A compelling argument for a politics on the left that proudly fights for, and delivers on, quality of life "If politics cannot deliver on the block where you live, why would you trust it to deliver anywhere..."

Corey Atad@coreyatad.com · 2d ago

“If you are staring at an example of social disorder or social inefficiency, and the left refuses to explain either why it has happened or how they will fix it, then the right gets to point at someone in the immediate area and say, ‘That’s who did it.’” crazy how much Mamdani speaks my language

Great project opening up in North Bethesda. A range of affordable and deeply affordable units, down the block from metro, in the middle of a growing bike lane network, and near med offices, tons of shops, and great restaurants

Developers celebrate opening of 163-unit affordable housing project in North Bethesda

The Chimes, located a half mile away from the Metro and Pike & Rose, is one of the newest afforable housing projects to come online in MoCo.

bethesdamagazine.com

An @nbcnews.com headline that's virtually indistinguishable from @theonion.com

Really nice piece. There's a lot we can learn from downtown Silver Spring about what makes - and helps to sustain - a vibrant, diverse, and highly social urban community. And despite some bumps & disruptions in recent years, the future here is so, so bright

d. reed, crisp & juicy enjoyer 🦀🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇬🇾@justupthepike.bsky.social · last wk.

I had a lovely time talking to @bannermoco.bsky.social about the past, present, and future of downtown Silver Spring. it is unrecognizable to how I remember it as a kid in the 90s (in a good way!) and there’s still so much more work to do. www.thebanner.com/economy/grow...

This, and...from what I can tell, MAHA is unbothered by the fact that their lifestyle / supplement recs are often incredibly expensive. Or at least, require a ton of (ongoing) resources Which makes it feel an awful lot like a status movement

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 2w ago

Second, MAHA isn’t all that concerned with treatment of disease anyway. Its core claim is that nearly all diseases can be prevented through virtuous lifestyles. If we were all drinking raw milk and taking zinc supplements, we wouldn’t be coming down with heart disease and depression and COVID.

I love how free kids feel while riding. Moving around, of course. But more than that, they just start to say really great stuff! And they say it with their whole chest!

Nicole McEntee@nikkimcentee17.bsky.social · 3w ago

“Tiny legs have big powers!” - such a happy morning.

Unfortunate, but not surprising. SHA said that the data didn't support continuing the lanes. But notably, in its letter to SHA, MCDOT said: "The data collected this summer demonstrates that roadway capacity in this area could be reallocated to transit without substantially affecting traffic flow"

Red Line shuttle lanes on Route 355 to reopen to all traffic on Labor Day

The State Highway Administration plans to begin removal of 7.5-lane miles of bus lanes on Route 355 next week.

bethesdamagazine.com

An incredible example of how institutionalized car culture is The parking lot, and the car they drove, are somehow naturally occurring and completely unseen as choices that engineered away physical activity Instead, it's the electric mobility devices that are threats to our way of life

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 3w ago

You're the dean of a public health department and *this* is the first time you've thought about America's built environment? www.forbes.com/sites/bernad...

Great piece 👇

Greater Greater Washington@ggwash.org · 3w ago

Climate action in DC could mean moving more people into the low-carbon communities we've already created, along the transit lines we've already built.

Super cool and under-discussed benefit to ecovoltaics (seeding the land under solar arrays with pollinators and native plants) More birds, more nests, and more bats

Microphones left running at 12 ecovoltaic solar farms in the Midwest heard nearly twice as many grassland bird species as the corn and soybean fields beside them, and more than 230 nests sat on the ra...

Researchers planted acoustic recorders at 13 Midwestern solar farms and found nearly double the grassland bird species compared to nearby corn fields, plu

ecoportal.net

As we begin the 2026-2027 school year, it's frustrating to revisit this story from the 25-26 school year, which talks about a driver hitting a child during the 24-25 school year After two years, this intersection is exactly the same. Our neighborhoods deserve much better than this kind of neglect

d. reed, crisp & juicy enjoyer 🦀🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇬🇾@justupthepike.bsky.social · 10mo ago

for months my neighbors have been fighting @mcdotnow.bsky.social for stop signs at intersections where drivers hit an 11yo, as well as my dog and I. Michael Paylor, #2 at MCDOT, literally said the best thing the county can do is “nothing” bethesdamagazine.com/2025/11/19/e...

Within two years, Australia has managed to drastically reduce its use of fossil fuels because #batteries supply the electricity at peak times. We need much more #energystorage for the energy transition! #ActOnClimate #ClimateActionNow

School's back, which means, sadly, we need to brace ourselves for more of these stories 😞

16-year-old boy struck by car while crossing street in Montgomery Village

A 16-year-old boy was struck by a car Wednesday morning while crossing a road in Montgomery Village, according to radio transmissions.

bethesdamagazine.com

Climate pals, what are your favorite examples of actions that simultaneously reduce climate pollution and help us adapt to climate changes that we can no longer avoid? Joint Adaptation and Mitigation (JAM), if you will.

More than 65,000 people have been displaced by the Spokane Complex Fires — and hundreds have lost their homes. If you have even $5 to go towards short and long term assistance, here's a trusted community source: innovia.org

Home - Innovia Foundation

Learn how you can bring your whole community together through the power of a shared meal. APPLY FOR A GRANT Find an event What is your America at 250? Join the mosaic, host a meal, share a story, and ...

innovia.org

Helping more people live near high quality transit + daily needs, in a walkable neighborhood, is climate action, full stop Denying people that opportunity is not climate action, nor is it climate resilience. It simply entrenches the land use patterns (and exclusion) that contributed to the crisis

Wow, scary and rapidly accelerating wildfire situation in Spokane. Hoping everyone out there stays safe

Spokane Rising@spokanerising.com · 2mo ago

Holy crap. Level 3 (GO NOW!) zone now includes urban Spokane, south of Francis to Wellesley. Level 2 (GET SET!) zone now extends east of Division. Not to be alarmist, but at this rate, it’s not inconceivable that the Old Trails Fire merges with the Fairview Fire.

This is a really sweet and compassionate idea

From Bethesda Magazine: A phone in the Silver Spring woods offers a cathartic conduit

Giving old phones new lives as cathartic conduits

bethesdamagazine.com

Tell me you don't know what a data center is, without telling me you don't know what a data center is [this is not a comment on the impact/benefits of data centers]

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

Hassett: "Data centers are very good for towns bc they create so many jobs & bring people in with high incomes that can buy houses & stuff like that. So if you take a sleepy town that hasn't seen much in the last 30 years & put a data center there, there are gonna be a bunch of happy residents."

Save yourself $20 in parking and take transit to the MoCo fair

Montgomery County (MD) Department of Transportation - Ride On@rideonmct.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The County’s biggest summer event is almost here! Whether you're going to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair for the rides, animals, or food, Ride On can help you get there sans the parking headaches. Use our trip planner to find the best route there: https://ow.ly/rcWI50Zt8px

Housing choice is good, actually. This tiny apartment probably shares a larger kitchen space and common area with other building residents. Micro units like this give people the option to live in a neighborhood they couldn’t otherwise afford. Basically it’s a dorm room for adults. (1/

Jeff Brutlag 👻🏳️‍🌈@jeffbrutlag.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I saw an apartment for rent in Seattle for $1000 per month and thought “oh that seems super cheap, let’s see why” and it was 142 square feet

You feel this in abstract ways, but also in very specific ways Like when a DOT insists on a lengthy and convoluted process for basic safety treatments (speed humps, stop signs, flashing ped lights) As though we need to study them for the millionth time or outsource safety decisions to a referendum

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈@maxdubler.com · 3mo ago

The people in charge of your city’s streets do not care if their road designs kill people, so long as traffic flows freely.

A woman was hit and killed by a driver at the intersection of Colesville and Crestmoor Dr, in Montgomery County This is what that intersection looks like Police haven't released details, but everything about this road and intersection is unsafe. Every single thing. Unacceptable that this continues

"When I wrote about the crash last year, I said I’d forgive the driver eventually. I think I have. Our bruises and scars have mostly healed. Soon enough, I was consumed by a different problem: trying to make sure this didn’t happen again."

Greater Greater Washington@ggwash.org · 3mo ago

Last May, a driver blew a stop sign and hit GGWash’s Dan Reed and their dog. After a year, Montgomery County is finally fixing the street. It shouldn’t be this hard.

What's that? Compact, infill development near shops, jobs, and transit requires fewer public dollars for infrastructure and produces more property tax revenue per acre? The rare cheat code for budgetary stability *and* local climate action

Building Homes Near Jobs, Stores, and Transit Saves Public Dollars

Amid a national housing shortage, momentum is growing at the state and local levels to make it easier to build more homes—a proven way of reducing unaffordable rents and home prices. A key question fa...

pew.org

Good opportunity to boost this book about the topic. It dives deep into the growing tension - and extreme inequality - b/t local, often lower income residents, and the uber wealthy who view nature and land conservation not as a public good, but as social status and a path to alleviate their guilt

Billionaire Wilderness

A revealing look at the intersection of wealth, philanthropy, and conservation

press.princeton.edu

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 4mo ago

Cool that whether the US has any public land, and what the public land it has can be used for, is being decided, like everything else, by a small cabal of billionaires.

Didn't have childcare today, so it was a great time to take a stroll on @montgomeryparks.bsky.social's Sligo Creek trail. Looking *chef's kiss* in the spring The kiddo fell asleep straight away, so of course couldn't stop walking until we did damn near the whole trail 😂

Climate advocates: Welcome to the pro-housing movement.

Apartments Are the Climate Solution Hiding in Plain Sight

US climate policy is blocked. Housing isn’t.

sightline.org

Yet another way that solar can support agriculture

Tor "SolarFred" Valenza@torsolarfred.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Solar on canals reduces water evaporation by 70% and algae growth by 85% #energysky -- via pv magazine usa:

"For many teens, public transportation is ... the difference between a life of our own or being stuck waiting on someone else to give us a ride" Better transit = more independence and stronger social ties Kids deserve it! (and everyone else does too)

I’m 15 and can’t drive. Here’s why transit is a key to teen independence

For many teens, public transportation is the difference between independence and being stuck.

ggwash.org