Lovely piece about local students learning to grow food and care for their community

Great survey on a broad range of topics Some of the most interesting nuggets are buried in the crosstabs Eg...a large plurality of MoCo renters & transit users favor allowing MF buildings in SF zones ~ 2-to-1 over those opposed

Yikes, when you've lost John Yoo...

Montgomery County’s first LGBTQ+ center opened last month, at a crucial moment for the queer community. But advocates told me this is just the beginning, and that elected officials need to prioritize issues like housing and transit that impact marginalized people www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Exciting to see this move forward - a more permanent design to make Little Falls Pkwy safer for people walking, biking, rolling, and strolling Designs can always be better, but these kinds of projects add enormous transportation value to the neighborhood. And, for everyone using it, they create joy

Congrats to @bannermoco.bsky.social! Excited for more local news

Many of our land use / building codes are rooted in exclusion + prejudice, even if they are facially anodyne and widely accepted as common sense today Case in point: early 1900 fire safety reforms were primarily designed to ⬆️ the cost of tenements / MF apts (old and new) to reduce immigration

Notre ville change ! Nos rues sont peu à peu rendues aux habitants, de nouveaux arbres sont plantés et les promenades facilitées et sécurisées. C'est le cas de la rue Chaptal dans le 9e ou celle du Docteur-Lecène dans le 13e !

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN. It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package. Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

If you asked me, "can a computer designed to respect traffic laws, stick to the speed limit, and equipped with 360 degree sensors, drive more safely than a typical human?", I'd say absolutely But the question remains: who is programming the software, to what end, and will govt regulate sufficiently

"...the questioning is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are US citizens or otherwise legally in the US * " * and after being held at gunpoint with assault rifles and aggressively thrown the ground

Ok, the livery (as seen on an actual really cool and modern 8000 series train) isn't quite as bad as I feared Also, very cool that they're getting built in MD!

"typically brief questioning" A SCOTUS justice just rationalized racial profiling of legal residents & US citizens because those encounters with ICE are "typically brief" and individuals may go "free" once they prove their legal status Not sure what's worse, unexplained decisions, or this garbage

For those that went through the Safe Track era ~ 2016 and before, it's kinda hard to describe just how far metro has come from a service, reliability, and public relations standpoint

Appeasement has failed to protect DC residents, and it will keep failing until the mayor changes course and says out loud that the president and Congress must stop meddling in local affairs.

There are real policy discussions to have around making the immigration system better (and more humane), for everyone But the problem with framing that discussion around the need to, somehow, address the "democratic backlash" to immigration, is the backlash is being driven by xenophobia and racism

While perhaps not as widely known (nationally at least) as Scott Wiener, Jess Bateman has been incredible in WA state. Tireless champion for housing. We should all be so lucky to have an advocate like her in our own communities

Agree with his platform, or not, this is a guy who understands how to win

Sometimes I think that anti renewable energy folks just skipped the part of being a kid where you're fascinated by amazing machines and cool engineering (like modern wind turbines! They're incredible!) But then I remember that they're actually just people/orgs who don't care about our future at all

Another day conquering* the longest escalators in the western hemisphere * reaching the top completely out of breath. Why does it never get easier?

Nearly every low noise area on this map (other than parks) was formerly an exclusionary SF zone, only recently opened up for multiplexes One of many reasons to legalize housing diversity in more places. Forcing most new homes onto loud, large, polluted roads isn't something we should accept anymore

Excited to see more details on this, especially how MD will leverage publicly owned land and design a combo of local housing targets + incentives Could also signal another big housing push next leg session!

NEW: As the housing affordability crisis deepens, NJ's 1975 high court decision outlawing exclusionary zoning serves as a powerful model for other states. @jagdavies.bsky.social new piece explores one of the most compelling examples of state constitutional law being used to promote civil rights.

Bowser's in a more difficult position than other big city mayors...but this is just appeasement and will not be remembered fondly whenever we reach the other side of this

It's interesting to read this paper and see how much alignment there is between the authors and many who advocate for zoning reform (among other policies) - constrained supply is a real problem - can ⬇️ construction costs through things like pre-approved buildings, modular construction, etc 1/8

Very true And...still wish they would ditch it start from scratch!

One of my favorite parts of my neighborhood is a nearby row of townhomes (which happens to be wedged between two streets with mostly detached SFH) So many kids playing, lots of activity on the street, all the people and families know each other, and they've had weekly block parties all summer long

The (obligatory) clapping at the end...just, wow

For folks not in DC: - There are full-on police checkpoints most nights - Gangs of 30+ federal agents roam DC - National Guard folks w/ guns patrolling a Harris Teeter - Every day, multiple friends see ICE kidnapping ppl - Daycares are scared to have kids go on walks due to ICE

Rock on, Wheaton

You can almost hear Dem leaders furiously drafting their new talking point: "talk of a dictatorship is just a distraction from kitchen table issues"

Nice piece, huge problem. And I think this has *at least* as much to do with race/class discrimination, as it does with anti-kid bias Would an affluent homeowner object to kids moving into a SFH next door? This quote reveals that anti-kid bias w/ apts is a proxy for other forms of discrimination

Finally got a chance to see the new protected lane on Marinelli near the N Bethesda metro. Love the wide concrete barriers! The lane itself does feel a bit narrow, esp with the 10-12 inches of curb. But the bus island looks great

Red herring arguments do nothing to address the reality that you need to make 160k to afford a typical SFH in Silver Spring, 200k in Bethesda, and 300k in Chevy Chase Home prices across MoCo have doubled since 2000. And only 1/3 of households (often fewer) can afford those homes in most areas

Cowering in the corner and playing entirely on MAGA terms, will never, ever be a winning strategy for Dems Very Smart People can debate the nuances of messaging. But people respond to confidence and a confident messenger with conviction. A cautious, calculated, insecure party just won't get it done

"scour legal visa holders for 'overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, or providing support to a terrorist organization.'" That's a weird way to say they plan to criminalize speech, discriminate based on place of origin, and look for pretextual reasons to deport ppl who aren't white

Having grown up in Cville, I'm pretty dang proud to see the city push forward on its long overdue zoning reform that, over time, will help more people live (and live affordably) in a great place Props to all the local advocates who convincingly won the argument

Wish there was an option to "stick with the 7000 series design" Or, at least an option for "thanks but please start over!"

2010 Rs: moderately better healthcare (ACA) is fascism 2025 Rs: deploying the military to harass, intimidate, hurt, and imprison Americans in American cities is both warranted and a sign of competent govt

Using drive-time isochrones on-click as a "cookie cutter" on an interactive map? Why not! (And it's all done with R code) Learn how to use TurfJS in #rstats here: walker-data.com/mapgl/articl...

I know, I know, it's a ruse and they don't actually believe a word of what they say But I can't get over how eager these people are to look like irrational, delusional cowards. Screaming from the rooftops on national TV how scared they are They're welcome to leave anytime!

This "Zohran's Law" nonsense is a perfect example of how NIMBY officials try to thread the needle of pretending to care about affordability without doing anything about it. They pretend supply is necessarily fixed and then develop elaborate mechanisms for assigning it to only the deserving poor.

You can also take the @rideonmct.bsky.social 55 / 59 / 61 🚌from Shady Grove metro, the 54 🚌 from Rockville metro, the 56 🚌 from Universities @ Shady Grove, or the 101 🚌 (M-F) from Shady Grove metro (might be missing one or two others) Lots of (car free or car lite) ways to head to the fairgrounds!

🚌🚏📟ICYMI🚌🚏📟 @montgomerycountymd.bsky.social rolls out real-time bus🚌 arrival displays. It’s part of the county’s effort to make public transit easier and more accessible. www.nbcwashington.com/video/news/l... @nbcwashington.com #MDCommuters @rideonmct.bsky.social @mcgexec.bsky.social #commuting

Spokane also deserves a shout out for some great early returns from their multiplex reform effort in 2022-2023. Caveats apply, etc etc, but permit activity has jumped. Their elimination of min parking mandates also didn't hurt 🙂

Zohran’s citibike numbers make me feel like we need to start demanding bike share stats from our politicians in the same way we demand tax returns

(push piece from Microsoft when logging on this morning) Oh, has AI figured out a way to dramatically reduce its own energy use so it's not cancelling out all clean energy gains and further locking us into a climate change disaster? Read on to find out! (narrator: it has not done that)

Cherry picking one study that, as @cmkisicki.bsky.social mentions, only says zoning reform is not a silver bullet, is unserious and not interesting You know what is interesting? Portland's middle housing reform that produced nearly 1500 units in only 3 years. Avg sales price 250k less (!) than SFH

Allowing taller buildings to use a single stairwell can be transformative - for building design, its residents, and the surrounding neighborhood It's a powerful way to get units that are better designed, larger, more affordable, and have *much* better livability We should legalize it!

Ugh, another day, same blockage Ultimately the infra should prevent it in the first place. Policy or enforcement only goes so far This really ain't a place you want to get kicked into traffic