This is why it’s maddening that Sacramento is spending millions on a few miles of painted bike lanes on Broadway, Folsom, etc. Honestly I’d rather the City stop all large projects until there is a top-down commitment to a network of protected lanes always and only. Staff sure aren’t going to do it.

While NIMBYism and degrowtherism are exposed as elements of fascism by stuff like this, the more chilling part for me is seeing the dystopian trope of the ultra-wealthy more literally walling themselves off and pretending to preserve their world in amber realized.

Yet every boomer comments this on every housing project

Sacramento has had 3 major freeway widenings within the decade, I-5, I-80, US-50 (which is extra over budget and delayed and lane splitting that killed a lot of people). I have to run the numbers but it’s over $1B on more freeway lanes. Glad we declared a climate emergency

Also, the wealth and power of this class of barons is extremely entwined with massive public subsidy, the benefits of regulatory capture, and so many other direct acts enabling their hoards. To act as if anyone can amass these levels of wealth without personally relying on government is insane.

If shooting a legal observer in the head from 25 feet away isn’t enough, Michael Mantsch is now making $435k a year with benefits after a promotion to sgt. Shameless. Great reporting from Theresa Clift (and hat tip to @arianelange.bsky.social for reporting on ongoing OT abuse by SacPD)

Given that there are multiple proposals to get the California public on the hook to insure the uninsurable: I feel there is a strong necessity for a grasstops advocacy organization that speaks out against this insanity and has no ties to industry associations. Much like the YIMBY movement.

It's unsettling how traffic violence is reported in the US. If the driver was going this street's speed limit of 25mph, there's a 90% chance this woman would be alive. But that's unmentioned. The driver was "cooperative." There will be no follow up. There will be no convictions. A life is lost.

seriously though, they take the no smiling vibe to another level

Reps Tarra Simmons and Shaun Scott have introduced a bill in the WA State Legislature that would prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from hiring individuals who were previously employed as sworn officers with ICE on or after Jan 20, 2025. This is called an idea whose time has arrived.

California Governor Newsom vetoed a bill that would require audible feedback when a driver drives significantly faster than the speed limit. He said he would veto speed limiters, so the sound was the compromise position, then he vetoed that, too. He's watered down & vetoed several road safety bills

Absolutely incredible to see the drop in gas generation.

@governor.ca.gov’s CHP and DMV are only the most overt in this gubernatorial administration for their contempt of victims of violence on CA roads. It clearly runs through Caltrans, CALSta, ARB, etc. - the whole spectrum of state agencies committed to maintaining the deadly status quo

Two weeks ago, a very dear friend of my parents was killed while cycling by an SUV driver who turned left into him without looking. The CHP officer tried to protect his killer by bizarrely claiming *he* had been at fault. Even when presented with VIDEO evidence, CHP appears to be doubling down.

It sucks to say, but unfortunately Luka Doncic is better at giving out e-bikes than the Air Resources Board @airresources.bsky.social www.latimes.com/sports/laker...

@urbanlandrent.bsky.social here’s another terrible take claiming “progressives” can just make insurance affordable by taxing “polluters” with no discussion of reducing risk in the first place. What the hell is going on with this spate of completely bullshit “progressive climate policies”?

I agree, but I’m currently listening to Kingfish about Huey Long and there are so many horrifying parallels. Long dismantled democracy so quickly in Louisiana, and honestly it’s a relief Trump is such a syphilitic idiot rather than a megalomaniac genius like Long.

Sacramento could never - the City actively refusing to enforce AB 413 as policy. In one specific instance, they refuse to take any action even after daily reports of an intersection in front of an elementary school where the sidewalk and crosswalk are blocked by the same lifted truck.

It sucks that being on the sidewalk next to speeding cars or at a wide intersection like this entails the constant risk of death. No one understands this like runners, and I hope these kids are able to go back to doing what they love without fear one day.

As Walt Whitman once wrote, “Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun: Please. Shine down on me.”

In CA, it feels like there are no shortage of half-baked plans for trails, but almost never is there a macro-scale analysis of how trails can serve most trips for most users even at the city scale. There should definitely be a transit overlay with any regional scale plans, too.

broke: charge your e-car with coal woke: charge your e-car with solar bespoke: transform how your entire city functions, make your life healthier and more enjoyable, save lives, and get rich by charging your e-bike with solar

Insane but true fact: making US roads as safe as Canadian, Australian, or European roads would save more lives than eliminating murder from the US.

LAS PARTÍCULAS HITLER EXISTEN

It’s wild to me that our mayor went on a community bike ride where they came across a person killed in the street by a car, and yet as the city hurtles towards new levels of carnage on the streets there is no comment or action whatsoever following any of these slaughters.

Writers going crazy linking every sex scandal of the past 30 years together for the season finale. Bill Clinton got a bj from Trump. Nuzzi slept with Sanford. Epstein advised Kavanaugh. What’s next - Anthony Weiner hooked up with Hunter Biden next to Larry Craig’s bathroom stall?

Ariane Lange at the Sac Bee and Jose Fermoso at Oaklandside are the only reporters in California (or anywhere, as far as I'm aware) who are actually covering traffic violence as the public health and social crisis that it is. bsky.app/profile/aria...

Well-written overview of the public health crisis of drivers killing people and the complete failures of elected officials and public servants at the local, state, and national levels to do anything effective to stem the violence and carnage.

I really enjoyed this breakdown of the implications of the Strong Towns approach, and this counterpoint to Marohn is very compelling. A supposedly socialist former city council member in Sacramento repeatedly spoke of the need to prioritize these millionaires over more housing. Why?

This incredible piece of reporting from @calmatters.org, along with its horrifying story on how Cal DMV gets murderers back into cars as quickly as possible, should have sent alarm bells and forced resignations across DMV and CalSTA. Instead, crickets. calmatters.org/investigatio...

And I speak of spiritual suffering! Of people seeing their talent, their work, their lives wasted. Of good minds submitting to stupid ones. Of strength and courage strangled by envy, greed for power, fear of change.

Unbelievably tragic piece about all the crossing guards injured or killed on the job in the US. One school district in South Carolina has had 4(!) crossing guards hit or killed on the job. These are people trying to fix the problems caused caused by traffic engineers, and are dying doing it.

Despite SacRT supposedly ending this practice this year, new ads completely covering windows continue to appear on light rail (unsure about buses).

Absolute cowardice and incompetence from @airresources.bsky.social Such a terrible combination with bureaucratic arrogance, and a foreboding omen for what the new Board Chair Lauren Sanchez values.

Abridged showing how real journalists can clearly explain Prop 50. While it’s awesome to have two great nonprofit news orgs (with @calmatters.org of course) cover this issue so well, it’s such an indictment of the literally dishonest coverage in every other outlet.

The @newyorker.com daily cartoon by Adam Douglas Thompson.

West Sacramento Mayor and @caltrans.bsky.social to close only bike path to Davis in order to save money for PG&E: tell them no! sacbike.org/advocacy-ale...

You can’t write EOs about governing intelligently to safeguard communities from the changing climate and then support this. Everyone wants to talk about climate resilience but that approach is incompatible for any politician who wants credit now at the expense of the future (even near-term).

If only we had a strong principled leader like Mayor Adams as Minority Leader… at

In my experience, the people who run Omelas are lovely

Safety experts recommend staying inside to not get murdered.

@calmatters.org once again setting the standard for how you cover complex partisan topics factually (it shouldn’t be so rare!). And then they following this section with far and away the best data journalism on redistricting maps: calmatters.org/california-v...

The Democratic Party needs candidates to run on a platform of not liking Ben

It is journalistic malpractice to write about Prop 50 without even once mentioning that it is a direct and explicit response to gerrymandering in TX. That goes triple when writing a long piece about the motivations of donors to the pro- and anti- committees.

I couldn't find much 1960s coverage of families displaced by the W-X freeway. So I looked at households listed on W or X in the 1950 census & called up the kids to see if they were still living there when construction began. I found two amazing people? Reporting is fun www.sacbee.com/news/local/t...

Sacramento: The Next Generation First, potluck. Then, lots and lots of doors.

I’ve also found that in my limited interactions with Trumpers they often laugh when they talk about him. It’s like a mix of glee, shame, genuine amusement at his antics, and an acknowledgment of their ridiculousness, but it distracts from their overt desire to commit violence against anyone “other.”