Ben Gould

State & local policy + politics. President @ecodatalab. Fmr @ucberkeley engineering + public policy.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

Many people are saying…

[Jarrett Walker @humantransit]

Oakland, California has a stunningly beautiful site, ideal weather even by California standards, and the hub of the regional rapid transit network. Why don't three times as many people live here? Why not Vancouver-style towers at every station?

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@firstadopter @cerebras They're probably reserving Cerebras for their internal use and RSI with mega-ultrafast, and letting consumers use NVDA for just plain vanilla ultrafast.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@buybackdept @DeepValueBagger It’s only realized gains, not counting unrealized. Could have his entire account in index funds and then be trading everything else on margin.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@JewishWonk @realAdamLevi I’m guessing it’s the “Israeli G***cide Force”, upgraded from the “IOF”.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@the_transit_guy Article is misleading. It’s cutting off federal loans for majors at schools where those graduates go on to earn less than high school graduates. Narrowly targeted, very small number of programs affected.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@UrbanCourtyard Downtown Oakland has some great sites and a friendly city council!

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@Noahpinion Wondering if down the road we will develop government licensing requirements for AI like we do for driving (or clearance for access to information). Need a basic “AI driver’s” license to use simple models; higher tier license / clearance for advanced / pro versions.

[Oakland Report @oaklandreportca]

Mayor Barbara Lee’s Charter Reform Working Group recommendations would be a step backwards for accountability and transparency inside City Hall.

Late last month, Mayor Barbara Lee’s Working Group on Charter Reform released its long-awaited set of recommendations. Not surprisingly, the Mayor’s hand-picked team of advisors recommends giving more power and authority to the Mayor.

Oakland should return to the Model City Charter. This template for organizing city government is used by almost every city in California—because it delivers results. Compared to the strong-mayor system proposed by the Mayor’s Working Group, the Model City Charter is 57% less likely to have corruption, and 10% more efficient. A 10% efficiency gain could save Oakland north of $100 million annually—virtually eliminating the City’s structural deficit.

We also believe the Charter Reform Working Group’s methodology is seriously flawed. The report neglects key considerations and issues in its analysis, and those omissions result in final recommendations that Oakland voters should reject.

☝️This is an excerpt from the article, "Oakland voters should reject the inadequate 'strong-mayor' proposal." Go to Oakland Report to read the full article:
👉https://t.co/3ddMvt4wqy
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@stevenfalk61 @bgouldoak

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@MikeUmbro @sdamico Do you have a newsletter signup anywhere?

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@CAForever Oakland has had some challenges, but things are turning around. We have a new city council, a new mayor, new political organizations and a newly engaged constituency that believes Oakland can and should be the best place to live in the country. We’re going to make it happen. 6/6

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

Oakland should be the heart of the next American Shenzhen.

1) Logistics: International cargo airport, seaport, freeways, BART, freight rail + Amtrak. Everything you need to move both people & goods.
2) Location: (1/x)

[Aaron Slodov @aphysicist]

https://t.co/lQn2uxoV0S

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@CAForever 5) Lifestyle: Oakland is unmatched when it comes to the intersection of culture, food, nature, affordability, and weather. Throw in some good biking and transit and it’s clear the best industrial companies will *want* to be here, because their employees will want to be here. 5/x

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@cljack Also notable - the longer we waited, the more the cost was likely to increase. And no diplomatic pathway to a resolution with a country chanting "Death to America" for 47 years.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@leerob Nearly half of all votes come from just two city council districts, representing the wealthiest (and whitest) areas of the city, despite being less than 30% of the population. District 4 has an average income ~double that of D7.

This took about five minutes of prompting.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@leerob I had Claude Code analyze precinct-level election data at the district level and had it generate maps, as well as geographically crosswalk census data to council districts to understand demographics.

Here is a map of the vote share by district in the Oakland mayoral election.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@GoogleDeepMind Is this realistic city planner app available for us to play around with? Looks fun!

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@ndrewpignanelli Link to signup sheet doesn't work! You probably linked the Google Form editor itself instead of the public-facing version.

[Ben Gould @bgouldoak]

@BradSchaeppi That number is based on excluding a lot of departments that SF has but are unusual - there are actually around 45,000 total employees, but only 22,000 or so employed in the most standard departments. Eg I think they excluded the port and the airport, etc.