Cass (she/her)

In all of 2024 Pittsburgh didn’t lose a single teenager (age 13-17) to gun violence. Truly a remarkable bit of work that is largely under reported in conversations around public safety in the city.

Washington Post screenshot: “Asked about the Abrego García case yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), another 2028 presidential prospect, called it a “distraction” and shifted focus back to the lawsuit he was announcing against the administration’s trade policies. “It’s exactly the debate they want,” Newsom told reporters. “Because they don’t want this debate on the tariffs. They don’t want to be accountable to markets today.””

Gavin Newsom calls Kilmer Abrego Garcia a “distraction” @washingtonpost.com

What an absolute disgrace he has become.

Beyond repulsive and shameful.

Families will die without LIHEAP.

Everybody knows there’s a world of difference between a local small business owner and a billionaire who's given hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect Trump.

Only one candidate in this race attended a private event with Trump operatives at the Duquesne Club…Corey O'Connor.

Palestinian American teen fatally shot by Israeli troops in West Bank village American citizen Amer Rabee, 14, was fatally shot in the West Bank village Turmus Ayya. The mayor said he had been picking green almonds with two friends.

14-year-old Palestinian American Amer Rabee was one of 3 teenagers shot by the IDF this weekend. Two other American teens were killed last year in the West Bank and their cases remain unresolved.

wapo.st/42J659F

Post from Twitter by Mohammed El-Kurd “The basics: fascism thrives on fear. They want you to be silent, to self-censor, to do less. You will not recover whatever ground you concede. The moment calls for caution, not hysteria. Courage, not cowardice. If the objective is fear, be unafraid. Dissent.”

Remember magistrate candidate Anthony Vaccarello

Turns out people in Lancaster want to keep Medicaid.

Pittsburgh real estate developers boost O'Connor's campaign Mayor Ed Gainey, who has championed policies that would require that some new housing be affordable, says relying on the market is a "failed model."

I’ve been saying that if Gainey loses, it would mean a return to a city run by developers and the proof isn’t just on landlord buildings and empty lots, but also in the fundraising details. www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-m...

here it is if you haven’t read it

inthesetimes.com/article/mahm...

pretty good representation of the mask off era here

Kidnapping an activist and jailing him in the middle of the night is a brazen act of authoritarianism.

Punishing dissent by revoking legal status is a dangerous precedent to set.

ACDC is so unserious and *many* members would rather have Trumpers or do-nothing Dems than people who stand for the core values that the Democratic Party is supposedly based on.

Thinking about how I was cornered and berated by 3 men in suits (one was a former State House Rep!) at a polling place because I supported an independent for County Council even though I’m on the Dem Committee.

I hate it here

Republican donors trying to unseat Pittsburgh’s progressive Black mayor Democratic primary battle promising to be biggest test for progressive movement since Trump’s presidential victory

Same MAGA bullshit, different race. Supposed Democrat O’Connor is NOT the way. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

This was such a fun, welcoming room with so many community leaders! Which means Gainey campaign welcomes good people 💙 I’m ready to support Gainey for Mayor!

I do not need AI to make art, I need AI to tell someone whether they *need* to reply all or not before they send an email

CommUnity. I am proud to fight every single day to make Pittsburgh work for real people, not just the rich + powerful

I've taken on big fights against greedy corporations, union busters, gentrifiers, + so-called charities to make our city safe and affordable.

Excited to be on BlueSky to share more

There are people in our midst who are showing us how to confront and prevail over autocracy by actually doing it.

PCRG just published a study of Pittsburgh’s existing inclusionary zoning policy, Gainey’s proposed city-wide IZ expansion, the anti-IZ counter-proposal, and Pro-Housing Pittsburgh’s faulty IZ study. A full read is worth your time, but here are the highlights: static1.squarespace.com/static/5cbf1...

Here in Pittsburgh, local practitioners have been studying and modeling IZ for our region since at least 2011, when the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania formed a working group on the subject called the Southwest Pennsylvania Building Inclusive Communities Working Group. In July 2014, the Falk Foundation provided a grant to the Housing Alliance’s working group to produce further research on IZ, which resulted in a report compiled by attorney Bob Damewood of Regional Housing Legal Services (RHLS), titled “Building Inclusive Communities: A Review of Local Conditions, Legal Authority and Best Practices for Pittsburgh.” (Damewood & Regional Housing Legal Services, 2015). In the 55-page report, RHLS looked at housing market trends in Allegheny County, reviewed the literature on IZ programs, and researched the statutory authority for Pittsburgh to enact IZ legislation and withstand constitutional challenges. It concluded that Pittsburgh’s housing market was strong enough to support an IZ policy, that the City has the legal authority to enact IZ and provided a number of recommendations about policy design based on national best practices. (This report was updated in January 2022 with fresh analysis.) (Davenport, 2022) In 2015, Councilman Lavelle introduced legislation to establish the City’s first Affordable Housing Task Force. The Task Force comprised 30 leaders representing public agencies, elected officials, housing experts, for-profit and nonprofit developers, labor, financial institutions, and community development corporations. Shortly after its creation, affordable housing in Pittsburgh suddenly became an even larger topic of public attention in the summer of 2015, when the owner of the Penn Plaza Apartments in East Liberty gave the 200 residents there a notice to vacate within 90 days.

Against the notion that we are “rushing” into IZ, the study reiterates the “15 years of local studies, financial modeling, expert and community input, and adjustments, all informed by the best national practices from empirical studies” that led to IZ in Lawrenceville:

Workers are each other’s allies, not each other’s competition.

So deeply disappointed by the blatant misinformation and racist dog whistles in this recent mayoral primary poll. We have two candidates with more than a decade each of experience in local politics. Surely that's enough to focus on their own records of getting things done for the people of Pgh.

Protect Trans Youth logo

Now more than ever 🏳️‍⚧️

idk I feel like the government shutting down a very popular app due to how widely we were able to access information concerning a hushed genocide should be alarming to everybody regardless of your interest in using the app yourself

Just so we’re all clear:

-Dems bend over backwards to Netanyahu’s every whim carrying through with financing a genocide, Bibi wants Trump to win and it costs Dems the election.

-At the request of Netanyahu, the Tiktok Ban bill is Revived under a Dem President, closer tying it to Biden moreso