No money for education. Budget cuts for kids walking and biking to school. Great job everybody! 🤬 @orhousedemocrats.bsky.social
07.03.2026 01:33
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No money for education. Budget cuts for kids walking and biking to school. Great job everybody! 🤬 @orhousedemocrats.bsky.social
Freeway fighters win! And a lesson for Portland
New Jersey just down-sized a massive freeway boondoggle, saving literally billions of dollars. The decision comes from a newly-elected Governor, who, at the 11th hour,...
Pete Hegseth loves war crimes, it's the entire reason he has the job in the first place.
A major victory for freeway fighters: NJ Governor Mikie Sherrill eliminates the capacity expansion on the Newark Bay Bridge, saving billions. Rehab and safety improvements, but no widening! www.nj.com/news/2026/03...
When you look at literally any planned freeway that *did not* get built, it becomes clear what a disaster it would have been, and we can see what we would now be missing.
Looking at the freeways that did get built, it's much harder to know what we lost.
Donald Trump's attempt to kill congestion pricing just failed in court — and in spectacular fashion.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The cameras are staying on.
Why things need to change in the conversation about urban change. Dramatically. #UrbanTruth
Image of busy walking street with shops on the ground floor and other uses (offices, apartments) above. The text line says “Wait, we’re afraid of walkable distances now?” Tag line of the Urban Truth Collective at the bottom.
Conspiracy lovers and opportunistic politicians, with some wealthy folks working behind the scenes, have been trying REALLY hard to make us scared of the simple idea of having more things nearby, and more choices in how to get them.
Weird, right? #UrbanTruth
Cities: "We're going to say we want zero traffic deaths, but we want achieve that without actually changing the way we do anything."
The dearth and death of small format retail is a direct result of car dependence.
YOU CANNOT PAVE YOUR WAY OUT OF CONGESTION 🤦♂️
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is trying to expand the state’s already massive tax breaks for data centers.
Data center companies are already saving nearly $500,000,000 in local property taxes this year in Oregon.
Now the Governor wants to double key tax breaks from 5 years to 10.
A classic example of the benefits of "I" as opposed to "AI." Our collective hive-mind, embodied it networks of smart people are repositories of intelligence. Know-who and know-how and trust all matter, and are poorly imitated by large language models.
Former ICE agent: My first day training new cadets, I received secretive orders to teach them to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a warrant. I watched ICE cut classes that teach our legal system, firearms training, use of force, lawful arrests, and the limits of officers' authority
This 53 year old man who lived in my neighborhood w/no criminal record & who had been in the US for 30 years, was detained and thrown into a cold cell for days, caught pneumonia and COVID there and deported.
He finally died.
I am so angry.
www.kptv.com/2026/02/21/n...
Same in Oregon. State DOT planning for big increases in VMT even though state laws call for less travel to achieve climate goals.IBR contradicts region’s climate commitments – share.google/pEyZ6lxCqmRj...
Figure 1: income (in CHF) by migration round
Figure A7: Change in housing consumption per person, disaggregated into those initiated by construction of small units and those by large units.
Yet the findings are consistent with those from other contexts. New homes are occupied by those on relatively high incomes, but initiate moving chains that involve households with progressively lower incomes & homes at lower rents. Households generally move to larger homes.
Portland doesn't have enough to pay for homelessness or cops but does have millions to give to a billionaire NBA team owner. www.opb.org/article/2026...
This hasn’t aged well has it
The economic impact of NBA teams is wildly exaggerated. 130 academic studies show stadiums have essentially no impact on economic growth. Seattle and Vancouver both "lost" their NBA teams with no long term effect on growth. cityobservatory.org/economic-imp...
it's worth asking why swiss coops can afford 20 elevators and 3 and 4-bedroom homes in 4 story buildings, when all we seem to afford are single aspect 280sf microstudios with 1 or 2 elevators for a hundred units
To paraphrase Derek Zoolander: is this a city for ants? We need to think at least three times bigger
So @binnig.bsky.social wins this round of public testimony www.portlandmaps.com/bps/testimon...
Look at all the beloved programs that are on the chopping block while the Oregon Legislature continues to barrel forward with a plan to execute further bonding to pay for another $160 million towards the proposed Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion.
#orleg #orpol
bikeportland.org/2026/02/12/s...
Yes, bad.
As is also suggested in the piece,
my suggestion would be to impose pricing, but it should be GPS-based congestion pricing (per km or minute) plus geofencing to ensure ‘pauking’ and pickup/dropoff doesn’t take place in bike lanes, bus lanes, etc.
Want to improve affordability and lower rents? Build more housing, especially more apartments. Case in point: Austin, Texas--a building boom produced a precipitous decline in rents. www.apartmentlist.com/research/nat...
Parking garage safety is a huge preoccupation in building codes – but only when it comes to fire. I’ve never heard any concern for getting hit by cars, which I’m sure is a far higher risk.
“A year after the $1.1 billion overhaul,” which added a new lane each direction, “the 405’s rush hour drive times were a minute slower than they were before the workers broke ground. Five years later, traffic was worse at all times of day.”
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Having spent most of my working life in transport policy, this is the essential truth that so many people - including politicians with responsibility for transport decisions - don’t or won’t get.
To reduce congestion, you reduce capacity and reduce speed. The empirical evidence is overwhelming.
bsky.app/profile/jcbr...
