pete rodrigue

Contrast this w my last interaction w the natl guard, who were arresting a sobbing adult man who had just been the victim of a crime. But they didn't know that bc they were 22 year olds from like Iowa who didn't speak a word of Spanish (The guy escaped, bc the 22 year olds are not competent police)

shouts out to @dcfireems.bsky.social for dealing w a fire alarm in our building at 5:30 AM & then, afterwards, carefully returning the carpet they'd used to prop the front door open to its original place in the lobby, before holding the door for a bunch of seniors

theclimatebrink.comWhat if the world hadn't built wind and solar?Clean energy does not simply “add to” global energy use; it displaces fossil sources that would otherwise get built.

nobody needs my compliments but it was just nice to see a group of people in uniforms doing good and having humanity Also a change of pace to see an actually good mustache (increasingly rare these days)

pete rodrigue reposted

David Roberts

@volts.wtf

You often hear that clean energy is not replacing fossil energy, only adding to total energy, and thereby not reducing emissions. ("There is no transition," they say.) It's nonsense. Read this post from @zekehausfather.com about how much FF has been displaced by renewable energy:

District Department of Transportation (DDOTDC)

Transpo goobers: Want to help kids get to school on time? Apply for this well-paid job. The guy you'd work for is extremely smart and experienced careers.dc.gov/psc/erecruit...

pete rodrigue reposted

ryan cooper

@ryanlcooper.com

Trump fucked up the *American* renewable transition but he might have had the largest positive effect on the global transition of any president ever

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

President Trump’s war on Iran, now in its seventh month, has led to a plunge in the consumption of oil and gas around the world as fighting disrupts production and transportation. https://wapo.st/4ycPvNA

pete rodrigue reposted

@ddotdc.bsky.social

16 Sept

DDOT is hiring 6 Data Scientist (CS-12) positions to join our Innovation & Performance Division! Tracks: - Business Intelligence - GIS - Python & Advanced Analytics Help support data-driven decisions for DC’s future. Apply: Job ID #33421 at careers.dc.gov. Please share!

pete rodrigue reposted

Mark Z. Jacobson

@mzjacobson.bsky.social

15 Sept

After the worst heat of the year, fossil gas use is still 48% lower in 2026 than in 2023 and has supplied only 20% of all electricity in 2026 versus 39% in 2023. 189th >100% WWS day of 2026. 56.3% of all electricity during the year has been from WWS.

Mayor Muriel Bowser presents: a Visit from the Death Star it's AdMo day & 18th St is pedestrianized for a few hours, so DC's version of DHS is here in (one of) their $1.4M+ "mobile command centers" (the main expense of DC's open streets is cops; this is partly why we don't have more open streets)

iirc somone (DDOT? AdMo BID?) even owns movable barriers. They've been used before anyway i'm going to AdMo day and it'll be fun! we should have more of these, and the way to do that is to replace cops (expensive) w/ jersey barriers (cheap, can also stand around for long hours)

typo: it's *MSETG* The Mayor’s Special Events Task Group

part of the problem is that MESTG, another DHS-like entity that was created by the mayor, without an explicit authorizing statute, has enormous veto power over open streets events. And they haven't standardized traffic barrier tech. So we get giant idling DPW trucks and cops on overtime.

facebook.com29 reactions · 3 comments | The DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency just took delivery of their new mobile command center. 📹Watch the video as we take you through this exceptional vehicle! DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency Washington, District of Columbia #LDVmobilecommandcenters | LDV, Inc.The DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency just took delivery of their new mobile command center. 📹Watch the video as we take you through this exceptional vehicle! DC Homeland...

if you wanna see inside this thing: www.facebook.com/watch/?v=750... source on HSEMA owning multiple: oca.dc.gov/sites/defaul... source on $1.4M+ estimate: www.journal-topics.com/articles/elk...

pete rodrigue reposted

Spencer Ainsworth

@sp-ainsworth.bsky.social

10 Sept

This project will be a good litmus test for JLG’s attitude towards bike lanes: it’s short (<0.5 mi), it fills a key gap in the network, and it has strong ANC + WABA support BUT it would require removing ~64 parking spaces (by my count) in one of the densest parts of the city

ggwash.orgMount Pleasant wants to bike safely. For that, we need better community connections.View this post on ggwash.org

A recent petition calls on DDOT to develop safe Mount Pleasant-Metro-Columbia Heights bike connections. In addition to a future connected bike network, the authors also seek responsiveness to emerging needs and opportunities.

pete rodrigue reposted

NBER

@nber.org

8 Sept

Data from 10 million US high schoolers show that exposure to air pollution driven by wildfire smoke slows the rate of learning and increases achievement gaps by race and income, from A. Patrick Behrer, Joshua Goodman, J. Parker Goyer, and R. Jisung Park www.nber.org/papers/w35670

pete rodrigue reposted

ggwash.orgTo understand rooftop solar, I built a 2,000-degree furnace in my studio apartmentIn which contributor Pete Rodrigue makes some choices to learn how rooftop solar panels are made. Don’t try this at home.

In which contributor @peterodrigue.bsky.social makes some choices to learn how rooftop solar panels are made. Don’t try this at home. ggwash.org/view/104711/...

ppl talk a lot about AI, but the real technological revolution happening now is in solar energy. it's crazy cheap and it's eating gas and coal's share of energy production alive. in @ggwash.org some friends & i made a solar cell. you smoosh rocks together and they make electricity. nuts!

In which contributor @peterodrigue.bsky.social makes some choices to learn how rooftop solar panels are made. Don’t try this at home. ggwash.org/view/104711/...

if you want to see us mess w/ hydrofluoric acid in my apartment, check out the piece but look at how solar has passed gas in CA(!) it can be hard to appreciate how fast things are changing, bc large parts of the U.S. live in the past, energy-wise, relative to places like Uruguay and Lithuania

(also silicon wafers baked at 2000 degrees F, with a thin layer of silicon dioxide, are pretty) many thanks to the ~dozen different experts that helped with this silly project!

pete rodrigue reposted

ggwash.orgInfill housing delayed is climate action deniedView this post on ggwash.org

2 Sept

Climate action in DC could mean moving more people into the low-carbon communities we've already created, along the transit lines we've already built.

pete rodrigue reposted

Yonah Freemark

@yonahfreemark.com

1 Sept

New York’s congestion pricing program has resulted in a statistically significant reduction in travel times for EMS vehicles

nber.orgUrban Congestion Pricing and the Response Times of Emergency Medical Services

pete rodrigue reposted

NBER

@nber.org

2 Sept

Featured in the latest Digest: Urban Congesting Pricing and the Response Times of Emergency Medical Services www.nber.org/digest/20260...

13 Aug

new from @sp-ainsworth.bsky.social & me, a back of the ✉️ estimate in @ggwash.org: 🚌&🚲lane projects save 1-2 human lives per year, & create societal savings of $88-$111M/year, just in avoided crashes. We don't capture every project or ancillary health benefits, so this could be an underestimate.

ggwash.orgWhen DC adds bus and bike lanes, crashes go down by a lotView this post on ggwash.org

DDOT staff have been doing top-tier research for a decade. They’ve found that when DC adds bus and bike lanes, crashes go down by a lot, @peterodrigue.bsky.social and @sp-ainsworth.bsky.social report.

evictionlab.orgHow exclusionary zoning worsens poverty across city limitsExclusionary zoning laws exacerbate the national housing shortage, housing costs, and segregation.

10 Aug

"In areas that have had above-average levels of exclusionary zoning for the past two decades, [residents of low-income neighborhoods] paid $50 more in rent each month and $600 more in rent each year since 2000." evictionlab.org/how-exclusio...

10 Aug

"[E]ach decade of restrictive zoning is associated with an avg decline of 1-2 percentage points in the stock of [affordable housing]. In the New York City metro area, this corresponds to an estimated loss of ~137,000 low-cost apartments over 2 decades due to exclusionary zoning."

@sp-ainsworth.bsky.social

10 Aug

"It’s one thing if residents of an affluent town or neighborhood decide to block an apartment building, excluding middle or low-income tenants from the area. It’s quite another when those policies negatively impact residents in other communities. That’s exactly what I’ve shown here"

pete rodrigue reposted

Spencer Ainsworth

8 July

Replying to @sp-ainsworth.bsky.social

The takeaway: CaBi's record setting growth tailed off with the Aug 25' price increase but overall micromobility ridership in DC continues to skyrocket. Looking forward to seeing how @janeese4dc.bsky.social supports this growth with expanded bike infrastructure! 3/

pete rodrigue reposted

ggwash.orgMosquitoes, already? Blame carsView this post on ggwash.org

23 June

You might be able to blame cars, or more specifically underground parking garages, for creating year-round mosquito sanctuaries.

pete rodrigue reposted

DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb

@dcattorneygeneral.bsky.social

23 June

NEW: We defeated a lawsuit seeking to block new housing on upper Connecticut Avenue NW. The lawsuit challenged zoning changes that will allow multifamily housing in the DC neighborhood with the fewest affordable units. We’re fighting for more homes to drive down housing costs for everyone in DC.

pete rodrigue reposted

17 June

Replying to @mjsdc.bsky.social

yellow map: areas where McDuffie did better. blue map: wealthy R-1-A and R-1-B zones that have only allowed detached housing for ~100 years

medium.com/seventhirty-...

17 June

seems like voters in R-1-A and R-1-B zones voted disproportionately for Kenyan McDuffie. (not a perfect correlation obvi, and they're still counting votes)

Martin Austermuhle@maustermuhle.bsky.social

Here's the precinct map of D.C., and you can see that @janeese4dc.bsky.social has so far cleaned up in almost all central parts of D.C., which includes Ward 1 and Ward 6, much of wards 4 and 5, and most of east of the river. This is an impressive showing by any measure.

pete rodrigue reposted

DC Newsfeed

@localnewsfeed.org

12 June

medium.comHow ‘beautification’ threatens DC’s treasured skate spotsSkaters say city-run skate parks can’t replace the history and culture that grew in spaces like Freedom Plaza.

ggwash.orgThe District’s twin housing investment crisesWhy has housing construction ground to a halt in DC? Market-rate and affordable development are both crashing — but not for the same reasons.

4 June

this piece by Patrick McAnaney was really interesting: ggwash.org/view/103581/...

pete rodrigue reposted

Yashar Ali 🐘

@yasharali.bsky.social

23 May

1. London Underground station flooding has reportedly been reduced by around 90% thanks to a group of engineers: beavers. After conservationists reintroduced a family of beavers into a nearby city park, the animals built dams and restored wetlands that now absorb and slow floodwater naturally.

new in @ggwash.org : a follow-on to a post by @dennisjing.bsky.social, about how DC's current zoning is a continuation of DC's Jim Crow era housing policies. this is part of a bigger project (pieces forthcoming) that took me 9 months to complete. (cw: ugly language in the piece) more below🧵

ggwash.orgIn DC’s single-family zones, the legacy of the Federal Housing Administration’s Jim Crow era enduresView this post on ggwash.org

In 1937, Federal Housing Administration undertook an ambitious national project: to survey America’s largest cities and racially profile every neighborhood. These racist neighborhood grades from the 1930s undergird the District’s zoning regulations today. Interactive map alert!

dc2050.orgDC 2050 - Housing Capacity Tools for DC's Comp PlanExplore DC's zoned housing capacity and proposed FLUM updates with interactive tools. Analyze zoning, the 2050 comprehensive plan, and housing policy for Washington DC.

if you want to see the (unambitious) plan @opindc.bsky.social is currently proposing to right this state of affairs, check out this site from @vegjosh.bsky.social : dc2050.org you can take actions on that page to make your voice heard!

ggwash.orgA light touch could bring homeownership back in the DistrictIt would only take a light touch to light the way for more homes in the District’s lowest-density neighborhoods.

final quick thought on this: segregative zoning policies aren't even good, by lots of measures, for the ppl that uphold them! EX: this zoning is leading to the McMansionization of NW DC: ggwash.org/view/101486/...

ggwash.orgIn DC’s single-family zones, the legacy of the Federal Housing Administration’s Jim Crow era enduresView this post on ggwash.org

Obviously, the fact that this is all happening isn't an accident. These restrictive zones were originally a tool of racial and class exclusion, and, frankly, they still are, even if many of their defenders are kind on a personal level.

Much of this is being pushed by the genteel, disproportionately white residents of upper NW. But there're also neighborhoods w/ more Black residents but, similarly, $1M+ home prices (ex: Colonial Village, where Bowser lives) that have restrictive zoning banning apartments & missing middle housing.

ggwash.orgIn DC’s single-family zones, the legacy of the Federal Housing Administration’s Jim Crow era enduresView this post on ggwash.org

the problem, in a nutshell:

IDT the avg voter appreciates the extent to which DC's wealthy are still using exclusionary zoning in DC as a socioeconomic moat. There are zero (0) former G and H areas (lowest former FHA loan grades) in DC that currently get the most restrictive zoning (R-1A). This zoning is a tool of exclusion.

ggwash.orgIn DC’s single-family zones, the legacy of the Federal Housing Administration’s Jim Crow era enduresView this post on ggwash.org

bottom line up front: The "whites only" areas that the Federal Housing Admin. rated as "loan worthy" bc those areas were super white, and which got "restricted" zoning to ban row houses and apartments-- these are the same areas in which DC/OP/ZC still doesn't allow more affordable housing types.

pete rodrigue reposted

ggwash.orgIn DC’s single-family zones, the legacy of the Federal Housing Administration’s Jim Crow era enduresView this post on ggwash.org

new in @ggwash.org: i FOIA'd the DMV and they sent me: * every residential DC address to which at least 1 vehicle is registered, as of January 2026 * the # of vehicles registered at each address the data has some limitations & issues, but looking at general trends, a few takeaways 🧵

ggwash.orgFOIA data reveals patterns of car ownership in DCView this post on ggwash.org

DC's Department of Motor Vehicles provided address-level car registration data. Here’s what it shows.

If you take all the parking spaces in DC and add up their area, they would cover over 8 square miles, or the equivalent of 3 Rock Creek Parks.

ggwash.orgTo understand how AC and heat pumps work, I built the world’s worst mini-fridgeThe gang gets lit on fire (safely) (to learn about heat pumps).

more in the piece! if you've read this far, shameless plug for my heat pumps piece published earlier this week (i made a minifridge lol) feel free to ping me w/ thoughts, questions, ideas on any of this ggwash.org/view/103244/...

ggwash.orgFOIA data reveals patterns of car ownership in DCView this post on ggwash.org

DC's Department of Motor Vehicles provided address-level car registration data. Here’s what it shows.

Unsurprisingly, richer areas have more vehicles:

Slightly more surprising: Fully 37 percent of all vehicles in this dataset, or 43,919 motor vehicles, are registered at addresses within a 10-minute walk (800 meters) of a metro station (!)

ggwash.orgFOIA data reveals patterns of car ownership in DCView this post on ggwash.org

DC's Department of Motor Vehicles provided address-level car registration data. Here’s what it shows.