awoe (ah-way)

MAJOR NEWS: @GavinNewsom signed SB 79, my bill allowing more housing near public transit — rail, subway, rapid bus.

It’s a huge step for housing in California. It’ll create more homes, strengthen our transit systems & reduce traffic & carbon emissions.

Thank you, Governor!

Help Us Say YES to a Greener, More Connected Hollywood! Deliver public comment on Wednesday, July 16th at 9:30 AM via Zoom

LA friends: Here's an opportunity to help urban infill get developed in Los Angeles: urbanenvironmentalistsla.substack.com/p/help-us-sa...

There's a hearing for 6000 Hollywood on Wed. 9am. This project replaces a car dealership with 350 apt units and near transit! what more could we want?!

A father who died saving his family, children at summer camp, a loving grandmother: The faces of the Texas flooding tragedy | CNN Julian Ryan’s final words to his mother, as floodwaters quickly engulfed their trailer home, were simply, “I love you.”

A father who died saving his family, children at summer camp, a loving grandmother: The faces of the Texas flooding tragedy

What makes a city great for running and how can we promote ‘runnability’ in urban design? Even the type of street trees planted in a city can make a huge difference.

I think it's super important we keep asking questions like: how can we design our cities to better serve our needs? A lot of these principles boil down to pedestrian-first accessibility and inclusivity. Great piece!

theconversation.com/what-makes-a...

The House just passed the One Big "Beautiful" Bill. Here's six key takeaways from REPEAT Project's rapid analysis of the bill on what passage means for U.S. energy costs, investment in new electricity supplies, and greenhouse gas emissions. #OBBB 🔌💡

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

something "bad" but CEQA overhaul really will make a big difference in building infrastructure across the state.

to see the benefits. I understand where both groups are coming from. Since this budget bill only impacts land already zoned for industrial development, that's fine.

On how this got passed though, I get the "controversy" of attaching it to the budget and would be frustrated if this was used for..

Last-minute California budget includes sweeping environmental law rollbacks Major changes include an exemption for high-tech industrial plants and other projects. The move, fast-tracked under pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom, sparked fierce pushback from environmental, communi...

Fighting for a sustainable and just future is hard especially when processes like CEQA are often weaponized. Efforts to make it easier to build (infill) housing should be seen as a solution by EJ groups, however when we tie it with industrial plants, it becomes hard..

calmatters.org/environment/...

Honestly stopping ICE isn't enough. Everyone who has enabled this future to become a reality needs to be held accountable. Everyday I hear horror stories. Everyday I walk around in my LA community in fear of being racially profiled and taken. Absolutely horrible.

A Nation of Immigrants Under Attack There’s mounting evidence of ICE using racial profiling. “We have U.S. citizens who are being asked for their documents and not believed when they attest to the fact that they are U.S. citizens,” said...

There aren't enough words to describe how inhumane and illegal ICE's abductions are and yet there are people justifying it. They aren't even good at it (71% of abductions are US citizens). And now things will only get worse if the OBBB passes. No one is safe.

www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/27/a...

Soccer fans stuck between Hard Rock Stadium and a ride home: ‘I’ll never go to another game, especially not here’ The excitement fans had experienced inside the stadium turned to confusion, disorientation and frustration.

Hundreds of millions poured into modernizing stadiums, yet the fan experience is still absolutely horrendous. By prioritizing parking (which is still $$$) and not having equitable transit options, fans are left walking miles and paying hundreds for rideshares.

www.nytimes.com/athletic/646...

Currently listening to public comments for SCAQMD's zero nox rules and it baffles me how many leaders are willing to trade long term environmental progress for the perceived short term cost concerns. We can't afford to make this transition!

Did UnitedHealth Exploitation Result in Yet Another Preventable Death? 22-year-old Cole Schmidtknecht's asthma medicine abruptly jumped from $55 to $700—unable to get the medicine he needed, he died 5 days later

22-year-old Cole Schmidtknecht's asthma medicine abruptly jumped from $55 to $700. Unable to get the medicine he needed, he left without it.

Cole suffered an asthma attack and died 5 days later. His inhaler was empty & his insurance corp was UnitedHealth.
www.qasimrashid.com/p/did-united...

BIG HOUSING NEWS: The Senate passed our bill (SB 79) to allow more housing near high quality transit & giving transit agencies more authority to build homes on their own land.

We need more housing & focusing it around transit makes so much sense. It’ll mean more housing & more transit ridership.

SB 79 (Wiener): Transit-Oriented Development and Upzoning SB 79 will make it faster and easier to build multi-family housing near transit stops, like train and rapid bus lines, by making it legal for more homes to be built in these areas and streamlining exi...

It's do or die for SB 79, the bill that would legalize multifamily housing around rail and BRT stops across the state. The vote could be held as early as tomorrow morning.

Californians: call your state senator tomorrow morning to help us get out of the senate!
cayimby.org/legislation/...

"SB 79 would create capacity to grow the City of LA’s annual property tax income by nearly $1 billion"

The crucial thing to note is that these aren't quick fixes and the city/state can't keep delaying on meaningful action for the long term!

"In LA, 45% (10,421 acres) of potential residential parcels near Metro stops are limited by zoning to either single family homes, duplexes, or parking lots. As a region we are spending billions in taxpayer dollars to build high quality transit but suffocating ridership with poor land use."

How Land Use Reform Could Help Solve the Los Angeles Budget Crisis Our high-level analysis shows how restrictive, exclusionary zoning has accentuated the City’s financial crisis, and how targeting upzoning could help balance budgets. Senate Bill 79 would create capac...

This morning's reads include this super insightful piece from @streetsforall.org : data.streetsforall.org/blog/sb79_zo...

Some how, the answer to so many of our issues goes back to land use reform incl. climate/housing/transportation.

Facing a billion $ shortfall, it's now the answer to finances!

I like this with the heatmap. I'm wondering if you could order it from most minutes to fewest top to bottom? And maybe add a pattern for the appearances missed instead of just having be blank? Overall this is super helpful to see!

Fill this form to email your representatives to protect Energy Star! Thanks to great advocacy/policy folks at the USGBC for putting this together.

usgbc.quorum.us/campaign/123...

I have a new podcast episode out on modular construction and its role in addressing our housing crisis. I feature Kit Switch, a building interiors company working on quickly retrofitting buildings (Candice, the co-founder is my friend).

Check it out!

www.fosteringourearth.com/p/11-how-doe...

For my LA-based followers, take a minute to send a support letter for SB79!

secure.everyaction.com/wD3zN6EAFUSM...

I wonder if anyone's called out how similar the style of tweets the White House's tweets are to the IDF's.... Like this type of faux-hip-slang for absolutely deplorable and hypocritical posts

"We are all just temporarily abled" (-unknown) and

"We are all just one test result away from our lives changing forever" (-my Physician's Assistant former roommate)

are two quotes I share a lot, relevant to literally every class I teach on transportation, cities, health, and urban theory.

I think a lot abt how marginalized people are expected to be perfect just to be treated w/ basic dignity, just to access legal protection. But democracy can’t mean rights for the respectable few. It has to mean fair and just treatment even for those seen as least deserving. That’s the real test.

ARSENAL 3-0 against Real Madrid. My head is on Mars oh my goodness

Can cities ban natural gas in new buildings? A federal judge just said yes. Cities looking to eliminate fossil fuels in buildings have notched a decisive court victory. Last week, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by plumbing and building trade groups against a New ...

A recent dismal of a challenge to a new construction gas ban in NYC is super huge given the Berkeley decision in recent years. So many cities put their electrification/decarb policies on hold bc of this. It seems like the fight isn't over but this is certainly a huge step!

grist.org/buildings/na...

If you think what happened to Rumeysa Ozturk can't happen to you because you're a citizen and she's not, you are sorely mistaken. Ozturk was snatched off the street not for being a national security threat but for having a wrong opinion. If we don't put a stop to this, it's coming for all of us.

the playing field and we see this with all the anti-DEI efforts and framing it as "meritocracy".

Highly rec!

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