Lyle Solla-Yates 🦃 🦃 🦃

Good morning all, please vote if you are in the U.S.

Tom Perriello will win. #TomPerriello #Virginia https://archive.ph/2026.11.03-000216/https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/government-politics/elections/article_c370ca5c-9213-5bb2-8ec6-2047d8b337c6.html

We tried a new Halloween tradition today: sorting out the candy by vegetable oil content. Chocolate shortages are spooky! #shortage #chocolate https://www.seriouseats.com/why-chocolate-is-changing-12025804

Showing the little one the movie “Revenge of the Sith” for the first time after a long diversion into the “Clone Wars” show. When the camera first shows young live action Anakin the little one exclaimed “they look weird!” #StarWars #RevengeOfTheSith

New idea for me: global PC board shortage. #PCBShortage #AIBubble #inflation https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ai-demand-triggers-massive-pcb-shortage-for-pc-makers-as-order-books-full-until-2030-lead-times-stretch-to-30-months-as-material-costs-surge-12x

"The apartments are accessed from stair landings, not internal corridors. This gives the units north and south exposure and cross-ventilation, difficult things to achieve with multifamily housing. Bedrooms face the campus side for quiet, while the living spaces overlook Seward Avenue." #housing #NYC #Design #TowerInThePark #HabitatForHumanity https://www.archpaper.com/2026/10/wxy-stevenson-square/

"could reduce construction costs and help address a statewide housing gap estimated at at least 200,000 units" #housing #Virginia #MissingMiddle #BuildingCode #SIngleStair #ElevatorReform https://hoodline.com/2026/10/virginia-lawmakers-push-single-stairwell-apartments-to-tackle-200-000-unit-housing-gap/

The packet for the October 27th Charlottesville Planning Commission is posted and the content is very close to my heart: food trucks! Should they be legal on private property? If so, how? Also a special appearance by 55 pages of draft zoning code changes, from sign regulations to tree removal permits to athletic field lighting. #cville #zoning #food #MoreMeetingsAboutBuildingsAndFood https://charlottesvilleva.portal.civicclerk.com/event/2840/files/attachment/7858

I saw a post earlier from someone suffering from depression asking if anyone here has hope. Hope is a knife. It is not always enough, and you can't always have it when you need it, but your chances are better when things get bad when you have hope. I hope you can keep it when you need it.

Changed my handle late for spooky season this year, I blame the dreadfully warm weather. My name is pronounced “Lyle Solla-Yates bats bats bats” in the voice of

Yet another Bowery Boys banger. Boss Tweed seemed all powerful, with legions of supporters and a web of corruption that stretched across continents and shaped the global economy…until he wasn’t. Corruption is seductive but it’s a dead end. #BossTweed #podcast #USHistory #BoweryBoys https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bowery-boys-new-york-city-history/id258530615?i=1000391214148

Singing to my cat as I push her off the garbage can she was enjoying: “It’s not very nice but it’s true It’s not very nice but it’s true A lot of true things aren’t nice A lot of nice things aren’t true It’s not very nice but it’s true”

I've been going through some old slides for a talk I'm giving today about the history of land use restrictions and noticed a gap between Jim Crow segregation practices and Hoover's nationwide promotion of exclusionary zoning. I've created a new slide to talk about that jump focusing on the disastrous Mississippi flood of 1927 and Robert Moton's key role in the cover up. #flooding #USHistory #zoning #RobertMoton #HerbertHoover #RedCross https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/flood-moton-cac/

“We have very limited space that’s available, so how do we use the space in a different way that really goes about achieving the goal of making the area more walkable, more bikeable?” #FallsChurchVA #BikeTooter #walkable #WarOnCars #BudgetsAreValuesDocuments https://www.ffxnow.com/2026/10/20/fcdot-recommends-changes-to-make-route-29-safer-in-west-falls-church/

“Eight localities in the district are holding referendums on whether to enact a 1% local sales tax for school construction and renovation” #cville #CharlottesvilleCitySchools #TomPerriello #USPolitics https://cardinalnews.org/2026/10/20/5-things-to-know-about-the-surprisingly-competitive-5th-district-congressional-race/

I'm working on a new talk that leans pretty heavily on this report from the Zoning Atlas team about their work on Virginia. No big shocks for me but I suspect many will be surprised just how restrictive the land use regulations here are from an affordable housing perspective #housing #zoning #virginia #ZoningAtlas https://www.zoningatlas.org/zoning-report-virginia-2025

"The effort started as a way to manage solar farms. Data centers have since pushed the issue to the forefront." #WytheCounty #Solar #DataCenters #zoning https://www.wdbj7.com/2026/09/24/wythe-county-seeks-public-feedback-first-zoning-ordinance/

“the pilot’s goal is to measure the impact of lower speed limits on the safety of local roads.” #FairfaxVA #TwentyIsPlenty #SafeStreets #WarOnCars https://www.ffxnow.com/2026/10/16/fairfax-county-testing-20-mph-speed-limits-on-10-roads-this-fall/

“what we are doing is working” #SaveTheBay #ChesapeakeBay #conservation #CleanWater https://virginiamercury.com/2026/10/14/chesapeake-bay-gets-a-c-in-overall-health-va-and-md-leaders-say-work-to-protect-it-must-continue/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/musk-movie-tiktok-banned-theaters-showtimes-1236734308/ #StreisandEffect #MuskMovie #TikTok #censorship

Inspired by Kat Imhoff, I've checked in on what's happening in preservation planning world here in the United States. The mood is grim #preservation #Section106 https://www.preservation-piedmont.org/

I was lucky enough to attend a talk with Kat Imhoff today, whose dedication to service over many years and in many ways on conservation and preservation and equity and public memory topics has been an inspiration since we met at Monticello over twenty years ago. Also she is funny. #KatImhoff #Monticello #Montpelier #NatureConservancy #PiedmondEnvironmentalCouncil #preservation #conservation https://www.arch.virginia.edu/news/kat-imhoff-2026-distinguished-alumni-award-recipient

“Every spider has eight eyes—we’re completely outmatched” #seattle #satire #MyGodItsFullOfSpiders #spiders

I don't talk about game development stuff here much, but I've (mostly) wrapped up the code work for a giant project for Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead's DinoMod so that sauropods 🦕 take up five tiles instead of just one teeny tiny tile. It was a ton of work but hopefully it's really fun. #CataclysmDDA #DinoMod #gamedev #dinosaur https://cataclysmdda.org

Jumping out of planes to double down on your faith that AI will solve gravity is not a good idea. #AIBubble #FuckCancer https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-researchers-smoking-ai-cure-cancer-palantir-cto-2026-10

Thanks to Sean Tubbs for pre-covering the Charlottesville Planning Commission and five technical questions about how to build new homes near the University of Virginia #cville #housing #uva #zoning https://www.reddit.com/r/Charlottesville/s/CB8CUqTnWq

This is a pretty momentous election in studious Charlottesville for a few reasons, but one of the biggest ones is a historic opportunity to finally catch up on the deferred maintenance on our public school system that has been building up since Massive Resistance. It’s time to move on. #cville #education #desegregation https://yesforcvilleschools.org/

Grateful that Charlottesville’s transportation planner is safe after being struck by a vehicle. We need a transportation system where this is shocking instead of expected. #BikeTooter #cville #SafeStreets https://bsky.app/profile/bench.bsky.social/post/3mxi5gzlrnk2w

I liked this quote: “I’d rather look like an idiot than a cynic” #hope #climate #IRA https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/volts/id1548554104?i=1000793639334

“The new route will include an eight-foot-wide, two-way protected bike path separated from vehicle traffic by a concrete or grass median. A six-foot-wide ADA-compliant sidewalk will also be constructed.” #SilverSpring #MoCo #MD #BikeTooter #walkable #ADA #WarOnCars https://mocoshow.com/2026/10/03/10-million-bicycle-and-pedestrian-project-begins-in-montgomery-county/

As always the public benefit of granting companies reliant on public subsidy the promise of secrecy is unclear to me here. #secrecy #subsidy #CleanWater #inflation #AIBubble https://www.1011now.com/2026/09/30/more-questions-than-answers-about-lincolns-google-data-center-water-electricity-usage/

Having a very frustrating time attempting to convert my Lastpass account from my work email back to my personal email so I can accept a paid account invite. The help bot is not helpful and access to human service is not permitted until you accept your paid account invite via email. I am beginning to think that giving Lastpass money is a mistake. #LastPass #CustomerService