This Is the Feeling of Losing a Country. I Know It Well.

Kids are cooked. I'd rather not have an upfront seat to the collapse of humanity's life support system, brought on by our inability to urgently change.

How kind of the Hayward fault To welcome me back to the Bay.

Drivers in SF feel totally unhinged after two weeks in Sweden.

Seriously, Musk is back in the inner circle? Can't these folks even learn how to hate each other?

La course des cafés, c'est aujourd'hui ! ☕️ Nos cafés sont l'âme de Paris, quelle joie de les mettre à l'honneur de cette course. Bravo à toutes et tous !

Some disjoint and random thoughts on transit and cycling from my three weeks in Europe.🧵 I was disappointed upon revisiting the TPL bus system in Lugano. Often it was late, with insufficient priority, particularly to and from the train station. My memory was of a system that was always on time. 😞

@bart.gov and @mtcbata.bsky.social need to make their engineering goals transparent: How many people per-second do they want each station gate system to handle? Then we can measure against the goal and see if we are meeting design spec. If not, we drive relentlessly toward it.

Frankfurt Airport is dead to me. It hasn't always been this shit, has it? Maybe I need to re-experience Heathrow to remind myself of just how bad airports can be. Or Newark.

I mean, I was waiting for the bus, but I'm not going to say no.

I mean, I was waiting for the bus, but I'm not going to say no.

Stockholm's bike lanes, particularly in the inner city, can leave a lot to be desired.

I will fight any recall attempt of Melgar. This would be a huge distraction from the public transit funding fight, but we can not tolerate this bullying of elected officials. We need recall reform. Higher signature counts, wider election consolidation window. This is no way to run an electoral body

Feeling a bit melancholy as I prepare to leave Stockholm and then Europe. Watching the US fall apart from abroad, and seeing nothing but a very long path ahead, is disheartening.

This is actually a pretty good article, despite the snark from folks who I suspect didn't read it. The short of it: we are wired for social approval. ChatGPT is programmed to empathize and agree, offering said approval. This creates a deeply toxic dynamic of approval dependency.

The ACLU has sued ICE in San Francisco, saying its practice of courthouse arrests is illegal & that conditions at 630 Sansome, the ICE HQ, are unconstitutional. Plaintiffs are three asylum-seekers kept at the ICE holding cells in downtown San Francisco. missionlocal.org/2025/09/sf-a...

“Many of the panelists also seemed unsure about the purpose of the Vaccines for Children program, which provides free shots to roughly half of all American children.” “It was unclear whether the members all understood what they were voting for.” It just keeps going. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/h...

Read this article (it's short) and then go outside and find a place to smile for a while.

The Swedes got the full comfort package for their double decker Stadler KISS units. Tables, lights, handholds. Comfy seats.

I highly recommend reading Anna's book islandpress.org/books/when-d...

Taking a longer train route to Stockholm today, via the non-electrified Lidkoping-Mariestad line. It's anything but direct. Time for a relaxed day watching the world go buy.

Now that Engardio has lost his recall, Lurie seems to be telegraphing a framing of Prop K as "being imposed by the city." It was, of course, passed by voters. Rezoning (which I support) fits this narrative far more. Rough road ahead for Lurie.

as usual, @esksf.bsky.social has it "San Franciscans have been nurtured in their anger for some time now, to the exclusion of quantifiable facts. This was a dangerous game to play [...] And San Francisco offers a veritable smörgåsbord of potential political meals in the not-too-distant future"

Regardless of how folks feel about Engardio, the recall option is definitely being abused in the Bay Area, which could have a chilling effect on electeds trying to do anything bold. The state & local charter cities would do well to raise the bar for recall qualifications.

I do think the SF democratic party and elected officials failed Joel and SF politics as a whole. They should have come forcefully against the recall. I fear we will now see more strategically timed recalls with the goal of one off elections and having reduced turnout because of this.

JUST IN: Voters in San Francisco's Sunset District have recalled their supervisor, Joel Engardio. Recall leads huge in early returns, nearly 2 to 1. Engardio, who rode to office after himself working to recall SF progressives, then angered constituents by championing replacing the "Great Highway".

Sad I am missing this event!

Today is the D4 Engardio recall election. I opposed the recall and have volunteered some of my time against it. Multiple reasons, but let's start with the big one: Engardio has done nothing that rises even close to the level of a recall. This is a policy disagreement masquerading as something else.

In the two cafes in Göteborg (Sweden) I've been to, I've ended up ordering in Italian, after hearing the staff speaking Italian. Every second customer in the cafe I am currently in is speaking Italian. Is there a significant Italian community in Göteborg?

Today is the D4 Engardio recall election. I opposed the recall and have volunteered some of my time against it. Multiple reasons, but let's start with the big one: Engardio has done nothing that rises even close to the level of a recall. This is a policy disagreement masquerading as something else.

Google Maps is horrid in Sweden. Use local alternatives.

Every bill on housing and transit in CA is a compromise between a large number of competing interests, many of whom map poorly to the NIMBY/YIMBY divide in detail. @idothethinking.bsky.social does a great job breaking that down on SB 79.

A timely history of the legal construction and limits around the "right to know," ie, the right to travel and the right to receive information from abroad. Doesn't touch on the Internet, but certainly brings up questions (at least for me) around what a re-empowered security state could attempt.

My experience on Vasttraffik - the public transit system of Göteborg and surroundings - has been great. Good frequency, appropriately tight connections, fast. The trams are not afraid to accelerate, in part because there is more dedicated right-of-way.

Kattegattleden, Day 6 - The final leg Weather: 🌤️ ➡️ ⛅ ➡️ ☁️ I'm posting after finishing the day's ride from Kungsbacka to Göteborg. I wanted to spend as little time as possible not peddling, racing incoming rain bands the whole way, so no live posting and not many photos.

Kattegattleden, Day 5 Current weather: ☁️ The weather looks like intermittent rain, as bands roll off the Kattegat - the strip of sea between Sweden and Denmark. Breakfast for now, packing, then I'll start once there is a clear slot.

The discourse needs more random stuff that's amazing and/or great. I've been a bit obsessed with beatboxing recently. It's come a long way since the 90s. Amazing that it's 2025, and we're still unlocking the human ability to make sound.

My hotel knows what I love: cars and car parks.

And SB63 passed the Senate at 1:30am! Now on to the governor's desk! It took a lot of organizing and mobilizing and compromises to get to a bill that will save and improve Bay Area transit - now on to the governor, and to people power to help gather signatures and pass the measure!

Kattegattleden, Day 4 Current weather: ⛅ Slow morning as I go through what has become my daily routine: repack, get my luggage to reception for pickup, breakfast, & consolidate and pack day bag. No rush today; only 40km, compared to yesterday's 92km. Time to go walk around Falkenberg.

Now onto the Senate floor 😬

Kattegattleden, Day 3 Current weather: ☀️ My legs are tired and slightly sore. Today is 91km, and my longest day so far was only 72km. Luckily the weather and wind is with me, and I'll be starting earlier. Scattered showers later. Just need to stay relaxed and not push. For now, breakfast.

As Trump invests $170 billion into ICE, we're making an investment of our own. Mission Local is committed to hiring a full-time immigration reporter to keep covering ICE, & we're seeking $100K/yr for the next 3 years of Trump's term to do so. Join us. mission-local.donorsupport.co/page/immigra...

Kattegattleden, Day 2 Current weather: 🌧️ Somehow I'm not sore from yesterday, which is either a great sign, or spells doom for tomorrow. Taking an easy morning at the hotel as I wait for a more intense rain band to arrive and pass. A bit over 60km for today's ride. Should be sunny after 13:00?

Which work? Calling for gay people to be stoned to death? Blaming airplane crashes on black pilots? Anti-vax bullshit? Election denialism? Pushing Great Replacement Theory? Kirk’s murder is awful and ominous for this country. But no, we don’t need to honor him or “continue his work.”

This is great progress on the $750 million Bay Area transit loan. Thanks to everyone who rallied, organized, and called the Governor to make this happen! You made the difference! It’s not a sure thing yet so we’ll need sustained advocacy to save Bay Area transit up until the loan is signed.

Kattegattleden, Day 1, morning Current weather: ☀️ Off we go! Getting used to a harder seat, and I suspect I'll have serious saddle fatigue by the end of this. So nice to be back on a bike with disk brakes.

Your regular reminder that waymos are one deploy away from driving aggressively and dangerously.

On Wed 9/10 AC Transit will hold a vote ratifying a grant from the Dept. Of Homeland Security. If they ratify the grant AC Transit would be required to cooperate with & support ICE. Contact the board or come to this Wed. Meeting at 5pm. NO ICE, NO DHS GRANT. www.actransit.org/board-of-dir...

If you can ignore Ege's ludicrous framing of SF's homeless policies as "death-centered," there are interesting details here on the solidifying progressive-reactionary alliance on the westside. If Albert Chow ends up running supported by Peskin, well, maybe that will wake more people up.