Top all-time · #2613
Darrell Owens
Personal blog · darrellowens.substack.compoliticseconomicsculture
Darrell Owens writes The Discourse Lounge, a personal blog at darrellowens.substack.com about politics, economics and culture. Since 2021, 29 different Hacker News readers have linked it 40 times, most often “Half of Black High School Students in the Bay Area Can Barely Read”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (14) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Darrell Owens's Substack for writing on US housing supply, vacant-home counts, zoning and California's builder's remedy. Commenters often cite its posts to rebut claims about vacancy and housing shortages.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 14 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
I analyze politics, housing affordability, transportation, culture and urban living. Mostly focused in the Bay Area but not exclusively.
Most-linked posts?
- Half of Black High School Students in the Bay Area Can Barely Read4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-03-25
- Berkeley's upzoning would be among nation's largest3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-02-17
- CA Cities to Lose All Zoning Powers in 2 Days3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-01-31
- The Look of Gentrification3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-01-08
- Vacant Nuance in the Vacant Housing Debate2 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2021-08-28
- 95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-02-14
- YIMBYs Triumph In California: What went down in the legislature this week2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-09-03
What Hacker News says?
> Shortages of buildings are not the only reason that property prices can be high. It pretty much is - everything else is window dressing. Pretty much every single city in China is 3-10x more dense than any area in the US, so lack of land is a reason I find continually uncompelling. Our lack of density, zoning practices, NIMBY attitudes and car dependency all contribute to this, with the result being a lack of const…
Comment linking /p/ca-cities-to-lose-all-zoning-powers
on “Priced out of home ownership”Submitted Berkeley's upzoning would be among nation's largest as a story · 204 points
HN discussionA "vacant building" means nothing; there is no reason to believe it's in the right location, will still be vacant next week, or is even habitable. Under construction and condemned units are both considered vacant. You gotta build. https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vac...
Comment linking /p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vacant-housing
on “Marc Andreessen says he’s for new housing, but records tell a different story”Submitted CA Cities to Lose All Zoning Powers in 2 Days as a story · 193 points
HN discussionThis is false, "vacant homes" has no relation to "vacant homes you'd want to live in". Half could be condemned shacks in Detroit and the other half could be homes people have signed leases for but aren't moving in till next week. And it's impossible to make squatting on a vacant home worthwhile, when you could be earning rent from it. https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vac...
Comment linking /p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vacant-housing
on “Will young Americans want to work in semiconductor manufacturing? [video]”Submitted 95% of Bay Area Cities Lost Zoning Authority as a story · 144 points
HN discussionI think you are referring to AB 2097, which allows more housing near transit hubs. It was passed in the latest legislative session, but is distinct from the Builder's Remedy and has height restrictions unlike the topic of this article. The same author wrote about it here: https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/yimby-triumph-in-califor...
Comment linking /p/yimby-triumph-in-california
on “CA Cities to Lose All Zoning Powers in 2 Days”Submitted Urban renewal left the U.S. too scared to build as a story · 143 points
HN discussionVacancy truthers are one of the most incorrect groups around for how much they’re convinced of this. A house could be marked “vacant” if the owner is still moving in, or if the inside is gutted and uninhabitable, or if they just didn’t turn in their census form. https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vac... At least one of the Painted Ladies is counted vacant but actually uninhabitable. But you cou…
Comment linking /p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vacant-housing
on “Cozy Futurism”Submitted Businesses Are Getting People Killed as a story · 64 points
HN discussionThis. I still live here and you can really feel it. I like your solution - much cleaner while we're trying to reform permitting. Berkeley just nearly got it done but got stuck in committees https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/the-big-zoning-battle-of... - we need a faster solution. Edit: reading the article, Lurie is proposing this: - https://www.sf.gov/mayor-lurie-launches-permit-reform-effort... - https://www.sfch…
Comment linking /p/the-big-zoning-battle-of-berkeley
on “SF Mayor Lurie to tech CEOs: 'How can we get you back?'”Submitted Half of Black High School Students in the Bay Area Can Barely Read as a story · 63 points
HN discussionHold that thought, and consider the following. Since the 1980s, the black-white income gap has been rising. Two contributing causes are racially biased law enforcement outcomes (particularly from the escalation of the drug war), and the abandonment of school bussing. If you look at https://www.sentencingproject.org/research/us-criminal-justi... , you'll find that progressive states like California are generally wors…
Comment linking /p/half-of-black-students-can-hardly
on “US Confidence in Higher Education Institutions Continues Long Decline”Submitted Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare as a story · 60 points
HN discussionA significant amount of zoning is about what type of housing you can build where, how much of it you can build, and how you have to build it. For example, in Berkeley California, which was one of the first cities to implement "exclusionary zoning" has roughly the following zoning restrictions: * R-1: One home per lot or estate, only. Bans apartments in 49% of the city. * R-1A: One home per lot or estate, unless the…
Comment linking /p/berkeleys-upzoning-would-be-among
on “What if public housing were for everyone?”Submitted The Look of Gentrification as a story · 39 points
HN discussionInvestors don’t make money from buying homes and not using them, they make money from renting them. Houses rot if not used. https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vac...
Comment linking /p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vacant-housing
on “Incoming Potentially Catastrophic Storm for SF Area”Submitted The Bay Area Crime Wave as a story · 24 points
HN discussionI disagree completely. I'm seeing a common thread among all of these neo-progressive efforts. They defy reality and have a feeling of insidiousness to them. They are hurting the people that they purport to want to help, and they are all destroying the communities that implement them. SF is a perfect example, because there has been decades of left wing politics in charge and there's no Republican boogeyman to blame.…
Comment linking /p/half-of-black-students-can-hardly
on “What is xylazine, the dangerous new drug fuelling Canada’s opioid crisis?”Submitted Why US Nightlife Sucks as a story · 21 points
HN discussionIt's not "indefinite". Most vacant housing units are not vacant for a long time. They might still be under construction or might just be turning over for the next resident in a week. https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vac... In LA it's mostly because the power company takes like, months to hook up new buildings for no reason.
Comment linking /p/vacant-nuance-in-the-vacant-housing
on “The sword-wielding man hired to kick squatters out of empty Oakland homes”Submitted YIMBYs Triumph In California: What went down in the legislature this week as a story · 5 points
HN discussionIt’s creating a generation of black and brown students that are uneducated and won’t be able to compete against anyone else. It’s the ultimate in racism. Overt racist policies couldn’t be more effective and de-educating these students more than these ”progressive” policies have. Half of Black SF high school students can barely read. https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/half-of-black-students-c... Decades of EXCLUSIVE…
Comment linking /p/half-of-black-students-can-hardly
on “'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco”Submitted The Look of Gentrification as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThere was a great article about this a couple weeks back: https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/ca-cities-to-lose-all-zo... Basically, until these cities get a housing plan validated with the state, who is apparently sick of their crap like zoning in the middle of an active mall that will not be torn down, builder’s remedy is in place.
Comment linking /p/ca-cities-to-lose-all-zoning-powers
on “Zoning laws are no longer in effect in much of the Bay Area”Submitted Bay Area Nightlife Sucks as a story · 4 points
HN discussionPeople seem to feel very smart for pointing out things that look and feel like gentrification without actually really understanding what gentrification is. I found this article from a couple years back illuminating: https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/the-look-of-gentrificati... > This conflation of modern architecture as a “gentrification style” was so common that low income builders began erecting signs explaining…
Comment linking /p/the-look-of-gentrification
on “The Gentrification Font”Submitted Berkeley's Evolution on Housing as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Berkeley's Upzoning Would Be Among Nation's Largest as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Berkeley Rents Fall Amid Construction Boom as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
