This is the values debate right here. I have said “Contrarianism without strong values always leads to the right.” That’s true for pundits generally. What this interview shows is Coates‘ values. And Klein’s lack of strong values.

Los Angeles city-county consolidation yesterday (minus the antelope valley they can go do their own thing)

A former expressway. Now a place for an evening stroll. Nighttime on the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul.

"No planning, no consideration, no nothing. It’s not anything that I’ve ever seen in my life before." It's been 7 mos since my coworkers and I were interrogated, insulted, and ultimately fired by DOGE. But I still can't quite believe how senseless it was. 300,000 people have left the government

*banjo picking and sporadic musket fire* dearest martha, the horrors of war-torn portland cannot even be described

Blue cities should tear up the roads in front of ICE facilities and then start decades of community engagement and input sessions to rebuild them. Let's harness our core competencies.

One smart, cheap, urban response to global warming: shade canopies. Seville, Spain

In the US, even a “cheap” transit bus costs 2-3x more than in Asia or Europe -- and one agency may pay twice as much as another for nearly identical vehicles. In Bloomberg, I explored a ripe opportunity to improve transportation by applying Abundance-coded, supply-side reforms. 🧵

Schedule drop for the South Bay Transit Summit 2025. Hope to see you there! RSVP: www.southbayforward.org/sbts25 #sbts25 🚌 🚲 🚊

It’s an interesting coincidence how the last name of the NYC DOT Commissioner who transformed mobility there is the same as the first and last name of the London Mayor who is doing the same in London.

This past weekend Londoners got a glimpse of the future of Oxford Street as it went traffic-free for the day. Here’s what they thought ⬇️

After 4 years of med school, countless high-stakes exams, thousands of patients cared for, and dozens of essay drafts, we submitted our applications for residency last night. While I’m overthinking every last word I wrote, I’m trusting I will find my place. Now the interview trail begins!

Our local council of governments has a consultant who makes AI presentations on climate change doom & gloom and then turns around and calls bike lanes elitist. It’s terrible.

Oh look, a brand new Climate Action Plan going to Novato (CA) city council tomorrow. 88% of transportation and land use reductions to be accomplished through electric cars. Everything else is peanuts. bsky.app/profile/warr...

Kamala Harris: "It feels chaotic, but what I would offer you is what we are witnessing is the swift implementation of a plan that was decades in the making. Project 2025 didn't just drop out of thin air. That's a product of decades of work. Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation ... "

Spoke to an older dude on the pier who was driving one of these, which he tricked out as a compact fishing vehicle.

“Lee, 39, is one of L.A.’s most prolific builders of new apartments, especially in Koreatown, where her family firm has been based since 1994…She’s frustrated that Los Angeles falls woefully short every year at building enough housing to meet demand, driving up the cost of housing.”

This is incredible and I love it for two reasons… first it’s funny that it was left to San Bernardino County, of all places, to make the argument for level boarding, and second, SBCTA didn’t even ask for an exemption, they just told CPUC they were going to do it bc federal regulations preempt state.

A Line is really sort of a hybrid now - stop spacing and speeds east of Pasadena are more like commuter/regional rail. Sort of like Seoul Line 1. We badly need to speed up the Washington Blvd - Union Station section to make it useful… Meanwhile if you want a real dream for the Metrolink SB Line…

RSVP to join us on the bus to @metrolosangeles.bsky.social to support the C (K) Line Extension to Torrance at the (most likely) October Board Meeting. See you there! #SouthBayOnBoard actionnetwork.org/events/free-...

do it do it do it We now have a light rail line directly connecting the campus to the city, residents in the nearby neighborhoods hate students and fight against additional housing all the time, and why let rent money go to petty local landlords when it could be reinvested at the school?

Trump just enacted the largest cuts to food assistance in history. Now he's cancelling the government survey that measures hunger in America.

What’s special about this extension is the A Line, since entering service in 2003 as the Gold Line, is now very much part of the culture of the San Gabriel Valley. HS students grow up riding it, people are accustomed to using it, electeds are all on board, & there’s a built-in community of support.

The @metrolosangeles.bsky.social Pomona A Line opening was really fun! I picked up an extra TAP card for @kennyuong.bsky.social.

Consent calendar items 5-7 approved: FTA funding, Call for Projects adjustments, South Bay subregional project funding. [FWIW some wretched road-widening projects funded - but overall fairly multi-modal]

For anyone preparing a the Bingo card for Metro boardmember Olympics comments - [these are all good things!]: Padilla - Sepulveda Basin Hahn - water taxi Solis - fan zones Dupont-Walker - disadvantaged businesses Butts - Inglewood

The people yearn for Electrolink. (Do I cite this as a pub in my residency apps?)

$11B for highway widening, <$1 B for Metrolink. There's why we "can't afford" to electrify Metrolink.

I may not know exactly what kind of doctor I want to be and what kind of practice I want to have in 10 years but I do know that I want to run for city council within 10 years! It just depends where I end up!

Nothing really comes close to the black hole of Step studying with every waking minute spent drilling practice questions and most days you wake up dry heaving all culminating to 9 hours clicking away on a screen. Marathon indeed.

- Graduated high school during the Great Recession - College at the dawn of Trump 1.0 - Grad school during the height of the pandemic - Med school during Trump 2.0 and the dimming of democracy - Residency during ?? O, what may these futures bring

I wrote about Nithya Raman's evolution on housing from cautious DSA lefty to full-throated prohousing leader. She's gone on a Buffy Wicks-like policy tear in 2025, tackling everything from single stair to permitting reform. Zoning is likely next. Could housing politics in LA be getting better?

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

more raised crosswalks

Prior capacity programs like Southern California Optimized Rail Expansion (SCORE) and LOSSAN Optimization Study have failed because of weak institutions. To execute Electrolink, Metrolink and LOSSAN need significant changes to governance, state capacity, ROW ownership and capital funding.

Electrification can reduce trip times up to 20% by improving acceleration and speeds. Level boarding can reduce dwell times and potential for delay at stations. Through running unlocks services across downtown cores connecting seemingly disparate parts of the region.

You really need to read this.

What’s the “Beverly Hills Carve-Out”? For cities with a population under 35,000, SB 79 only applies for a quarter-mile rather than a half-mile. This creates some really weird situations, because a lot of transit stops are near the boarder of two cities

We often get asked, "What can I *personally* do to help address climate change?" Sadly, there hasn't been a very good answer to this question. Previous guides often treated people as monoliths, providing a one-size-fits-all answer. But that's all changed, thanks to SHIFT. jointheshift.earth

Metro has released the Final EIR for the C Line Extension to Torrance project. It includes a detailed description of the LPA from May 2024 and responds to public feedback received during the Draft EIR review period. View on the project page: www.metro.net/projects/gre...

earnest tweet, it’s very dang cool to have bill mckibben here at @yimbytown.bsky.social. What a legend

"I'm a big advocate for 'land-value' tax" - Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. The opening keynote at @yimbytown.bsky.social

Can confirm the hydrogen train is running. Cannot confirm many other things about it. #SBCTA

Every LA County Democrat abstaining here should be deeply embarrassed. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, a republican who represents the edge of the Inland Empire, helped get this across the line.

This is what we’re dealing with in our town. I know exactly where this stairwell is. This is Charlie Kirk’s legacy.

This combination is cheaper than a car payment.

Now refineries are closing due to a lack of demand, it's causing some political chaos, the governor is gonna expand drilling permits in the state, and we'll pump more oil even though the refineries are not lacking inputs...there's falling demand for its outputs. And this feeds right wing narratives.

The climate movement has many good parts, but is very short staffed on anyone who is deeply trained on what the industry is actually like at a cultural level, let alone anyone who can think strategically about the business the way fossil people do to counter their work. Gotta fix this if we can.

There is no better explainer of internet culture than @garbageday.email. If you're confused by what in the world is going on with Charlie Kirk's killer, this might help. It's, you know, pretty bad. www.garbageday.email/p/charlie-ki...

For everyone wondering why LA is like this, the answers lie in the fragmentation of our county into 88 cities, the local control obsession by electeds, the car-centric urban form, and the vice grip of prop 13-protected homeowners.