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
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.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
Possibly the most important lesson. Along with:
Everything gets better if you work to make it better.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
The notion that tolerating filth, disorder and lawlessness in public spaces is some sort of charity for the poor is deeply corrosive. The people most dependent on public spaces—and most harmed when they are degraded—are the hardworking, responsible, law-abiding working poor,
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
No, I have never considered that your kids grow up and you dust your hands of them.
I can show up to my mom’s house with the kids in their pajamas and no diaper bag and still have everything I need. My mother in law will literally take PTO to watch my kids if I need to go to the Dr. There are pictures of my grandma dressed as a pirate, hanging off a swing-set with all of us grandkids in her 60s. I grew up 2 minutes from my grandparents and saw them almost every day. My grandpa would take me out to eat lunch and feed popcorn to ducks at the park every Thursday when I was a child.
Just today, my mom asked to get my 3yr old because it had been *two days* since they got to play together. My dad takes my toddler on “Popaw adventures.” My grandparents are in their 80s and still have me bring the kids to their house so they can entertain them while I rest, and we have family dinner at their house every Sunday afternoon.
My mom tells me stories about how her
grandma (my great grandmother) would come to stay for a couple weeks in the summer when she was off school or if an adult was traveling.
This behavior has been modeled my entire life. And if it hasn’t for you, then I hope you get to break the cycle.
Arthur Dutra IV retweeted
Every CA legislator reading this should hang their head in shame
“Design in El Segundo and scale in Texas.” —@shaunmmaguire in conversation with @Initialized founder @isaiah_p_taylor and @jakobdiepen.
