Just 41 years after the Bethesda Metro station opened, we are getting a WMATA-standard sign to show people approaching on foot from the west where the station is.

Key takeaway is at end of this article [gift link]. Sales of new exurban houses are falling, but there's unmet demand for urban infill. If cities & inner suburbs repeal offstreet parking mandates & cut minimum lot sizes, builders will keep building […]

The AFL-CIO has called a solidarity march for tomorrow (Thursday), meeting at 4:00 pm in Dupont Circle. I will be there. Can you? https://act.aflcio.org/events/solidarity-season-labor-day-2025-rally-march?source=direct_link&

Signs on Capital Crescent Trail next to Kenwood. (Neighborhood that led successful fight to partially reverse road diet on Little Falls Parkway, road where prior to road diet cyclists & pedestrians crossing on trail were repeatedly hit, one killed, by drivers.)

US gov vehicle with no agency ID on cap crrscent trail north of Fletchers boathouse. white pickup. drove away when I stopped & took out camera

Historic preservation is bad for affordability #296903. Parking lot preserved as historic landmark (yes, this is not the Onion) in Cleveland Park, DC raises price to $26 for parking less than one hour -- even less than 15 minutes […]

Fairfax County expands its bikeshare network to 94 stations, with more to come. While Montgomery County has been shrinking its 77-station network, despite having urbanized areas more conducive to bikeshare use than anywhere in Fairfax […]

Chair of MoCo Planning Board advocates single-stairway building code reform. https://ggwash.org/view/100397/how-rethinking-stairwells-could-boost-housing-in-montgomery-county

Car culture at its absolute worst meets an unjust legal system. Parents lose a son and are then convicted of a felony because they let him walk across the street. Gift link […]

Car culture at its absolute worst meets an unjust legal system. Parents lose a son and are then convicted of a felony because they let him walk across the street. Gift link […]

Complexity of interchanges at multi-lane expressway with separate free & toll lanes confuses drivers & creates safety hazard. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/fatal-beltway-crash-express-lanes-braddock-road/3964277/

27% of families in New York City with children and income below $100,000 live in apartments with more than two people per bedroom. gift link] [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/nyregion/nyc-overcrowding-homeless.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk8.uKgb.yMUGk-TwtO6O&smid=url-share

After Houston's Astrodome sits empty two decades plus, support fades for preservation. Despite the better-than-most case for genuine landmark status that can be made for the first indoor baseball stadium […]

If younger people can't afford to live in your county, your county doesn't have a future - no matter how much the older, more affluent homeowners might hate the idea of change.

A classic. Reporter fails to pay attention to what the nimbys actually say. Reporter: Critics fear that [very modest] upzone won't produce "housing that is actually affordable for county residents" Then quotes critic who fears it will "just provide more affordably priced rental units" […]

Trump & China: TACO gift link] [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/us/politics/trump-china-technology.html?unlocked_article_code=1.X08.vV0m.heUT4E1iWQAj&smid=bs-share

If the birthday card had come out before the election, it would have had little effect. Six months into Trump's term, Epstein is the vehicle onto which MAGA has loaded its repressed disillusionment with the regime's plutocracy, corruption & brutality.

If the birthday card had come out before the election, it would have had little effect. Six months into Trump's term, Epstein is the vehicle onto which MAGA has loaded its repressed disillusionment with the regime's plutocracy, corruption & brutality.

For DC's upcoming report on how historic preservation promotes equity, here's a fine case study. Guy bought historic townhouse in Alexandria in 2021. Converted three apartments “into something that Louis XIV would be proud of.” A 6-bedroom house with inlaid marble, gold leaf ceilings, gold […]

Bus and bike lanes discriminate against families for whom public transportation is not an option.

At this point, Trump & Epstein is giving off vibes of Stalin & Kirov.

I'm on the Davka Smolah podcast. Talking with socialist zionists about my recent article on the way forward for Jewish progressives. Relating anti-Israel animus to the turn by much of the left away from the politics of solidarity and common interests toward a politics of charity & "allyship." […]

DC historic districts, where it's very hard to build new housing, contain 20% of city's population. All but a few are wealthy white areas. DC Office of Planning agrees to study historic districts' equity effects. Then it turns around & turns study over to preservation advocates […]

Our brain-dead political reporting. Progressive endorsed by Bernie & AOC wins primary in landslide. NYT reports result as "Mamdani momentum withers." Lazy media, please tell us where candidates stand on issues. Stop fixating on their age & identity […]

This video makes me think better of the prophet Jonah: The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: Go at once to Nineveh... Jonah, however, started to flee to Tarshish [the end of the known earth in the opposite direction] https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/lords-vengeance

I wonder if one contributor to people ignoring weather warnings is Nextdoor trying to boost engagement by sending out weather alerts every time there's a thunderstorm in the vicinity. Which is pretty much every afternoon at this time of year around here.

Is this the same New York Times that is covering Mamdani's college application as a scandal? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/science/ivar-giaever-dead.html

I knew that this week was going to be Trump's TACO week, with Bibi's visit & the tariff deadline. But this takes the cake! https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/07/08/trump-says-us-must-send-more-weapons-ukraine-days-after-ordering-pause-deliveries.html

This is really good. usa.streetsblog.org/2025/07/07/t...

Zohran Mamdani was asked about "globalize the intifada". He dodged the question. Lots of politicians dodge questions. I'm less upset by Mamdani dodging the question, which told me little I didn't already know, than by the people (some I respect) denying he dodged the question or saying the […]

My article just out: Progressive Jews (and non-Jews too!) need to revive the social democratic politics of solidarity. It brings poor & middle together, in contrast to the politics of far-left "allyship" & elite charity which both drive them apart […]

No, the Orioles' problem is not that Camden Yards doesn't have enough electronic cheerleading. https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/oriole-park-at-camden-yards-changes-in-game-entertainment-K3YFARGRH5GVLPS455NM6DVM3Q/?schk=YES&rchk=YES&mc_cid=ff24180413

The Hell No‼️ Committee For Friendship Heights says, "If we [sic] don't speak up, the council will pass ZTA 25-02." 🥳, but! Make sure YOU speak up. Please ask the County Council to pass ZTA 25-02 as a first step toward legalizing missing middle housing! actionbutton.nationbuilder.com/share/SPK-QE...

Baltimore city council to consider eliminating minimum parking rquirements. https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/transportation/baltimore-parking-mandate-housing-requirement-TBWNPPT3KNEQRF7NOZUCE7HHPY/?schk=YES&rchk=YES&mc_cid=c9df1e3075

Weakening NEPA without replaciing it with something better is no abundance agenda. This highway widening would foreclose future transit expansion and probably make traffic worse for most drivers.It is opposed by both local governments it goes through. NEPA is the only veto point. A transit […]

New poll on "abundance agenda" shows majority still support local decision-making. Do you support or oppose limiting local zoning rules to build more homes? Yes 28% No 43% https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-approval-at-42-democrats-up BUT: When you ask […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Under Randy Clarke, WMATA has cut the end-to-end travel time on the Metro Red Line by 8 minutes. This is a 68 minute trip, so it's a gain in efficiency of over 10% on top of faster trips for riders. This is a combination of automated train operation (with doors closing sooner), raising the speed […]

Welcome to "rowhome"! As usual, you can count on real estate marketers to signal status shifts. "Townhome," invented because "rowhouse" felt low-class, now feels low-class itself. I think they would have done better to just say "rowhouse" and invoke the prestige of historic preservation […]

After some neighbors say they want to be able to drive cars in cycletrack, DC govt replaces it with painted lanes & says basis for action was aesthetics of flexposts. If the problem is really that flexposts don't look nice, why not replace them with decorative bollards? https://wapo.st/4dXmJY1

Maryland works to replace parking lots at train stations with dense housing & mixed use development […]

I'm not old enough to remember -- but I'm old enough to have heard from people who remembered -- In labor & left demonstrations of the 1st half of the 20th century, a standard warning was "watch out for provocateurs." And that was before they had all the polling data we have now, showing that […]

Free David Huerta demonstrations today called by AFL-CIO all across the country. In Washington DC: 12:00 at 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW Other times & locations: https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/freedavidendraids

Avoid the word "pedestrian." You marginalize a basic human activity when you give it a four-syllable Greek-derived name. Say walk, on foot, foot traffic whenever you can.

Politically driven "focus on special features over ensuring affordable housing money is stretched as far as possible" is one part of this, and same thing happens in transit: * Electric buses don't work as well as electric cars, yet we make bus riders pay for electrification with less service […]

A DIA agent has been arrested by the FBI because he wanted to defect to Germany. He offered confidential information by e-mail - until Berlin blew the whistle on him 🫢😧

Maryland DOT launches new policy of quick-fix road diets with paint & plastic "bollards" after initial test projects work well. Approach is try it for 6-9 months and see if it works in place of long studies […]

There are any number of ways to keep Altadena affordable. Ban single-family detached dwellings. Ban off-street parking. Build 6-story affordable housing on scattered sites. The aim here is to maintain the area's high social status via exclusion. Based on […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

With Josh Barro trending, here's my takedown of his views on transit in Dissent ten years ago. https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/the-sovereign-consumer-pushed-off-the-train/

Comparison of Rochester with Buffalo shows why cities should remove, not underground, their bad highways. Draws one good lesson & one bad one: Yes, plan in advance for what you want to do. No, don't try to "build consensus". Build support. Consensus-seeking doesn't avoid "paralysis by analysis," […]