Alex McCauley

@amaldorai @rohindhar The place to be in the 2000’s was Google. I don’t think another co. has reached the peak that GOOG had in the 2000’s. Not just with market share dominance or financial success, but also the cultural zeitgeist of Don’t Be Evil, the clean white look, free food for employees etc

@rohindhar I recently visited NYC for the first time in ~10 years and I think it no longer feels like the center of the universe There’s a kind of person who wants to be at the center of things: Goldman Sachs in the 2000s, Uber in the 2010s, Anthropic in the 2020s

Someone told me recently they were at an event for people who had recently moved to San Francisco and worked in tech And mind you, the stat they said was so outrageous it strains credibility and I can’t really vouch for it 😅 But of the 40 people at the event 38 of them had moved from New York

@jreidgreer @daniel_w_owens I think @daniel_w_owens is not taking macro economic stuff into account here properly. We were doing great in 2016-2020. Dozens of laws passed. COVID / remote work / high interest rates have put a damper on construction for six years now. Good times are around the corner.

@daniel_w_owens I mean this genuinely — what's the alternative? Unfortunately reforms like this are incredibly slow. Tons of special interests fighting in the opposite direction. We've only made real progress in the last couple of years, and that will take time to bear fruit.

I see how SF YIMBY (aka YIMBY Action) has moved to Bluesky, where they’re still mulling things over and trying to raise money by hosting galas. Look at the number of housing units built in SF recently, look at SF housing costs… this movement has been a success?

@daniel_w_owens I don’t know the math well, but I’m surprised that a calculation isn’t made that by removing all dev fees, thus incentivizing building, SF gets way more property tax revenue that’s recurring every year than from a one time fee. A million dollar condo pays $11K/year forever.

Anyways, cutting the transfer tax rate in half is not insignificant, but remember that this tax is applied at the point of sale. Developers factor it in. It makes a difference. But it’s not enough. We need a large suite of reforms like this in order to build adequately.

Behold – a brain dead ideologue who happens to be an SF District Supervisor. The will of SF voters supported Prop C in 2024, which allows the City to amend the transfer tax rate, but not increase it. Nothing is being undone, Comrade.

@sfstandard I feel like this is perfect for @rivatez aesthetic

Not sure what’s happening in SF, but the second-hand market for giant breakfast food decor is apparently booming 🥯🪽

@Lincoln_Osis @rohindhar You’re the exception. Sounds like more of a Florida or Arizona situation ;)

@anm @rohindhar Not really. That's condo buildings where you're forced to share expense. My hoa is an entire neighborhood. I pay my own garbage, pge and all the other stuff

One change in buyer behavior in the San Francisco real estate market over the last year $1000 a month HOA fee has gone from “get out of here what a rip off 😡” To “Hmmm pretty reasonable 🤔” I think the overall inflation in housing costs this year (for purchase or rentals) has just made all big numbers feel smaller

@Lincoln_Osis @rohindhar That’s the majority of HOAs in the city, since most of SF is small buildings like that.

@anm @rohindhar That's not really an hoa

@Lincoln_Osis @rohindhar The typical HOA budget of a mom and pop (2-4 unit) condo building in SF includes: - Common PG&E for things like garage lighting - Landscaping - Insurance for the exterior structure - Water - Trash collection

@anm @rohindhar Hoa doesn't do any of that here

@scott_pianowski The 2026 schedule looks brutal.

I enjoyed this Patriot season tremendously, a house money season and a fun season. But you never know if it's going to happen again. I asked a good friend of mine what he thought the odds were of Maye getting back to the Super Bowl. He said 50-50. Sounds about right.

Let's collect some final Super Bowl thoughts before we put a period on the season. Thread to follow. First off, the right team won. Seattle's defense was the dominant unit of the season. Seattle wasn't that far from being undefeated. A very true champion. (thread)

@debora_allen1 @bettersoma @JaniceForBART I'm sure all of that is true. But SF office workers are still at 50% of 2019 levels. When your revenue drops by 50% and your costs are required to stay the same (or go higher due to inflation), you're going to have a major problem, even with incredible leadership.

Six years ago, 75% of the problem was the pandemic and WFH. Today, the problem is that the BART leadership spent the last 6 years wishing for 2019 to return. It’s a new age, a new normal. And this agency did not adapt to that. I sat on that board for 8 years, including almost 5 years in addressing COVID impacts. Their decision-making revolves around job preservation in partnership with labor unions. The decision-making does not include preparing the agency for the new normal and repositioning its spending, both on infrastructure and operations, for future long-term sustainability. In short, they are inept. The sales tax money will be spent on boosting labor spending, in hopes of 2019 returning soon.

Reimagined canopies. Ideology. Zero fare enforcement. Terrible leadership. Liars like @JaniceForBART and BEVAN DUFTY, a track record of destruction. Ask @debora_allen1 !!!!! sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl…

@AdamNMayer Strong disagree. - Isolated part of the city. Walled off by freeways, hills, bridges. Disconnected. - Limited services...e.g. no Thai food, one grocery store. - Going to be under construction for the next 50 years...not pleasant. It has good weather. Could be cool in 50 years.

Hot take: Dogpatch is quietly becoming one of the most valuable neighborhoods in San Francisco over the next 5–10 years. If I were investing in SF, I’d be looking here 👀 Why Dogpatch wins: 🚋 T-Line + 22nd St Caltrain = elite transit access 🚗 Direct 280 access → SFO & the Peninsula in minutes 🏥 Walking distance to UCSF + Mission Bay (jobs don’t move away) 🚀 Y Combinator is here (hi @garrytan) 🏗️ Massive developments coming online: The Power Station, Pier 70 ☕️ Small, charming, tight-knit local businesses (still feels human) It’s infrastructure + jobs + community + momentum.

@eddilworth @rohindhar Not true. Oakland closed the gap on the rental price difference during COVID. Was 35% cheaper before COVID, only 25% cheaper by 2021. People moved to Oakland due to more space / remote work. socketsite.com/archives/2022/…

@rohindhar In boom/bust cycles of the Bay, the boom attracts people to SF. As boom extends population pushes out for "affordable" housing and different vibe. COVID bust drained population and hit Oakland. AI boom is hitting & if trend follows, it pushes out to Oakland in the coming years.

What are the prospects of an economic turnaround in Oakland? At the moment all the news is uniformly bleak

Dear Apple, please make a display that integrates (almost) all peripherals to eliminate clutter: a microphone arm that swings out and can be tucked away / folded in, a ring light around the entire bezel, a hardcore webcam, and an integrated stand w all plausible ports, like 16.

@Marima07 It’s already been an overwhelming success. The best thing you can have in the NFL is a great QB paired with a great coach, and it looks like we have that…possibly for the next 10+ years. Nothing else matters.

Chad Graff believes that without a win in the postseason, Patriots fans will see the 14-3 Pats' 2025-26 season as "hollow". I disagree. Sometimes it's good to simply enjoy a moment in time. -- I'd love to win next week and for this magical season to continue, but I'd never consider it "hollow" if they don't. Such a fun ride. t.co/2xUqV4TZmT

@sm @mauskopf Seemingly always in beast mode

In the running for dad of the year 2026

@ScaryTerryWeed @sbuss Rents in Oakland have dropped a ton. sfchronicle.com/realestate/art…

@sbuss All you transplants can fuck right off. Not everyone is required to live in San Francisco. There’s a reason I don’t have a mansion in the Hamptons. Oakland built at least 50-100 apartment buildings from 2017-2025… did the rent go down? No… crime up? Yes

I got started in SF politics in 2016 due to the housing shortage. It's 9 years later, and today the city passed the first meaningful upzoning since 1978. Today marks the end of San Francisco's shameful exclusionary experiment, and the beginning of a welcoming new chapter!

@antoniogm Strongly recommend Molly’s Shebeen down the street on 22nd. Fantastic, creaky, cozy Irish bar. The food is good. Fun fact: shebeen is essentially the Irish word for a speakeasy.

In an empty Irish bar in Murray Hill nursing a Guinness and checking Slack. For capitalism.

@brezina @mateosfo The next generation of Waymo’s will be purpose built in Georgia, apparently, for ~$70K each, compared to a very expensive and likely slow Jaguar retrofit currently.

Waymo is doing 25% of all SF ride share with 800 vehicles. America is not going to need one automobile per citizen in the autonomous future I’m also hoping without the sunk cost of vehicle ownership urban folks will choose time-competitive transit (urban subways & BRT) and biking/walking I expect the exurbs to use ICE cars for a long while. Tesla is producing nearly 2m vehicles/year many/most of which can become autonomous. I think 10m autonomous vehicles in the next 5-7 years is very doable

at this point i'm starting to feel bad for everyone who believed the car industry's lies about EVs. at the same time, I think we owe it to both them, and us, to stop actually believing the car industry's lies, and it's not clear many folks are capable of that at all.

@mateosfo @brezina Convincing millions of drivers to install home EV chargers is a huge pain. Range anxiety is another issue. These aren't issues for AV fleets. They build private charging warehouses & swap vehicles for charging, but still get benefits of low mileage costs & lower maintenance.

@brezina if carmakers are now confirming that they won't be making very many e-cars (as most global automakers have done in the past week), how do you conclude that autonomous cars will be electric? there is not some alternative car industry out there, just the one.