My first solo-authored article is out in City & Community! I find that areas with one more residential development permit have 2.7% more low-level arrests in the following year, controlling for crime, calls for service, area demographics, and year effects. doi.org/10.1177/1535...

To Protect and Serve Capital: Policing, Real Estate Development, and the Regulation of Invested Spaces in New York City - @hpullenblasnik.bsky.social, City and Community journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Also true of research in general, where serendipity is often the source of discovery

ONLINE FIRST In this new TSQ article, Katy Habr examines how the proximity of traditional grocery stores in Southern California to platform firms is impacting job security and working conditions for employees. Read more at bit.ly/4ukDdBn

"AI cannot coexist with education--it can only degrade it" YES OMG YES

I do want to shout-out my fellow sociologists, who have collectively created a discipline so woke that not a single one of our introductory textbooks can make it past Florida's censors. Great work everyone.

Van Hollen: "They really think the American people are stupid. I mean, we can all see the video. We saw the video with Renee Good. We saw the video with Alex Pretti. The real domestic terrorists are in the White House right now."

As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today.

ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.

There were six or seven agents, trying to harm a man who looks unarmed and still they murdered him in broad daylight. These ICE agents are venal, incompetent, cowardly and this type of execution will keep on happening because they are an unchecked paramilitary force of scared men who crave power.

When we say that surveillance is a threat to the First Amendment because it makes it so easy for police to intimidate or enact retribution on someone based on their politics--this is exactly what we mean. This is state repression done via data collection.

Breaking News: President Trump said the U.S. would withdraw from the U.N.’s bedrock climate treaty, and 65 other treaties and agreements.

Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"

This is not the first US imperial atrocity for oil —let’s not exceptionalize it— but wow is is it awful. And the violation of Venezuelans domestically in the name of a sovereign borders they actually dgaf about. As Aimee Cesaire put it— the price of imperialism is the empire’s own civilization.

Solo recordar que el 6 de enero de hace cinco años Trump ya instigó un golpe de estado en su propio país y, luego, indultó a los golpistas que asaltaron el Capitolio. Los golpes de estado a principios de año ya son una tradición para él.

Despite what we are often told, this line from Mamdani’s inauguration speech is what true pragmatism actually looks like: “Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed. But never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.”

Last week @theverge.com published my essay exploring the limitations of large-language models. This week, that same essay is cited by a federal judge in Michigan to distinguish the process of human reasoning from what these models do. Very, very gratifying.

😩

In the richest city on Earth, 40% of NYC families can’t afford weekly food costs, and food prices are up 33% over the past decade. It’s time for a city government that puts affordability at the top of the agenda.

Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. —Harry Truman, 1952

While you were distracted by the Epstein files, RFK jr just updated the CDC website with his anti-vax talking points. This is dangerous and irresponsible. www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...

Remember: There is nothing natural or inevitable about extreme inequality; it’s the result of an economic system that values wealth and power over human dignity and justice. It doesn't have to be this way.

Gen AI is a technology in search of a purpose. Frankly, many studies of Gen AI read like analyses in search of a question. This problem will likely get worse now that Trump has identified AI as one of few priority areas -- and the most "social sciencey" priority area -- for federal grants.

New: Videos show ICE/CBP agents are scanning peoples' faces on the street to verify citizenship. ICE has tool to instantly look up unprecedented number of databases with just a photo “I’m an American citizen so leave me alone” “Alright, we just got to verify that” www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

Some good news! “Boston City Council has voted unanimously to ban its government from using facial recognition technology, including the police department, making it the largest city on the East Coast to do so.” www.builtinboston.com/articles/bos...

The CDC is gutting a program that monitors foodborne illnesses. The program will now only track infections caused by two pathogens, rather than eight. Hello? How does this “Make America Healthy Again”?

i can’t remember anything that has felt more foisted upon us than AI. repeatedly telling us why we actually need is like thinking a joke will get funnier the more you explain it.

WHOA. One of Eric Adams' former police commissioners just filed a lawsuit accusing him of running the NYPD like a "racketeering enterprise."

As Trump continues to flood the city with masked ICE agents and inks a bill that's likely going to have devastating consequences for New York, "liberals" are joining rhetorical forces with the president by focusing their ire on Zohran Mamdani.

I don't care what band aids they put on the problem, Flock Safety's surveillance empire is incompatible with a free society.

In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done. My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it. I am honored to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City.

My statement on the Trump administration's illegal military actions and the wars that must end.

AOC: “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

Zohran Mamdani is standing up to the oligarchy and fighting to make one of America’s most expensive cities affordable for the working class. If you’re a New York City voter, I urge you to rank him #1 on your ballot by next Tuesday. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Zohran Mamdani is so charismatic and polished that it's genuinely unsettling to see his composure break while he reflects on the Islamophobic attacks and death threats he's faced during the campaign: www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

The anti-abortion movement and what it has wrought is more horrifying than any horror movie. It is a rejection of the dignity of life and a mockery of human wellbeing

Perhaps the City Council speaker now understands why Mamdani called for abolishing ICE.

A major danger of LLMs is that humans are SO predisposed to attribute knowledge to any entity that uses natural language fluently. We cannot imagine that a machine that outputs natural-seeming speech/text doesn't have cognition. Brilliantly articulated by @emilymbender.bsky.social et al. (2021).

As for so many across this country, Bernie Sanders has been the single most influential political figure in my life. As Mayor, I will strive to live up to his example by fighting for the working class every day and hopefully make Brooklyn’s own proud.

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander was just arrested by Trump’s ICE agents because he asked to see a judicial warrant. This is fascism and all New Yorkers must speak in one voice. Release him now.

Holy shit. DHS just detained New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a candidate for NYC mayor, as he was observing ICE arrests in court.

Bernie endorses Zohran 🙏

Wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars in debt for working class taxi drivers isn't nothing. It's the difference between life and death.

The world‘s most easily debunked lie is that firearms keep people safe. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/h...