Sam

Sam

@samd.bsky.social

https://bettercities.substack.com/ Better cities and transit are possible 🚇 #1 Congestion pricing stan #1 RFK Jr. hater anti-slopulist

33.9K followers601 following7.5K posts

TWU be like “Hochul is MAGA because she doesn’t support our MAGA union” in reality, they’re just mad at Hochul because she refused to expand the union’s expensive handouts and make-work jobs funded with taxpayer $$

my brief voter guide on some of the most important races in the country: -vote for all democrats, obviously -vote YES in the NYC ballot measures -vote for Nithya Raman in LA -vote for Scott Wiener in CA-11 -vote for Ben Allen for CA insurance commish -vote YES on prop H & RTM for Bay Area transit

The MTA’s primary union is spending a ton of money to try and swing the vote against Hochul (the most pro-transit governor in generations) When Hochul wins by double digits anyway, I hope she remembers this and plays hardball with the union on efficiency improvements like OPTO and automating IBX

Sam reposted

Democracy is when a couple dozen tenants who don’t want to move can prevent thousands of their neighbors in decrepit, mold-choked old buildings from getting brand new apartments at the same rents.

Sam@samd.bsky.social

This is just insane NIMBY framing right here. Framing the Zohran administration as “political elites” while sympathizing with millionaire NIMBYs is crazy. And handwaving away the $80B NYCHA capital backlog is absurd. this guy lives in a fantasyland where tradeoffs do not exist

Sam reposted

This story is about the tiny minority of tenants who oppose the city’s plan to replace their crumbling old buildings with new ones—with zero tenant displacement!—because they want the city to spend money it does not have and will not get to renovate the old buildings instead.

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turns out that voting is a very good way to kick right wing authoritarians out of power

The long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

genuinely embarrassing that TNR would publish this NIMBY propaganda full of factual errors

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quoting Layla law Gisiko, a millionaire NIMBY who rallied with republicans against the affordable housing ballot measures, is the cherry on top here

genuinely embarrassing that TNR would publish this NIMBY propaganda full of factual errors

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This is just insane NIMBY framing right here. Framing the Zohran administration as “political elites” while sympathizing with millionaire NIMBYs is crazy. And handwaving away the $80B NYCHA capital backlog is absurd. this guy lives in a fantasyland where tradeoffs do not exist

I have been hating on armond white for 16 fucking years. I was 14 years old and dunking on this clown. so satisfying for the rest of the world to realize how much he sucks

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nothing in the world feels better than just fucking crushing republicans. do everything you can to ensure that’s the outcome in 10 days

this is the only response you need when faced with Evan Barker, a no-name moron whose entire thesis is “dems should waste more money on my consulting services in Missouri”

LOWρUFO 🇺🇦🇵🇸🌍@lowrhoufo.bsky.social

There's a difference between a restaurant America B finds vaguely swanky and a building they see as a church

it’s simple: swing voters chose Trump because he said he would magically make things less expensive instead, he started a pointless war that made everything more expensive republicans are gonna get crushed. the only question is how bad

this is fantastic but what’s even funnier is that it passed 8-1 with the only NO vote being… Connie Chan. she might just be the biggest NIMBY in California, which isn’t an easy title to win

Bilal Mahmood@bilalmahmood.bsky.social

The SHADE Act has been passed into law today by Mayor Lurie! Over the past 10 years, over 2000 units of housing have been blocked or delayed because NIMBYs said the housing would cast a "shadow". So we're done letting red tape cast shade over our housing future.

Robert Reich is a NIMBY so it is completely unsurprising that he is endorsing Chan, the NIMBY candidate in this race

Mission Local@missionlocal.org

Tom Steyer endorsed Scott Wiener for Pelosi’s House seat, while former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich endorsed Connie Chan. missionlocal.org/2026/10/stey...

it never fails to amuse me how the people who hate most on Zohran for being a “communist” are rich people with the fakest jobs ever

like buddy, you are 55 years old, why is your first professional bullet point that you are “adept at leveraging your Cornell MBA”

the UK is just cooked. seems like every boomer there has taken up NIMBY as their retirement hobby because god forbid people have access to affordable groceries

it’s genuinely fascinating how San Francisco “progresssives” have somehow aligned themselves with republicans and the Koch Brothers in their opposition to funding mass transit

It’s always cool when you visit a new city and their transit service totally fails you just landed in New Orleans and the airport express bus was supposed to arrive 15 minutes ago and there’s a dozen people waiting, but the app that lets you track your bus is down red state governance, folks!

update: the 4:20 bus finally arrived, 25 minutes late. or was the 5:10 bus 25 minutes early? who is to say, really! I just purchased a $3 “Jazzy Pass” and now have 24 hours of transit, let’s see how it goes

Hawaii is converting 364 units of dilapidated public housing into 2,400 brand new mixed income homes, with current public housing residents guaranteed a subsidized spot in the new buildings this is what the future of public housing looks like: more homes for everyone, right near transit

Hawaii News Now@hawaiinewsnow.com

2,400 homes, 10 towers: Ground broke today on Hawaiʻi's largest public housing redevelopment. What's planned for Mayor Wright Homes and when the first building opens ⬇️ https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2026/10/23/2400-homes-10-towers-how-redevelopment-will-transform-mayor-wright-public-housing/ 

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this is exactly what New York is doing as well, with the Fulton Elliott Chelsea redevelopment. it’s a win-win: brand new, permanently subsidized homes for NYCHA tenants funded by more market rate housing in one of the most transit rich parts of NYC. Zohran supports it despite NIMBY backlash!

A bunch of unhinged left-NIMBYs are trying to frame these projects, which guarantee every current NYCHA tenant a *brand new, permanently affordable home*, as some evil plot to “bulldoze the black and brown tenants”, and are trying to take over DSA to oppose these projects They are blatant liars.

Hawaii is converting 364 units of dilapidated public housing into 2,400 brand new mixed income homes, with current public housing residents guaranteed a subsidized spot in the new buildings this is what the future of public housing looks like: more homes for everyone, right near transit

Hawaii News Now@hawaiinewsnow.com

2,400 homes, 10 towers: Ground broke today on Hawaiʻi's largest public housing redevelopment. What's planned for Mayor Wright Homes and when the first building opens ⬇️ https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2026/10/23/2400-homes-10-towers-how-redevelopment-will-transform-mayor-wright-public-housing/ 

The U.S. built a ton of post-war public housing that’s relatively low density and reaching the end of its useful life. instead of spending hundreds of billions renovating outdated housing, we have a generational opportunity to rebuild denser, and use the growth to fund new homes for current tenants

elon needs to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell

James@gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social

“The communications backbone for an entire country’s military has gone down and nobody knows who is responsible” Yeah we’re gonna need to send people to prison and start nationalizing things.

I think that democratic politicians should not forget that the teamsters are going all out to defend swing seat Republican ghouls like Mike Lawler

I am sorry but the transit workers union allying with *donald trump* to protect *horse drawn carriages* is beyond parody

me seeing gas prices rise two weeks before the election in critical senate swing states

Patrick De Haan@gasbuddyguy.bsky.social

Great Lakes refining snags are spilling over to Plains/Mid-continent states, where wholesale gasoline prices are up sharply as product can move east to the Great Lakes but now also potentially impacting retail prices soon in IA, MN, MO, OK, SD, ND, KS, NE

what’s more important: Automating the IBX to enable high frequency and convenient transfers for the hundreds of thousands of workers who will rely on it OR providing a few hundred make-work jobs that will significantly reduce ridership and service

Streetsblog NYC@nyc.streetsblog.org

Transit wonks want the MTA to fully automate the planned IBX light-rail line between Brooklyn and Queens. But their proposal would likely enrage organized labor, which wants two workers on every single train in the subway system. buff.ly/72XT7jZ

there’s a very amusing dynamic in NYC DSA right now where, in response to Zohran’s YIMBY policies, a bunch of right-wing NIMBY nutcases are joining DSA to try and take over the organization.

“how dare you hold people accountable for their actions” is really the perfect summary of DSAers who choose to ally with NIMBYs that donate to republicans

good example of how bike lane NIMBYism is just early onset MAGA

Pop Crave@popcrave.com

Natasha Lyonne reacts to Donald Trump’s post thanking Elon Musk: “🚀🫡☀️😎”

Sam reposted

One would be good and the other would be bad because one cause is good and the other is bad. We are not in the realm of procedural justice concerns anymore, liberalism is not obligated to be neutral on the question of its own existence.

Mike Masnick@masnick.com

People demanding Zuck be hauled before Congress to explain why No Kings insta was suspended... how would you feel if MAGA GOP hauled MSNow execs to explain why they covered Trump the way they do? Both are editorial choices protected by the First Amendment. If this annoys you...

update: Tommy was a staffer for Josh Hawley lmao

Abdul El-Sayed@abdulelsayed.bsky.social

This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his.

Sam reposted

If you are a San Francisco voter who actually wants to implement left-progressive policy, Scott Wiener is your candidate.

Wendy Thurm@wendythurm.bsky.social

Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes. @scottwiener.bsky.social is THE progressive in the race to succeed Nancy Pelosi in Congress. He believes in progress. Connie Chan does not. sfstandard.com/opinion/2026...

democrats in Congress really need to start building the case to lock Elon up and be ready to hand it to the next attorney general on January 20th 2029

it should probably be a bigger story that Republican operatives are boosting a socialist candidate to siphon off votes from Sherrod brown

Sam reposted

This article quotes a sociology professor, a lawyer, and an architect who reject the notion that housing prices are set by supply and demand and do not believe that building more homes reduces rents. It is the housing policy equivalent of platforming climate change deniers.

sacbee.comWould building housing reduce poverty in California? Sacramento-area experts splitA recent study argued that building housing could lower state’s poverty rate, currently the second-highest in the U.S. behind Louisiana.

THE ONLY REASON THAT EASTERN EUROPEAN STATES JOINED NATO IS BECAUSE THEY ARE AFRAID OF RUSSIA ATTACKING THEM, AS EVIDENCED BY THE FACT THAT RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE, SLAUGHTERED CIVILIANS, AND KIDNAPPED CHILDREN just fucking insane victim blaming.

TrueSync@truesync.bsky.social

Maybe but having the USA lead an organization that is pushing to put an alliance that is anti Russian in Russias border is not going to lead to peace Just look at the domination and colonialism of the USA to Cuba because Cuba aligned with the Soviets

Sam reposted

Huge YIMBY win at the CNN Talarico town hall tonight: asked about lowering housing costs, Talarico touts his work on single-stair reform! "Our outdated buildings didn't allow for single-stair housing, which is smaller apartments, smaller condos. It’s a great entry point for homeownership."

Karen Bass vs. Nithya Raman in a nutshell

Kenny Uong@kennyuong.bsky.social

Major gotcha moment from the NBC Los Angeles mayoral debate: Mayor Bass says many supporters of Nithya Raman's campaign are advocates for bike lanes!! Duh!! Of course! Bike lanes save lives! 🚲🌴

it’s fucking crazy to me that there are still leftists out there who refuse to pin the blame for the war in Ukraine on the fascist Russian state

Jacobin@jacobinmag.bsky.social

After years of warnings that the war in Ukraine could spiral into a full-on Russia-Europe conflagration, the conflict has reached a point where this is a real possibliity. It’s a prospect that threatens not just European lives but the entire globe.