Thomas Irwin 🏀🌐🥑✝️

A little self-promotion: my latest op-ed dropped in the Washington Post today, where I argued that California should not give me money to buy a house and should instead 1) Give money to those most in need (cost-burdened renters and 2) build more housing: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…

“Do you like UVa basketball?” “Man I love it!” “And the NCAA Tourney?” “Oh yeah. The best!” “What about UVa in the NCAA Tourney?” “Got to be honest here on this one. Not my fav.”

@mottsmith @moseskagan You could cap increases without making it impossible to reassess

My thinking has definitely evolved on this, owning real estate in a place that doesn’t have prop 13. Prop 13’s suppressive effect on property turnover is a real issue that deserves a solution. But the problem of unpredictable and unlimited tax hikes is one Prop 13 actually solved.

The strip malls, and the cheap rents enabling all those wonderful ethnic restaurants, etc. to operate, exist due to Prop 13, which ~all the YMIBYs detest.

Here's what's genuinely puzzling to me about the idea that @GavinNewsom or his advisors may think it'd be politically advantageous to veto SB 79. 🧵/18

@moseskagan Would be great if realtors stopped opposed condo defect laws in Sacramento: sfchronicle.com/opinion/openfo…

Zoning is on the way to being fixed in many places. But zoning is generally indifferent between rentals and for-sale. Right now, particularly in cities, due in large part to construction defect laws and the tax code, we're building rentals. We should tweak them to make building for-sale product more appealing.

If you asked me to pinpoint the single factor most responsible for the swirling negativity in our society, it would be: The inability of many normal people working normal jobs to afford to buy homes in much of the country. (What's so frustrating is that we could go a long way towards fixing this problem with tweaks to zoning, construction defect liability laws, and the tax code.)

But the mistake in this assumption is comparing an identical building with one stairs vs. two stairs. Instead, you need to look at the type of buildings allowed under the existing code vs. the proposed single-stair code.

@CSElmendorf @hanlonbt Chris can you please start a substack so those of us who try to stay off social media can read these?

SB 79 Thread #1: Big Picture In the fall of 2018, I first met @hanlonbt. I had recently posted "Beyond the Double Veto". He reached out & suggested we get coffee. We argued about SB 827 (SB 79's oldest ancestor), which had died the previous winter. 1/24

@aarmlovi Union built if you want streamlining. Legal regardless of the labor under 85 feet

It's funny: We YIMBYs always explain how subsidy can't work where supply is illegal CA has now built a housing legalization framework where *only union-built social housing* is unambiguously legal Ironic that subsidy is now mandatory for housing in CA, instead of irrelevant

Thomas Irwin takes the City of LA to task for their ongoing failures around housing and urges the state legislature to pass SB 79: “California lawmakers should ignore the city’s complaints and prioritize the best interests of Los Angeles residents.”

Read the full piece here: latimes.com/opinion/story/…

This reveals a much broader problem of state capacity in the city, one that hamstrings it's ability to do basic services, let alone finish ambitious goals

I have another piece up today, taking the city of LA to task for destroying a citizen painted crosswalk in three days, when it takes 18 years for the city to build housing for the homeless

Also read here for more background commentary, including how CAR's hypocrisy in talking about fair housing: open.substack.com/pub/thomaspont…

Read the full piece here: sfchronicle.com/opinion/openfo…

I'm in the SF Chronicle Today discussing how the CAR stance on housing reform is ultimately detrimental to young aspiring homeowners, and to their own agents

We are deeply proud to announce that our own @CoachThomasLA was published in the @sfchronicle, writing on how the CA Association of Realtors has often stood in the way of new opportunities for home ownership in CA. sfchronicle.com/opinion/openfo…

🏡 YV Contributor Thomas Irwin (@CoachThomasLA) says California real estate agents are a “crucial impediment” for prospective homebuyers. Check out his article in the San Francisco Chronicle! (@sfchronicle) Link below 👇

Inclusionary zoning is like if, instead of paying for SNAP with general tax revenue, we forced grocery stores to sell 20 percent of their products at a loss.

@jkylemann @ringernba please God no

updated @ringernba mock draft went up last night, with picks and fits for the first round 👌 nbadraft.theringer.com/mock-draft

There are no basketball gods.