YOU CANNOT PAVE YOUR WAY OUT OF CONGESTION 🤦‍♂️

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is trying to expand the state’s already massive tax breaks for data centers. Data center companies are already saving nearly $500,000,000 in local property taxes this year in Oregon. Now the Governor wants to double key tax breaks from 5 years to 10.

Former ICE agent: My first day training new cadets, I received secretive orders to teach them to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a warrant. I watched ICE cut classes that teach our legal system, firearms training, use of force, lawful arrests, and the limits of officers' authority

This 53 year old man who lived in my neighborhood w/no criminal record & who had been in the US for 30 years, was detained and thrown into a cold cell for days, caught pneumonia and COVID there and deported. He finally died. I am so angry. www.kptv.com/2026/02/21/n...

Yet the findings are consistent with those from other contexts. New homes are occupied by those on relatively high incomes, but initiate moving chains that involve households with progressively lower incomes & homes at lower rents. Households generally move to larger homes.

Portland doesn't have enough to pay for homelessness or cops but does have millions to give to a billionaire NBA team owner. www.opb.org/article/2026...

This hasn’t aged well has it

it's worth asking why swiss coops can afford 20 elevators and 3 and 4-bedroom homes in 4 story buildings, when all we seem to afford are single aspect 280sf microstudios with 1 or 2 elevators for a hundred units

So @binnig.bsky.social wins this round of public testimony www.portlandmaps.com/bps/testimon...

Look at all the beloved programs that are on the chopping block while the Oregon Legislature continues to barrel forward with a plan to execute further bonding to pay for another $160 million towards the proposed Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion. #orleg #orpol bikeportland.org/2026/02/12/s...

Yes, bad. As is also suggested in the piece, my suggestion would be to impose pricing, but it should be GPS-based congestion pricing (per km or minute) plus geofencing to ensure ‘pauking’ and pickup/dropoff doesn’t take place in bike lanes, bus lanes, etc.

Want to improve affordability and lower rents? Build more housing, especially more apartments. Case in point: Austin, Texas--a building boom produced a precipitous decline in rents. www.apartmentlist.com/research/nat...

Parking garage safety is a huge preoccupation in building codes – but only when it comes to fire. I’ve never heard any concern for getting hit by cars, which I’m sure is a far higher risk.

“A year after the $1.1 billion overhaul,” which added a new lane each direction, “the 405’s rush hour drive times were a minute slower than they were before the workers broke ground. Five years later, traffic was worse at all times of day.” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Having spent most of my working life in transport policy, this is the essential truth that so many people - including politicians with responsibility for transport decisions - don’t or won’t get. To reduce congestion, you reduce capacity and reduce speed. The empirical evidence is overwhelming.

There is surprisingly little research on the public finance implications of "jock taxes." This is fertile ground for a project that could produce several studies.

Same idea, but with income. Not a lot of movement metro-wide, which is probably not great for a 23-year span. In the city, the upper ~40% of tracts have seen meaningful income growth. The bottom ~60% were hit hard 2000-2010, and had ~recovered in real terms by 2023.

Dubious land use policy suggestion: What we need to do is put more seniors and low income people on the urban periphery, where they'll have to own a car to get anywhere, where transit doesn't work, and where they can't walk anywhere. www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

@oregondot.bsky.social you know what you must do

I was just denied entry to the Dilley detention facility while my constituent, seven-year-old Diana, remains inside. What kind of sick, horrific conditions are children being forced to endure in there? I will be back tomorrow. Accountability can’t wait.

Great news!! "Funding previously earmarked for Goldstream improvements will be reallocated to other transportation priorities. Bad news: That may mean another highway expansion boondoggle, instead of public transit. #yyj #bcpoli @wildernews.bsky.social @bettertransityyj.ca @vtru.bsky.social

Congestion pricing pros: -Cheap to implement -Huge revenue generator -Basically solves all traffic instantly Congestion pricing cons: -People literally will not believe you when you tell them the pros

Watch the full clip. In short, Wolfers says we are not talking about what future generations are going to lose as a consequence of Trump's sabotage of institutions, because our news media is not designed to ask those questions. He says we need to ask them.

Testimony to OTC: Here's something your staff should have told you 2 years ago: The Interstate Bridge Project is going to cost double what we've been told. IBR has been saying would cost $5-7.5 billion, it will actually will be double that: $12.2-17.7 billion. cityobservatory.org/cortright_ot...

A new cost estimate for the Interstate Bridge is always just a few months away. Here's OPB in January of 2024, *two years ago*: Last September, IBR promised a new estimate in December, now they say March is "the best they can do." Reality: Cost has more than doubled to as much as $17.7 billion.

Absolute banger of a comment on r/military: www.reddit.com/r/Military/c...

Nice review of IBR financial situation

You love to see it. Finally, the interstate bridge project's arrogance and deceit gets some media attention.

The Interstate Bridge Project say the $17.7 billion cost in internal documents is "just a draft," but "IBR program officials did not dispute the 11-figure cost estimates that drew headlines, and Francis conceded the estimates and underlying document were 'robust.'" djcoregon.com/news/2026/01...

It beggars belief that after 6 years and $273 million spent on consultants, Interstate Bridge officials can't confirm w/in a few billion dollars how much it will cost. "Maybe by March, but "no firm commitments." "That is the best I can offer you" www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/p...

“Fiscal conservatives should be clamouring for cycleways” thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21-...

OpenAI has absolutely zero ideas. They have no business. This is not a real business line and it’s so utterly vague and specious, I’m shocked at the credulousness to just print it without saying “there is no logical way this works of course” or talking about how the CFO of OpenAI is saying nonsense

Back in 2013, the Coast Guard issued a bridge permit for the Columbia River Crossing. That didn't ever get built, either--because nobody could come up with the money to pay for it. The $17.7 billion cost of the Interstate Bridge project is a price no one will pay. www.kgw.com/article/news...

The Interstate Bridge Project just dodged one bullet--it now has US Coast Guard permission to build a fixed span 116 foot bridge. www.kgw.com/article/news... But, reality check: it is at least $10 billion short of the $17.7 billion the project would cost. www.wweek.com/news/state/2...

En 2026, je continuerai d’agir jusqu’à la dernière minute, en livrant de nouveaux équipements publics, des rues et des quartiers transformés, des milliers d’arbres plantés et de nouvelles cours Oasis. Paris continue d’avancer.

New cost estimates have revealed that the funding gap on Washington and Oregon's joint megaproject to widen I-5 between the two states has grown to anywhere from $5 billion to $13 billion. The project as we know it is likely doomed. www.theurbanist.org/2026/01/12/t...

lol this project is dead. Again. What a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars planning this thing. Same mistakes as the CRC. Just gobsmacking hubris and incompetent leadership.

For the past two years, the Interstate Bridge Project has known its costs were going up. It has repeatedly hidden & delayed releasing new cost estimates. Now we know why: Max cost has risen from $7.5 to $17.7 billion. As we wrote last month: cityobservatory.org/17-7-billion...

The IBR will cost as much as $17.7 billion, more than double the previous max. cost of $7.5 billion, according to documents unearthed by City Observatory. cityobservatory.org/17-7-billion...

Cost of Interstate Bridge more than doubles to $13.6 billion, and could go as high as $17.7 billion, according to new estimates. IBR officials have delayed and hidden these new estimates for the past two years. www.wweek.com/news/state/2...

The exact same results can be found within built-out submarkets ggwash.org/view/68373/a... & allowing more/smaller houses has reduced housing costs directly in several core cities ggwash.org/view/99928/w...

Yep. And to the extent that unfunded "inclusionary" zoning mandates—a popular policy among cities not on this list—makes increasing overall supply less feasible, they effectively result in far fewer affordable units existing in the real world. bsky.app/profile/jsba...

“It’s pretty devastating. It’s not like there’s not some money out there. We’re just spending it on cars.” - NMF co-founder @chrissmith.us in @wweek.com, on @trimet.org’s cuts, and the failure of Oregon th prioritize existing bus service over freeway expansion www.wweek.com/news/2026/01...

The pricing means that taking a Citi Bike will become, for a lot of people, the transportation choice of last resort, such as when there's a subway meltdown or it's 20 minutes before the next bus arrives. That's not at all what the city should want. It should be a seamless part of people's choices.

Kids are literally being ran over by cars and killed over this N=8 regression. It's RFK and "More Guns, Less Crime" combined for Democratic governed cities.

I see there’s a post about microplastics going around with a photo of drinking straws, so here is my semi-regular reminder that the 3 biggest sources of microplastics are tires (45%), synthetic clothing particles (35%) and paint (~10%). Lay article attached:

The view from traffic-congested Boston:

this is incredible stuff. most state DOTs would spend tens of billions on highway expansions to try and see numbers like this (that wouldn’t even pan out anyway thanks to induced demand lol)