Adventures in Onionism

Waitlists haven't gone the way I've wanted them to so far, in that I haven't moved up a single slot for Hardrock, and I'm still 7 or 8 for Barkley, meaning that's not happening. But actual races have gone fairly well after the uninspired Rocky Raccoon. I ran Way Too Cool 50K again, and had a good race. The course is flattish compared to many other nearby 50Ks I've run, so I was worried it would be boring to repeat it, but with all the rain and resulting green, this year's course had significantly different views than when I ran it two years ago. I finished in 5:02, 25 minutes slower than 2015, but given that I thought it might take me 5:30 or more, I was pretty happy with the results. I also ran Marin Ultra Challenge 50-miler the next weekend. I've taken a few years off of running regular (sanctioned, on-trail) ultras in Marin County since I've done so many of them and got tired of the repetition, but I was impressed when I saw Inside Trail...

There's a housing crisis in the Bay Area thanks to decades of under-supply of housing. People who call themselves progressives only want 100% affordable housing projects built, which basically results in no new housing. Then neighbors are opposed to anything tall, or that casts shadows, or that has too little parking (or too much parking!) or is the wrong color, or the wrong style, or might allow "the wrong type or person" (as if such a thing was possible, and wasn't horribly racist) to live near them. So nothing is built and the problem gets worse. So I spend a fair chunk of my free time at Berkeley city council meetings speaking for more housing. Or arguing with friends and relatives who are NIMBYs (despite what they would have you believe). Or writing op-eds: A mayoral candidate wrote an op-ed in the Daily Cal . So I wrote a response . Another person wrote an epic response to me, which is quite impressive in that it manages to encapsulate all manor of privile...