Arthus Russell

The reason everything seems so fake is because the working-class has been squeezed out of the music business, journalism, TV and movie production. Some interesting introspection from Rick Beato. Why Only Rich Kids Make It In Music Today

@EdrowScape @HalSinger He should, but the algorithm rewards those who talk a lot and take extreme positions, and his positions flatter those in power. Where are the public policy academics? All over CA cities have added 1000s of units, seen populations fall, and rents significantly rise. How?

@ArthusRussell @HalSinger That’s because they’re all committed to the status quo. Convinced it works because it worked for them. We have an opportunity to disabuse them of that notion, but it will take dedicated organizing and hard work. Yglesias should find himself without work.

Oh man the Abundance funders are pissed Also, contra what MattY asserts here, the San Fran Fed paper doesn't say that "increasing housing supply doesn't reduce prices." Rather, the paper says that deregulation aka "housing constraints" doesn't explain housing dynamics or growth in housing quantities.

@NewtBurp @andy_matuschak I've heard this and yet in downtown LA lots of the hotels are former office buildings that were converted. It's not impossible.

@andy_matuschak It’s more expensive than giving the property out. Making a bathroom ada compliant can be a million bucks alone

In SF, many ground floor commercial spaces in new condo / apt buildings near me have been empty for 5-10+ years. Naively: why doesn't the market clear? If the asking rent is too high for any tenant, wouldn't a building owner prefer to accept a lower rent over decadal vacancy?

@tpbhsn @IBEWLocal520 Unfortunately this is part of being in a union. I was in the carpenter's union before I operated heavy equipment so I know how great the men and women of IBEW are. I've seen that on Facebook too so it's coming from within the organization but they are probably arguing about it.

@ArthusRussell @IBEWLocal520 I've been a Teamster, and worked a short period of time in the IBEW. Unfortunately, they havent been worth a fuck fighting against this stuff. There's one IBEW guy on facebook touting the "benefits" of Data Centers. "That Union Guy" or some shit.

@matthewstoller It's sad that this is what's become of the IBEW. Great workers and solid leadership but this is just pandering.

Where does this logic stop? You could make this claim about nuclear waste disposal or anything else. It's just an argument for no community say over anything.

@WAPolicyGreen @IBEWLocal520 Stop using nimby as a slur. Unhelpful. Local democracy matters, community organization matters.

@IBEWLocal520 If you support building something only if it benefits you, that's not actually fighting for the people. That's just being selfish - kinda like NIMBYs.

@QBetterscope @rjfaber91 @noofriendo Precisely. YIMBYs exist solely to enrich developers/the ruling class. They come to town to extract everything good for a maximum profit. Their deregulation efforts drive the price up for everyone. Their investors do not live in your community or return profits to it. 1/

@QBetterscope @becauseberkeley @noofriendo I hear you. In CA, yimby is a tech/finance-aligned movement of deregulation. It complicates its depiction with talk of affordability, transit, urbanism, etc. But really it's about reducing laws and local controls and unfettering capital.

@becauseberkeley @noofriendo The anti yimby’s have created a world where I don’t really know what a yimby is. Or a nimby. It’s super inside politics. No one understands what you’re saying. Can we come back to communication and trying?

YIMBYs do not have real problems

@samhaselby Pinker, to a starving child in Gaza: "Yes, but on average things are much, much better now."

@samhaselby My beef with Pinker is that he's right directionally perhaps on a per capita basis but in absolute terms we've never had more people suffering than right now.

If you want to understand the negativity of parts of the American left you have to understand, institutionally, they were competing with this perspective for influence and resources. What we got from this is a cartoon of "everything has never been better" or "America is evil."

@xqw222 @blightersort Hippies are homicidal. Punks are suicidal.

@ArthusRussell @blightersort Hippies and punks are kinda different though. I agree with you about hippies but the main point, people into loud guitar music being nicer, is kinda true

a good example of this is John Lydon -- uberpunk Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols fame -- who met his wife when he was 19 or so, married her at 23 and stayed married for 44 years until her death after a long battle with alzheimers during which he was her full-time caregiver.

@katewillett Abundance! Get on that gravy train while it lasts, because it won't last long.

I’ve gotta hand it to her, this is the most galaxy brain left punching I’ve ever seen.

@KimChiSpicey The California YIMBY/Max Dubler/Corey Smith + Scott Wiener /Buffy Wicks + Gavin Newsom triumvirate is the most transparent grift in California history Recall all @GavinNewsom @Scott_Wiener @BuffyWicks

@KimChiSpicey yimby vs nimby misses how complex these issues are. I've asked LA City Council to work with LACC and the area CSUs to provide data and they want no part. 1000s of new units in my neighborhood, rents are up, old neighbors gone.

@ArthusRussell Agreed. We should test it somewhere where there’s low risk of displacement, like this. Then once they prove their model actually works we can consider replicating it in places that are already inhabited.

I actually like this idea. We can turn the salt flats into a hyper-dense YIMBY containment zone.

AOC fired @saikatc sfist.com/2026/05/04/for…