Phil Levin
@levin_phil
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All about happier / healthier / funner ways to live. Founder @livenearfriends . Founding team @Culdesac . Lives @ Radish in Oakland Writes Supernuclear
Bay Area
Joined December 2018
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The blue areas are the only places in the Bay Area where it is legally permissable to build multifamily (aka affordable) housing. Your high rent is a direct result of this exclusionary zoning.
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Excited to announce the launch of LiveNearFriends
I believe there actually is “one weird trick” for a happy life.
It’s living within a short walk from close friends or family.
LiveNearFriends is a tool to help you make that happen.
—
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Car-free Valencia isn't getting the love it deserves.
So we threw a banquet (taco) dinner in the middle of the street.
It was lit.
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I'm tired of hearing about people being a "voice for affordable housing."
Just show me the units. How many were built in your district?
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We need new models for value capture from public goods (e.g. cool coffee shops).
Retailers work their tales off to make a neighborhood what it is, but the value all flows to the passive long-time homeowners.
(ex: bankrupt restaurants in Hayes Valley surrounded by $3m homes).
Am posting this, from my friend Eric Weatherholtz, as a pic & not tagging him, in order to maximize distribution from the algorithm.
It’s a ~priceless insight.
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If you were to change this exclusionary policy, your rent price would drop instantly. We wouldn't have to raise taxes to build affordable housing.
Housing would just be affordable on its own, like it is in every other city that has legal multifamily housing.
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Fun fact: I moonlight as a tax policy analyst.
@SPUR_Urbanist
and I did a joint report on one of the most regressive laws in America: Proposition 13.
And it's a doozy...
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Thanks to California's ADU law, we had a permit to build a new home approved in 72 days (2.5 months)
Last time we did this, it took almost a year.
Well done
@Oakland
@California_HCD
@CasitaCoalition
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1/ Our dataset shows that 20% of Bay Area homeowners - 250k homes - are estimated to be Housing Millionaires, meaning their wealth has grown by $1m+ bc of their home.
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How did Emeryville become the best biking city in the Bay Area
@JohnBauters
?
Just discovered the hidden bike bridge
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Imagine if the Bay Area showed the leadership and progressiveness on this issue that Minneapolis has
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2/ And here's the kicker: While the average new homeowner in the Bay Area pays 1.26% in property tax, Housing Millionaires only pay 0.4% on average.
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Live Near Friends is hiring a Biz Dev lead.
We want to change how housing works in America.
DM me if interested.
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3/ A revenue-neutral Prop 13 reform would have 53% of people paying *less* (not more) tax than before.
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Scientists know this.
The granddaddy of happiness studies is the 3-generation Framingham Heart Study.
One of the chief findings from that study is that close proximity to a friend can increase your happiness by 50%.
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How does LiveNearFriends help?
We make it easy to find homes for *rental or sale* near friends. You and your friends get alerts when that perfect home comes available within a 5-minute walk.
We also make the coordination piece of this fun and less awkward.
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If you actually want this:
Living within walking distance of your friends completely transforms your quality of life.
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We watch each other’s kids we do impromptu drinks at sunset, we see each other randomly walking to the coffee shop, we play a whole lot of ping pong.
It’s been amazing for my life, and my goal in making this is to have you experience the same.
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So give LiveNearFriends a try, wontcha?
And DM me what you think. Looking for feedback on how to make this more useful.
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Want to change what housing looks like in the next generation?
LiveNearFriends is hiring for growth/BD (in-person - Bay Area based).
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I’ve had over a dozen friends move near me. I did it by proactively sending them nearby listings. Did they say “Phil, please stop?” Well, yeah … sometimes. But a surprising number of them actually did move. And now we have a wonderful life a short walk away from each other.
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@scottfits
@gnosisSafe
@SnapshotLabs
@utopialabs_
@viamirror
@deworkxyz
@discord
@NotionHQ
At
@creatorcabins
we use
@clarityteams
instead of Notion. Web3 native and getting fully featured every day.
I don’t miss Notion
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There are two groups that would agree that living near friends is one of the best things you can do for your happiness:
Scientists and Celebrities
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Been hard at work on this....
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You may have talked about this with a friend in an aspirational "wouldn't it be nice" sort of way.
Now's the time to actually make it happen.
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The whole report from
@oandbinstitute
is really excellent. In case you were curious about the racial overlay....
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Can't think of a person I'd more want in a position of political power in SF.
Hard-working, high-integrity, humble, great judgment. And an embodiment about all that's special about the Bay Area.
Last weekend, I gathered with 200+ family, friends, & neighbors to make an announcement.
An announcement rooted in my family's story, and the story of so many immigrant families who moved to the US to seek a better life.
I'm running for the SF Board of Supervisors this Nov! 🧵
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Bottom line: This law subsidizes people who have *already won the jackpot* - the wealthiest, most fortunate members our society
We pay for this in the form of lower teacher pay, crowded classrooms, and fewer public services.
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@mnolangray
Eliminate electrical meter, fire sprinkler, and water meter reqs for ADUs (reduce housing costs by ~30%+)
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Celebrities know this too.
An unusual number live near each other
Jennifer Lawrence is neighbors with her buds Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher.
Conan lives next to Adam Sandler.
And of course Ben Affleck is a few doors down from his boy Matt Damon.
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With the LiveNearMe link, friends can subscribe to get alerts when homes come available within a 5-minute walk of your house.
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We all can't be rich and attractive. But living near friends … that’s something we can all do.
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A LiveNearMe Link is your personal invitation for your friends to move near you. It greases the conversational wheels.
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Hong Kong MTA knows how to do this. They buy up the land around their train stations.
The real estate appreciation pays for the transit investment.
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@alfred_twu
@UVACooperCenter
@alfred_twu
the border of Palo Alto and East Palo Alto paints this picture pretty clearly as well
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All the cities you love were once just a plan too.
One day East Solano will (hopefully) be a city its residents love in the same way you love yours.
Let’s both densify existing cities and give new ones a chance to exist.
YIMBYs are clearly divided on this. I think it's a good project with a lot of potential. Some people I respect disagree. Fair enough. But the amount of silliness floating around, some it from people who don't know basic details about the proposal, warrants a thread.
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Alternatively, you might be moving to a new city want to search for a place near a few friends in different places.
LiveNearFriends can give you a digest of homes near different friends.
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5-minutes is the magic low-friction distance that makes social relationships easy.
You can pop over in your crocs. Or pajamas. Or carrying a baby without worrying about that pesky car seat. You can stop in just to see if someone’s around without thinking twice.
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Full analysis here with interactive maps of the Bay Area.
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@bhargreaves
I’ve been waiting for the discourse to return to this for a while
Bullish on “currently-a-little-too-far” real estate (think: Napa/Sonoma)
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And they can control exactly what types of homes they see: One friend might be looking to buy a 3br house, another might be renting a studio.
They will only see homes relevant for them.
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Now that
@balajis
's Network States book is out, let's dust off the couple thousand words I wrote trying to interpret one of his juiciest tweets.
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Ingredients: 20 chairs, 4 folding tables, 1 generator, 1 speaker system, and ideally one lamp per person.
And all the tacos from Pancho Villa you can carry
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You will spend 10000x more time in the 5 blocks surrounding your house than the cool neighborhood a 10-minute drive away.
Neighborhood >>> City.
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This is an extension of the work from the Tax Fairness Project I did last year, diving deep into Oakland
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This subsidy is *extremely expensive* for the state. It equates to the amount Oakland spends on Transportation, the Fire Dept, Human Services (aka homelessness) and Housing combined.
And its primarily for the wealthy.
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Can
@builtbyfrise
turn a $10k prefab shed into a habitable tiny home?
Find out in this video series filmed at
@creatorcabins
Neighborhood Zero in Texas.
(the videography is 🤌🤌🤌)
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Come join!
Five models for how to live near friends
@levin_phil
is hosting a virtual seminar to teach you how to do this in your neighborhood:
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Check out the full report here:
And… my pet project, the Tax Fairness Project here:
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Our outcomes as a city and state are not matching our progressive values.
We chant progressivism in the streets, but enact regressivism in the (tax policy) sheets.
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This DCCC is a secretly important election that determines who makes it into office across San Francisco.
Michael Lai is the guy. Vote for him and the whole slate.
I’m running for office for San Francisco DCCC on March 5th, 2024!
In the city where ppl are building AI & longevity drugs, it's crazy that the basics don't work:
Streets are unsafe
New housing is blocked
We don't teach 8th grade algebra
I'm running to change SF 🧵
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One step closer to a walkable, sustainable, and livable future in our cities.
Congrats team.
Excited to share that we’ve raised a $30M Series A led by
@KhoslaVentures
, along with
@foundersfund
, LENx (
@Lennar
), Byers Capital,
@ziggcap
, and
@Initialized
.
This capital will accelerate our mission to build cities for people, not cars.
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@Oakland
@California_HCD
@CasitaCoalition
There were other parts of the process that were painful and needlessly costly. But the building permit itself was a relative breeze.
i'll write up full notes soon...
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Retail can make a neighborhood what it is (think: Hayes Valley, Williamsburg, etc)
... yet, those retailers go bust all the time
It's not because they are failing to create value
It's because they are failing to *capture it*
Some ideas from
@bswud
and I on how to fix...
Have you ever wondered why certain shopping streets are beautiful, and others, often only a short distance away, are a mess? (🧵)
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She's pregnant! And I'm with a behavioral scientist.
I’m pregnant! And I’m a behavioral scientist.
These last 8 months have taught me one major lesson. 👇
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@mikekarnj
I built something for this:
My wife and I have had over a dozen friends move near us and its the biggest lifestyle upgrade we've ever had.
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Super fun jamming with
@JacksonSteger
Doing a podcast with him is like going to a spa for a deep-tissue massage ... but for your ideas.
In our season premiere,
@culdesac
founding team member
@levin_phil
shared lessons from building USA's first walkable, car-free neighborhood.
He and host
@JacksonSteger
also reflected upon how to create 🔥 co-living environments
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See the full analysis here with some maps:
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@ArmandDoma
You can get pretty high population densities at 2-3 stories as long as a) there is minimal car infra b) home sizes are modest c) shared parks/courtyards rather than backyards.
@culdesac
Tempe has the same population density as large chunks of Manhattan at 2-3 stories.
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In Oakland, the wealthier you are, the more subsidies you receive from the state because of Prop 13.
If your friend makes $100k more than you, they receive $2,900 per year subsidy from the government
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Love seeing the ambition of new startups out there.
Makes "build better housing" seem comparatively very achievable.
Way to get after it
@juliadewahl
I am excited to announce Antares!
@jordanbramble
and I started Antares with a shared vision of abundant clean energy for all, from Earth to the asteroid belt.
We're building micro-sized nuclear reactors to provide power to remote off-grid locations.
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Ever dreamed of buying a property with friends?
Cabin’s going to help you make it happen
So many people dream of getting their squad together and building a place to live, but the barriers to doing it are too high
Cabin now offers the full package to help make your squad wealth dreams a reality
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@thesfcommons
is that unicorn of a true community-driven third space and a viable business at the same time.
Just don't call it a coworking space ... it's a lot more than that.
realized its been 1 year in and we never filmed a tour of
@thesfcommons
✨community third space and home for the curious in SF. Here it is:
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California leads the US in real poverty rate (adjusted for cost-of-living) because its cities refuse to build housing.
@zachklein
's diagnosis is sadly spot on.
Across California there are too many cars and not enough houses.
So it was shocking that the SF board of supervisors voted the other night to effectively block a 495 unit housing project on a parking lot.
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There are 442,000 public parking spaces in San Francisco.
There are 22,000 units of affordable housing.
This is a choice.
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Radish in Apartment Therapy this week.
See Inside Oakland’s Radish Commune, Home to 19 Adults (and 4 Babies!)
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Lesson: All the progressivism in the world doesn't matter when you have regressive housing policy.
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And poorer, less-white neighborhoods like this census tract in East Oakland are effectively cross-subsidizing wealthier census tracts like this one in Grand Lake.
$9000 per year more subsidy to the average Grand Lake homeowner. That's a LOT!
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@SamoBurja
@TheAnnaGat
I was curious about this question and did a simulation based on life expectancy tables for high net worth individuals (assuming 2-parent household)
Median age of inheritance = 65!
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Moderating a panel on Web3 x Real Estate today at 1pm PT / 4pm ET w/
@creatorcabins
.
Three of my favorite early pioneers joining:
+
@janineyorio
from
@Everyrealm
+
@colin_odonnell
from Kift
+
@dlitwak
from
@maxwellsocial
What should i ask them?
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What we have now in most US cities is public and retail investment getting captured by the private landowners nearby.
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The best thing about the internet is finding the
@katdov
s of this world and getting to collaborate with them IRL.
She captained a team of amateur builders from
@creatorcabins
to do some incredible things this week.
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@JanineLeger
[Agree] And at the same time: Let's make it 10x easier to do land projects, particularly urban ones.
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A look into the lives of two sets of Radish parents, doing the parenting thing on easy mode.
link in comments
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Awesome project. Creating a tight-knit neighborhood out of thin air.
Time for a status update on the Neighborhood!
The bottom line is that 100+ people have moved into 30+ new homes since February, twice our original 2022 goal of 50. Honestly, we've lost count.
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@squarishbread
@SPUR_Urbanist
I talk about this here:
I'd actually like a solution where we don't increase revenue (or increase it marginally) and instead just spread out the burden more fairly:
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Currently the (less wealthy) East Bay is heavily subsidizing the (more wealthy) South Bay.
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A little coordination goes a long way to a happy life.
Agglomerate, agglomerate.
I've discovered a group trip format that I really love. I call it a "traveling neighborhood"
The basic idea simple: live in an interesting new place for a few weeks with friends in walking distance, as if we were neighbors
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@peternocturnal
Our research here estimates that 250k homes in the Bay Area have appreciated by at least $1m.
20% of Bay Area homeowners made millionaires due to their homes
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If you are deep in the DAO universe, this is a fantastic way to spend a week.
🚨ATTN DAO Leaders + Core Contributors:🚨
📢 We’re interrupting your scrolling to announce our DAO Operator Residency Program.
Here’s a thread breaking down all the details (and how you can sign up!) 👇
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E-bikes mean the Oakland hills ride as easy as the Oakland flats
#WorldCarFreeDay
#WorldCarFreeDay2021
@zmwang
@culdesac
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Millennials are 14x more likely to have bought a home with friends than Boomers.
(and 3x more likely to buy with relatives)
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The national deficit of hanging out is real.
This is why we built
@livenearfriends
ICYMI: I wrote about our national hanging out crisis. In the last 20 years, averaging face-to-face socializing has declined ~30% among adults and ~50% among teens.
We've never been so alone. And it's driving us crazy.
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Had a blast chatting with
@JoeVennare
live from the Radish RV.
We talk about
@livenearfriends
, living near 30 friends (and their kids), Culdesac, and
@bermster
's deep wisdom around the "Iron Law of Proximity"
Related: Anyone have a podcast microphone rec?
New episode w/ Phil Levin, founder & CEO of
@livenearfriends
, a social real estate platform helping loved ones find homes near each other.
We cover:
- social wellness
- how walkability impacts wellness
- communes, country clubs, & blue zones
And more 👉
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