Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by alex baca

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 5h

I reread this every so often and I'm struck every time by how great it is unevenearth.org/2018/08/the-...

The social ideology of the motorcar - Uneven Earth

by André Gorz The worst thing about cars is that they are like castles or villas by the sea: luxury goods invented for the exclusive pleasure of a very rich minority, and which in conception and natur...

unevenearth.org

8 71 260

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · 17h

cleanse yr brain by listening to “judy staring at the sun” on your green line train home

1 4

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · 21d

I love the traveling Brompton!!!!!!! How wonderful.

2

Reposted by alex baca

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 27d

This is a great short piece worth thinking about when it comes to transportation & urbanism.

“We cannot optimise both proximity and mobility. Proximity and Mobility cannot be friends. We settle into one of two worlds: (a) high proximity, low mobility or (b) high mobility, low proximity.”

What we mean be high proximity/low mobility verses high mobility/low proximity.

7 22 70

Reposted by alex baca

Dan "Deal Guy" Ancona @danancona.bsky.social · 28d

All these Abundance/Argument/Searchlight etcetc arguments are so frustrating because we know anything that confirms prior beliefs like "Dems can't win on climate/immigration/trans/etcetc" are going straight into the Dem group chat bloodstream. Clearly that's what they want to hear.

2 5 82

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 19

lmao this thread

1 4

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 19

3

1 1

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 18

it is not more complicated than this!

6

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 18

Payton didn't even need to be in the room for @justupthepike.bsky.social's and my yombotron session to succinctly describe it. bsky.app/profile/west...

Payton Chung @westnorth.com · Sep 18

So much of New Urbanist and adjacent (e.g., ST) discourse just takes NIMBYs at their word. "If only buildings were prettier!"
One key insight from YIMBYs (who have gotten much more infill done) is that NIMBYs are often just grasping at bad-faith straws and can be ignored or outmaneuvered.

1 8

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 17

Didn’t get to say it at Yimbytown but state capacity at its most basic would be something like…a full-time legislature with full-time staffing in every state.

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · Sep 17

anyways. state capacity is actually a serious problem, but "what if there was one form that governed all interactions with the government" is the most galaxy brained fucking thing i've ever heard. consider instead

www.liberalcurrents.com/good-governa...

Good Governance Requires Accountability

We must rediscover the virtue of ambition: the ambition to get out there and make some real changes—and the courage to face the music after.

www.liberalcurrents.com

3 7 51

Reposted by alex baca

Regime Accountant, CPA ☠️🎢 @regimecpa.bsky.social · Sep 15

You can still get a big cheap McMansion but your neighbors will want a race war and think knowing calculus is a sin. Your kids will be poorer than you if any of these policies the hooting morons who make up the electorate now want actually get passed. Do you take that Texas job offer now?

13 93 830

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 15

yes I am Yimbytown’s purveyor of Advil

1 2

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 14

And we off at yombocon. I’m on an 11 a.m. panel about transit advocacy’s relative losses moderated by my fellow AB, @amb.fyi, and a 2:15 p.m. very stacked looking-backwards-and-forwards history of the movement with longtime real ones Annemarie, Alan, Jesse, Brian, Jenny. Happy 2 be here.

4 1 13

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 13

Stan share the paper pls

1 2

Reposted by alex baca

Kate Howell @drkatehowell.bsky.social · Sep 12

In a working paper, my colleagues & I used statical analysis to understand TOPA’s impact on preservation. We found that it was incredibly effective in preserving both subsidized & unsubsidized affordable housing, particularly in areas where rents are increasing www.umdsmartgrowth.org/news/preserv...

Preservation through Tenant Rights in Washington, DC (Working Paper) – NCSG

www.umdsmartgrowth.org

1 1 1

Reposted by alex baca

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · Sep 11

“awful people don’t deserve to be killed, but they don’t deserve to be praised, either” is apparently a thought too complex for the pundit mind

630 8.5K 45K

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 9

bsky.app/profile/pixe...

pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · Sep 9

Oh so it’s a crime now to send a strange, sexy birthday message?????

1

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 9

2025 beach week(s)

1 2

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 9

“if u get the right policy mix” never works at any level of government!!!!!! that anything-left funders and my fellow advocates and pundits and electeds and advisers don’t know this in their bones is continually so weird to me.

Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · Sep 9

"Ds will always win if they get the right policy mix" is what Matt Yglesias believes. it's what Schumer and Jeffries believe. it's why none of them are willing to actually fight fascists; they think just finding the right policy mix means you always win and don't have to fight fascists.

5

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 8

only a girl sometimes btw

1 5

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 8

Made it this far by skin of teeth, as those of you who watched me grow up on the old site know intimately. Celebrated with gnocchi at Porta, cocktails at Asbury Distilling, and friends from D.C. in Asbury Park. I’ll come home soon.

1 9

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 8

happy 36th birthday to me. who wants 2 hear me talk on three panels at yombocon.

KPD Max von Sydnow 🇨🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼🇺🇦🇬🇱 @mpdeejay.bsky.social · Sep 8

They fucking *hate* that Millennial women are hitting the mid-career point and are starting to have real influence and power in organizations. It drives the misogynist Gen X and Boomer men insane.

2 45

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 5

Land use is inherently local! Even a strategy that works in one place (bipartisan coalition versus grassroots whatever versus electoral) is nearly impossible to map onto another! *That’s* hard. Being nice to the race-science freaks adds more problems to this!

4

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 5

I have been saying this for years and years about YIMBY—the brand makes it hard to do my job advocating for more housing in a blue city that needs to build it—and I find where we are at now exhausting and predictable.

1 1

alex baca @alexbaca.bsky.social · Sep 5

ben we’ve been fending these people off for SO LONG!!!!! and yet! ugh!!

2 4