On a mission to maximize abundance, well-being, and prosperity. YIMBY. Engineer. Optimist. Building great things!
Joined February 2009
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Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
It was 5-6 years ago I realized this is exactly how a lot of socialists see neoliberals like me. They really think we have this bizarre emotional relationship to charts and lines going up rather than being in love with the increases in human prosperity the lines represent.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
just heard someone say "people are more important than the economy" and it occurred to me that some people genuinely believe that others care about the economy because they like numbers going up and not because it drives living standards for the population
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
Over the past ~10 yrs, in Los Angeles and other jurisdictions, governments have removed disincentives to misbehave, which so far have not resulted in mass misbehavior in all contexts (they have in some - viz the rampant retail theft in CA after we mistakenly legalized it).
The reason misbehavior is still relatively rare is because multiple generations were habituated to behave by the previous, stricter regimes.
As those generations age out and are replaced, we will come to understand that those stricter regimes were, in fact, load-bearing for society.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
My husband has used AI agents to revive old fonts, ornaments, & cuts from 19th century newspapers. The agents even built an editor where you can create your own invitations/pamphlets/cards using old cuts & fonts. Have been using it for @Quillette invitations already
font-revival.com/
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
I can’t even begin to imagine how beautiful it would be to have schools with even a 50% walking rate.
This would require:
- Walkable neighborhoods
- Neighborhood schools
- High trust society
We have much work to do.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
Fire department shenanigans, Dallas edition.
Earlier this year developers began being told seemingly compliant site plans didn’t pass. Why? Dallas FD had unilaterally made a rule that all projects required a dedicated fire lane onsite. Public streets would no longer count as fire access.
Every parcel. Every project. Anywhere in the city. No legislative process. No public notice, input, or review. No approval by city council. Basically “we made a new law and don’t need anyone’s permission”.
If enforced this would wipe billions of dollars off of Dallas property values. A 100’ lot would lose up to ~30% of its development potential overnight. That’s lost space for housing and people. Lost future tax revenue, shifting more onto existing owners. From an unwritten “rule” based on nothing. No safety study. No review of impacts. No published analysis of any kind.
Thankfully developers compared notes and the issue was taken up by the city manager’s office.
But the broader problem this illustrates remains: fire departments setting public policy without consideration of their impacts, with demands largely driven by personal preference and gut opinion. Fire departments shouldn’t get to dictate how our cities function and are designed. Yet they often do, without ever having to demonstrate improved overall public safety or account for other outcomes.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
If you truly *love* American cities, you MUST support strict enforcement of laws against anti-social behavior. Paying bus fares, red light cameras, camping on sidewalks, smoking on trains, off-leash dogs, etc etc
If people want to do whatever they want, that’s FINE in the suburbs or the country on your own land. But it, fundamentally, cannot work in our densest places where people all have to co-operate in proximity.
If we do not, it means cities will continue to be primarily for those able to avoid the annoyances ... the wealthy and/or child-free.
If we don’t change this … in 40 years we will look back on allowing dogs in downtowns the same way we look at cars:
As a terrible mistake for how it molded dense urban environment for the benefit of a few ... by not properly pricing in public costs of the "free rider" dog owners and by changing the entire culture to accommodate them.
My fear is by then (like with cars today) there will be too many ppl accustomed to the private benefits and impunity of living downtown with their dogs so we're only able to make marginal changes
And that negative downstream effects (fewer kids, playgrounds, dirty sidewalks, dog attacks) will be baked in
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
The Oregon legislature is quietly adopting "Outcomes Reviews," wherein the Rules Committee reviews selected passed legislation, and checks whether the laws had their intended effects, identifying whether follow-up legislation is needed to boost efficacy.
oregonlegislature.gov/housed…
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
The next governor of California will almost certainly be @XavierBecerra Dismantling this dysfunction and stupidity should be a core goal. It squanders money, decades and public trust and good will to line the pockets of rent seeking middle men.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
In 2023, more than 1,000 people were killed and over 135,000 injured in crashes involving red-light running in the United States.
Red light cameras are a common sense public safety initiative that will save lives.
We know how to make our streets safer, so we did it 600 times.
Red light cameras reduce red light running by 80% and T-bone crashes by 65%. Most importantly, they help New Yorkers get home safely.
That's why we installed new red light cameras at 600 intersections across the five boroughs to help stop dangerous driving before tragedy strikes, and make our streets safer for everyone who walks, rolls, drives, or takes the bus.
nydailynews.com/2026/10/21/n…
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
I think a system that forces a supermajority consensus for judicial picks, but only simple majorities for ordinary legislation, is about 100x better than what we have: supermajority for ordinary legislation, simple majority for the judiciary, including SCOTUS.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
Credit where credit is due:
Running red lights is extremely dangerous behavior and deterring / punishing this behavior is obviously good public policy.
(Believe CA banned red light cameras until recently, when it allowed limited pilot programs in specific cities. We should instead be blanketing the state with them.)
We know how to make our streets safer, so we did it 600 times.
Red light cameras reduce red light running by 80% and T-bone crashes by 65%. Most importantly, they help New Yorkers get home safely.
That's why we installed new red light cameras at 600 intersections across the five boroughs to help stop dangerous driving before tragedy strikes, and make our streets safer for everyone who walks, rolls, drives, or takes the bus.
nydailynews.com/2026/10/21/n…
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
In the ~19 yrs I have lived in CA, I have seen some v stupid ballot initiatives.
Believe me when I tell you, Prop 40, the so-called Billionaire Tax, is the stupidest of all.
If you are so lucky as to find yourself in possession of a Golden Goose, you encourage it to lay more eggs... you *certainly* don't chase it away.
California's Billionaire Tax Act would collect roughly $30 billion. Accounting for lost income taxes from departures, the mean Net Present Value is negative $39 billion, from Benjamin Jaros and Joshua Rauh nber.org/papers/w35899
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
unfathomable damage done to America. You could have abundant, cheap, emission-free electricity flowing to your home right now if it weren't for these people.
Ralph Nader, 1997: “When we came out against nuclear power in the early '70s, the government had predicted that there would be 1,000 nuclear plants by the year 2000 in the United States, and there's 109 and shrinking, as more and more get shut down.” pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline…
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
San Francisco has not built enough housing to keep up with population growth. This leads to higher housing prices, forcing people who don't work in tech to move out of the city. This hurts everyone, as the city is now less interesting. Agree other cities should learn from this.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
The idea that poverty is man-made rather than the default starting point is one the dumbest and most dangerous misconceptions in economics, politics and life.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
Everyone imagines communism will free them to write poetry while someone else enthusiastically maintains the sewage system. Your economic model is “what if everyone else had fewer dreams than me.”
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Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
You listen to the doomer shit online and hang out with people who parrot your thoughts and then you wonder why you can't get a girlfriend / boyfriend or why you're still stuck in the same place you were a year ago, two years ago.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Whether it's on purpose or not, you attract this. You are what you listen to. You are who you hang out with. You are what you think about. And you're determined to prove yourself right. Every woman is evil, men are trash. Everyone is doing drugs and staying out late and partying and hooking up. It's a shallow existence and you think it's the norm.
I can assure you it is not. There is a whole other world out there but you're just too blind to see it. Wake up. It's time to smell the roses baby. Life is good and it's about to get even better. People fall in love every single day. People still want families. People still want to do some good here.
You gotta see the good. You've gotta change the algorithm of your own life. Surround yourself with people you want to be like to be the person you want to be like. Mind food. Think good thoughts. Consume good words.
Guard your mind to change your mind to change your life.