This vote to eliminate the only Black-majority district in Tennessee is Racist, immoral and unconstitutional. But as Rep @justinjpearson.bsky.social reminds us, we may lose some battles, but this war for justice is a long one. See his full statement in the comment thread.

They want us to mail guns but not ballots??

First time I’ve seen this and holy crap this RULES!!

Instead of 60 days of war with Iran, we could have had 6 months of universal childcare + preschool for every single kid in the United States.

The Source is now going to be daily?? Amazing. Municipal gov'ts w/ daily coverage pay lower interest rates, saving the community significant money. www.bendsource.com/news/localne...

Socialism can just mean the government works to ensure that people's basic needs are met: food, housing, healthcare, and education. We already do this but we do a really bad job of it. The ordinary person doesn't care if you mean transitional stage of marxist socialism (and it doesn't have to!).

Passing the gas tax will bring better transit and more money for paving and safety projects in Bend. It’s only a temporary increase, but transit is too important to underfund.

The Greenwood Ave Safety Project just hit a major milestone: 5 straight quarters with fewer crashes. This is an excellent trend to be on and I hope it continues.

Come to Bend CityFest today! 5p - 7p downtown. Going to be a good time. TWO $250 Downtown Bend gift cards will be raffled off. Free entry! Lift Fitness Studio Parking Lot 514 NW Franklin Ave. Bend, OR 97703 bendoregon.gov/event/cityfe...

PLEASE NOTE: This account will no longer be used for official City of Bend communications. Official updates will now be posted at @councilormendez.bsky.social. This account will be used for personal and campaign-related content.

Prioritizing children is a good lens

Support staff and educational administrators are hired at the expense of teachers. Student to staff ratios in every category have improved over the same period (per next slide). More money alone won’t fix this.

Suspending elections already in progress!

Stalin fundamentally crippled Soviet #science in the 1930s and almost a century later it still hasn't recovered. That's what Trump, RFK Jr., Vought, and MAGA are doing right now to the United States.

Local elections matter

Fantastic day to drop literature for some fantastic county commission candidates! Ballots are mailed April 29 and election is May 19.

Bend Park and Rec partnering with Bend Police Department for enhanced off-leash patrolling this month. www.bendparksandrec.org/leash-em-rem...

Can you bike in a tux? The answer is yes.

My kingdom for a city that talked about building out a low-stress bike network, and prioritized closing gaps.

“This proposal for a separated route goes farther by requiring that people biking not share physical space with through traffic." Yours truly in 2021 when @broadmanfororegon.bsky.social and I proposed the Bend Bikeway. Diverters are new in Bend and we're going to work to refine them.

Diverters work great, and only a few intersections need them to stop the cut-through traffic. Side streets have few cars, and the through streets have enough cars during the daytime to make speeding impossible. Apps have improved things as drivers don't get lost anymore trying to go around.

Justice Jackson consistently speaks truth to power, grounded in history and reality, and has emphasized constitutional limits on executive authority. "Presidents are not kings." No wonder Trump feels threatened by her. (And also, just maybe, there is another factor at play here as well...)

Unspeakably evil Only reason I am an American is because my Zeide did translation work for the US Army, in the immediate aftermath of WW2, which he spent in various concentration camps Turning our backs on the brave Afghans who helped us is morally vacant, and a stain on our national character

Bonus round: Run an ebike rebate program for low income families Offer to pay for low water landscaping conversions Encourage/require more alley loading homes Allow lot splits for attached housing Fund any mandates for housing affordability Ban personal fireworks (dogs and vets will thank you)

Things Bend has done/is doing I think every city should do, urbanist edition: Upzone to quadplexes (at least) everywhere Plan key biking and walking routes and build them out Get rid of parking mandates Price the curb wherever data says it makes sense Work harder on transit (we're gonna!)

Watch for the green flash!

Remember when Obama's speech deals were headline news stories?

Supreme Court justices doing whatever they want, predicting rulings months before arguments or briefs have been filed, reveals the flimsy basis of the Roberts Court legitimacy. Which is maybe what we knew all along: this is more about politics than calling balls and strikes. Ask McConnell.

A good transit operator principle is: “Do not pursue revenue that diminishes the experience of transit riders.” Especially not for the benefit of non-transit riders.

Pieds-a-terre tax, eh? Hmmm…

Should this be called a "modal filter" or a "traffic diverter"? Modal filter is more accurate, but the idea is harder to convey (nobody knows what a "mode" is). Traffic diverters seem overly focused on drivers - it's not a diverter if you're walking, wheeling, or biking!

Dear god. Very, very serious allegations of mass civil rights violations at the State of Florida's Everglades immigration detention center (officially known as "Alligator Alcatraz").

Surveys show people believe foreign aid to be 25 - 31% of our federal budget and that the U.S. should cut foreign aid. When informed the actual amount is around 1%, support for cutting aid drops. This is like a really crazy version of that.

The US 97 corridor between Madras and Bend ranks in the top 5% of dangerous road segments in Oregon. From 2018 - 2023, 66 people died in crashes on US 97 in Deschutes and Jefferson Counties. 14 of them were killed in an urban area (Madras, Redmond, Bend). Half of those were pedestrians.

A good overview of options and challenges around how a city can remedy grocery deserts. An open question is whether it's permitting and opening vs. operating costs (incl. rent subsidy) that offer the best reform opportunities. @stephenjacobsmith.com seems to think it's the former.

California’s $20 an hour fast food minimum wage, instituted in 2024, did not reduce employment. It led to only the most modest of price increases—barely noticeable to a consumer. It significantly improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers. capitalandmain.com/despite-apoc...

"Two or three [close calls] yesterday. Five last week all at once. Five instances where cars could have crashed into kids." Some people will tell you we should build more two-lane roundabouts. Not without providing a skybridge for pedestrians. Crossing guards know what's up!

Rode to Bend's public works campus for the electrification round table. Saw some cool stuff on the way. Also I saw a rock chuck off of NE Boyd Acres Rd. I think rock chucks are totally underrated. They are sooo cute! The separated bike path is NE Butler Market. Will be completed late Fall 2026.

Bend is updating its Transportation Safety Action Plan! Please take the survey and drop some pins on the map! zanassoc.mysocialpinpoint.com/bend-transpo...

Donald Trump is deranged. He must be impeached and removed from office. Republicans who don’t stop him will have blood on their hands, and anyone who carries out an order to bomb civilian targets will be complicit in war crimes and will be held accountable.

Come learn about the Hawthorne Bridge corridor and Franklin Ave improvements 4:30 - 6:30p tomorrow (Tue April 7) Newberry Hotel (300 NW Franklin Ave) Mt. Bachelor Room

Fun to see the governor with such good taste in shirts. That's Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, OR. Opened in 2016 and named after the nearby rail road tracks, maybe one day we will have passenger rail again in Bend!

“Routes 1 and 4 on 3rd Street will run every 15 minutes during peak weekday hrs, doubling current frequency. Other routes will shift from 45-minute to 30-minute intervals, with some high-demand segments near St. Charles Medical Center… also moving to 15minute service.”

oh shit there is ice on the wastewater vent and they are trying to melt it off using the sun they just told them they can’t poop right now

Hegseth never should have been confirmed and he definitely deserves to be impeached now. Resolution 935 to impeach Hegseth was introduced Dec 2025. Republicans must love Hegseth though. How else do you explain it? Republicans (and Democrats who haven't yet supported impeachment) own this.

New Report from StreetLight Data "found VMT contributed the most to risk, with a nearly direct link between the total miles driven and the reported number of fatal crashes." This is why investing in transit and active transportation is so important. Lower costs, cleaner air, safer cities!

Lol

"Trans rights are human rights" means trans people are entitled to equal and dignified treatment because they are human. It's not hard to imagine how terrifying it is to have that questioned. It shouldn't be a big deal and I hope one day soon it won't be.

That’s right

I know I’m a broken record on this but: A handful of law profs are engaging in an effort to convince the Supreme Court to accept a reactionary administration’s effort to redefine American citizenship and render countless children stateless.