Michael Andersen@andersem.bsky.social · 53m ago

"The real solution to congestion is road pricing." Disagree with various points here by Randal O'Toole, but this "left-wing blogger" (as he once called me in a moment I will forever cherish) expected to disagree more deeply with his recommendations cascadepolicy.org/wp-content/u...

there were not one, but two revolting state house Dems who tried to sue trans women off the ballot because they did not use their deadnames. they've both lost.

Kevin@reginageorgebush.bsky.social · 21h ago

oh, this is great to see—Liberati is a gross socially conservative dynasty pol who tried to get Whaley, a progressive, disqualified for not filing under her deadname. Harris+1.5 so she starts out favored

Bonita Gooch is the next representative for Kansas House District 84, unseating incumbent Ford Carr by a 70-30 margin

Cherry blossom@chocilate.bsky.social · 22h ago

is she winning

first results in clark county

@andersem.bsky.social putting air quotes around "international" in the "international" building code during this discussion is a landmark introduction of that specific discourse to portland city hall

Councilor Candace Avalos@counciloravalos.bsky.social · yesterday

On fire safety: NYC study showed that single stair has the same exact rate of fire deaths over the past 25 years as other housing types. Other studies looking at different eras of housing, where older multifamily and single family were the most dangerous.

seattle social housing developer really seems like the real deal. they have a lot of resources and also seem really serious about developing state capacity + fiscal capacity to be a large scale housing builder and operator

Good freight routes are bad commuter routes and vice versa. Somewhere, somehow there's a freight-urbanist coalition waiting to be formed to oppose these commuter-centered projects that are actively siphoning off funds from critical investments in freight bypass routes and transit.

It cannot be overstated: Urban capacity expansion projects are the *worst* way to invest in freight movement. They cost 10x more per mile than rural and suburban bypass projects, and almost all of the benefit is soaked up by commuters.

The Oregonian@oregonian.com · yesterday

The Portland project’s funding gap raises questions about whether it will proceed as planned. https://mrf.lu/2ZXPL

look, as a financial times socialist myself

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈@josephpolitano.bsky.social · 2d ago

DSA-aligned Democrats are now the most pro-free-trade voting bloc in the United States, in an incredible turn of events www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-suppor...

this was basically drazan’s plan to fund ODOT oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2026/08/04/h...

How Drazan’s consulting firm pocketed nearly $100k from her nonprofit with little oversight  • Oregon Capital Chronicle

The situation offers insight into how one of Oregon’s most successful recent Republican politicians handled her finances ahead of a campaign.

oregoncapitalchronicle.com

Banger report from @shaanthx.bsky.social on self-dealing from Oregon's Republican gov. hopeful. Sen. Christine Drazan registered a new consulting business in 2023, then a new nonprofit 3 weeks later, then paid her consulting biz $100k from the nonprofit. oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2026/08/04/h...

How Drazan’s consulting firm pocketed nearly $100k from her nonprofit with little oversight  • Oregon Capital Chronicle

The situation offers insight into how one of Oregon’s most successful recent Republican politicians handled her finances ahead of a campaign.

oregoncapitalchronicle.com

clear lesson from detroit’s success on this issue is that you need to aggressive about knocking these structures down and that matters more than anything else www.wxyz.com/news/region/...

Detroit's blight removal program reduces abandoned homes from 47,000 to under 1,000

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's blight removal program cut abandoned Land Bank homes from 47,000 to under 1,000, boosting property values from $4.2B to $8.8B.

wxyz.com

behind every man doing a radio interview is his girlfriend, frantically trying to stop their cat from interrupting the interview

this was fun 😊 opb.org/article/2026...

Oregon needs transit-oriented upzoning, says one Portlander

California and Washington both passed laws last year to allow midrise buildings to be built near transit. We'll hear from a local blogger who argues that the same should be done for Oregon.

opb.org

this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 3d ago

Is everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.

STOP TRYING TO DO HISTORICAL PRESERVATION ON DERELICT WAREHOUSES

huge news for talarico. lean D www.texastribune.org/2026/07/30/t...

What is still legal under Texas’ latest THC ban

Although several synthetically derived cannabis products will be banned on July 31, delta-9 THC products will still remain legal.

texastribune.org

Fischer 🛠️🚇@fischer.bsky.social · 9mo ago

nobody in the coastal media elite is prepared for the republican youth vote collapse that’s about to happen in the midwest next year because trump banned delta 8

was skeptical about ohio as a climate refuge but it seems like they actually are going to avoid extreme heat events better than a lot of neighboring states, particularly illinois and indiana projects.propublica.org/climate-migr...

Harvey J. Miller@mobileharv.bsky.social · 3d ago

Cincinnati has developed a Climate Migration Readiness Plan to absorb as many as 525,000 newcomers by 2050. It calls for building much denser housing, expanding public transit and decreasing the city’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Still thinking about this video. youtube.com/shorts/eSIMn...

Electric Train vs. Diesel ⚡️

YouTube video by Caltrain

youtube.com

Maybe the funniest part of the arena shakedown is seeing investment groups claim loss of "foot traffic" for "small businesses" in the area. Like, what in the fuck are you even talking about? The place is bound by a freeway on one side, an abandoned river silo on the other, and jack shit between.

pnw cities are pretty compact and the evacuation orders went unusually deep into the city

Glonzo the Bureaucrat 🇬🇱 🌹@snarkranger.bsky.social · 3d ago

Suburban sprawl in the West is having a reckoning. What we are learning is that half-city, half-wild is a recipe for conflagration. You have to either build a city, or not a city at all. Otherwise you're just providing the fire a new fuel type.

paying $5 for a packet of kraft singles at new seasons

love when a 1970s multifamily building has a terrifying murder basement

baltimore homicide trends are really astounding

Jeff Asher@jeffasher.bsky.social · 4d ago

First look at murder through July (still waiting on the Texas cities) shows murder is still falling at unprecedented levels in the United States with no signs of levelling.

I generally don't care much about expansion of Portland Streetcar, but a South Portland-North Portland line via an MLK transit mall would go hard (if done right).

1 million Portlanders by 2045 🌲🌧️🦫🚲🚇🚰@bradleyclover.com · 2y ago

This project should also be shaped to upzone the Central Eastside with an eventual target of at least 100,000 homes built. This would also require including a commitment to the infrastructure projects necessary to make that happen, such as removing I5 on the Eastbank & an MLK Transit Mall

so this is basically a prisoner's dilemma situation that can only be resolved when portland has a Night Mayor

Mechtroid@mechtroid.bsky.social · 4d ago

From what I heard, they're waiting for the bars to stay open later, that was their main overnight clientele.

We would not be alone in the club of "West coast cities with a green colored light rail line that goes to the airport, runs along a freeway, and intersects a blue line to downtown. Where that blue line runs largely in old interurban ROW, and has a city center tunnel."

favorite bit on this map is that the city owns almost the entire block immediately to the south of the clinton/12th orange line stop

Fischer 🛠️🚇@fischer.bsky.social · 4d ago

I do know that we’ve done the inventory already gis-pdx.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/pub...

are we doing this pdx? genuinely can’t remember

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 4d ago

We're using City-owned land to build the affordable homes New Yorkers need.