Pinned Tweet
Follow
Alex Alsup
@ZugIslander
Parcels & property taxes. Research & Development . Substack: detroit.substack.com Photographer of photographs at GooBingDetroit.com.
DetroitJoined February 2009
Alex Alsup’s Tweets
Our AI Mephistopheles looking on, kinda bored, rotely doing magic tricks on demand.
1
Show this thread
ChatGPT and the like has got Marlowe’s Faustus stuck in my head.
A few billion Faustuses running around with Mephistopheles-granted magic to “box the pope’s ears.”
We’re so on the nose one of the first big AI memes was, like, literally, boxing the pope’s ears…
2
Show this thread
Quote Tweet
0:04
What's your favorite 30 Rock joke?
Show this thread
Was wondering how ChatGPT would do imitating "The Thing Explainer" -- explaining complicated things using only the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English language. Found a list of those words and gave it a try:
2
1
Show this thread
Another look: The strikeout rate (24.2%!) and Three True Outcomes rate (36.3%!) would be the highest in history, and the walk rate (9.6%!) the highest since the 1950s.
Quote Tweet
Games are faster (2:41 average!), steals are up (87.5% success rate!) and more batted balls are turning into hits (.310 BABIP!). A look at the very early returns on the biggest changes to baseball in generations:
nytimes.com/2023/04/02/spo
16
28
48
It’s like ending an OT basketball game by sending guys to the free throw line.
1
Show this thread
Speeding up the game AND stacking the deck to end good games faster suggests, like, “Hey look, we all know no one really wants to be here. Let’s wrap this thing up so we can get to what we really enjoy — sitting in traffic or (rarely) lines for mass transit.”
1
Show this thread
What’s so stunningly stupid about ’s extra-innings runner is how it undercuts the logic of a faster game. It’s not to end a good game sooner. The point should be to *get to the drama faster*. Why cut the legs out right when it gets good?? Agree w/
2
Show this thread
It seems those areas most “legible” are at least where the technology is accelerating fastest, adapting most easily? Maybe I’m wrong, not close enough to claim any expertise. Just interested observation.
Show this thread
The book on my mind lately is James Scott’s “Seeing Like A State”.
My rudimentary take is, to some extent, LLMs etc are an inevitable result of the history of building a highly “legible” framework for the world in the (naive) pursuit of control over it.
politicalscience.yale.edu/publications/s
Quote Tweet
This is going to destroy so many Big Tech biz models, and it’s ubiquitous enough that Big Tech can can’t buy up all the threats. twitter.com/mathemagic1an/…
1
Show this thread
If you're going to hold up a Royal Oak property tax bill on TV, might as well say what the impact of the +5% in taxable value is:
In Royal Oak homeowner millage rate in 2022 was ~38 mills (not sure of '23 value). +$7,250 in TV = +$275 / year in property taxes. About $23 / month.
1
1
Show this thread
If you’re going to attempt explaining this to people who, in many cases, probably are confused and worried, you need to get it right.
1
1
Show this thread
Which says something for how complicated the property tax system is, no doubt, but still it’s not inexplicable. There are correct and incorrect explanations of the relationship between taxable and assessed value, for example.
1
2
Show this thread
Terms with very different meanings used interchangeably, order of operations misrepresented… If you were basing property tax decisions on any of these articles… you’d be in rough shape.
1
1
Show this thread
Been a slew of articles like this in the last few days on Michigan property taxes in 2023. Almost every detail on the operation of the property tax system in Michigan in each article I’ve read has been incorrect.
1
1
Show this thread
Some excellent Matt Levine on Silicon Valley Bank.
Quote Tweet
I ask this newsletter's subscribers, including venture capital investors, to support Money Stuff the way it has supported its readers over the past 10 years. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl
3
More materially though, property taxes don’t get uncapped and jump after sale in co-ops in Michigan the way they do for condos. That’s why Detroit’s had all these complicated exemptions for condos while co-ops rise much more leisurely.
crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/de
1
2
Show this thread
Seem to remember something about this Buttigieg guy having been a mayor?
amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/03/05
1
7
HOPE is good. Very good. Help your neighbors apply.
Show this thread
Assessment adjustments are important, both exemptions and assessment appeals are needed, not minimizing that, but simply pointing out that, where property tax relief is most sought, it’s amongst homeowners who really can’t afford to pay at all.
1
Show this thread
1,500 residential appeals in 2023, likely only half of that from homeowners, vs 15,000+ property tax exemptions in 2021 (still don’t have a 2022 tally yet, but probably 16k+).
1
Show this thread
Also worth remembering where the bulk of the “market” for Detroit homeowner property tax relief remains: The City’s HOPE exemption for homeowners in poverty, which eliminates 100% of current year taxes in almost every case.
1
Show this thread
The fact that most appeals were for residential properties also doesn’t necessarily indicate owner occupied homes. I’d want to see more specific data on the ownership of properties with appeals. (Or just the addresses appealed and then ownership can be looked into separately)
1
1
Show this thread
Nothing in this article specifically indicates that more “Detroiters” are appealing assessments. It just says there were more appeals. The only increase mentioned is among *investor-owned* properties — not likely to be Detroiters.
1
2
9
Show this thread
Can’t wait to lower the launch cost of my vertical mobility solution for the Freedom City baby bonus ugly buildings.
Quote Tweet
Hard to avoid feeling outcomes we get in horrific situations like this are a) nothing happens b) these children are less frequently employed by these cynical, vile companies & are pushed into even more dangerous black market work.
Incredible story, tho.
nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/
1
Only basketball game I’ve watched this season and now how can I watch another there’s almost no chance it’ll be as good.
Quote Tweet
WHAT A FINISH
Jayson Tatum drains the game-winner and Joel Embiid's heave comes too late 
(via @NBA) /
(via @NBA) /
0:38
2M views
2
No place in the U.S. gets more mentions in this child labor investigation than Grand Rapids, MI
23
191
320
Hard to avoid feeling outcomes we get in horrific situations like this are a) nothing happens b) these children are less frequently employed by these cynical, vile companies & are pushed into even more dangerous black market work.
Incredible story, tho.
1
This city just never going to understand “blight” is it.
1
3
Show this thread