Mamdani hasn't had time to really think about all that space he now has, because he spends most of his time at City Hall and around New York City. He tries to keep a semblance of his old life by getting around the city on foot, by bike or train. "If you spend every single day driving around in a tinted window security detail, you will have a very specific view of the city," he said. "You actually meet other New Yorkers and you break out of the bubble that so many have come to expect of politics, where politicians only seem to be spending time with other politicians or the people who donated to make them politicians."

I'd say that this applies to anyone traveling in a car in any city. Being in a car versus walking, riding, or taking transit fundamentally changes how you view a place and your relationship to it. I wish more leaders set this kind of example.

www.npr.org/2026/04/16/n...

When I was a Septa Trenton line rider the express service would hit 110 on the longer gaps between stations. Not that much of the total trip was spent there tho, still quite a few station stops. I think that’s the maximum track speed through there as well so even the regionals etc go 110

Similarly Philadelphia’s transit concourse would be a great fit for something like this. Lots of entryways already from major bicycling corridors. Also could be used to fill some of empty spaces on the MTA’s enormous mezzanines…. Paging @ooneepod

Dan McQuade Got Philly Like No One Else The writer, who died Wednesday, was one of the most gifted chroniclers of the Philadelphia experience.

for anyone who missed it:

Shamefully & at the root of what's holding back progress: the 4 largest Global North oil & gas producing countries — the US, Canada, Australia & Norway — are overwhelmingly responsible for driving up global oil & gas production, collectively up 40% since the Paris Agreement...

i've been saying (literally for a decade)

So great to hear! Will be interesting to see if a new company ala Stadler can break into the NEC market or if it goes to a more traditional Alstom/Kawasaki/Siemens.

“Can’t believe I’m just a dateline to my friends.” The story of “horseglue” by Ekko Astral.

here’s your sunday read: how fossil fuel ads, islamophobia and self-hatred in the beltway press corpse led me to write “horseglue,” a two-minute clarion call for accountability in the mainstream media.

if it bleeds, it leads. here we go 🖤

Philadelphia Freedom. 🇺🇸 #NoKings

“Many cities had to claim these places back from cars.”

I can't stop thinking about this. We're pursuing zero fire risk in multifam, while tolerating much more in single-fam. People respond by building and living in single-fam, where they're exposed to not only one of the highest fire death risks in the developed world, but also TONS more car crash risk

No roads home: How a chronic housing shortage keeps reservation communities in crisis. Part 1 of a three-part series examining barriers to buying, renting and building homes on reservation land and highlighting the community benefits of secure housing.

Part 1 of The Shelter Gap, a three-part series examining barriers to buying, renting and building homes on reservation land and highlighting the community benefits of secure housing.

Philadelphia too! The building blocks are all there, just need political will. Shame it’s in such short supply

We should be expanding subways into the outer boroughs along with upzoning for transit. The city has never been all that strategic with it and seems to rarely work with the MTA on this. The existing network CAN support plenty of new riders, but there are plenty of transit deserts that are wanting.

It is fantastic that the Ben Franklin Parkway vision is still moving forward despite Mayoral change, but any time someone has to convince you that you won't feel the "irrelevant" cars anymore, it's a major red flag that road dieting hasn't gone far enough!

it genuinely sucks so much in this country how often you only learn about a super fucking cool person because something horrifying has happened to them

Reducing car dependency is a key tool in defending democracy in a whole lotta ways.

Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change. Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.”

Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability & quality of life.

Common sense.

Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

Demand a Safer Fairmount Park! - Philly Bike Action In the wake of Philly Bike Action member Harry Fenton’s death on Belmont Ave, we’re calling for immediate action. Sign our petition to City leaders and PennDOT to make Fairmount Park safer for everyon...

Fairmount Park is one Philadelphia's most underused assets, because it's not designed to be safe or usable as a park.

Since 2019 41 people have been killed by crashes in the park.

@bikeaction.org is trying to fix that.

Sign their petition to call for a safer park: bikeaction.org/campaigns/de...

Should We Let Public Transit Die? Urban-rural hostility is fueling a public transportation crisis in US cities. But demands to abandon bus and train riders ignore the economic and social costs of cutting service.

I have a major piece in Bloomberg Citylab today. Should the US let transit fail, as Pennsylvania is already doing? And if not, what are the arguments we need to let it succeed?

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Opinion | The MAGA Movement Is Not a Debating Society

a few thoughts (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

Playmobil figure kitted out as prehistoric iceman Ötzi.

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit.
Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil.
1🧵
#PlaymobilÖtzi
#PlaymobilInfestation

Hey hey -- I'm looking for analyses of corridor- and transit area-based upzoning policies or proposals. The analyses can be looking at the change in estimated capacity or expected outcomes (e.g., how much might be built), or the actual outcomes post-reform. Doesn't have to be in CA! Thanks!

Why is no one pointing out that he also pleaded the Fifth Amendment hundreds of times in order to avoid incriminating himself before Congress over January 6?

Isn't that a pretty significant fact, given that January 6 was a violent armed rebellion intended to overthrow our democracy?

I’ve seen more confederate flags driving around rural SE/central Pennsylvania than I did in 20 years of growing up in Texas

Denmark’s Groundbreaking Agriculture Climate Policy Sets Strong Example for the World By Tim Searchinger and Richard Waite Denmark’s groundbreaking new agriculture and climate policy, which taxes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock production, restores nature and pays farmers to reduce nitrogen pollution, is the world’s most comprehensive national effort to address the environmental challenges of agriculture. Globally, agriculture and associated land use change contribute around one quarter of GHG emissions. To keep global warming below 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) — or even under 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) — governments must take ambitious action to reduce emissions from food systems. However, so far, governments have only devoted a fraction of their efforts to reducing agricultural emissions as they have for fossil-fuel emissions. Agricultural emissions are particularly significant in Denmark. Today, they contribute more than one quarter of Denmark’s GHG emissions, and with the country’s expected measures to decarbonize energy and transport emissions, agriculture could account for the majority of national emissions within a decade. The country has set ambitious goals to reduce overall economy-wide emissions by 70% by 2030. Full article here: https://www.wri.org/insights/denmark-agriculture-climate-policy

Many things are challenging right now, but here's a country that is taking the food/agriculture/nature/climate challenge problem very seriously and turning from not only policy development but early implementation with farmers, government, & environmentalists. Go Denmark! www.wri.org/insights/den...

You know, I used to believe this.

I used to be (privately) annoyed by the dreamers and the artists who insisted on spending time imagining and sketching and writing about possible futures when we had SO MUCH TO FIX in the now.

It took time to realize: that vision is the compass of movement.

Bicyclist killed after being hit by car in West Philadelphia; suspect sought Police are searching for a hit-and-run driver who killed a bicyclist in West Philly on Tuesday morning.

Harry Fenton, himself an advocate for bike safety in Philadelphia, was killed by a speeding hit & run driver while biking through Fairmount Park: www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia...

Fairmount Park is tragically decades overdue for safety improvements for people biking and walking.

not to mention completely preventable but the city allows Fairmount Park (Kelly, MLK, & Belmont) to be used as high speed cut throughs from 76.

I mean at least he's admitting the part none of them dare say: that they think being shaken down by fascists is preferrable to paying more taxes because the fascists are asking for less money