Philadelphia’s goal for the next four years should be to increase our population as much as possible so that we can gain as much state and federal legislative & political influence as possible from the 2030 census.

Philadelphia regionally has a divestment and forfeiture mindset, and it’s a big part of why we’ve only reached a small fraction of our potential.

Racism isn’t Christlike.

As a Christian, I see problems on both extreme ends of the political spectrum. Both push propagandistic narratives that are neither truthful or helpful. Right now, one of the prevailing false narratives being pushed from the right is that certain people are inherently incompetent.

“End Racism” isn’t woke. “Stop stealing terms from Black culture, redefining them, and weaponizing them to advance extreme let or right wing ideologies that usually don’t help and often harm Black people” would actually be a woke thing to say. But that’s too long for an end zone.

I see people idolizing youthfulness to the extent that the devalue anyone who does fit their definition of “young.” And I see people idolizing age to the point of discrediting anyone the don’t define as “old enough.” Sometime both in the same spaces. What does healthy balance look like?

The whole situation w/ SEPTA: the cruel apathy from pseudo conservatives in Pennsylvania, general ignorance of the average person in SEPA about why it’s happening, uninformed embrace of extreme car dependency, & the overall hate/indifference towards Philadelphia as an urban entity is heartbreaking.

How I transitioned from car owner to bike commuter. In this video’s walk through my decision making process and try to address questions around the experience, family, future, and public policy. youtu.be/SdlhFzRw1Ug?...

Automobile technology is progress. Mass car dependency is not.

Who am I? I’m trying to to hold myself accountable to make and publish more content, including this video that’s somewhat of a personal introduction. If you have a spare moment, every view is a small encouragement to keep going. youtu.be/AzJm-Q86yIU?...

One thing bike commuting has reminded me is how pervasive the “Might is Right” philosophy is in American life and culture. So much of what we tinker with at the surface level in an attempt to improve our world better could be better addressed if we uprooted this core philosophy.

People would rather make up easily debunkable, internally inconsistent alternate histories than just acknowledge that Wilt Chamberlain was extremely good at basketball.

Are we surprised that people who have spent the past 60 years beating the “government is inherently bad” drum aren’t good at basic government things? It’s like staffing a steakhouse kitchen with lifelong vegans.

Social media on 2025 is weird.

As a Black man over 30, I feel I’m entitled to some conspiracy theories. Here’s one: There are multiple groups of people that, for various reasons, find immediate benefit in promoting a negative narrative about Philadelphia that is destructive and/or divorced from reality.

I just read someone trying to clown someone else for calling Philadelphia a “big city.” Is there any city in the US -or the world for that matter - that catches as much unwarranted shade as Philadelphia? Why do people (including us) love to hate us?

I was wondering what would make BlueSky feel like the other place first. It wasn’t bikes or trains or calling out the carbrained. It was being “too” candid about matters of faith. Go figure.

I’m so sick of how casual people are with this kind of thing when it comes to Christianity. Certainly this is far from the most egregious example, but generally we’re super comfortable mocking, caricaturing, and appropriating images of God, especially Jesus.

This! It will never make sense to me that America’s “poorest big city” has not even a concept of a plan to free people from the enormous financial burden of car dependency.

It makes me sad every time I see a glimpse of what Philadelphia could have been if not for anti-urbanism/white flight/divestment/car-centrism (is that a word?).

It feels weird in the Jalen Hurts Super Bowl MVP Era that there was once a time where people sincerely questioned if Black men could be elite quarterbacks. What’s even weirder is that not-nearly-in-his-30s Hurts was alive for the tail end of that period.

How many more people would have made it to 2025 if motorists were as careful and considerate as they expect pedestrians and cyclists to be? Happy New Year!

I published a video. If you have 6 minutes to spare, help me hack an algorithm: youtu.be/YDb0pnXkc7o?...

Not that you asked, but one @notemation.com feature that I’d love to see is dynamic filter options. For example, I’d love to filter a linked view to show pages where Property X matches Property Y on the page where the view is located. If this or a workaround exists somebody please let me know.

I think it’s interesting how the Sixers arena conversation includes virtually no discussion about the role players f basketball in Black culture. The opposition’s narrative is just “a billionaire wants to build an arena that will destroy a minority community.”

Just gonna put this out there and see what happens: Any Notion users in Philadelphia?

Yes! I’ve lived in Willow Grove, North Philly, Mt. Airy, and Port Richmond. Center City is significantly more accessible to all those places than Deep South Philly. Pretending that the Sports Complex is equally accessible is either delusional or deceitfully.

Hot take: everyone should take public transportation every now and then (like, at least a few times a month). People need to be reminded of who their neighbors are and what the world is like outside the bubble of their homes and personal vehicles.

Me of Philadelphia’s most pervasive problems is that so many people who live here insist we simply don’t deserve nice things, that our lack of nice things disqualifies us from having them. And people who are believe we deserve nice things probably all eventually give up.

This is pathetic, we should be ashamed. Stop sacrificing our city on the altar of suburbia

Welcome, @notion.com!

I’m here! I guess I’m finally admitting how much of a mess the other place is.