This week and this week only, we're discussing Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities! 🗓️ November 6, 2026 🕰️ 7:00 PM 📍 King Bee Grab your copy of the beautiful 50th Anniversary Edition from The Little Gay Shop if you haven't already.

It turns out that it was the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security who dressed his children like russians for the White House Halloween reception, complete with a russian tank forces patch and a Soviet army cap for his son, and a sarafan and kokoshnik for his daughter.

The US Federal Transit Administration is intentionally delaying transit project environmental review processes. This will make them more expensive. The FTA will then likely subject those projects to new cost requirements (www.urban.org/research/pub...), & substantially reduce federal funds for them.

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · 3d ago

FINALLY: Sound Transit says the long-awaited Ballard Link Draft Environmental Impact Statement will be published on December 11. The comment period will extend through February 9. The document has been held up by FTA review for well over a year.

New from me at Governing. Manufactured housing offers SERIOUS cost savings. A single-section manufactured home costs just 35% of a comparable site-built house. States have a long history of laws mandating equal zoning treatment for MH, but if these laws are having an effect, it's hard to see.

How States Can Clear the Way for the Starter Homes We Need

Manufactured housing could help fulfill the demand, but regulations still make it too hard to create these sorely needed inexpensive homes.

governing.com

I told myself I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel hope about the upcoming election in Texas, but Talarico & Hinojosa got me. I just turned on The West Wing for the first time in years. Too soon to be regaining faith in American democracy?! 😂💙

Anyway, if you find an animal in a glue trap: use cooking oil applied with q-tips to denature and dissolve the glue, which it should do after a few minutes. Keep applying it, don't try and pull the animal off, but do coax them to increasingly wiggle. They should eventually wiggle themselves free

It’s a banner run for Urban Austin Reads over the next few weeks. If you’re in ATX, join us for all of these events! If you’re anywhere in the world, join us Nov. 14 to discuss “SOLIDARITY & THE COMMONS” with Marianna Pavlovskaya and @multipliciudad.bsky.social! 🥳

Urban Austin Reads@urbanatxreads.bsky.social · 6d ago

We have a lot going on in the next few weeks! Here’s what’s up: 1️⃣ 10/30: Theory Night on HAUNTOLOGY 2️⃣ 11/06: Discussion on Invisible Cities (one meeting only) 3️⃣ & 4️⃣ 11/14: Virtual author talk on SOLIDARITY & THE COMMONS aaaand an IRL celebration of Abrianna and Amy Links to RSVP threaded below!

There's no pretense left. J. K. Rowling made her hate for trans women clear in a slur-filled screed slurring them a dozen times and describing them as deceitful and dangerous. So writes @evanurquhart.bsky.social this morning on Assigned Media. *WARNING: Article quotes Rowling's hateful language.*

J. K. Rowling’s Extremism Escalates in Hateful “Update” on Anti-Trans Views - Assigned Media

Rowling's most recent essay puts her hateful views on display for all to see.

assignedmedia.org

These people hate Texas. They’d destroy all our most precious places for their racist wall building schemes. Texans who love our state cannot vote for them in good conscience. When you go to the polls: Remember Big Bend. Remember Santa Ana. Imagine the bulldozers going to your favorite places next.

Texas Tribune@texastribune.org · last wk.

A section of border wall that the federal government planned to build along a South Texas wildlife refuge could end up cutting through the refuge instead. The proposed change attempts to resolve a legal dispute in which government contractors are accused of trespassing on property near the refuge.

The only reason I can think of for this news not being absolutely everywhere is that large media orgs don’t want to be seen as putting their thumbs on the scales a week before election day. And that’s cowardly as shit.

Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · last wk.

Beyond disgusted by even more rape allegations against the President of the United States. "In total, more than 25 different women...have independently accused Donald Trump of rape, sexual assault, or other sexual misconduct." Report w/ new details: democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

They’re trans-ing the bikes now 😣🙏🏼🙏🏼💔

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · last wk.

The report alleges Donald Trump was an “active participant” in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. trib.al/r158uvt

Local bookstore tote ✅ Transit pass ✅ Sweet treat ✅ Coffee ✅

“ChatGPT will solve cancer” Meanwhile, its real use cases: Helping a rich mother never have to know her own daughter

David Gura@davidgura.bsky.social · last wk.

cool, cool

LULA!!! 🇧🇷🌎♥️

This is what climate change looks like... The evidence is here. We need to make it impossible to ignore. www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/n...

Beautiful views, kind and joyful people in conversation, delicious coffee, and some (not-so-light) reading. Geographer heart is full. ♥️🌎🇨🇴

Blessed by the tenderness of local bookshops today. I found this one here in Bogotá. I apologized to the bookseller for my poor Spanish as I asked about English language histories of the city or Colombia. He enthusiastically replied not to worry, and jumped up to take me to his favorites. ♥️🙏🏼📚

The fact that the president's doctors are giving him the dementia test over and over again -- tracking his decline, most likely -- and that the president keeps bragging about having to take that test should be a five-alarm fire.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w ago

Trump: "You know, the first question -- they have a lion, a snake, a giraffe, and a bear. And they say 'which is the snake?' ... by the time you get to number five a lot of people are left out on the road ... I get no credit for it."

Today we’re celebrating 100 years of the Austin Public Library! I’m so grateful to live in a city that has long invested in the public knowledge through its libraries. From beautiful buildings to the brilliant staff who bring them to life, simply the best. Here’s to the next 100! 🥂

A peek at two of the MANY great sessions you can catch at YIMBYtown 2026 🤩 Register today so you don't miss out! 🔗 yimby.town

Cutter W. González@cutterwgonzalez.bsky.social · 4w ago

I'm speaking (x2) at @yimby.town 2026! 🗣️🤩🏘️ I hope you'll join me at this year's convening: Nov. 17 • 2 PM [TALK] From Values to Visuals: How to Build a Meaningful Pro-Housing Brand Nov. 18 • 2 PM [WORKSHOP] Pivot! Planning and Managing the Transition from Digital to In-Real-Life Organizing

Very good paper that finds what many of us expected: NIMBY council members -> Fewer permits and less housing supply. What I wonder next is how do we fix this? At large city council members is a solution, of course, but it dilutes representation of low-income people and people of color.

Zak Yudhishthu@zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 3w ago

Harris PhD student Jacob Herbstman has an important working paper: The first I've seen to rigorously quantify the costs of aldermanic prerogative in Chicago. More stringent alders -> reduced permit activity and lower density, which means less housing supply and higher housing costs in Chicago.

Something we need to remember more often!

THE SUPPORTER SECTION IS WALKING OUT. THE POLICE MADE THEM TAKE DOWN THE SIGN. All the normal signs are gone. No "y'all means all." No "trans lives matter." Nothing. It is now quiet. No music, no drums, no chants #AustinFC

Liz Sepper@lsepper.bsky.social · 3w ago

#AustinFC supporters say, "No ICE in this melting pot!"

Shocked this country famous for lynchings, strangling Black men on the street, kidnapping and killing foreign leaders & arming genocides everywhere is doing a public execution by gunfire. This is NOT the American way.

I'm speaking (x2) at @yimby.town 2026! 🗣️🤩🏘️ I hope you'll join me at this year's convening: Nov. 17 • 2 PM [TALK] From Values to Visuals: How to Build a Meaningful Pro-Housing Brand Nov. 18 • 2 PM [WORKSHOP] Pivot! Planning and Managing the Transition from Digital to In-Real-Life Organizing

Pedestrianized 35th reaches its final, lush form

ICE shot a man in the back in Austin this afternoon. But we're also learning this weekend about the death of Carlos Josué Marchena, a 37-year old man from Costa Rica who appears to have died at the Winn concentration camp in Louisiana after 9+ months in ICE detention.

Austin Kocher, PhD@austinkocher.com · last mo.

ICE Detention Claims 25th Life Since the Start of the Year Carlos Josué Marchena at Louisiana and Lianyong Wei in Saipan are the 25th and 24th people to die in ICE custody. Story by Spanish-language media, slow to hit English-language media. austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-detent...

It’s not just bad politics and bad morally it’s also wrong on the science

Jason Briggeman@jbriggeman.liberalcurrents.com · 2mo ago

Who needs positive energy around a campaign, anyway?