I just missed the golden age of Jesse Jackson, though I have a vague memory of my dad being excited about him in 1988. Wasn't until I read @ositanwanevu.com's fantastic history of modern Democratic primaries that I started to grasp the stakes of that 1988 campaign web.archive.org/web/20170705...

"Federal officers fired tear gas after about 30-50 people dressed in black were by the gate of the ICE building, with some apparently trying to tie it closed with a rope" Doesn't justify ICE gassing thousands of folks including my family; but a shitty thing to do to my family, in context

I think this is directionally correct and honestly I'm less concerned about what it means for the left's take on AI than I am for the left's ability to metabolize new information and changing circumstances generally www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...

Us not knowing the unemployment rate is just the symptom; the ongoing collapse of any obligation to anything but ourselves is the condition

It's kind of funny how Hayek's (mostly correct) argument against central planning because concentrating that much economic power in one place inevitably lead to totalitarian behavior is also a pretty strong argument against like, extreme concentrations of wealth and market power

ACTION ALERT: As Chair of the Senate Committee on Housing and Development, I need your help to restore $10 million in eviction prevention funding. Learn more and email your legislators here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/restore-10-million-for-eviction-prevention/

Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding: Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere. samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...

This very smart post leaders to a much broader point: if the identitarian right is going to invent an exclusionary racist American heritage and history, then its opponents will need to their own positive, full throated statement of American heritage and history.

interesting linkedin post (I know, I know) looking at after tax take home for software engineers in different cities based on data from levels.fyi. portland comes in sixth!

From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying. teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...

So @binnig.bsky.social wins this round of public testimony www.portlandmaps.com/bps/testimon...

“what cool shit can I do as Mayor? oh, I can marry people? awesome, let’s do it” once again the constant theme of “New York is great, New Yorkers are great, isn’t this great?” comes through

Our family is becoming shockingly good at Pandemic Legacy

Oregon's SB 1521, modernizing inclusionary zoning in the Portland metro area, unanimously passes Senate Housing. 🎉 Based on 10 years of lessons, it gives cities new policy options + a requirement that such programs be fully funded. Moves to senate floor! olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2026R1/M...

On the virtues of taking as much damn time as you want. There are no rules.

This sucks, but this is how market supply & subsidies are linked. When market-rate homes are scarce, prices rise, the public cost of housing each person rises, & you can't help as many people. This eventually leads serious progressives like Mamdani to the YIMBY agenda, alongside others.

This episode has been a nightmare for my city and state, but I hope people realize it’s also a profound defeat and political catastrophe for Trump and DHS, who are slinking away having accomplished nothing. Minneapolis simply wouldn’t bend to them and they lost

What an achievement

I do want Portland to thrive in ways it hasn’t been, but I realized last year that I feel more at home in an underdog city

believes that Aang can save the world

good thread interrogating @josephpolitano.bsky.social's post about the scale of the US A.I. boom

The record will show how much I love parenting & how much I twisted my work schedule to fit it early on. but I’ll be damned if one of the best moments of parenting isn’t going to the office

JUDGE JOHNSTON: “Today, immigrants are being detained without due process. Tomorrow, under the Government’s interpretation of the law, American citizens could be subject to the same .. This Court will not allow such an unraveling of the Constitution.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Gotta say the world seems a lil less scary with @dkthomp.bsky.social back at his desk. A highlight for me: teen anxiety has started dropping open.substack.com/pub/derektho...

ever since we invented farming the main driving motivation for basically every human who's ever lived is "how can i do as little farming as possible"

Super Bowl viewers Sunday speculated that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos appeared in the halftime show. In fact, he has been in hiding with his family. “He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.

HUGE news for @thetyee.ca. Our founding editor, Dave Beers, is retiring. Who will fill these big shoes? thetyee.ca/Tyeenews/202...

“Economists will tell you that the Trail Blazers leaving would set Portland’s economy back by a generation. Maybe two.“ I’m not opposed to all sports subsidies but @billoram.bsky.social needs to cite his sources

The idea that U.S. sexism is so profound that qualified & talented women shouldn’t be nominated for president seems far-fetched

Concentration camps: “For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick."

This (about Canada) succinctly states a thesis I’m hoping to probe next month in a country that tried: New Zealand

PubliCola's @joshfeit.bluesky.social has a new Maybe Metropolis column today about a Washington state proposal that would make accessible housing more affordable by reforming elevator standards that too often result in no elevators in new buildings at all. publicola.com/2026/02/06/e...

[Toronto is a nice city with low energy use per person] [homes there become ridiculously expensive] [people try to build homes] Toronto government: Don't build tall buildings in this city. Too tall! [people start building underground homes] Toronto government: no no that's too carbon-intensive

my main concern with this stuff isn't actually Waymo as it currently operates (it's clearly quite safe) but the future grokX taxis and the Waymos that may one day become deadlier in order to compete with them

things that will not be happening in my marriage

breathtaking

Very comprehensive Vox article on building code research and reform efforts across the country, fearing John Zeanah’s report for the Center for Building on low-rise multifamily housing and Michael Eriksen’s academic work on building code costs www.vox.com/future-perfe... (gift link)

Hello wonderful neighbors! Our next happy hour is TOMORROW, February 5th at Migration brewing on Williams from 6-8PM! We are excited to announce that we will be joined by members of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability who are working on the Central City Code Amendments project!

Immigration agents have profiled other U.S. citizens in Oregon but this stop appears to mark the first instance of extensive injuries to a citizen here. Read more at https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2026/02/us-citizen-was-running-errands-after-ice-stop-she-ended-up-at-the-hospital-instead.html

❤️+💔

"There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

I don't understand why more U.S. cities don't have eiffel towers

After adopting housing reforms that included eliminating parking mandates and increased density limits throughout the city, Bothell has seen a major jump in pre-applications for residential projects. Average number of units entering pre-application over the past 5 years: 580 In 2025: 1000+

It's near-white out conditions in Chicago as the snow comes down, and tonight's anti-ICE/CBP rally is wrapping up in front of city hall. But not before the crowd bounces and chants, "I believe that we will win!"

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said that in regards to immigration, Spain needs to choose between being an open and prosperous country or a closed-off, poor country. I don’t know if this has sunk in here yet, but Oregon has the same choice. www.oregonlive.com/business/202...

4 federal agents pull over an elderly US citizen for the suspected crime of being brown, break her car window, throw her to the ground, then drive off after they find her US Passport in her purse. The Salem Police, when called, say there’s nothing they can do. www.salemreporter.com/2026/01/31/u...

“There’s certain rights that a person has that they’re born with. Everybody has them equally, not just in the United States,” he said. “But on this topic they are willing to completely abandon that principle.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

I join my City Councilors in calling for prosecution of ICE for this flagrant violation of city and state law. This is illegal, and if ICE does this to families and children on a sunny peaceful daytime protest, I shudder to think what they do without that kind of daylight and public scrutiny.

Are you a parent of kids who got tear gassed? DM me.