Housing

Today we slept in which was very good. Then we took a few things to Community Thrift. Then lined up someone to pick up for auction/donate an old dresser and a couch. The remainder of the day was regular household chores.

We had an interesting conversation about housing, the feeling of unplanned increasing density. Well planned environments can be very dense and comfortable to live in. However it's hard to expand the built environment when it's already "full" although not dense. Just putting in a few large apartment buildings increases density but it doesn't widen the streets or increase the water supply or create more interesting livable communities.

So many of the ways we organize people or even businesses are not functional now and we don't have a clear path forward how to organize ourselves and our communities to be enriching for life and living.

Here is a CalMatters article on the housing shortage in California it's a cumulative shortage built over decades the LAO in 2015 suggested 2.7 million units needed. They also get into pent up demand with people living with roommates and such. I'd add that lots of people are living in vans and cars that are fully employed.

It's not just California though, it's a problem all over the country in republican and democratic counties. It's talked about more in urban areas but rural areas housing is getting much more expensive. It's also a global problem. In 2026 UN-Habitat wrote that 3.4 billion people lack adequate housing.

5:47 am – 8:29 pm, which is 14 hours and 42 minutes of daylight

The bird of the day is the Ruddy Duck (check out that baby blue bill!)

Here is a poem for you.

Sending oodles of love,

Tawnia

Bird List - 16 species today

Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Anna's Hummingbird
Western Gull
California Gull
American Crow
Common Raven
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
House Sparrow
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow
California Towhee