Last year 600 people were hit while walking or biking in Montgomery County. We must make our roads safer for everyone.

grateful to @evanmglass.bsky.social for speaking to the East Silver Spring Civic Association tonight and listening to my neighbors, who want something done about traffic safety. just this year drivers hit an 11yo in February, me and my dog in May, and this week a kid biking to school—

it is perfect porch weather rn and Drizzy and I just got a visit from his best friend Poutine, who lives across the street. such a cute pair 🥹

we've been in st michaels for two days for a @ggwash.org staff retreat...what did I miss??? ggwash.org/view/101399/...

like many folks I did not know that parking in bike lanes technically wasn’t illegal in Montgomery County, at least until this week. now we just need MCPD to enforce it— www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

a useful thread about the other big project happening rn on University Boulevard—making it easier and safer to walk and bike on this busy, fast road

I dictated this post into my phone while walking the dog this morning 💁‍♀️

more good news from yesterday’s election: our @ggwash.org endorsees in Gaithersburg, mayor Jud Ashman and councilmember Lisa Henderson—who both ran on a strong pro-homes platform—were reelected… www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Felt inspired

once again this message is a loser! people want things and they want elected officials to do their jobs and deliver them those things. hopefully democrats will heed this lesson in 26

feeling personally invested in the new jersey governor’s race after seeing this “STOP OVERDEVELOPMENT” campaign ad which appears to only be on jack ciattarelli’s instagram page www.instagram.com/reel/DPUaYcs...

Border Patrol agent Lairmore testifies that he was not injured by the sandwich, but he felt the impact through his ballistic vest. The sandwich came apart and "kind of exploded" on his chest upon impact, he says. "I could smell the onions and mustard."

this is about New York but could apply to many places, including Maryland: when we make it hard to build homes, tenants and working families lose. more supply and tenant protections go hand in hand jacobin.com/2025/10/new-...

our quarterly(ish) @ggwash.org planners of color happy hour is one of my favorite things we do, and our next one is next thursday, november 13! join me and @kaihall10.bsky.social at shanklin hall in adams morgan–and rsvp here: secure.everyaction.com/Ia18zMvDokeu...

idk why anyone's surprised that downtown Silver Spring doesn't have a ton of lunchtime business, but fascinating to hear that Solaire Social's bar was actually the now-closed food hall's big draw. a rare W for the decade-long push for more nightlife here www.bizjournals.com/washington/n...

The matching t-shirts that said something along the lines of “save Colesville’s charm, say no to townhomes” were worn by a crowd almost entirely made up of old white people, as expected at a 2:30 pm hearing on a Thursday. This group doesn’t have the sanction of the community it thinks it does

today the MoCo Planning Board votes on the Notley Road rezoning and I just testified on behalf of @ggwash.org, but only after people claimed that building townhomes in their neighborhood would lead to "crime" and "chaos." it's not surprising, but still so disappointing ggwash.org/view/101279/...

I got an email that said basically I don’t dislike townhomes, I just don’t like *these* proposed townhomes. a tale as old as time! read this, then email the Planning Board ⬇️

at the end of my street just now, at a stop sign, a driver thought my dog and I were walking too slow in the crosswalk so she decided to just go ahead anyway. why should I be surprised? Montgomery County has shown her there will never be a consequence for it

the Montgomery County executive is in charge of transportation—including appointing the agency head. who gets elected could make a huge difference in how safe our streets are, which is why @ggwash.org will endorse for county executive in the 2026 primary

Drivers routinely speed down Sligo Ave through East Silver Spring (where I live) despite the high volume of pedestrians, due to a lack of stops and traffic calming elements. A child was recently hit at this intersection but MCDOT refuses to consider stop signs. This approach is killing pedestrians.

hot

in February @mcdotnow.bsky.social said that a stop sign wasn’t necessary at the Rockville intersection where a school bus hit and killed an 11yo October 9. it literally took someone dying for them to do their job. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

must read about how anti-townhome campaigns are, like anti-apartment campaigns, about contempt for people with less money than you ggwash.org/view/101279/...

this is the true story of how I got bullied in sixth grade for living in a townhouse, how people I grew up with are now fighting more townhouses from being built near them, and what you can do about it

we always get good turnout at our @ggwash.org happy hours in silver spring and tonight’s at the new commas food hall was no different! a bonus: hocus pocus on the tv

I met Bob Youngentob in 2018 and told him that after my years of advocating for his projects he should give me a house. he…did not do this 😅 but Bob’s firm and the “EYA townhouse” changed how we live—and how we want to live—in the DC area. he’ll be missed www.bizjournals.com/washington/n...

*Montgomery County native* Tori Amos may have invented the pumpkin spice latte 💁‍♀️

MCPS hasn't closed a school since the 1980s, but the superintendent says it's time to close Silver Spring International MS, citing declining systemwide enrollment, rising costs, and a 90-year-old building originally built as a high school– bethesdamagazine.com/2025/10/13/m...

A Redditor made a graph of the percent of population of US and Canada metro areas over 1 million that live in a given density. When they ordered them by average density the lowest ranked Canadian metro area, Edmonton, was ranked 14th between Miami and Washington. 6 of the top 15 were Canadian metros

back at the mosaic district in merrifield for the first time in years and almost didn’t recognize it—and it’s bc of the big mature street trees! this development opened in 2012 (here’s a photo from 2015) but the trees make it feel much older

five months after a driver hit me and my dog, MCDOT has again refused to install a stop sign at the intersection, calling it “unwarranted.” they will build a crosswalk, which should already have been there! it took a month to get this response. i am furious and, frankly, defeated

We could try to draw school boundaries to balance equalization of access to resources and keeping to/from school commutes reasonably short ooooooor we could just give endless freebies for having enough money to buy into Whitman/BCC

transportation camp is a highlight of my year and I look forward to its return!!

MCPS is redrawing school boundaries before Woodward HS opens in 2027—while Bethesda-area schools will largely stay the same, high schools in Silver Spring will become even more segregated by class and race. bethesdamagazine.com/2025/10/09/w...

once again neighbors in Montgomery County are having a normal one

big news from navy yard this week as @ggwash.org moved into a bigger office and for the first time in years we can all fit inside it, as shown here ggwash.org/view/101098/...

we need a word for a type of person who spends all their time working to live in a city so they can be near cool things, but they don't actually like going out

*goes to Bethesda* where are all the proselytizers? are people here not also in need of Jesus? it is literally named after a place in the Bible

politely brushing off the many, many proselytizers milling around the Silver Spring farmers market every time one approaches me by saying “I’m extremely gay, sorry”

These people are bad people. They saying that they believe the aesthetics of their neighborhood matter more than the safety of children and people with disabilities. Trees are replaceable. Children are not.

a dad in Kensington tried to get sidewalks built for his disabled son. Montgomery County basically said it was his job to win over his neighbors, who lashed out at *him* for the proposal. this is simply not how government should work– www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

If you have never participated in the glory that is the Snacket, may I suggest you remedy that posthaste. forms.gle/ipqSUgtH2c6q...

I went to my first Purple Line meeting in 2003 (at 15!) and attended the groundbreaking in 2017. long ago I accepted it may never open—but to see actual people riding in trains, even as a test, feels amazing. we’re almost there www.nbcwashington.com/video/news/l...

Please read this, the opposition to this plan has been full of exhausting misinformation and a richer, older subsection of the population presuming to speak for the whole (even more than these things usually are, false claims of homes being seized and everything)

look okay Drizzy got caught in the storm it’s not his fault he smells like wet dog

in 2023 @ggwash.org supported rent stabilization in Montgomery County–but said the county also needs to boost housing production. it's not the only reason why homebuilding has fallen off in the county, but we may need to tweak the law and that's okay bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/19/d...

tfw you learn that your favorite science teacher in middle school is a nimby via screenshots from a neighborhood facebook page 😔

so much of this discourse around missing middle in the DC area has revolved around "what ifs," but here is a real-life example of what can get built if we allow it: new family-sized homes, in desirable locations, at lower prices than what's already there. it's a start

Payton didn't even need to be in the room for @justupthepike.bsky.social's and my yombotron session to succinctly describe it. bsky.app/profile/west...