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Christian Leonard

@xianleonard

Data reporter at @sfchronicle.com. Big fan of d20s, birds and em dashes. Not on here as often as the site FKA Twitter but prepared to jump ship.

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12.11.2024
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Latest posts by Christian Leonard @xianleonard

A wheel-like visualization of bird feathers colored from wikipedia descriptions

A wheel-like visualization of bird feathers colored from wikipedia descriptions

It took me about three months to get here but...

Here's a πŸͺΆ for (nearly) every species of bird, with colors extracted from wikipedia descriptions.

10,151 species.

#dataviz #birds #data

04.11.2025 13:25 πŸ‘ 348 πŸ” 108 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 11

This is a pretty notably shift from about five years ago, when state Sen. Scott Wiener tried to get a more expansion version of this bill (SB 50) passed. That bill fell short by three votes.

04.06.2025 19:24 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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California bill allowing more housing near transit stops narrowly passes Senate The bill, which was authored by S.F. state Sen. Scott Wiener, overcame strenuous opposition from smaller cities to get the exact number of votes needed to pass.

CA Senate Bill 79, which would allow tenser/denser housing projects to be built near major transit hubs, squeezed through the state Senate last night, getting the exact number of votes it needed to pass. It now heads to the Assembly.

www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

04.06.2025 19:24 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
A meme showing a stick man in a hat labeled "editor" saying, "Are ya winning son?" On the floor is a crying stick figure next to a computer surrounded by words: "Demand?" "Supply?" "Is that a trident" "San Diego fish tacos" "the H has a hat" "187 mentions of 'elasticity' each too technical to use in the article"

A meme showing a stick man in a hat labeled "editor" saying, "Are ya winning son?" On the floor is a crying stick figure next to a computer surrounded by words: "Demand?" "Supply?" "Is that a trident" "San Diego fish tacos" "the H has a hat" "187 mentions of 'elasticity' each too technical to use in the article"

As an added bonus here's a recreation of my past several days of reporting

17.05.2025 17:23 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Does building homes lead to lower housing costs? New research is roiling the debate The new paper argues other factors besides development restrictions are behind rising home prices.

I wrote about that housing paper that argued places where it's easier to build more housing don't (at least when accounting for change in demand). Its findings (and methods) sparked a pretty big debate among housing wonks. Here I try my best to explain: www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/a...

17.05.2025 17:23 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
A line chart titled, "Total money raised for 2025 Oakland mayoral campaigns" and subtitled "Including donations to candidates' personal or supporter-organized groups, through March 24". An orange line labeled "Loren Taylor" increases from 0 at November 2024 to $100,000 at January 2025 to nearly $500,000 in March 2025. A teal line labeled "Barbara Lee" increases from less than $200,000 in January to nearly $700,000 in March.

A line chart titled, "Total money raised for 2025 Oakland mayoral campaigns" and subtitled "Including donations to candidates' personal or supporter-organized groups, through March 24". An orange line labeled "Loren Taylor" increases from 0 at November 2024 to $100,000 at January 2025 to nearly $500,000 in March 2025. A teal line labeled "Barbara Lee" increases from less than $200,000 in January to nearly $700,000 in March.

New from @sfchronicle.com 's Sarah Ravani and me: The Oakland mayoral election is in just a few weeks, and more than a million bucks is flowing through the race. Here's how much the frontrunners have raised and who's supporting them.
www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/arti...

26.03.2025 15:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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This demographic is buying far fewer homes in S.F. About 1 in 4 recent homebuyers in San Francisco are under the age of 35, data from 2023 shows. That’s a big change from last decade.

My latest for the @sfchronicle.com

About 40% of people in SF were under the age of 35 in 2023. But just 25% of recent home buyers were in that age group.

www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/a...

14.03.2025 16:02 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

As an aside, one of the first state housing policy stories I wrote (for the Burbank Leader) was an explainer article on SB 9. There was a *ton* of controversy over the bill at the time in SoCal, even though experts were saying even then that it wouldn't build as much as advertised.

21.02.2025 18:05 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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This California law was supposed to end single-family zoning. Three years later, it’s β€˜just symbolic’ State Sen. Scott Wiener introduced a bill to strengthen Senate Bill 9 by removing some of California's restrictions on lot splits and duplexes.

New from me:
California Senate Bill 9 was marketed as "ending single-family zoning." But in three years, SF has received only 32 housing apps under the law. Oakland has gotten 5.

Now, State Sen. Scott Wiener is introducing legislation to bring those numbers up.
www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/a...

21.02.2025 18:05 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0