Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 28

Just 41 years after the Bethesda Metro station opened, we are getting a WMATA-standard sign to show people approaching on foot from the west where the station is.

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 28

Key takeaway is at end of this article [gift link].
Sales of new exurban houses are falling, but there's unmet demand for urban infill. If cities & inner suburbs repeal offstreet parking mandates & cut minimum lot sizes, builders will keep building […]

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 27

The AFL-CIO has called a solidarity march for tomorrow (Thursday), meeting at 4:00 pm in Dupont Circle. I will be there. Can you? https://act.aflcio.org/events/solidarity-season-labor-day-2025-rally-march?source=direct_link&

Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 16

@philipncohen.com I would not make any assumptions.
20-30 years ago I worked with an expert on detecting non-target chemicals in environmental samples. In landfill leachate we ran into a lot of hard-to-identify-exactly compounds not in the Merck Index, that looked like some sort of degradation […]

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 14

Signs on Capital Crescent Trail next to Kenwood. (Neighborhood that led successful fight to partially reverse road diet on Little Falls Parkway, road where prior to road diet cyclists & pedestrians crossing on trail were repeatedly hit, one killed, by drivers.)

Left: Capital Crescent Trail 2.0. Multi-use. Multi-age. Be gentle.
Right: We are all human powered on this trail. We are all equal & equally vulnerable. Take your sign to Little Falls Parkway next block where those are roaming in 4000-pound steel junk. Annually 40,000 killed by cars in crashes, 55,000 killed by car air pollution. You are blinded by the ideology of the car system!

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 12

US gov vehicle with no agency ID on cap crrscent trail north of Fletchers boathouse. white pickup. drove away when I stopped & took out camera

Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 12

Historic preservation is bad for affordability #296903.
Parking lot preserved as historic landmark (yes, this is not the Onion) in Cleveland Park, DC raises price to $26 for parking less than one hour -- even less than 15 minutes […]

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 12

Fairfax County expands its bikeshare network to 94 stations, with more to come. While Montgomery County has been shrinking its 77-station network, despite having urbanized areas more conducive to bikeshare use than anywhere in Fairfax […]

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 7

Chair of MoCo Planning Board advocates single-stairway building code reform. https://ggwash.org/view/100397/how-rethinking-stairwells-could-boost-housing-in-montgomery-county

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 6

Car culture at its absolute worst meets an unjust legal system. Parents lose a son and are then convicted of a felony because they let him walk across the street. Gift link […]

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 6

Car culture at its absolute worst meets an unjust legal system. Parents lose a son and are then convicted of a felony because they let him walk across the street. Gift link […]

Original post on mastodon.social

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 1

Complexity of interchanges at multi-lane expressway with separate free & toll lanes confuses drivers & creates safety hazard. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/fatal-beltway-crash-express-lanes-braddock-road/3964277/

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 27

27% of families in New York City with children and income below $100,000 live in apartments with more than two people per bedroom. gift link] [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/nyregion/nyc-overcrowding-homeless.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk8.uKgb.yMUGk-TwtO6O&smid=url-share

Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 26

After Houston's Astrodome sits empty two decades plus, support fades for preservation. Despite the better-than-most case for genuine landmark status that can be made for the first indoor baseball stadium […]

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Reposted by Benjamin Ross

Action Committee for Transit @actfortransit.bsky.social · Jul 24

If younger people can't afford to live in your county, your county doesn't have a future - no matter how much the older, more affluent homeowners might hate the idea of change.

Action Committee for Transit @actfortransit.bsky.social · Jul 24

In this comment by the Montgomery County MD executive about a zoning change to allow duplexes, triplexes, and some apartments along designated transit corridors:

Who is included in "residents" - and who isn't?
Who is included in "people" - and who isn't?

wtop.com/montgomery-c...

“It’s kind of appalling and it’s no wonder residents are worried,” he said. “What I think people need to think about, is this going to make people say, ‘Do I want to live in Montgomery County, where I don’t have any certainty as to where I’m moving? Or should I go to counties where they’re not doing stuff like this?’”

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 22

A classic. Reporter fails to pay attention to what the nimbys actually say.
Reporter: Critics fear that [very modest] upzone won't produce "housing that is actually affordable for county residents"
Then quotes critic who fears it will "just provide more affordably priced rental units" […]

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 20

Trump & China: TACO gift link] [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/us/politics/trump-china-technology.html?unlocked_article_code=1.X08.vV0m.heUT4E1iWQAj&smid=bs-share

Reposted by Benjamin Ross

Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 19

If the birthday card had come out before the election, it would have had little effect.
Six months into Trump's term, Epstein is the vehicle onto which MAGA has loaded its repressed disillusionment with the regime's plutocracy, corruption & brutality.

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 19

@w7voa Was this a driverless car? I read all the way to the end of the article and there is no mention of any human who might have been at fault.
A particularly egregious example of news media absolving people who kill with motor vehicles.

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 19

If the birthday card had come out before the election, it would have had little effect.
Six months into Trump's term, Epstein is the vehicle onto which MAGA has loaded its repressed disillusionment with the regime's plutocracy, corruption & brutality.

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 18

For DC's upcoming report on how historic preservation promotes equity, here's a fine case study.
Guy bought historic townhouse in Alexandria in 2021. Converted three apartments “into something that Louis XIV would be proud of.” A 6-bedroom house with inlaid marble, gold leaf ceilings, gold […]

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Reposted by Benjamin Ross

Action Committee for Transit @actfortransit.bsky.social · Jul 18

Bus and bike lanes discriminate against families for whom public transportation is not an option.

Please don't add things we don't want or need. Bus and bike lanes aren't helpful and discriminate against families for whom public transportation is not an option. I drive past empty bike lanes on a regular basis. There are other ways to help the environment and improve our community that don't harm thousands of residents.

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 18

At this point, Trump & Epstein is giving off vibes of Stalin & Kirov.

Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 17

I'm on the Davka Smolah podcast. Talking with socialist zionists about my recent article on the way forward for Jewish progressives. Relating anti-Israel animus to the turn by much of the left away from the politics of solidarity and common interests toward a politics of charity & "allyship." […]

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Benjamin Ross @benrosstransit.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 16

DC historic districts, where it's very hard to build new housing, contain 20% of city's population. All but a few are wealthy white areas. DC Office of Planning agrees to study historic districts' equity effects.
Then it turns around & turns study over to preservation advocates […]

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