Elite leaders could still hold him accountable -- or any of his goons -- whenever they choose. But they continue to choose to do virtually nothing.

i think the ever-tighter coupling of content consumption preferences and personal identity/group affinity is a profoundly debilitating rot

I'm now the proud owner of a yard sign that says "Toot Toot!" with a picture of a ferry and mountains in the background.

Basic problem with block lists is that it's unclear if you can trust the curator. Which is why I propose we all put Jerry in charge of the site wide block block list.

This line is strong because it correctly throws out the illegitimate SC rulings.

30% of Oregonians cannot or will not be a driver. However, 100% of Oregonians will, at some point, be a pedestrian. Drastic transit cuts--including half of a MAX line--should be a five-alarm fire, but it barely made a dent in the news cycle compared to a 6¢/gallon gas tax increase.

another example of our incredibly weird status quo - this happened, the cops couldn't actually charge her, and she's been confirmed as released

IMO the argument is that you can make things into big enough deals that it matters. Khanna found Massey and found survivors and made the Epstein Files the gigantic story it should be. Only then did establishment Dems come along. You can, in fact, make things into big hairy deals if you do it right.

Congress could impeach and convict Hegseth at any time with a handful of GOP votes.

There's a weird dynamic on bsky where someone intends to make a descriptive post but it's read as prescriptive. I understand why this is annoying for the poster but I'm also left wondering why they're posting a descriptive observation if it doesn't have any prescriptive implications.

I want my party to communicate they will hold the criminals accountable. I understand they don't have the power to do that now but if they aren't even willing to give it lip service then it's clear they won't hold people accountable when they do have the power.

I think the comms will get here and that's why this will ultimately end Rubio's political career.

Cannot emphasize enough that our national political press is just completely broken.

Creating a bot to automate my vice signaling because I'm also too lazy to do it myself.

Alki Point Healthy St was 6+ years between getting mad and the cement mixer (last month) Many hours of neighborhood advocacy with many groups and electeds unsupportive. We have a couple months to go to finish the project. Thanks for sharing. No time to waste. Let’s do what we know is right

Rubio and his lobbyists are pretty obviously the next "fell for it again" award recipients.

Obama ascended to the presidency by being outspokenly against the Iraq war. Seems like a pretty obvious primary opportunity for any elected Dem who is equivocating about unprovoked aggression and illegal wars.

Impeach Rubio you cowards.

This is a pretty good editorial but it still misses the most important lesson from American aggression. There's no international law and order without domestic accountability. Regardless of future outcomes, rehabbing America's reputation and international law requires domestic accountability.

A reminder that the traditional media structure uses real journalism to build credibility for their editorial boards. Defending the journalism at these institutions is unfortunately also a defense of their ownership and editorial policies.

Insane flex apnews.com/article/zohr...

Impeachment isn't enough. We need to permanently shift the war powers of the president back to Congress.

Norway got here largely by taxing ICE vehicles. Seems relevant as our state stares down both a giant transportation revenue gap and a climate crisis. Pretty much the opposite of raiding our carbon tax revenue while simultaneously issuing bonds for highways .

I’m super proud to have written the Urbanist’s most-read article of 2025. The Urbanist is a civic treasure that analyzes, informs, and advocates for a better community.

@seattledot.bsky.social the temporary bike lane safety barrier at Pine & 4th has been knocked out of position (again), and poses a significant hazard. The bike lane is less than 3ft wide here, and vehicles are pushing into the bike right of way. This buffer needs to restored ASAP.

The villain here isn't just the owners, it's the ownership structure. A key part of fixing our democracy is fixing our media ecosystem and that isn't getting fixed without different institutional structures.

Happy to report that @theurbanist.org will be meeting with @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social for our first sit down interview with Seattle's new mayor next week.

My favorite Harrell Administration moment was the Westlake monorail station renovation ribbon-cutting and 60th anniversary event where they announced trains were going to be free for the next 80 minutes only.

Joy Hollingsworth, Sara Nelson, Bob Kettle, Tanya Woo, and one third of Nirvana backed this ghoul (she lost by 40 points to @organizewithshaun.bsky.social haha)

One of the reasons The Urbanist exists and is part of a larger political project. Feel free to become a subscriber!

I don't know what the right solution is here but these extremely predictable reversals are really cynicism inducing. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/n...

Editors: Is the important, notable detail that the pressure is increasing on Maduro?

all meaning has collapsed in our post-literate society and i wrote a bunch of useless, useless words about it. read it if you, like me, are one of a diminishing minority who still reads www.theverge.com/policy/84960...

About 20% of people in every major US city cannot drive. The idea that cities can't support congestion charges because there isn't an alternative to driving is just car brain.

Do property taxes strangle development?

Great 2025 retrospective

A Washington scissor stair bill is about to drop, folks. app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/...

Every time someone complains about "liberals" they could choose from a wide assortment of other words. But they purposely chose the word describing people who support individual rights.

In the housing space, a common refrain from the large scale development community is that broad upzoning doesn’t matter. Instead the challenges are financing and hard costs. Developers focus on these because they’re looking at pro formas forecasting 2 years out, not 20. 48hills.org/2025/12/the-...

Can't believe we simultaneously live in a society where randos get shot for nothing and these clowns think they can just do around anywhere doing this.

Again, it's in the public interest to have lighter vehicles.

There will never be systemic retraining for labor within industries lost to technological change because people do not actually want that. There is only subsidized education and hot labor markets.

Would be hilarious to flip the very serious deficit hawk discourse -- which was always astro-turfing for cutting services -- on its head and use the same discourse to get northern European levels of taxes and welfare.

So the ESPN mobile app apparently doesn't work behind a VPN? lol.

I think a six-storey building like this should be allowed by default virtually everywhere in every major city. Even if they’re somewhat taller than nearby buildings.

I don't know who he's talking about here when it's abundantly clear a plurality of voters have been supportive of impeachments. Conflating elected or elite opinion with the median voter basically glosses over the fact that our electeds and elites are fundamentally the problem.

47th and 50th. And governor Ferguson wants to raid half a billion dollars from the carbon tax and use it to balance the budget.

I guess it's unsurprising that a former conservative doesn't understand what liberalism means. But it's worth clarifying. Liberalism is a political movement to promote and defend individual rights. So no, legislation that attacks individual rights is not in fact liberalism.

Prepping my article criticizing Rockwell for his cowardice reproducing old problematic symbols instead of burning them to the ground.

Who was President in 2020 is simply impossible to answer. also say what you will about Biden, but the last two Republican Presidents are Trump and W, I don’t think on his worst least defensible actions he gets anywhere close to their idiocy