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Ben Ross

@benrosstransit.bsky.social
1.3K followers 403 following 3.9K posts

Transit advocate. Environmental scientist. Social Democrat. Author of Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism.

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Reposted by Ben Ross
Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Why not make anyone who buulds a parking space pay into a fund instead They are the ones imposing costs on taxpayers. Indeed, it's very odd that "transportation impact" fees for road building are always per apartment or per square foot, not per parking space.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The US left retreated into a subculture in the late 1940s & entrenched itself in it in the late 60s. The habits acquired as a subculture have been very hard to shake off. Mike Harrington tried in the 1970s & then gave up. And now that it has become a mass movement, those habits still weigh it down.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Truly a classic bit of nimbyism: I moved to near the Red Line to get away from the Purple Line. So you can't build new apartments near the Red Line!
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Truly a classic bit of nimbyism: I moved to near the Red Line to get away from the Purple Line. So you can't build new apartments near the Red Line!
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I knew I'd see it. It was a long. tough fight, though.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
In today's mail, I got 11 pages of paperwork informing me that my Medicare drug plan paid minus 13 cents on my behalf in August and paid 23 cents in the 8 months from January to August. No further detail, and these numbers cannot be correct. Somehow I think this system could be made more efficient.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A Democratic wave is on the way, even if Cook, Sabato & IE refuse to see it. All 3 rate the Vermont governor race Safe Republican. The first public poll of that race in 2 months just dropped. It's from an NYT-rated quality pollster. It shows Democrat 6 points ahead. scholars.unh.edu/survey_cente...
scholars.unh.edu
Partisan Headwinds Hamper Scott in Race With Janoo for Governor of Vermont 9/24/2026
Democratic nominee for governor Amanda Janoo has increased her support significantly since winning the Democratic Primary last month and is now in a statistical tie with Republican incumbent Phil Scot...
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the project where neighbors' lawn signs read "No Apartments. No Compromise."
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This @the-downballot.com piece is an important analysis! Its significance becomes clearer in the light of @gelliottmorris.com's account of how "all polls are models now." substack.com/inbox/post/2... [Nerd warning] You can describe this in the mathematics of control theory - short thread 1/n
substack.com
All polls are models now
Traditional polling is dead. A new paradigm of public opinion research has high uncertainty, and pollsters need to do a better job communicating about error.
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Reposted by Ben Ross
Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New Public Comment on the persistent fantasy of low-conflict housing policy publiccomment.blog/p/sometimes-...
publiccomment.blog
Sometimes You Just Need to Win
Sometimes you just need to win
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
If they want to find violations in high- & low-income areas equally, all they need to do is ticket everyone who is storing lawn equipment in their garage in violation of minimum off-street parking requirements.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Today's bad behavior by @bikeshare.bsky.social users. Two e-bikes parked with rides completed off-dock, locked together with a chain so that the users are the only ones who can use them next. Have been sitting at least 3 hours aside the Capital Crescent Trail at Bethesda Ave.
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Reposted by Ben Ross
Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It's fair to say regulation is yimby's top priority. What's wrong is that "regulatory reform" is a euphemism for deregulation. The yimby program is the opposite of dergulation; it seeks to impose uniform rules on a chaotic system of arbitrary local decisions made by small local interest groups.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This🧵 is correct. For structural reasons (eg life of buildings > financing time horizon) markets won't build enough housing on their own. BUT right now many cities have extreme shortages. Zoning & nimbys are the main constraint. Added public finance will do little without removing those constraints.
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Reposted by Ben Ross
Action Committee for Transit 👣🚲🚇🚍🚊🧑🏻‍🦽 @actfortransit.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
THIS ‼️⬇️
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Reposted by Ben Ross
patrick.kennedy @thedotcity.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Should the Kennedy Center be torn down? Obviously not. But you know what should?
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This poll calls itself a likely voter poll, but isn't. Its "likely voter" population is based purely on past voting behavior. In the near-certain case that the D/R turnout ratio is higher than in the average of recent elections, it underestimates the D margin. www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/sur...
cookpolitical.com
New Battleground District Poll Shows Democrats Up, Voters Eager for Sweeping Change
A new Battleground District Project poll of the most competitive House districts in the country finds Democrats in a strong position to flip control of the chamber this fall. It also finds an electora...
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
MoCo police charge Empower rideshare driver with raping 17-year-old last Monday night. He was able to drive for Empower after being charged in New York last June with first-degree sexual abuse of a child under 17. www.thebanner.com/community/cr...
thebanner.com
Rideshare driver charged in rape and kidnapping
Rideshare driver Abdoulaye Dia, of Lanham, was arrested Wednesday in an alleged rape and kidnapping of a teen girl, Montgomery County Police said.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is a valuable academic study. Racism certainly needs to be understood. But I think locating the exact boundary of antisemitism is relatively unimportant outside a strictly legal context. Punishing people for political opinions, such as Zionism, is very bad, as is punishing them for ancestry.
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Reposted by Ben Ross
Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I started my testimony tonight on MoCo's new Friendship Heights Master Plan by saying that the plan still reflects the 1920s attitude that owners of detached 1-family houses are superior to other people. This, like the boy pointing out the emperor's lack of clothes, drew gasps from the audience.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I started my testimony tonight on MoCo's new Friendship Heights Master Plan by saying that the plan still reflects the 1920s attitude that owners of detached 1-family houses are superior to other people. This, like the boy pointing out the emperor's lack of clothes, drew gasps from the audience.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Hard to believe that the timing of the sudden Bluesky spurt of "don't vote for Talarico because he wants to kill trans people" is purely coincidental. Posters can be sincere yet triggered or boosted by malign actors.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Post-holiday repost for my shomer shabbos followers. Proposed change in building codes for apartments would require device that turns off stoves when smoke detector beeps. It appears that this device gives frequent false positives, requiring someone to turn stove back on. Go upthread for details.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Follow polls? Read this. Polls now rely on models of the voting population rather than random samples. So conceptual error in the model is a bigger source of uncertainty than sampling error. Polls with the same conceptual error will all be wrong the same way. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-09-15...
gelliottmorris.com
All polls are models now
Traditional polling is dead. A new paradigm of public opinion research has high uncertainty, and pollsters need to do a better job communicating about error.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
My most un-Bluesky habit: Before I write "Why don't the Democrats/Media/Left/anybody ever say/do such-and-such?" I run some online searches and try to find out whether they ever do.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
PSL (tankie group that supports North Korea) & DSA rally with Republicans against Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater. (Fitzwater is a mainstream pro-labor Democrat, not from the pro-corporate wing of the party.) www.wypr.org/wypr-news/20...
wypr.org
Frederick County elections could hinge on one issue - data centers
Residents were joined by local and state leaders as they protested outside of a data center information panel held by county officials Wednesday evening. Many of those gathered said they are single is...
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
My take on Sept 11, at the time. Some of it is out of date, but the left that "defines itself by its ability to embody the metaphysical essence of leftness" is still very much with us. dissentmagazine.org/article/in-s...
dissentmagazine.org
In Search of Root Causes - Dissent Magazine
A certain kind of leftist just can’t help blaming American imperialism for September 11. In the search for “root causes,” their instinct to designate the United States as villain overwhelms their spir...
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Yet another consequence of automobile dependence. The first reason mentioned for the high rate of children's chronic absence from school is "lack of transportation." www.thebanner.com/education/k-...
thebanner.com
Fewer Maryland students are missing school after post-pandemic absenteeism spike
Fewer Maryland students are chronically absent from school as the state launches a new attendance campaign.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is the peak example I've ever seen of a suburban municipality behaving de facto as a private club.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
My result is interesting. My mother was from Boston, I grew up in New York, lived 14 years in Boston & since then DC. It gave me exactly equal percents for NY & Boston, even though I consciously chose "rotary" & "soda" over "traffic circle" & "tonic" when I'd say the latter if I was in Boston.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This article is an unusually important window into the essential nature of Trumpism. US Government creates an oligarch on the model of 1990s Russia. Puts a guy wanted for money laundering in Spain & Switzerland in control of Venezuela's oil. Starring Marco Rubio. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/w...
nytimes.com
Alejandro Betancourt, Trump’s Partner in Venezuelan Oil Deal, Has Faced Investigations (Gift Article)
Alejandro Betancourt has been targeted by multiple investigations. Now he’s the U.S. government’s unrivaled partner in President Trump’s bid to control Venezuelan oil resources.
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Franklin D. Roosefella @roosefella.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
if there's a break in traffic, why would I need a button? Isnt the button there to create a break in traffic?
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micah of charlohrtte @micahlohr.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Uhhh wtf
A gigantic intersection of 2 stroads with a diagonal pedestrian crossing that includes a refuge smack center in the middle of the intersection.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
MoCo County Executive vetoed the reappointment of @housingjames.bsky.social to the Planning Board. I break down his veto message: an unusually explicit call to go back to old-style zoning & give nearby nimbys a veto over change, regardless of the effect on everyone else. ggwash.org/view/104729/...
ggwash.org
Let Montgomery County’s Planning Board do its job
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich vetoed James Hedrick’s reappointment to the Planning Board, which had been made by unanimous vote of the County Council. The County Council can override Elrich’...
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Big contrast between 2 progressive challenges to long-term MA incumbents. CD1 challenge all about economics. CD8 challenge centered non-economic issues. CD8 challenger got outside support, outspent incumbent. CD1 challenger outspent 10-1. CD1 challenger came closer to winning, margin 8.2% vs 11.6%.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The map of Massachusettts Senate primary results is a study in class & ethnicity. Moulton was the candidate of wealthy Yankees (i.e. white Protestants). He carried only Wellesley, Dover, and the ritziest North Shore suburbs. Went over 60% just in Marblehead. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
It says something about auto-centric "edge cities" when the owner of land where a 22-story hotel was built in the 1980s finds that the most profitable use of that land today is townhouses. www.ffxnow.com/2026/09/01/h...
ffxnow.com
Housing developer seeks to demolish Sheraton Tysons Hotel instead of converting it | FFXnow
Previous Image 1/2 Next Image The owner of the vacant Sheraton Tysons Hotel is rethinking its plans for the property, which has been sitting untouched more than two years after Fairfax County leaders ...
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Although zoning was touted as a progressive reform, it was quickly embraced by the political machines that controlled most cities. This, I believe, is because variances & rezonings created a source of revenue to replace the "honest graft" & outright corruption connected to streetcar franchises.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Highly relevant to land use too. Finance pours money into toll roads & starves railroads. Finance builds strip malls & tract housing. Finance demands parking garages everywhere.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The key point is that zoning did not emerge from planning. Planning was an ex-post-facto rationalization, justifying it to the public and to judges suspicious of its constitutionalilty. There were planning enthusiasts, to be sure, but they didn't push the zoning bandwagon, they jumped onto it.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I've never seen a highway agency tell drivers who park at the curb across the street from their destination to walk to the intersection to cross. Either drivers have magic protection when they cross mid-block, or the agencies put drivers' convenience ahead of safety even in their "safety campaigns."
Pedestrians: Stay Safe, Cross at Crosswalks.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Nimbys like to say that land use decisions should be made by those most directly affected, alone. If you take this to its logical conclusion, homeowners would be excluded from decisions about how much housing to build. They already have homes & will be less affected than non-homeowners.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
What happens when a magic word is substituted for substantive debate. We saw this before with "gentrification." "Political ideology was a better predictor of whether someone said Israel was committing genocide than their stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself." forward.com/news/847115/...
forward.com
These college students have favorable views of Israel. They also think it’s committing genocide.
A new Brandeis study shows students’ views on Israel don’t fit into neat camps.
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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
This is a wild statistic (from IIHS, a very reputable research org): "Cellphone use prior to crashes is undercounted in police reports by a factor of at least 7."
iihs.org
Study shows police reports undercount cellphone use before crashes
Police usually fail to note drivers talking, texting or fiddling with their phones in crash reports, a new IIHS study shows.
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Steven T. Dennis @steventdennis.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Tonight on #FridayNightZillow, the ultimate fantasy mansion for a model train maven. A MASSIVE *outdoor* train set + a HUGE indoor train set with a model of Chicago, inside its own 'train station' building, and much more! 10K sf on 10 acres w/ a private lake. $2.25M. www.zillow.com/homedetails/...
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Artist housing is the perfect nimby dodge, to the extent (in my opinion up towards 100%) that nimbyism is about protecting neighborhood social status. Art is a high-status, low-income occupation. Artist housing lets you claim to be inclusive while still excluding all the low-status people..
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Apropos of nothing in particular, threats of violence against people based on their political opinions are just as wrong as threats based on their religious opinions or their ethnicity, and people who make them should equally be shunned.
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Mike English @mocomikee.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
While not particularly surprised, I am disappointed that Marc Elrich has once again vetoed James Hedrick’s appointment to the planning board, despite Mr. Hedrick’s years of professional and volunteer experience with affordable housing and the unanimous vote… bethesdamagazine.com/2026/08/26/e...
bethesdamagazine.com
Elrich to veto Hedrick’s appointment to Montgomery Planning Board, again
County Council could override veto with vote of nine members
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Chicago has a longstanding TIF program that resembles the Community Benefits Agreements imposed on developers in many jurisdictions. Study finds that this program exacerbates inequalities rather than reducing them. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/u...
nytimes.com
A Tax Program for Development in Chicago Left Poor Areas Behind, Study Says (Gift Article)
New research suggests that TIF, a multibillion dollar tax program intended to revive the city’s blighted neighborhoods, has mostly benefited downtown areas.
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Ben Ross @benrosstransit.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
How can they put up fake Flock cameras if their state (like most) requires speed camera locations to be publicly announced? futurism.com/future-socie...
futurism.com
Police Are Putting Up Fake 3D-Printed Flock Cameras and Swooping In to Arrest People Who Vandalize Them
a man was charged with three felonies after he cut down a 3D-printed "decoy" Flock camera, which was set up by police.
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