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David Watson 🥑
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑
@mnolangray
...not only are our building codes not international, as the name implies—full of weird standards that needlessly raise US materials costs—they're not national, or even statewide. States update, skip, and amendment them in an ad hoc way, as do local governments in some states...
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑
@mnolangray
If you're wondering why the US construction is so unproductive; why our materials cost so much more; why labor mobility is such a challenge; or why we don't have a healthy modular/manufactured housing industry—well, look to the unusual way that we approach building codes.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑
@mnolangray
And it will be harder to fix: I find that code officials view maintaining their walled garden as an end in itself, and will defend it vociferously; to say nothing of rent seeking firms dependent on weird code provisions. We need more scrutiny on this policy space.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑
@mnolangray
Unlike zoning, evaluating/reforming building codes—to say nothing of writing new ones—is a technical lift far beyond what any city, or most states, could undertake. I suspect the path would either be state-level harmonization with international standards, or national codes.
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Alex
@KernelArray
They never remove a rule after it is implemented. So, they must have done excellent studies before implementing the rule... (An LLM tells me they they removed a rule about range hoods)
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A Person
@LibBostonian
National Electrical Code is an indecipherable legal document that likely does more to line the pockets of the companies who chair the committees that write the code than protect people living in the buildings subject to it.
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Minimums
@MinimumsMax
Don’t agree with you on much, but this is 100% true and a self-enrichment scandal hiding by in plain sight. And tell EPA to knock it off with the constant “upgrades” to new AC coolants, too.
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Neal Mar
@Neal_Mar
In San Francisco, the fire marshal adds new building codes because the FD want to justify manufacturing their own wooden ladders.
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑
@mnolangray
Euclid v. Ambler cut local jurisdictions a blank check to use zoning however they like, such that the typical American city is now a sort of command-and-control centrally planned economy optimized around government-backed class-based apartheid. Overturn it.
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YIMBYLAND
@YIMBYLAND
Overturning Euclid v. Ambler is obviously the correct answer here. Euclid v. Amber is the Supreme Court decision that constitutionalized modern comprehensive and exclusionary zoning. Light it on fire. x.com/cremieuxrecuei…
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YIMBYLAND
@YIMBYLAND
Overturning Euclid v. Ambler is obviously the correct answer here. Euclid v. Amber is the Supreme Court decision that constitutionalized modern comprehensive and exclusionary zoning. Light it on fire.
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Crémieux
@cremieuxrecueil
If you could implement one policy or overturn one Supreme Court ruling to maximally improve America's rate of economic growth, what would you do? You can't do anything too complex like 'Implement my massive packet of reforms. It's one thing, tee-hee.' It has to be one thing.
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California YIMBY
@cayimby
Bay Area cities have permitted just 14% of their 2031 housing targets. What's new: the state is enforcing real consequences now. Brisbane just got decertified for missed deadlines, triggering the builder's remedy, a penalty long on the books but rarely used.
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(((Matthew Lewis))) cults & consequences
@mateosfo
Watching Nancy Pelosi -- one of the greatest Democratic leaders in history -- crater her reputation out of a gross, nepotistic gripe against Scott Wiener (she wants her daughter to win the seat) is one of the biggest disappointments I've experienced in US politics.
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Senator Scott Wiener
@Scott_Wiener
Our campaign created this chatbot, and clearly labeled it as a parody, to highlight Supervisor Chan’s abysmal record on affordable housing, public transportation, education, and San Francisco’s economic recovery. These are critical issues for San Francisco’s future, and the
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