MAJOR NEWS: @GavinNewsom signed SB 79, my bill allowing more housing near public transit — rail, subway, rapid bus. It’s a huge step for housing in California. It’ll create more homes, strengthen our transit systems & reduce traffic & carbon emissions. Thank you, Governor!

LA friends: Here's an opportunity to help urban infill get developed in Los Angeles: urbanenvironmentalistsla.substack.com/p/help-us-sa... There's a hearing for 6000 Hollywood on Wed. 9am. This project replaces a car dealership with 350 apt units and near transit! what more could we want?!

A father who died saving his family, children at summer camp, a loving grandmother: The faces of the Texas flooding tragedy

I think it's super important we keep asking questions like: how can we design our cities to better serve our needs? A lot of these principles boil down to pedestrian-first accessibility and inclusivity. Great piece! theconversation.com/what-makes-a...

The House just passed the One Big "Beautiful" Bill. Here's six key takeaways from REPEAT Project's rapid analysis of the bill on what passage means for U.S. energy costs, investment in new electricity supplies, and greenhouse gas emissions. #OBBB 🔌💡

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

Fighting for a sustainable and just future is hard especially when processes like CEQA are often weaponized. Efforts to make it easier to build (infill) housing should be seen as a solution by EJ groups, however when we tie it with industrial plants, it becomes hard.. calmatters.org/environment/...

There aren't enough words to describe how inhumane and illegal ICE's abductions are and yet there are people justifying it. They aren't even good at it (71% of abductions are US citizens). And now things will only get worse if the OBBB passes. No one is safe. www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/27/a...

Hundreds of millions poured into modernizing stadiums, yet the fan experience is still absolutely horrendous. By prioritizing parking (which is still $$$) and not having equitable transit options, fans are left walking miles and paying hundreds for rideshares. www.nytimes.com/athletic/646...

Currently listening to public comments for SCAQMD's zero nox rules and it baffles me how many leaders are willing to trade long term environmental progress for the perceived short term cost concerns. We can't afford to make this transition!

22-year-old Cole Schmidtknecht's asthma medicine abruptly jumped from $55 to $700. Unable to get the medicine he needed, he left without it. Cole suffered an asthma attack and died 5 days later. His inhaler was empty & his insurance corp was UnitedHealth. www.qasimrashid.com/p/did-united...

BIG HOUSING NEWS: The Senate passed our bill (SB 79) to allow more housing near high quality transit & giving transit agencies more authority to build homes on their own land. We need more housing & focusing it around transit makes so much sense. It’ll mean more housing & more transit ridership.

It's do or die for SB 79, the bill that would legalize multifamily housing around rail and BRT stops across the state. The vote could be held as early as tomorrow morning. Californians: call your state senator tomorrow morning to help us get out of the senate! cayimby.org/legislation/...

This morning's reads include this super insightful piece from @streetsforall.org : data.streetsforall.org/blog/sb79_zo... Some how, the answer to so many of our issues goes back to land use reform incl. climate/housing/transportation. Facing a billion $ shortfall, it's now the answer to finances!

Fill this form to email your representatives to protect Energy Star! Thanks to great advocacy/policy folks at the USGBC for putting this together. usgbc.quorum.us/campaign/123...

I have a new podcast episode out on modular construction and its role in addressing our housing crisis. I feature Kit Switch, a building interiors company working on quickly retrofitting buildings (Candice, the co-founder is my friend). Check it out! www.fosteringourearth.com/p/11-how-doe...

For my LA-based followers, take a minute to send a support letter for SB79! secure.everyaction.com/wD3zN6EAFUSM...

I wonder if anyone's called out how similar the style of tweets the White House's tweets are to the IDF's.... Like this type of faux-hip-slang for absolutely deplorable and hypocritical posts

"We are all just temporarily abled" (-unknown) and "We are all just one test result away from our lives changing forever" (-my Physician's Assistant former roommate) are two quotes I share a lot, relevant to literally every class I teach on transportation, cities, health, and urban theory.

I think a lot abt how marginalized people are expected to be perfect just to be treated w/ basic dignity, just to access legal protection. But democracy can’t mean rights for the respectable few. It has to mean fair and just treatment even for those seen as least deserving. That’s the real test.

ARSENAL 3-0 against Real Madrid. My head is on Mars oh my goodness

A recent dismal of a challenge to a new construction gas ban in NYC is super huge given the Berkeley decision in recent years. So many cities put their electrification/decarb policies on hold bc of this. It seems like the fight isn't over but this is certainly a huge step! grist.org/buildings/na...

If you think what happened to Rumeysa Ozturk can't happen to you because you're a citizen and she's not, you are sorely mistaken. Ozturk was snatched off the street not for being a national security threat but for having a wrong opinion. If we don't put a stop to this, it's coming for all of us.

I finished Jason Stanley's "How Fascism Works" this weekend (after reading Erasing History earlier this year) and wow it is absolutely terrifying how on point it is for being written in 2018. Everything from the elusive search for the mythic past (MAGA), to trying to subvert the rule of law... 1/3

This is TERRIFYING oh my goodness. Our descent into a fascist nation is ridiculously rapid. They're trying to scare us into silence. But it so important we stay brave in these times.

BREAKING: Yuval Abraham, co-director of Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land," says Israeli settlers beat his co-director Hamdan Ballal, injuring his head and stomach — and then Israeli soldiers invaded the ambulance he was in and seized him. Ballal's whereabouts are now unknown.

Tomorrow, my two organizing homes, Sunrise Movement LA and Urban Environmentalists LA, support motions in LA City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM). Here's a short thread on them: #1. Single Staircase Reform for LA: brought by @lindsaysturman.bsky.social from LCI. 1/n

You may have heard about the Single Stair Reform Design Competition we are collaborating with LCI on, and tonight is your chance to find out more! Ask us about the single staircase design! Is it safe? How will it help housing in LA? We've got answers! RSVP Link is tinyurl.com/SingleStair

I'm Kat Abughazaleh and I'm running for Congress.

Currently reading @ayanaeliza.bsky.social's What If We Get It Right? and one of the most shocking facts is from her conversation with Bill McKibben: "if you have $125k in the bank, that's producing more carbon than flying/cooking/heating/cooling/driving than the average American in a year!" Wow!

Feeling overwhelmed with all the news? Join this evening for our last reading of It's Not That Radical x Mikaela Loach for some hope! We'll be live on Substack for all subscribers. open.substack.com/pub/fosterin...

Want to learn about A data-driven approach to solving an invisible energy crisis. Peoples Energy Analytics is helping utilities identify and assist customers struggling with energy bills before crisis strikes. Check out the "With Great Power Podcast" www.latitudemedia.com/news/a-data-...

What does accountability look like? Seriously. So many car deaths are so preventable with better roadway design yet so many leaders fail to make the right decision. Safety should be our number one guide, not driver complaints or residents who want to be able to drive faster. This is so senseless.

I started watching Shrinking on Apple TV this weekend and the first scene had a coyote so my partner and I were like "so this is set in Pasadena" (where we currently live). It was confirmed a few minutes later (so cool) but then realized they filmed it on our street!

This mornings reads 🧵: (1) Learning about the 2009 Endangerment Finding and why the EPA is looking into deregulation. It's so frustrating to have to constantly fight an administration hell bent on defying science legal-planet.org/2025/03/17/d...

this is so soooo troubling. These men are not even in uniform. Not only is this arrest unlawful but it sets a dangerous precedent and can empower people to go around claiming to be law enforcement and potentially harm others.

NEW: Family of Mahmoud Khalil just released footage of his arrest “Stop resisting” “He’s not resisting” Agents seen continuing to ignore Mahmoud’s wife as she asks basic questions

Just thinking about what the US looked like before the EPA existed

This morning's reads on: 1. environmental deregulation threats, 2. autism rates, 3. our move towards distributed energy resources, 4. congestion pricing, and 5. trump/musk schemes below 👇🧵

NEW—Mahmoud Khalil's wife: "I was born & raised in the Midwest. My parents came here from Syria…They believed living in the US would bring a sense of safety & stability. But here I am…weeks before I’m due to give birth to our first child…I feel more unsafe & unstable than I have in my entire life."

Join my live read along for Fostering Our Earth, reading Mikaela Loach's "It's Not That Radical" tonight at 5pm PT! Subscribe to join! www.fosteringourearth.com #bookclub

This is fascism! Shame shame shame on Columbia for failing to protect their students over the last year and inviting this. Arresting students and then making up rules to justify the arrest (originally for his visa but he actually has a green card then revoking that). This is SO DANGEROUS.

Want to participate in science for the common good, to help people access much-needed accurate air quality data? In light of the cancellation of the U.S. EPA Sensor Workshop, register for the Community Air Sensor Workshop of March 18-19 at www.communityairsensor.org (thx @lizneeley.bsky.social !)

The People's Union USA, a grassroots group, is calling on Americans to join a national boycott by not shopping for 24 hours on Friday.

📢 Love what we do? Help spread the word! Our $4.99 ebook sale is on now through 3/2. Nearly 1,000 titles on climate, cities, food, nature, and more—because knowledge should be accessible. Share this with your networks! 🌍📚 www.islandpress.org/...

Smiling reading this edition of State of Change! Super honored to be featured and get to yap about housing, mobility, equity, and climate change in the same space! Thanks for the feature, @twyspy.bsky.social!

Check out this great tool to find IRA and BIL funded projects are near you! This is is how we communicate funding and whats at risk with this administration.

no need to go to yeezy dot com from the Kanye ad. First thing I saw was a white lives matter shirt. Just skip that.

Just seeing news of Donald Shoup's passing and wow I'm feeling so sad. Reading The High Cost of Free Parking in grad school unequivocally changed my view of the world around me and shaped my career moving forward. May he rest in peace.

My occasional foray to right wing social media circles (lol fox news, x, facebook) shows me that a lot of people don't realize how many foundational services run on the federal gov't. They're here cheering for all this "clean up" when these people don't actually have a plan