Robert Fruchtman @_fruchtose Twitter profile

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

"I can't believe this hearing is still going." —San Francisco proverb

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

This tweet should be preserved in a museum

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

How are things going on San Francisco? Well, the Planning Commission is hearing a Discretionary Review filed by an ice cream shop to prevent a different ice cream shop from opening across the street.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

@RespectableLaw @DeAnna4Congress Our president is so tough, he can nourish himself with liquids. Checkmate, atheists.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

This cartoon by The Onion is not so much a joke as it is something NIMBYs actually believe

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Housing Twitter over the weekend

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

5 years

Why are there so many empty storefronts in San Francisco? Rent is high, yes, but permitting a business can take literally years. Take this totally normal, very cool advice from commercial real estate agents about how to prepare for the permit process.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

1 year

Buckle up, y'all. This evening, the San Francisco Board of Appeals will hear the case of whether the so-called Sunset Tower meets the Planning Code rules. SF Planning days it doesn't—and the developer has appealed.

A skyscraper on the west side? SF Planning isn't so sure

But, as goes building in San Francisco, the project is not without controversy.

www.sfexaminer.com

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

How it started: How it's going:

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

Cars are one of the most amazing and wonderful inventions in all of history. They serve us. They connect us. They liberate us. The future should have lots more cars. Self-driving cars. Flying cars. Space cars! Cars are fantastic.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

We live in a low-rise society

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

me: it;s so hard to understand why housing costs so much in San Francisco!! Harvey Milk: My friend, the answer you seek is simple. It's ✨🏳️‍🌈🕶️supply and demand🕶️🏳️‍🌈✨

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

8 months

It's about to get REAL for San Francisco. These housing reforms start next year: • No more NIMBY appeals of construction permits for affordable housing (à la 2550 Irving) • Streamlining for 10% affordable projects in ~July • No more infinite delays from CEQA concern trolling

Louis Mirante (on threads @louismirante)

@louismirante

8 months

THRILLED Gov Newsom signed critical housing bills, including all cosponsored by @BayAreaCouncil : -AB 1633 establishing penalties for CEQA abuse -AB 1033 allowing affordable ADU condos -AB 1114 speeding approval process -AB 1287 expanding density bonuses And he signed SB 423!!!

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

2031: Tired of transplants moving in, San Francisco voters approve a ballot initiative requiring new residents to have a referral code to sign a lease. Existing residents can refer 1 person every ten years, subject to the Board of Supervisors making findings that they are "cool."

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Guy who paid off the mortgage on their house in Noe Valley after working for IBM for 30 years and now spends their time in public hearings yelling at tech workers to leave

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

They just came right out and said it. Infuriating stuff.

San Francisco Chronicle

@sfchronicle

4 years

The Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday canceled a plan to buy a 70-room hotel in Novato and turn it into supportive housing for homeless people under the state’s Homekey program.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

11 months

Hello San Francisco. I'm attending a Board of Appeals hearing for an appeal of the Planning Department's proposed amendment to the Planning Code that would stop the 2700 Sloat housing project—a.k.a. the Sunset Tower.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

1 year

Things CEQA has been used to block or delay in California: • Bike lanes • Infill housing near transit • Grocery stores • Student housing • Bans on oil drilling • Hospitals Things CEQA has not stopped: • Sprawl in high fire risk zones • Building homes on radioactive soil

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Fifth caller is a customer of Garden Creamery and asks they deny the application of the other ice cream shop—because they have not consulted the community [the ice cream community?]

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Many people are saying

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

San Francisco: if we stop building housing, maybe the startup engineers will leave Startup engineers:

Leah Culver

@leahculver

4 years

Some personal news - I bought a house! 🏡✨ #pinkpaintedlady

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Are kids an environmental hazard? That's what one HOA is saying in Pacific Heights about a proposed high school expansion in Pacific Heights. Wealthy homeowners have appealed plans to turn a retail complex and parking lot into classrooms and an athletic center at 3150 Calfornia.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Hello, world. I'm blown away by the response to my thread last night about ice cream, and how San Francisco planning works—or, uh, doesn't. This thread will explore some parts of how we got into this mess. I don't have much prepared, so this thread may surprise you AND me.

Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

How are things going on San Francisco? Well, the Planning Commission is hearing a Discretionary Review filed by an ice cream shop to prevent a different ice cream shop from opening across the street.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

1 year

San Francisco NIMBYs in two sentences: 1. “Our building has historic significance in its near perfect design” 2. “The heart of our building… is the garage”

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

“It's Impossible To Make Developers Build Housing,” Says City Which Spent the Last 50 Years Making It Impossible to Build Housing

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

FIFTY CALLERS. OVER ICE CREAM. I HATE THIS. WE'RE IN A PANDEMIC. OUR PRESIDENT IS A FASCIST.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Almost complete silence from the SFBOS on the housing element

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Guy who believes oil companies are responsible for most pollution, and also that cities should require more parking around grocery stores

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

The state's role in ending the housing shortage is to give unlimited money to scofflaw cities with no strings attached

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

The motion to reject the discretionary review and approve Matcha n More passes unanimously, 7-0. This was... [pregnant pause] a cold decision.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

There you have it. HCD says that San Francisco must adopt a housing element by January 31, or the Builder's Remedy applies on February 1. SF Planning isn't planning for SFBOS hearings until March—at the earliest. The Builder's Remedy will apply until the City adopts the element.

Kevin Burke

@derivativeburke

2 years

Last week the SF City Attorney told the SF Planning Commission that the Builder's Remedy and other penalties did not kick in for 120 days after the Housing Element deadline expires. Today HCD clarified that that's not accurate

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

It's been an hour and 15 minutes to get to this point, but the decision in this food fight has been rendered. Thank you for reading.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

1 year

Only in San Francisco

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Tenth caller: what are we trying to put up extra hurdles to open a business? The planning process is being weaponized against a competitor.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

64th caller: "Hi, I support the new business. The whole process is dumb as shit."

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Recent news out of San Francisco suggests even greater trouble for the housing element. Since the August review by HCD was delivered, one thing has become increasingly clear— A significant number of supervisors don't care what @California_HCD thinks.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

Guy who votes no on every housing project that comes up for approval and then gets mad when the media says he's not pro-housing

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

San Francisco: we're into COMMUNITY planning Concerned that Other people who Might Move into Units Near me— If They're built—might be able to see into my Yard

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

We've passed the 20-caller mark over the fight to open a soft serve dessert shop.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

This thread illustrates the vision SF politicians have sold voters for decades: you, too, can block housing projects in your neighborhood. The housing element due in four months will likely change that. But few on the Board of Supervisors are saying it.

Emily H

@ehuston101

2 years

I help run a grocery store in the Outer Sunset and there is a five-story building going up right across the street. It's replacing a decrepit lot strewn with ruins of a gas station. It's unnerving to hear all the same old lines from customers I've known for years cashiering.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Hello San Francisco. I'm attending an appeal of 3832 18th St at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. A guy named Thanos is appealing a Planning Commission approval of a six-story group housing project. This is a state density bonus law project.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

11 months

Swig wants to know if we'll upset the elegance of San Francisco "because we're in a short term housing emergency that isn't really an emergency because housing is just too expensive." [Author's note: What the absolute fuck]

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Some reasons people move to California: • Jobs • School • To be near family/friends • Politics • Weather • Escape from LGBT persecution Things that aren't reasons people move to California: • They heard that a new condo building went up

Jordan Grimes 🚰

@cafedujord

4 years

@sashaperigo @CurbedSF Denny: increased supply can be the *problem* though, not the solution. If you increase rapidly the supply of MR housing, prices don't go down, it induces demand. "High income people want to live, be around each other."

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

9 months

The drama continues to unfold with 2700 Sloat Blvd, a.k.a the Sunset Tower. Two new housing application filings illustrate that the story of the project is far from over. If anything, it's getting stranger.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

The most frustrating part of San Francisco's housing element process isn't SF Planning's failure to admit how the city's land use policies are choking residential development. It's not their inability to zone for realistic capacity. It's the Board of Supervisors.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Caller 26: I need calories to support my training. I support Matcha n More so I can bulk up.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

The real San Francisco treat is rejecting an improvement to an inequitable status quo if the proposed change doesn't create a utopia

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Here's my opinion on supertalls: San Francisco should legalize small apartment buildings at greater densities in affluent neighborhoods

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Caller 25: this is a sad attempt to stifle competition. We need to ask, "Is this a good use of our time?"

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Bi Rite prices make Whole Foods look like Grocery Outlet

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Empiricist take alert

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Public comment is over after 64 opinions over a cold, sugary dessert. Secretary Ionin: "I don't know about you, but after this I'm going to have some ice cream." 😭😭😭

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

Pictured: SF exceeding market rate housing goals

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

It's not often put explicitly, but yes: San Francisco tends to value process > outcomes. It's not always explicated, but it's a mainstream political view in SF that reducing public input not worth the cost savings. This case heightens the contradiction.

Sam 🇺🇸

@samclaassen

2 years

@_fruchtose Love the cheeky rebrand of bathroom fiscal responsibility as “center right”

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

I'm shocked to discover that the Sunset District was rezoned for single-family homes in 1944 to protect investments, and not to prevent gentrification as was previously thought.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Welp, I tested positive for COVID-19. And the worst part is that there was no option to file for discretionary review. Someone just gave me the virus and I had no opportunity for me to give public input in opposition.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

7 years

@Laura_Kate08 @montyxxo @lolawantswhat @BuzzFeedNews So would I. Let's make it legal for DACA workers to gain citizenship. Right now they can't. It's not allowed. Impossible for them to try.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

TLDR: Over 30 people called to tell the State Historical Resources Commission that it would be racist to preserve a planned community founded in racism. Their response was, "It may be racist, but it's sure neat!" and voted to recommend St. Francis Wood for historic designation.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

6 months

I have found HCD's corrective action letter to San Francisco. Some quick thoughts.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

St Paul/MPLS: Triplexes are LEGALIZED ⚖️ Portland: Sixplexes for AFFORDABILITY 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Sacramento: apartments belong EVERYWHERE 🏠 Berkeley: racist zoning will be GONE 🌈 San Francisco: ferris wheels are SUPER IMPORTANT 🎡

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Investors have bought so many single-family homes across the US that they now constitute up to half of rental housing stock in some states.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

WE HAVE CROSSED 40 CALLERS ANGRY OVER DESSERT

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

At this point I am convinced that San Francisco's upcoming housing element will unleash political chaos. I don't think people have yet grasped the extent of the shitshow that we'll see. I hope I'm wrong, though!

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Project sponsor was accidentally disconnected. So we're going to public comment... over an ice cream shop.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

San Francisco is a leader in solving the housing crisis. We have a winning formula, a strong roadmap, and the political will to achieve it. Our only obstacle: We need $100 billion and Gavin Newsom won't give us to us.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. It's Arrested Development.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

8 months

I just heard the news that Governor Newsom has finalized his pick to replace Diane Feinstein. Congratulations to U.S. Senator Willie Brown!

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

5 months

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Discretionary review applicant says that the competing ice cream shop is part of a chain, which the project sponsor deliberately hid—calling it perjury. The project sponsor rebuts that the DR applicant deliberately hid his identity in the filing.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

In the Castro District, one of San Francisco's wealthiest and whitest neighborhoods, the City has installed signs pressuring residents without homes to shrink from the eyes of their betters. Everyone involved in the design and installation of these signs should be ashamed.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

Guess who's the source of this quote. Hint: they are a landlord who recently built new units which are being rented out at market-rate.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Planning Commission Secretary Ionin is pausing public comment so the Commissioners can open a new teleconference meeting because the meeting has gone for 8 hours. He sounds exasperated. "Everybody wants to call about an ice cream shop," he sighs.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

1 year

San Francisco is truly blessed to have elected supervisors who are brave enough to look their constituents in the eye and tell them that better things aren't possible. 🙏

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

“We're looking for parking.” —San Francisco proverb

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

NIMBYs will use any excuse to oppose new housing. Today's example: an Oakland real estate broker claims that the Surfside condo building collapse was "unexplained," and that means condo buildings in California are somehow unsafe.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

11 months

Finally, an ad I can get behind

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

This morning I spent some time mapping all the LIHTC projects in San Francisco from 1987-2019. I'm reminded of a prominent political player's claim that it's "offensive" to say most affordable housing in the City is built on the east side.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

This. Is. HUGE. You gotta read this. Mayor Breed is proposing a ballot measure which fixes so many of the issues I've been posting about in the last few days, and more! 📆 No more months-long permit delays 🏘 No more discretionary reviews after neighborhood notification

Sharky Laguana

@Sharkyl

4 years

OK THIS IS HUGE: You might remember the Falafel Fight. More recently you might recall the Ice Cream Imbroglio that @_fruchtose live tweeted about:

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

I just heard Rick Hall of Livable California tell the SFBOS: “Please stop demonizing the automobile!... It just isn't going to go away. You're just making life hard for those of us who use autos.”

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

6 months

San Francisco has largely wasted the first year of housing element implementation trying to weasel out of its promises. The Board of Supervisors has instead focused on finding new ways to limit housing projects. Without state oversight, the city would be content to do nothing.

Matt Haney

@MattHaneySF

6 months

Embarrassing. Unacceptable. The state will need to continue to intervene aggressively as long as the city continues to fail miserably at meeting its legally mandated responsibility to build housing. Our residents are suffering with some of the highest housing cost burdens in

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

Wanting praise from Alex Lee, too

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

King of the 48 Hills

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

1 year

how it started how it’s going

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

51st caller: approve the discretionary review. There are too many ice cream shops in the Mission. The community won't benefit. "Space ice cream stores throughout the Mission District so everyone has access to ice cream." Oh God kill me now

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

6 months

Hello San Francisco. I'm attending a meeting of the SF Board of Appeals. I am here for an absolutely wild case in which it looks like the City is quite definitely violating the Housing Accountability Act: 1228 Funston St.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

Cities should absolutely be designed around cars! Not as an exclusive consideration, but as one of the top considerations. A city that is unfriendly to cars is a bad city.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

5 years

Landlords HATE him. Discover this local man's one weird tip to break the power of the landowning class.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

2 years

If there were a Criterion Collection for posts I'd say this is a leading candidate

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Welch: [Haight-Ashbury] was a moderate-to-low-income neighborhood when I moved in with 30% African-American population. It's now the second whitest neighborhood in the City. I can't explain it in any meaningful way. "The population changes, but the buildings remain the same."

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

Finally seeing the replies to this thread after getting back from a trip. I assure everyone, I am not serious. The original thread I'm parodying, however, is.

Jason Crawford

@jasoncrawford

3 years

Cars are one of the most amazing and wonderful inventions in all of history. They serve us. They connect us. They liberate us. The future should have lots more cars. Self-driving cars. Flying cars. Space cars! Cars are fantastic.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

Are San Francisco elected officials focused on important issues, you might ask? Here's my answer— This Tuesday, the full Board of Supervisors will hold a CEQA appeal hearing to decide if a one-story house in Forest Hills should be allowed to have a second story.

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

4 years

Sixth caller supports Matcha n' More, saying we shouldn't deny their application for petty reasons. Seventh caller is a small business owner, asks they support the DR. "Community is more important than ever." MnM "has made that impossible" by serving ice cream topped w/ 24K gold

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

Tell me again that a better use of this space would be for car traffic

Jason

@jasonford1

3 years

#GreatHauntway

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

7 months

New from me: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors must get its act together on HCD's Housing Policy and Practice Review, or city planners are going to have to approve a lot of projects they don't like. Thanks to @sfchronicle for the guest op-ed spot.

Remember the 50-story Sunset skyscraper? Shenanigans by S.F. supes all but ensure it gets approved

You thought the tower at Ocean Beach was dead? It won’t be if San Francisco keeps...

www.sfchronicle.com

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Robert Fruchtman

@_fruchtose

3 years

This article presents a kind of revisionism bordering on fiction to explain the lack of affordable housing in the Castro and Noe Valley. These neighborhoods have had high median incomes for decades, and Noe Valley in particular has fought dense housing at every opportunity.

San Francisco Chronicle

@sfchronicle

3 years

Neighborhoods like the Castro and Noe Valley are fighting gentrification, and the erosion of distinct cultural traits. @sfjkdineen has more:

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