalBike, and most active-transportation advocates; supported by parents, local officials, and law enforcement citing enforcement difficulty on modded bikes and e-motos.

SB 586. Creates an “Off-Highway Vehicle” classification for pedal-less, >750W, Sur-Ron-style two-wheelers.

Police departments across the state are now routinely confiscating e-motos from teens, and school districts are banning them from campus.

What the rest of the country is doing

Three states have broken from the 3-class framework.

New Jersey, Jan 19, 2026 (S4834 / A6235). All e-bikes reclassified as motorized bicycles. Every rider needs a driver’s license or motorized bicycle license (15+). Every e-bike needs DMV registration. Throttle e-bikes and 28+ mph pedal-assist bikes require liability insurance. Operators under 15 banned outright. The deadline to comply is July 19, 2026. The MVC has not finished building the registration system.

New York, NYC. Throttle e-bikes capped at 25 mph citywide; enforcement ramping against delivery riders.

Local bans. A growing list of cities and school districts have banned throttle e-bikes from specific corridors, campuses, or age brackets.

The New Jersey law matters because it is the template other states will copy. It is also catastrophically bad policy: it treats a 16 mph pedal-assist cargo bike used by parents to take their kids to school the same as a 45 mph Sur-Ron. The bicycle industry, parents, and advocacy community were blindsided by it.

Appendix: regulatory comparison

	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3	Moped (CVC §406)	Motor-driven cycle (<149cc)
Top assist speed	20 mph (pedal)	20 mph (throttle)	28 mph (pedal)	30 mph	60+ mph
Effective max (modded)	28+ mph	28+ mph	35+ mph	~35 mph	factory
Driver’s license	None	None	None	M1/M2	M1
DMV registration	No	No	No	Yes ($23 one-time)	Yes, annual
Insurance	No	No	No	Not required	Required
Plate	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Min operator age	None	None	16	16	16
Helmet required	<18	<18	All ages	All ages	All ages
Helmet standard	Bicycle	Bicycle	Bicycle	DOT (FMVSS 218)	DOT (FMVSS 218)

If you want to do something about it: the California Bicycle Coalition, Bike East Bay and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition are tracking AB 1942.

The Scooter and the Bike

2026-04-12T17:00:00-07:00

Most adults consider bicycling a serious transportation option–maybe not every day or for all trips, but actors ride them in popular movies and TV.

But suggest that someone ride a scooter to work? You’ll probably get an odd look!

Before I go further, I want to clearly define “scooter”. By scooter, I mean an un-motorized two-wheel kickscooter, the type you might have had as a child and forgotten about for decades or until you became a parent or aunt/uncle:

While both the scooter & the bicycle are used for transit I compare the two in this post in order to explore what it would take to get more people out of cars.

Who can actually ride a bike?

Riding a bicycle requires internalizing dynamic balance where the bike only stays upright when it’s moving. Keeping the bike (and rider) upright requires a constant series of small steering corrections that happen largely subconsciously.

This dynamic balance is a learnable skill, but it is also an ability that can be lost (or never gained) through disability.

New bike riders also have to unlearn a human instinct: when a bike starts to tip left, the correct response is to briefly steer left (countersteering), which feels completely wrong until it doesn’t.

This is a “cliff” in the learning curve and while most people clear the cliff it takes hours to days to do so. Adults learning to ride a bike later in life find it meaningfully harder than children.

In spite of this cliff, roughly 94% of American adults know how to ride a bike.

Of them, maybe half know how to shift gears.

Who can actually ride a scooter?

The scooter’s total addressable market is approximately everyone. If you can walk then you can ride one.

The learning curve is nearly flat. One foot is always available to touch the ground, there’s no counterintuitive reflexes to develop.

Most people achieve basic competency on a scooter within minutes.

Even without riding the scooter, it can be the most simple combination of mobility aids: walking stick + shopping cart!

Or even an improvised stroller:

When we discuss all ages transportation options the kickscooter delivers:

But the bicycle is more efficient

The bicycle is the most energy-efficient vehicle ever built. A cyclist traveling at 15 mph expends roughly 19–32 watt-hours per mile (Wh/mile) of forward progress. A scooter rider at 10–12 mph uses roughly 40–72 Wh/mile. Walking runs around 113–129 Wh/mile.

The bicycle is about 2–3x more efficient than scooting, and 4–5x more efficient than walking. Riding a scooter is essentially assisted walking.

These measures of efficiency matter a great deal for how we think about consumer choice and realistic range. A commuter on a bike can realistically cover 10–15 miles with moderate effort. On a scooter, the practical range for most people is probably 2–4 miles before fatigue sets in.

The scooter is a short-range device.

The practical picture

Beyond physics, the day-to-day comparison breaks several ways:

	Kickscooter	Bicycle
Purchase cost	$100–$400	$400–$1,500+
Weight	10-12lbs	20-30lbs
Maintenance	Basically none	Tires, chain, brakes
Portability	Folds; fits under a desk or in a trunk	Requires parking or storage (folding options)
Transit compatibility	Excellent — carry on any train or bus	Mixed; some trains & buses
Theft risk	Low — take it with you or drop it on the ground	Real — requires secure lock + infrastructure
Hill performance	Poor	Good (and improves with fitness)
Weather	Poor	Medium (fenders + clothing)
Range	2–4 miles comfortably	10–15 miles comfortably

The scooter’s portability is underrated in the advocacy conversation. A folded kickscooter can go anywhere its rider goes — on the train/bus, in a rideshare, into a meeting. You don’t need to carry a lock and their cheapnes makes them less of a theft target.

This makes the humble kickscooter an under-estimated tool for transportation. The person who scooters to the station, boards a train, and scooters to the office has solved the last-mile problem without any infrastructure dependency beyond the train itself.

Motors change everything

Electric bikes have dramatically expanded the bicycle’s total addressable market by neutralizing hills and distance which are the two things that most reliably defeat new riders.

E-scooters close much of the efficiency gap with bikes and extend range significantly, though they reintroduce higher cost and servicing/maintenance headache.

The shared e-scooter boom of 2018–2022 introduced millions of people to the (motorized) scooter form factor who had never considered it.

The electric versions of both bikes and scooters deserve their own lengthier blogpost — while this post is intentionally scoped to the un-motorized versions.

How cities can encourage their use

The kickscooter and the bicycle require the same infrastructure: protected lanes, traffic calming (slowing peak car speeds).

The scooter’s lower barrier to entry means it reaches people that the bike doesn’t: people who never learned to bike, people who are ultra-constrainted on storage/space.

The bicycle is the better long-term ride: more range, more cargo capacity, better with hills, lower effort.

Ultimately, cities and communities benefit when they embrace the economic firepower and public health benefits of active transportation–but data and anecdotes require building grassroots momentum and understanding of the facts:

The goal is to get people out of cars and meeting each other in their community — and different people need different onramps.

Most People Who Ride Bikes Have No Idea How to Shift Gears

2026-04-11T17:00:00-07:00

If you’re a cycling advocate, you probably learned to shift gears so long ago it feels like breathing. But the share of cyclists who can do the same is almost certainly much smaller than our community tends to assume.

So roughly what percentage of people who know how to ride a bicycle also know how to shift gears?

Nobody has directly surveyed this. We track the rate of bicycle ownership, how often people actually use a bike, infrastructure investment, and injury statistics.

We have not ever asked at scale: “do you actually know how to use your bicycle’s gear shifter?”

Let’s estimate from what we do know.

Single-speed bikes are the global norm

A 2022 Ipsos survey of more than 20,000 adults across 28 countries found that about 63% of adults globally say they know how to ride a bicycle — but only 42% report owning one, and just 14% on average use a bike for a short neighborhood trip.¹

That tells you most of the world’s cyclists are occasional riders and that occasional riders are far more likely to be riding simple, cheap bikes.

This matters because the global bicycle market is dominated by bikes for transportation and not for sport.

A peer-reviewed study in “Nature Communications Earth & Environment” found that China alone accounts for roughly two-thirds of global bicycle production.² Chinese utility bikes — the kind that have moved hundreds of millions of people across Asia for generations — are predominantly single-speed. India, the world’s second-largest producer, has a similar profile. A separate Johns Hopkins study tracking bicycle ownership across 150 countries estimated at least 580 million privately owned bicycles worldwide, with India and China accounting for a disproportionate share.³

Even in the Netherlands most bikes are “slow, heavy utility bicycles rather than road and mountain bikes.”⁴ The classic Dutch “Omafiets”, which makes up the bulk of that enormous fleet, is traditionally single-speed.⁵

And then there are children’s bikes. In the United States, kids’ bikes accounted for 57% of all bicycle units sold in 2023. The vast majority of those are single-speed with coaster brakes. A child who learns to ride on one of those bikes and never upgrades has simply never had the opportunity to learn gears.

Owning a geared bike doesn’t mean you know how to use it

Now consider the people who do ride geared bikes. Plenty of them leave the shifter alone for most or all of a ride. Maybe they got a used bike and nobody explained the gearing. Maybe they tried shifting gears once, the chain made an alarming noise, and they never tried again. Maybe they just grind up hills in the wrong gear because it’s never been a problem they were aware could be solved.

If the bar for “knowing how to shift gears” is simply “can physically move the shifter,” that’s probably most geared-bike riders.

If the bar is “shifts deliberately — choosing a gear based on terrain or effort level” — which is what most of us mean when we say someone knows how to shift — a more honest estimate is probably less than half of regular geared-bike riders.

The bottom line

There’s no concrete number here, because no one has measured it. But when you add together the world’s single-speed riders, the children who learned on coaster-brake bikes and never graduate, and the geared-bike owners who use their shifters haphazardly, the share of all cyclists who can deliberately and intentionally use gears is likely a minority.

It’s fair to say the true share lies somewhere between a 25-50% depending on geography and how you define “knows how to use gears.”

For a US or Western European audience the number is higher. Globally, it’s probably lower. Either way, it is almost certainly not a majority.

Does this matter for advocates?

PeopleForBikes’ 2022 Bicycling Participation Study found that more than half of American kids under 14 rode a bicycle at least once in the previous year — but that participation rate drops to 42% among 15–17 year olds, and keeps falling through adulthood. The steepest cliff happens right at the age when riders typically transition from simple single-speed kids’ bikes to adult geared bikes.

No study has isolated gear-shifting competency as a cause of that dropout, but it’s a plausible and underexamined contributor. A rider who inherits a used 7-speed from an older sibling with no one to explain what the shifters do is encountering a machine that feels harder and less intuitive than the bike they grew up on.

That friction is compounded by the fact that most advocacy programs, bike education, and cycling marketing assume basic gear literacy which likely accelerates dropout.

This extends to infrastructure design itself. A protected lane over a highway overpass or hill is a genuine achievement — but it’s only usable by someone who knows how to shift into an easier gear to make the climb. Advocates who fight for that infrastructure and then point a new rider toward it without any gear education are setting them up for exactly the kind of defeated and sweaty experience that ends the cycling experiment. We can build the right infrastructure and still lose the rider if we’ve skipped a step.

Every rider who stops cycling in their mid-teens is one fewer person building the political constituency for safer streets, one fewer commuter shifting mode share, one fewer body counted in the ridership numbers we use to justify infrastructure investment.

If gear-shifting competency is a barrier — even a partial one — then treating it as a non-issue quietly harms the goals we’re trying to achieve.

Getting parents to swap car trips for bike trips is a harder sell if they’ve never figured out why their bike is so hard to pedal uphill.

Reaching new cyclists doesn’t end with handing them a bicycle and seeing them ride down the street.

It requires closing the gap between “can ride a bike” and “rides a bike happily up a hill with cargo next to vehicle traffic”–and to stop assuming those are the same thing.

A closing thought: the explosive popularity of electric bikes with a hand throttle and/or pedal assist may affirm this estimation about the global bicycling population’s gearing familiarity.

Ipsos. “Cycling Across the World.” Global Advisor survey of 20,057 adults across 28 countries, conducted March–April 2022 ↩
Shan, X. et al. “Historical patterns and sustainability implications of worldwide bicycle ownership and use.” Communications Earth & Environment, Nature, 2022 ↩
Oke, O. et al. “Tracking global bicycle ownership patterns.” Journal of Transport & Health, 2015. Summarized via ScienceDaily: ↩
“Cycling in the Netherlands.” Wikipedia. ↩
“What is a Dutch-Style Bike (and Why Are ‘Omafiets’ So Popular)?” Discerning Cyclist. ↩

Yes, Your Bike Can Carry That

2026-04-10T17:01:00-07:00

You already know how to ride a bike. The only thing standing between you and a carless grocery run is how the stuff gets home with you.

Start with what you already own

You do not need to buy a new bicycle to carry things.

A standard bike can carry a surprising amount with zero accessories.

Hanging a bag from each handlebar works. Two full canvas shopping bags hang cleanly from most handlebars. That’s enough for a mid-week grocery stop, a pharmacy run, a hardware store visit.

Keep the weight roughly even and don’t pile so much that steering is unmanageable.

A backpack adds more capacity without touching the bike at all, and nearly everyone already owns one. They suit dense loads: boxed goods, a change of clothes, pantry staples. The tradeoff is that their weight on your back means sweat on your back, which matters more on longer rides, going up hills, or on hotter days.

A messenger bag works similarly but handles irregular shapes better and is faster to load and unload. They’re less common than backpacks, but worth knowing about if you’re carrying things that don’t pack neatly.

Carry more without wearing it

A handlebar bag or basket mounts to your cockpit and sits in front of you. In the 1–5 liter range it holds a wallet, phone, and keys. In the 10–20 liter range it handles a grocery run and keeps the weight low and forward.

Most front bags/baskets detach quickly so you can carry the bag into the store and clip it back on when you leave.

Here is a bigger one that looks like a bucket, and worked perfectly for my wife & I as we went picnicking:

Here is a smaller one that detaches and looks like a small briefcase (it fits my 13-inch work laptop):

Adding a “rack” is where carrying capacity significantly expands.

Racks can be added to the front or the back of your bicycle, above the front or the back wheels.

A rear rack offers a metal platform above the back wheel that turns your bike into a low-profile truck:

You can use a simple bungee cord to carry items atop the rack:

Round objects roll and tall objects tip, so you learn quickly what does not work.

A crate can be zip-tied or bungeed (multiple times) to the rack and is cheap, durable, and holds an extraordinary amount: bags of groceries, a six-pack, a bag of dog food.

It looks DIY because it is, and it works perfectly:

Panniers, also known as “saddlebags”, hang off each side of the rear rack, and are the most powerful tool:

A pair of panniers on either side of your bike gives you 40 liters of enclosed, weather-proof carrying capacity. That’s roughly equivalent to two large backpacks, and unlike a backpack they hang low for excellent balance and off your back so you do not get sweaty. Panniers double as grocery bags since you can detach them from your bike and carry them into the store.

We don’t want to forget the front-rack, which also can be used with bungee cords, combined with a backpack or messenger bag:

Carrying a child

This is where a lot of parents assume the car becomes mandatory. It doesn’t.

A rear child seat mounts to the rack and holds a child from roughly the time they can sit independently — around 9 to 12 months — until they hit the seat’s weight limit, typically 40 to 48 pounds. They attach in minutes and leave your hands on the bars.

Rear child seats can even be doubled:

A front-mounted seat attaches to the frame between the bars and your body, with the child facing forward. You can see them and talk to them throughout the ride. The weight limit is lower and some riders find the proximity to the handlebars takes getting used to.

This bike has both:

Neither setup requires a special bike — just a bike with the right mounting points for the seat you choose. Check compatibility before buying.

A note on cargo bikes

Cargo bikes — longtails, box bikes, bakfiets — exist to take all of this further: multiple children at once, a full week of groceries, lumber from the hardware store. But they’re a different post. Everything above works on the bike you probably already own.

These bikes are designed to be “super bikes”–carrying well beyond the traditional bicycle:

Like I said at the beginning: you do not need to buy a new bicycle to carry things.

But browsing cargo bikes online (or seeing them in-person) can be a mind-expanding exercise.

The barrier is the first trip

The biggest shift of all is mental: trips that feel “car-shaped” can be performed as trips by bike.

The first time you ride home from the grocery store with groceries, the mental model updates permanently.

You already know how to ride, the rest is just hardware!

What I Stopped Thinking About When I Went Car-Free

2026-04-10T17:00:00-07:00

I feel a strange sympathy when people complain about gas prices, parking, insurance. Sympathetic, but distanced–like the way you’d feel watching someone struggle with a burden you set down so long ago you forgot how heavy it was.

I don’t own a car. I haven’t for 5 years. I live in a suburb of San Francisco with my partner and our infant.

There is obvious skepticism about how car-free suburban life works: groceries, rain, the pediatrician. I’ll write about those another time.

Today I want to talk about something harder to see: the enormous cognitive load that simply disappeared from my life when I sold my car.

Things I do not spend time thinking about:

Gas prices. I am vaguely familiar with what gas costs right now ($5-8/gallon?). I couldn’t tell you within a dollar. When gas prices dominate the news cycle, I experience it the way I experience reports about the price of soybeans: information about someone else’s life. I recognize fuel prices are passed on to me, but it is genuinely not on my mind.

Parking. I have never circled a block in downtown San Mateo looking for a spot. I have never been late because I couldn’t find parking. I have never paid for a parking garage. I have never had the low-grade argument with my partner about whether to park here and walk or keep looking for something closer. I bike to the restaurant, lock up at the rack, and walk in.

Insurance. I don’t comparison-shop auto insurance policies. I don’t get in accidents. I don’t worry about whether my rate went up. I don’t think about deductibles. I don’t carry an insurance card in my wallet.

Maintenance. I don’t do oil changes. I don’t rotate tires. I don’t experience anxiety over driving noises. I don’t drop my car off at 7am and figure out how to function for several days without it. I don’t get the text from the mechanic saying they found something else ($$$). My bike(s) needs a new chain every couple years and a brake adjustment occasionally. I do it myself in the driveway in twenty minutes.

Registration and smog. I don’t go to the DMV. I don’t think about the DMV. I couldn’t tell you what a smog check costs these days.

Traffic. I don’t check Google Maps before leaving the house. My “traffic app” is Transit which shows me the bus and train departure times near me. But mostly I walk or bike which is the most predictable travel times imaginable.

Car washes. It rains on my bike and then it dries. This is fine. I couldn’t tell you what a car-wash or detailing costs these days. $25?

The “check engine” light. The glowing icon on the dashboard means somewhere between $0 and $4,000 is about to leave your bank account. You won’t find out which until a stranger tells you–and do you really have time to go consult another stranger?

Each of these is small, but they are constant. They run in the background of your mind, and you may not notice their cost until you stop.

I can’t tell you what amount of space these thoughts cost, but I can tell you about what occupies my mind these days:

I think about my wife & son.
I think about who I might see on my bike ride.
I think about the neighbor whose construction project is coming along nicely.
I think about recipes for dinner.

These are not profound thoughts. But they are thoughts pertaining to the life I am living today–not to the maintenance of a machine that skips past it.

No single one hardship from my list is bad enough to question the aggregate costs of car-ownership.

Most Americans absorb the whole package: the insurance, the parking, the gas prices, the maintenance, the traffic, the registration, the anxiety.

These are the baseline cost baked into your “cost of living” equation. You stop noticing it the way you stop noticing a noise you’ve been hearing for twenty years.

I noticed when it stopped.

I’m not saying everyone should sell their car tomorrow–I understand the critical utility it provides to many.

My household still has one car, and my partner drives it. I’m not saying that owning a car is morally wrong.

I am saying it is expensive in ways that are difficult to grasp, and that most people have never experienced the alternative long enough to understand them.

The next time you’re idling in traffic, or on hold with your insurance company, or watching the mechanic’s estimate exceed the number you were expecting:

I want you to know that the feeling in your chest right then is not inevitable. It is not an obligatory cost. It is the cost of one specific machine that you have been told you need.

And the moment you begin to question that you are free.

Why I Don't Drive

2026-03-17T17:00:00-07:00

For my own transportation, I do not drive a car.

I get around my city by walking, biking, and taking public transit.

Here’s why.

The opportunity cost

My household can financially afford a car and all its attached costs. Most of my neighbors can too. My story isn’t a story about financial necessity.

It’s a story about what car ownership actually costs you–in money but more importantly in distress, time and mental overhead.

The AAA puts average annual car ownership at over $12,000 per year. That’s real money I (and I imagine others) would rather commit elsewhere (savings, housing budget, healthier food, childcare services).

But the subtler costs of driving come from the physical and mental distress it causes you.

The physical health damage is largely caused by time spent driving eliminating available time for exercising. I completely negate this by walking and biking in my transportation journeys every day.

The mental distress is more difficult to quantify, but it is very real.

I personally have had both a family member and a close friend die by car.

77% of American drivers will be in at least one crash in their lifetime and 22–32% of crash survivors develop PTSD. That makes car crashes one of the largest sources of trauma-related psychological distress in the US.

Driving imposes a sizeable cognitive tax that comes with owning a vehicle: seeking parking, scheduling/procuring maintenance, renewing registration, dealing with insurance claims, getting smog checks, remembering to move the car on street cleaning day. None of these things are catastrophic but they are just a persistent low-grade drain on your attention.

I ride a Yuba Mundo cargo bike that carries more groceries than a sedan trunk. For longer trips as a family, Caltrain or the SamTrans bus works.

The financial comparisons are staggering, and my household banks those savings.

Who else does not drive?

There’s a second reason I don’t drive and it’s the most important:

I want to know what my community looks like to someone who cannot afford a car.

Can a person without a car in my community get groceries safely? Get their kid to school? Access a bank, a government office, a doctor?

The answer to that question is one of the most honest measures of a community’s social health.

A city that has made full participation in (economically, culturally, politically) contingent on car ownership is an exclusionary city.

It is a city that has decided that some residents matter more than others through infrastructure choices.

I don’t not-drive to prove a political point. I do it to feel whether the streets, the transit, the bike infrastructure are actually functional for someone without a car, and to notice when they are not.

Most of the time in San Mateo they are adequate. Sometimes they are even good! Occasionally they’re genuinely hostile. I want to keep knowing which is which.

And as an added benefit on top, I truly meet new friends through avoiding driving. I know the dog walkers, bus drivers on my regular routes, and I recognize fellow riders who I wait with together at bus stops.

I can demonstrate to my son what being a member of a community means.

What it actually costs me

Honestly, it costs me a whole lot less than most people assume to go car-free.

An e-bike extends your range and carrying capacity dramatically. Hills disappear. Trips that would be a slog on a regular bike across town with a full load of groceries, or with a kid on the back become unremarkable.

Your mental map of what’s reachable expands considerably once you have one.

The biggest difficulties are weather and daylight. San Mateo is mild by most standards, but rain still means raingear and a potential change of clothes.

Winter’s short days mean more trips happen in the dark which is fine with good bike lights, but it shapes when I run errands and how I think about timing.

I adjust my schedule around daylight in the winter in a way that I don’t in the summer.

The case I care more about

When you drive you leave your neighborhood.

Not physically but experientially. You experience your neighborhood as a series of obstacles between you and parking. Stoplights. Pedestrians crossing. Narrow streets.

When you walk and bike, you are in your neighborhood. You notice the new restaurant that opened. You meet your neighbor. Your child learns social and skills of independence. You feel the weather, you hear the birds, and you exist in the place you actually live.

This is the entire difference between “living” somewhere and “sleeping” somewhere.

Ivan Illich called this the “remoteness” that speed creates–a framing I’ve written about before. Beyond a certain speed of travel, you are no longer inhabiting space.

I have a new baby. I want him to grow up knowing his neighborhood–the coffee shop owner, the librarian, the bus driver. Doing this requires slowness. It requires being present in the same places repeatedly at a human pace.

Driving takes that away from us all.

Driving is the privilege

We have it backwards when we say “going car-free is a privilege.”

Driving is the privilege.

American roads, parking minimums, free street storage for private vehicles, highways bisecting neighborhoods–these are massive public subsidies, built and maintained at collective expense, that primarily benefit people who can afford to drive. The person who can’t afford a car doesn’t opt out of a neutral system. They’re excluded from one that was engineered around everyone else.

When I don’t drive, I’m not enjoying some luxurious, exotic lifestyle. I am just refusing to depend on infrastructure that was built by displacing people poorer than me.

The question worth asking is not “can I afford not to drive?”

It’s: “what kind of community am I building by driving through it?”

What If California Is the Most Regressive State in America?

2026-03-09T17:00:00-07:00

I grew up in California, born and raised.

I absorbed the state’s self-image from a young age and recognized the state by fundamental truths: confident, a financial powerhouse, and a leader in progressive causes.

I left for a bit, and I came back for its weather and economic opportunity.

Newly returned as an adult I paid rent, I bought a car (I had to in order to visit rental listings).

And I observed who lived and who left: the reasons they shared for leaving and the reasons that I could infer.

I had to wonder: why would people leave California?

The truth is that it’s not a choice.

California is punishingly regressive.

It is the most regressive state in the USA.

I took this photo flying into LA.

LA goes on forever.

It is single-family houses, cul-de-sacs, strip malls–all the way to the mountains.

California has the worst housing shortage in the country. By the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (adjustments for actual cost of living) California ranks dead last among all fifty states.

Last.

In the most recent three-year data, 17.7% of Californians live in poverty by this measure, tied only with Louisiana and well ahead of Mississippi at 16.4%.

The national average is 12.7%.

The comparison that actually keeps me up at night is Texas.

I don’t want to live in Texas, in fact I don’t think most Texans want to physically live in Texas.

But a teacher in Texas can buy a house. A nurse can afford to live in the city where he or she works instead of a van.

In the Bay Area, those same people are commuting ninety minutes from somewhere they can halfway afford, or they’ve left entirely.

In contrast to California, Texas built housing.

It is car-dependent, sprawling, aesthetically grim housing—-but Texas built housing.

California did not.

California’s homeowner class made sure that didn’t happen here, and the bill got paid by renters, immigrants, and anyone who arrived after the good seats were taken.

The “Homelessness in California” Wikipedia article is an informative read.

I took this photo a couple of miles from my residence.

El Camino Real is a stroad, running through some of the most expensive real estate on earth.

Five lanes, surface parking, a bus stop with no shelter.

The exact same arterial road that you find in any Texas suburb, except the houses behind it start at $2 million.

We didn’t avoid the bad parts of Texas urban planning.

We just added $2 million houses and called it progressive.

The policy that ties it all together is Proposition 13.

Passed by the voters in 1978 with 62.6% of the vote, it caps property taxes based on when you bought.

This means someone who bought in Palo Alto in 1987 pays almost nothing compared to someone who bought last year.

It’s a policy perfectly designed to entrench the advantages of whoever got here first, and it’s been untouched for nearly fifty years.

The revenue that gets lost has to come from somewhere so it comes from sales taxes, which hit lower-income households hardest.

California’s state sales tax is the highest in the nation at 7.25% (it falls to 7th when you account for local/county) (source).

This is the most regressive property tax structure of any state in the country, and it is held in place by the political coalition that considers itself the “progressive ones”.

California spends a lot on social programs, and its income tax is genuinely progressive. But on the outcomes that define whether a working-class person can build a life here (housing, cost of living, whether you can stay) the state has failed and it has failed because the people with the most power to change things had the most incentive not to.

This fake progressivism becomes most pronounced when discussions of rent control come up.

When these rent control efforts are made they are dunked to the ground and curb-stomped by a cadre of electeds at every level who own homes and do not rent.

Rent control for me (Prop 13), but not for thee!!!

Prop 13 has survived untouched for nearly fifty years and it isn’t because Californians lack self-awareness.

It’s because the people most harmed by it don’t vote. Nationally, homeowners turn out at rates roughly 20 points higher than renters. In California the gap is even more severe: ~73% of the state’s likely voters are homeowners, while ~63% of unregistered adults and ~58% of infrequent voters are renters.

Renters are close to half the state’s population, but they are a fraction of its participating electorate.

This isn’t an accident. Renters move more often, which means re-registering more often. They work hourly jobs with less schedule flexibility. They are disproportionately immigrants, younger, nonwhite which are the groups with compounding barriers to political participation.

Meanwhile homeowners–whose property values depend directly on keeping housing supply restricted–show up reliably and vote their balance sheets. A Stanford study shows that homeowner voter turnout nearly doubles when zoning is on the ballot (source).

California doesn’t just have a housing policy failure. It has a democracy failure, and the two are the same failure.

Dolores Park, San Francisco.

I love this place. I came back to it on purpose. I am raising my kid here.

On a good day in California (most of the year) it still feels like nowhere else.

That is why I wrote so critically of it.

California has every advantage: the weather, the geography, the economy, & the talent.

Dolores Park on a summer evening is a real thing.

The question is:

How many people get to afford to live in proximity to this scene?

And whether we’re willing to ask that question out loud.

The direct outcome of California’s policies is that its population is not keeping pace with the rest of the US, and so has its political clout.

We’ll see how the next decade looks as far as how folks vote with their feet.

As someone who cares for a more positive outlook for California I hope that its legislators and voters make the systemic reforms it needs to stay relevant for the next 50 years to come.

Closing Streets to Cars Helps Business. It Works in Small Towns Too

2026-02-27T16:01:00-08:00

My last post made the case that closing streets to cars is good for business.

The examples I used were New York City and Montreal—-both well-documented pedestrian successes, but also enormous corridors that make it hard to make a persuasive case that their learnings could be applied in any city smaller than a New York or Montreal.

This post is for the smaller places.

B Street in downtown San Mateo, CA. The lights are nice. On most nights, it’s quiet.

B Street on a slow afternoon. The mural is there. The planters are there. The benches are there. The people aren’t. A closed street without a reason to visit it is just an empty street.

Also B Street. Same street, different night. Kajiken opened on the pedestrianized street and regularly has lines out the door to this day.

Closing the street is step one–but not the whole plan.

The Effect Isn’t About Scale

A 2022 study across 14 Spanish cities found that pedestrianized streets outperformed car-dominated ones in retail sales.

It also found that geographic location was insignificant. If anything, smaller cities saw a larger effect.

Mid-sized towns had the same outcome as major metros.

The mechanism is the same everywhere:

(make a street feel less hostile) + (slow people down) = (people spend money)

Philadelphia’s Center City District launched “Open Streets” in September 2024.

They closed blocks of Walnut and 18th streets on Sundays.

After 21 events and one full year foot traffic was up 65%, sales were up 39%.

In Hamburg, New York (population ~10,000) the village fought a highway-widening proposal and got traffic calming roundabouts instead.

The main street is now credited with having more businesses, more pedestrians, and higher tax revenues than before.

You don’t need Times Square foot traffic for this to work, you just need a street where people feel comfortable slowing down.

Giralda Avenue in Coral Gables, Florida (top) and Castro Street in Mountain View, California (bottom). Both suburban, both permanent, both are not Times Square.

The Ladder

Most small downtowns are already doing temporary pedestrianization without calling it that:

A farmers market that closes a block on Saturday mornings
A holiday street fair
Restaurant week with tables in a parking lane

These are all the same thing. The only difference is nobody’s measuring whether the coffee shop two doors down did more business that morning.

And nobody’s using that data to make a case for doing it more often!

Here is a ladder of steps to pedestrianize a street–from minimal to maximal effort:

Beginner: One-off event

A street fair, a block party, a holiday closure.

Before you do it count foot traffic on a normal version of that day. Afterwards, survey the merchants.

This data is the key to everything.

Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame, CA closed for the holidays.

The infrastructure required to close a residential block for a day is basically nothing.

The physical infrastructure for closing a street to throw a block party. The harder part is collecting enough neighbor signatures to get the city permit.

On a commercial street, that bureaucratic hurdle largely disappears

A business improvement district (BID) or city department can handle the paperwork without needing signatures from every adjacent merchant.

The harder part is political will and not logistics.

The entire closure scheme for Burlingame Avenue. A police car and some sawhorses.

Medium: Weekly recurring

This could be a farmers market on the same block, every week.

People who came for the fresh produce walk past the coffee shop and the bookstore.

Start checking whether adjacent non-market businesses see a bump on market mornings, as they usually do.

The Burlingame Farmers Market on Park Road. The sign says no animals, the dog does not care!

San Carlos, CA closes Laurel Street the same way Burlingame closes Burlingame Avenue: cones and a sign.

The Claremont, CA farmers market. Music, families, cyclists. There’s a reason to be here beyond groceries.

I organized a group bike ride from downtown San Mateo to Burlingame’s Sunday farmers market.

I did it partly to show a safe route between the two downtowns, partly to celebrate Burlingame for closing the street for it.

Harder: Seasonal open streets

Close a block every Sunday afternoon from May through September. Some chairs, maybe a musician, minimal infrastructure. Philadelphia has been doing this since late 2024 — 21 events, 65% increase in foot traffic, 39% bump in sales.

B Street Beats — a city-organized music series on the pedestrianized blocks. Two kids running toward a guitarist is a decent sign the street is working.

Red Adirondack chairs and a jumbo Connect 4 on a closed street in Palo Alto, CA. Expensive-looking furniture, left out in public. Somehow it doesn’t walk away.

Programming is the thing most cities skip. A closure without programming is just an empty street with the cars removed. A closure with a musician, a game, a reason to sit down — that’s a destination.

A craft festival on Laurel Street in San Carlos. Stalls on both sides, people in the middle, reason to be there.

Expert: Six-month pilot.

Bollards, outdoor seating, delivery access until 10am, data collection, merchant partnership, a decision point at the end with actual numbers.

This is what I described in the last post.

Cities find their own version of the same infrastructure:

San Mateo, CA uses wooden planters on wheels as movable barriers for B Street. They’re cheaper than bollards, easier to move for deliveries, and avoid the risk of hitting aged undocumented utilities if you dig. The sign on the front says commercial loading is permitted from 1am to 10am.

Miami Beach, FL uses green plastic jersey barriers on Ocean Drive.

San Carlos’s early attempt at closing Laurel Street. Not aesthetic. Gets the job done. The banner says “A Great Place to Be.”

Every city finds its own version of the same solution. There’s no right answer.

Each rung generates evidence and political goodwill for the next one. A merchant who’s watched foot traffic spike every market Saturday is a completely different conversation than one being asked to imagine what it might do.

The train is silly. The line for it is not.

The street closure created the space. The train created the destination. People didn’t come because the road was closed. They came for the train and stayed for the shops. That’s the whole theory in miniature.

Why Farmers Markets Fail

While I label the farmers market for “beginners”, a lot of them quietly die.

Understanding why they die is useful if you want yours to survive and grow.

The most common failure is a chicken-and-egg problem between vendors and customers.

A market needs enough vendors to attract customers and enough customers to attract vendors.

Without the customers, farmers won’t renew their permits.

Without the vendors, customers stop coming.

A market with three stalls isn’t a market: it’s a sad parking lot, and once it gets that reputation recovery is hard.

The second failure is location and layout.

A market tucked behind a building, or oriented away from where foot traffic is coming from works against itself from day one.

Shade matters too—-a wide-open plaza with no tree cover is uncomfortable to linger in when it’s hot, and lingering is what you’re selling.

And don’t forget bathroom access.

The third is grant dependency.

Seed funding gets a market started, but a market that never develops real vendor and customer bases before the money runs out will collapse when it does.

Recurring paying customers are the only sustainable foundation.

The fourth is programming.

A market that’s only vegetables competes on produce.

A market with live music, a food truck, something for kids, and a reason to stay for an hour becomes a destination.

Destination markets generate the foot traffic that keeps vendors coming back season after season.

What Happens When the City Doesn’t Follow Through

A weekday closure of Burlingame Avenue that almost nobody knew about. The city reportedly did little to no marketing, and the city manager left on vacation just before it launched. The bike racks are empty. The street is empty. This is not an argument against closing streets. It’s an argument against closing them and then doing nothing.

A COVID-era parklet being dismantled on Burlingame Avenue. Parklets built on car-accessible streets face strict structural standards for vehicle impact. When the cars come back, the parklets go. Allowing cars on a street has compounding costs.

The city creates the space. The city can also take it away.

The merchants who understand this are the ones who have the most to gain from locking in the closure before the next administration reconsiders it.

What You Can Actually Do

Show up and buy something.

The most basic contribution is also the most important.

Consistent customer volume is what keeps vendors renewing.

If you go once and the tomatoes are good, go again.

Make it a Saturday habit.

Bring someone who’s never been.

Farmers markets spread by word of mouth more than advertising.

A new customer who has a good first experience becomes a regular.

Spend time, not just money.

Linger. Sit down if there’s somewhere to sit. Talk to a vendor.

The case for converting a temporary closure into something permanent is built on foot traffic counts and dwell time.

Every extra minute on that block is a data point.

Put furniture on it.

The city creates the space but doesn’t always furnish it.

A group I’m part of called B Street Boosters fundraised for three picnic tables and placed them on the empty pedestrianized block while the city moved slowly:

All three occupied the first time I walked by.

The city had created the space but hadn’t furnished it, so a small group of us raised money for picnic tables and put them there.

That’s the level of intervention that can move a street from empty to used.

Volunteer.

Most markets are understaffed. Setup, breakdown, staffing the information table.

This is what keeps management from burning out, which is one of the main reasons markets fail.

Help recruit vendors.

Know someone who makes jam, grows vegetables, does woodworking?

They can’t say yes if they are never asked!

Take on a bigger role.

If your market is fragile then someone needs to own it.

That might mean joining the organizing committee, taking over social media, or being the person who recruits new vendors each season.

Markets don’t grow by themselves.

B Street before the mural. The street was already worth being on.

B Street in San Mateo. The city chose a street mural that will last 5-7 years over a bigger upfront hardscape investment. You don’t have to choose between a coat of paint and a full rebuild.

The street fair that becomes weekly market that becomes a seasonal open streets program that becomes a permanent pedestrian corridor.

That progression happens because someone started at the bottom of the ladder and kept climbing.

The pitch to a skeptical merchant or city council isn’t “look what Times Square did.”

It’s:

You know how it’s always busier on farmers market Saturdays?

We want to find out if we can make more Saturdays like that.

Start there.

Buc-ee's Is Better at Placemaking Than Your City

2026-02-22T16:02:00-08:00

I want to be upfront about something: I go to city council meetings to protect bike lanes. I volunteer on a feedback committee for a bus agency. I use the phrase “induced demand” in casual conversation. I am exactly the kind of person whose eyes are supposed to bleed at Buc-ee’s.

For the uninitiated: Buc-ee’s is a Texas-born chain of highway travel centers that have become, improbably, a genuine American phenomenon.

We’re talking 74,000 square feet. A hundred-plus gas pumps. Bathrooms that have won national awards. A beaver mascot with the brand recognition of a mid-tier Disney character.

People with otherwise normal judgment will drive an hour out of their way to stop at one. They post TikToks, buy the merch, and go back over and over again.

I visited the Royse City, Texas location. Royse City is a town of about 25,000 on I-30, roughly 35 miles east of Dallas, that exists largely because of the highway running through it.

It is not the kind of place urbanists travel to for inspiration (I did it to visit to family).

I came away with something I did not expect: genuine intellectual respect.

Not for the car dependency it serves (that part is as bad as you’d imagine, and we’ll get there).

But rather respect for the specific, deliberate, and largely unspoken placemaking mastery that Buc-ee’s applies to their properties.

Urbanists talk endlessly about placemaking: how to create spaces that feel alive, welcoming, memorable.

Amsterdam is visited and celebrated, walking and biking is praised. We ban cars from downtowns.

And then we come home to bus stops with no shelter and no public bathrooms for miles.

Buc-ee’s, a gas station, is doing several things better than us. Here’s an honest accounting.

The Bathroom, Which Is Not a Small Thing

Let’s start here, because Buc-ee’s does.

The restroom entrance is announced with a sign the size of a doorway: RESTROOMS — World Famous!

In 2012, Buc-ee’s won the Cintas “Best Restroom in America” award.

They have dedicated bathroom staff trained in sanitization rotation protocols, earning $20+ an hour.

The founder, Arch Aplin, has described his vision for Buc-ee’s as “a happy, Texas version of Grand Central Station”.

The stalls have full-height doors, not the standard American public restroom garbage ones with a gap at the bottom large enough to make eye contact with a stranger

Actual floor-to-ceiling, hotel-style privacy. The tile is clean. The grout is clean. There’s art on the walls in the corridor leading in.

I stood in there longer than strictly necessary just to admire the rarity of a comfortable communal bathroom.

The sink area has redundant everything: two soap dispensers, two paper towel dispensers, a trash opening labeled “TRASH” cut directly into the counter so there’s no ambiguity about where anything goes. It is, functionally, a system designed not to fail. If one dispenser runs out, you are not stranded. This seems like a low bar, and it is, and yet.

There are two baby changing stations. Side by side. In a dedicated alcove. With the beaver logo on the sign above them.

I have changed diapers on the parking lot ground behind a furniture store. Buc-ee’s is not that.

The existence of two clean, accessible changing tables at a highway stop is not a luxury.

It is a decision someone made to take families seriously as users of this space.

Here’s the thing about bathrooms:

They are the single most reliable indicator of whether a space respects the humans in it.

A good bathroom says: we thought about you being here. We anticipated your needs. We staffed accordingly.

A bad bathroom (or worse: a locked one) says the opposite.

Most American public infrastructure including transit stations that urbanists celebrate fails this test constantly.

Buc-ee’s passes it because failing it would cost them customers.

The incentive structure is different, and the outcome is different. That’s worth sitting with.

A Few Other Things They’re Getting Right

Wayfinding as hospitality. Department signs run the length of the food hall wall:

JERKY
CHICKEN & FRIES
BURRITOS & TACOS
BAKERY

They’re large, consistent, and visible from across the store. You are never confused about where to go.

This sounds trivial until you’ve gotten lost at a transit station due to non-existent signage.

Abundance as a design philosophy. A teenager in a Buc-ee’s cowboy hat and branded denim apron is hand-assembling pulled pork sliders next to a “Certified Angus Beef” sign, at a gas station, off I-35.

Most transit and retail design optimizes relentlessly for the minimum viable experience.

Buc-ee’s goes the other direction and people drive an hour out of their way because of it.

Delight is infrastructure. There is a lowered 1950s Chevrolet pickup, painted Buc-ee’s red with the beaver logo on the door, parked inside the store, loaded with plush stuffed animals, with a giant beaver mascot sitting in the bed. It serves no transactional function. It exists to make you stop, look, and feel something — the same reason a good plaza has public art, the same reason a well-designed market has a focal point. Most gas stations have a hot dog roller. Buc-ee’s has a beaver truck. The gap between those two choices is the gap between a space and a place.

They know exactly who they’re for. “Don’t Try Me, Try Jesus.” “Salty.” “Bless Your Heart.” Three shirts, same rack, aimed at three completely different people who all feel seen. Buc-ee’s doesn’t achieve pluralism by being neutral — it achieves it by being extremely specific about multiple different someones simultaneously. This is harder than it looks, and most public spaces never figure it out.

The Contradiction You Can’t Design Around

Nobody biked here.

Buc-ee’s sits on seventeen acres. The pump canopy alone covers the footprint of a city block.

The parking lot is a sea of asphalt that glows like a sports stadium at night.

The design excellence we’ve been discussing exists entirely in service of car dependency.

Every single person who patronizes Buc-ee’s does so arriving by a car from a highway in a landscape with no sidewalks and no alternative.

The beautiful bathroom is a reward for driving.

The cowboy hat employee is making you a sandwich because driving on a Texas interstate is genuinely terrifying and you deserve a sweet and fatty treat.

And while we’re being blunt: Buc-ee’s isn’t a neutral marketplace. It has a point of view.

The Grunt Style display is an intentional reflection of their customer demographic.

Buc-ee’s is extraordinarily good at reading its real audience and serving them without apology.

That’s partly what makes it work, and it’s worth being clear-eyed about what that audience looks like and what it values.

This is not Copenhagen.

I don’t think the lesson here is “build Buc-ee’s in cities.”

A 74,000-square-foot car-dependent retail campus is a disaster in land-use terms.

The lesson is narrower and far more embarrassing than that.

The lesson is that Buc-ee’s holds itself to a standard of cleanliness, wayfinding, hospitality, and delight and applied it to a gas station because they had a financial reason to care about the experience of being in their space.

Our public bathrooms have users too (or they would have users too, if we unlocked them).

What’s our excuse for failing to compete with Buc-ee’s?

What Happens to Business When You Close a Street to Cars

2026-02-22T16:01:00-08:00

Your downtown has a retail problem: empty storefronts, declining tax revenue, negligible foot traffic.

The city proposes a solution: close the street to cars, creating a public space for walking and dwelling in the street.

Business owners lose their minds:

“This will kill us!”
“No parking means no customers”
“You’re destroying our livelihoods”

This reaction is understandable.

Business owners have real skin in the game and change is scary for low profit-margin businesses.

Their complaints deserve an answer.

Here it is: in every North American city that has tried pedestrianization, business revenues have increased.

Not most cities: every city.

The Pattern That Never Changes

Two illustrative examples: New York City and Montreal.

Times Square, 2009

New York City announces plans to close Broadway to car traffic between 42nd and 47th Street.¹

Business owners oppose it. They are convinced that closing the street will devastate their stores.

What actually happened:

Business revenues increased 71%, the biggest increase in Times Square history²
Retail rents tripled³
Pedestrian volumes increased 11%⁴
Pedestrian injuries dropped 35%

The project started as a pilot with cheap plastic lawn chairs and was made permanent a year later.

By 2016, the permanent redesign was complete: a $55 million investment to formalize what started with paint and bollards.

Montreal, 2020

During COVID, the city pedestrianized sections of Sainte-Catherine Street West, Montreal’s main shopping artery, for the summer.⁵

Business owners raised valid concerns about losing customers during a transition period and felt that the city hadn’t adequately consulted with them.

What the data showed from the test:

Pedestrian activity surged 115% along 3 major intersections between 2022 and 2023⁶
Foot traffic increased 127% from 2021 to 2023⁷
The street attracted new retailers and is now undergoing permanent pedestrian-friendly redevelopment

The pattern holds across decades and cities:

Business owners express concern about pedestrianization.
Cities run pilots.
Sales go up.

Why Merchants Are Right to Worry — But Wrong About Why

Business owners have a rational reason for concern which is parking availability.

Losing customers who exclusively rely on parking would hurt.

But the problem is a data gap. Retailers typically respond to surveys that 40-60% of customers drove.

The actual number is usually 10-20%!

A 2012 Portland study found that pedestrians and bicyclists spend as much or more than drivers on each visit and they visit more frequently.⁸

A 2018 Quebec City survey found that the biggest consumers traveled on foot or by bicycle nearly 80% of the time.⁹

The parking spaces visible from the store window loom physically large in a business owner’s mental model.

The pedestrians and cyclists who make up the majority of their customer base are invisible.

They don’t announce their arrival or departure.

There’s another effect that’s just as significant:

People avoid streets with heavy car traffic.

Streets filled with moving cars, noie, exhaust, and narrow sidewalks are unpleasant.

People don’t linger, they do not browse, they don’t window shop, and they don’t make impulse purchases.

They don’t meet friends for coffee and then decide to check out that storefront they just walked past.

When you remove cars, streets become places where people want to dwell.

And time spent dwelling on a commercial street outside of a vehicle converts to revenue.

The Times Square Numbers

Before 2009 Times Square had 70 pedestrians for every 10 cars, but 90% of the street space was dedicated to cars.¹⁰

After pedestrianization:

360,000 pedestrians visit daily (up from 300,000)¹¹
$4.8 billion in annual retail, entertainment, and hotel sales¹²
22 cents of every dollar spent by NYC visitors is spent in Times Square’s seven-block radius

During the 2022 holiday season, Fifth Avenue pedestrianization in Times Square boosted sales $3 million—a 6.6% increase.¹³

The pilot program started with:

paint to block off streets
cheap plastic lawn chairs for seating
temporary barriers

Total cost to test the concept: minimal.

The returns: billions. Billions back to merchants, land values, and the city coffers from sales & appreciating property tax.

Business Districts Are Now the Ones Asking for It

The most compelling evidence doesn’t come from urbanist advocates or city planners but from merchants themselves.

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in New York are now the ones pushing for pedestrianization.¹⁴

BIDs in the Financial District, Madison Square, Herald Square, Meatpacking District, SoHo, Hudson Square, Union Square, and Downtown Brooklyn have all implemented or proposed major pedestrianization projects.

These are organizations funded and governed by the retailers and property owners on those streets.

They have looked at the data, seen the results in their own neighborhoods, and concluded that fewer cars means more revenue.

When Times Square was closed to traffic for a six-month trial, 68% of surrounding businesses supported making it permanent.¹⁵

They experienced the change directly, watched their revenues climb, and updated their views. That’s not ideology — that’s good business sense.

Montreal’s Recent Backtrack Is a Cautionary Tale

In April 2025 Montreal walked back plans to make sections of Sainte-Catherine Street permanently pedestrian-only.¹⁶

Business owners complained they hadn’t been consulted. The city caved and said they’d take a “step-by-step” approach instead.

The irony: foot traffic on that street had surged 127% from 2021 to 2023 during temporary pedestrianization.¹⁷

Retail was recovering and new retailers were moving in.

Montreal’s mistake wasn’t pedestrianizing the street but failing to bring merchants along from the beginning.

Business owners who feel steamrolled will fight even successful policies.

The lesson for cities isn’t to abandon pedestrianization.

It’s to invest in merchant communication, co-design, and trust-building before and during any pilot.

The Open Streets Data

During COVID-19, NYC created temporary open streets. A 2024 Comptroller study found:¹⁸

Restaurant and bar sales on open streets were 19% higher than pre-pandemic levels
Nearby areas without open streets saw a 29% decrease in sales
Storefront vacancy rates on open streets were notably lower than citywide rates

The data is consistent. Pedestrianization helps businesses.

How to Run a Pilot

The approach that works and that actually brings business owners along is a well-structured pilot in partnership with merchants.

engage early: meet with affected merchants before announcing anything. Explain the data. Ask what they need to feel confident in a test.
announce a pilot, not a permanent change: lower the political risk and give skeptics a reason to wait and see rather than fight.
install bollards and temporary seating: keep it reversible. Keep it cheap.
share data openly throughout: foot traffic counts, sales tax data, revenue surveys—-merchants should see this in real time, not months after the fact when they’ll challenge its fidelity.
use the sales data to make a public judgment on converting the pilot to a permanent fixture.

The budget for a pilot can be ~$10k and 6 months:

bollards at both ends (~$5,000)
temporary seating from Home Depot/Walmart (~$2,000)
paint and signage (~$1,000)
data collection cameras (~$2,000)

Allow delivery access 6-11am, emergency vehicle access always and outdoor seating for cafes and restaurants.

Measure (before and after):

pedestrian counts
sales tax data
business revenue surveys
safety incidents

When the pilot shows benefit/no harm to sales and safer streets, skeptical merchants and electeds convert to advocates.

Why Now

At this point the brick & mortar businesses of traditional downtowns have been under pressure from e-commerce for decades.

COVID-19 accelerated the decline and forced cities to run pilots: outdoor dining, car-free blocks

These “forced” pilots generated better data in two years than the previous two decades of advocates had accomplished.

At the same time, cities are facing a fiscal reckoning.

The suburban growth model that Strongtowns discusses at length (excessive car infrastructure) is economically unsustainable per acre compared to dense, walkable development.

A pedestrianized commercial street generates more sales tax per square foot with lower infrastructure maintenance costs than the same street with on-street parking and two travel lanes.

For a city councilmember facing empty storefronts, declining downtown tax revenue, and constituents asking “what are you doing about downtown?”

A low-cost, reversible, data-driven pilot is the most actionable solution.

It’s action without permanent commitment that can be campaigned on if it works and easily corrected if it doesn’t.

The political window opens when the status quo looks worse than the experiment.

How to Get This Done If You’re Not a City Official

You don’t need to be on the city council to make this happen.

You need to be annoying in the right ways, to the right people, at the right times.

finding your champion: one councilmember is enough to get a pilot on the agenda. You don’t need a majority to start, you need a majority to make it permanent. Start with whoever is most vocal about revitalizing downtown.
befriend a merchant, not just data a business owner who has seen what pedestrianization did for a comparable street is worth ten studies. Find one. If you can’t find a local one, get someone on a call from a city that’s done it. Politicians respond to constituents with skin in the game.
frame the ask as a pilot, always: never say “we want to pedestrianize this street.” Say “we want to run a 6-month pilot with full data collection, and then decide together.” Reversibility is what makes it politically viable. Don’t let anyone turn it into a permanent vs. temporary debate before the pilot has even begun.
show up to the meetings where budgets are set, not just the ones where plans are discussed: public comment at a general council meeting is fine. Being present when staff present their capital improvement priorities is better. The pilot needs a budget line — even a small one — to become real.
pre-sell merchants: don’t let city staff walk into a merchant meeting cold. Before any official outreach, have informal conversations with business owners on the target street. Understand their specific concerns. Bring data that speaks to those concerns directly. A merchant who isn’t surprised at the city meeting is far more likely to stay neutral or supportive than one who feels ambushed.
document everything and share it publicly: before/after photos, foot traffic counts, merchant quotes: publish all of them. Make the pilot’s success legible to people who weren’t paying attention at the start. This builds the political case for permanence and makes it harder to quietly reverse course.

The cities where this works are the ones where a small group of persistent people made it impossible for elected officials to ignore the opportunity.

Playbill, Five Blocks of Broadway Will Become Pedestrian Mall in Times Square ↩
ArchDaily, Snohetta Makes Times Square Permanently Pedestrian (January 9, 2014) ↩
DeepRoot Blog, The Rise of the Pedestrian Plaza: Street-to-Plaza Conversions in the U.S. (August 21, 2017) ↩
DeepRoot Blog, The Rise of the Pedestrian Plaza: Street-to-Plaza Conversions in the U.S. (August 21, 2017) ↩
eScholarship@McGill, Deconstructing business sentiment towards pedestrianization: Case study of Sainte-Catherine Street West ↩
Retail Insider, Montréal’s Retail Sector Thrives with Decreased Vacancies, Increased Foot Traffic (September 11, 2023) ↩
Retail Insider, Ste-Catherine St in Montreal on the Verge of Recovery (July 8, 2024) ↩
Chief Scientist of Quebec, Closing the streets to cars: bad for business? False (June 25, 2020) ↩
Chief Scientist of Quebec, Closing the streets to cars: bad for business? False (June 25, 2020) ↩
ArchDaily, Snohetta Makes Times Square Permanently Pedestrian (January 9, 2014) ↩
Transportation Alternatives, Putting People First in Times Square ↩
Wikipedia, Times Square ↩
NYC Comptroller, Streets for People: Open Streets and the Future of Public Space Management in NYC ↩
Streetsblog NYC, In New York, Business Groups — Not the City — Lead on People-Centered Streets (November 29, 2021) ↩
Colliers, Pedestrianisation and retail’s changing landscape ↩
CBC News, Montreal walks back pedestrian-only plans for sections of Ste-Catherine Street West (April 10, 2025) ↩
Retail Insider, Ste-Catherine St in Montreal on the Verge of Recovery (July 8, 2024) ↩
NYC Comptroller, Streets for People: Open Streets and the Future of Public Space Management in NYC ↩

The War on Drugs is Why Your Bus Never Showed Up

2026-01-17T16:00:00-08:00

You’re standing at the bus stop. The app said the bus would arrive in 3 minutes. Then 5 minutes. Then it just disappears from the tracker entirely. No bus. No explanation. Just another 45-minute wait for the next one, assuming that one actually shows up.

This isn’t a story about infrastructure or funding.

It’s about United States federal drug policy.

The Real Problem: Nobody Can Drive the Buses

More than 90% of transit agencies across the US can’t hire enough bus drivers.¹ Not because people don’t want the jobs—because federal law won’t let them take them.

In Baltimore, one in five buses don’t complete their runs.² LA Metro is short 600 drivers and cancels 10% of scheduled service every single day.³ Miami postponed its entire bus network redesign because it couldn’t find people to drive the new routes.⁴

Before the pandemic, LA Metro missed 1-2% of scheduled trips. Now it’s 10%. That’s not a marginal decline—that’s system failure.

The Federal Trap

Here’s the problem: Under federal law (49 CFR Part 382), anyone with a commercial driver’s license must pass DOT drug tests that include marijuana.⁵ No exceptions.

This applies to every transit bus operator in America, regardless of what state law says about marijuana.

Notably, these mandates do not apply to Uber or Lyft drivers.

The tests don’t measure impairment–they detect THC metabolites that linger for weeks after use.

Someone who smoked on Saturday tests positive on Monday despite being completely sober.

One positive test goes into a federal database and effectively ends your driving career.

Who Gets Excluded

According to 2024 federal data, 44 million American adults used marijuana in the past month.⁶

That’s 15% of the US adult population—-the exact population transit agencies need to recruit from.

Transit agencies are desperate to hire. They’re offering bonuses, raising wages, running recruitment campaigns.

But federal policy immediately disqualifies 15-25% of otherwise qualified applicants before they even walk in the door.

Think about that math. There are 159,000 transit bus operators nationwide.⁷

Agencies report shortages of 600-800 drivers at single large systems.

The workforce shortage is measured in thousands and federal policy is excluding millions.

The Absurd Part

In 24 states, recreational marijuana is already legal. In 38 states, medical marijuana is legal.⁸

You can walk into a licensed dispensary in Los Angeles, Denver, or Seattle, buy marijuana legally, use it at home on the weekend, and be permanently barred from driving a bus on Monday.

Eight states have passed laws explicitly protecting workers from employment discrimination based on off-duty marijuana use.⁹

But all those protections include an exception: they don’t apply if federal law requires drug testing. The state laws can’t override DOT regulations.

So someone in California (where marijuana has been legal for years) can be fired from a bus driving job or never hired in the first place for doing something that’s completely legal under state law.

Not because they’re impaired at work, but because they tested positive for something they did on their own time that violated no state law.

What Actually Happens to Service

When agencies can’t hire drivers, the consequences are immediate and measurable:

Buses don’t show up. Before the shortage, major agencies completed 98-99% of scheduled runs. Now many are at 85-90%. Each missed bus means missed connections, doubled wait times, and overcrowded buses when one finally arrives.
Routes get cut. Rhode Island cut service on 21 routes citing driver shortages.¹⁰ Pittsburgh reduced scheduled service by 4%.¹¹ These aren’t strategic decisions—they’re forced reductions because there aren’t enough people to drive the buses that already exist.
Riders give up. When you can’t trust the bus to show up, you stop planning your life around it. You buy a car. You take an Uber. You move closer to work. The system loses riders not because of a single bad trip, but because unreliability makes it unusable.

The Zero-Cost Fix

Removing marijuana from CDL drug testing wouldn’t cost transit agencies anything. They don’t need to buy new buses, build new facilities, or hire more mechanics. They just need access to the millions of workers federal law currently bars them from hiring.

Right now agencies are spending thousands per driver on signing bonuses and retention incentives—band-aids that don’t fix the underlying problem.

Meanwhile, 44 million Americans who could do the job are legally prohibited from applying.

The current policy forces agencies to compete for the 75-85% of adults who haven’t used marijuana recently, while excluding a massive pool of qualified workers for no reason related to job performance or safety.

But What About Safety?

The tests don’t measure safety. They measure past use.

Someone can be stone sober, fully capable of safely operating a bus, and still fail a marijuana test from use days or weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, the same test won’t catch someone who’s exhausted, hungover, on cold medicine, or impaired by any number of other factors that actually affect driving.

New York’s Department of Labor has explicitly said employers can’t test for marijuana because the tests don’t measure workplace impairment—they measure past behavior that has no bearing on current job performance.¹²

If safety is the concern, there are performance-based impairment tests that measure actual ability to do the job, regardless of cause.

Those tests would catch impairment from any source: marijuana, alcohol, fatigue, illness, medication.

Current marijuana testing doesn’t do that.

The Fix

Federal marijuana policy treats cannabis like heroin—Schedule I, high potential for abuse, no medical value. That classification is why transit agencies must test for it. It’s also completely divorced from reality, medical research, and the laws in 38 states.

The fix is simple: remove marijuana from DOT drug testing requirements. That’s it. Transit agencies could immediately start hiring from a pool of 44 million additional workers. Service would improve overnight at zero cost to taxpayers.

The buses exist. The routes are planned. The riders are waiting.

The only thing missing is drivers—and federal drug policy is the reason they can’t get hired.

Your bus didn’t show up because someone who could have driven it wasn’t allowed to take the job.

Not because they couldn’t do it safely.

Because they smoked weed two weeks ago.

American Public Transportation Association, Transit Workforce Shortage Study (2022) ↩
Governing, A Bus Driver Shortage Threatens Transit (October 31, 2022) ↩
Streetsblog LA, Missed Runs and Crowded Buses: Metro Falls Short of Restoring Full Pre-COVID Transit Service (October 1, 2021) ↩
TransitCenter, Bus Operators in Crisis (2022) ↩
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 49 CFR Part 382 - Controlled Substances and Alcohol Use and Testing ↩
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2024) ↩
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages: Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity (May 2024) ↩
Marijuana Policy Project, Cannabis Legalization and Employment Protections ↩
GovDocs, Marijuana Laws by State: Employee Protections (August 20, 2025) ↩
Governing, A Bus Driver Shortage Threatens Transit (October 31, 2022) ↩
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Port Authority to reduce service because of driver shortage (May 19, 2022) ↩
Anderson Kill, New York Bans Employers From Testing (Most) Employees And Job Applicants For Marijuana (June 16, 2025) ↩

Graz Photo Map

2025-12-24T18:00:00-08:00

My wife and I had one day in Graz, so we walked, talked and photographed. Enjoy some photos and commentary from our brief visit.

San Mateo Photo Bike Ride

2025-12-24T17:00:00-08:00

This is a collection of photos from a group bike ride along the [San Francisco Bay Trail](https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/regional-trails-parks/san-francisco-bay-trail), as it runs along the cities of: - San Mateo, - Foster City, and - Belmont.

Milan Photo Map

2025-12-24T16:00:00-08:00

My wife and I had one day in Milan, so we walked, talked and photographed. Enjoy some photos and commentary from our brief visit.

Miami Photo Map

2025-12-24T16:00:00-08:00

My in-laws live in Miami so I visit fairly often. Enjoy this collection of photos and commentary from memorable places I've visited in this beautiful city.

Come and See

2025-12-20T16:00:00-08:00

This was a difficult film to watch.

Between the dreadful soundtrack and relentless themes revolving around death, Come and See (1985) is the kind of theatrical film I imagine walking out of.

But watching it in the comfort of my own couch and having checked the DVD out from the library I could not avoid watching the film in full.

I forget who or what promoted this film to me.

I recall Come and See being held up as an example of Soviet filmmaking, depicting the cultural mindset of post-WWII Russians.

If you want to understand contemporary Russians, their culture, and their political power structure it is essential that you understand their traumas.

I am sure the same could be said the same of the USA:

Imagine trying to learn and understand the 500 years of American traumas in 2 hours and 20 minutes:

perilous immigrant and settlement experiences,
the Native American genocides,
the Revolutionary and Civil Wars,
abolition of slavery,
Women’s Suffrage,
the Civil Rights movement

In Soviet history, WWII is singular in the rough-edged history of a “Russian Empire”.

More Soviet “citizens” died in World War II than any other.¹

What’s more: the Soviet’s Red Army has the strongest claim to defeating the Nazis and liberating Europe.

Through this lens, the dark and violent trauma of Come and See is a critical piece of media for the ignorant to consume.

Senseless murder and cold-bloodedness is nearly constant throughout the 2 hour 20 minute runtime.

The film’s protagonist (if you call him that) is ultimately over-shadowed by the metaphorical Partisan leader, Kosach, who brings some sense of justice to the film’s finale:

The film’s end is sharply different from its beginning: the Soviet Partisans march stone-faced towards Berlin to counter the Nazi atrocities.

While I stumbled my way up from my couch after watching this film, I am not sure I can recommend it besides for educational purposes.

But what other purpose does media serve, if not education?

I of course know the answer, and hope that you my kind reader understand this as well:

Humans choose media to consume very selectively–much like food.

Our media diet is self-selected.

Like food, we find some media delicious and some revolting.

But all media elicits a hormonal reaction we sit down to receive.

Come and See is an eye-opening film–if you can stomach it.

Wikipedia: World War II casualties ↩

Vulnerability and Ivan Illich

2025-12-15T16:00:00-08:00

I have been thinking a lot about vulnerability as I decline to drive for my transportation.

Giving up driving a car is a kind of exposure therapy to reality that cannot be simulated or avoided.

The person walking in public space is vulnerable.

They breathe the air directly, hear the noise without a metal shell to muffle it, feel the weather, the sunrise/sundown/darkness, make eye contact with strangers and familiar faces.

They are exposed to traffic violence in a way that drivers who are sealed in their protective capsules are not.

I was searching for language to describe this disparity when I found a quote from philosopher Ivan Illich that stopped me cold:

Beyond a certain speed, motorized vehicles create remoteness which they alone can shrink. They create distances for all and shrink them for only a few.

This quotation is from an essay titled “Energy & Equity”, authored by Illich in 1978 (essay PDF link).

It captures something essential about what depending on driving does to us.

The car destroys walkability and sells itself as the solution.

Speed restructures space itself. When cities are designed for 40mph traffic, destinations spread apart.

And the vulnerable who cannot afford the car become a problem–slowing the car by failing to travel at their speeds.

People that can afford cars–people who can drive–benefit at everyone else’s expense.

In a society organized around automobility, walking becomes a holy act.

Not because walking is morally superior, but because it refuses the remoteness that speed creates.

Walking is a statement:

I will be here, in this place, at this pace my body is capable of.

It says:

I accept the threats and opportunities my community provides.

The remoteness created by speed separates us from places and it separates us from each other, from our own bodies, from the immediate reality of where we are.

And because only some people can afford to shrink these distances, speed becomes a form of inequality: the ability to avoid the consequences of the remoteness that speed itself creates.

To be vulnerable, to walk, to be present, to refuse remoteness: this is holy not because it’s comfortable or safe or efficient.

It’s holy because it’s real. Because it keeps us in contact with the world as it actually is, not as it appears through a windshield.

Illich saw this clearly appear in his lifetime.

We are still learning what he meant.

As I read more of Ivan Illich, I learned that he was raised in pre-World War II Austria.

His mother was a Sephardic Jew who converted to Christianity, but this did not spare his family from persecution when the Nazis rose to power over Austria.

He and his family avoided the concentration camps thanks to their wealth, but he fled the country with his family and sought refuge in Catholic studies, becoming an unconventional Catholic priest in post-war New York City, then Latin America.

His reputation as a philosopher was built from becoming an educator on systemic ills created by modern society.

He is perhaps best known for:

“de-schooling” - that formal schooling is harmful and a return to mutual aid education is preferable
“conviviality” - human-scale, hand-held tools build a human’s sense of purpose and ownership over labor–in contrast to contemporary technologies that have super-human scale and degrade human relationships with labor
“limits to medicine” - that western, contemporary medicine fails to accept that the human experience is not itself an illness and that life involves suffering that medicine cannot solve and in fact can create its own set of harms

I share these findings of mine as I find Illich’s ideas refreshing, and I have been surprised at how far his writings have traveled.

Apparently I have been out of the loop, never being exposed to his writings–while quite a few friends I have mentioned his name to are in fact familiar with him.

If you’d like to learn a little more about Illich without diving into his essays yet, I’ve found these two sources interesting:

I have more thoughts to share on Illich’s writings, but this post is already quite long and I’ll spare you.

Until next time!

The Voter Who Can’t Drive

2025-10-26T18:00:00-07:00

There’s a selection bias baked into American democracy, bias that most of us never stop to consider.

It’s not just about who wants to vote, but who can get to the ballot box.

Our car-dependent landscape means that the people least able to drive (the poor, the young, the elderly, the disabled) are systematically less likely to have their voices counted.

A fascinating paper, “Driving turnout: the effect of car ownership on electoral participation (PDF),” found that owning a car significantly increases the likelihood of voting. When the act of civic participation depends on vehicle access, democracy itself starts to warp around the need to buy and own a motor vehicle.

Unfortunately, the inverse is also true:

“Car access creates the largest hindrance to voting for those people who live farther from the polls.”

The good news is that:

“These effects do not appear for absentee voting, suggesting a simple policy solution to solve large disparities in political participation.”

However several American states like Texas and Georgia have politicians who are focused on suppressing voter participation by making mail-in voting more difficult or prohibited, aided by the federal Department of Justice.

This has the obvious effect of biasing the electorate towards individuals and households that can afford to own a car and are able to drive a car.

It also effectively disenfranchises Americans’ belief in the power of their vote.

In case you were wondering where I stand on this: this is bad.

I would argue that it is even evil in intent.

The effects of car-dependent voting is:

more preventable vehicular traffic violence,
worse public health outcomes, and
another generation of poorer Americans having to buy cars to participate in our shared political process

Effectively, it is “one car, one vote”.

I make a small annual ritual of taking my ballot by walking, biking, or public transit to the local dropbox every election.

It’s a reminder to my neighbors and candidates that the freedom to vote (and freedom to move) shouldn’t depend on a car key.

Two Wheels in Europe

2025-09-13T18:00:00-07:00

I visited Europe for a few short weeks (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy).

I took a lot of photos of transportation concerns as I tend to do.

Here are some photo highlights I found interesting from the travels.

We’ll start off small with a familiar sight–the minimalist 2-wheel manual kickscooter:

Interesting just how minimal the lock is that’s used. Can be locked virtually anywhere.

Or not locked:

Kickscooters were in each city visited, but not as common as bicycles or e-scooters:

Next up was the popular and diverse set of cargo bicycles.

This one is a ~$3,000 EUR folding Muli cargo bike, rigged with a kids seat on the back:

This model in particular is so popular, I saw it several times:

And again (in the rear) in Graz:

These ones have really long wheel bases–a first for me:

And then the improvised, cheap kind in Milan. You can see a wooden slat is zip-tied onto the rear rack:

I’ve seen similar in New York City, using a steel oven rack!

And the expensive, luxury kind of cargo bike:

And the utilitarian, business vehicles:

Selling glasses:

Or coffee:

Mail deliveries by single-speed bicycle in Zagreb, Croatia:

And these 20”, step-through frames were wildly popular in Ljubljana, Slovenia (very inexpensive):

There were not a tremendous amount of pannier/saddlebags in use, but I did see a familiar KLICKfix adapter for handbaskets:

One specific difference from where I reside is the rideshare bikes with kids seats:

Bike touring seems popular, and an ideal way to travel–in this case to Bled, Slovenia:

Of course, e-scooters are common and an economical vehicle for storage:

And come in…motorcycle-like frames:

Even if they do not win on safety, they win on economy.

Food delivery economy in action:

Speaking of economy, this monthly rentable e-scooter in Graz was a common sight:

And an always accessible get-away vehicle from the party:

E-scooters even come in 3-wheel variants, as dockless ride-share:

More dockless rentable e-bikes, a new and old model of Lime Bike side-by-side:

This rentable e-bike was particularly novel–having a shaft-driven drive chain (very rare) and a mid-drive pedal assist motor (Milan):

And speaking of dockless, dedicated bike parking was impressive:

Even if it were for motorized 2-wheelers:

We’ll end this one with a peaceful photo from the Augarten, in Vienna:

Go out there and enjoy yourselves–we only get one life!

Commute by Running

2025-09-13T17:00:00-07:00

I’ve previously written & shared photos from my commuting choices, but I thought I’d share a brief update.

Travel took me to New York City, and I had an opportunity to explore a new trip between residence and the workplace.

Trying the train, I noticed how slowly it traveled and that the distance from residence to workplace was 4-5 miles.

So I figured, why not try running it?

I had bought a nice and lightweight backpack with a chest-strap and was good to go!¹

I stowed my work laptop in an office locker:

And ran home from work one day–and it was game-changing.

After work is sunset, so naturally you get to see the most picturesque views & most moderate of temperatures:

I had a blast jogging at a leisurely pace and taking in the sights and sounds, dodging traffic, absorbing the diversity of people on my route.

I was energized by the experience and followed a different route the next day, this time along the east side of Manhattan and taking the Williamsburg Bridge:

The next day, another route straight down Broadway:

What a way to experience a city–I cannot recommend it highly enough!

Read more on the topic at The Run Commuter–which was a source of inspiration for me.

A backpack with a chestrap is the only nice-to-have for running to prevent excessive movement. Without minimizing swaying movement, you will harm your running efficient and potentially hurt your back or cause rubbing injuries. You can of course bypass the backpack entirely by pre-staging a change of clothes/shoes, or go lighter and cheaper on the backpack. ↩

SF Library

2025-07-25T17:01:00-07:00

I traveled up to visit my friend for dinner in San Francisco, and brought my scooter to jet around quickly for errands before dinner:

Killing 45 minutes before the dinner meetup time, I stepped into the main branch of the San Francisco public library:

There were some awesome skateboarding stunts being captured on a fish-eye lens camcorder, classic:

Stepping inside, the library is large (5-6 stories, 1 being subterranean):

I was confused by a section titled “Urban Fiction”:

The library was pretty well-occupied:

But plenty of open seating:

Exploring the over-sized books section, of local history, it is wild to see how some areas have changed while others have remained in stasis:

There were some interesting notes and photos from the era where different counties in the San Francisco region formed:

Having visited the city of Tiburon in Marin County, I was interested in this book of historical photos about the community:

There is a very recognizable building towards the northside of the Tiburon peninsula, that still stands today:

Before becoming an extremely affluent San Francisco suburb, it was an industrial hub of commerce and heavy rail transportation:

A more recent photo of the same location which now serves as a ferry terminal to San Francisco and Angel Island:

Rail served a hugely important economic development role in northern California:

There were several self-funded photo memoirs as well–one for Belvedere-Tiburon:

And another for Palo Alto:

Palo Alto did not have as much greenery or trees as it does, today:

I find it noteworthy that only through decades of purposeful landscaping has the area become moderately forested.

Interesting streetcar history:

With limited time, I left the library, grabbing dinner with my friend.

And I headed home after dinner:

SF Opera

2025-07-25T17:00:00-07:00

My wife & I attending the San Francisco Opera’s performance of La Boheme.

We took the BART train up to Civic Center, and took the short walk to the venue, next to San Francisco City Hall.

Ascending the staircase of the venue yielded some pretty sights of the building architecture:

The theater was pretty inside too:

The seating was very compact/crammed–I am a short person and my feet were touching the seat in front of me:

Some socializing and chit-chatting before the event:

The performance was all in Italian, with subtitles projected above the stage:

We got an intermission and stepped onto a balcony with an incredible view of San Francisco City Hall across the street:

After the show, we walked through an entranceway with interesting decor and out onto the street:

I was surprised to see several concertgoers had biked to the venue and locked up outside for several hours–trusting folks!

I’m happy to see no theft–maybe we will bring our bikes next time (though realistically we do not have to travel far from the train station).

Interesting cultural experience, not a priority to go again so soon.

Lake Tahoe

2025-06-24T17:00:00-07:00

We stayed at an AirBnB in Kings Beach, on the north side of Lake Tahoe.

My wife & I drove our car from where we reside, in San Mateo, south of San Francisco.

It took 4 hours of driving (maybe more?), hitting heavy traffic at points along the way.

Highway maintenance (and expansions!) seems to all be rushed to execute during the non-winter months while weather is “good”.

Some photos from the trip–our bikes unpacked at the cabin:

We got out and road down to the beach:

Today I learned: Lake Tahoe’s historical name was briefly honoring a Confederate (slavery) sympathizer:

Riding a bike was pretty good:

There was a noteworthy amount of signs, begging motorists to drive their large vehicles slower:

The obligatory and hypocritical “Keep Tahoe Blue” bumper sticker on a gas-guzzling overweight SUV is an enduring phenomenon for many decades now:

A walk around the neighborhood:

We elected to take a bus over to Tahoe City, from Kings Beach.

The bus runs every hour 7 days a week, but the Transit app very helpfully guided us to the bus stop with only a few minutes of waiting:

The bus agency is named “TART” (Tahoe Truckee Area Regional Transit), and they have 3-4 fixed routes and an on-demand shuttle service.

In such a housing-constrained area, recruiting drivers at living wages is a real logistical problem:

While waiting for the bus we watched a family of 5, all on e-bikes, pedal past us:

On the bus, pretty standard affair–it is free so no payments and all-door boarding (which both make the bus faster):

Pretty epic views out to the lake:

We saw a boat sale going down, and we’d later find out that there were fatalities on the lake the next day:

Lots of bike rental options:

So weird to see manicured golf courses among the forest:

We walked the lakefront trail by Commons Beach:

Fascinating informational placards about the lake’s history of commercial settlement:

After reading our books on a bench we caught the bus back, waiting in a winter-proof bus shelter:

E-bike teenager gang spotted while we waited for the bus–a great mobility option due to a fair amount of road & parking congestion:

We walked Kings Beach and experienced the gorgeous shoreline:

And walked home:

Biking to dinner at White Caps for pizza:

“Nobody is stoked that you moved here” at the cafe next door:

The next day we visited Sand Harbor Beach (on the Nevada side of the lake).

We passed Incline Village, and the bus route terminated there.

There is a new 2-3 mile multi-use path from Incline Village to the Nevada state park, and it was well utilized but car congestion on the roadway was intense.

Folks bring an incredible amount of stuff to the beach, but I will withhold my judgment:

Lots of bikers though:

Rounding out the trip, I read the book “Better Buses, Better Cities” and have two interesting extracts:

Reading and travel powered by coffee:

And trail runs before heading back home:

I hope to make the next trip on the once-a-day Amtrak that departs from Richmond to Truckee (5.5 hours).

June Daily Photos

2025-06-17T17:00:00-07:00

I participated in a June month challenge of daily photos, here is a collection of them.

The Masonic temple in San Mateo:

Bicycling point-of-view:

Father-daughter electric scooter ride:

Car storage decisions:

Bike parking:

Scooter parking:

Downtown San Mateo:

Military shuttle stop, at the Ontario airport:

Claremont public library:

Macro mode:

X-bikes:

Farmers market:

Masonry:

Dramatic conversation, pre-opera:

Street signs, x5:

Bus parking:

Downtown San Mateo:

Kitty cat:

The bus in motion:

SFO Descent

2025-06-08T17:00:00-07:00

I flew by airplane (not bird) from southern California into San Francisco airport, and I had the good fortune to have a left-sided window seat.

Here are some photos from the descent, captured in black & white on my Ricoh GR iii:

You can see the cloud front hitting Santa Cruz, coming from the northwest.

It is somewhat comical how flat-as-a-pancake this city is–a common reaction I had as we approached San Francisco airport (SFO).

We approached the inner San Francisco Bay Area, crossing the Santa Cruz mountain range:

The approximate location of this photo is near Black Mountain, Los Altos.

This view overlooks Stanford University’s campus, the Stanford Industrial/Research Park, the Stanford Dish, and highway 280 stretching northward:

We passed over silicon valley, looking northward up long El Camino Real, the state highway:

And then state highway 101, the Bayshore Highway:

We banked and caught Byxbee Park and Palo Alto Airport, on the bay’s shore:

You can see just how the highway and suburban office park sprawl expanded onto the shallower portion of the bay:

There is a huge salt flat, off to the east from downtown Redwood City:

Bair Island:

Redwood Shores, and its water treatment plant(?):

Foster City, with an interesting sign in the bottom left:

And highway 92, an east/west corridor, cutting through San Mateo and connecting with Half Moon Bay to the west (over the mountain range), and the Hayward Bridge:

I’ll be back with more photos.

The Bus

2025-05-30T17:00:00-07:00

I serve as a volunteer appointee on the SamTrans Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC).

That’s my county’s transit agency, which operates fixed route buses and a paratransit service.

One route runs north/south on the long El Camino Real (ECR) corridor, and the route services ~1/3 of all of the system’s riders.

I do my best to walk the walk (“bus the bus”) by choosing the bus as a transportation choice, even though I could use my household’s car or bicycles.

Sometimes it truly is the best choice! And I thankfully live <2 blocks from an ECR bus stop.

So let me take you on a ride to a SamTrans CAC meeting:

Having hopped on the bus, we careen down the state highway (ECR is in fact a highway) and hug the rightmost lane as passenger vehicles pass us on our left:

You can tell how the commercial businesses that front the state highway use over-sized fonts & signage to try and inform drivers that they can stop for a good deal:

The riders generally are in a good mood socializing with each other, ignoring the anxieties of operating their own vehicle:

There is no dedicated real estate on the route for operating a bicycle, and I saw 2 (men) riding bikes on the sidewalk, traveling faster on average than the bus due to avoiding bus stops:

My bus ride usually takes 25-30 minutes to travel 6 miles.

That’s an average of 12 miles per hour.

That is a speed that many (most?) people are able to bicycle over flat ground for such distance.

In perspective, the bus fare is $2.05 without discounts (youth, senior, income).

The evening’s CAC meeting agenda was receiving survey results conducted of riders:

It was a big shock to me to learn just how many low-income fellow riders are my ride companions.

I rode the bus home from the meeting, and I’m always fascinated by my fellow riders’ demeanor & fashion:

Staring out the window you see much–the demeanor of drivers, and the other buses in operation:

Ride the bus–it is good for you and your community:

You will grow your conception of your community,
You will meet great people (even recognizing frequent co-riders when you board),
You will not think about or pay for parking,
and you will be safer from traffic violence (riding the bus is over 50x safer than driving)

Boonville, CA

2025-05-30T17:00:00-07:00

A couple friends of mine were holding their wedding party, north of San Francisco, in a small town of Boonville, California.

My wife & I caught a ride up from a friend, from San Francisco–stopping in Cloverdale for a gas break:

We arrived on time for the Friday night rehearsal dinner:

It was interesting to see the range of motor vehicles that guests had driven to attend:

The rehearsal venue had great trees on the property, and an interesting architecture with wood and colored highlights:

Another cool tree:

As the night got darker I poked around the venue and there were some unmarked and seemingly abandoned slides:

I captured these by illuminating them from the back with my phone’s flashlight & capturing the photo using macro mode with the Ricoh GR iii.

I post-processed the photos in Adobe Lightroom.

The morning of the wedding party the hosts held a 5km casual run in nearby Hendy Woods State Park.

The park is beautiful:

Before the wedding party I had an opportunity to walk the very teeny strip that composes Boonville’s downtown.

In rural areas, cheap modes of transportation are critically important and their presence also provides a marketing sheen of times long ago when cars were less oppressively dominant:

Amazing that they have a post office:

Really critical public meetings, about managing the real estate that houses the dead:

A quick trip to the shower and a change of clothes and we reached the venue for the night: The Boonville Hotel.

A portal to the space:

And a great spot for speech/vows:

the wedding festivities began and ran long into the night (for me, at least):

Photo of the night:

Late night:

My feet got tired and I took to a bench to play with low-light settings:

That’s a wrap.

Temple Emanu-El

2025-05-22T18:00:00-07:00

I had the pleasure of attending a family member’s Bar Mitzvah services at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco a few years ago.

Here are some photos illustrating the congegration’s building and its decorations.

Facade:

There are more than one spaces for services to be held:

Prayer book (the Torah):

Snoozing congregant:

Cool lighting and stained glass artwork in another space in the temple:

The stained glass says, “Let there be light”, “I am that I am”, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”, “The lord bless thee and keep thee”, “Man born not live by bread alone”.

Antechamber:

Main hall:

Awesome stained glass:

COVID-era, so masks:

Back outside:

San Mateo-San Francisco walk

2025-05-22T17:00:01-07:00

I organized a small group to walk from San Mateo to San Francisco.

Our party size peaked at 12 people, and arrived at our final destination (4th & King Caltrain Station) with 4 remaining.

It was quite an adventure (taking over 7 hours, including a lunch break) and here are the photos to prove it!

Beginning from San Mateo Caltrain station, we zig-zagged on quiet streets, through Burlingame to Millbrae:

We passed through low density, single family home neighborhoods–some with unique lawn decor:

And in Millbrae’s downtown we caught sight of a small farmers market:

Passing through Millbrae, the next city north was San Bruno and we stopped off for a group selfie in the downtown plaza:

I took quite a few photos of downtown San Bruno, on my Ricoh GR iii camera.

Some wall art, some nice lighting:

Stores have begun printing AI-generated art for their promotional assets:

San Bruno was only part of the way, so we soldiered north through the city of South San Francisco (AKA “South City”).

The approach to SSF’s downtown from the south afforded us views of its famous sign–and some industrial roadways:

Immense highway infrastructure–which we zig-zagged over & under many times over the course of our 20 mile trek::

It is staggering how much concrete is used to build this infrastructure.

Same things go for waterways–why so much concrete?

Cluttered sidewalks, not intended for walking:

Old & new land uses on a cul de sac:

Downtown South San Francisco:

Through downtown SSF, we reached their Caltrain station and began our walk through Oyster Point neighborhood:

The ramp up and out of the station was blocked by a dockless, seated rental e-scooter:

Oyster Point is an interesting, low-walkability neighborhood with huge corporate office buildings:

The San Francisco Bay Trail runs along the shoreline, for some nice contact with the waterfront and nature:

The mouth of the San Francisco bay was a historic boat-building industrial area:

We walked along the shoulder of the Brisbane Lagoon, stopping for a long lunch at a food truck (too long?) and lost another paty member who hailed a rideshare ride home:

Lunch:

Continuing northwards from lunch, on a stretch of industrial road south of Bayshore Caltrain station:

We reached the southern border of San Francisco, close to the Bayshore Caltrain station:

At this point we lost a few more of our party–soldiering onward the remainder took us through neighborhoods our party was less familiar with.

Utility box art:

Muni streetcar parking lot:

More signage indicating the history of war-time ship building in the area:

Nearing our destination, we took a selfie in front of the basketball arena:

Celebrating with a beverage, at Spark Social:

A short walk to 4th & King Caltrain, with a view–and we road Caltrain home, in about 25 minutes :)

Child Portage

2025-05-21T18:00:00-07:00

I visited family a couple months ago and we took my niece to the world-renowned and very popular San Diego Zoo.

The diversity of mobility aids for parents to transport their children around was incredible.

“Child portage” is probably too formal and uncommon a name, so “stroller” is the conventional name.

Here are a set of photos I observed and decided to document using my camera.

Notably, almost all of them exhibit folding capabilities (I note this because folding bicycles are relatively uncommon in the US, but much more common in Asia).

There are also no motor-assisted models (yet), but I am positive there will be soon:

A much more fun form of “portage” was riding the gondola:

Before boarding the gondola, there were strict limitations on bringing your stroller with you on the gondola ride.

In fact there was a long line of strollers that were left abandoned at what end of the gondola (presumably with the intent to ride the gondola round-trip).

And I will finish this post with a noteworthy sign from outside of the zoo, next to a large surface parking lot.

Here is the seemingly most prevalent form of land use in America, the surface car parking lot, on top of a heritage site:

The sign says the following:

1915-16 Isthmus (Fun Zone)

The current San Diego Zoo parking lot was set aside for rides and other entertainment at the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition.

In keeping with the theme, the zone was named after the Isthmus of Panama, where the canal was completed in 1914.

More than 60 attractions lined the Isthmus. A pyramid announced the Cawston Ostrich Farm, multi-story pagodas invited visitors to China Town, and an old West town was called the ‘49 Camp.

A few pennies bought a ride on a carousel, Ferris Wheel, Thompson’s Racing Coaster, the Circling Wave or the Toadstool.

Adventure waited within the Yelps Mountain volcano or the futuristic War of the Worlds. Daring could be observed at the Deep Sea Divers and the “race for life” in Farmer Burns’ Motordrome.

Visitors could see how the Panama Canal locks worked, find a model of every California mission, or simulate a visit to the Pala Chief’s Gem Mine. The Isthmus area was reused for the Midway amusement zone at the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition.

In 1915 an Indian Village at the north end of the Isthmus was home to 300 Arizona and New Mexico tribal members. They lived in a pueblo dwelling, weaving rugs, crafting pottery, and making jewelry.

Ceremonial dancing and rituals were performed for visitors. The “Painted Desert” exhibit, sponsored by a railway company, was an advertisement for travel to the American Southwest. The faux-adobe pueblo was preserved for decades and was later used as a Boy Scouts

Friends of Balboa Park, 2018

Bike to Work 2025

2025-05-21T17:00:00-07:00

May is bike month, and a coworker organized a commute ride to our office.

Here is a photo diary from the journey.

I began by riding up to a meeting point, where the San Franciscan riders would pick me up on their route southwards:

You can visibly see the dangers of motor vehicles every direction you turn:

I got early with plenty of time to spare, and took in the view at the Sawyer Camp Trail:

The peloton soon showed up, and I joined a crew of 6:

We made our way south, on Cañada Road through Woodside, and to Sand Hill Road, making swiftly to Palo Alto and Stanford campus where we visited an “energizer station” with food and drink:

It was quite packed with bicyslists:

And this peculiar, pseudo-recumbent folding bike:

We had several more join our group, and we continued southwards, towards Los Gatos, through flat suburban sprawl.

A series of indistinguishable, ultra-wealthy suburbs including Los Altos, Cupertino, Saratoga:

The urban form is quite stark, and there is an absence of public transit or public gathering spaces:

Arrival at our destination:

Total elapsed distance was ~40 miles, average pace of ~12 miles per hour.

Will hopefully try this route to work again in the future!

Bike videography

2025-03-09T17:00:00-07:00

My full kit for capturing videos while riding bicycles, like this one:

Here is the gear list:

1x GoPro camera (e.g. Hero Pro 13) with a compatible SD card ~$330
1x clamp mount (Amazon, direct from vendor) ~$20
1x GoPro 3.5mm adapter (video) ~$50
1x lavalier mic (e.g. Sony ECM-LV1) ~$30-$80

The grand total per camera bundle (buying everything new as opposed to used) would be ~$500 USD.

Editing software/workflow is a separate concern.

If you only have one camera than using free software like iMovie (MacOS) is sufficient, or editing the video on your smartphone is also possible.

With multiple simultaneous camera angles, you will need more featureful software that supports multi-camera editing.

I personally use Apple’s Final Cut Pro X, but Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve are other popular options for multi-camera editing.

Here are my dual camera rigs I use to conduct interviews while riding bicycles:

Best of luck–go out and capture great video!

A new project

2025-02-20T16:00:01-08:00

I’ve created a new YouTube channel, titled “How to Meet Your Neighbor” or HTMYN.

Here’s the channel’s trailer:

And here’s the first episode:

While I’ll probably interview most frequently using video-conferencing (it’s the easiest), I also plan to interview my real neighbors on a range of topics relating to meeting and making your community.

More to come.

San Jose-LA Amtrak

2025-02-04T16:00:01-08:00

Taking my seat on the Coastal Starlight Amtrak train from the San Jose Diridon station to Los Angeles Union Station:

I bought a one-way coach seat for $67.

The train departs once a day at 10:26am, arriving in LA at ~9pm.

The train was noticeably only ~50% occupied, when I boarded at San Jose:

Traveling south of San Jose we passed through Gilroy, and I spotted interesting electrical grid infrastructure, including what looks like a natural gas power plant:

Here it is, Wikipedia article.

Apparently there was a terrorist attack against the power plant in 2013!

Traveling south:

Elkhorn Slough, north of Monterey:

Arriving in Salinas:

Stopped at Salinas station (really a platform), and stepped out for fresh air:

Visible poverty, steps from the train door–interesting how bikes are such an asset when you do not have recurring income for fuel (gas):

Reboarding & continuing onwards, I got a cool view looking out the back of the train:

Much further south, nearing Paso Robles, I saw a cool-looking dry riverbed:

Nearing San Luis Obispo (SLO):

Sharp curves on the descent into SLO:

Stepping out at SLO station for a quick breath, I saw a neat view of Cerro SLO:

And then we neared the coast line, north of Santa Barbara–construction at the wildland-urban interface (WUI):

Around Santa Barbara (and south of it) are some relatively untouched wilderness–abutting a “spaceforce base” (owned by SpaceX).

Gorgeous coastline:

It was dark outside by 5:45pm this time of year, so I stopped taking photos of darkness.

Arrival in LA Union Station was uneventful and on schedule.

There was a protest occurring against President Donald Trump outside the station so station staff were directing arriving passengers out of the station via the northeast side, and I boarded the Metro to my hotel.

Would I ride this again, instead of plane flight or driving?

Perhaps–although it is very time-expensive to travel in this fashion.

The trains do not provide wi-fi, but I had strong cell signal about 70-80% of the trip.

This allowed me to get some serious work done, which was helpful.

If you are curious about more travels from the bay area by train then I documented my Seattle-to-San Jose trip here and from San Jose to San Luis Obispo here.

San Pablo Reservoir

2025-01-28T16:00:01-08:00

A photo dump from August 2021.

A gorgeous trail on EBMUD land, reaching the San Pablo Dam Reservoir.

All photos taken on an iPhone 11, edited in Snapseed:

Get outside and touch grass.

Caltrain to Golden Gate Park

2025-01-25T16:00:01-08:00

Picked up a new video camera today.

I must capture footage, must share footage widely!

Enjoy this video of a day trip from San Mateo to San Francisco (runtime ~2.5 minutes).

Polacon San Francisco

2025-01-22T16:00:01-08:00

I stumbled across InstantFilmSociety on Instagram, possibly while I was researching local photo walks in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Through following them, I discovered an upcoming instant (polaroid) camera conference event (PolaCon) in San Francisco that included photowalks and socializing.

It was an informal “conference”, friendly to an asocial participant and the walking, sights and sounds of San Francisco were an excellent setting.

I joined a photo walk (of several over the course of the conference) in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco:

Housing with zero parking–that’s the way to do it!

Restaurant window marketing art:

I took this photo of a portal, only to discover there was a sleeping man under the green awning:

More public art:

The tools:

Some hardscape:

After walking the residential portion we walked on Mission Street, which is where commerce and stark storefronts are:

Food for sale:

Kinky:

Bikes:

Quite a bike seat angle:

I really like this e-bike frame–it’s minimalism feels so much more futuristic than cars on the road these days:

Bike share station:

The infamous center-running bike lane of Valencia:

More art:

At the end of the walk we all congregated at a bar, before I peeled off to go home:

That was a really cool event, I’m looking forward to going to the next one–and more photowalks in general, for that matter!

Southern France, Pt. 3

2025-01-20T16:00:01-08:00

Travel to Marseilles

From Sainte-Maxime we hopped on a small bus where we met two Dutch & Russian architects who were following the same journey.

They spotted us the cash for bus fare, as there was no credit card reader for fare collection.

We rode the bus to Les Arcs train station, and transferred to train to downtown Marseilles:

We bought the architects cappucinos and they asked us why Donald Trump was not in jail.

It was a little tight on the train, as I sat across from a tall older Danish man who immigrated to France and told me all about it.

The train station in Marseilles is gorgeous:

Arriving at the main downtown train station in Marseilles we dropped off our bags at our hotel and walked down hill to the waterfront:

We were surprised to see a structure similar to Arc de Triomphe:

Regional government offices:

Nice public art:

Catholic cathedral:

Architecture:

The marina:

Traffic:

Rental bicycles:

Fascinating fire trucks:

European restaurants have more elaborate facades–I suspect it is because they have more pedestrian customers and spend less money on leasing parking spaces and building big-ass signage to attract drivers:

Circling back to the main train station:

We were there for the lead up to the summer Olympics–and witnessed some French patriotic displays:

We got a view overlooking the crowds at McDonalds:

Riding the metro we saw some French-style hipsterism:

And we went for an electric mountain bike tour, booked through AirBnB experiences:

We rode a ferry from the bike rental shop back to the marina, which was nauseating:

Aix-en-Province

In our last few hours in Marseilles, we visited Aix-en-Province.

We managed to locate the bus from the Marseilles train station which took us to the bus depot at Aix-en-Province.

Unfortunately, we were lugging our bags and they had no bag storage at the bus depot.

We dragged our bags over a mile to the nearest rental bag storage depot, damaging our bag wheels on cobblestone streets–turning heads with every step as we made a racket.

After dragging our bags and relieving ourselves of that burden, the city was beautiful (though small).

Having walked & gotten a coffee, we grabbed our bags, hailed an Uber to the airport and flew back home to San Mateo, California, USA.

Southern France, Pt. 2

2025-01-20T16:00:00-08:00

Train to Sainte-Maxime

Leaving Nice, we traveled by train + bus to Sainte-Maxime.

Sainte-Maxime is a small town across the bay from better-known city of Saint-Tropez.

This was the right choice, as it was a shorter trip from Nice and a quieter/less crowded town to stay than Saint-Tropez.

Train ride:

This was a high throughput train corridor:

And then on bus (with a dog):

In Sainte-Maxime my wife discovered that she had left her backpack on the bus, including her passport (a crisis!).

We spoke with a very nice Dutch employee at the tourism office in Sainte-Maxime who recommended that we wait at our bus stop for the driver to come back in the return direction.

This worked! My wife hurried onto the bus and hurried off, having located her backpack.

We had an amazing dinner:

We made plans for the next morning to take the 15-minute ferry ride across the bay to Saint-Tropez (departures every 40 minutes).

Sainte-Maxime/Saint-Tropez

Before we got on the boat we walked Sainte-Maxime in daylight:

Beautiful Vespa:

E-bike rentals:

Micromobility is verboten on some pedestrian sidewalks:

We rode the ferry from Sainte-Maxime to Saint-Tropez (~15 minutes):

Saint-Tropez was very wealthy–no signs of poverty, and very little ethnic diversity.

It is extremely walkable and dense for the most part in a small footprint:

There was a televised cooking competition of chefs from the area, and a little market:

We aimlessly hiked along the coast line to some interesting sites:

Paparazzi?

The vehicles in Saint-Tropez were fascinating in their own right:

A Tesla Cybertruck or Ford F-150 could not navigate the streets, and I cannot imagine how the population would react if a driver tried to do so.

Parking enforcement was active:

An entire parking lot reserved for 2-wheel vehicles, given how scarce real estate is:

There were some delightful baked goods:

Interesting subterranean public garage dropoffs:

Returning to Saint-Maxime by ferry again, we had a really nice walk:

Father-daughter meal–one smoking a cigarette and the other a vaporizer:

For part 3, our travels continued on to Marseilles.

Southern France, Pt. 1

2025-01-13T16:00:00-08:00

My wife & I flew into Nice, France, and hopped on the rail to our hotel in the city center.

This was the beginning of a week of travels as we would make our way via public transit (train and bus) from Nice to Marseilles:

Beneath the train station was a bicycle parking lot:

We dropped off our bags at our hotel and walked a loop of the downtown:

The grocery stores had digital signage with pricing, which is more technologically advanced than retail stores in Silicon Valley, California!

We hopped onto the regional rail and rode it east towards the Italian border, and we walked from the Eze station along the Mediterranean sea:

Neat electric golf cart:

We took the train one stop further to Menton which has a nice marina and goes up the hillside to a scenic cemetery:

Pretty neat combination of an electric scooter and a boat:

They are making serious investments in beachfront tourism infrastructure:

Some historicism:

The vehicles are so much smaller here than in the USA:

This last vehicle is what is known as a “quadricycle” which are a special vehicle designation that youth as young as 14 years old are legally permitted to operate.

This is one interesting example of European teenagers being given more independence than in the USA.

Walking up the hill of Menton we were rewarded with a view from a world war cemetery, with a mix of crosses (Christians), stars (Jews) and crescents (Muslims):

Some photos of traffic protection infrastructure (very rare in the USA):

And community public spaces–also uncommon in the USA:

The train back to Nice was packed:

Nice

Nice was nice.

There was a big farmers market on top of a subterranean car parking garage:

Walking along the waterfront, we noticed signage for the upcoming Tour De France.

This year the cycling race finished in Nice instead of Paris due to the Olympics.

The waterfront promenade was insanely walk/bike friendly:

Interesting bikes:

A World War I monument:

Our walk became a much longer walk, as we ventured up a very steep hill to reach the neighboring town of Villefranche-sur-Mer:

The elevated view back westward towards Nice was gorgeous:

Cyclists were having a blast bombing down the hills:

We rode a quick train ride back to Nice, for a meal at a tourist trap and walked the immense car-free zones:

This one way street isolates pedestrians from drivers by a thick green shrub:

This underpass beneath the train station is 50% reserved for bi-directional bicyclist traffic:

Having spent a dense few days in Nice, we packed our bags for additional traveling.

For part 2 of our travels, click through to Sainte Maxime.

Visiting the Miami Library

2025-01-12T16:00:00-08:00

As a visitor to Miami, Florida, I found myself seeking community & information about the city.

What better place to find it in then the main branch of the city’s library?

I reached the library via a combination of kickscooter and the Metromover–a fare-free, automated lightrail system:

Across from the library’s entrance there is a museum which was unfortunately not open when I visited:

It was fascinating to see the social services being provided on the main floor of the library, where those seeking help from social services queued up to be matched with a social worker (volunteer?) who sat with them at a table.

I did not eavesdrop on the conversations to understand the extent of help that is provided.

I have not seen California libraries used in this fashion.

Proceeding to the second floor, I dug into the over-sized collection of photography books:

Photos, unrelated to Miami but fascinating none-the-less:

Then I progressed to the Florida-specific sections of the library:

The books were fascinating:

There were also some overhead photos (presumably captured from airplane), showing the Miami area in 2004 (~20 years ago) illustrating how sprawling and classically suburban the land uses are:

This last photo was memorable enough for me to be able to locate in my phone’s map app:

The downtown at the time is pretty modestly developed–but is now being built out more:

There were some archived magazines, with fascinating dated advertisements–some advertising suburbia, others advertising urbanity:

There were some mind-blowing well-aged documents on regional transportation initiatives:

In 1984, Florida performed due diligence on creating a high-speed rail connecting Tampa-Orlando-Miami:

They performed more studies over the years, like this one in 1994:

Several decades later this project was in fact realized by Brighltine (a public-private partnership).

Interest in real estate speculation and how to do it has been documented in Miami for a century:

Having reached my fill of reading I exited the library and made my way back home, passing the county courthouse:

If you want to know a city then make your way to its library.

Do not drive.

Walk, bike, scooter, take public transit.

You will learn more than you can imagine.

My commute

2024-12-17T16:00:00-08:00

Photos I have taken from my bike + train work commute over the years.

I have a very light payload (often just my laptop):

I have tried out a variety of mobility devices.

In fact I’ve tried a lot of different ones, since I find bikes are very inexpensive after I sold my car:

I have also tried a couple of electric scooters, but I prefer bicycles for:

the exercise,
the increased safety/stability,
and their unbounded range

I’ve even tried very compact folding bicycles, like the Kwiggle:

But I have found that a normal bike is the most comfortable & fun to ride.

It starts with riding my bicycle to my Caltrain station of origin.

The type of train I ride has changed–it used to be a diesel train but now it’s an electric train:

The train ride is often very comfortable. I often spend the ride looking at my phone. Sometimes I am lucky and get to socialize with people I know on the train:

Sometimes bikes must be stacked up against each other:

My Caltrain station of arrival is San Jose Diridon. It is the biggest train station in northern California.

Sadly, you will sometimes see poverty–this instance particularly struck me:

Exiting the train station I see a lot of interesting sites:

Including homeless encampments along the Los Gatos Creek:

I see a couple of restaurants that I have never been inside–only pass by:

Sometimes I see some really random stuff:

And over the years I notice the see the passage of time.

Like this multi-story parking storage facility:

It pains me to see such money and time devoted to this infrastructure for more people to drive cars.

Extra noteworthy when there are folks further down the creek who are living in tents.

I note the idling commuters in their motor vehicles–always there, every day:

I am so grateful that I am not among those people, and I pray that they can find another way to live on this Earth.

The seasons can get wet, but never snowy around these parts:

In the summer it gets hot (>100F/37C):

But most of the year it is pleasant weather:

Sometimes I watch YouTube or Netflix on my phone while I ride the trail (where I am isolated from cars):

And sometimes I ride with my coworkers, or encounter coworkers by accident:

I’ll also take selfies to share with friends:

The trail is my favorite segment of the bike ride:

I’ll see high school kids fishing after school:

And beautiful views that are the same:

And the Santa Cruz mountains:

Sometimes I switch it up and the ride the slow VTA light rail for $2, but it does not carry me door-to-door:

May you find such a beautiful ride:

Tiburon sans car

2024-12-09T16:00:00-08:00

My wife & I traveled to Tiburon for a weekend outing and birthday celebration.

Here are some photos from the trip–beginning from the San Francisco ferry building:

From there we embarked on the ferry to Tiburon, a 25 minute boat ride.

The bay bridge:

Coit Tower:

Arrival at the Tiburon ferry terminal:

Interesting bus shelter & bike parking:

It was a 3 minute walk from the terminal to our hotel, the Lodge at Tiburon:

After checking & dropping our bags we walked a brief 5 minutes onto a rail trail:

It was a really nice walk:

A little juice:

And a view of Mount Tamalpais:

And a public park on the route back:

That evening we got dinner at Luna Blu:

And went to bed, spotting this nice bicycle:

The next morning it was still there:

And I went for a run, back along the rail trail + a little more:

We used the hotel hot-tub and hotel coffee before acquiring a picnic breakfast, and bikes from the hotel frontdesk:

We picked up bread from Rustic Bakery and hummus + turkey meat from Woodlands Market nextdoor to each other.

And rode the bikes over to a sunlit bench with a good view.

We killed a little time before catching a Marin Transit shuttle bus from Tiburon to Strawberry Village where we shopped around.

We had planned to take a rideshare from there to Ram’s Gate Winery, but we realized that we could get on a Golden Gate Transit bus before hailing a rideshare from much closer to the winery in Novato.

The bus route we rode picked up on highway cloverleafs, which were extremely dangerous for pedestrians trying to reach or leave the bus stop.

The winery was very nice, as wineries often are:

We caught a rideshare back from the winery to a Chinese restaurant back in Strawberry Village.

That evening we went to a movie at a local theater, Moana 2 at Cinelounge.

The crowd was largely kids, and it was surprising to see local business commercials before the film–one featuring a plastic surgery practice:

The next morning we got breakfast at Malibu Farms, and then took a walk counter-clockwise along the peninsula.

This took us close by Robert Redford’s residence.

Returning aboard the ferry there were interesting portable Clipper Card payment readers–mounted on what looked like a dolly:

We retraced our steps & had a fun transit journey at a leisurely pace back to the mid-peninsula, via ferry/Muni/Caltrain/SamTrans bus:

We destroyed our rolly luggage handle from all the travel:

To more travels!

SamTrans tour

2024-11-20T16:00:00-08:00

6 months ago I applied to be a volunteer on the SamTrans “Citizens Advisory Committee” also known as CAC.

This is a powerless government body of unpaid appointees, which holds public meetings and provides a forum for the staff of SamTrans (the San Mateo County public transit agency) to present & receive feedback from members of the public.

As I have experienced it so far, the CAC’s meetings serve as a sort of “dress rehearsal” for these employees to show their slide deck before going to the “real deal” in presenting to the board of SamTrans, who have actual decisionmaking powers.

Normally the semi-monthly CAC meetings have an agenda topic that pertains to some aspect of bus service that the agency performs.

This has included (in my short tenure):

bus stop improvement plans
progress reports on changes to routes & schedules
accessibility design and operations concerns for serving the physically disabled
a speculative proposal for the agency to lease state-owned land for a central bus station

Anyways, the members of the CAC were offered the opportunity for a tour of one of the two bus depot facilities.

And I attended! Enjoy some of my photos and observations from the tour.

It started with a complimentary bus ride from SamTrans headquarters in San Carlos:

We walked into the base and saw a couple of legacy clocks, which I guess govern the service schedule–one official and several unofficial:

We heard about dispatch, and the role that centralized operations places in providing voice communication with drivers out in the field:

We also heard about the day in the life of a driver and their vehicle, and what the professional lifestyle is like.

Lining up bathrooms for use by drivers is a critical logistics issue.

There is a “special committee for bathrooms”, and SamTrans pays gas stations a monthly fee to allow drivers to use their bathrooms.

Looking across county borders, SFMTA and SamTrans do not share bathrooms even when they share terminal bus stops–that’s how strictly separate the sewage problem is financed.

It is sometimes hard for bus agencies to persuade property owners to permit paid bathroom use–Daly City Serramonte Mall’s owners for example refuse.

Drivers can indicate a preference for route assignment, which better suits their desired type of vehicle and work-life schedule:

Pay day is of course very important!

This photo is pretty hazy, but there are a few data points from July 2023 - June 2024 that are fascinating:

$12M in fare revenues
10M “boardings”
$15.95 subsidy per passenger - unclear exactly what this metric means
62% of fares are “adult” (not discounted as seniors or youth)
47% of payment methods are Clipper Card (digital), vs. cash or pass
80.5% “on-time” record system-wide (more detail required)

Office scooter (probably an operators tool to get to/from the vast surface parking lot of the base):

Clearly the bus operators do not often bicycle to work–which certainly makes sense because the area around the base is extremely hostile to bicycle-riding and their arrival/departure from the base is often when it is dark out.

The base serves as a homebase for operators, and so it naturally has amenities:

Some in-house work scribbles:

We were handed off for a tour of the maintenance facilities where every bus is cleaned & gone over by technicians to ensure safety of operation:

There are an insane amount of memos, which operators cannot realistically be expected to read every single day:

There was also signage about the mandatory, random-sampled drug and alcohol testing that operators are subject to.

Like operators (drivers), the maintenance technicians also have assignments:

And the maintenance bay was quite large:

A few of the critical safety checks are verifying air brake functionality and no graffiti.

And that was a wrap. I hope you enjoyed it.

It was definitely interesting–I would have liked to spend more informal time with the operators and technicians, to hear about their day to day.

But that will have to wait.

Benches

2024-11-12T16:00:01-08:00

I’m a big fan of “place-making”.

To me, place-making is the art of making a place desirable for humans to visit, move around & dwell.

The more people that visit it & spend time in it then the better the measure of the place.

Through this lens, benches are a panacea for all of these goals.

I love benches–this one is at Millbrae BART. While it is made from extremely hard materials, it’s artwork is a nice touch:

Benches also encourage lounging + socializing. This one is at a glasses store in Venice Beach:

Sometimes they do not provide practical seating, but are a nice floushish never-the-less. This one is in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France:

Even when they could use some pillows, they are a big improvement on their absence. This is at a Starbucks cafe:

Low capacity ones (single-seaters) are intended to prevent sleeping. This one is on a sidewalk in San Francisco:

Others are handbuilt and placed with little profit motive. These are in San Francisco as well:

Orienting them away from cars is a good idea. This one is in San Francisco, too–in the Richmond neighborhood facing an icecream shop:

It is important that benches are utilized, and by those who need a rest from standing. This one is in Mill Valley, California:

Train stations are critical for waiting. Dwelling is the name of the game, when expecting a train at San Jose Diridon station:

Sports arenas are entirely about waiting–even if there is reason to stand up and go to the bathroom. This is an outdoor baseball field in San Mateo, California:

Some cities design their own distinct benches. Sydney, Australia:

London, United Kingdom:

London also knows a thing or two about the absence of benches:

Madrid, Spain, has their own specially designed benches:

Europe has incredible plazas, where seating is a critical design component–also Madrid:

Who knows when this bench was originally built (and rebuilt)–in Toledo, Spain:

Airport shuttle/bus waiting station–San Francisco Airport:

Mexico City:

The view from the bench is critical–especially if folks are bored:

And last but not least, New England:

SLO by Amtrak

2024-11-12T16:00:00-08:00

Last weekend my wife & I rode the Amtrak Coastal Starlight passenger train line from San Jose to San Luis Obispo (4.5 hour ride).

Here is a photo diary of our travels and 2 night stay in SLO.

Before riding our first train of the day we picked up coffee and some snacks in downtown San Mateo:

We hopped on to Caltrain, riding from downtown San Mateo to San Jose Diridon:

We transferred from Caltrain to Amtrak by walking between platforms:

I stowed my folding bike in the luggage area, to avoid having to pay an extra $20 each way for bicycle storage:

The view from the observation car:

Our seats were in the lower level (no assigned seating in coach, but the conductors sit companions together):

Some of the views from the train ride:

I read my book, The Homevoter Hypothesis, taking diligent notes:

Having arrived at SLO, we retrieved my wife’s bicycle from the luggage car:

We checked into our bed and breakfast to drop off our bags & bikes:

We parked our bikes and walked a few blocks to the main downtown drag of SLO:

We had dinner and walked around the downtown some more, and found it a very pretty place:

Lots of bikes, with a distinctive style of bike rack:

Excellent dessert option:

The next morning we met up a friend of ours & got a tour of the state university in town, Cal Poly SLO:

And visited the outdoor livestock classroom:

The city is lined with an incredible set of pedestrian and bicyclist-friendly “greenways”:

We gorged on pizza for lunch:

And then traced a walk around town based on where the San Luis Obispo Creek led us:

There was a historical adobe house, but it was not open as we passed by:

And our walk led us back by the Amtrak station in town:

And its train museum, where there was a cool-looking hand-crank train:

Before dinner we picked up our bikes and biked to a wine bar, starting on a bad bicycle lane before finding a wonderful bike path:

And appreciated a great sunset, from Mitchell Park:

Our last morning in town we had breakfast at our bed and breakfast and biked to second breakfast at a donut shop, named “SloDoCo”.

I got an excellent artichoke & spinach croissant:

And read the local newspaper:

We killed time and built up an appetite for lunch by biking around slowly, picking up sandwiches to hold onto for dinner on the train.

The tree-lined streets were impressive, and this photographed gentleman explained that the pictured ficus tree was planted in the 1930’s:

Trees play a vital role in quality of life and land value, and requires concerted investment over many decades:

As we walked back to the B&B to pick up our bikes & bags before heading to the train station, it was interesting to see the changing land use:

We also briefly stopped at the art museum for 20 minutes:

Return travels home:

Great trip. Would recommend.

If you’re interested in photos from other Amtrak journeys:

The Homevoter Hypothesis

2024-11-11T16:00:00-08:00

I have been meaning to read this book for a while, as I bought it from a used bookstore in Dartmouth, NH.

It happens that the author is a retired Dartmouth College professor of economics.

In order to help me process such a dense non-fiction book, I took raw notes (maybe too many) as I read it. Enjoy!

Preface

The author previously wrote about how “local governments use their land-use controls…to maximize the value of owner-occupied housing in their community” (The Economics of Zoning Laws, 1985).

He emphasizes the economic interests of residential voters as the best way to understand zoning.

He’s also previously wrote about the role of courts in refereeing property rights of private land owners vs. public ownership that zoning implicitly confers on the rest of the community. (Regulatory Takings, 1995)

The author notes that local govevernments have too much power over land and that courts should be mindful of preventing local governments from “transferring too many property rights from the private to the public sector, making zoning unfairly and inefficiently restrictive”.

The author has previously received criticism that he focuses too much on local government (as opposed to state or national), and that he engages in “localism bashing”.

While it is true that “suburbs” demonstrate unfairness toward those who are not homeowners, why single out local government?

This book is a defense of that criticism, and why the “political economy” of local government differs from the state or nation.

Chapter 1

An Asset-Market Approach to Local Government

“The important facts are that home values are the largest part often of most people’s assets, and public events like taxes and spending affect the value of that asset.”

“The uninsurable riskiness of homeownership explains why homeowners dominate local politics.”

“Historically, owners of business property were the major players in local politics, but since about 1920, homeowners have become the dominant group of property owners.”

“…Economists…have traditionally seen [the property tax] as a regressive tax on housing or as yet another burden on capital formation…Taxpayer surveys find that it is the least palatable tax to pay, and its use has been gradually supplanted by state taxes for much of the twentieth century.”

Author’s note: property taxes are more painful than income taxes because income taxes are withheld vs. paid out-of-pocket.

Should public K-12 education be funded by local, state or national? Because the public benefits of education quality accrue to a much wider geographic area than local—courts have forced school funding to be less local on the basis of equity, where the democratic process has not approved that shift.

“Most reformers believe that the insular zoning of modern suburbs can only be overcome by having higher governments make them accept their “fairer share” of low-income housing and other unpopular land uses.”

Author believes (shares the fact) that “local government provides public services with less economic waste than others.” Undoing local control harms government efficiency, which is bad.

Local education funded schools perform better than when funded more regionally—this is independent of whether the education system is administered locally or not. Studies have found that when courts prohibit local funding of schools, school performance objectively suffers.

Environmentally, economists fear that local control of zoning leads to “race to bottom” in attracting commerce & job taxable base—but the opposite is true, a “race to the top”. Author argues that risk-averse homeowners are the champions of this, and that there’s a game theory situation of neighboring communities collaborating together to uphold environmentalism.

It’s also important to recognize that land use is a critical reason for local government formation in the first place.

“The homevoter hypothesis holds that homeowners, who are the most numerous and politically influential group within most localities, are guided by their concern for the value of their homes to make political decisions that are more efficient than those that would be made at a higher level of government. Homeowners are acutely aware that local amenities, public services, and taxes affect (“are capitalized in”) the value of the single largest asset they own. As a result, they pay much closer attention to such policies at the local level than they would at the state or national level…they will tend to choose those policies that preserve or increase the value of their homes.”

“Two-thirds of all homes are owner occupied”

1990: “median housing equity is more than 11 times as large as median liquid assets among all homeowners”—this ratio is inversely correlated with age, but average senior still holds majority of assets in home equity.

Despite US global corporate equity value eclipsing aggregate US real estate market value, this wealth appreciation is concentrated and has left the median homevoter still highly concentrated in their home equity. They do not really “own” much else, beyond their home.

Understanding & predicting local government behavior is best when viewed “through the eyes of the homeowner.”

Author’s thesis (stated the most concisely): “Concern for home values is the central motivator of local government behavior”

Impact fees are not like any other kind of a tax—because they are payments for permission that can be withheld (in the event of non-payment).

“For most local governments, the property tax is their largest single source of discretionary funds”

NIMBYism makes sense if there is no way to insure against neighborhood or community-wide decline. “Since residents cannot insure against neighborhood change, zoning offers a kind of second-best institution. If homeowners were insured against neighborhood decline, they wouldn’t worry so much about unlikely scenarios and behave like NIMBYs.”

Why do people buy homes, given this risk?

It’s because capital gains of home value appreciation are basically untaxed.

No other asset is untaxed in this way.

Anecdotally, renters do not exhibit NIMBYism as much as homeowners.

Neither do landowners of rental property, probably because they have diversified their risk in ways that homeowners cannot, e.g. by syndication and real estate investment trusts.

From the author’s personal experience on a zoning board, he feels confident explaining land-use advocacy & school board advocacy & other local gov participation.

He observes newest entrant homeowners seem even more averse to change than long-term homeowners, and that this anecdotal behavior is economically motivated.

The author also share a criticism he receives s tell him he ignores other land-use interests besides homeowners, e.g. developers.

The “municipal corporation” was an American invention of the early 1800s (Eric Monkkonen (1988; 1995))

From the 1800s to now, motor vehicles and changing labor market created “commuting”—homevoters vote in their home jurisdiction, not their place of employment. These were the same in the 1800s, and led to pro-growth mindset. In the 1800s, the rich walked to work while the poor commuted from separate municipality. In the 1900s, that switched (rich commute, poor walk).

“Urban politics is above all the politics of land use” Paul Peterson’s City Limits (1981)

A right-to-develop has been put on hold since 1926 Euclid v. Ambler Supreme Court decision, affirming zoning.

Chapter 2

Local Government’s Corporate Form

Cities are more like business corporations than states.

They are recognized as immortal, as legal persons.

Their charters permit them to make contracts, own property, and hold liability for tort and breach of contract.

The mayor-council vs. council-manager model of municipal governance.

Municipal reform since the 1910s led to popularity of the latter, modeled after a professional CEO managing a business corporation.

The “municipal corporation” was invented by Massachusetts judges in the 1800s to distinguish from English “borough corporations” which were not as democratically governed as townships in the fledgling American democracy.

Tocqueville in Democracy in America wrote that Europe evolved by first forming nations which then dictated top-down chartering/establishment of more local forms of government.

In the US, it was the exact opposite: counties formed after townships, states formed after counties, and the national union formed after states.

Cities can add/annex territory, consolidate.

New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco are examples, aided by state decisions that added county lands to the cities’ territory.

Municipal corporations seldom go bankrupt, and restructuring is less strict than business corporation bankruptcy.

“Shareholders” in municipal corporations (homeowners) are way more activist and have more reason to be than business shareholders.

Critically, voting rights of municipal corporations are very important.

Unlike business corporations, municipal corporations have never(?) been more than one vote per resident.

More residents have been enfranchised over time (e.g. renters, women).

Author speculates that business corporations transitioned to dollar-vote rule because shareholders no longer feared majoritarian risks as the marketplace for business equity matured and became more liquid. This afforded business shareholders opportunities to diversify, where homevoters have not gained this ability to diversify.

Chapter 3

Capitalization, Zoning, and the Tiebout Hypothesis

Tiebout Hypothesis: residents vote with their feet, choosing communities that offer their preferred bundle of public services.

The author adds that a condition of this hypothesis being true is that homevoters are able to perceive the effect of local governance on their home’s value (“capitalization”).

Property taxes and public amenities are demonstrated to affect home prices, demonstrating that residents vote with their feet (and wealth).

Critically important point:

Zoning (prohibitions on increasing supply) are a pre-condition for public amenities contributing to home price.

If zoning does not exist then buyers cannot justify bidding higher for real estate in a comparativey better school district because it is anticipated that the market will react to pricing and produce more supply until the school district is no longer relatively “better”.

A local government will not be able to persuade most shareholders (i.e. homevoters) to agree to higher taxes unless it is coupled with the condition that new housing supply (i.e. immigration) is capped/prohibited.

Zoning is that pre-condition (prohibition on new supply, new residents).

The author shares a few reasons that state powers are not used in the fashion that local land use powers are—perhaps most important is that states are prohibited by the Constitution from restricting immigration from other states.

Local government powers of zoning have been challenged before in court as restricting “freedom to travel”, but this argument has lost in federal appeals court (Construction Industry Association v. City of Petaluma, 1975).

Most interesting case law on zoning is from a series of Mount Laurel, NJ court cases.

Plaintiffs argued that cities do not have zoning powers, as land use operated to exclude low and moderate income persons from obtaining housing in the municipality is unconstitutional.

This challenge to zoning was overruled by Supreme Court and by popular state amendment in NJ.

The 2nd of 3 pre-conditions for the Tiebout Hypothesis is that residents can shop for other communities that offer a variety of amenities.

This has been studied at length, and there is some level of “diversity” in choice of municipality though this depends on how strictly you look at the elasticity of the job market.

The chapter laid out the evidence that Tiebout’s model is reality.

Chapter 4

The Median Voter in Local Government Politics

This chapter is about how municipal corporations act as “deliberate, value-maximizing agents of homeowners” and how median voters control local government.

It also touches on how homeowners enter a highly illiquid, risky asset which prevents them from “voting with their feet”, as much as the Tiebout Model suggests that homeowners are capable of.

Homeowners identify that they must protect & grow their home equity by involving themselves in local governance, because the alternative is ruinous (due to mortgage leverage).

Tiebout’s model left out how communities (municipal corporations) are profit-maximizing and not just competing for survival.

Even ignoring profit-maximizing behavior, city management is held highly accountable because homeowners (“municipal shareholders”) see the product of city services every day (e.g. in road quality).

Until introducing zoning into Tiebout’s model, critics said that Tiebout was not accounting for the poor continuously “chasing” the rich–both groups voting with their feet.

Zoning puts that chase to a halt, by prohibiting new entrants to a community.

4.6: Homeowners Rule (And Renters Do Not)

4.7: Rent Control is Rare Because of Homneowners

4.8: Proposition 13 Promoted Rent Control

…

Chapter 5

Serrano and the Tax Revolt

5.1 Serrano Divorced Local Property Taxes From Schools

…

5.9 Serrano Explains the Vote Swing from 1972 to 1978

…

Chapter 6

The Fruits of School-Finance Centralization

…

6.11 No-Kids-in-School Voters Are a Majority

…

Chapter 7

The Race to the Top in Environmental Protection

…

Chapter 8

“Beggar Thy Neighbor” and Landfill Location

…

Chapter 9

How Homevoters Remade Metropolitan Areas

…

Chapter 10

Sprawl, Metropolitanism, and Local Control

10.1 Sprawl Is Caused by Homevoter Anxieties

…

10.2 Sprawl Is Not Caused by Speculation or Subsidies

…

10.18 High Housing Prices Retard Employment Growth

…

Chapter 11

Reforming and Reaffirming Local Government

…

11.4 Getting NIMBYs to Accept LULUs

LULU = “locally unwanted land use”

…

11.5 Home-Value Insurance Would Assuage NIMBYs

…

11.9 “Carrots” to Promote Community Development

Two:

Side payments by developers - exactions & impact fees
Home-value insurance - author’s main proposal

11.10 Public-School Supplements, Not Vouchers

…

11.11 “Sticks” to Discourage Local Misbehavior

Higher government pressures - “shaming” penalty for suburbs that flout state-wide goals
Substantive due process - Pennsylvania courts have struck down exclusionary suburban zoning (minimum lot sizes), seem to hover at a minimum lot size of one acre.

11.12 The Takings Stick Is Still Necessary

Reviewing court case law that rejects local government over-reach in “taking” property rights (nebulous)

…

I haven’t finished reading & taking notes onthe book.

This page will get updated as I do (last updated Nov 13, 2025)

If you care about safety, ride an e-bike

2024-11-04T16:00:00-08:00

E-bikes are safer than regular bikes because:

They’re faster

Since your speed is higher, there are fewer cars that pass you per mile traveled.

Less passing means safer.

They’re less fatiguing

Since there is less fatigue to e-biking you are a more alert operator of your vehicle & you are more willing to exercise patience.

They provide better lighting

As long as your e-bike’s battery is charged then you will have a front and rear light.

Much easier to re-charge one device (the bike) then monitor a front and rear USB dongle, which often have no capacity indicator.

This translates to better daytime and night-time visibility to car drivers.

They provide better dead-stop experience

Since starting from a dead-stop is easier (whether with pedal assistance or a throttle) than a regular bike, you are more likely to respect stop signs.

On a regular bike, stopping at all is a total hassle whereas with an e-bike there are lower physical stakes to coming to a complete stop and respecting motor vehicle traffic laws.

This makes you bike more predictably and reduces your crash hazard.

Unlike cars, the danger that you create for vulnerable road users is very low (though non-zero).

As with all things: be considerate of others.

While e-bikes are limited in the speed that they can reach, they are also nearly silent–so pass walkers and animals with care.

Benefits

There are a multitude of other e-bike benefits beyond their relative safety–and here I will get more poetic:

Cargo-carrying

Carrying heavy cargo is easier than on a regular bike:

In fact, it is a tool for economic mobility and commerce:

And that cargo includes pets:

All-conditions riding

It can handle a variety of roadways (but of course, so can regular bikes).

In all weather:

You can go camping on it (although you need to watch your range, as your battery can run out).

You can go to work on it (but of course, so can regular bikes).

Portability

Or you can bring them on trains and ferry boats.

All ages riding

Moms can ride them.

Dads can ride them.

Kids can ride them.

And grandparents can ride them.

There are an incredible set of options.

No matter if you have motorized electric assistance or not, ride bikes!

Fifield-Cahill Ridge Trail

2024-10-26T17:00:00-07:00

Yesterday I attended a trail run organized by the Bay Area Ridge Trail non-profit, that organizes towards establishing and maintaining a trail that circles the entire San Francisco bay.

This running event happened to be on unincorporated property of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) on the peninsula, nearby where I reside.

From the starting point, the 15 of us in attendance heard a presentation about Ridge Trail staff and were pitched on the merits of what they do (I don’t require much selling on this topic!).

And we were off, to do a 7.5 mile out-and-back run:

Pretty scenic:

With some noteworthy vistas.

Looking west:

Looking east:

We turned around:

Headed back:

The trail has an obstructed look down on Pilarcitos Lake:

Sensitive habitat:

More running:

There are in fact some portable potties every 2 miles along the trail:

Last stretch running back to the start:

Since I had brought my bike by bus to reach the trailhead, I passed through Skylawn Memorial, the cemetery that exists between Highway 92 and the trailhead.

It has its own great vistas (albeit private property, open to visitors).

This looks out at Half Moon Bay on the coast line:

I came across some unused coffins:

This is looking east, across Crystal Springs Reservoir towards San Mateo/Belmont/San Carlos:

This is looking north, across SFPUC land that is generally off-limits to the public:

My grandparents are interred at the cemetery so I visited their gravesites:

And then I bombed my bicycle down Highway 92, and home to watch TV shows with some neighbors:

Stay mellow, my friends, and connect with nature.

Sony RX100 VI 📸

2024-10-24T17:00:01-07:00

I picked up my first “modern” digital camera at 35 years old.

I wanted to learn how to shoot “manual” and edit RAW photos.

Over the years, I have mostly moved on from the Sony RX100 VI, but it is a very powerful and compact point-and-shoot camera.

It has no interchangeable lenses and can fit in your pocket–which makes it ideal for carrying around inhibition-free.

Here are some photos captured on it from over the years, in chronological order of capture.

I hope to illustrate its particular color profile and aperture range which makes it distinct from modern smartphone cameras (iPhone, Android):

Food photos over the years

2024-10-24T17:00:00-07:00

Over the years, I have eaten a lot of food

Here is a collection of favorites.

Melted cheese sandwich:

Sausage:

Open-faced tomato sandwich with salted herring:

Another tomato-sandwich:

Giardiniera:

Plain anchovies:

Shakshuka:

Avocado toast (with pepper, salt & mint):

Toast with eggplant ajvar + basil:

Employer-catered BBQ:

Homemade BBQ:

Hawaiian BBQ:

Nachos:

Roast beef:

Zucchini + tomato soup:

Egg soup with dill:

Overnight chia seed pudding with blueberries:

Chocolate-covered banana:

Smashed ham-and-cheese croissant:

Fritter donut:

Frozen yogurt:

Sardines sandwich:

Ribs:

Watermelon salad with feta:

Strawberry cake:e

Vegetarian ceviche:

4 different pastries:

Thai food:

Pizza (Arizmendi):

Pizza (Woodstocks):

Breakfast sandwich:

Fried sardines:

Russian bread:

Enjoy your food!

Traveling to Santa Rosa

2024-10-20T17:00:00-07:00

I think that there are ways to travel that are better than others.

One helpful principle is to avoid cars if you have the choice by taking public transit.

My wife & I traveled from San Mateo to Santa Rosa for a weekend in this fashion.

We began our trip by riding the SamTrans El Camino Real bus:

From the bus we boarded BART, the regional train, riding it to the Embarcadero station which is a short (<5 minute walk) to the San Francisco Ferry Terminal.

At the ferry building we picked up some snacks:

Keeping an eye on the ferry departure times, we afforded ourselves a slow walk to the correct gate for boarding the boat:

I really liked this sign!

We arrived uneventfully at Larkspur ferry terminal, having reached Marin County:

We had an appetite for lunch, and there is a large plaza of shops between the ferry terminal and the Larkspur SMART train station, where we were headed next.

Lunch was delicious, at Souvla (a fast casual chain):

Before heading to the train we used the public bathrooms at the Larkspur Mart and it had some very odd wall art:

The walk from lunch to the train platform walked through a parking lot. Expensive cars, but nicer flora:

We arrived at the station with a few minutes to spare:

We had never ridden the SMART train before, and the cars were new and nice:

Looks like they are ready to offer food service if they ever choose to/find a vendor:

Rail has priority:

The views from the train were awesome:

Having reached the downtown Santa Rosa SMART station, we walked 1.5 blocks to our hotel.

Having checked in and dropped off our rolly bag (in which my wife and I had combined our change of clothes), we set off around Santa Rosa on foot.

Walking from the hotel to the downtown required passing under a freeway overpass, which included a surface parking lot:

This one photo is so emblematic of American urban planning.

A plaque memorializing someone, hidden behind signage for car parking.

That someone is Robert Bishop, who has little in the way of Google search results about him but appears to be a former mayor of Santa Rosa and previously owned a car dealership.

My wife and I reached the Santa Rosa mall on foot and meandered around the downtown–seing some fun sights:

We entered a used book store which had an entertaining inventory:

I found a fantastic book on the history of streetcars in San Mateo, our city of residence:

One aspect of our travels that was unexpected was the visible homelessness:

Inside the library were quite a few folks who were there for shelter more than the media offerings.

I assume that there have been tremendous economic effects in the region due to wildfires destroying housing stock and displacing people.

The downtown had an assortment of live musical performances by local high schoolers, which were really good and added vibrancy to the area:

Walking a bit further south of dowwntown, we came across a massive transit center, focused on buses and parking structures:

Funny graffiti:

And a defaced historical plaque, marking the first telephone in Santa Rosa in 1884:

More historical markings:

Walking a little further we came across a brewery and a live performance:

A short block away there is a beautiful river path:

A beautiful local park:

Walking home after dinner, it is a gorgeous city:

The next morning, we tried to borrow bikes from the hotel to go to breakfast but the hotel staff shared that the bikes had been stolen the night before!

We had filled out the safety waiver and read the safety checklist, but it was all-for-not:

We walked back to the SMART train station from our hotel and picked up a coffee before beginning the train + ferry + BART + bus train in reverse.

Fueled up:

A lot of walking and a cheap bag, we destroyed the wheels on our rolly bag!

Berlin visit

2024-10-20T17:00:00-07:00

Photos from a week-long visit to Berlin in 2021.

I worked remotely for the week from my employer’s Berlin office:

A view from our residence–the sky really summarizes the late October/early November weather:

While it was not specifically a work trip, I was helping to build the international payments experience for Netflix customers at the time, so I was intrigued to see the gift cards at corner stores:

We met up my ex-roommate from Boston, who now lives in Leipzig.

He had taken a train to meet and walk with us:

The riverwalk was really nice, with fun people-watching:

Local art, harkening back to local history:

Walking around town was the way to take it all in, even at night:

Really nice spaces & places:

A lot of gritty graffiti:

The Spanish embassy:

Train stations:

Nifty architecture:

The Konzerthaus in particular looked to be a pre-World War 2 building:

The national parliament, the Bundestag:

More national buildings:

The river is the Spree, which connects with the Czech Republic and flows into a larger river the Elbe which reaches towards the North Sea at Hamburg.

The city’s main park, the Tiergarten:

Interesting statues of 19th century militarymen Roon and Bismarck:

More military monuments, this one commemorating a 19th century victory, Siegessäule):

I tried the beer, and it was good:

Overall, a great trip–very interesting to experience and see the wide range of wealth and architecture/infrastructure age.

Coming from the USA, Europe always feels “old” in its urban fabric.

Saturday Bike Camping

2024-10-19T17:00:00-07:00

This Saturday I set out with 2 friends to bicycle to Half Moon Bay.

We began our journey by meeting on B Street, in San Mateo:

We set off at 1:30pm, with an eye on a 6:30pm sunset, expecting 3.5 hours of biking (excluding breaks).

Going up Crystal Springs Road & Polhemus, we took the Ralston path to Cañada Road & Crystal Springs Reservoir:

On Cañada Road we visited Lester Legarda’s memorial, a bicyclist who was hit and killed in broad daylight by a motorist.

Of course, no charges were pressed against the driver and no road design changes were implemented to prevent it from re-occurring:

We stopped off in Woodside, before beginning the main ascent of our ride:

Maybe 20% up the Kings Mountain Road is the entrance to Huddart Park:

On the ascent we caught some great vistas over looking Silicon Valley:

Ascent to Skyline:

Pedaling:

Climbing:

We reached Skyline, crossing it and descending to the Pacific Ocean by Tunitas Creek Road:

After a continous, quick descent we cut north again and resumed rolling hills on Lobitos Creek Cutoff:

Lobitos connected with Verde Road, which dropped onto Highway 1 for a 2-mile stretch before getting to turn towards the ocean and the Half Moon Bay Coastal Trail:

In short order we arrived at the Half Moon Bay Beach State Park, where there was an epic queue of stopped cars, entering and exiting the parking lot:

We paid $7 each for our camping permit and pitched up tent, ordering food for pickup at a taqueria:

After setting up tent we caught the sunset and it was epic, over the Pacific Ocean:

The line of cars remained after sunset as we headed to pickup dinner and a 6-pack:

Sleep was good, hearing the crashing of the waves.

The next morning, we made our way back across the Santa Cruz mountains in a different fashion, riding the SamTrans 294 bus.

Before boarding the bus, we encountered a 5k/10k/half marathon in progress:

Having boarded the hourly bus back to San Mateo (which arrived on schedule!) we watched the bumper-to-bumper traffic heading westbound on Highway 92:

Overall, the trip was a success! Our route, for those who would like to try it for themselves.

Conservatives & Bikes

2024-10-11T17:00:00-07:00

I am in deep on bicycles.

Sadly, bicycling is a deeply politicized activity.

Is it a form of transportation?

Or an optional form of exercise?

Or is it a luxury activity, for elites who do it for sport?

And worst of all, is it an annoyance that impedes the most popular form of transportation in the US: driving a car.

If you spend time with bicycle advocacy groups then you will notice a common theme:

Advocates for more bicycle infrastructure seem overwhelmingly to self-identify as “liberal”, “Democrat” “progressives”.

It might be “progressive” from the viewpoint of:

environmentalism (decrease planet-harming emissions from gasoline)
helping the poor (who cannot bear the cost of cars as easily as the rich)
improve health outcomes for the community (paternalism)

But for each positive there is a reactionary backlash from “conservatives”:

trying to prevent gasoline emissions has the effect of inhibiting personal freedoms of mobility (and an established and capitalized industry of cars & gasoline)
spending money on bike infrastructure is at the expense of zero sum budget and space for “higher throughput” car traffic
many people cannot and never will ride a bike, so nudging/forcing bike infrastructure rubs this constituency the wrong way (ironically, 30% of Americans cannot drive a car)

There are of course well-reasoned arguments to go in both directions, but I will not re-hash them here.

However I will share this interesting video interview, held by the US-based League of American Bicyclists with Tim Carney, a fellow with the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.

The conversation focuses on how pro-bicycle policies can be framed to win the support of American conservatives:

Carney specifically brought a Catholic, pro-natalist perspective to the conversation.

This is just one flavor of American conservative, but it is a flavor that’s being echoed by the current Republican Vice President candidate, JD Vance.

Carney emphasizes that climate change is a relatively un-persuasive argument for conservatives, because it triggers skepticism that individual transportation choices are what causes climate change (or that human-caused climate change is fake).

He also emphasizes a few resonant pros of bicycling as transportation:

pro-natalism: cars do not scale for families–children bicycling themselves allows parents to grow their families beyond 2 children (2.1 being the population replacement rate)
builds independence & personal responsibility for youth which is critical for developing individualistic, physically healthy American adults
allows poor citizens and immigrants to build wealth faster, instead of burdening them or having to offer social welfare programs

Whether you agree with these or not, I think that it is critical to internalize and understand your audience’s viewpoints if you aim to build a big tent for bicycling.

Purisima Creek

2024-10-10T17:01:00-07:00

A local running store organizes free running events for the community, often in partnership with a running shoe brand.

This past summer was a series of trail runs at local parks, and I joined for one at Purisima Creek, a San Mateo County park.

Some photos from the event–first the trail running shoe I tried out:

The descent from the trailhead:

We stopped to re-group, to ensure people at varying paces did not get lost on the 8-mile loop.

Very cool lighting up in the Santa Cruz Mountains:

After finishing at the bottom of the loop we re-grouped again:

Touch trees:

Then the ascent began–quite long, but kept at it:

The subsequent days I had serious soreness in my legs–mostly from the descent portion, I believe.

Gotta do this more often!

Half Moon Bay

2024-10-10T17:00:00-07:00

For a special outing, my wife and I biked from our home to the SamTrans 294 bus at Hillsdale mall, rode to Half Moon Bay, and biked to a stay at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Here are photos from that outing–kicking things off with some delivery trucks blocking the bike lane, you’ve gotta laugh 😂

The 294 bus is hourly (weekdays and weekends), but in this case we did not have to wait for long:

We got dinner at Blue Dragon Pho, which hit the spot:

Someone was there picking up to-go on this massively overpowered e-scooter:

From downtown Half Moon Bay we rode our bikes the coastal trail, south, with thick fog and dirt segments:

We made it to the hotel in 30-40 minutes:

It was funny rolling up to the hotel entrance with our bicycles–the valets checked our bikes:

Room photos:

We re-traced our steps back in the morning, after having breakfast at the hotel.

Definitely a pricey option, but worth doing once.

Amtrak: Seattle-San Jose

2024-10-09T17:03:00-07:00

I rode Amtrak from Seattle to San Jose, as an alternative to flying/driving.

The total trip time was scheduled to be ~24 hours, and we remained on schedule throughout.

The train line is named the Coast Starlight, and this is what the full route looks like:

Here is a collection of photographs from the trip.

Initial departure was from King Street Station in downtown Seattle:

Having boarded I acquainted myself with my “Roomette” quarters (space for 2, but I reserved it for myself alone):

I stocked up on banana, walnuts, and gummi bears ahead of the long journey ahead.

I did not realize that 3 full meals a day were included in my ticket:

Once we had departed the station, I setup to watch a lot of internet video (YouTube, mostly) on my phone:

I quickly got up out of my seat and did a little exploring of the train:

It did not seem long (4 hours) before we pulled into Portland, Oregon:

I did not get off the train, but it turns out that the station is in immense disrepair and they do not have financing lined up to repair it, sadly.

We stayed at the station a little longer than expected due to some obscure message conveyed by the conductor over the loudspeaker.

After embarking from Portland, I just took a bunch of photos with some motion blur of the varied sights from the tracks:

I took a few photos when stopping in Eugene, Oregon:

It looks like a really cute city with bikeshare(!) options:

Through Oregon, I noticed a segment with a lot of parallel tracks–which was cool to see:

South of Eugene and before sunset/bedtime, we were treated to some very beautiful sights:

Sleeping went okay, I got 8 hours of it but it was not especially pleasant as I was jostled in the upper bunk over course of the night.

The next morning we arrived into Sacramento station.

It felt like our speed slowed as we entered into the San Francisco Bay Area, taking maybe 2 hours to reach San Jose, passing the 49ers stadium before reaching my destination at Diridon station:

We arrived and I transferred to a newly electric Caltrain, back home to San Mateo:

Quite an eventful, long journey.

I am not sure if I can afford the time to do it again in my next travels to Seattle, but I would recommend the experience as a luxury/nice treat.

If you’re interested in photos from other Amtrak journeys:

Muni 30 Bus

2024-10-09T17:02:00-07:00

My wife & I took public transit from the San Francisco Marina neighborhood to our home in San Mateo.

This was by bus (the SFMTA Muni 30 line) and Caltrain.

Here are photos from the journey.

Waitingat the bus stop at Chestnut & Fillmore, we watched an e-bike food delivery gig-worker pass by:

What a risky profession. I’m curious how they manage the limited range of e-bike batteries over the course of long shifts.

Once our bus arrived and we had boarded (frequencies are every 15 minutes on weekends), we passed by an Italian heritage parade in progress:

Up the block we passed Washington Park:

Nice view of Coit Tower in the background–very peaceful area near/in North Beach.

Turning onto Stockton gave us an awesome view down Columbus at the Transamerica Pyramid:

It is great to see the fresh produce markets along Stockton in Chinatown, and the solid amount of traffic on foot (not car):

Along Stockton you get glimpses looking east at the Bay Bridge:

In Chinatown, a crushing amount of folks tried to board the bus but could not fit everyone and some had to deboard for the bus to continue down Stockton:

Most of the new riders on the bus solely rode a short segment through the Stockton Tunnel, which does not have a good pedestrian access:

Past the tunnel on the south side is a large public parking garage–emitting cars at a regular cadence onto the sidewalk making it a very inhospitable block:

Continuing past Union Square is a view of Maiden Lane, though at this hour the sun created too much contrast to photograph well:

We soon got our first glimpse of Market Street:

A block south of Market and we see the AMC Metreon movie theater:

It is not a very pretty stretch between the Metreon and the Caltrain station at 4th & King.

I took a photo after getting off the bus of a killed tree, with a sad sticker placed on its stump:

Trains on the weekend are now every 30 minutes, and we had a little time to spare so we picked up a banana, a bag of almonds and a latte from the station cafe:

Our friends happened to be at the platform so we rode together, seeing the sights southbound to Burlingame:

It was a short train ride (25 minutes), and we were home.

An eventful, nice transit journey. I hope this inspires you to try similar!

You can take in a lot more through your eye holes when you are not operating a deadly 4,000 pound hunk of steel.

Bike Camping

2024-10-09T17:01:01-07:00

A few weeks back I endeavored to go camping by bike, alone.

I loaded up my bicycle with two panniers (sleeping bag, sleeping pad & tent), and a handlebar bag with a headlamp, water, etc.

I first stopped at the bank ATM to pickup cash:

I continued on my journey to Millbrae BART station, to ride to a reasonable starting point:

The BART ride led through San Francisco and to the east bay, passing West Oakland and the immense Port of Oakland:

I got off of BART at Orinda station and noticed wayfinding signage I had not seen before:

I passed the Orinda library where I was very impressed to see a vibrant scene of seniors socializing and a Saturday farmers market:

I picked up my father along the way, who would join me as far as the Richmond-San Rafael bridge before returning home:

We rode up Wildcat Canyon, climbing ~600 feet:

We passed Lake Anza, a public swimming lake I went to when I was much younger:

Some of the Berkeley residents high up in the hills had protest signs against bike lanes, which presumably harm them as they contest for free parking in the neighborhood where the bike lanes were proposed:

Coming down from the Berkeley hills there were some nice sights, including this bench:

The smelly Sake factory:

An Amtrak train:

And the Berkeley Aquatic Park:

We crossed highway 80 via a very nice ped/bike overpass:

We also saw the new Gilman overpass, though we did not try it out:

Going north along the bay trail had some nice sights as well:

At the lead up to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, my father and I split ways:

And my crossing of the bridge commenced:

Once across the bridge, I stopped in San Rafael to pick up a burrito and was impressed at how brief a ride it was to reach China Camp State Park:

It was a quick check-in at the ranger station (moderately easy to find), and I located where to setup camp:

I sat and ate my burrito with great appetite:

Before sunset I tried hiking up into the hills above the campsite but could not locate a truly unobstructed view:

I did see a cute deer:

The next morning I accepted one of the campground ranger’s offers to have a coffee.

We had ~1 hour of conversation–wide-reaching around the availability of campsites in the bay area, the policies policing them, the homelessness crisis in the region, the transit options, those who aim to obstruct new developments, and the land-use politics of California.

I regrettably cut the conversation short in order to make a specific ferry in Larkspur bound for San Francisco, and I made the short(er) ride back in time to make my desired ferry departure, bagel and banana in hand:

There was excellent separated bike path infrastructure, but I had stop to take in a comically long list of financing agencies involved in creating the trail:

The ferry ride was comparatively short and luxurious (though crowded):

Once in San Francisco, I met friends for a coffee and a heartier breakfast before taking BART back to Millbrae from Embarcadero:

All-in-all, a very eventful bike camping trip. Would do again.

Coyote Point

2024-10-09T17:01:00-07:00

There is a beautiful beach a short distance from my home.

Access to the beach is largely impeded for nearby residents by the presence of US Route 101, which spans 10 lanes wide.

The park is owned by the county and they charge a $6 parking fee, which is enough to deter many visitors in cars.

I most often run or e-bike to the park, and I am rewarded with incredible views at sunset.

As it is a beach, I prefer to wear shorts and flip-flops:

The county leases/operates a watersports rental venue, along with public bathrooms, though I cannot recall using either:

The views of San Francisco skyline are fantastic on clear days (which most are):

Waiting for the sundown can be variable, depending eastbound fogging rolling over the Santa Cruz mountains from Pacifica.

Here is looking westward, past the Meta office buildings:

Looking northwest is a relatively clear view of SFO airport and San Bruno mountain:

Besides crossing highway 101, the bike ride home from the beach requires crossing a variety of streets including Claremont and the Caltrain tracks:

I wish that access to this beach were easier, but car transportation and its traffic violence is here-to-stay.

If one wants more access to this bayshore park then one will have to reside closer to it, like in the Shoreview neighborhood.

However that comes with its own risks of flooding.

YIMBY Prom

2024-10-08T17:01:00-07:00

I attended YIMBY Action’s annual YIMBY Prom fundraiser event this past weekend.

My wife & I booked a hotel in downtown San Francisco and walked to the venue at the top of Rincon Hill neighborhood.

At the top of Rincon Hill there was a fascinating building–the Sailors Union of the Pacific headquarters with a couple of interesting sculpted busts out front:

I do not think about unions often, but they are an interesting powerhouse in politics–who can be an ally or opponent in the pursuit of housing abundance.

I say “opponent” because requiring union labor imposes scarcity and injects exclusivity onto the process of production.

I say “ally” because if housing construction is too constrained then there are not enough jobs to go around for union members–so they are interested in increasing construction work in the aggregate (if union labor is required).

I was excited to see friends & fellow passionate activists attending the event:

It was especially awesome to see folks from San Mateo County–fellow donors/volunteers and local electeds from San Mateo, Millbrae, Redwood City, et al.

We are a county of roughly 750,000 residents, and we have difficult housing affordability issues (median homeprices exceed $2 million):

Great crowd, great turnout!

We heard from State Senator Scott Wiener on the importance of staying the course and highlighting the wins:

And incumbent San Francisco Mayor London Breed spoke–crediting state law changes with streamlining the speed of new development in the city:

Always inspring, always vital to connect with like-minded political activists.

Housing is the biggest driver of cost of living in the USA today.

Eliminating impediments to supply is critical to creating a wealthy, healthy society.

E-Scooters: First Thoughts

2024-04-25T17:01:00-07:00

I’m obsessed with technologies that improve my freedom of movement.

Cars are incredible floating living rooms, bicycles make one feel like you can fly, and walking/running are the healthiest form of self-propelled movement imaginable.

They all have tradeoffs though:

cost (fuel, storage/real estate, depreciation)
safety (both to the operator & those around them)
maximum speed
maxmium acceleration
ease of operation
comfort (sweating, protection from inclement weather)

In spite of existing for many years now, I had not tried using an electric push scooter up until recently.

My curiousity with these scooters converted to obsession when it was pointed out to me how similar e-bikes are to scooters.

In fact scooters even have kits to install seatposts that make them look like e-bikes/mopeds.

So I research and narrowed down to a reasonable entry-level purchase, a Segway Air T-15:

With a coupon code and free shipping, the total price came out to be $186.34.

This is about the cheapest you can go for such a vehicle, with the following constraits:

12 miles per hour maximum speed (20kph)
~8 mile maximum range @ the max speed (13km)
23 pounds

It was delivered to my residence in suburban San Francisco in 3 calendar days:

I promptly unboxed it and rode it to get a coffee:

And another coffee:

My first impressions are:

it is a lot of fun
it could be very dangerous
it won’t reach 100% penetration of usage (same is true of cars, bicycles)
it has very limited ability to carry cargo besides a human (backpack/messenger bag maybe)
it can be parked anywhere–for better or worse
combined with transit, this can take me anywhere (although the battery prohibits bringing it on planes)
the charger is so small, not a problem to bring with you to often double your range by charging at your office (for example)
the cost is ridiculous cheap. Not a problem to buy another if stolen or maintenance becomes burdensome
lithium-ion battery fire is something to research more closely–this is a serious safety problem
theft risk is lower, as you can fold or bring it into a wide variety of places & you do not have to carry a lock

Electric scooters deliver on personal financial savings in a massive way relative to other transportation options.

In contrast to expensive car parking, you can securely store and charge your scooter inside of your residence:

I tested out grocery shopping with a backpack at my local grocery store:

Carrying a days worth of groceries in my backpack was not a problem and did not cause stability issues as I rode home.

In the weeks after purchase I used my scooter in combination with my local commuter train.

Folding it made it trivial to carry on to the train, although at 23 pounds this model is much lighter than typical scooters I saw in my research (more common is 40 pounds or more).

Overall, I would highly recommend electric scooters with the caveat that safety is possibly the biggest hurdle to overcome:

I hope to address in a future blogpost about what safety precautions can be taken both personally and societally to elevate electric scooters as a preferred transportation option.

Hope this helps!

How I Bike to the Airport

2024-04-23T17:01:00-07:00

I am frustrated by the experience of getting to & from airports:

I don’t like driving & paying for parking.
I don’t like taxis and their dynamic pricing + “broken” credit card readers.
I don’t like Uber/Lyft rideshare and their extortionary pricing.

I do like public transit, although my options for reaching my nearest airport by transit are much slower.

This is especially true in the early morning, late evening, or weekends when service is least frequent.

Without enumerating for you my transit options to the airport, I recently acquired a new folding bicycle to take me to my nearest airport!

I was inspired by similar posts like this one and videos like this one.

Enter: the Kwiggle (I have not been paid to write about this bike)

At ~25lbs, it folds small enough to be an airplane carry on, I investigated cargo carrying options and discovered that it comes with a front-loading pannier hook.

I went out and bought an Ortlieb pannier to get the job done and to serve as my second of two carry-on items for my flight.

I loaded up the morning of my flight and headed out, with a 30 minute bike ride ahead of me:

It was an absolutely stellar ride with the sunrise in full view:

I arrived at the terminal with time to spare (no traffic):

And took the elevator up to the security gates:

The airport security gave me no questions as the bike passed through the X-ray, and I made my way to my gate.

At the gate, a flight attendant told me that because it is a bicycle it would need to be checked but a second agent told him to cut it out and let me board.

This caused me some stress, as I realized the bike would likely be damaged as a checked bag (with no case).

Here are some photos of the airport/airplane experience:

Having the bike at my destination was nice indeed:

I have researched the option of disassembling your bike at the airport and find it totally unattractive.

I am not interested in budgeting/spending extra time at the airport disassembling a bike & packing it into a bag, as well as assembling it at my destination airport.

Brompton is another, more popular brand of folding bike.

Besides selling customized hardshell cases for luggage checking, there are overly complex videos on how to navigate bringing it as a carry-on item.

Looking at alternatives, I could stow the bike in a checked bag without disassembly:

I plan to visit a discount luggage store in the future (riding with my Kwiggle) to purchase a snug-fitting hard-shell case for it.

This should alleviate any problems with security or the airlines, although it will likely mean checking the bicycle in as luggage.

If you’re looking at the long-term parking option, then there of course tradeoffs:

On the one hand, you do not require folding or disassembly of your bike.

On the other, you risk bike theft.

There is a sign at SFO that says:

Bicycles must be secured to the rack.

24 hour parking limit without registration.

14 day parking limit when registered with attendant.

Bicycles parked in excess of the time limit will be removed and disposed of.

The Airport is not responsible for theft, damage or loss to bicycles or any items attached.

Bicycle locks left on rack will be removed and disposed of.

It was entirely unclear to me where you might go to register your bicycle with an attendant.

Here are a couple photos I took of the long-term bike parking at the airport (underneath the international terminal at SFO):

Tradeoffs!

Happy to share my experience!

Portals

2024-03-21T17:01:00-07:00

I haven’t recently become enthralled with the subject of “placemaking”.

Placemaking (by my definition) is the practice of designing a physical space to instill a certain positive feeling when visiting.

This could include curating the senses of light, sound, smell.

Possibly the most important aspect of placemaking is first impressions, and for physically enclosed spaces that entails the entranceway.

I watched an apocryphal YouTube video about this subject months and months ago (so I won’t try finding it) but it used the word “portal” to describe entryways.

Portal is a great word–it is abstract and inclusive of entryways that have no physical gateway or threshold delineating what is inside and outside of the space.

As I often do these days, I now collect photos of interesting portals that I encounter in my life.

Here is a photo album collection of portals that I find pleasing.

Some cities have portals, like this one in Redwood City, California:

Retail stores have clever placemaking, extending an invitation to amble into their space or linger out in front.

These two photos are from Abbot Kinney, in Los Angeles, California:

Offices can project the tenant’s size and importance and longevity–as a result signalling trustworthiness or power.

With massive glass surface area and doors that neither protrude or are recessed it neither aims to be welcoming or unwelcoming.

These photos are of Netflix’s offices in Los Angeles, California:

Transportation centers often have incredible portals–this is the downtown Berkeley station of Bay Area Rapid Transit, where you are literally ascending through a portal to street-level:

Sometimes transit hubs are a mish-mash of portals & architectural styles.

This one is South Station in Boston, Massachusetts:

It’s neighboring bus center is under-stated, but still feels like a significant point of embarking on far-flung adventures:

Others are gaudy, beautifully modern portals to train platforms. This one is in Miami International Airport:

Or this one in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia) that is alit at night and surrounded with pedestrian friendly bollards:

Sometimes they are just plain boring, like this one in Sacramento, California:

The residential home has many great portal styles.

My favorite is the green trellis:

Sometimes the portals don’t lead you into an enclosed building but serve as a tranquil space to pass:

Here are some more delightful retail portals:

I think that’s enough portal photos for now. Enjoy!

– Max

Visit to Newport Beach

2023-08-24T17:01:00-07:00

My wife & I visited Newport Beach for a friend’s wedding and got an interesting dose of Orange County.

We flew from San Francisco to Santa Ana airport over a pancake flat valley:

Upon arrival we realized we could take the OC Transit public bus service to the wedding’s rehearsal dinner:

The next morning, the day of the wedding I woke up early for a very long run on the Mountains to the Sea Trail:

I tried out the Rayban Stories sunglasses, and taking some photos & video with them & also to listen to music while I ran:

My wife & I then borrowed bikes from our hotel & rode along what we came to find out was the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH.

It was awful and noisy and we were happy to make it to “downtown” Newport Beach safely.

We made a stop for coffee at Starbucks on the side of the highway on our way:

We had brunch with a group of other wedding attendees, and then biked along the beach front which was gorgeous and very bike-friendly:

At the end of the bike path we hopped on a ferry taking us to Balboa Island, $1.75 per passenger.

It was cash only & we had to ask a very kind stranger to give us the money in exchange for digitally transferring her money (via Apple Pay).

It was a pretty chill 2-minute boat ride:

Balboa Island is extremely patriotic, with lots of loud American icons proudly on display:

After walking the west side of the island we then rode our bikes back to our hotel, crossing back across the PCH where we saw some bike lanes (in name only):

We got some rest and relaxation before attending the wedding which was a blast:

Some photos of wedding guests:

I cannot confidently predict when I will next visit Orange County, but I see its appeal and I’m sure the weather is fantastic year-round.

Kudos to Newport Beach!

Bike Summit 2023

2023-08-24T17:00:00-07:00

I attended Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC)’s 2023 Bike Summit–a conference for folks interested and involved with bicycling in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

The event was sold out, with 350-400 people in attendance.

I attended as a San Mateo county resident & (minor!) donor to SVBC.

This is a timeline of the events:

9am met with other conference attendess at the Mountain View Caltrain, and got a demo from Caltrain staff about BikeLink lockers, and the plans for future expansion of bike storage at stations

Biked over together to the venue at Mountain View Community Center

Free bike valet in the parking lot:

9:30am Mayor of Mountain View gave introduction, SVBC Director welcomed everyone introduced keynote speaker
10-11am Keynote speaker, Andrew Fremier Exectuive Director of MTC (the regional transit planning in charge of bay area-wide intercity connectivity like bridges, bay trail, highways, etc.) speaking about bike infrastructure and cross-bay connectivity on bike, panel discussion with San Mateo county supervisor David Canepa & Santa Clara county supervisor Cindy Chavez. They talked about distributing county money back to cities for bike infrastructure projects, what the priority areas are and how to do it equitably. There was some discussion about stopping widening of freeways like 101 which makes it harder to connect communities on foot/bike to cross over them.

11-12 a bike tour with Mountain View city staff of their infrastructure–some excellent stuff around the Google offices (protected bike lanes & protected intersections). Downtown MV has a pedestrianized Castro Street which is incredible.

Lunchtime, met a non-profit researcher for Outride who are funded by Specialized bikes to study how youth bike riding impacts educational development & behavioral moderation of adolescents
1-2pm attended a panel session about creating safe routes to school. Witnessed some spirited back and forth over “tactical urbanism” and legal liability of cities, drivers, bicyclists, children & parents. I need to learn more about insurance/law to have a strong opinion on this one(!)

Bunch of lightning talks from local activists, SJ conservation corps that maintain the trails system, East Palo Alto & Half Moon Bay activites who teaches bike repairs skills to kids & adults, anti-highway widening activism
Awards for local activists:

Wrap-up happy hour where I met the mayor of Los Gatos and had an at-length conversation about the politics of the city, certain vocal residents’ opposition to high-density housing, what bike culture exists in Los Gatos

It was awesome and inspiring–I do hope to attend next year.

Visit to San Diego

2023-08-20T17:00:00-07:00

My wife and I visited San Diego for two days, while I worked remotely from our hotel room during the day.

We took the Amtrak train from Irvine to San Diego.

The arrival location in downtown San Diego at the Santa Fe Depot station was quite scenic:

One of the interesting sites from the train ride was the remnants of the San Onofre nuclear power plant:

We walked from the station to our hotel at the Manchester Grand Hyatt:

We went to dinner at Puesto, a Mexican chain restaurant next to our hotel which was great–I had chips, salsa, a quesadilla and watermelon juice:

After dinner we walk around the waterfront:

And then the Gaslamp District which had a large stretch of pedestrianized blocks–which were quiet as it was a Monday night:

There was some excellent lighting for night-time photography:

Downtown San Diego seems centered around its courts and law offices.

We saw an ancient-looking bus with Immigration & Customs Enforcement(ICE) signage outside the courthouse.

Premium real estate in downtown is used for car storage because the transit accessibility and frequency is mediocre:

It was interesting to see offices of the parking enforcement company that does parking enforcement contracting in our city of residence, LAZ Parking:

There was entrepreneurial signage for a bike mechanic:

Overall it was a great, short trip.

I loved the temperate whether and the walkability of the downtown was very good.

I can see the appeal!

BART with Mike

2023-08-09T17:00:01-07:00

My neighbor Mike is in his 60s, retired, & doesn’t have a whole lot to occupy his time.

He is super deadpan, “shoots straight” and is a fountain of wisdom about issues of homeownership and local history.

I recently persuaded him to take the bus with me–something he had not done for decades–and we took it to his favorite restaurant, Harry’s Hofbrau:

It was such a successful trip we brought along 2 more neighbors for a subsequent trip:

This past week I brought Mike with me on a trip to San Francisco on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).

He loves to bike.

He bikes 15 miles every day to help occupy his retirement and stay healthy, so naturally we biked to our nearest BART station at Millbrae.

Here are some photos from the outing:

Generally, Mike was fascinated at how fast BART traveled.

He noted critically how the train stations’s locations are inconvenient and how train departures are infrequent.

Specifically, we rode by Daly City BART and noted that he was planning to go to a movie with his wife to the theater and that it was next to the station.

He could drive their car 10 minutes or bike 20 minutes to Millbrae BART, walk to the platform and wait for the train, ride the train for 14 minutes and walk 1 block from the movie theater.

Or they could drive to the theater directly in 22 minutes, park within a block or two where the fee to park is less than the fee for both him and his wife to pay for a BART ticket(!).

This math would perhaps look different if Mike was not retired and was needing to commute into downtown San Francisco or the east bay, but he is simply not that demographic.

I don’t expect that Mike will use BART again, but it was very illuminating to hear his raw experience and thought process about using BART from the peninsula.

Rayban Stories

2023-08-09T17:00:00-07:00

My wife worked at Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and helped market the Rayban Stories which retail for ~$300 USD.

They are “smart glasses” which have two camera lenses built into the glasses’ frame:

A shutter button exists above the right temple for capturing photo (one long-press) or video (short press to begin capture, short press to end capture):

They use Bluetooth in order to pair with iPhone or Android smartphones.

There are speakers + microphone which allow you to hold hands-free phone calls or listen to music.

There are no “augmented reality” features where visuals are projected onto the glasses’ lenses.

They’re like spy glasses that James Bond might have worn in a film in the 1970s.

Amazon ripped off the idea and offered a clone (minus the camera) called “Echo Frames” that’s now discontinued.

Here are some sample photos–the first photo being the JPEG image file straight out of the camera and the second being post-processed image I have edited using photo editing software (Adobe Lightroom) to try and improve their appearance:

Original	Edited

Their battery life is quite poor, and more obnoxiously the Bluetooth connection can take up to a minute to pair with your phone.

They are also unuseable if they are not paired with your phone.

They can capture up to 60 seconds of video, however it draings the battery faster and there is no defined storage capacity for photos + video clips.

Here are sample videos–note the terrible audio quality:

I would say their most utility is when riding a bicycle.

It allows you to take quick photos or video from your bike ride, and safely listen to music as you ride without inhibiting your ability to hear car traffic threats.

Overall, there is a lot of room for improvement.

Ultimately, the pairing behavior with smartphone needs massive improvement to its seamlessness before I would recommend it to friends or buy it as a gift.

Folding bikes or no?

2023-06-05T17:00:00-07:00

The pros and cons of getting a folding bicycle.

Pros ✅
Cons ❌
Folding Bike Brands
Conclusion

Pros ✅

Light weight

It’s guaranteed to be light weight and carryable (usually about 10 kilograms or 20-25 pounds).

That excludes the weight savings from not having to carry a bike lock(!), allowing you to travel more lightly.

Note: electric folding bikes are still incredibly heavy–expect them to weight 10-25lbs (5-10kg) more.

Faster acceleration

Because of smaller diameter wheels, folding bicycles are easier to accelerate from a deadstop.

Easy Mount/Dismount

Folding bikes generally have a step-through frame & a lower center of balance, which makes them fantastic to mount/dismount.

Are these really folding bike features?

These first three benefits are not unique to folding bikes, but there is an entire category of bicycle called “mini velo” which has some popularity in Asia. Read more here: Mini velos

Here are a couple of benefits that are specifically due to the folding behavior:

It Folds (Duh)

Since it can fold into a smaller shape, it can be carried and place in:

Closets
At your office work desk
Car trunk
Bus, train, planes(!)
Restaurants
Grocery stores

If you have fear of social shame for bringing your bike into specific places (e.g. grocery store) recognize that:

a folding bike may be smaller than a shopping cart and
you are giving the store money

If they want your money or your participation then they will not force you to leave the establishment–especially if you take the time to fold your bike:

Security

Folding bikes are harder to steal–as you can carry them with you, even inside of buildings where you ordinarily would be forced to lock your bike outside.

This is the most clear benefit–whether you live in an apartment building or work at an office with no secure bike storage.

This has a secondary benefit, which is that you no longer have to carry a heavy lock and remember/carry its key.

Handlebar mounting

It’s easy to mount a bag or backpack on the front handlebars, since it has a long front stem with small wheels:

Cons ❌

Less stable

With smaller diameter wheels you will feel less balanced on the bike.

For example it is harder to pedal with one hand on the handlebar.

This requires a bit more focus as you travel, and it’s certainly not recommended to whip out your phone mid-ride to take photo/video (where you might on other bikes).

Slower

At higher speeds you may travel slower than non-folding bikes-–though this isn’t necessarily true.

This is most exhibited when you might be going up a steep hill, and need to step up out of your seat to pedal (in order to keep momentum).

This type of athletic exertion is harder to do on a folding bike frame, as it does not have as much structural integrity as a road bike (for example).

I personally haven’t found this to be much of an issue as I use my folding bike(s) for transit and not racing or going up big hills.

Lots of videos on YouTube illustrate the tradeoffs of wheel size and aerodynamics:

Aesthetics

Folding bikes do not look like a conventional bike.

If you want to ooze confidence to onlookers while riding your bike, it may be harder to do so on a folding bike.

But you won’t know if you don’t try!

I feel pretty cool on mine:

Custom/uncommon components?

This is not unique to folding bikes, but you can encounter this issue with finding readily available (and cheap prices for) replacement components with manufacturers like Brompton

A couple of components that will be different:

Tubes – maybe 12”, 20”, 22”, it entirely depends on your folding bike model
Tires – same thing

Less durable in the long run?

Smaller wheels wear down faster.

You will need to replace your tires more frequently than a conventionally sized bicycle.

The frame also feels less structurally sound than a full-size bicycle.

I don’t know what lifetime a folding bike has (I haven’t rode one into the ground yet), but longevity is something of which to be mindful.

Folding Bike Brands

Here is an abbreviated list of companies that manufacture folding bicycles:

Conclusion

I enjoy my folding bike–it definitely fits a small feature gap that other “conventional bicycles” cannot support.

If you live in tight housing or you work at an office with insufficient or unsafe locations for locking a bike, folding your bike and carrying it inside is your best bet for preventing theft.

Car Country

2023-05-22T17:00:00-07:00

I had an opportunity to read this history book about the USA’s car-centric transit design, from 1850’s to the present.

Chronologically, transit in America began with walking and horses.

Trains, bicycles, electric streetcars and then the automobile followed.

But the original focus on the public road grew from economic & public health needs.

Roads as public spaces were treated as a tragedy of the commons.

Residents, visitors and businesses of the streets dumped their food scraps, raw human water waste, and horse droppings where the commerce and transit needs were the greatest:

)

Cleaning up the roads was not a government responsibility–and was simply not tackled because of early political corruption in cities.

The author explains the demand and development of a professional sanitation and engineering approach, as public health harms reached objectionable levels and electric streetcars massively increased cities’ day-time density of foot traffic.

The author paints a sharp contrast between these urban problems of the road with problems facing roads in rural communities.

In the rurual communities, farms largely used roads to move their produce and livestock to train stations.

Similar to urban communities, rural road maintenance was not a full-time profession, making it too inefficient and expensive to maintain.

In fact road maintenance costs were entirely a local concern.

Farmer families would volunteer to maintain the roads in lieue of paying poll taxes towards outsourcing the labor of road maintainence.

Road investment (or lack thereof) was a local control issue:

“The liberty of localities to perform their own functions in road building and road working is in danger,” one advocate of local control warned in 1804, “and if people do not exercise this liberty it will be wrested from them.” … If farmers cared about local control because of republican principles and the long-established tradition of home rule, they also cared because the sort of hard-surfaced, all-weather roads that good-roads reformers advocated were quite expensive. The high costs of road improvements prompted farmers to meet good-roads entreaties with three significant objections, all of which related to traditional methods of financing rural roads. First was a problem of equity: The financing for rural road improvements typically came entirely from local government revenue, especially property taxes levied on the owners of abutting property. Urban cyclists and other nonlocal travelers would derive clear benefit from hard-surfaced roads, but farmers alone were expected to foot the bill. Second was the problem of cash payments: Most good -roads proposals would not only increase the size of road taxes but they would also eliminate the traditional option of paying them in labor rather than cash. For cash-starved agricultural commu-nities, the combination of cash payments and higher taxes represented an untenable double burden. Third, many farmers regarded with skepticism good-roads claims that hard-surfaced roads represented a one-time investment–many enthusiasts referred to them as “permanent” roads–that would eventually pay itself back in reduced transportation costs.

Fast-forwarding, the rise of the automobile and the poor quality of existing roads made road development a prerequisite to the mass adoption of the automobile.

This was well-noted by automobile entrepreneurs like Henry Ford, who identified the need to shift the American population from urban to suburban community design for maximal car adoption:

“We shall solve the City Problem by leaving the City,” declared Henry Ford in one of his oft-quoted aphorisms. “Get the people into the country, get them into communities where a man knows his neighbor, where there is a commonality of interest, where life is not artificial, and you have solved the City Problem. You have solved it by eliminating the City.” As downtown interests struggled with snarled traffic and inadequate parking, real estate developers seized on Ford’s logic-not to eliminate the city, as Ford suggested, but to expand it in a radically new car-dependent form on the city’s outer fringe.

The migration of urban to suburban occurred over a number of decades, sharply pronounced after World War II as a consequence of a great deal of veterans returning & migrating within the US and forming new households.

Meanwhile, urban commercial cores suffered as they failed to meet this new car-centric transit demand with land-use that met the unquenchable demand for car parking:

Parking shortages improved somewhat in the 1930s, when the owners of vacant or otherwise unprofitable buildings razed existing structures to reduce tax valuations and opened parking lots to generate cash flow. The late 1930s also saw the proliferation of parking meters- -the first of which were installed in Kansas City in 1935-which effectively discouraged all-day street parking while generating reliable municipal revenue. As off-street parking spaces multiplied and parking meters increased the turnover of on-street spots, many cities began to get a handle on their parking problems for the first time since the rapid growth of automotive traffic began. Downtown’s accessibility, on the other hand, remained a thorny issue, prompting cities across the country to draft plans for hugely expensive expressways as a way to facilitate the movement of cars to and from downtown. In the face of growing competition from outlying business districts, downtown was no longer the business district, but rather the largest and most central of many competing districts scattered across the city. And though downtown remained accessible by streetcar, many of the new competing business districts were entirely car-dependent in their location, in their site plans, and in their business practices.

The rise of car-centric community planning was fully funded by the national government.

In part by the massive interstate highway system funded by Congress under the Eisenhower presidency.

But created and financed by a system of federally insured mortgages for homebuyers, that was pushed through in the face of a massive housing shortage post-WWII.

By the end of World War II, a serious, long-term housing shortage wracked American cities, big and small alike. By 1945, housing starts had failed to keep up with demand for new housing through sixteen straight years of depression and war. The number of urban rental apartments actually contracted from 16.3 million in 1940 to just 13 million in 1950 as rentals converted into owner-occupied homes, highlighting the acuteness of the shortage as soldiers began to return home. The housing industry moved quickly to address these problems. Drawing on a host of new construction methods, including an adapted version of assembly-line techniques, housing construction boomed after World War Il, adding roughly Is million new housing units over the next decade. The overwhelming majority of these were single-family homes? With the housing sector booming, national homeownership rates crept upward. Homeowners reached majority status in the United States for the first time in the late 1940s, climbing to 55 percent in 19so and 62 percent in 1960.3 Nearly all of the increase came in car-dependent suburbs, where homeownership nearly doubled between 1940 and 1950.

The author asks two important questions:

Why did the housing industry respond to postwar demand with almost exclusively suburban construction?
Why did suburban growth overwhelmingly take the form of car-dependent landscapes?

Both are explained by the decisionmaking of a federal bureaucracy called the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).

There was a preference to solve the problems that large-scale developers faced, as smaller scale developers had a bad reputation–and to overcome a common urban practice of “promotional” zoning, in which municipalities used zoning as a tool for maximizing tax revenue.

Instead, the FHA wanted new communities to use “protective” zoning, in which zoning was used to protect neighborhoods from new, value-disrupting land uses.

Coming to the present, the moves the FHA made in the 40s, 50s and 60s have been intractable and unchanged, as non-car transit options have been left to dwindle and fade in their funding.

Critically, oil prices have exhibited very little inflation.

Overall it is a solid read, and I would recommend reading it.

Follow me on Threads to talk about this book and bicycles.

Writing Without Bullshit

2023-05-03T17:00:00-07:00

Summary from listening to the audio book of “Writing Without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean” by Josh Bernoff.

Key takeaway

Write as if your audience’s time is worth more than your own.

How

Do this by creating value for your audience–do not postpone/hide the delivery of value (information) in your writing).

Content formatting:

utilize formatting (indentation, lists, tables) to break down walls of text
incorporate images, data visualization

Consider your format–e.g. reading on a mobile phone screen.

For example with email: the subject line is 10 times more important than the email body.

Jargon & acronyms separate your audience into those who do and don’t know them.

Do not kill your audience size by unnecessarily using jargon/acronyms.

Use pronouns (you, me, we, I).

Eliminate:

passive voice.
adverbs, qualifiers (very, generally), weasel words (most, many, few, countless).

Shorter is better.

State numbers. Source them with care.

Use modern collaborative editing software (Google Docs, Dropbox/Box/Drive).

Creativity ideas:

Create “fat” outlines. No harm to starting out “fat” as it’s easier to flesh out.
Research interviews.

Editors do not dictate what to write–they help you see what you cannot see.

Communicate with your editor what you are uncertain about & to what degree you are seeking feedback.

Common problems

Too long.
Do not get to the point fast enough.
Passive voice.
Too much jargon, weasel words.
Not prescriptive enough–not focused on the audience.
Bad use of data.
Lack of structure.
No central idea.

Not mentioned in the book–but Hemingway App is an interesting tool for eliminating passive voice:

The Moral Imperative for Bike Lanes

2023-04-05T17:00:00-07:00

What parents need now more than ever is the ability to set their kids free and have them be safe.

Bike lanes are a solution.

They make life easier, healthier and more fun for parents, kids and seniors.

While it builds our kids’ resilience and independence, it also saves lives.

Walking and biking myself around I see loads of bikes parked in the alleys of restaurants–our community’s wageworkers cannot afford a car and they cannot afford the cost of being a victim of traffic violence.

Bike lanes also save individuals and families a jaw-dropping amount of money.

The annual cost of car ownership now exceeds $10,000 per year.

Enabling households to drop one of their cars is a windfall for our community–and those savings go directly to helping residents avoid displacement and stay in their homes!

The benefits of bike lanes are both quantifiable & unquantifiable.

They are quantifiable as more households build wealth by opting for fewer cars–reducing traffic & competitive street parking.

And they are unquantifiable: a next generation who are independent, resilient and responsible–prepared to participate in our community fully without needing to be 16 years old or have $10,000.

Biking to Work

2023-03-12T17:00:00-07:00

About a year ago I sold my car I had used for commuting and bought an e-bike for ~$1,000.

Where my drive to the bus stop previously took ~15 minutes, the e-bike ride took ~20 minutes–and was roughly the equivalent exercising of jogging for 2 miles.

This has been a huge help as I have lost ~15 pounds of bodyweight over the year since dropping driving a car.

I’ve since been intrigued by video production on bicycles–inspired in part by Terry Barentsen’s “Hotline” series in New York City.

I live in San Mateo, California though–a much less dense area of the world than Manhattan–so the situations I capture on video while biking are very different from Terry’s footage!

I’ve studied & have largely tried to mimic Terry’s video production rig, making a video about my bike video-recording setup & here is a photo of it:

And here are the videos I’ve recorded of my bike commute for your enjoyment–both to and from:

The ride to work

The ride home from work

Conclusion

I don’t think these videos will help persuade other folks to commute to work by bike.

Let’s be real: the video (and thumbnails) do a great job of depicting just how terrifying it is to be passed by aggressive drivers in excessively large vehicles.

I do think that any video footage of bicycling helps normalizes it as a valid mode of transportation.

And that is all I aim to do–alive or dead.

First Anniversary

2023-03-11T17:00:00-08:00

My wife and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary and stayed in a hotel in San Francisco, across from the Ferry Building.

We had a fantastic view of the bay bridge:

We encountered rain before we could begin our bike ride:

However we got rolling on our way to Sausalito on our e-bikes (which the hotel lent us for free!).

On our way to the Golden Gate we got some great views:

Of Crissy Field and the city skyline:

We managed to swiftly cross the Golden Gate Bridge, however the micro-climate on the bridge was hailing(!) and it was demoralizing for my wife to complete the bike ride:

We biked ahead, down the hill to Sausalito where we ate lunch at Avatars, a restaurant I first visited over 10 years ago:

We opted to take the ferry home, from Sausalito to SF in under 20 minutes:

With dinner and drinks at the restaurant, we witnessed the last night with the bay bridge lights turned on:

Not gonna miss them tremendously–there is so much natural (non-electric) beauty in the area.

Legion of Honor

2023-03-11T16:00:00-08:00

This Saturday I visited San Francisco for lunch and a visit to the Legion of Honor art museum.

Before traveling to the distant northwest side of the city we ate lunch at B Star, on Clement Street in the inner richmond.

I had vegetarian garlic noodles, it was good:

We were surprised to learn that it was a free admissions day.

The special exhibit was “Sargent & Spain”–a collection of illustrations and paintings by a guy in Spain 1856-1925.

Some very nice looking contrasts:

And some comical staredowns:

Beyond Sargent, the main gallery has cool stuff.

Some Rodin sculptures (who made the thinker):

Some busts:

The lighting in these museums is fantastic–I wish I could shadow/follow whoever sets up the lights for these museums:

Really trippy demonic carving:

Outside the museum is a statue of Joan of Arc, with some ominous San Francisco fog (and a golf course in the background.

As you step closer it gets more epic:

Here is the group that visited the museum together:

Running Injuries

2023-01-23T16:01:00-08:00

Injuries from running are shockingly high.

There is an excellent review of academic studies on injury rates I recently read, and it has critical takeaways for those interested in running as a leisure or athletic activity:

Running injuries. A review of the epidemiological literature

Here are some choice excerpts of its abstract:

Given the limitations of the studies it appears that for the average recreational runner, who is steadily training and who participates in a long distance run every now and then, the overall yearly incidence rate for running injuries varies between 37 and 56%.

This is shockingly high. Of course, the injury risk is massively outweighed by the longterm health effects of physical exercise of any kind.

What is the root cause of these injuries?

About 50 to 75% of all running injuries appear to be overuse injuries due to the constant repetition of the same movement.

…The prevention of sports injuries should focus on changes of behaviour by health education. Health education on running injuries should primarily focus on the importance of complete rehabilitation and the early recognition of symptoms of overuse, and on the provision of training guidelines.

People run–and do not know how to listen to their bodies.

Listen to your body!

Why I bicycle

2022-12-09T16:01:00-08:00

It’s fun

It’s cheap

I need exercise for my health

I need social activity–bikes are slow enough to wave, make eye contact, & say hello

I need to get places

It’s good for the planet

It reminds me of my childhood

It feels like flying

I love passing cars

Parking is so easy

Why do I not bicycle?

Emergency room visit

Many passengers

Heavy loads

Imbalanced loads

Avoiding bike theft

Night visibility

A Los Angeles commute

2022-11-26T16:03:00-08:00

I am traveling to Los Angeles this past Thanksgiving week and decided to try commuting to the Netflix LA offices by borrowing a bike from the hotel we stayed at.

It was pretty uneventful, and beautiful.

Here is the cruiser bicycle, riding down Abbot Kinney on the 10 minute ride:

The bicycle, mounted on the private corporate shuttle (I was the only one on the bus, probably because of Thanksgiving week):

The drive went on the freeway, where the bus’s rear bike rack was tested:

Arrived, at Netflix LA:

Some views:

I came back using the bus + bicycle, and got a great view of the sunset, looking towards Venice beach:

I would highly recommend getting out of a car.

You learn so much more about the sights and sounds of neighborhoods.

Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone

2022-11-26T16:02:00-08:00

I spent several hours watching a BBC documentary on pirated on YouTube about post-Soviet Russia.

Here is a selection of still images I captured from the documentary that I think illustrate some poignant moments.

Extreme poverty, equity vouchers
Striking miners, in Ukraine
On fertility/population growth/abortion
Auctioning off government assets
Chechens/Chechnya
Chechen gangsters
Cosmonauts & economic collapse
Grozny
Ukraine elections, Leonid Kuchma
Money-making, post-Soviet Union
Price liberalisation
Yegor Gaidar
Boris Yeltsin, drunk
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
More Boris Zhirinovsky
Invasion of Chechnya, parallels with Ukraine invasion
Invasion of Chechnya, part 2
Democratic failure
Zhirinovsky Victimhood

Extreme poverty, equity vouchers

Striking miners, in Ukraine

On fertility/population growth/abortion

Auctioning off government assets

Chechens/Chechnya

Chechen gangsters

Cosmonauts & economic collapse

Grozny

Ukraine elections, Leonid Kuchma

Money-making, post-Soviet Union

Price liberalisation

Yegor Gaidar

Boris Yeltsin, drunk

Vladimir Zhirinovsky

More Boris Zhirinovsky

Invasion of Chechnya, parallels with Ukraine invasion

Invasion of Chechnya, part 2

Democratic failure

Zhirinovsky Victimhood

Post-9/11 Conflict

2022-11-26T16:01:00-08:00

Human Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars: Lethality and the Need for Transparency (PDF)

Post-traumatic stress disorder is massively under-appreciated by your average American.

Half Moon Bay

2022-07-06T17:01:00-07:00

I took a bicycle ride to Half Moon Bay, to camp overnight.

It was delightful, and I took a number of photos.

This was the first photo I took, before beginning the climb up Highway 92:

This was after reaching the summit of Highway 92:

I reached the campground without too much bother, and slept restlessly without a tent:

In the morning I captured a couple of photos before beginning the journey back:

I left the campground after sunrise, and before 6am.

The return ride felt a little easier, having gotten comfortable with the route in some sense.

The view of Crystal Springs Reservoir was made better by fog and cloud cover:

Onsite

2022-05-03T17:01:00-07:00

Forget the corporate “offsite”

The “onsite” is the new corporate gathering in the inverted remote work world.

I took some candids from the festivities (meetings):

An updated goal list

2022-02-20T16:01:00-08:00

Alongside my list of publicly stated interests, I figured I’d publicly document some abstract goals that I’ve mulled over & collected:

produce documentaries (politics, relationship between labor & capital)
compete in powerlifting into my 70s (80s?)
deeply learn computer profiling/software testing
minimize car-driving, maximize walking
retirement income eclipsing salary
support family financially (health, housing, education)
lead a healthy love life & build a family

They are not static goals, but very dynamic–by that I just mean that I expect they will change over time.

I document & share them to take a snapshot of a point in time of my life, for reflection in the future.

I’m curious to hear your goals, ping me on Threads to discuss.

Early life lessons

2022-02-18T16:01:00-08:00

I had saved $1,000 from a summer job in college. I had learned in high school & college the importance of not just saving your money but investing it too.

But I didn’t understand the “how” of investing.

How do you buy stocks, or bonds?

So I asked my dad.

My dad referred me to his broker at a name brand financial company.

My dad had been “working with” this well-groomed 55-year old man for the past 30 years, managing my parents’ investments & savings.

I get on a phone call with the guy–he tells me “since your father’s my client, sure I will create you a brokerage account. What do you want me to buy?”

I remember I spent several hours after that phone call on free stock research websites like Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, Morningstar.

I settled on an exchange-traded fund–a real estate investment trust ($FTY, now $BLK:US) and called up the guy to place my order for $1000 worth of $FTY.

“The trading commission will be $70.”

So I had bought $930 worth of $FTY for a $70 commission.

I spent 7% of my savings on a commission to be able to buy $FTY.

And it would have been another $70 or 7% to sell my $FTY!

Is that a lot? Is that a little?

It is a lot.

At that point in time (2009) you could open a free account with Charles Schwab where trading commissions were $7/trade.

So my father’s broker was 10x more expensive.

All for the opportunity to be able to place your order of the telephone, rather than a website.

I still rage at this experience.

But this experience taught me, there are even some very adult topics (like finance) that your elders (in this case my father) may not fully understand.

You must follow your passions & watch out for yourself–channel your rage into understanding.

Maybe one day you will have gained wisdom to impart to your family & friends that your parents did not.

Saying thank you

2021-12-27T16:01:00-08:00

Saying “thank you” signals that a non-cash debt has been paid off or created.

It does not demonstrate a true intention to complete a debt’s repayment.

What are some of the best actions you can take to gift to others?

Instead of saying thank you?

Here are some of my ideas:

travel to them & visit with them
listen to them, only ask questions
in parting, give them a hug if they want one
record a song about them, and share it with them

San Mateo County History Museum

2021-11-27T16:01:00-08:00

My household visited the San Mateo County History Museum on a whim, and had an awesome time.

Here’s some notes about the experience!

We visited the day after Thanksgiving (a Friday), around noon.

We had the whole 2-story museum to ourselves, besides the woman at the frontdesk where it cost $6 per adult ticket.

The first section of the museum we entered discussed the history of transportation in San Mateo County.

It traced the progression from walking, to horse-drawn carriages, to trains, and then to automobiles & buses.

The transportation installation goes to lengths to illustrate just how prohibitively expensive that chartered stage coach rides were up until the 20th century (and how dreadfully uncomfortable they must have been).

It also illustrates how undesirable gas-powered cars were when they were first introduced.

I learned that a big increase in the suburban San Francisco population occurred after the 1906 earthquake which led to folks fleeing the destroyed city and the rise of affordable public streetcars for middle-class commuters.

It was also surprising to learn about the history (and fate) of the coastal train line, running from SF down past Santa Cruz.

This proved unsustainable due to competition from cars, earthquakes destroying the infrastructure, and seasonality of tourism to coastal towns like Half Moon Bay.

In growing as a suburb, big tracts of land owned by the wealthy were subdivided into plots of land for single-family homes, like Hayward Park (Google Maps):

Progressing around the first floor, there were also sections dedicated to:

the Ohlone people (the indigenous of the San Francisco bay area)
how economic innovations in housing construction enabled mass homeownership of higher quality, cheaply-produced homes (e.g. Joseph Eichler)
a section dedicated to the expansion of the train lines, connecting the west and east coast economies of the United States via train (photo below)

The second floor has several distinct installations:

the old county courthouse (photos below)
history and memorial to law enforcement officers of San Mateo County
a dedicated section of entrepreneurs who got their start in San Mateo County (there are an impressive amount–including Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and many pharma & tech innovators like the inventor of the birth-control pill)

Overall, it was an extremely illuminating museum experience–I highly recommend experiencing it for yourself!

Alternative experiment protocols

2021-08-23T17:01:00-07:00

I came across an interesting list of alternatives to vanilla A/B testing in this blogpost, “Choose your experiment platform wisely”:

Good experiment platforms go beyond the minimum functionality in many ways. Among other things, they may…allow experiment protocols other than simple A/B testing. Crossover,switchback, bandit, and staged rollout protocols (among others) have advantages over A/B designs in relevant situations

Here is a short summary of what exactly these alternative “experiment protocols” mean:

Crossover

Example referenced: Crossover study - Wikipedia

“…a longitudinal study in which subjects receive a sequence of different treatments.”

“Nearly all crossover are designed to have “balance”, whereby all subjects receive the same number of treatments and participate for the same number of periods. In most crossover trials each subject receives all treatments, in a random order.”

“These studies are often done to improve the symptoms of patients with chronic conditions. For curative treatments or rapidly changing conditions, cross-over trials may be infeasible or unethical.”

Takeaway: this is useful if you have hypotheses about sequencing a repeatable treatment (like applying a medicine to a patient over time).

Switchback

Example referenced: Switchback Tests and Randomized Experimentation Under Network Effects at DoorDash

“To be able to experiment in the face of network effects, we use a technique known as switchback testing, where we switch back and forth between treatment and control in particular regions over time. This approach resembles A/B tests in many ways, but requires certain adjustments to the analysis.”

“…the core concept is that we switch back and forth between control and treatment algorithms in a certain region at alternating time periods. For example, in the SOS pricing example, we switch back and forth every 30 minutes between having SOS pricing and not having SOS pricing. We then compare the customer experience and marketplace efficiency between the control time bucket and treatment time bucket metrics corresponding to the decisions made by the algorithm during the two periods.”

Takeway: this is useful if your variants affect each other–for example one variant siphons available resources from a second variant.

Bandit

Example referenced: Multi-Armed Bandits and the Stitch Fix Experimentation Platform

“a multi-armed bandit learns to divert traffic away from poorly-performing arms and towards the better-performing ones.”

“The multi-armed bandit model is a simplified version of reinforcement learning, in which there is an agent interacting with an environment by choosing from a finite set of actions and collecting a non-deterministic reward depending on the action taken. The goal of the agent is to maximize the total collected reward over time.“

“The agent must make decisions based on incomplete information, resulting in a dilemma known as the explore vs. exploit problem. Early in the process, reward estimates are highly uncertain, so the agent is compelled to gather evidence about all the available actions, in order to be more certain about which action is likely to produce the highest average reward.”

“can provide more efficient optimization than standard A/B tests in some circumstances, and a more flexible method for long-term optimization”

Takeaway: this protocol is useful if you have many variants, are okay with letting the test run for a longer time period (perhaps indefinitely), and wish to minimize “regret” (opportunity cost) from over-allocating to under-performing variants.

Staged rollouts

Example referenced: Data Science for Startups

“…it may not be possible to control which users are part of a treatment group for an experiment…two different approaches for drawing conclusions when you do not have direct control of assigning experiment groups”

“Staged rollouts enable developers to release a new build to a subset of the user base. Rather than implementing A/B logic within the application itself, by writing ‘if’ blocks that maintain separate treatment and control code paths, developers can build two separate versions and deploy them simultaneously. This feature is useful when making major changes to an application, such as redesigning the UI. A drawback of staged rollouts is that we no longer control the A/B splits for experiments. Common use cases for staged rollouts include:

Testing the stability of a new release.
Measuring the usage of new features.
Measuring the impact of a new release on metrics.”

Takeaway: this protocol is appropriate/useful if you do not have granular control over applying your variants’ treatment. For example if your experience is downloadable from an app store where you are beholden to their limited or non-existent experimentation tooling.

Conclusion

It’s always interesting to learn about these variations on the classic A/B testing experimentation protocol. As more software-enabled businesses crop up, there will be more distinctive experimentation protocols being applied–knowing about these innovations may help you when you encounter such distinctive situations.

Podcasting workshop

2021-08-08T17:01:00-07:00

Given my podcasting experience over the years I’ve thought about how I could share/evangelize my process for producing podcast content.

If I were teaching a podcasting workshop then this is what I would cover:

Why audio-only?
- Low production costs
  - Equipment
  - Editing
  - Sourcing guests
  - Publishing/hosting
  - Promotion
- Audience
  - You’re reaching an audience that doesn’t require a screen
- You are ugly
  - Not actually: no fashion, makeup required
Even if you are only publishing audio, record the conversation with video conferencing
- Body language
- Building rapport rapidly
- Signaling interest
Video-conferencing options:
- Yes: Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams
- No: Zencastr, Jitsi
How to capture
- Audio Hijack
- Quicktime
- Zencastr
- In-person
  - iOS
  - Android
  - Dedicated audio recorder (Zoom H1n)
How to edit
- Do you have to edit? Why?
- Software
  - Audacity
  - iMovie
  - FCPX
The process (from idea to publishing)
- Scheduling
- Pre-interview
  - Time for rapport building
  - Topic identification
- IP waiver
- Recording duration
Hosting options
- Sole host
- Federated hosts (e.g. Software Engineering Radio)
Promotion options
- Social
  - Reddit
  - Twitter
  - LinkedIn
- SEO
  - Google
  - Podcast indices
    - Apple
    - Spotifhy

I’ve hosted over 100 episodes of The Accidental Engineer, if you’re curious for my credentials on this topic.

If you’d want to participate in such a workshop then let me know! I’m reachable on Threads @mmaut.

Being Ignored & Building Software

2021-08-08T17:00:00-07:00

I joined my first startup as the second employee of the newly-formed email marketing team.

This was my first software engineering job, and I received no guidance in software engineering best practices.

These best practices cover the “how” of creating software products, including how to release new versions, logging, monitoring, and alerting when things break–stuff that is called “devops” or “site reliability engineering” these days.

I knew none of this and was stumbling blindly, rolling on the floor in sadness when I’d mistakenly drop a table from the database.

Six months after I joined the company, a bearded fellow came on board. He was an MIT grad student & ex-startup founder.

He was seated near me in the cubicle-strewn office space.

His name was Joe and I really liked Joe. Joe was quiet and highly regarded by the most senior folks at the company who had recruited him. And so, in trying to learn my way through software engineering I attached myself to Joe.

I would approach Joe’s desk & ask questions, bringing him the multitude of problems I encountered when creating software for the first time:

“How come I can’t connect to this database?”
“Why is this taking so long–how can I make it faster?”
“Is it safe to run this command?”

Joe taught me great lessons–primarily by telling me to go F myself.

Maybe not those words specifically, but he would ignore me. His eyes would remain focused on his monitor as I would walk up to him to ask him questions. He’d keep clicking at his keyboard as I’d try and impose my presence in his sentient line-of-sight.

I failed to understand a simple truth: he was working on stuff that he was obligated to get done, and I was committing theft. I was a selfish, self-absorbed coworker who was trying to enlist their assistance in my tasks.

Learning this truth is critical to maturing as a software engineer.

Joe was formative for my software engineering career. The simple act of ignoring me did more to improve my behavior around learning software engineering than if he had answered my questions.

If you are a junior software engineer then being ignored by your engineering colleagues is a critical maturing process for how you approach problem-solving.

Screenshare iOS to Zoom, Meet

2021-05-01T17:00:00-07:00

I produced a short video on how to share your iPhone (or iPad) screen with people you meet on Google Meet or Zoom:

This technique came in handy when I attended a 1-on-1 photo lesson with Seb Furtado, where we both reviewed my usage of Lightroom mobile on my iPhone.

Hope it helps other folks–I continue to try and improve the production quality of these videos.

I think I am creating these “how to” videos because they are entirely on my own schedule and don’t require coordination with anyone else.

I would really rather do video production that involves a lot more of a social component (whether documentary or fiction, not sure)–hopefully I can exercise more of that post-COVID (which seems to be almost upon us!).

If you have any follow-up questions don’t hesitate to reach me on Thread: @mmaut.

Chrome Productivity

2021-04-12T17:00:00-07:00

I made a short tutorial on Chrome keyboard shortcuts on the Mac:

I used Screenflow to capture my desktop, which has some nice tools for highlighting elements of your screen it didn’t help me produce a truly great video.

I also used a Sony RX100 vi point-and-shoot camera to capture the video of myself, with some simple lighting around my desk setup.

It came out really nice–but realistically I don’t expect that higher “production quality” of the video drives long-term big traffic for videos like this.

After spending the 1.5 hours producing this video I immediately regret not doing a better introduction.

Explaining a summary up front of “what you’ll learn” would probably perform better (from a retention/dropoff perspective).

I don’t really intend to promote this video, just offering it up to be indexed by the great Google/YouTube Search algorithm in the sky as a sacrifice to learn about video production.

Chrome extensions I use

2021-04-11T17:00:01-07:00

I only use 4 Chrome extensions on my Macbook–for productivity & security:

uBlock Origin

My one and only adblocker. It makes YouTube, Facebook, Reddit & general web browsing readable.

HTTPS Everywhere

Helps prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. It doesn’t prevent you from visiting “http://” URLs, but it does provide helpful warnings.

LastPass

Cross-platform password manager–worth the $3/month to not be in Chrome vendor lock-in/shared to iOS/Android as necessary.

Meet Transcript

I use this tool to capture transcripts automatically (by default) of Google Meet video conference calls I want to record.

What do you use? Am I missing? Let me know: @mmaut

Jekyll + Emails

2021-04-11T17:00:00-07:00

Here at maxmautner.com we are big fans of Jekyll, the static site generator.

We recognize that many of our readers prefer to read our content via email. In order to support this we use a Jekyll theme called Loom converts our posts into HTML emails that look pretty on your little phones.

Your Jekyll site probably already has a theme so switching to Loom is a non-starter. This was the case for me so I cherry-picked the files needed from Loom to generate the email:

scripts/email.sh
email.html
latest.md
resources/*
and copying over a few things from _config.yml

Our Workflow

Having installed the requirements (some Ruby, some NodeJS), a simple bash script converts your latest Jekyll post from markdown to HTML with inlined CSS.

Inlining of CSS is a critical step, as HTML emails viewed at Gmail.com or in your iPhone’s Mail app will not load remote CSS files.

Here is an example screenshot of this post as an email:

To generate the HTML email I ran ./scripts/email.sh, then to send it used a Python script I wrote below in combination with the Amazon Web Service command line tool (awscli):

blah.py:

import json

fname = '/path/to/index.html'

with open('message.json', 'w') as f:
    f.write(json.dumps({
      "Subject": {
          "Data": "Test email sent using the AWS CLI",
          "Charset": "UTF-8"
      },
      "Body": {
          "Text": {
              "Data": "This is the message body in text format.",
              "Charset": "UTF-8"
          },
          "Html": {
              "Data": open(fname).read(),
              "Charset": "UTF-8"
          }
      }
    }))

$ python blah.py
$ aws ses send-email \
  --from <my-verified-sender-address> \
  --to myself@gmail.com \
  --message file://message.json

And voila!

A few things to be mindful of:

this HTML email does not have a plain text version, generating one is left as an exercise for the reader
to style the email with custom CSS requires editing the SCSS under the resources directory (something which I haven’t done yet)
images in the generated HTML emails may have relative URLs instead of absolute–this is okay on your website but must be absolute URLs in your emails or the images won’t render

Best of luck, I am sure you can find workflow improvements from here on out.

Improving Audio

2021-04-06T17:00:00-07:00

I have spent a lot of time on video-conferencing calls these past 12 months.

I am generally aware of how lo-fidelity communication over Google Meet/Zoom/etc is.

As a result, I’ve found entertainment in trying to improve the fidelity of my communication with coworkers.

I conducted a simple test comparing 3 different microphones:

the built-in mic on Macbook
iPhone earpods
Zoom H4N Pro

built-in mic on Macbook

Your browser does not support the audio element.

iPhone earpods

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Zoom H4N Pro

Your browser does not support the audio element.

I used these instructions from YouTube on how to connect the Zoom H4N as an external microphone on my Macbook.

Zoom H4N Pro can be picked up on B&H Photo for ~$220 USD.

Conclusion

I think it’s undebatable: the Zoom sounds better hands-down.

However, this is recorded locally on my computer–not as it sounds to someone on the other end of a Google Meet/Zoom/Skype/etc.

A more authentic test would capture the audio as it sounds over the wire–apologies that I did not do that!

Content Marketing Tips

2021-03-03T16:00:00-08:00

I am condensing two resources I’ve come across that explain the explanatory variables of powerful content marketing.

Priceonomics Content Marketing Handbook

What to Write

Write about information. Make it good. Have a plan for how it will spread.

The data and information that is a byproduct of your business is valuable.

…if you make a good piece of content, it increasingly doesn’t matter if you publish it on The New York Times website or your company’s blog

Why do people share [content in general]? Mostly to confirm their existing biases

Bring new information to the world
Be interesting
Be right

In the vain of being right: “keep the scope of your argument narrow”

On Editing

The introduction is by far the most important part of the article. Without a great one, no one will read your article. The second most important part of the article is the conclusion.

…conclusion not only repackages the essay so the reader can remember what it was about, but it primes the reader on what he should share

When editing our work, sometimes we just read the introduction, the conclusion, and every topic sentence. The essay should stand alone on these segments.

Focus on the introduction, conclusion, and topic sentences [in that order]

sharing is a form of self-expression, and titles are the most visible part of the article when it’s shared. Your title should make people feel good about sharing it. When someone shares your article, the title should express the feeling they want to share

Our goal with a title is twofold: it should honestly convey what the article is about, and it should emphasis the point that we think the reader will share

On writing tooling

We do most of our writing in Google Docs and only paste it into the CMS at the very end.

On Writing Hacks:

When you first start, don’t write every day. Spend 40 hours on your first post, and then make it succeed. Do whatever it takes to find the story that’s in the data to make it genuinely interesting. The returns on writing something great are enormous; the returns on writing something average are zero.

Some “hacks” or tricks for coming up with and implementing good ideas…there are three nodes of information we like to focus on: data, industries, and people.

On “data” content:

A Ranked order list - Come up with an interesting metric and rank the results in a list

People share them because lists include information that’s important to them (where they live, their school, their favorite music)

Do not abuse the power of the list by writing about things that have nothing to do with your company, product, or industry

How much does something cost?

Data that proves someone’s strongly held intuition, or that disproves a weakly held one

People love to have their own biases confirmed by data

A surprising trend

Unless something is accelerating or decelerating so fast that it is shocking, writing about a trend is hard to pull off

The relationship between two things

Do you ever wonder why so many charts are confined to 2x2 matrices? That’s because people love thinking about the relationship between two items. These kind of charts also take a little bit of thinking to understand, so it’s satisfying when you figure out what the data actually means.

On “industry” content

You possess a unique understanding of your industry and are in a good position to competently research a topic that other people are curious about.

On “people” content

The Hero’s Journey: The hero is just a regular person. One day, an incident causes the hero to start a journey. There is a huge problem the hero tries to solve. It looks like the hero is going to solve it, but he fails. After failing time after time, the hero perseveres and triumphs.

This pattern is a framework to tell the story of every single entrepreneur, inventor, or everyday person. Each of us is on our little Hero’s Journey.

You should go to every single one of your customers and ask if you can profile how they were founded. They will all be flattered; you’ll have incredible content for your site; and you can showcase that you have actual customers

In summation

Write about great information in a way that is shareable, and make your content so great that everyone has to read it, including your target market.

How to write stuff that gets on the front page of Hacker News

Two strategies:

…tap into a controversial point that your audience already holds and then back it up with data that you have to confirm their suspicions.

share something uniquely helpful with your audience that makes them better at some meaningful aspect of their lives.

the [2nd,] “controversial with data” technique is way more effective than being “helpful”.

Data provides you with the credibility that nothing else can

If you can’t be controversial, then be helpful….“helpful” means giving specific, actionable advice about things that have a big impact on [your readers’] lives (love, work, sex, health)

On Writing Hacks

Drink wine… it stills the inexorable pull of self-editing and silences the voices that tell you you’re a piece of shit who can’t write worth a damn

Do it again and again, until the ritual itself is what gives you comfort and lets you produce 😉

How I Got My Jobs

2021-03-02T16:00:00-08:00

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive diary of my job-seeking. My personal career journey is not generalizable to everyone’s situation, and I’m limiting my sharing to job offers I ultimately received and accepted.

First job post-college

My first job after college I joined a financial trading firm in Chicago, landing my interview (& ultimately the job offer) from the college career center at Harvey Mudd College.

While I’m grateful for the opportunity I had in that first job to learn about finance and the business world it ultimately was horrible for my mental health & I felt relief quitting that job for a several month period of unemployment.

Second job

As I was unemployed, I considered going back to school for a graduate degree in computer science (to reorient me to a career in software engineering).

After talking with a friend from college who encouraged me to come join the startup he worked at, I re-evaluated the economics of graduate school. Grad school was over $100,000 in opportunity cost (paying for tuition & housing while losing out on salary).

Why would I pay to learn software engineering when I could get paid to do it?

Despite being cold-shouldered after an initial “phone screen” I made an effort to reduce the friction it might take to interview me by telling the in-house recruiter that I would be passing through town if they wanted to meet:

A few hours later I was somewhat surprised to receive a reply:

We set up a time to do an on-site interview, and I ultimately got the job (after some awful negotiation on my part).

Third Job

The 3rd job was a segway from the 2nd–a transfer from one company to its sister company.

The way that went down was very, very weird and I won’t delve into the details because it’s not generalizable/a great learning experience.

What I will say is that non-compete agreements are really fucked up and I am glad to live in California where these contracts are not upheld in court.

Fourth Job

I was ready to move home from Massachusetts to California, and reached out to an in-house recruiter at a startup in Berkeley:

I would probably write this email differently if I were writing it today, but hey, it worked! I received this reply 4 days later:

Fifth Job

I stayed at LeadGenius through them raising a Series B round of funding ($14M?), and wanted a change of pace. I’d literally driven by a company on my way to the gym & looked them up online & on AngelList where they had a job listing with an advertised salary range that was more than I currently earned.

So naturally I reached out by cold email + AngelList:

Within 8 minutes I received this email reply:

Bada bing bada boom–some more interviewing later & I had moved on to my fifth job.

Sixth Job

I moved across the SF bay from Berkeley to San Mateo to move-in with my girlfriend and improve her commute.

This led me to job search for a shorter commute and a new work experience–I looked around at employers nearby and I realized a personal finance app I used was a 5-minute drive from home.

Naturally, I reached out to the head of engineering via cold email (I guessed his email address):

Within 3 minutes I received this reply:

Seventh Job (Current Role)

That brings us to my 7th job, which is my current role.

I won’t dwell on it because I think it’s the least interesting one.

I will say that throughout, reaching out directly to a human being has been the key to my job searches.

After all human beings are the ones making the decision to hire you: exchanging their business’s financial capital for your human capital.

If you want any help or have questions about how to do this kind of a job search my inbox is open & I’ll try to help you: max.mautner@gmail.com

Takeaway

Avoid the resume drop trap
Don’t give up, don’t take things personally
Keep a light humor

How To Do Logging In Python

2021-02-14T16:00:00-08:00

Introduction
What does logging give us?
How to Log
Where to Log
- stdout and stderr
- Files & Sockets
Configuration
The Right Way to Log
About the Author

This is a plain and simple guide to logging in Python.

Read this guide to fully make sense of the Python logging landscape.

Introduction

Sooner or later, every Python application needs logging.

You probably first learned logging in Python by using the “print()” function:

print('Hello world!')

It could be that you simply want to know the system’s state:

print('Application successfully started on port 8000')

Or you need to record error messages when an exception occurs:

try:
    doSomethingErrorProne()
except Exception as e:
    print('Error: ' + str(e))

But there is a better way! Python bundles a utility in the standard library called logging:

import logging
logger = logging.getLogger()
logger.info('Hello world!')

But why is this better? Why have 3 lines when one will suffice?

What does logging give us?

Using the standard library’s logging module gives us several things:

Message formatting (using LogRecord attributes)
- Timestamp
- Process & thread ID
- Server & service ID
Log “levels” or severity
- Control of log severity (both in first party code & 3rd party code that uses logging)
Guarantees around flushing stdout/stderr

This last one is a little known fact–just because you print() something, it doesn’t mean your program will print it out (source).

Using the logging API to emit your logs helps guarantee that your program logs every message you intend it to (source)!

How to Log

Beginning with a simple example, you can incorporate logging into your Python program by obtaining a logger object in your module’s global scope:

import logging
logger = logging.getLogger()
def my_function():
    logger.info(“Hello world!”)

When you obtain a logger object, you can optionally identify your logger object by name:

logger = logging.getLogger('mylogger')   # a custom string (only letters, numbers and "." characters are allow)
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)    # the name of the module in which this runs

If you don’t provide a name to .getLogger() then you obtain the “root” logger of your program which has the only drawback that it can’t be granularly configured.

The documentation for Django covers this topic and the merits of naming your loggers.

Where to Log

stdout and stderr

import logging
import sys
logger = logging.getLogger()
handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
logger.addHandler(handler)

logger.warning('Hello')

Source

Files & Sockets

In the same way, you can create logging handlers similar to logging.StreamHandler that write your program’s log messages to files or sockets.

In fact, given a single logger, we can add two handlers to one logger so that log messages are directed to two or more different destinations:

logger.addHandler(logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout))
logger.addHandler(logging.FileHandler('myfile.out'))

There are a number of other useful loggers covered here.

Your choice of output destination depends on what type of application you’re developing.

For web services, my suggestion and what is suggested as a best practice by 12 Factor Apps is to always log to stdout.

This makes development easier, and simplifies log management when deploying to production hosting environments.

Configuration

We’ve seen a few ways of customizing our logger behavior–here is some more information about how to do it in a declarative way.

One way is to load configuration from a file, e.g. logging.conf.fileConfig('yourlogging.conf') (source).

Another is to read configuration from a dict, e.g. logging.conf.dictConfig(configDict) (source).

I am not going to cover these options in detail, just follow the source links to read more if you are so inclined.

The Right Way to Log

Given the various ways of configuring and invoking logging, how should you integrate logging with your Python program?

Here are a few principles to follow:

Make logs usable, i.e. publish your software’s logs to a dedicated service for viewing and searching them. This could be a self-hosted Kibana dashboard, Amazon CloudWatch, Google Cloud Logging.
Be careful of what you log! Logs are a common security vulnerability–where private data (customer emails, passwords, payment info) and private credentials could leak. Government regulations like GDPR and CCPA may make your business obliged to purge log data that references a given user of your software–depending on how you are archiving your logs, this type of data purging may be very labor-intensive.
Use logs as part of your monitoring pipeline–treat your logs as data to be analyzed & monitored: how many requests is my service receiving? Per second, per minute, per day? What percentage are failures?

For more info about data analytics pipelines, see my friend Ben Weber’s free ebook: Data Science for Startups

About the Author

Max Mautner is a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix, where he builds high-scale services for messaging with customers.

Notes on remote work

2021-02-07T16:00:00-08:00

I was recently surveyed by my workplace on my perception of working remotely since the state of California implemented a stay-at-home order and our office began working full-time from home.

I thought deeply about my responses to the survey, and wanted to shared them publicly:

Please list a few positive things about working remotely.

Commuting time is freed up to be more physically healthy, e.g. exercising instead of sitting in a carseat. In my case that is 2 hours a day (1 hour each way) so I’ve taken up running and have lost 20 pounds of bodyweight.
Employees have adopted more permanent and public forms of communication in order to document decision-making (e.g. more Google Docs which is great)–this has huge benefits for the scalability of employees and the business, I hope it only increases

Please list a few challenges you encounter working remotely.

Number 1: it is trickier to put psychological boundaries around my working hours. There is no clear physical context switch before or after working hours–the side effect of this is that I’m left more fatigued by work concerns than when working in the office, which is a drag on my productivity and mental health.
Higher likelihood of miscommunication due to text & video-conferencing being less reliable media than in-person.
Harder to communicate and signal emotional state
I sense that people are more likely to avoid tough conversations, for fear of miscommunicating
I believe that I’ve met fewer coworkers & developed shallower relationships with them than I would have in person

What do you currently miss most about working in the office?

Face time with my manager or other leaders
Collaborating face-to-face with my coworkers
Meeting new people

Briefly explain how and why your productivity has been affected.

I witness fewer & less context-rich instances of what the business values in working remote.

Knowing what the business, management, and customers’ value is harder to discern remotely.

Are there any tools that you feel are missing at <employer>? Please be specific and list their names.

Assistance with home internet connectivity–if I don’t have internet-connectivity I cannot do my job.

If you want people working from home, help them (and pay for) setting up a reliable home internet.

Gift Giving

2021-02-03T16:00:00-08:00

A series of interesting journal article abstracts from Rolf Degen on the behavioral economics of gift-giving:

@DegenRolf

It's all Legacy Code

2021-01-21T16:00:00-08:00

The truth is that 99% of a professional software engineer’s job is refactoring other people’s code (AKA “Legacy Code”).

Given this fact, an engineer seeking success should study methodologies for working with legacy code.

There are a few methodologies (or tools) that the community has developed that ought to be reviewed:

1. Test-driven development, or TDD

2. Types of automated tests

3. Mocking behaviors where your software interacts with the “outside” world

These include:

third party APIs
network I/O
hardware I/O (meatspace)

These methodologies are inherited from physical engineering (mechanical/civil/aeronautical/etc.), and have a track record longer than any of us reading this have been alive.

A software engineer that is deeply-versed in these methodology will be successful in their role as an operator.

Power

2021-01-16T16:00:00-08:00

Power comes from tenure

Power comes from experience

Power comes from knowledge

Power comes from repetition

Power comes from violence

Power comes from perceived ability to be violent

Power comes from saying “no”

Power comes from financial independence

Power comes from having a community

Power comes from debts

Debts come from lending/generosity

Daniil Dubov

2021-01-13T16:00:00-08:00

Daniil Dubov is a notable Russian chess player.

From a recent 2020 interview, he shared this money quote:

In general, I think that the competition is not so great in chess.

If, to put it crudely, you ask me how many people in the world: a) work at least 4-6 hours a day long-term, b) take care of their physical fitness, c) have a strong-willed character, a desire to fight and win, then I’ll surprise you. There are maybe 5-6 people like that in the world – who manage to combine it all.

And among those, he’s the best.

The interview is a good read in full, take the time to read it.

Technical Writing, the Google course

2020-12-24T16:00:00-08:00

Google has a public Technical Writing course.

I encountered it after meeting & interviewing the inimitable Ed Bacher, who served as a Staff Technical Writer at Google for 7 years.

I condensed the 2-part technical writing course contents into notes below:

Technical Writing One

Understand the parts of English speech
Define terms, or preferably link to an existing definition
Acronyms are ok, guiding principles about using them:
- Don’t define acronyms that would only be used a few times.
- Do define acronyms that meet both of the following criteria:
  - The acronym is significantly shorter than the full term.
  - The acronym appears many times in the document.
Use pronouns carefully, they’re not required and can confuse readers
Avoid passive voice, use active voice–this requires training to unlearn
Use active verbs, avoid “be/is/are/am/was/etc.”, “occurs”, “happens” (source)
- A sentence’s verb defines its strength
Sentences contain a single thought, not multiple (source)
- Can you remove words? Do it
- “That” and “which” are different special, avoid them
Lists and tables are great
- Only include alike items in lists
- Introduce tables with a preceding sentence
Paragraphs
- One thought per sentence, one topic per paragraph
  - Answer what, why, and how
- Opening sentences are critical…
  - so focus your energy on them
  - establish the paragraph’s point
  - rhetorical questions also work
Define your audience
- “After reading the documentation, the audience will know how to do the following tasks”
- Match vocabulary to audience
- Curse of knowledge
- Keep your writing culturally neutral
Markdown is useful

Technical Writing Two

Self-editing (source)
- Consider establishing a style guide
- Know your audience, and think like your audience
- Read it out loud
- Come back to it later
- Re-approach your writing in a different medium
- Find a peer editor
Organizing large docs
- E.g. tutorials or conceptual guides
- Create an outline
  - A clear outline allows 3rd party contributors
  - Provide navigation, table-of-contents
Illustrating with images
- Write caption first, then create/acquire illustration
- Avoid illustrations that are too complex
- Focus the reader by circling/arrowing the point of interest
- Revise illustrations the same as text (“re-illustrating”)
Creating sample code
- A lot of self-evident advice

Takeaways

These are invaluable lessons, and also apply for other forms of text-based communication (email, instant-messaging).

Tech Interview Gauntlet

2020-10-18T17:00:00-07:00

I recently reflected on a property shared in common by 2 of the most famous contemporary Americans:

Donald Trump
Joe Rogan

They have both hosted reality TV shows (The Apprentice & Fear Factor respectively).

So I thought, with vague ambitions of fame of my own, what reality show could I host?

This is the premise I dreamt up for such a reality show:

Specs

contestants battle for a job at a marquee tech employer
sponsored by {LeetCode,Interviewing.io,InterviewCake}
and/or sponsored by the software engineering employer

Episode Format

Intro the host
- Social proof of some kind?
Explain the format
- “You will be tasked with implementing a piece of software”
- “You will be measured by the number of tests that start out failing but by implementing the software you make them pass”
- “The person with the most passing tests at the end wins!”
Intro the contestants
- For contestant in contestants:
  - Typing at keyboard
  - Crossed arms
  - Bottom third title text/motion graphics
  - “What attracted you to software engineering?”
Let’s get started! But before we do, let’s introduce our judges(?)/color commentators
- for commentator in commentators:
  - “Sally is Engineering Manager at AirBnB where she leads the iOS team”
  - “Ben is Distinguished Engineer at Google, working on search engines”
  - “Harrison is Engineering Manager at Lyft, developing the ride-share algorithm”
Here is today’s prize:
- 1x $150,000 salary job at Company X
- [Or 1x $20,000 cash money?]
Today’s challenge, brought to you by {LeetCode, Interviewing.io, InterviewCake}
- Your task will be to proceed through each of the coding problems and get the test passing
- Code Golf? [Github]
Round 1 (elimination)
- Review the results
Round 2 (1 on 1)
Announce the winner
- Cut from winner celebrating with judges/color commentators
“Thanks for joining us on Tech Interview Gauntlet–see you next time!”

Execution

Still figuring that out in the midst of a global pandemic!

This article was composed in Google Docs, converted to markdown using Docs to Markdown for publication via Jekyll.

USB Footpad Review

2020-07-20T17:00:00-07:00

Thoughts on this Kinesis Savant Elite2 USB footpad.

I learned of it from reading about stenography & how people can type over 200 words-per-minute (that is very fast–give it a try with TypeRacer).

I have a friend who became a court stenographer after a career as a performance cellist.

She attributes her excellent stenography abilities to her piano-playing (using a footpedal)

Who it’s marketed to:

medical practitioners who need clean hands (think dentists)
auto mechanics w/ dirty hands
gamers who want to toggle their voice chat on/off (Discord)
phone operators (think call centers)
bank tellers triggering the silent alarm

My experiences

It requires serious brain re-training to effectively incorporate the footpedal into your human-computer interactions

It can’t be used for modifier keys in combination with your “main” keyboard (e.g. shift, control, etc.) due to Mac limitations.

Retraining myself to use my foot for spacebar is a big task–maybe it could work for backspace?

It’s difficult to configure what the footpedals do–I think it could be handy for opening specific apps (e.g. Chrome, Slack, IntelliJ), but those are uncommon actions (taken 10s of times a day)

A Conversation with Ben Jacobson

2020-04-26T17:00:00-07:00

A conversation with Ben Jacobson on why stories are important:

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Show notes:

Midnight Gospel on Netflix (Trailer)
Georgian National Ballet (YouTube)
Contra Dance (Wikipedia)
Children of Men (Wikipedia)
“China’s grand, gloomy sci-fi is going global” - The Economist
Chinese science fiction
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.” - Jeff Hammerbacher
Anthropic principle (Wikipedia)
Earthrise (Wikipedia)
Panama Papers (Wikipedia)
@bjacbso (Ben Jacobson on Twitter)

Live-Streaming Site in 30 Mins

2020-04-04T17:00:00-07:00

In 3 Small Steps

This guide came about when I tried creating a video live-streaming site.

I had started with a harder task: running the live-streaming service on the public internet, both for public viewers and potential streamers.

I’d started with following this guide, but encountered difficulty configuring everything about the networking behind a VPC + loadbalancer.

Instead, I found a much shorter route to my proof-of-concept: running everything locally on my Macbook.

Prerequisites

If not installed already, install:

Docker, the open-source container runtime (~1-5 mins), and
OBS, the open-source livestream publishing software (~1-5 mins)

1. Receive Stream via RTMP (~2mins)

We can use a pre-existing Docker image, tiangolo/nginx-rtmp.

The image contains our prerequisites: nginx + the nginx-rtmp-module plugin.

In your local terminal, run:

$ docker run -d -p 1935:1935 --name nginx-rtmp tiangolo/nginx-rtmp

And to verify that the Docker container is running (in the background):

$ docker ps

You should see output like this:

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                 COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                    NAMES
031c98b488b8        tiangolo/nginx-rtmp   "nginx -g 'daemon of…"   30 minutes ago      Up 3 seconds        0.0.0.0:1935->1935/tcp   nginx-rtmp

We now have a server that will now act as a proxy between our video stream:

producer (camera hardware) and
consumers (web player, mobile app, or otherwise).

Next steps…

2. Broadcast Stream via RTMP to Server (~1min)

In OBS, navigate to “Settings” -> “Stream”, and select “Custom” from the dropdown.

Enter rtmp://127.0.0.1/live in the hostname.

Enter test as the streaming key. Note: this key can be modified to support multiple streams.

Click “Ok”, and “Start streaming”.

3. Consume Stream (~2-5mins)

Lastly, create an index.html file in a scratch directory on your filesystem, copy-pasting this content:

<html>
    <head>
        <link href="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.7.5/video-js.css" rel="stylesheet" />
        <script src="https://vjs.zencdn.net/7.7.5/video.js">&</script>
        <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/videojs-flash@2/dist/videojs-flash.min.js">&</script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <video id="my-video"
			 class="video-js vjs-default-skin vjs-big-play-centered"
			 controls 
			 autoplay
			 preload="auto" 
			 data-setup='{"techorder" : ["flash","html5] }'>
            <source src="rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/live/test" type="rtmp/mp4"/>

        </video>

        <script>
          var player = videojs('my-video');
        </script>
    </body>
</html>

If you need help serving the file up to be viewed in your browser, run the following in your terminal in the same directory as your index.html:

$ python -m http.server

Or if you have Python 2:

$ python -m SimpleHttpServer

You can then open the page in your browser at http://localhost:8000/ to see your livestream.

You will need to enable Flash for this page in order for the video player to play (TODO: add details of how to do this in Chrome/Safari/Firefox).

Results

Future Goals

Publish stream to a public domain name, e.g live.maxmautner.com
Host the video-player at a public domain name
Remove need for Flash video player (encode from RTMP to HLS)
Implement player in:
1. Android app
2. iOS app
3. TV app?
Load test & identify CDN/scaling costs and options

Resources

Pay remote workers a premium

2020-03-31T18:00:00-07:00

Several arguments for why remote employees should be paid more than their in-office counterparts:

1. The same perks of being in the office are not there
2. You work harder and longer
3. Work/life merge
4. Cost to company per remote person is significantly lower
— Ankit Kumar (@ankit17k) April 1, 2020

1. The same perks of being in the office are not there

There’s no snacks, no cleaners, no free internet.

No catered lunches (a pre-tax benefit), no furniture, no building maintenance.

2. You work harder and longer

There’s no time spent commuting, you are reached out to on Slack/receive that email.

With a commute, you go offline. You can take a break and your mind can wander.

More hours a day should mean more compensation.

3. Work/life merge

With a salary, there is no common standard for when you are expected to respond to inquiries.

4. Cost to company per remote person is significantly lower

Those savings can and should be passed on to remote employees, as those expenses are shifted directly onto them.

Interrotron

2020-03-31T17:00:00-07:00

I’ve recently begun fascinated with the topic of gaze correction:

Effective communication using current video conferencing systems is severely hindered by the lack of eye contact caused by the disparity between the locations of the subject and the camera. While this problem has been partially solved for high-end expensive video conferencing systems, it has not been convincingly solved for consumer-level setups.

Here’s a compilation of links I’ve assembled (bookmarked) for future reading on the topic:

30 Days to Backend Software Engineer

2020-03-14T17:00:00-07:00

I’ve published this new guide to becoming a backend software engineer in 30 days!

There are two more courses I would also recommend:

18% of Github Projects Have CI

2020-02-01T16:00:00-08:00

Introduction

In this post, I’ll share my analysis of the adoption of continuous integration (CI) in public Github repositories, based on usage of the following CI vendors:

I’m the first to admit that this is not a comprehensive list of CI vendors.

It’s also obvious that using a CI vendor for executing your builds is not a requirement for having CI.

That being said, we can dig into public data provided by Github to get a lower-bound estimate.

Methodology

Github has provided a public dataset of code that can be queried via Google’s BigQuery database service.

I followed Google’s “Codelab” for querying this dataset using SQL, running a basic query to identify repositories in their test dataset.

In order to identify whether a repository uses a given CI vendor we must assemble a list of rules for identifying repositories that are configured for specific CI vendors.

For example, in modern versions of Jenkins it’s encouraged to include a Jenkinsfile in the project root of your repository.

If this file is present then Jenkins will process its contents as a manifest for how to build your software.

This type of file-based configuration is not exclusive to Jenkins, and it allows us to count repositories that are using file-based manifests for configuring CI.

Here is a list of rules for detecting if a repository is configured for CI with the given vendor:

CI Vendor	File pattern
TravisCI	.travis.yml
CircleCI	.circleci/config.yml
Jenkins	Jenkinsfile
Github Actions	.github/workflows
Azure Pipelines	azure-pipelines.yml
TeamCity	.teamcity/
Google Cloud Build	cloudbuild.yaml

Here is the SQL query I used to get a count of repositories that had each of these files:

SELECT 
CASE
  WHEN path = '.travis.yml' THEN 'TravisCI'
  WHEN path = '.circleci/config.yml' OR path = 'circle.yml' THEN 'CircleCI'
  WHEN path = 'Jenkinsfile' THEN 'Jenkins'
  WHEN path LIKE '.github/workflows%' THEN 'Github Actions'
  WHEN path = 'azure-pipelines.yml' THEN 'Azure Pipelines'
  WHEN path LIKE '.teamcity/%' THEN 'TeamCity'
  WHEN path = 'cloudbuild.yaml' THEN 'Google Cloud Build'
END,
COUNT(distinct repo_name) AS num_duplicates
FROM `bigquery-public-data.github_repos.files`
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 2 DESC

BigQuery link

Results

CI Vendor	Number of Repos	Percentage of Repos
Total	3345134	1
TravisCI	565369	16.90%
CircleCI	28608	0.86%
Github Actions	5532	0.17%
Jenkins	5389	0.16%
Azure Pipelines	1829	0.05%
Google Cloud Build	253	0.01%
TeamCity	72	0.00%

That’s a grand total of 18.1% of repositories in this dataset having been setup with any CI vendor at all.

The market seems to be dominated by TravisCI, having a .travis.yml file present in 16.9% of repos.

Here are some data visualizations to help illustrate the results:

Discussion

With only 18% adoption, that leaves 82% of these public repositories not using popular CI vendors.

This is a huge opportunity to make CI a default and easier to adopt.

Areas of future research:

relationship between CI adoption and popularity of repository
analysis of a repository’s dependencies & their use of CI
analysis of CI adoption by programming language
when in the repository’s timeline was CI introduced (at the beginning? later?)

One area I am most curious about is automatically profiling a software’s CI runtimes and factors that introduce flakiness to the build.

These two characteristics of software reflect:

the mental health of software engineers working on it
the ability to make changes quickly and confidently to it

Please do email me with comments/suggestions, etc. at max.mautner@gmail.com

Google Docs to Markdown

2020-01-31T16:01:00-08:00

Introduction

I recently sat next to a Google employee on a flight from SFO to Austin, TX.

He works on reporting tools that lean heavily on the Google Apps Script suite of tools.

Google Apps Script now supports virtually all Google Drive doc types (Docs, Sheets, etc.) as well as other Google product offerings (Gmail, Calendar, Hangouts, Maps, etc.).

The tool has come a long way since it was first announced in 2009, over 10 years ago.

Content Authoring

In my work at Netflix, Google Docs is popular for authoring memos.

Memos are collaboratively-authored documents which specify product initiatives and collect team feedback via Google Docs’ commenting features.

Using the tool at work has reminded me of all the positives of the real-time collaborative use-case:

Commenting
Task assignment
Tracking changes
Shallow learning curve

These positive features led me to seek out ways to incorporate Google Docs into my publishing process for this blog (built with Jekyll).

Thankfully, there are pre-existing tools that use Google Apps Script to convert a Google Doc into Markdown text which can be easily incorporated into any website generated from markdown (like Jekyll, Hugo, GatsbyJS):

Gd2md-html (closed-source)
Gdocs2md (open-source)

I discovered these tools from links via this thorough how-to on outsourcing your content production via interviews.

Here is a short (14-second) illustration of how the 1st tool works. After clicking those 2 buttons, I copy-paste the outputted markdown text to a new post in my Jekyll repository.

Smooth and easy, baby! 👏😎

Conclusion

I look forward to using Google Docs in my editing process going forward; for my personal blog (here) and for:

I’m going to make time to re-evaluate Google Apps Script for a number of use cases going forward.

Additional Resources

google/clasp: a command-line tool for scaffolding Google Apps scripts
Google-apps-script-awesome-list: a big, awesome list of more GAS resources
GwTest: a unit-testing framework for your apps scripts

McCarthy vs. Roosevelt

2020-01-31T16:00:00-08:00

Teddy Roosevelt once said:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. (Source)

Besides achieving the 26th Presidency of the United States, Teddy served in the US Army in the Spanish-American War (albeit to what extent he put himself in fatal crosshairs is unclear).

In contrast, contemporary American author Cormac McCarthy wrote:

As war becomes dishonored and its nobility called into question those honorable men who recognize the sanctity of blood will become excluded from the dance, which is the warrior’s right, and thereby will the dance become a false dance, and the dancers false dancers. And yet there will be one there always who is a true dancer and can you guess who that might be?…Only that man who has offered up himself entire to the blood of war, who has been to the floor of the pit and seen horror in the round and learned at last that it speaks to his inmost heart, only that man can dance. (Source)

This passage is from McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian.

McCarthy served in the Air Force, spending 2 of 4 years of his service in Alaska hosting a radio show.¹

For whatever reason, I find myself more moved by his rendition of Teddy’s old quote.

Biography: CormacMcCarthy.com ↩

Building a Home Gym

2019-12-26T16:00:00-08:00

I started lifting weights at ~23 years old after the internet pointed me to buying a copy of the book Starting Strength.

My job was crazy at the time and I discovered that exercise was an awesome stress-relief valve and I’ve been lifting ever since.

Here is a brief history of the monthly gym dues I’ve paid over the years:

$35/mo - XSport gym chain in Chicago (2010-2012)
$80/mo - Zesiger center @ MIT (2012-2015)
$76/mo - Berkeley IronWorks (2015)
$180/mo - Max’s Gym Oakland (2015-2017) - coached in a group of ~8 at a time
$200/mo - Bulgarian Barbell Club (2017-2018) - coached in a group of ~6 at a time
$200/mo - Lift 6 for 6 (2018) - coached in a group of ~16 at a time

At an average of $100/month x 12 months x 8 years, I spent ~$10,000 in total.

Knowing that, I estimated what the cost of building a home gym would be.

I came across the /r/Homegym subreddit in estimating thise costs–besides having great advice it has a bunch of photos people share of their home gyms to provide inspiration.

There are risks to consider before proceeding with how to build a home gym:

you may get injured
you may lose interest in lifting weights
you may move residence

It’s reassuring to know that there is an active secondary market for gym equipment. You can sell off all of your equipment in the case of any of these situations.

Think of buying a gym membership as insurance against these 3 risks.

Resources

/r/HomeGym

It’s a great resource, they have got a great Wiki.

I already knew what I wanted to buy, but jt gave me a sense for pricing and quality of equipment brands.

Craigslist

My first purchases were off of Craigslist, where I found a single listing that included:

1x squat rack,
1x barbell,
metal plates (2x35lbs, 2x25lbs, 2x10lbs)

All-in it cost $120. Next step was picking up more plates.

I found a second Craigslist listing where a local gym was liquidating their steel plates as they were replacing them all with bumper plates. I think they charged a flat $1/lb:

8x45lb plates = $360

Total cumulative cost: $480

With this setup, I could squat, bench and deadlift up to 535lbs (something I have never done yet in any single lift).

Facebook Marketplace

I’ve bought/sold a few items here, none of which were gym equipment.

I would recommend checking it out, however you will likely get sidetracked browsing products unrelated to your home gym!

Farm Supply Store

If you don’t want to destroy your plates or your garage floor you will need special flooring.

Based on recommendations in /r/HomeGym, I visited my local Tractor Supply Co to buy these:

I bought 4 for $180 total, stacking 2 on top of each other to cover an 8’x6’ area of my garage.

The store helpfully rolled them up for me and fit all 4 into the rear of our Prius with the back seats folded down.

When we first bought them they smelled awful of an odd plastic smell, but within a week or two the scent had gone away.

Total cumulative cost: $660

Play-it Again Sports

In Soquel, California, my girlfriend and I were walking around the neighborhood and saw a used sports supply company.

Their basement had a large selection of new and used barbell plates, priced reasonably at $0.60/lb so I picked up:

2x5 lb plates
2x2.5 lb plates

Total cumulative cost: $670

Amazon.com

I made the foolish mistake of buying a pair of cheap 5lb plates off of Amazon.

I discovered after they arrived that they weighed significatnly different than advertised (or relative to each other).

I didn’t return them (which I now regret). Don’t make my mistake–do not put up with being sold garbage!

Total cumulative cost: $720

Rogue

As I got interested in olympic weightlifting I went ahead and bought bumper plates directly from RogueFitness.com:

1x men’s barbell
2x 25kg bumpers
2x 20kg bumpers
2x 15kg bumpers
2x 10kg bumpers
2x 5kg bumpers
2x 2.5kg fractional plates
2x 2kg fractional plates
2x 1kg fractional plates
2x 0.5kg fractional plates

They shipped them direct to our house, but it took a while and one 20kg plate was missing from the first shipment so I had to call Rogue support to send another one (for free).

Here’s a screenshot of the two orders I placed with Rogue through their website:

Total cost of Rogue equipment: ~$1.1k

Addendum

If I could go back in time, I would buy precision-milled cast iron plates for the reason that they are:

brand-spanking new (longer life-time)
not that much more then what I bought used
more likely to be the 45-pound plate is actually 45 pounds…

Note this link has a ton of affiliate links, but it is what ultimately persuaded me of what I should have bought:

https://www.garage-gyms.com/steel-powerlifting-weight-plates-discs-guide-review/#simple-cast-iron-weight-plates

A Newbie's Guide to Digital Art

2019-12-06T16:00:00-08:00

Introduction

Circa 2017, I discussed with my girlfriend the idea of one of us doing an MBA.

We both were scared of the 💰250,000 price tag, and we agreed that the key benefit of an MBA is the social network you find in your classmates (as opposed to the education).

I suggested saving the $250k and starting a podcast instead to grow my social network by interviewing friends and strangers about what they were working on.

I would feature my guest, they’d lend me their social proof, and voila! We’re creating interesting content just by having a conversation!

Around this point in time I worked at Madefire, a digital comic books startup. I love the aesthetic of comics and I realized that I could use digital art to improve the reach of the podcast by making artwork to help promote each episode.

I picked my coworkers brains for insights on how an entry-level artist should create digital art. They happily shared advice and I’ve collected & shared it below for posterity!

The tools for creating digital art come in two forms: hardware and software.

Hardware

Wacom

For the longest time, Wacom has been the dominant hardware manufacturer of digital drawing surfaces.

They are the digital drawing hardware for feature film & television storyboarding, animation studios, marketing agencies, and video game art departments.

They are moderately expensive (>$2k), huge, clunky and often require 2 USB ports to operate.

The reason I did not purchase a Wacom drawing surface is that I discovered that it is not a standalone device. You cannot comfortably draw with it in your lap in the passenger seat of a car, and it has weak support for using two fingers to pinch for zoom-in/zoom-out.

Instead, they have analog dials and buttons for zooming in/out and for performing undo/redo of paintbrush actions.

I went so far as locating one for $1k on CraigsList and visiting the seller’s apartment to try it out.

The model they showed me takes up half the surface of a dinner table in space and easily weighed over 25lbs. I declined buying it (and carrying it to my car) and opted for a new iPad Pro + Apple Pencil instead, for ~$850.

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft has also entered the market for digital drawing hardware with their Surface Studio.

It’s expensive: ~$3.5k circa 2019.

I had the opportunity to try it out in-person while at Madefire and was not impressed at some of the latency in using the stylus to draw in software like Adobe.

It is also a desktop computer and so it fails the “passenger seat drawing” test.

It seems like it might be appropriate for CAD users (computer-assisted design) like architects, but I wouldn’t recommend it for hobbyists.

Apple iPad Pro

My favorite and what I would recommend is the iPad + Apple Pencil.

I’ll rattle off some of my favorite distinctive characteristics of this combo:

The stylus (Apple Pencil) is awesomely reactive and fun to use,
The tablet is incredibly portable (< 1 pound),
You can AirDrop your files from the iPad to your MacBook/iMac to incorporate your digital artwork elsewhere
It has a really long battery life
It can be used for so many other things (e.g. email, chat, etc.) so collaborative communication has a lower barrier than with a Wacom/Microsoft device

All around the iPad Pro is a delightful device which enables a fun drawing experience.

There is an exciting future now that MacOS Catalina supports using your iPad as a Sidecar—this means you can use drawing software installed on your Mac while using your iPad as your drawing interface (with your Apple Pencil).

I’ve tried this out and it doesn’t work seamlessly (e.g. the pencil doesn’t behave as naturally as it does when just using the iPad), but it suggests a very exciting future where your tablet and desktop computers become Siamese twins.

Software

Adobe

Adobe Creative Cloud is the dominant software in digital art. It is a subscription-priced suite of tools, including:

Sketch (drawing)
PhotoShop (photo manipulation)
Animate (animation)
Premiere (video editing)

I personally don’t fancy their business model (subscription-based pricing), and have opted for Apple alternatives.

You can give their free trial a try, but I ended up exclusively using the following two iOS apps for the iPad Pro:

ProCreate

ProCreate is a $5 iOS app that is the showcase app for drawing on the iPad Pro.

It has great features for working with layers, pinch to zoom, exporting to a variety of formats quickly (PNG/JPG, MP4, PSD).

I’d recommend searching YouTube for tutorials if you’d like to get a preview of the drawing experience with ProCreate.

FlipaClip

FlipaClip is a crude animation tool. Where ProCreate can create static images (like my podcast episode thumbnails), FlipaClip is a cheap iOS app that allows you to make animated GIFs or video files.

These short-form animations can be standalone or incorporated into longer-form videos.

It’s time intensive to make longer-form video, but I’ve had success with creating promotional videos for podcast episodes Iike this.

Conclusion

The world of digital art has never been more exciting—especially with the arrival of computer-generated artwork.

If you have questions or comments, feel free to add them to the document!

Netflix DVD automation vids

2019-12-06T16:00:00-08:00

I was reading about Netflix’s Qwikster disaster of 2011, and came across this apology video:

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Apologizes for Mishandling the Change to Qwikster

In it Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sits alongside the newly-annointed Qwikster CEO Andy Rendich to apologize to customers for mis-telegraphing the planned split of DVD-mailing and online streaming subscription products.

I was curious–what happened to Andy Rendich after this episode in history?

Around this time, Andy and the Netflix DVD business enlisted an engineering contractor for automating their physical DVD mailing operations:

While Andy’s no longer with Netflix, these videos are a fascinating glimpse into a high-scale automated physical operation.

Here’s a kicker: SNL’s comedy sketch, re-enacting the Qwikster apology

My current curiosities

2019-12-01T16:00:00-08:00

I’d rather save this list than forget it, and rather make it public than private:

1. Public spaces

Land use
Transportation opportunities
Nature

2. Economics

Limits of capitalism, monopoly, monopsony, economies of scale

Why? The limits are where there is systemic risk–to subjugation/enslavement of humans or revolutionuray communism and the absolvement of property rights.

Risk-free profit (arbitrage)

Why? These profits free humanity to pursue art, empathy, & explore the universe of experiences

Tax law, optimization, & enforcement

Why? Wealth re-distribution is essential to supporting a sustainable, optimal civilization. Tax avoidance provides compounding rewards to unethical components of civilization.

Telecommuting, remote work [1], [2]

Why? I discussed this post-COVID here

Games of imperfect information, the evolution of cooperation

Why? They illustrate the framework underlying social and biological behavior.

Self-control, addiction

Why? Studying these topics can better explain what behaviors (if any) are “free-will”

Team/group activities

Why? “If you want to move fast, go alone. If you want to move far, go together”

Costly-signalling, ritual behaviors

Why? Understanding what purpose they serve, how to identify them.

Measuring skill

Why? What role do they serve in hiring/vetting talent? How does this influence the labor pool/human behaviors?

4. Physiology/Biology

Performance-enhancing drugs, like nootropics, steroids (PEDs)

Why? They exist, there are ethical reasons to use them.

Gender, hormonal systems

Why? These are fundamental building blocks for a high-trust society.

Strength/endurance sports, weightlifting

Why? They are a lot of fun

5. Software

Methods of verifying software quality & risk reduction (of software failure)

Why? Software is essential to all human activity–to protect human welfare software must work as expected within certain error allowance.

Technical debt

Why? TBD

Drop me a line, I’m always curious to chat about people knowledgeable or also interested in these topics.

The Case Interview (of Software Engineering)

2019-11-30T16:00:00-08:00

Software engineers have two jobs:

their day job
their preparation for job interviews

These two jobs do not overlap much.

Preparing for the job interview (separate of preparing for the job) is a valuable activity for software engineers, as it can directly improve your chances of getting the job in the first place.

Given that, I can share from personal experience that the “system design” interview has risen in popularity for software engineering jobs.

Much like consulting firms and case interviews, system design interviews are evaluating:

your communication abilities,
your information-seeking abilities,
your ability to discover constraints of a problem and find a solution that accounts for the constraints

There are a ton of free and paid information resources out there online for helping you prepare for the system design interview.

Specifically, Facebook coaches job applicants (which I was at one time) on how to prepare for these interviews.

They even pay for an online course curriculum that you can study as a job applicant.

To the best of my ability, I followed the interview prep course that Facebook provided and took notes below.

The course lays out a framework for presenting your solution to a system design job interview question:

requirements clarification
- what problem is this system trying to address?
system interface design
- define read/write API specifications (at a high level)
back-of-the-envelope estimation
- number of requests/second
- quantity of data I/O (in flight, on disk)–media files (text, image, video)
defining data model
- resources
- entity-relationship diagram between them
- uniqueness constraints
- encryption?
- numerical integrity (integer vs. floating point data truncation) when dealing with $$$
high-level design
- draw a system diagram
- sketch how requests flow through the system and the system’s components (e.g. load balancer, app-server, database)
- draw element of the system proportionately to cost/”size” (e.g. traffic, # of instances)
detailed design
- is the system usage uniform? Or spikey?
- pros/cons of sharding, what to shard by (time? tenant?)
- optimize for reads or writes?
- what to cache and how cache is managed/designed
- how to monitor our system’s performance at different points

Now the real question: did this course improve my perceived performance to my interviewers vs. not having consumed this content?

It’s hard to say, but I think so.

Demonstrating familiarity with the system design format shows that:

you are taking the process seriously
you are a competitive candidate for roles at other employers
you might be an effective interviewer of candidates yourself, after you are hired

In conclusion, I would recommend preparating for the system design interview format in your softare engineering job search.

OSI Layer Notes

2019-09-22T17:00:00-07:00

I watched a series of YouTube videos on the OSI model to shore up my fluency on the details of computer networking and its different layers of abstraction.

Overview:

Physical layer
- hardware
- CAT-5 cable
- “95% of networking problems”
Data-link layer
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj3ut2uGCgs
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gmnOBujm4Q
- MAC address = media access control
  - every hardware device that has a NIC (network interface card) has a MAC
  - 48-bit address assigned to a NIC, hexadecimal characters (4-bits)
  - 1st half (24-bits or 6 characters) vendor code
  - 2nd half (24-bits or 6 characters) “unique value” for that particular card
- LLC = link layer controls
  - acknowledges receipt of messages
  - flow control (occurs at other OSI layers too)
    - limit amt of data from sender
  - error control
    - allows receiver to notify sender when frame not received or checksum fails
  - Synchronizing transmissions (agreeing about clock)
    - isochronous (shared clock), lowest overhead
    - async
    - synchronous
- Switches, bridges, NICs, VLANs
- Protocols
  - Ethernet
  - CDP (Cisco discovery protocol)
  - Frame Relay, superced by MPLS
  - LLDP (link layer discovery protocol)
  - ARP = address resolution protocol, Wikipedia
    - IP to MAC address mapping
Network layer
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d2zkAFytPk
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp1l-x5AXi4
- forwarding traffic based on addresses
- IP v4/v6 addresses, logical addresses
- switching
  - packet switching (routing “packets”)
  - circuit switching (dedicated link btwn 2 parties, e.g. telephony)
  - message switching (distinct from packets, but may be retained like emails)
- route discovery and connection
  - routers maintain the routing table
  - manual or dynamically configured based on routing protocol
- connection services
  - similar to layer 2, flow/error control, packet ordering
- bandwidth usage
- multiplexing strategy
- Protocols:
  - ICMP
  - IPsec
  - RIP: old, do not need to know
  - OSPF
  - EIGRP
Transport layer
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsQcX-7n6fY
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeB9RuFElVg
- how large a block of data to transfer
  - windowing
    - dynamical segment size based on # of repeat successes
  - buffering
- buffering/flushing IO via socket
- WAN accelerators
- load balancers
- firewalls (TCP/IP)
- Protocols:
  - TCP: 3-step handshake (SYN, ACK, SYN/ACK), no dropped packets
    - usage: reliable
  - UDP: no re-transmission of dropped packets, no guaranteed delivery order, no acknowldegments
    - usage: speed, audio/video streaming
Session layer
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPcku3orRmI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgXB2HJgXZY
- connection state btwn client/server
- setup
  - verify user’s credentials
  - create a unique session ID
  - coordinate sequence of who sends first
- maintaining
  - data transfer
  - re-establish disconnected session
  - acknowledge receipt of data
- teardown
  - mutual agreement or disconnected
- Protocols:
  - H.323
  - NetBIOS
Presentation layer (OS)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtITX-U2mL4
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htw7DxtNlFs
- data formatting, e.g.
  - HTML
  - character formatting (ASCII, UTF)
  - file formats (JPEG, PNG)
- encryption
  - SSL
Application layer (user interface–e.g. web browser)
- application services
- service discovery
- Protocols:
  - HTTP
  - SMTP
  - TELNET

Java Primer for Python Developers

2019-09-11T17:00:00-07:00

I took these notes while ramping up on Java, as I onboarded at Personal Capital in my first Java role since college.

There are large distinctions between the two programming languages, but I’ll try to give the most notable that I encountered–as I approached Java from a Python-heavy background.

Everything is scoped to a class
Explicit scopes
Dependency injection (DI)
List comprehensions & generators
Testing
Mocking
Conclusion

Everything is scoped to a class

In Java, every file contains 1 public class definition:

public class Example {
    ...
}

You cannot declare 2 classes in 1 file–and the filename has to match the class’s name.

For example, putting this in 1 file will cause a compilation error:

public class A {}
public class B {}

That doesn’t preclude you from declaring a class within a class (an “inner” class):

public class A {
    public class B {}
}

Or private classes along-side your 1 public class:

public class A {}
private class B {}

This also holds for declaring “top-level” variables–all variables in your program have to be declared as fields on a class or declared within the scope of a class method.

For example, let’s say you want to declare a constant:

In Python you might say:

LOG_LEVEL = "info"

In Java you would say:

public class Configuration {
   public final static String LOG_LEVEL = "info";
}

To further illustrate the difference, let’s say the constant is read and set from an environment variable:

print(os.environ.get("LOG_LEVEL"))

In Java, the idiomatic approach would be:

public class Configuration {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(System.getenv("LOG_LEVEL"));
    }
}

Explicit scopes

public, private, protected are keywords that Java provides to help guide (and enforce) scope of access to variables + methods.

In Python, “private” scoping is indicated by prefixing your variable name with an underscore (“_”), e.g.:

class Example:
    _x = 0
    y = 0

In Java, this is done explictily:

public class Example {
    private int x = 0;
    public int y = 0;
}

I prefer the Python style, simply because it’s cleaner to read.

Dependency injection

Dependency injection (DI) frameworks like Guice and Spring are highly adopted in Java software.

I had not encountered DI in coding Python (but had with AngularJS), so I had some learning to do on this subject in my new job.

A huge benefit of a strongly-typed language like Java over a dynamically-typed language like Python is that type errors cannot happen at runtime.

Using a DI framework in Java manages to introduce a new kind of fatal runtime problem (the “dependency” not found error) which can be highly frustrating and time-consuming.

For example in Spring, there is the famous: NoSuchBeanDefinition exception

The learning curve for DI is not immense, but you will likely encounter DI frameworks with Java and it’s best to be aware.

List comprehensions and generators

Python provides a beautifully intuitive syntax for performing operations over collections (lists, sets, key-value maps).

To illustrate looping over a list:

>> x = [1, 2, 3]
>> x = [i*i for i in x]
>> print(x)
[1, 4, 9]

An equivalent type of syntax was introduced in Java 8 with the concept of “streams” over items in a collection as well as lambda expressions.

To try to be as idiomatic as I can with Java, the equivalent is:

List<Integer> x = Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3);
x = x.stream().map(i -> i*i).collect(Collectors.toList());
System.out.println(x);

Testing

In Python, the unittest library is part of the standard library and provides an XUnit-style framework for writing class-based tests.

In Java, the dominant testing framework is JUnit, which is also XUnit-based.

For all intents and purposes, they are super-similar and you should have very little learning curve coming from Python:

class AdditionTest:
    def test_add_positive(self):
        assert(2, add(1, 1))

To Java:

public class AdditionTest {
    @Test
    public void testAddPositive() {
        assertEquals(2, add(1, 1));
    }
}

Mocking

Like unittest, the unittest.mock is also provided in the Python standard library, and it’s the preferred way to mock your code in tests.

In Java, there are quite a few flavors of mocking libraries, but the main ones are Mockito, JMockit, and EasyMock.

The biggest difference you’ll face with mocking in Java is dealing with how to mock static and final fields/methods.

If you try to mock something final/static then you’ll encounter runtime errors, and the community will tell you it’s a bad practice (which it may well be).

The chainsaw you can reach for in this case is PowerMockito–a chainsaw that you might not previously have needed in Python-land.

Conclusion

The only thing I might add is that Java requires using an IDE.

With Python I somehow managed to survive with Vim as my IDE.

This is not possible with Java, I do not recommend even trying.

If possible, use IntelliJ Ultimate. If not possible, use Eclipse.

The Morning Paper - Testing

2019-08-17T18:00:00-07:00

Like previously with virtualization, I’m reviewing paper summaries that Adrian Colyer wrote on his blog.

This time I was reviewing reviews of papers about software testing!

Here are a handful:

QSYM: a practical concolic execution engine tailored for hybrid fuzzing (2018)

I’m vaguely familiar with techniques for generating software tests automatically.

Apparently there are 2 techniques:

“fuzzing”
“concolic execution”

Fuzzing refers to messing around with the inputs to your unit under test to try and get it to break.

I think that this approach is very intuitive and obvious.

Concolic execution “uses symbolic execution to uncover constraints and pass them to a solver”–so it performs static(?) analysis of your unit-under-test’s implementation to identify important test inputs, so that you can get more comprehensive scenario coverage.

Fuzzing fails to get 100% scenario coverage because it performs random-sampling to try and uncover all the conditional branching that your unit under test might have.

Concolic execution’s main drawback is that it is slow, because the number of paths that it has to enumerate increase exponentially with every if-else block in your unit-under-test.

So this paper identifies a hybrid approach (both fuzzing + concolic execution) to test generation that is faster than existing published approaches.

The fact that it is a hybrid approach is not novel, but it uncovered some previously untested edge cases in some popular open-source libraries.

I’m not tremendously interested in this, but these are interesting tools that impact every human being’s quality of life (since everyone is impacted by the quality of open-source software).

These techniques are also interesting to me because I think they will “trickle down” to higher-level languages like JavaScript, etc. at some point.

Interesting? ✅✅✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️

A dissection of the test-driven development process: does it really matter to test-first or test-last? (2017)

I always find discussions of TDD interesting.

As with most “empirical software engineering” studies, this study has a small sample-size (39 practicioners).

…the results show that the most important thing is to work in short uniform cycles with each cycle introducing a small new piece of functionality and its associated tests. The order within the cycle – i.e., test-first or test-last didn’t really seem to matter.

Maybe this is a case of confirmation bias or a case of “you hear what you want to hear”, but this is my anecdotal experience as well.

This experiment design sounds like rubbish, but it’s always encouraging to see people attempting to get more empirical data on effective software engineering.

Interesting? ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️

Simple testing can prevent most critical failures (2014)

The paper’s subtitle is: “an analysis of production failures in distributed data-intensive systems”

The author’s evaluated five distributable datastores:

Cassandra,
HBase,
HDFS,
MapReduce,
Redis

They reviewed 73 user-reported failures of these datastores, reproducing and chronicling them.

Almost all catastrophic failures (48 in total – 92%) are the result of incorrect handling of non-fatal errors explicitly signalled in software.

I’ve seen this at every job I’ve held in my career:

Using try/catch, logging the error, and then swallowing it.

So the author’s of this paper made a tool to identify cases where this is done, and conclude that “33% of the Cassandra, HBase, HDFS, and MapReduce’s catastrophic failures we studied could have been prevented”.

Also interesting tidbits:

A majority of the production failures (77%) can be reproduced by a unit test.

For a majority (84%) of failures, all of their triggering events are logged. This suggests that it is possible to deterministically replay the majority of failures based on the existing log messages alone.

Interesting? ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅☑️

Why do record/replay tests of web applications break? (2016)

UI-driven tests are very brittle–it seems obvious why these tests would break, as UIs change very frequently.

Humorously, the authors of this paper couldn’t find suitable open-source examples because few open-source projects have record/replay style tests.

So they made their own 🙄

What you really need to know is your tests are breaking because the information used to locate page elements keeps breaking

Interesting? ✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️

The Art of Testing Less Without Sacrificing Quality (2015)

The paper’s author make a tool for evaluating the value of running an automated software test based on:

the time cost (i.e. how much time it takes to run)
the value of preventing bugs that are reported later on

The author’s work at Microsoft so they were able to perform this research on legit data (Microsoft’s Office, Windows, and Dynamics products).

At the core of the model are estimates of the probability that a given test execution will find a genuine defect (true positive), and that it will raise a false alarm (false positive).

Both probability measurements consider the entire history from the beginning of monitoring until the moment the test is about to be executed. Consequently, probability measures get more stable and more reliable the more historic information we gathered for the corresponding test.

The authors’ model compares the estimated cost of running a test (time + test infrastucture) vs. the estimated cost of skipping the test (probability of a future defect multiplied by the cost to fix the defect in the future) to decide whether to run a test at all.

This model grossly simplifies the cost of maintaining test infrastructure (or hiring software engineers who know how to effectively test), and also grossly underestimates the cost of a defect making it to customers’ hands.

The most interesting thing about this paper to me is that it analyzed existing test result and support ticket data, so operated entirely on historical data.

If this research required instrumenting Microsoft’s build servers or test runners in some way, this paper would not have been produced (as it would have been too expensive).

The ultimate goal of adopting this kind of test-skipping criteria is to get time-savings in the product development process, to deliver product faster to customers without losing test coverage.

Curious to see if this finds adoption in industry (I have not seen anything like it yet, besides tests being ignored because they are too slow).

Interesting? ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅

Coverage and its Discontents (2014)

Most experienced testers can immediately answer that measuring code coverage is not a completely adequate replacement for measuring fault detection.

Interesting? ✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️

Coverage is not strongly correlated with test suite effectiveness (2014)

Testing is an important part of producing high quality software, but its effectiveness depends on the quality of the test suite: some suites are better at detecting faults than others.

This is a very interesting topic to me.

When you evaluate the $$$ value of a software product, the test suite contributes some non-zero value.

But how do you evaluate the value of a test suite?

The paper’s conclusion, specifically with regards to a test suite’s line-coverage:

While coverage measures are useful for identifying under-tested parts of a program, and low coverage may indicate that a test suite is inadequate, high coverage does not indicate that a test suite is effective.

Not a tremendously helpful conclusion–software engineers will continue to pursue this holy grail.

Interesting? ✅✅✅✅✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️

The Morning Paper - Virtual Machines

2019-08-17T17:00:00-07:00

I came across Adrian Colyer’s The Morning Paper this morning.

I’m overwhelmed at the number of academic papers he provides summaries for.

Going to “tagged” topics, I narrowed down my browsing to these areas:

To make this meta: I’ll give a summary of the paper summaries that I found most interesting

Today I’ll just cover the Virtualization section, with an even shorter summary of each paper & some of my thoughts:

Formal Requirements for Virtualizable Third Generation Architectures 1974

This paper was published in 1974, and lays out the definition of a virtual machine (VM):

A virtual machine is taken to be an efficient, isolated duplicate of the real machine.

A VM is the environment created by what is called a “virtual machine monitor” (VMM).

A VMM provides a runtime environment for programs that is:

efficient, because its (virtual) processor’s instructions are executed directly by the underlying computer’s processor. This is distinct from “traditional” emulators and software simulators which will never be as fast as their underlying computer because they don’t directly use the underlying computer’s processor.
isolated, because it operates in complete control of its system resources, including that it cannot access resources not allocated to it and can regain control over resources it’s allocated.
identical to the behaviors that the program would exhibit if ran directly on the underlying computer

Back in 1974, computers had 2 moving parts:

a processor (which processes instructions fed to it by a software program)
linear uniformly addressable memory

The processor could operate in 2 modes: “supervisor” or “user” mode.

A processor performs instructions in either mode, but user mode can only perform a subset of instructions that supervisor mode can.

As a program’s sequence of instructions are performed by the processor, the processor may be instructed to access an address in memory that is either beyond the limits of memory, or beyond the limits of the VMM’s allocated memory.

Basically a computer can be virtualized if it can prevent instructions being performed in user mode that:

access resources beyond its resource allowance
modify its environment’s resource allowance

The instructions that modify resource allowance have to be a subset of instructions that can only be performed in supervisor mode, or else user mode could run amok.

The paper goes on to formally prove this, which I personally can’t be bothered to go read right now!

Interesting? ✅✅✅✅✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️

One VM to Rule Them All 2013

How to make a fast VM that isn’t complex

We present a new (Virtual Machine) approach and architecture, which enables implementing a wide range of languages within a common framework, reusing many components (especially the optimizing compiler).

The nitty gritty of how “high-performance” is achieved is by avoiding:

type-uncertainty (boxing/unboxing)
supporting generics
some caching

Overall, this topic didn’t interest me as much as I thought when I clicked the link

Interesting? ✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️

My VM is lighter (and safer) than your container (2017)

Can we have the improved isolation of VMs, with the efficiency of containers?

This topic is near and dear to me because I have spent a fair amount of my career close to devops, “spinning” up and down VMs.

Creating an AWS EC2 instance can take minutes.

This paper demonstrates that it’s possible to boot a Xen-based VM in 4ms.

For comparison, fork/exec on Linux takes approximately 1ms. On the same system, Docker containers start in about 150ms.

This is accomplished by running the authors’ VM as a “unikernel”.

They emphasize that the size of your VM image is linearly proportional to your boot time, and since a unikernel VM is radically smaller in size than normal VM images, this is where a lot of bootup time-savings can come from.

How small is small? The example given is a simple TCP service that returns the current time–it is 480KB uncompressed, and runs in 3.6MB of RAM

Not normally realistic–especially since I work at a JVM shop, but interesting to have proven.

As we keep creating VMs, the creation time increases noticeably (note the logarithmic scale): it takes 42s, 10s and 700ms to create the thousandth Debian, Tinyx, and unikernel guest, respectively.

Scaling up the number of VM instances on a server led them to identify interesting bottlenecks that led to super-linear growth in bootup times of each additional VM instance.

One source of superlinear growth was XenStore and interactions with it.

one fundamental problem with the XenStore is its centralized, filesystem-like API which is simply too slow for use during VM creation and boot, requiring tens of interrupts and privilege domain crossings

LightVM redesigns the Xen control plane with a lean driver called noxs (for ‘no XenStore’) that replaces the XenStore and allows direct communication between front-end and back-end drivers via shared memory.

Most interestingly, they highlight how this type of lightweight VM could be used to offer an AWS Lambda type of compute hosting service.

Interesting? ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️

Deconstructing Xen

Unfortunately, one of the most widely-used hypervisors, Xen, is highly susceptible to attack because it employs a monolithic design (a single point of failure) and comprises a complex set of growing functionality including VM management, scheduling, instruction emulation, IPC (event channels), and memory management.

Covers a lot of extremely low-level security concerns with Xen.

Too much for me to process right now.

Interesting? ✅☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️

How to Run Pandas' Test Suite

2019-06-30T00:32:13-07:00

First place I looked to start with was Pandas’ official docs:

Contributing to Pandas: Running the Test Suite

If only it was that easy 😊

The List of Steps

I own a Mac, but steps are probably pretty similar for the other major OSes.

Here’s the list of steps I took:

Fork & clone the Pandas Github repo
Obtain pyenv, pyenv-virtualenv
Download and install Python v3.5.6 (in my case I had to re-install Xcode & specify some additional build flags to get this working):

pyenv install 3.5.6

Create a new Python virtual environment and activate it:

pyenv virtualenv pandasdev && pyenv activate pandasdev

Specify the Pyhton version to be used for subsequent commands:

pyenv version 3.5.6

Install Cython (for whatever reason this is not a stated dependency and the next step will fail if you do not perform this one):

pip install cython

Install an “editable” version of pandas, along with its “test” dependencies:

pip install -e ".[test]"

Finally, use py.test to run the tests!

pytest ./pandas/

So how did it turn out?

Ultimately, on my iMac it took ~1400 seconds (24 minutes) to run the test suite:

=============== 15 failed, 52313 passed, 3609 skipped, 826 xfailed, 15 xpassed, 3 warnings in 1428.99 seconds ================

Not perfect results from the head of master branch…suspicious!

Many (all?) of the test failures seemed to be due to logged warning messages of the type:

AssertionError: Did not see expected warning of class 'FutureWarning'.

What to do next?

I’ll do some more digging later to identify what might be causing them to be categorized as failures, but this looks like a good place to start:

https://dev.pandas.io/development/contributing.html#testing-warnings

Defining Runway

2019-05-10T00:32:13-07:00

I had an interesting conversation over lunch today with my friend Chang She.

He had an interesting reflection on startups and the discussion of a startup’s “runway.”

Usually this is discussed in terms of time.

It’s usually discussed in arithmetic terms:

budget / (cost/month) = # of months in “runway”

Chang suggested that it’s better measured as the number of experiments you can perform:

budget / (cost/experiment) = # of experiments in “runway”

Every product feature you put before customers or conversation you hold with a prospective customer is an experiment (albeit some experiments are more or less rigorous than others).

I found this a helpful insight, and a healthy way to look at your “runway.”

Thanks Chang 😊

mypy, the Optional Static Type-Checker for Python

2019-04-30T00:32:13-07:00

One of the valid criticisms of Python as a programming language is that it lacks strict type-safety.

In 2013, Dropbox hired Guido Van Rossum–Python’s inventor–and he created mypy, the optional static type-checker for Python.

Continuing my series of “taking a peek” screensharing videos, I took mypy for a spin and submitted a pull request on the mypy Github repo (which Guido commented on 😮):

If you enjoyed the video then please subscribe as I plan on producing more!

Make your own Google Analytics

2019-04-26T00:32:13-07:00

There’s lots of constraints on the free-tier of Google Analytics.

What if I told you that you can make your own Google Analytics, with no constraints?

This can be accomplished with a few Google Cloud Platform services:

I found this out from discovering this nifty little Github project, BigPapa Web Insights.

For a full breakdown of how to set this up, check out my screen-recording:

10 Lessons from Magic the Gathering

2019-04-15T00:32:13-07:00

15 years ago I was a vicious little Magic the Gathering card collector.

I loved every aspect of it:

the artwork,
the strategy of playing the game,
and most important: trading the cards themselves.

Here’s a Top-10 list of life lessons I learned as a middle school Magic card trader:

1. Auction environments are fun

Trading is exhilarating.

You learn a lot about what people care about, and how to get people to share with you what it is that they care about.

2. Asymmetric information is your edge

You can conquer the market by having the most information.

Get info on who has which cards, how rare the cards are, and who has demand.

3. Punish bad actors

No one trades with an asshole. Assholes will:

“shop” their bad trades around trying to find a sucker,
use coercion (e.g. wedgies, tittie-twisters),
cry about their ill-fortune

A healthy community will punish assholes by blacklisting them from trades.

They may have to buy their way back into good favor by taking a bad trade to prove their standing.

4. Find secondary market liquidity

Lunchtime isn’t the only marketplace for trading.

You can meet outside of school, find new participants, and pay for new cards from the store.

5. Batch trades are sometimes easier

Let your counterparty feel in-control by offering to increase the deal size + scope.

This signals that you care about finding a trade that benefits everyone.

6. Understanding your counterparty’s intent

At least half of trade volume arises from asking counterparties to share what it is they are seeking.

They can’t say “yes” if you never ask (the same is true of dating 😉).

7. Track scarcity

Know who has which cards.

This makes you the fastest to be able to find counterparties for your trades.

This is how you capture “alpha” (risk-free profit).

8. Combinatorial discovery

Identify winning card combinations and educate other market participants on your findings.

They will come to you for consultation and “first look” at trades due to your reputation.

9. Price anchoring

Sometimes yelling “NO” has a strong effect on the market’s impression of an asset’s value.

10. Visual appeal

Some people are in the market because the artwork is cool.

Consider all the properties of your assets beyond the dollar-value.

A final lesson

People often confuse “competitive” with “zero-sum.”

In the long run, trading only happens because it’s consensual.

Better than the news

2019-04-14T00:32:13-07:00

It sounds like a TED talk.

A data scientist from the New York Times takes the stage to share the project they have been working on:

“Project Feels”

When we look at the [NYTimes] homepage on any given day we notice a lot of stories there.

Is anyone feeling a bit tired these days?

What if we could predict the [emotional] effects that our articles would have on people?

We could recommend articles that make people feel a certain way

That last sentence is important.

Because feelings are habit-forming.

The speaker directly references it, with respect to identifying how to drive more New York Times subscribers.

Horror or Comedy?

In the short run, we’re masters of our own fates.

When you sit down and decide what screen to stare at for for this evening’s 30 minutes of free time, you are subconsciously asking yourself this question:

How do I want to feel?

Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Facebook all provide this as a service.

The New York Times is too.

It’s important to remember that.

The Good Gal vs. The Bad Gal

News businesses write two or more versions of every article.

Both are factually true.

Both had a marginal cost of production that is falling to $0 through automation.

Should we care if it’s factually correct if it has been weaponized to try to evoke a certain emotion?

What was this New York Times frontpage trying to provoke in you?

The NYTimes doesn’t mind kneecapping Dems with unflattering photos if it drives shares/clicks/ad $ #capitalismbaby 🤘😝🤘 pic.twitter.com/LMBy08ozMl

— Max Mautner (@maxmautner) October 19, 2018</blockquote>

This weaponization may not even be consciously performed by the New York Times.

It could be that a third party chooses which emotion they want (or know you want) to feel.

That choice might be made for you by newsfeed curation algorithms like Facebook or Twitter.

Better than news(feeds)

Ways to avoid emotional manipulation via content:

Spend time with your family

Focus on your business, your job, your skills

Track your personal financial portfolio (use an account aggregator like Personal Capital, or Google Sheets)

If I can summarize my advice in a single point:

Follow what the financial markets are doing, not what the media organizations are doing.

Stay healthy my friends.

Why weightlifting?

2019-03-30T00:32:13-07:00

I worked 11–12 hour days, graveyard shift.

It was my first job out of college—for which I felt very fortunate to have!

I worked for a Chicago trading firm, trading European financial products.

It required sitting.

A lot.

I sat so much at that job, waiting.

Waiting for events to happen in the markets.

If war is a lot of waiting, interrupted by overwhelming bouts of action, then trading is similar.

Amidst my waiting I would read articles on my computer about human decision-making.

Total clickbait stuff–studies about “whether longer ring fingers correlate with more optimal risk-taking behavior.”

It got me reading about hormones, and their role in decision-making:

Testosterone.
Cortisone.
Dopamine.

Everything I read corroborated my own experiences in trading.

Single days in which I lost more than $100k were vivid memories seared into my brain.

Much more so than than the days I gained $100k.

The days after losing money you’re a second-guessing mess!

Classic loss-aversion.

There’s a scientific basis for that:

Cortisone inhibits testosterone and testosterone impacts your fight-or-flight behavior.

I asked myself what seems like the obvious question:

How can I increase my testosterone levels?

That’s where weightlifting came in—to see whether I could observe a behavior change in myself by upping my natural T-levels.

It didn’t work out quite how you’d imagine—for one, I quit my job with my new-found risk-taking abilities!

But for another, I discovered that there’s a whole slew of factors that impact your behavior beyond testosterone’s effects:

sleep
diet
sex-drive
age (god this one sucks—LOL!)
distress

Ultimately, addressing these human needs is how I got into weightlifting.

If you’re curious about my programming (what I lifted and how often) from when I first started out—I bought the 2nd edition of Starting Strength for $30.

It can be summed up as: squat/bench/deadlift 3x a week, 5x5 monotonically increasing the weights you attempt. Watch your form.

It was only a couple years back now (2016?) that I became more observant of remaining constistent in my trainings.

Now I do it less for the natural hormonal/behavior change benefits, but for the social aspect.

Competitive athletics brings together an amazing group of people—there are few A-holes in niche sports as small as weightlifting.

And I can say it’s given me some amazing friends and some extremely memorable experiences!

An Optimized Alternative to RTFM

2019-01-18T23:32:13-08:00

RTFM or “Read the Fucking Manual” is a phrase shared when new engineers ask for answers to questions that they can answer themselves.

The phrase implies that the person seeking help hasn’t made the effort to try and answer the question on their own.

As experienced engineers know, this is a reasonable assumption to make.

However, RTFM should be replaced.

It’s a put down–and an acronym that beginners can’t be expected to understand.

It’s used to discourage out-of-group members to pollute the conversations held by in-group members. It also signals that the person using RTFM is an in-group member, like speaking in Esperanto 🙄

In reality, it doesn’t encourage better behavior in the future. It often leads to more questions, because it’s so cryptic and rude.

Consider this alternative:

“If you spend 5 minutes Googling this you’ll know more than me about this topic. “

It seems so obvious, but it isn’t.

This phrase covers every checklist item I can imagine:

It’s short (enough)
It flatters by suggesting they are capable of answering the question on their own
It demonstrates modesty
It demonstrates that free information is close at all times–even when a stranger isn’t online and willing to dispense guidance for free
It recognizes that their isn’t a single manual for information. RTFM dates from a time when compilers came with a single manual–there was no StackOverflow, etc.

Much better than RTFM!

Take a Break Ya Dingus!

2018-10-14T00:32:13-07:00

Some of the ways I take a break include:

Take a nap 😴
Start/stop reading Reddit
Start/stop reading Quora
Play some Call of Duty on the ol’ XBox One 🔫
Make a coffee–avoid energy drinks, part of the benefit of a coffee is the ritual of preparing it. I’ve found that cracking open a Red Bull/Monster energy drink and ingesting large amounts of artificial sweeteners generally doesn’t do much for me, while a black cup o’ joe does wonders.
Drink some water (will have the added benefit of sending you to the bathroom in 1-2 hours for a bonus break)
Do some heavy weightlifting. I’ve found that stressing my body’s central nervous system makes me sleep better and focus for longer periods of time
Socialize, you dingus!

Can’t be productive at all times 😉

The Zero-Indexed Stock Market

2018-10-14T00:32:13-07:00

The major pop finance websites (Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, The Motley Fool) purposefully lie to you.

What’s their lie?

They lie by using this chart:

Instead of this chart:

Can you tell the difference?

in the first chart, the Y-axis (vertical) in the initial chart is chosen arbitrarily
in the second chart, the Y-axis starts at 0

Why does this matter?

This matters because these pop finance websites are trying to fool you.

They are trying to mislead you into believing that there has been a bigger magnitude change in the index or stock price–by skewing your visual perception of the price change over time to make it looker bigger.

Why would they do that?

Because you will react more emotionally when you perceive a higher magnitude change than an honest representation of the price change over time.

Looking at historical prices, always look at zero-indexed charts.

This will prime you for rational decision-making.

You will make decisions with a more honest representation of price history–the exact goal of using data visualizations in the first place!

Software engineer? Start a podcast.

2018-07-24T02:32:13-07:00

What should a software engineer do to maximize their career from a position of being in a full-time role?

Study for whiteboarding interviews?
Brush up the Github profile with make-work?
Start a blog to quietly publicize your achievements in your full-time role?
Cynically job hop every 2 years?

I’d suggest an alternative (or an additional option):

Invest in your personal network, showcase your personal brand and practice your storytelling skills by…

starting a podcast.

Here is a handful of realizations I’ve had in running my podcast The Accidental Engineer over the past year:

Promotion is everything. If you don’t promote then you won’t have an audience or learn how to grow one.
Guests agree to come on because they’re curious and optimistic that you’ll present them in a positive light. If you consider Late Night shows, guests are promoting their personal brand and a new piece of content (e.g. a book, a movie, a TV show). The best guests are effective self-promoters, because they will help you promote your show.
Slow down your speaking–your speech will improve. Filler words can be hugely diminished by thinking before you speak: “You know”, “So”, “Like.” Editing transcripts yourself will make this painfully evident.
People really want jobs. No shit, right? Well, it became apparent that this was case based on the Google search terms by which people were finding the Accidental Engineer: “<company name> interview”
Try out video in addition to audio. It’s fun–you can learn a ton about cameras, audio, and color treatment of your video to make your stuff look really professional.
Raw text transcripts are unreadable. People speak in a grammar that’s unreadable–cleanup the transcripts you make (I’ve used services like Rev, Speechpad–about equal quality for ~$1/minute)
What is your goal? Optimize toward goals. I found metrics to be best:
- number of views,
- average time on site,
- email list signups, etc.

A big takeaway for me has been recognizing the effectiveness of storytelling–that everyone has a story and needs practice telling it to a listening audience.

Listening to people’s stories and styles of storytelling is a great way to develop and inform your own.

Here’s my original post, announcing my podcast:

The Accidental Engineer

Curious about how to start a podcast? Hit me up!

How to Survive the Graveyard Shift

2018-07-23T00:32:13-07:00

So you have a job that pays you to come to the office outside of 9-5.

May god have mercy on your soul, your bodily health, and your sanity!

I’ve been there–heed my advice:

Let’s review the effects of sleep deprivation:

volatile emotions
degraded decision-making abilities
lower baseline energy levels
slower metabolism, leading to obesity and ultimately Type II diabetes
lower natural testosterone levels

How to cope:

Adopt a sleep schedule: sleep after work, sleep before work. In my case, that meant leaving work at noon and arriving home at 1pm. Aim for 8 hours–never go below 6, especially if you are older than 25 (because your body will be beginning its decline to agedness 😝). In order to get sleep, buy a sleep mask. Light inhibits your body from beginning and achieving “deep sleep.” Be conscious of your sleep quality–even consider earplugs.
Go to the gym: your body’s natural hormone production will tank as it is deprived of regular sleeping, sunlight and socializing. Get in the gym–whether it’s to walk/run on the treadmill, or (ideally) do some heavy weightlifting. Educate yourself and find something that’s enjoyable (and perhaps even social!) 🧗‍♀️🏋🏻‍♂️🧘‍♀️🏊🏻‍♀️🚴‍♀️
Socialize: graveyard shift will kill your social life. You need to make extra effort to initiate and develop relationships that “ordinary shift” people take for granted. Make sure you go out to dinner with friends–even if it requires adapting your sleep schedule from #1 🥂
Quit your job: no graveyard shift is sustainable. You are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome if you think this is a good job. Get the fuck out of there ASAP. Whatever “premium” you’re being paid to suffer through off hours can be recouped by your higher productivity as a day-time employee.

Starting a graveyard shift is like going into prison–however in some ways you’ll be free of some of the peer surveillance your daytime peers might fear!

Much like prison (I would imagine), use your free time to learn.

You can learn an incredible amount, uninterrupted–and for free online.

Learn about your job, learn about the job you’d like to have!

Use Quora, use Reddit–find communities of professionals in your desired area of profession.

If you’d like advice for your situation then reach out–especially specific to software engineering or finance.

I’m happy to listen to your quandaries 🧖‍♂️

Making Markets, Pawn Shops, and Farmer Joe

2018-07-20T00:32:13-07:00

My first full-time job out of college was at a small (<100 employee) Chicago finance firm.

It was crazy.

The company I worked for was a market maker.

The function of a market maker is someone that publicly shares their willingness to buy or sell a given asset.

Without a market maker buyers cannot find sellers and sellers cannot find buyers.

Without market makers, markets are…

A pawn shop is a market maker.

You could bring a bike to their store and they’d offer you $50–you could ask to buy the bike and they would offer you it for $100.

In the time between buying and selling the bike (and capturing a $50 profit), the pawn shop loses money.

They have to:

pay rent,
pay their employees,
pay utilities,
and bear the stress of haggling with customers (because no one does that voluntarily!)

Another hidden cost that the pawn shop faces is that they may not ever be able to sell the bike to anyone for more than $50!

Can a pawn shop protect itself from that difficult situation?

They can buy insurance.

But what kind of insurance?

Well–what if someone didn’t really need a bike?

You could offer the pawnshop a deal:

if the pawnshop hasn’t sold the bike in 6 months, then they can decided to sell it to me for $60

but if they fail to sell it in the next 6 months for $50 profit they can at least recoup $10.

They don’t have to sell it to me–but they’ll have the option to.

This type of agreement frees individuals to take risks they would not otherwise–since they have re-assurance that their ass is covered.

This type of agreement (contract) is called an “option”.

It important to many businesses in the world–perhaps the oldest is agriculture and food production.

Farmer Joe

Farmer Joe cannot know exactly how much crops his land will yield in 6 months (if any!).

Nor can he know what the price of apples will be in 6 months.

Risk factors that can affect the price of apples 6 months in the future include:

weather events (droughts/floodings)
insect pests
plant diseases
fluctuating market demand
fluctuating market supply (other farmers’ decisionmaking and luck)

Our farmer can benefit tremendously from being able to enter into a contract to optionally sell their apples.

It can prevent a farmer from going bankrupt in good years and bad!

I’ll be creating a follow on blogpost to share how you can evaluate an insurance contract’s price.

Interested in insurance? Manage your stress.

The Declaration of Independence

2018-07-06T00:32:13-07:00

The 4th of July is the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence–a document adopted by the Continental Congress to declare political independence from the British Empire.

I have a murky awareness of the series of events and the group of individuals who began (and finished) the Revolutionary War.

American schools tend to focus on specific events to avoid the murkiness, including the authoring and signing of the Declaration of Independence.

What was it?

It was a document–signed by a group of like-minded separatists–that asserted that the 13 Colonies would govern themselves without rule from the British Empire’s government which was a monarchy + parliament at the time.

The document reads less like a persuasive essay and more like a list of the separatists’ grievances with the Empire’s government.

Here is the document’s introductory sentences:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Powerful stuff.

On this 4th of July it’s worth reflecting on how durable an independence 242 years has been.

Querying Access Logs on AWS

2018-06-05T00:32:13-07:00

My favorite type of webapp is a static one.

Here are a few reasons:

Your costs are your domain name + file-hosting, and maybe a CDN (which for most sites amounts to pennies a month),
Your site up-time is hard to beat,
and ultimately, your analytics is easy.

“How easy, Max?”

Very easy, I’ll show you how!

To take an example, maxmautner.com is hosted on Amazon S3 behind Cloudfront.

In order to track the amount of traffic your website receives you can use a 3rd party analytics provider like Google Analytics.

Tools like Google Analytics suffer from a couple big problems:

they under-count your real traffic due to client-side tampering (e.g. adblockers)
they impede you from accessing your raw data–imposing limitations on how you can use your traffic data

However there is an approach that is even easier/more accurate.

Enabling Cloudfront Access Logs
Using Athena to Query Access Logs
Using Redshift to Query Access Logs
A demo with maxmautner.com data

Enabling Cloudfront Access Logs

I’ve enabled a feature of Cloudfront to log all requests to logfiles on S3:

Log files will appear in your designated location on S3:

There are a couple techniques for making use of the data that you are now collecting:

query the data as it is
performing Extract-Transform-Load of the data to a query data format that’s more optimal for certain types of queries, e.g. Elasticsearch or Redshift (AKA shared, columnar Postgres)

I’ll be showing how to perform both approaches:

Using Athena to Query Access Logs

What is it? “…a serverless, interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze big data in S3 using standard SQL.”
- What is it really? hosted Presto, an open source distributed SQL query engine for running interactive analytic queries on data where it is located (e.g. on S3)
How to use it?
- AWS Console
- PyAthena client lib
Pricing: $5 per TB of data scanned (by query)
When does it make sense? When you have an infrequent and predictable query load, or you a small dataset (e.g. <50TB–e.g. a full-table scan would be 50 x $5 = $250)

Using Redshift to Query Access Logs

What is it? “…a fast, fully managed data warehouse that makes it simple and cost-effective to analyze all your data using standard SQL”
- What is it really? A sharded relational database, storing its data in a columnar format that is optimized for read queries, based on PostgreSQL
How to use it?
- ETL (Glue?)
- Lambdas (to perform ETL)
Pricing: $180+/month (on-demand), $113+/month (12-month reserve pricing)
When does it make sense? When you have frequent or undpredictable query load, and you have a large dataset

A demo with maxmautner.com data

Querying using Athena - forthcoming….
Querying using Redshift - forthcoming….

Want me to complete the blog post? Let me know!

Entry-Level Software Engineering QnA

2018-05-04T00:32:13-07:00

A close friend of mine who has no background in software engineering recently asked me a series of rapid-fire questions about how to get a foothold in a software engineering career.

Here’s their questions and my answers:

Physical bootcamp or online course? If Bootcamp, which bootcamp?

Well, let’s review your alternatives: you could apply for jobs right now–with whatever programming knowledge you have.

The worst they can do is say “no”–the absolute minimum they’ll do is give you very explicit, direct guidance about how you can come back next time with a better shot at getting the job

Would having proof that you’ve learned with Python have helped?
Are there non-“engineer” job titles that will help you get in the door and on the track to leap-frogging to an “engineer” job title after this one?

I’m dodging the question, but online/physical bootcamps are chasing your money.

Unless they can prove that they’ll place you into a job and have a track record that proves it, I would be skeptical that they can do anything for you that you can’t do yourself.

When it comes to paid online content, spend 5 more minutes on Google trying to find a free version of what the paid online content advertises offering you.

You will be blown away at how much free content there is.

Go to Reddit, StackOverflow, Quora, and jobs listings to get a sense for what the job market is looking to pay people for knowing.

Which languages to start with?

Totally depends on what you discover you would like to work on.

Frontend development? JavaScript.
Backend development? Python is a great, easier to learn language.

I looked up frontend vs backend and frontend seems much more interesting to me. Backend seems a little dull - is this the case? With frontend you get to see a pretty visual of what you’ve created right? Python is backend?

Your intuition is right—frontend you get to see visual results very quickly, although there is some tediousness to the work after a while as much of the work can come down to your site looking right on iPhone but not on Android—that type of thing. Frontend also can encompass making native mobile iOS and Android apps (not websites) and building their user interfaces. This can be a good route—usually starting with specializing in one of the two (iOS or Android).

That being said, I think building native mobile apps is harder than building websites (to start with). Anyone hiring for iOS/Android apps will definitely want to see/listen to you describe what you’ve worked on before—worth looking into what that process looks like! And perhaps reaching out to people in your network who do that to find out what their day-to-day looks like

How much experience do you really need?

To get a first engineering job?

Portfolio?

Not tremendously helpful nor a requirement–references have a bigger effect on your getting the job.

What roles to apply for?

What companies do you want to work for? Send me a link to a jobs listings page and we can look at them together

Good resource for getting some practice to see if it’s something I’d enjoy?

Khan Academy actually has some great stuff

Coursera/EdX tend to not be as good–professors are not super great at teaching skills that will be valuable on-the-job immediately

Developer vs Engineer vs Programmer?

Developer and programmer job titles tend to be paid a bit less engineer–not exactly sure why.

What is full stack? Most versatile?

It just means “familiar with multiple software technologies”–e.g. you can make nice-looking webpages as well as store/retrieve data from a database, two very different engineering skills.

Do you need to be good at Math?

Nope. You really don’t–it only helps for a small segment of the software engineering job market.

Any on the job learning opportunities you’ve heard of?

DEFINITELY.

Don’t filter for job titles that have the word “engineer” in it–my first programming job was as a “technical analyst.”

I know tons of stories like this (of people being paid to learn to code in their job, but not necessarily as a “Software Engineer”).

A lot of job titles with “growth” in them will also pay you to learn to code.

Lots of things that can be automated and you can see immediate value from knowing how to code in that kind of role (since it’s your own time you are saving!).

Do you think I could or would enjoy coding?

Only one way to find out :) I think that you will

There’s usually an “ah-hah” moment when you build your first “thing”

It could be a webpage, it could be something that automatically updates SalesForce.

It’s pretty neat to realize what is possible once you aren’t relying on someone else to write software for you.

When applying for jobs, do you think self taught is less valuable to employers than “official” training?

Self taught is more valuable to employers, under many circumstances—I’ll elaborate more in a little when I’m back at a keyboard

If you’re interested to hear more about the topic of software engineering careers then check out the interviews at the Accidental Engineer, hosted by yours truly!

Some more iPad weightlifting sketches

2018-03-12T00:32:13-07:00

Like last time, some more sketches of my weightlifting teammates:

Static Websites on Google Cloud

2018-03-08T23:32:13-08:00

Goals:

install gsutil
create a bucket
upload your static site content to the bucket
setup custom domain
logging requests
query access logs
setup SSL on custom domain

Install gsutil

Install gsutil, the Google Cloud command line tool:

$ curl https://sdk.cloud.google.com | bash
$ exec -l $SHELL
$ gcloud init

Create “bucket”

Created a bucket through the web interface, or using the gsutil command line tool:

$ gsutil mb gs://mentor.maxmautner.com

Push files

Set the bucket permissions & settings using gsutil instead of through the web console:

$ gsutil acl ch -u AllUsers:R gs://mentor.maxmautner.com
$ gsutil defacl set public-read gs://mentor.maxmautner.com
$ gsutil web set -m index.html -e 404.html gs://mentor.maxmautner.com

Created a dummy index.html, 404.html file:

Upload the files to our bucket:

$ gsutil rsync -R ./ gs://mentor.maxmautner.com

Verify file uploaded:

$ gsutil ls -a gs://mentor.maxmautner.com

Setup Custom Domain

Create a CNAME record for your subdomain (e.g. www) to point to c.storage.googleapis.com.

Access Logs

Setting up log delivery:

$ gsutil mb gs://maxmautner-logs-bucket
$ gsutil acl ch -g cloud-storage-analytics@google.com:W gs://maxmautner-logs-bucket
$ gsutil defacl set project-private gs://maxmautner-logs-bucket
$ gsutil logging set on -b gs://maxmautner-logs-bucket -o mentor gs://mentor.maxmautner.com

Checking that logging is successfully setup for your bucket:

$ gsutil logging get gs://mentor.maxmautner.com
{"logBucket": "maxmautner-logs", "logObjectPrefix": "mentor"}

Requests logs are created hourly (source)

I figured I would/should copy the official docs on this topic as this is critical information (March 10th 2018):

Usage logs are generated hourly when there is activity to report in the monitored bucket. Usage logs are typically created 15 minutes after the end of the hour.

Note:

Any log processing of usage logs should take into account the possibility that they may be delivered later than 15 minutes after the end of an hour.

Usually, hourly usage log object(s) contain records for all usage that occurred during that hour. Occasionally, an hourly usage log object contains records for an earlier hour, but never for a later hour.

Cloud Storage may write multiple log objects for the same hour.

Occasionally, a single record may appear twice in the usage logs. While we make our best effort to remove duplicate records, your log processing should be able to remove them if it is critical to your log analysis. You can use the s_request_id field to detect duplicates.

Query Logs

Query access logs using SQL (BigQuery?)

Download this JSON manifest for mapping the log file format into BigQuery

Run this command to load our log files into the bigquery usage table::

$ bq load --skip_leading_rows=1 storageanalysis.usage gs://maxmautner-logs/* ./cloud_storage_usage_schema_v0.json

From the official docs:

When using wildcards, you might want to move logs already uploaded to BiqQuery to another directory (e.g., gs://example-logs-bucket/processed) to avoid uploading data from a log more than once.

For now, let’s not sweat it :)

Now open your SQL shell:

$ bq shell
> show storageanalysis.usage

   Last modified               Schema               Total Rows   Total Bytes   Expiration   Time Partitioning   Labels   kmsKeyName
 ----------------- ------------------------------- ------------ ------------- ------------ ------------------- -------- ------------
  11 Mar 01:44:27   |- time_micros: integer         38           15518
                    |- c_ip: string
                    |- c_ip_type: integer
                    |- c_ip_region: string
                    |- cs_method: string
                    |- cs_uri: string
                    |- sc_status: integer
                    |- cs_bytes: integer
                    |- sc_bytes: integer
                    |- time_taken_micros: integer
                    |- cs_host: string
                    |- cs_referer: string
                    |- cs_user_agent: string
                    |- s_request_id: string
                    |- cs_operation: string
                    |- cs_bucket: string
                    |- cs_object: string

This is the schema of the table we can now query, for example:

> select cs_uri, count(*) from [storageanalysis.usage] group by cs_uri;

Will give us the number of requests grouped by the URI–including query parameters.

Stripping query parameters is left as an exercise for the reader.

Setup SSL

In order to use SSL on our Google Cloud Storage static site we need to use a load balancer.

Adding a Cloud Storage bucket to content-based load balancing

Creating a load balancer

Options for obtaining a certificate:

LetsEncrypt, certbot–is it even possible on Google Cloud?
paid SSL certificate vendor

Weightlifting sketches

2018-02-10T23:32:13-08:00

I am loving the iPad Pro + ProCreate app.

Here are some of my gym mates:

Why use Docker locally?

2018-01-21T23:32:13-08:00

Reproducibility. Much of humanity’s problems with software comes down to reproducibility.

For example, let’s say a customer of yours encounters a bug when using your software. In order to fix the bug you’ll need to identify how to reproduce it so you can verify that a fix you come up with makes the bug no longer reproducible. That is inherently what solving a bug means!

The ideal software development environment strives for “dev-prod parity”—short for “development-production parity.” ¹

If your production environment behaves differently than your development environment, then how do you know the code that works on your laptop will work in production? By eliminating room for deviations between your environments you reduce cases of “it-worked-on-my-laptop.”

Another illustrative example of this problem of reproducibility in software is that your coworkers (or contractors) who are trying to contribute to your software might have to follow a 6-page document about how to setup their laptop on their first day on the job! What if your contractor has a Windows laptop and you have a Mac laptop? Good GRIEF! Isn’t software supposed to automate this process??

Docker is one solution to both these scenarios (bug-fixing, local development). It eliminates deviations between your development and production environments because it offers a standard for how to package together an operating system + 3rd party dependencies + your own source code—that can be ran from any Docker-supported operating system. ²

Static Site Hosting on AWS

2018-01-15T23:32:13-08:00

Exciting times on the Internet–costs of hosting are as low as every yet people find ways to spend more money than ever on hosting.

I myself host maxmautner.com on AWS with a simple combination of their services for <$0.10/month.

Here’s how it works:

The Net Present Value of Content

2017-12-17T02:32:13-08:00

In order to reflect on the value of content (audio, video, images, text), we’ll take a short tutorial in how to estimate the value of a business.

Too impatient? Jump to estimating the value of content.

The Value of a Business

The concept of “net-present value” is at the center of global finance.

Imagine that you have a business that makes these revenues over 4 years:

Year	Revenue	Years in Business
2017	$100	0
2018	$200	1
2019	$100	2
2020	$0	3

Why no more revenues in 2020? Let’s say we go out of business in the 4th year :)

All businesses’ revenues eventually go to zero as markets trend towards perfect competition over time.

If I asked you how much our company is worth you might say “this is easy: $100 + $200 + $100 = $400–our business should be worth $400!”

It’s not that simple :)

The catch is that the value of $100 in 2 years from now is less than the value of possessing $100 today.

What if you had $100 today and were able to lend it to someone at a non-zero, positve rate of interest (let’s say 1% per year)?

That $100 in 2 years from now would be more than $100:

$100.00 * 1.01 * 1.01 = $102.01

The math works in reverse as well, by dividing the numbers from the amount of money we make in a future year ($100 in 2019):

$100.00 (in 2019) / (1.01 ^ (2019 - 2017)) = $100 / (1.01 x 1.01) = $98.03

$98.03 is what is called the net-present value of $100 in 2019, assuming an interest rate of 1%.

So a crude financial model to value the business off of the net-present value of its future revenues would be:

$100
$200 / 1.01
$100 / (1.01^2)
= $396.05

As you can imagine, that 1% interest rate is imporant–it has a huge effect on our estimate of the business’s value!

Consider if we could lend our $100 we make in 2017 at a 3% interest rate instead of 1%:

$100.00 * 1.03 * 1.03 = $106.09

While we’ve estimated the value of a fictional business, this methodology is used in reality–by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase.

It’s even used by executives at tech companies who are seeking to sell their businesses and cash out for the big bucks!

The Value of Content

The value of a business is a lot like the value of a piece of content.

Two reasons:

the number of times that a piece of content is seen or listened to is roughly proportional to the revenue of a business
like a business whose revenue goes to zero, the views that our YouTube video gets will eventually go to zero over time

To illustrate, we might have a YouTube video with the following forecasted number of views:

Year	Views	Time Delta (years)
2017	1,000	0
2018	2,000	1
2019	1,000	2
2020	0	3

So how do we determine the “interest rate” at which we can “lend out” an impression today versus an impression two years from now?

Great question–I’m not sure.

But I’d conservatively estimate that the interest rate of content is as high as 50% per year–with the advent of the internet people’s attention has become a finite commodity and we are in the midst of a massive landgrab for brand awareness.

Adopting my estimated interest rate for the sake of though experiment we can estimate the value of making and publishing your video today:

1000
/ 1.50
/ (1.50^2)
views

However if you were to wait a year to publish your video, the net-present value of those 4000 views would be:

/ 1.50
/ (1.50^2
/ (1.50^3)
views

That’s 2777 - 1851 = 926 views or 33% less views in terms of the net-present value of those views!

My point is…get off your ass and publish your content!

You will be leaving your competitors in the dust, and by churning out content you’ll start down the road to learning what is good content!

Improving the quality of your content will increase the number of views your content receives over its lifetime–which pays even more dividends by virtue of the net-present value of those views.

And if you have any ideas about how to estimate the interest rate of content, please get in touch!

Interested?

We’re working on these hard problems–come and help us make videos for software engineers!

Information Asymmetries and Paying it Forward

2017-12-15T02:32:13-08:00

The Internet and the scale of transparency it has brought to human civilization has changed everything.

Near-free information flow between all humans on earth has brought light to the corners of the earth where human-on-human atrocities have been performed for millenia.

Light being shown on evil acts is a pre-requisite to justice being served.

One of my favorite quotes is from a Civil War-era abolitionist:

Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

Things refuse to be mismanaged long. Jefferson trembled when he thought of slavery and remembered that God is just. Ere long all America will tremble.

I agree–and there are empirical signs that Theodore Parker is right.

However there is another type of injustice that becomes more pervasive and harder to eliminate than physical violence.

This is a type of injustice caused by the existince of “information asymmetries.”

An information asymmetry is where two parties to a transaction do not have the same factual information on hand.

A great example is purchasing a car:

The salesperson knows what they paid for the car last week (and all sales made at their car dealership in the past month).
The buyer does not know any of that information–he or she knows what the car’s advertised prices is and what comparable cars on the lot are being priced at.

The salesperson preys on the buyer’s ignorance and obtains an immmoral advantage in negotiation:

I believe that eliminating this type of information asymmetry will become the next piece of the “arc” towards justice.

Education in its various forms has helped me out of more predatory situations than I can count.

For this reason I try to share information that I’ve learned (and solicit it from others) to pay it forward.

You don’t have to be a formal K-12 school teacher, but please, pay it forward!

Tumblr to Jekyll

2017-07-20T03:32:13-07:00

Since migrating my site from Tumblr to Jekyll, I found it difficult to convert all of the URLs and preserve the post contents.

I used this janky Tumblr exporter to Jekyll-style markdown, that left much to be desired.

Apologies for those of you trying to access these posts that no longer exist!

If you’re still curious about who I am and what I’m interested in (and how to get ahold of me) check out my “about me” page.

The Accidental Engineer

2017-07-15T03:32:13-07:00

tl;dr: I’ve started a new project called The Accidental Engineer.

I plan on writing a lengthier explanation for what it is and why I’m doing it, but that will have to wait.

Generative Text Models

2016-12-25T05:02:41-08:00

Here are a couple Google blogposts from the last year that are indicative of the future of text-based communication:

Additional links:

github-email-thief

2015-12-27T17:13:31-08:00

Github (and Bitbucket as well) expose the vast majority of their users’ email addresses via commit metadata.

As a proof-of-concept, I made a single page app using Angular + the Github API to demonstrate how browse-able/scrape-able this contact information is.

Live demo here.

You can check if your Github username is affected.

You can read about how to hide your email address here.

The project is non-commercial and MIT-licensed.

Make Your Own Gmail

2015-12-23T20:42:55-08:00

I made a frontend for Gmail prototype called “make-your-own-gmail”, that can be skinned as you see fit.

I hope this might help you wrap your minds around single page apps, and also empower you to believe that you can improve email even if you aren’t employed by Google or a major email provider.

It’s entirely AngularJS, using the Google JavaScript SDK for Gmail.

If you’d like to host this at your own domain you’ll need to obtain a Google Developer’s key from the Developer’s Console.

I’d also highly recommend that you host it over HTTPS.

NB: email composition “kind of” works–there is some road to cover if you want to reproduce all of the features available to users at mail.google.com.

Modern anti-spam and E2E crypto

2015-12-22T14:15:18-08:00

Critical insight into the anti-spam and abuse efforts at Google:

“[messaging] Modern anti-spam and E2E crypto”

It is rare to hear from the horse’s mouth.

Max Mautner

Driving 5 mph slower beats driving 5% less

1 in 4 new California homes is in someone's backyard

When we talk about traffic violence

Too many roads

A stop sign for $1,000

Killing someone with a car costs $1.6 million. California requires drivers to carry $30,000

Paying for driving

Private vs. public costs

Crash costs dominate

A scooter is cheating, a cargo bike is rude, the car is fine

The Scooter

The Cargo Bike

The Car

If there's a war on cars in the USA then the cars have won

Key Biscayne, Florida

Kirby Cove Camping

Aspen visit

Moving Car-Free as a Parent

Voting with Feet

This is Where You Belong

My neighbor handed me a speeding survey. Then she told me people my age want her dead.

Moving at Human Speed

Health

Wealth

Reconnecting with nature

Reconnecting with community

The costs

A note on what isn’t “driving”

Moving at human speed

The Trailer Gap

The free bench

The honest limits

Downtown San Mateo Is a Monument to Insider Self-Dealing

Transit is a real estate business

Who actually benefits from Caltrain in 2026?

Why I’ll vote yes on SB 63 anyway

SB 79: value recapture through supply

Who benefits from supporting transit?

YIMBY data projects, between naps

1. Permit Timeline Tracker

2. Enrollment Decline vs. Housing Production

3. SB 79 Capacity Analysis

Takeaways

Lessons From 6 Years of Local Advocacy

Slow streets > bike lanes

Land use is upstream of infrastructure

Seniors are the most underrated coalition

Patience requires infrastructure

Mode-switching is the most underrated form of direct action

Closing

It's Not a Values Crisis, It's a Housing Crisis.

Does Prop 13 explain California's relatively lower birth rates?

Most People Who Ride Bikes Have Soft Tires

Tires lose air whether you ride or not

The pump has a learning curve

How big a drag is this on adoption?

What car owners deal with instead

The kickscooter dodges this entirely

Bike share fully solves this

What to do about it

Prop 13 Didn't Shrink Government. It Handed It to Sacramento.

The Promise

What Actually Happened

A Caveat

Reform

The Declining Driver's License: Good, Bad, or Both?

Optimistically

Pessimistically

What can be done

The e-bike regulation gap is closing

What’s at stake

My prediction for California

Why this matters if you care about getting people out of cars

Background: how we got here

The boom

The asymmetry

What California is doing

What the rest of the country is doing

Appendix: regulatory comparison