Bill Pitkin

‘We’re seeing the best of LA’: as Ice raids haunt the city, Angelenos show up for each other With the largest undocumented population of any US city, much of LA locks in with fundraisers, mutual aid networks and grocery deliveries

I ❤️ LA

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Can’t protest? Here are other ways to get involved in LA There are lots of other ways to make a difference during Los Angeles ICE raids. “We need you, the people, to stand with immigrants.”

Other ways to help and stand up lapublicpress.org/2025/06/la-p...

Woodland Hills, CA 6.14:25

Toolkit for Increasing Upward Mobility in Your Community

How can local #leaders advance long-term social mobility and #economic prosperity in their #communities?

A new Toolkit for Increasing Upward Mobility in Your Community from the Urban Institute offers pathways for creating real, community-driven change to increase upward mobility.

Toolkit for Increasing Upward Mobility in Your Community

Excited to share the @urbaninstitute.bsky.social toolkit our team built to support local leaders working to advance upward mobility. It includes practical tools and examples for local leaders and is live now: upward-mobility.urban.org/toolkit-incr...

ICE Agents Wait At Edge Of Delivery Table To Deport Newborn

ICE Agents Wait At Edge Of Delivery Table To Deport Newborn

9 Tips for Sustaining Upward Mobility Initiatives amid Political Change As anyone who has worked in or with government knows, elections can shift community priorities, budgets, policies, programs, and staffing significantly. Although this is evidenced most clearly by our ...

Great advice from @urbaninstitute.bsky.social colleagues Martha Fedorowicz and Kimberly Burrowes upward-mobility.urban.org/9-tips-susta...

Black Housing Wealth Varies across Local Markets, Despite Recent Improvement in the Black Homeownership Rate Nationally By identifying notable county-level shifts in the gap between Black households’ share of all households and their share of total home values in recent years, this analysis offers valuable insights for...

In recognition of Black History Month, Urban experts used the Upward Mobility Data Dashboard to understand changes in Black homeownership and housing wealth at the county level. A new Urban Wire post shares some of these valuable data insights.

Mass Deportations Would Worsen Our Housing Crisis Mass deportations would reduce the construction labor force, which is highly dependent on immigrant workers, exacerbating the US housing crisis—but some states are more at risk than others.

Do the math. We have a huge housing shortage and demand for construction workers, a quarter of whom are immigrants.

www.urban.org/urban-wire/m...

Have you used the Upward Mobility Data Dashboard to explore insights into the key conditions affecting upward mobility across the US? If so, we’d love your feedback!

Please take a few minutes to complete a brief survey: urban.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

At beautiful Union Station, no less

How Dismantling the Education Department Could Affect Disabled Students Across the US Though states and local governments are primarily responsible for K–12 education, the US Department of Education is critical to ensuring disabled children in every community have access to a free, appropriate public education.

Eliminating the Dept of Education could seriously hamper protections and funding for disabled children to get a free, appropriate education, according to Urban colleagues @alexis-weaver.bsky.social @sjpopkin.bsky.social and Dana Ferrante

www.urban.org/urban-wire/h...

Stonewall National Monument New York Info Alerts Maps Calendar Fees “By the time of Stonewall...we had 50 to 60 gay groups in the country. A year later...1500.” Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement. Five visitors and one park ranger standing next to an iron fence as they post rainbow flags. Plan Your Visit Located in Greenwich Village, New York City, Stonewall National Monument is one of the many parks in New York Harbor. Educational images of leaning at Stonewall National Monument Education No Matter where you are, we can bring Stonewall National Monument to your classroom. Find teachers resources here. A rainbow flag overlaid with "Stonewall National Monument, Established 2016" with the NPS arrowhead. LGB Flags What are LGB flags and what days should we celebrate them? Click here to find out.

The National Park Service has removed "T" and all mention of transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument.

Trans women were some of the most influential activists behind the Stonewall movement and what followed.

3 articles of clothing laws were why raids happened.

Erasure.

A warning from a self-described "self-respecting conservative"

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Pope Informs J.D. Vance He’s Wrong About Migrants, Christianity The Catholic VP offered a theological defense of his “America First” immigration policies. Pope Francis had some notes.

“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.” - Pope Francis

nymag.com/intelligence...

“DOGE” Access to Treasury Payment Systems Raises Serious Risks | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities This primer explains what the Bureau of the Fiscal Service does, how it has traditionally been managed by career civil servants, and the risks posed by tampering with the system.

Millions rely on Treasury payments for Social Security, veterans’ benefits, and public services. DOGE’s access to these systems raises risks of delays, security breaches, and political interference. Here’s what you need to know: www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

Exclusive | Fannie, Freddie Privatization, Cost-Cutting and New Name Are Priorities for HUD Chief Scott Turner says he plans to quickly launch a review to root out inefficiencies at the agency.

Turner will try to privatize Fannie/Freddie. Privatizing GSEs will give the upside of massive mortgage market to private shareholders & leave downside to taxpayers. It will also unleash massive predatory financial practices, especially with eviscerated CFPB.

For more: prospect.org/special-repo...

in less than eight years the NCAA went from banning North Carolina from hosting championships due to its bathroom bill to... this.

"Local Data for Equitable Communities" is in bold text. Below that, a line drawing shows a vibrant community scene with houses, an apartment building, a bus stop, a playground and people of various ages walking, biking, and playing. The scene has a city skyline in the background and is accented with pastel-colored circles highlighting different parts of the community.

📢 Exciting news as my first Bluesky post! New Local Data for Equitable Communities CFP from @rwjf.bsky.social and @urbaninstitute.bsky.social for #nonprofits using data to advance #equity in the physical, economic and social conditions that affect health. Learn more at urbn.is/localdatagrant

Federal judge issues restraining order blocking federal spending freeze The order came in response to a memo released by the Office of Management and Budget last week directing agencies to freeze funding for federal grants and other programs.

Federal judge issues restraining order blocking federal spending freeze www.npr.org/2025/02/03/n...

Black Lives Matter fundamentally broke these people’s brains. They couldn’t bear the idea that they might have to tell a different story about this country and thus tell a different story about themselves. They hated it, and now they are using everything they have to never feel that way again.

Tenant Protections Can Fuel Family Upward Mobility and Community Stability Innovations in tenant protections show the difference housing stability can make for individuals and cities.

New blog from @housingmatters.bsky.social

I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr., April 16, 1963

I'm honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. today by reading and reflecting on his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," written over 60 years ago but more relevant than ever.

Key excerpt below and full text available at:
shorturl.at/gnKLS

Any thoughts on the biggest capitalist of them all buying LFC?

Needs your hot takes

My heart aches for the thousands of people who've lost homes and businesses and the millions more who will continue to be affected by these wildfires for years to come. I've lived through a number of these in my 30 years in LA but this could be the most damaging.
www.latimes.com/homeless-hou...

I always say that LA is much better to live in when you don't have to drive A LOT

Smoke yesterday over Topanga/Malibu from #PalisadesFire. So much destruction already here and in other areas that are burning. We are safe, but hoping the winds die down soon.

Yes, Kristen Lewis of @measureofamerica.bsky.social is spot on: “We’ve been searching for silver bullets..But look at the deep structural problems and profound inequities some neighborhoods face. It’s the story of what’s wrong with America.”

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.

Jimmy Carter's 1979 "crisis of confidence" speech to the nation was much maligned but of course contained many prescient insights.