Kevin Burke

kevin.burke.devCities Can Cost Effectively Start Their Own Utilities Now | Kevin Burke

7 Feb 2025

Northern California cities can, and should, save households ~$800 a year by forming their own utility companies and breaking off from PG&E. New analysis kevin.burke.dev/kevin/norcal...

Who exactly is driving from Antioch BART to Montgomery St. in 65 minutes on a weekday?

Similarly... the main result is that commute times _on_ the Bay Bridge don't change much which... obviously? The toll plaza limits how many people can get onto the bridge[1], the obvious thing to look at is time going through the toll plaza [1] Except the hundreds of cars who use the bus only lane

kevin.burke.dev2026 Election Recommendations

Here's what I'm voting for this year and why kevin.burke.dev/elections/fa...

github.comGitHub - kevinburke/ansible-goContribute to kevinburke/ansible-go development by creating an account on GitHub.

I built a thing that does Ansible provision runs way, way faster than stock Ansible does. github.com/kevinburke/a...

Just sort of a weird moment in my career, I've been kicking this around in the back of my head for probably a decade now. A decade ago would have done the whole HN launch etc, now it's just like, it's good enough that I use this and it saves me time

Say what you will about public forums (Bluesky, Twitter) but if you post complete nonsense you are typically going to get roasted. On Nextdoor you can say completely wrong stuff and it shows up just the same as everyone else which is pretty toxic IMO.

This post is unavailable.

A guy kept talking about how his kids class had 40 kids in it as a reason to (IIRC) oppose some new apartment proposal. Finally he named the school in some unrelated thread, I call the school, they confirm the largest class size in the entire school is 32 kids. Just toxic that there's no penalty

sfchronicle.comReal estate investors are profiting off a California tax breakThe welfare exemption has become a strategy for landlords to save money on taxes without necessarily giving tenants a discount on rent, a Chronicle investigation found.

"Affordable housing" income limits are tied to area median income, but if you don't build enough housing and your market rate units gentrify, the income limits for BMR also go up... www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...

daylightcomputer.comDaylight | A More Caring ComputerDaylight Computer (DC1) is a new kind of calm computer, designed for deep work and health.

I really like this for reading and use it every day daylightcomputer.com

calmatters.orgIs this proposition a $4 billion giveaway to a billionaire’s LA research center?Proposition 38 will award $4 billion to one unnamed research center. Under the very specific criteria, only one center seemingly qualifies.

California Prop 38: - authorizes $4B spending in a way that only one research center in the whole state qualifies - privately funded research center - founder of the research center has donated $22 million to support the ballot prop This is, like, pure corruption calmatters.org/politics/ele...

Where are HJTA, Carl deMaio, Marc Joffe etc. I don't understand this.

Also - it's just as embarrassing that the CA Democratic Party is supporting this. Asleep at the wheel guys! Corruption is bad no matter who does it. If you want to fund immunology research do it out of the state budget.

Kevin Burke reposted

sjd93.bsky.social

@sjd93.bsky.social

18 Sept

Replying to @burke.bsky.social

I have 2 interchange *repavings* that have been stuck in CalTrans design processes for 7 years.

18 Sept

"So whenever you are awarded federal money, you have to go through Caltrans.... so we're not able to actually design the project until Caltrans gives us the design money." "Just like with the design, we cannot bid the project until we receive funding from Caltrans" www.youtube.com/watch?v=u58q...

18 Sept

"the Caltrans process... working with Caltrans is a very lengthy process. the environmental clearance that we submitted in February, it took six months" "just by seeing how long it's been working with Caltrans so far, we are [going to push construction from 2027 to 2028]"

16 Sept

Backwardation was named after John Backwardation

sfchronicle.comMassive pickleball court complex proposed for unexpected Bay Area siteThe Alameda County Fairgrounds has long been a home for 4-H kids and the region’s agricultural traditions. Could it also become one of the Bay Area’s biggest destinations for pickleball?

12 Sept

@mgm.ink my question is why they are stopping at 32 pickleball courts. www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/arti...

9 Sept

at this rate P != NP has gotta be provable within the next year or two right?

9 Sept

It's really crazy that HCD tries to do sites inventory analysis without a CoStar subscription (which all of the relevant cities have). forget law or policy changes "Analysts can retrieve information about leases" should be among the top priorities for next cycle.

bizjournals.comDowntown Walnut Creek building with popular bike shop sells for a profit - San Francisco Business TimesA downtown Walnut Creek building home to R&A Bikes has sold to a Los Gatos investor.

9 Sept

In other news we pointed out this site was not going to turn into apartments by 2031 and what do you know it just sold to another commercial property landlord and the ground floor bike shop extended their lease for ten years. www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco...

Kevin Burke reposted

The Onion

@theonion.com

3 Sept

Google Maps Introduces Crawling Directions For Cyclists Hit By Truck https://theonion.com/google-maps-introduces-crawling-directions-for-cyclists-hit-by-truck/

21 Aug

If police take a blood draw AFTER you have been transported to a hospital and THEN "questioned for hours" and the blood draw shows a "near zero alcohol level" I do not think this is the vindication that she thinks it is calmatters.org/investigatio...

13 Aug

In California you can drive on the roads with only $60,000 of insurance coverage per accident. In Europe coverage requirements start in the low millions.

13 Aug

Raising these limits (and allowing insurers to better discriminate against people with poor driving records) would have substantial second order effects on car + transit demand in California.

17 July

The scene in Shawshank Redemption where Andy writes a letter a week asking for funds for the library and then they finally say "here are your books, stop writing us" is a pretty accurate description of successful public policy advocacy.

17 July

POV: they are finally putting in the sidewalk and curb bulb out

6 July

Mexico should have painted this on the field just to mess with England

22 June

Closing the door reduces noise but worsens air circulation/temp control. There are code solutions for this - doors are supposed to have a gap at the bottom for airflow, or a louver above the door. But these are rarely implemented correctly and expensive to fix

Alex Contreras 🍉@alexbikes.bsky.social

Sleeping with bedroom door open or close has become a new gc discourse. Team closed door personally.

22 June

I guess some people have hollow core doors, the price difference to solid doors is not very large. The other fix I wish was more common is a louver with two 90 degree turns - think a sideways submarine periscope - this allows airflow while also blocking most sound

22 June

The other problem is no one is a sophisticated consumer enough to care about this, who in the USA is touring a house and looking at the sound performance. Ideally this is what local codes are for instead of mandating "major massing breaks" or whatever

kevin.burke.devWhy Can’t Walnut Creek Build 3 Bedroom Apartments with a Playground? | Kevin Burke

17 June

I wrote about why new apartments in Walnut Creek offer a pretty low living standard and why it's impossible to build a 3 bedroom apartment with a playground here. kevin.burke.dev/kevin/walnut...

sfchronicle.comDanville 12-year-old nabbed after allegedly fleeing police on electric motorcycleDanville police stopped a 12-year-old boy for reckless driving after he allegedly sped through a residential neighborhood on an electric motorcycle and attempted to flee from officers.

23 May

Most parents understand they shouldn't let their 12 year old drive a car but I guess haven't quite learned the same lesson when it comes to letting a 12 year old ride a 60mph top speed motorcycle. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

23 May

The irony is the car is much safer for the driver and more dangerous for everyone else, the motorcycle is dangerous for the rider and not as dangerous for bystanders. I still don't understand how it's so easy to buy these when I can't even order a 2.5gpm showerhead online

public-meetings.burke.servicesPublic Meetings

22 May

Hello, is this thing on? Here's a site I made to make it easier to track public meetings. Automatic transcripts and agenda parsing. Please take a look, tell me if it's useful, and what meetings I should add public-meetings.burke.services

22 May

I tried submitting this to Google - it's original content, none of these transcripts exist! but it's been a week and they've indexed 2% of the pages. I am guessing they are completely overwhelmed by AI submitted crap

19 June 2025

Gemini Dream is the best Moody Blues song

California Housing Defense Fund

19 June 2025

Video has a disappointing lack of focus on the tambourine player/hype man and whatever this is www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3QL...

Kevin Burke reposted

@housingdefense.bsky.social

drive.google.comWalnut Creek - 2775–2855 Mitchell Drive - HAA Letter.pdf

HAA letter to Walnut Creek, CA for tonight's Design Review Commission meeting re proposed 422-unit builder's remedy project at 2775–2855 Mitchell Drive, which includes 55 low-income units. @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov @california-hcd.bsky.social drive.google.com/file/d/1JnUm...

Not sure what case exists for banning transgender surgery for minors that doesn’t also exist for banning plastic surgery for minors, maybe you could argue it’s less reversible? More cosmetic?

tandfonline.comThe National Movement to Halt the Spread of Multifamily Housing, 1890-1926Efforts to prohibit apartments, rather than merely regulate their construction and condition, began in the 1890s. Through the early 1920s, major cities used stringent building codes to achieve this...

Good morning, a good day to read about the history of the multifamily building code in the US and how little of it related to safety www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Spooky Back From The Dead Lazarus

Larkspur, Warm Springs and Sac Valley transportation planners

Kevin Burke reposted

@jlazarus.bsky.social

Not an original point but worth saying again - there is not a single element in this picture that identifies any of these folks as law enforcement agents. No badges, no uniforms, no vests. Out of context it just looks like a bunch of random guys are kidnapping a mayoral candidate.

The New York Times@nytimes.com

Breaking News: Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who is running for mayor, was detained by ICE agents at an immigration court as he tried to escort a migrant out of the courthouse to prevent his arrest. nyti.ms/4jWkANE

sfchronicle.comState Farm accused of ‘illegal scheme’ that left California wildfire survivors underinsuredAttorneys for Los Angeles wildfire survivors allege that the insurance company misused reconstruction cost estimation programs to lowball home rebuild costs.

Many home insurers are using the same valuation tool to price California insurance. We should increase competition so more competitors enter who might try different software or different valuation models. www.sfchronicle.com/california-w...

Instead the insurance commissioner is taking the alternate approach of forcing existing insurers into pricing struggle sessions and then watching most of them leave the state altogether.